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California's problems are self created. They spend more than they take in, it's just that simple. Removing themselves from the union would just add additional costs for subsidies that they currently get at the federal level.

Their problems stem mostly from social services run amok and loss of tax income revenue. They have a huge illegal problem (some estimates as high as 10 percent of their workforce) according to a recent non-partisan study, where folks earn money, and then simply send it back to Mexico. Same on the health care front. They end up offering social services not only to tax payers, but to the large illegal population. They also spend millions on wasteful social services they simply can't afford. I found it odd that everyone was screaming when they put those services on the chopping block in order to get a budget that would pass muster. They simply don't realize that you can't spend what you don't have. They've been in that sort of spend cycle for years, and it finally came to a breaking point.

Public schools are a biggie. They actually tried to deny illegal children the right to attend public schools but a federal judge blocked that. The illegal population can collect welfare, as well as take advantage of health services all on the taxpayer dollar. Many of these are also avoiding taxes simply because they are paid cash for day labor. I'm generally about as left as you can go, but I have to stop short on giving a free ride to illegals. Unfortunately most border states suffer from the same issues.

Add on top of all that their tax system, which relies almost heavily on income taxes (over half of their budget money comes from this). Every time the economy tanks, so does their revenue.

They have a lot of problems that have to be addressed both in their taxation, and spending. Succeeding from the union won't fix them.

Working on an existing structure can create very complicated and unexpected behavior. Supports can settle and redistribute loads, or they can unexpectedly move when unloaded due to aging or original construction errors.

The Contractor removed an existing 300' truss leading to the cantilever section (which begins at E1) with a new detour truss over Labor day.

http://www.sacbee.com/288/story/1766800-a1766970-t46.html

This allowed work to proceed on the new bridge. E1 is a fixed concrete support (E4 is the cantilever expansion pier), so theoretically the work should not have affected the cantilever, the suspended span, or the far cantilever (the one with the cracked eyebar). It could have just been fatigue, although after sitting there for 73 years it seems improbable the eyebar crack should suddenly appear during the truss switchout with no relation to the switchout itself. Are any other truss members/joints damaged?

So now the temporary fix breaks. I have not read who did the bracket design (Contractor or Caltrans). Perhaps it was not adequately designed for fatigue, perhaps the loads are larger than expected, perhaps something moved during the truss switchout and significantly changed the loads that eyebar was trying to carry.

The responsible thing to do now would probably be to permanently close the bridge and re-route (yes, ~250,000 vehicles a day? more?) traffic until the new bridge is complete. Remember the northern Hayward fault is only about 6 miles away from the toll plaza (the Loma Prieta fault was more like 50 miles away...). They have been dodging that bullet for decades. Now not only is there seismic risk, there is a weak link in the structure itself. Perhaps without daily traffic the entire project could be expedited and completed sooner.

This is what the dutch got from it

Obama, being a fool

Obama isn't a fool. He knows what the consequences will be. He just doesn't care. He doesn't care because his constituents don't care. His constituents love it when he makes business yell. They hate business.

They all figure US businesses are captive victims and they can squeeze all the 'justice' they want out of them. These tax moves are clever and far sighted. They will cause businesses to kill US jobs. Obama doesn't mind.

When, after these and other changes, business does what business must to survive (kill US jobs) Obama will claim another injustice and impose trade regulations to 'stop' it. He can't do that now. Remember the NAFTA stink during the campaign when Obama's people said the wrong thing to the Canadians? Remember the TARP stink over the 'buy American' language? It's too early yet to act this way on a large scale, but the time will come...

People in the US need to be made to hate business enough that Obama and his ilk can get away with this stuff. That's what Obama's voters want. It's what the unions want.

Will this eventually cause a general drop in the standard of living in the US? Probably. Does that matter to Obama and his voters? Nope. They want 'fairness'. They want 'justice'. They don't care if the white professionals in Tech take it in the rear. They just don't care.

Real soon now they're going to get Franken seated. When that happens the real battle for Card Check begins. That's when Walmart gets unionized. Walmart will be paid off with amnesty for illegal immigrants in the form of some guest worker racket. More voters for the left, you see. Obama and his people don't care that this will end whatever remnant industrial base still persists in the US; eventually they'll have the unions draft the trade regulations to fix it.

Then it's on to medicine. There are a lot of white professionals that need punishing there. Doctors, drug companies, insurance companies, etc. The trick will be sending those folks up the river without harming too many Obama voters.

