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I didn't bother to check their site, but I'll take you at your word. The article linked to in the summary (from Networkworld, whoever the hell they are) said they were a "law firm," and claimed to be quoting an Associated Press story. The Miami Herald calls them a "Miami education consulting firm." ESPN agrees, as do most of the other sites I just checked. Of course, most of those are just re-publishing the AP story, without checking it for accuracy.

I guess the lesson here is don't take everything you read as gospel, regardless of whether you read it on Wikipedia, or CNN, or in your local newspaper. Check out the facts, cause they probably didn't bother.

So now the exiles are going to riot in Miami and burn RMS in effigy. I think they can fill the Orange Bowl with a few spare XP users...

I'm surprised (on some level) that a soldier listening to the station didn't call to say it was a bad idea.

Gina Sherrod, who competed with Strange in the contest, said her family listened to the radio show, and told her that a nurse was on air warning that drinking too much water is dangerous. Sherrod said a DJ rebuffed the nurse, saying the contestants signed waivers that addressed only publicity issues and made no mention of health or safety concerns.

Silly site and its broken hostname redirection. The correct address is http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/living/152215 78.htm.

I think there are some. A cursory search turns up the following.

• For some evangelicals, Mideast war stirs hope
• Troubled times give some believers hope
• Does Bush Think War with Iran Is Preordained?

If I had my copy of The God Delusion handy, I could cite the same sources as Dawkins.

Speaking of staying on message, I recommend reading this journal entry. Or, go straight to the story it refers to.

How about you drop the spin? "All" of the cases are a total of three that are mentioned, and TFA is actually a rather poorly written FUD taken from a Miami Herald editorial: http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/editoria l/15889697.htm [miami.com]

Oddly enough, I think this is a case where both sides are talking past each other. Yeah, the Miami Herald story is really light-weight, but the reason it's of interest is the same behavior was widely reported in the 2004 election, where this odd "vote switching" behavior favored the Republicans. And yeah, my understanding is that it always, not sometimes favored the Republicans.

How about you drop the spin? "All" of the cases are a total of three that are mentioned, and TFA is actually a rather poorly written FUD taken from a Miami Herald editorial: http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/editoria l/15889697.htm

The editorial clearly says that these are glitches that result from touchscreens that got out of sync.

You mean like this article?

Please note that the date of the article is from October 28th. Three days ago. The Register just now picked up on it.

From what I read in this article, several users encountered a miscalibrated touchscreen so that a press on the screen registered in the wrong place. Several voters only caught the error when reviewing their votes on the final page.

It sounds like a small, correctable problem, and pretty damn far from "sheannigans."

From the article:

Broward Supervisor of Elections spokeswoman Mary Cooney said it's not uncommon for screens on heavily used machines to slip out of sync, making votes register incorrectly. Poll workers are trained to recalibrate them on the spot -- essentially, to realign the video screen with the electronics inside. The 15-step process is outlined in the poll-workers manual.

original story via this journal entry

The headline on the Miami Herald piece? Only minor glitches reported in early voting

Read the full article. You have one woman in Florida who had a problem (or made a mistake), realized the problem, and had it corrected. This is HARDLY voting "shenannigans."

Excerpting from the article:

''It has been fantastic,'' Miami-Dade Elections Supervisor Lester Sola said. ``Our ability to process voters accurately and at a faster rate really has improved.'' To help keep things running smoothly, everything is done electronically, he said. Registered voters can swipe their Florida driver's license or have their voter registration cards scanned to verify they can vote, then sign their names on an electronic monitor similar to those used in stores, he said. While most voters find the electronic machines easy to use, they are not foolproof, as Joan Marek discovered on Thursday at the Hollywood satellite courthouse. After casting her votes, Marek, a Democrat, was surprised to see name of Charlie Crist -- the Republican candidate for governor -- on the review screen. She was able to go back and correct the vote, and alerted poll workers to the problem.

at the Miami herald, without two layers of spam: http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/editoria l/15889697.htm

U.S. digs for vote-machine links to Hugo Chávez In the debate about the reliability of electronic voting technology, the South Florida parent company of one of the nation's leading suppliers of touch-screen voting machines is drawing special scrutiny from the U.S. government. Federal officials are investigating whether Smartmatic, owner of Oakland, Calif.-based Sequoia Voting Systems, is secretly controlled by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, according to two people familiar with the probe. ... http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/15869919 .htm it's just such a clever hack to convice US-citizens that voting machines might not be trusted :))

Dave Barry also wrote a great piece on the subject back in early 2003, predicting a "nuclear arms race among razor companies." Read the article here, it's humorous.

It does affect everything, agreed. The situation means more than giving up your latte, to answer another reply.

Let's think about school lunch.

"Anne Arundel County public schools pay $2.53 a gallon - about a 40-cent increase over last year. Multiplied by the 10 million miles its drivers cover annually, the difference will mean a $536,000 increase in this year's fuel costs."

That was written last year before gas hit 3.09 and onwards. I think it is safe to assume their increase was actually closer to $1,000,000. They do get their gas subsidized and in bulk so they may not have had to pay over $3.

"Asked in the survey what officials are doing to make ends meet, one administrator responded simply: "praying."

Absent divine intervention, districts are reducing field trips, prohibiting drivers from idling and cutting buses from the fleet. Fairfax County, Va., public schools increased the price of lunch by 20 cents, in part to pay for fuel."

"Several officials said there is little that can be done to grapple with fuel costs. Like other businesses, schools are also paying more for deliveries, yardwork and heating."

Source

In another example:

"Lunch prices in Miami-Dade schools will rise this fall for the first time in 15 years as the district adjusts for rising costs and flat enrollment.

The School Board voted unanimously Wednesday to impose a 50-cent increase on lunch prices, which will cost a typical student an additional $90 per year. The new price -- $1.75 in elementary schools and $2 in middle schools and senior highs -- is still the same as or lower than lunches in Broward, Hillsborough and Orange counties, and slightly higher than Palm Beach, district officials said. Broward raised its prices earlier this year."

Source

In addition to the additional money you pay just to drive to work, you have to shell out additional cash to feed your child. If you were barely scraping by with the lunch cost before, you may now find yourself in an even tigher position but with an income that is still above the threshold for a subsidized lunch, because that income level hasn't been adjusted yet for the gas situation. It's not just the bus transportation adding to these costs, either -- the transportation of milk and fresh produce - which had a bad weather season to boot - also increases. Even a bagged lunch is unaffected.

So, in a worst case situation, your child is hungry, cold, and doesn't even get to go to the planetarium.

Barry's contribution mentioned up top was to write a book called Pirattitude.

Actually, that book was written by the guys who created Talk Like a Pirate Day - Dave just did the introduction. His real contribution was to write an article about the day in 2002...

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/living/column ists/dave_barry/4018055.htm

You could be correct in a sense. America isn't necessarily full of Americans anymore.

That bloody Pete Doherty! He and a barely-disguised Kate Moss willl roll you for drugs money just like that mate!

"Long term it still costs more."

    I'd say that's debatable. My power bills were more in Denver than an hour north. In Fort Collins, Colorado, a study found that the quality of life was higher because the skyline lacked the unsightly transmission lines. I can say, being here, that it is a benefit to creating an overall, less-clustered atmosphere (I like to see the mountains when the pollution isn't in the way). The plan to bury lines was started before the town started growing, so various infrastructure was already well established to handle a growing population, e.g., roads, schools, etc. The cost of labor, materials and fuel was also cheaper when they started the program over a decade ago. They continue to add more buried lines to new neighborhoods and are still burying exposed lines in the back of older neighborhoods to this day. I'd like to note that our city handles water and electric, not a privately-held utility, like our gas company, Xcel.

    Sure, our town is in a budget crunch. Well, more like we have a six million dollar deficit, but there's other reasons for that. I've often wondered why places like Florida don't bury their lines as they suffer so many storm-related disruptions. That's got to take a bigger hit on the economy, but when you think that every person has to start over to some extent, they will spend their insurance money on a new PS2 as much as a new house (unless the insurance company goes broke trying to settle claims). The Miami Herald has an article about the debate to bury or not to bury:

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/12502044.htm

    The long-term cost of maintaining the conduit may be offset by increased services the government can give in the event of crisis because they don't have to bear the cost of repair and/or the cost of lost productivity when responding with reduced public services. I admit that the environment here is completely different than Florida. I would imagine, because it is dry here, we don't have to worry too much about drainage/plant related problems with our conduits, but ICBW... I also notice that our utility crews seem very well-prepared and, at least, look like they're working!

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/local/14 741940.htm?source=rss&channel=miamiherald_local/

This cartoon appeared today in the Miami Herald, and it's a perfect fit to this story. Let's just say that it's not just the geeks that understand the problem....