This will continue and accelerate. No one has ever spent as much fiat money to pay for voters as Obama is/has. You can assume this will translate into a landslide reelection with monster coat tails. Obama has plenty of time. What you understood to be the US is over. The damage inflicted during the next seven and a half years it permanent, just like all the other damage inflicted by collectivists in the US.

Adapt and get used to it. Law is a good bet because a law degree goes a long way in a government controlled system. That's why lawyers, who contributed 5 times as much money to campaigns as the entire 'tech' industry, prefer Democrats like Obama 4-1 when they vote with their wallets.

Sure, greater productivity is one benefit, but the language is completely irrelevant for that.

It's about how flexible the system will be when you have to change it. And you will -- that's the whole point of software, that it is soft, and changeable.

Old Cobol apps generally are not flexible. (stolen from this comment). It's worth mentioning that a decent object-oriented system would've gone a long way towards eliminating this problem -- any idiot can stuff a date into a Date class, which then encapsulates all the date-handling code.

Maybe some of it is very well designed. Drupal proves that you can write good, elegant code in any language, even if you are fighting the language and reinventing the wheel every step of the way. But the converse is also true -- you can write bad COBOL in any language.

My point here is that when changing minimum wage is even a tech story at all, that program is really fucking broken*. It's very likely too broken to be patched. Really, we've learned things in the past 50 years, and not all of them are buzzwords or ways to waste five times the RAM.

Not all of them have anything to do with programming languages, either, but if you're building a new system, and you have a choice of languages, why would you choose COBOL?

I agree in spirit. But what people have to remember is, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. So, if it's broke, fix it!

* I apologize for the profanity, but any program that can't change a fucking constant is a broken program. Or did they copy/paste 6.55 all over the place?

Should we also teach them to live on the streets since both rent and home mortgages redistribute huge amounts of wealth upward to people born with more?

It's not enough to be born rich. Only 22% of those born in rich families manage to stay rich. An important factor in staying rich is knowledge.

Seriously? That's your plan? Teach people with no money how to better manage that money? You really think that will fix our economic crisis?

Yes, but that's only part of it. The other part is to teach people to work for themselves, not for other people. If you act as a cog in a wheel, doing what is expected of you and nothing more, if you do a job that can be replaced easily by a machine, how can you reasonably expect to be paid more? Work isn't some sort of welfare program, you are getting paid to produce something, and for the most part, people get paid what they are worth (true, some people win the 'lottery', but they generally lose it quickly).

If you consider work as training, learn how to be more capable in life, you will get paid more. You can leverage your experience into money by getting promoted, by starting your own business, or by learning how to invest. Starting your own business will give you the best return, investing will probably give you the worst return. This is an important trend to watch in the next couple decades, as more and more people start their own businesses. Small business can be significantly more flexible than large businesses, and so the large businesses will have trouble competing, and this will spread the wealth around much better than some vindictive attempt at revenge against the wealthy. For a simple example, look at the large number of small wineries that have sprung up all across California, just in the last ten years.

Incidentally, my experience with homeless people is not so much that they feel hopeless, it's a huge feeling of self-doubt. A lot of what they need is just confidence, belief that they can be something better. YMMV

Violent crime correlates with wealth disparity to an amazing degree.

I am not a stranger to poverty. El Salvador has one of the highest violent crime rates in the world (I believe it is currently second, right after Iraq). While I was there I interviewed a number of murderers, gang members, and normal people. The violence there stemmed not from poverty, but from a tradition of violence, stemming back many years. The overall feeling there was hopelessness, and it hangs over the country like a dark cloud. It is something that needs to be dispelled, because the people there are not helpless.

Think about it for a second. The United States is the wealthiest country in the world, but even if we redistributed that wealth evenly around the world, it still wouldn't be enough for everyone. Why is the United States the wealthiest? Because it produces the most: per capita GDP is greater than any other country. If we really want to solve the problem of poverty, we need to help those countries learn to produce more. Then they can be rich too.

More than one bloody rebellion was spurred on by increasing wealth disparity.

It didn't turn out very well for France or for Russia, for the rich or the poor. Violent revolutions are rarely good.

Do you think the tent cities appearing are because people are unwisely investing in camping gear and taking long vacations with others?

Are you talking about the tent city in Sacramento? Is it an indication of the new poverty in the US, or is it just that Sacramento is one of the best cities in the country to be homeless? The Sacramento Bee seems to think it is the latter, but now you've piqued my interest, I may have to take a trip up to Sacramento to see it for myself.

As of two days ago the news said, "Pr

George Bush is NOT on the far right, at least not what the far right used to be. He's invented a whole new category, and moved a bunch of people from the right into that.