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/editoria l/cartoons/13407008.htm

Interesting you should mention Crazy Jack. Since the Next-Gen blurb was really short, I went looking for the article they were talking about. A quick google news search found it.

So, who is pushing the school board to do this? None other than Crazy Jack! From the article: "The goal is to make it such a negative thing that the retailers won't carry it," Thompson said. "This thing hasn't really reached critical mass as a [public relations] problem yet; that's what I'm trying to do."

Maybe Crazy Jack is an advisor to Hillary Clinton as well?

Now, something where the whole face of an iPod sized box was a 16:9 HDTV display would be neat.

Interestingly, flash memory SanDisk is now #2 in MP3 players. There's an advantage in being the biggest maker of flash memory in this business.

Do you honestly expect to recieve due process when that same process will end up killing thousands? Are you that selfish?

For one, I fail to see how issuing warrants will "kill thousands".

For two, I cite http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/columnis ts/13487511.htm :

Is that America's highest goal -- preventing another terrorist attack? Are there no principles of law and liberty more important than this? Who would have remembered Patrick Henry had he written, "What's wrong with giving up a little liberty if it protects me from death?"

Larry Sanger, a co-founder of Wikipedia, plans to launch a project called Digital Universe that will take advantage of public input for its content but rely on acknowledged experts to edit the submissions. Material will be free, with subscription fees for access to copyrighted materials. Sanger has raised $10 million in start-up funding. This strikes me as a silly idea and a move in the wrong direction. Wikipedia was found to be mostly accurate compared to its closed brethren. Wikipedia in my view is fine as it is. It has its issues and as time goes it will evolve and get better.

From Google, WADND.com and Airkatrina.com http://www.4law.co.il/gary2905.htm

NEW ORLEANS, LA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 09/02/2005 -- A group of ex-military pilots was formed today to fly medical supplies in and patients in need of "extreme medical care" out of the worst parts of disaster-stricken New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. The veteran pilots, with years of special operations and air rescue experience, launched their efforts this morning to help expand traditional airlift efforts, which have become overwhelmed by the scope of the disaster. The first emergency rescue flew a seven-month old baby from Louisiana to South Florida where she underwent transplant surgery. The pilots are donating their time and planes to this effort, and have been using the Internet to coordinate both the missions and the fundraising to make these flights possible. Each emergency flight requires $3,000 to $4,000 in fuel to airlift extremely ill victims to emergency hospital settings out of state. Donations are being taken online at www.airkatrina.com and a blog of the rescue activities has been set up at http://airkatrina.blogmaker.com./ "This is an example of Internet entrepreneurs quickly mobilizing to solve a major human crisis," said Rick Schwartz, a member of the World Association of Domain Name Developers (WADND.COM), which includes the website www.WorldJet.com which was used to recruit the pilots. The cost of setting up the site was donated and additional contributions have been made by other members of the Internet community, including DomainSponsor, a division of Los Angeles-based Oversee.net. "Time is running out for those most in need," said Schwartz. "Fortunately, the Internet allows real-time donations to be converted into the precious gasoline to allow us to make many more trips to save lives." Schwartz reiterated that zero percent of the fees donated will be used for overhead, with all money (minus banking fees) going directly to gasoline. For more information or to donate money to fund an airlift, please visit http://www.airkatrina.com./

Turned into a big scam http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/breaking _news/12810773.htm Working from his Aventura apartment, Gary Kraser posed as a pilot to solicit thousands of dollars over the Internet to pay for relief flights to Hurricane Katrina-ravaged Louisiana, the FBI said Monday following his arrest. Among his pitches on www.AirKatrina.com: That he evacuated a 7-month-old infant who underwent transplant surgery in South Florida.

Who said go out and buy sony products?

I'm merely saying move on already. Honestly, in the scale of evil corporations there has been more recent evil corporate deeds that deserve a lot more attention than this.

For instance just today:
Dupont's top brass knowingly and intentionally hidden the fact that a chemical used in making packages, from candy wrappers to food wrappers, used by tens of millions contained a dangerous chemical that breaks down into acid inside the body and causes birth defects, severe liver and kidney damage, and high colestrol.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/living/health /13184886.htm

But god forbid that Americans buys a Celion Dion CD with a rootkit on it. There has to come a time when you declare victory and move on instead of beating a dead horse.