Indeed, it's best viewed two-dimensionally. Have you seen the political compass? If not, you should (after taking the test for yourself) look on the /analysis2 page for where they place Bush and the /usprimaries2008 for where they place Obama.

I can't speak to the claim about Obama, I don't know the subtle nuances of the factions on the left. I can say he's against gay marriage, and his health care plan is only about 10% of what a real universal health care plan would be.

For the record, Barack Obama opposed Proposition 8. IIRC he said something to the effect of "I personally believe marriage is between a man and a woman but recognize that it would have been illegal for my mother and father to marry only a decade before and do not support Proposition 8". The "yes on 8" crowd quoted only the first part of his statement and implied something he didn't say.

Cleaner air/water/soil does not have anything to do with reducing carbon dioxide. We've been cleaning those things up for decades without changing how much CO2 we put out. Global warming skeptics don't want to focus our 'cleaning' resources on the wrong thing. Also, global warming is presented to us as a "Do it NOW or we all die!" scenario (and to hell with what it will do to our economy), where cleaning the environment is something that we can do gradually over time without significant impact on us.

California is, unfortunately, going down the road of harming our economy (while in the middle of a recession, no less) by instituting all sorts of goofy "greenhouse gas emissions reduction" laws.
http://www.sacbee.com/325/story/1452652.html

after January 1
http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/1264432.html

Gov. Schwarzenegger ordered a cut in pay to California state workers, and was told that it would be impossible to implement because the payroll system is in Cobol and nobody can touch it.

Sounded like political bull to me, but then again...

Do you think any of the state employeed developers actually want to write code to reduce themselves to minimum wage?

Gov. Schwarzenegger ordered a cut in pay to California state workers, and was told that it would be impossible to implement because the payroll system is in Cobol and nobody can touch it.

Sounded like political bull to me, but then again...

It should probably at least be noted that minimum wage here isn't $6.55, it's $8.
http://www.sacbee.com/103/story/603163.html

The Olympic Brand is in very serious trouble

They want to have it both ways. They want the money, cleanliness of our cities, and safety of living here, while at the same time hating and resenting us. America is big but it is not infinite. If you want to get an idea of what happens when we 'let everyone in' just start looking at the urban or suburban landscape, only multiply the people by 4 or so. They aren't going to let us move over there, they just want to come in here. Student visa holder are supposed to go back and improve their own countries, not stay here. If we are so hot for brains, let's stop squandering our own. Here's a troublesome trend, wonder if it correlates with letting so many foreign students in? http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/854261.html

Aerial drones will hunt California pot growers in national forests


This is where your tax money is going, to fight the war against an evil plant known as marijuana, mark this offtopic and continue to live with your head in the sand.

LA County's system was just decertified.

No fucktard, he is a white fucktarded USian cracker who should slit his fucking wrists like all white fucktarded USian crackers should.
http://media.sacbee.com/smedia/2007/06/06/21/215-4 M7GATEWAY.embedded.prod_affiliate.4.JPG

Yeah, she looked fine. I'm not sure what she was thinking making a decision like that, but I'm not really surprised it ended up like it did. Here's another link to the article from the summary, no registration needed this time: http://www.sacbee.com/101/v-print/story/119961.htm l.

The show that put on the "contest" has kicked off the air for now pending an investigation. A statement by the radio station is here. A news story from the local paper is here. (A reg is needed, it can be found in the normal place).

While this is a good first gesture, it's not enough, for obvious reasons.

I wouldn't say that calling global warming 'highly doubtful' is inflammatory. While I have no doubt that continued destruction and pollution of our environment will have profound if not irreversable negative impact on our planet, attributing the sinking of an island to global warming is irresponsible journalism at best.

While ocean levels are rising around the world, Arctic levels are falling http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5076322. stm and the model predicting the globabl warming trend cannot explain why.

Another unexplained action is while consensus is that the planet is getting warmer and glaciers are melting, the Antarctic ice sheet - by far the biggest in the word is actually growing larger: http://www.iceagenow.com/Growing_Antarctic_Ice_She et.htm. Glaciers in California are also growing: http://dwb.sacbee.com/content/news/story/14317368p -15234887c.html

Given that the Northern Hemisphere at least is getting warmer, this is not entirely a bad thing as the food growing season is longer, and the increased productivity is an economic boon. From this government report on climate change: http://www.usgcrp.gov/usgcrp/Library/nationalasses sment/overviewmidwest.htm "With an increase in the length of the growing season, double cropping, the practice of planting a second crop after the first is harvested, is likely to become more prevalent. The CO2 fertilization effect is likely to enhance plant growth and contribute to generally higher yields. The largest increases are projected to occur in the northern areas of the region, where crop yields are currently temperature limited."