That is an important distinction , it can be more equated to civil disobedience. Whilst still ilegal there is a great deal of debate over the law surrounding this .

On a related note , Rosa Parks died today age 92 http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/12993614.htm
Rest in peace , she was a great woman and a hero to many..

Shit man, be careful - there's a new law on the books in Florida that ensures a Floridian with a permit to carry a concealed weapon even more leeway in the right to use deadly force if they feel threatened.

And who's going hit China with an oil embargo? Certainly not the US. Iran is only too happy to supply China. So is Sudan and Venezuela. If anything China could almost do the opposite to the US. Venezuela is one of the biggest suppliers of oil to the US but Bush keeps antaganizing Chavez, and his buddy US televangelist Pat Robertson of the 700 club says maybe we should assassinate Chavez, so Chavez could easily find China to buy all the oil Venezuela currently sales to the US.

STEP 1. Buy enough food and bottled water to last your family for at least three days.

STEP 2. Put these supplies into your car.

STEP 3. Drive to Nebraska and remain there until Halloween.

See;
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/living/column ists/dave_barry/2078085.htm

Chimpanzee Genome Holds Clues To Humanity

The Miami Hearld is reporting the announcement today that researchers have completed a map of the chimpanzee genome. Work will begin in earnest to compare the results of this work with results from the 2001 completion of the human genome. Researchers caution, however, that specific genetic markers that identify humans from their primate counterparts will be difficult. Eric Lander of the Broad Institute comments "But it's not trivial to be able to say, 'Here is an inventory of the most important differences, and now go at it and figure out which of these differences contain the signatures of what is distinctively human.'" Chimpanzees genetic code is approximately 99 percent identical to humans.

Considering the implications that this work could have on medicine if they can identify which portions are human (i.e., those that make humans susceptable to AIDS and Alzheimer's - diseases that do not affect chimps), I would have thought that this story would have been good enough for posting.

But hey, why not another post in the Linux/Microsoft wars. It gets the flames going.

I was thinking the same thing earlier today.

Seeing how we think Osama might be in that country. And seeing how we have submarines with undersea cable tapping capabilities.

Note that the article about there being too much data was in 2001. Moore's Law might have allowed us to compute this amount of data by now.

And let me just say that Bess is completely annoying. I went to ELCO (which is another 20 minutes away from Kutztown past the parent's alma mater of Conrad Weiser) and then did a little computer work there (at ELCO) for a few years and Bess was always a step ahead of actual genuine student research. Valid sites were blocked, while some porn sites were not. Very frustrating, even to the teachers in whose classes we were doing the reports (because we'd show them this useful and informative page located on a reputable server that was blocked). Hopefully it's improved since then.

Here's a Reading-Eagle article about this.

By the way, looking at porn while one is at school is just stupid. Unlocking a computer that you've been given for nine months...not so stupid. What's it matter to the school district, it's not like they had sensative files on the laptops...sure, keep the network secure, but if getting admin access to a laptop equals admin network access, they've got more problems. But yes, hacking the network and doing illegal things on the school network is dumb.

By the way, I'm a Kutztown University grad, not that it's really relevant to the story, but I did spend four years in town...it's weird to see such a small place make national news again. For the geeks: Kutztown Borough was the first community in PA to have fiber to the house. linky, another link, and Google Search.

From the door escapes a giant monster. The giant monster grabs you by the collar, smashes you against a wall, and shouts "STOP USING STUPID WORDS, LIKE GRAFEDIA OR BLOG".

The monster attaches a yellow arrow to your forehead with the following link to a Dave Barry article. http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/living/column ists/dave_barry/9872714.htm

$>click link

$>laugh

Good thing we're number one in bio research. Er...

/.'s article here is the first I've heard of this Real ID plan...

Well, aside from the obvious fact that since the neo-con coup the network media hasn't covered anything except talking-dubya-points, the reason you haven't noticed this tidbit of legistlation (which apparently started back in Feburary) is because "liberal media" has painted it as an immagration issue - that is: the only people targeted by this legislation according to the to PTB and their media cheerleaders were illegal aliens - I heard it debated on Faux News as an immagration issue a least a month ago. I would have to say either a) you haven't been paying attention, or b) you are foolish enough to a ctually believe the that the motives these pseudo-news agencies put forward are the actual intent of the neo-con coup. Nothing could be further from the truth, of course...

Here is a list of articles about this legislation (trivially found using Google) from some touchy feely immagration rights outfit that no one will pay any attention to.

[ -- copied & pasted -- ]

The REAL ID Act in the Media

• "Jewish Groups Oppose US's Stricter Controls on Asylum," Jerusalem Post, March 9, 2005
• "Death Sentence?" Christianity Today, March 8, 2005
• "Republican Plan Would Tighten Laws for Asylum Cases," Hearst Newspapers, March 6, 2005
• "Keep the Doors Open," The Jewish Week editorial, February 25, 2005
• "Unwelcome Mat," The Boston Globe, February 25, 2005
• "Religious Asylum Assailed," Family News in Focus, February 22, 2005 (PDF - 51KB)
• "Proyecto de ley torpedea el derecho de asilo," El Nuevo Herald, February 22, 2005
• "Conservative camps split on tightening asylum," The Boston Globe, February 21, 2005
• "Not broke, don't fix," The Washington Times, February 20, 2005
• "National ID Party," The Wall Street Journal editorial, February 17, 2005 (subscription required)
• "On Guard, America," The New York Times editorial, February 15, 2005
• "Refugee Politics," The Baltimore Sun editorial, February 14, 2005
• "Real ID Act deserves defeat in the Senate," San Antonio Express-News editorial, February 18, 2005
• "Playing the terror card," Contra Costa Times, February 14, 2005
• "Ineffectual migrant policy," Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editorial

Why do dumb/naive people keep falling for scams like this? Each disaster these scams pop up, each time the public is warned about them, but it still works..

Is there some sort of university program I'm not aware of, pumping out mindless peons by the thousands each year so they can make the same mistake as others did last year? Apart from Hamburger University of course..

Then again, University of Miami law professor Enrique Fernandez-Barros somehow managed to become part of a 419 scam in which $1.68 million got lost...

quoted from http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/living/column ists/dave_barry/6649728.htm?1c
and twisted to change the subject to spam.

===

People do not like spam.

And how has the spam industry responded to this tidal wave of public hostility? It has issued this statement: "Gosh, if these people really don't want us to email them, then there's no point in our emailing them! We'd only be making them hate us more, and that's just plain stupid! We'll try to come up with a less offensive way to do business."

No, wait, that's what the spammers would say in Bizarro World, where everything is backward, and Superman is bad, and spammers contain human DNA. Here on Earth, the spammers are claiming they have a constitutional right to email people who do not want to be emailed. They base this claim on Article VX, Section iii, row 5, seat 2, of the U.S. Constitution, which states: "If anybody ever invents the Internet, Congress shall pass no law prohibiting salespeople from using it to completely fill your inbox."

Personally, I always wondered, if our strategy on the war on terrorism is to kill the terrorists, what is our strategy on the war on illiteracy?

Yasser Arafat is not dead, yet.

Don't look now, but something even dumber happened in florida as well.

To summarize, since there should be no more than 32,000 people in a precinct, the machines were not configured to handle more votes than that. As a result, they counted BACKWARDS once the 32,000 person limit was reached.

Methinks this is a buffer overflow issue (32,768 votes as opposed to the 32,000 quoted in the article). How thick can you be to design a polling system storing votes in an int...

I don't know for sure the origin of the word "ricer", but the best guess is a racist one: the association of superficial modification with asian cars and/or car owners.

User 808140, you evidently have a moral problem with using words with racist origins even if modern use does not carry a racial connotation. You, and others in the moral hole that you've dug, will have to stop using the following:

"nitty-gritty" : 18th Century slave traders' phrase for the debris left at the bottom of a slave ship after a voyage.

"good egg" : This is linked to the slang expression 'egg and spoon' which rhymes with the highly derogatory name for black people, 'coon'.

"Eenie, meenie, minie, moe" : one ending to this saying dates from before the civil rights era.

See here and here.

There are many other examples, some made up (folk etymology - 'nitty-gritty' may be an example of this) but some real.

Don't get me wrong, if a racist story was accepted on slashdot or a story contained a racist term with no mitigating context (and I'm sure this has happened in the past), I'd support you completely. But there's no need to jump at shadows with "ricer = racism".

I have heard discussions of this subject at length. Here's a link supporting my side of the issue (which is what the great majority of people you'll meet will side with). I've seen much better arguments than this but don't feel like googling the subject further.

if you have a problem with that then blame the store that sets the policy, not the person who follows that policy.