But with the increase in global temperature, the worlds deserts would increase in size causing more environmental destruction you say? Not so - the Sahara desert, the largest desert in the world, is actually shrinking, again contrary to the global warming model. http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg17523610.300 -africans-go-back-to-the-land-as-plants-reclaim-th e-desert.html

So given all of these environmental observations (not minor discrepancies but huge anomalies) that are contrary to the global warming prediction, I think its perfectly acceptableto have doubts as to the actual cause of sinking islands.

Wow! I bet they have a lot of terrorists to show for all that work. Right...?

You mean like these recent convictions, arrests, or indictments? Hamid Hayat, Abu Ali, and Sayed Ahmed, Shahawar Matin Siraj, Ehsanul Islam Sadequee, and these 19?

Maybe your memory is fading, or you don't pay attention, but there have been plenty of others over the last few years.

You don't know how many people in the UK or Canada or Sweden "don't get" because they die before they get. Coronary bypass surgery is only considered elective by countries with socialized medicine. Over here, that's a required life saving procedure.

I will however, concede your point that the figures are for 3 months. Still, as far as people in the US who permanantly "don't get", I would argue that the reason for that has more to do with our system having strayed from a market based system. If you look at critical service systems in the US that are totally market based, you see a different story. For example: everyone here eats. I would argue that food provision is *more* critical than health provision. The average person can live MUCH longer without healthcare than they can without food. Yet no one hear dies of involuntary starvation. No one (*).

There are simply no "don't gets" when the market is allowed to be the dominant player in provisioning of goods/services. Yet in healthcare, a less critical service, there are "don't gets". I would argue that the system of provision needs to be addressed in healthcare, and modeled after the more effective system of provision used for food.

(*) I say "involuntary starvation" because I want to exclude deaths as a result of anexoria. People who die from self starvation do not die because they don't have access to food. So those deaths, tragic as they are, should not be counted as a failure of the food provision system.

If scientists were allocating $3 billion in public funds for research then I doubt that embryonic stem cell research would be allocated very much. Energy research would be the highest priority. The demand for Bush bashing is far higher than the actual demand for embryonic stem cell research. The proposition was also sold on many false promises, like the promise that the research would pay for itself. If their promises were true than there would be no need for public funding. There are also constitutional problems with open meetings, conflict of interest, and the use of tax-exempt bonds for taxable assets.

We would be much better off if the funds raised to pass the initiative had been used for research instead.

You mean the same attorney general who argued that Abraham Lincoln's electronic surveillance programs justified his own?

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/14161 392p-14989322c.html

The first three refused to indict!

Absurdly tiny. They're probably looking at only in IE, which renders text quite a bit larger by default than either Firefox or Opera. I know we can change the type size in our browsers ourselves but they should have a font size change button like the Sacramento Bee and many other sites do. (The tool bar with the font button on it appears on the left once you get to an article. Unfortunately The Bee does require registration. Try registrationsucks/cantcatchme as an ID/pwd pair.)

Construction might be in a big downtrend in a few months.

Sales of new houses fall 57%
Region's builders try to lure buyers with lower prices and free upgrades.
http://www.sacbee.com/content/homes/re_news/v-prin t/story/14068443p-14899146c.html

I find my tastes have changed and I still get the paper. And since I get most my international news online, I stopped reading the Chronicle (and it's biased writing) and switched to the Sacramento Bee. It covers most the issues and if sparce their website fills in details. Plus when I'm reading a newspaper, I'm doing it to relax. So the Bee with it's two pages of comics, interesting articles and main news with the important parts covered in decent detail. Enough to perk my interest if I want to later research it. But not so much that the brain hurts.

So I'll scan the front page, go to business, Scene & Comics, and then the Fry's AD, and Region... and then if I have time I'll scan the other section... checking sports if there was something I missed or what not.

Don't even get me started on the Napa Valley Register with pages of retractions and corrections equaling the rest of the paper. I don't even get it to line the bird cage... don't want to upset the bird. Mind they have a website in which is better quality then the actual paper, but no freaking images. They'll comment on what the picture shows... but no picture. gah!