Why? You'll find that it would be quite difficult to come up with a store policy that would both keep the customers with defective products happy and simultaneously prevent 'renters' since, if nothing else, the renters could intentionally disable the product before returning it. Tell me how the store policy could be changed so that people could still return their products (such as in the case of the original poster who used Costco's policy the way it was meant to be used) while preventing people from doing what your friend did or a simple variation of what your friend did (ie, one that could not easily be circumvented).

As for karma whoring, I myself would quite possibly mod the post down since it is off topic and could easily be seen as flamebait since I'm giving caustic advice. That doesn't mean I don't stand by what I say, just that I know what the consequences are for stating what I believe on this subject.

But not everyone is proud of the achievement. Controversy has swirled around plans for the Mount Graham International Observatory since it got its start 20 years ago atop the 10,700-foot mountain. Opponents contended the observatory would cause the demise of the endangered Mount Graham red squirrel. And the San Carlos Apache Tribe said development would desecrate a sacred mountain. Environmentalists and members of the tribe filed some 40 lawsuits - eight of which ended up before a federal appeals court - but the University of Arizona prevailed. The telescope and mountain observatory, about 125 miles northeast of Tucson, also survived two major forest fires in eight years, the most recent one this summer. "It's a sad day for anyone who believes that the University of Arizona cares about ethics, biology, cultural protection and religious freedom," said longtime project foe Robin Silver, conservation chairman for the Center for Biological Diversity.

These were AFL-CIO protestors. Here you go.

http://www.wftv.com/news/3786807/detail.html

https://registration.miami.com/reg/login.do?url=ht tp%3A%2F%2Fwww.miami.com%2Fmld%2Fmiamiherald%2F912 6001.htm

The method of determining how convicted felons would be identified was laid out in a 2002 settlement agreement between the state and several civil rights groups. The method uses race as one of several factors to determine whether a felon has registered to vote. The others are first name, last name and date of birth. If one of those fails to match up, the name is not added to the list for potential purging.

But the database of felons supplied by FDLE does not list Hispanic as an ethnic group ''believe it or not,'' said Nicole DeLara, spokeswoman for the secretary of state. ``We have not been able to determine why this wasn't caught. The potential felon database is now retroactively void.''

Stay with me here... I'm ranting but I promise there is a point.

When they choose to watch American TV programs it's because they like them - not because it is good for America.
Yeah... right... love those American programs... all of them. I'm not saying all American programming is bad... but c'mon. Sure an Australian is to blame for some of it, but Murdoch is insane... so there you go. The issue with TV is the US using the cultural invasion method. Remember the Australian-US FTA?

When they buy American products it's because they like them - not because it is good for America.
Nah... it's because American companies keep buying our stuff. I mean, why buy Vegimite? Most Americans hate the stuff. The entire market for Vegimite is Australia (possibly a few strange Kiwis and Poms).

They are likely to choose who they think is best for them (being a non-American), based on whatever critera is important to them and their situation.

I'd hope that Americans would choose who they think is best for them too. But I know this isn't the point you are making. I don't know though, does David Hicks case fall under domestic or foreign policy?

They are making their choices based on what they think is best for them.
Exactly. But then this was the point of invading Iraq, right? "We think democracy is a good thing and Iraqi's don't have it. We'll give it to them!" Very noble. Given that the US is an occupying power I think that they at least have a valid argument in deciding who should be president (from what I've seen on TV [yay!] it seems that a lot of the election seems to be Iraq focused).

Australian politicians seem to get rilled when an important overseas type person states a preference towards a party. There's usually a huge outcry of "keep your noses out". But this, who cares? But I hardly think that a poll of web users really will effect the outcome of the election. That clause that only allows someone to be president for two consecutive terms is in your constitution right?

I promised a point... but that was a noncore election promise....

It's not that I disagree with Bush's economic policy or his foriegn policy, I believe he's a child of satan brought here to destroy the planet Earth. -Bill Hicks

It would be interesting to hear what you think a "uniter" would be like.

I don't see how that person could be a Democrat. For years Democrats have been telling blacks that whitey is out to get them. Since 1984, they've been telling old folks that, if they vote wrong, their Social Security will be taken away and they'll have to start eating dog food. They hate the rich, hate corporations, and look down on church-goers, SUV owners, and Walmart shoppers. They also want to take money from one group and give it to another group. Needless to say, that divides the 2 groups.