Obligatory Links:
SacBee -> http://wwww.sacbee.com
Chronicle -> http://www.sfgate.com
Napa Register -> http://www.napanews.com

Well they did a good job of getting /. exposure. Poor guys, they got nothing better to do then chasing me through sactown streets. LOL :)

I would also like to post the original sacbee article:
http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/story/13176715p -14020155c.html

Her direct line is (916) 321-1203.

Maybe we should all give her a call and politely suggest she check her assertions before printing them.

-CF

The Bee's Erika Chavez can be reached at (916) 321-1203 or echavez@sacbee.com.

from http://sacbee.com/content/news/crime/story/1320241 9p-14045441c.html

The Bee's Erika Chavez can be reached at:
(916) 321-1203
or echavez@sacbee.com

courtesy of: http://sacbee.com/content/news/crime/story/1320241 9p-14045441c.html

I read the article and the previous post. And it is nonsense. Heck, I know someone in the small (~60k) people city who even before the Patriot Act (in the immediate aftermath of Sept. 11th) had one of the infamous Patriot Act style incidents. He is a Sudanese immigrant who runs a local business; he was a lawyer in Sudan working to prevent forcing Sharia on the entire population. Several of his colleagues were murdered, and he fled to the US and was granted assylum. When he immigrated, his birthday was incorrect on one form, and it took him months of work to get it corrected. After getting it dealt with, he hadn't heard anything back for years.

However, after Sept. 11th, they dug up his original records, and started calling him asking about the mistake. He explained it to them, but kept getting more calls. Then, one day, they showed up and arrested him at his business, right in front of his customers. They took him to the Johnson County jail to be held, and made up a story about him being picked up on the street acting suspicious. The Johnson County jail refused to hold him, so they took him up to Linn County. They held him for almost a week before suddenly letting him go unexpectedly. No charges were ever filed, and they initially denied even holding him. However, when he was arrested, they took the money he had on him, and later wrote him a check for it. He kept the check.

He has a lawsuit still pending. One thing that's already been discovered during the investigation is that they had gotten a form to deport him; it just needed to be signed. If he had been sent back to Sudan, he'd likely be killed. A lot of the local Sudanese community has been really concerned ever since this happened.

This was pre-patriot act. Since the patriot act, there have been *many* cases reported. Is this mass delusion? There were 34 cases of abuse in custody by immigrants that were deemed credible by the Justice Department. It's been used against strip clubs. This? Etc. I've probably run across 50 or so cases that were far more than "accusations" in the past year. The fact that they can't find any is just amazing.

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=239735 (video)

Doug Chapin, a nonpartisan election analyst, finds the claims to be baseless. "There were no problems that would lead me to believe that there were stolen elections or widespread fraud," he said.

"There was no overwhelming reason to cast doubt on the outcome of this election," seconded Democratic strategist Donna Brazile, the campaign manager for Al Gore's 2000 campaign. "George Bush got more votes this time."

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/11 /10/internet_buzz_on_vote_fraud_is_dismissed/

Much of the traffic is little more than Internet-fueled conspiracy theories, and none of the vote-counting problems and anomalies that have emerged are sufficiently widespread to have affected the election's ultimate result.

Kerry campaign officials and a range of election-law specialists agree that while machines made errors and long lines in Democratic precincts kept many voters away, there's no realistic chance that Kerry actually beat Bush.

''No one would be more interested than me in finding out that we really won, but that ain't the case," said Jack Corrigan, a veteran Kerry adviser who led the Democrats' team of 3,600 attorneys who fanned out across the country on Election Day to address voting irregularities.

''I get why people are frustrated, but they did not steal this election," Corrigan said. ''There were a few problems here and there in the election. But unlike 2000, there is no doubt that they actually got more votes than we did, and they got them in the states that mattered."

''I think it's safe to say that on the votes that were cast in Ohio, Bush won," said Dan Tokaji, a law professor at Ohio State University who is working with the ACLU to challenge Ohio's use of punch-card ballots. ''If the margin had been 36,000 rather than 136,000, we would have seen another post-election meltdown."

http://www.sacbee.com/state_wire/story/11436220p-1 2350492c.html

All three said their networks had set up investigative units to review any claims of voter fraud or problems with electronic voting technology this year, but that nothing significant had appeared anywhere to affect the election's outcome.

"A lot of the allegations we've looked into, they're just not true," Shapiro said. "Believe me, I'd love a juicy story about the election as much as anybody. Florida was a great story, but it's just not there this time."

As for exit polls, often brought up in the context of electronic voting, here is one expert's view:

I think the important thing about exit polls is they show us why people won and the dynamics of the race. The mistake most people make is they see polls as a horse-race, but they are actually the explanation of what happened.

The polls may have been wrong about who won, but they were right about explaining why people voted the way they did. If you don't have polls, you allow the elites and candidates to interpret the elections in their own interest. Polls, in many ways, are crucial to democracy.

If you look at previous elections, you can see that exit polls are always different the day after the election. Exit polls ultimately are always right, though they are never right originally. This is because polls have to be weighted with the actual vote to be completely accurate. The vote, of course, can't be factored in until the election is completed. If the exit polls are not "corrected" in this way, then the analysis of the election will always be flawed. So after the polls have closed, exit poll

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=239735 (video)

Doug Chapin, a nonpartisan election analyst, finds the claims to be baseless. "There were no problems that would lead me to believe that there were stolen elections or widespread fraud," he said.

"There was no overwhelming reason to cast doubt on the outcome of this election," seconded Democratic strategist Donna Brazile, the campaign manager for Al Gore's 2000 campaign. "George Bush got more votes this time."

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/11 /10/internet_buzz_on_vote_fraud_is_dismissed/

Much of the traffic is little more than Internet-fueled conspiracy theories, and none of the vote-counting problems and anomalies that have emerged are sufficiently widespread to have affected the election's ultimate result.

Kerry campaign officials and a range of election-law specialists agree that while machines made errors and long lines in Democratic precincts kept many voters away, there's no realistic chance that Kerry actually beat Bush.

''No one would be more interested than me in finding out that we really won, but that ain't the case," said Jack Corrigan, a veteran Kerry adviser who led the Democrats' team of 3,600 attorneys who fanned out across the country on Election Day to address voting irregularities.

''I get why people are frustrated, but they did not steal this election," Corrigan said. ''There were a few problems here and there in the election. But unlike 2000, there is no doubt that they actually got more votes than we did, and they got them in the states that mattered."

''I think it's safe to say that on the votes that were cast in Ohio, Bush won," said Dan Tokaji, a law professor at Ohio State University who is working with the ACLU to challenge Ohio's use of punch-card ballots. ''If the margin had been 36,000 rather than 136,000, we would have seen another post-election meltdown."

http://www.sacbee.com/state_wire/story/11436220p-1 2350492c.html

All three said their networks had set up investigative units to review any claims of voter fraud or problems with electronic voting technology this year, but that nothing significant had appeared anywhere to affect the election's outcome.

"A lot of the allegations we've looked into, they're just not true," Shapiro said. "Believe me, I'd love a juicy story about the election as much as anybody. Florida was a great story, but it's just not there this time."

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=239735 (video)

Doug Chapin, a nonpartisan election analyst, finds the claims to be baseless. "There were no problems that would lead me to believe that there were stolen elections or widespread fraud," he said.

"There was no overwhelming reason to cast doubt on the outcome of this election," seconded Democratic strategist Donna Brazile, the campaign manager for Al Gore's 2000 campaign. "George Bush got more votes this time."

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2004/11 /10/internet_buzz_on_vote_fraud_is_dismissed/

Much of the traffic is little more than Internet-fueled conspiracy theories, and none of the vote-counting problems and anomalies that have emerged are sufficiently widespread to have affected the election's ultimate result.

Kerry campaign officials and a range of election-law specialists agree that while machines made errors and long lines in Democratic precincts kept many voters away, there's no realistic chance that Kerry actually beat Bush.

''No one would be more interested than me in finding out that we really won, but that ain't the case," said Jack Corrigan, a veteran Kerry adviser who led the Democrats' team of 3,600 attorneys who fanned out across the country on Election Day to address voting irregularities.

''I get why people are frustrated, but they did not steal this election," Corrigan said. ''There were a few problems here and there in the election. But unlike 2000, there is no doubt that they actually got more votes than we did, and they got them in the states that mattered."

''I think it's safe to say that on the votes that were cast in Ohio, Bush won," said Dan Tokaji, a law professor at Ohio State University who is working with the ACLU to challenge Ohio's use of punch-card ballots. ''If the margin had been 36,000 rather than 136,000, we would have seen another post-election meltdown."

http://www.sacbee.com/state_wire/story/11436220p-1 2350492c.html

All three said their networks had set up investigative units to review any claims of voter fraud or problems with electronic voting technology this year, but that nothing significant had appeared anywhere to affect the election's outcome.

"A lot of the allegations we've looked into, they're just not true," Shapiro said. "Believe me, I'd love a juicy story about the election as much as anybody. Florida was a great story, but it's just not there this time."

A frequent charge levied after the 2000 election was voter disenfranchisement and ballot spoilage due, in large part, to antiquated, malfunctioning, or broken mechanical voting equipment. Legislation was introduced guaranteeing a minimum standard for the equipment and processes associated with voting in all jurisdictions. Since we are living in the 21st century, electronic systems were specified. $3.9 billion was set aside under HAVA to replace all mechanical punch card systems with electronic systems by 1 January, 2006. The goal is to ensure a consistency and fairness in the appearance and operation of the voting systems, both for voters and local election officials.

After the 2000 presidential election, Congress passed the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA):

To establish a program to provide funds to States to replace punch card voting systems, to establish the Election Assistance Commission to assist in the administration of Federal elections and to otherwise provide assistance with the administration of certain Federal election laws and programs, to establish minimum election administration standards for

The upshot is that, in California, one does not have to feel like one is at the mercy of the paperless election system. Go, Kevin!

Alcee Hastings was impeached in 1988 and was later elected to Congress, and is now President of the OSCE.

here's an interesting new situation... there is a family in sacramento whose home is surrounded by trees and other greenery which is moderately close to their home. they received a letter recently from their insurance company telling them that they were canceling their insurance because the risk was too great due to fire. here's the kicker. they decided this because they used satellite imagery looking at the various properties of their customers homes. here's an article with more info.

This will be fun.

I will squander a record surplus

First of all, a surplus is not a good thing. It means that the government took too much of your money. Deficits aren't that great either, but Bush's deficits are inline with historical averages, and they are due as much to the inherited economic slowdown as they are to anything Bush did.

and tax the middle class

Uh, Bush didn't start taxing the middle class. They have been taxed for most of this century. On the contrary, Bush gave them a tax cut.

while giving all my rich buddies a free ride on their illegal doings

Who exactly are you referring to? Enron? Nope, they got busted. Halliburton? They haven't done anything illegal.

and also give them a tax cut

Yes, when EVERYBODY gets a tax cut, the rich people get tax cuts too.

and claim that the war is going great

Well, it is going great by any measure. We have accomplished some pretty darn amazing things over there in the past year and a half.

and the economy is great

It isn't the best, but it is doing well.

but my opponent isn't really a war hero

Bush has gone out of his way to thank Kerry for his military service.

and I served my country honorably

You don't think that the National Guard is honorable? Do you realize that there are hundreds of thousands of people you just insulted by saying that?

and the Iraqis love our troops

Many Iraqi's do love our troops.

and Saudi Arabia had nothing to do with 9/11

Well, some people from Saudi Arabia were involved, but unless you have some top secret evidence proving otherwise, the Saudi Arabian government had nothing to do with it. A New Yorker blew up the federal building in Oklahoma City, but that doesn't mean that New York was involved in the bombing.

I swear- you lefties are some of the most pessimistic people around. Not only to you expect us to fail, it sometimes looks like you actually hope we fail so you can feel good about yourself.

http://www.hispanicheritage.com/health/immigrantva ccines_08_02.htm

Please research the jobs that illegals are taking. If you do this you will find that it is mostly the starter jobs and the low wage jobs which, before this invasion, where taken by blacks. Just look at the unemployment rate in the black community.

Deportees are liinked to Mexico crime rate.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20040912/n ews_1n12deport.html

http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/10513 206p-11432370c.html
http://washingtontimes.com/national/20040825112521 -6070r.htm

See, unlike you I don't live in a dream world where I can just make shit up. You own me an appology.

And your "blacklist" doesn't exist.

Why don't you read this article

I don't own property in California, so fortunately, I am not affected by this proposed law.

Wrong answer, if not illegal. The "professional" list was in the same price range, maybe a few hundred more on average, but in the ballpark of the first list of ghetto properties.

Another spoiled brat raised to think the world owes him. I hate to tell you this, but discrimination is very much allowed in the US, EXCEPT for specific prohibitions, ie race, gender, family status, and religion. Many landlords refuse to rent to college students. They are irresponsible, trash the apartment, and have an attitude just like yours. They are perfectly entitled to make that choice.

If you wind up in court over a BS clause like "no firearms allowed" expect to pay someone's lawyer bills.

Again, I am sorry to say you are sadly mistaken. If one of my tenants is involved in a crime and I find he was in possession of a gun (or god forbid, he SHOOTS a gun on my property) I can evict him. This happens all the time, and is very much allowed.

Some of your tenants know the judge and his kids, too, you see

that is unlikely. I am in a very large metropolis.

I'm not sure how my statement that a large corrupt union in league with corrupt government is a bad thing makes you think that I am somehow in favor of communism, especially the soviet variety...

The job requirements for a prison guard are a high-school diploma and a 6 week training course. The problem is that by handing out political support, the union has gotten unreasonable levels of control over hiring and administration of the prisons...it is no longer under the control of the prison "ownership", the state of California. They even successfully 'fired' a state investigator who was looking into and had found evidence of corruption and bribery in the prisons, because the investigation was done without union permission...

Attempts to change this are met with "We'll vote you out of office" and "We'll contribute millions to your opponent in the next election", so the pansies in the government just keep licking the boots of the guard union, for their own personal good, rather than the good of the people of the state.

The point is that politicians and unions can be just as corrupt, if not moreso, than a corporation in protecting their individual interests at the expense of the public good.

Some links for your pleasure:
Contra Costa Times
Sacramento Bee
SFGate

The Sacramento Bee did a series on environmental orgs and their practices, the good ones, the bad apples titled Environment, Inc. An article from the series, "Mission adrift in a frenzy of fund raising" cited some statistics related to how much fundraising overhead eats up contributions, and came up with 42% for the Sierra Club from IRS form 990 info and American Institute of Philanthropy. I just wish I could be a member of the local, and not fund a big marketing machine. I think the American Institute of Philathropy and Guidestar are pretty good places to start for info. Perhaps they have info on the mailing list sharing that goes on between these npos.

The Sacramento Bee did a series on environmental orgs and their practices, the good ones, the bad apples titled Environment, Inc. An article from the series, "Mission adrift in a frenzy of fund raising" cited some statistics related to how much fundraising overhead eats up contributions, and came up with 42% for the Sierra Club from IRS form 990 info and American Institute of Philanthropy. I just wish I could be a member of the local, and not fund a big marketing machine. I think the American Institute of Philathropy and Guidestar are pretty good places to start for info. Perhaps they have info on the mailing list sharing that goes on between these npos.

The Sacramento Bee did a series on environmental orgs and their practices, the good ones, the bad apples titled Environment, Inc. An article from the series, "Mission adrift in a frenzy of fund raising" cited some statistics related to how much fundraising overhead eats up contributions, and came up with 42% for the Sierra Club from IRS form 990 info and American Institute of Philanthropy. I just wish I could be a member of the local, and not fund a big marketing machine. I think the American Institute of Philathropy and Guidestar are pretty good places to start for info. Perhaps they have info on the mailing list sharing that goes on between these npos.

grr... accidentally hit submit when changing windows.

Read Riverbend's blog entry for August 28th.

Why on earth are we paying companies like Haliburton and Bechtel to charge us 10 to 50 times as much for the same job? It is completely ludicrous, and is only going to create anti-American sentiment (in addition to breaking the bank for us). It treats Iraqis like ignorant dogs who can only lift bricks and pour concrete.

Look at the sort of work Haliburton and Bechtel have been doing. Haliburton is on their, what, third or so price-gouging investigation for Iraq? Bectel isn't doing much better - you should read how their "school renovation" work turned out. These companies should not only be fired, they should be fined.

LaVine, for one, said she feels a bit "hoodwinked" by her treatment during the interview.

She had never heard of "The Daily Show" before agreeing to the interview.

21 percent of adults ages 18 to 29 said they regularly turn to "The Daily Show" and "Saturday Night Live" for presidential campaign news.

"They feel like it doesn't speak to their desires or interests, and part of that is just being young, but part of it is feeling like, 'What's the point of being informed because you can't change anything anyway,"

Really?

Not according to an quote from her in a Sacramento Bee newspaper article on Women in computing.

Quote from the article:
But Roizen, for all her own success, still is troubled by the lack of women in her industry.

Despite efforts to be completely unbiased in hiring, almost everyone on T/Maker's technical support staff is male. "We look for (technical) women but we don't find them," she said with a sigh.

Also, I think her company, T/Maker, originally produced a table making Unix product in 1983, then leveraged its 68000 machine code/Unix expertise into the original word processor bundled with the NeXt computer a couple of years later. I'm pretty sure I remember Heidi saying in an interview years ago that her brother wrote WriteNow entirely in machine code, but memory may have failed me as it has the parent.

WritNow is my favorite word processor of all time, but it, along with another favorite--Dyno Notepad, stopped working once I went to OS 10.1. I haven't tried them out since moving to 10.3.

A week doesn't go by when I don't wish I could copy and paste a paragraph's entire ruler in Word '97 with a pair of simple key combinations the way you can in W/N.