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WA Governor Race Ends
Republican Dino Rossi decided last night to not appeal yesterday's decision by Chelan judge John Bridges to let last November's governor election stand -- the closest in U.S. history -- which keeps Christine Gregoire, who won by 129 votes after two recounts, in office. The Republicans claimed that fraud and mistakes far exceeded the difference between the candidates, and that statistical analysis showed Rossi might have received more legal votes. Bridges concluded there were thousands of incorrect votes and other major problems, but that the Republicans didn't meet the high threshold of proof that the result was incorrect. He also said he feared current law will make elections problems even worse, and urged the government and voters to work to fix the system.
In races this close, call it a statistical tie, and run a revote.
You'll get a bigger turnout, and possibly a true outcome.
Jay | http://oldos.org
when accountable voting is outlawed, only outlaws will be able to vote accountable.. or something.
-Clio
Karma: Bad (mostly from not giving a fuck)
Blog: http://clintjcl.wordpress.com
GW Bush won his office through some questionable means. Not once, but twice. Every single instance of an election problem worked out in Bush's favor. When a voting machine screwed up, it was inevitably adding votes to Bush, or counting Kerry votes as votes for someone else. Right now in Ohio, there's a big scandal where money meant for investment wound up in the pockets of Republican campaigns.
t m
I predict that some people will try to mod me down to suppress the truth, but they will fail.
More information:
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1106-30.h
Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
I sure am glad that SlashDot covers these important technological issues because we sure won't be able to read about this story in the mainstream press.
You got the white house, give us one governor in one state.
Pulp Audio Weekly - Geek News and Reviews
In sports, each coach has his own system. Sometimes they're really well crafted, honed over years of experience, and work really well. Sometimes they're stupid. However, even a crappy system can result in victory if the players all play within it.
A business works the same way, usually. A crappy boss can ruin efficiency, but a boss in business is really one of the players. Adherence to the system is the surest path to success, since only by adhering to it can you tell if it's working.
And so it is with democratic republics. The election may have various kinds of errors, but generally half the errors will be for each candidate. For that matter, the voters can be "wrong", but since it's an election the voters are not wrong, by definition.
Ask for a recount, accept the results and go back to chasing ambulances.
sigs, as if you care.
we have a small paper card, the candidates name is listed, with a circle next to it. (the name and circle are plane paper and surounded by black ink. each option is divided by a white line)
you vote by writeing a large x in the circle of the candidate you choose and place it in the ballet box. a ballet with any other marks on it except an x (yes it has to be an X)is considered spoiled. it is idiot proof to vote, and intenions are very clear.
btw, municipal elections had electronic voteing. the balet worked the same way, but was fed through a reader, face down, and into the ballet box. paper trail, and instant count.
Have all future elections run by The Amazing Race, but "accidently" lose their maps when they're on the Pitcairn Islands. No airport, no ships, Washington State might be able to get some work done for a while.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
What he was asking for was that the questionable results be set aside and the state be given a chance to have an honest election. (i.e. without King County's felons and dead voting)
That being said, I will abide by the rule of law and accept Gov. G. as our overlord for now. On the other hand I sure hope we can all work to prevent this from happening again.
Perhaps those of us in Island county can set the example since it seems we were one of the few places that seem to have a properly working election board.
Share and Enjoy! (tm)
Inside A U.S. Election Vote Counting Program
Tampering with Election Machine Software
GENERATION 25: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation. Social exper
Another possibility is to extend the same law that many jurisdictions have for dealing with actual tie votes, that is to decide the election by chance, usually by flipping a coin. The difficulty with this approach (and in general with having a revote) is that whether you are discovering whether the threshold has been achieved or simply trying to decide a winner, the process of qualifying votes is the same. For instance, if you define it as being within 100 votes statewide, well then you still have to count votes to know if the difference is under the threshold, and then you are back to fighting over what is a valid vote, whether to count miscast provisional ballots, etc, etc.
A recount is more sensible, if it can be done in a uniform and fair manner, which unfortunately did not seem to be the case in Washington. If the laws were more clear about how what types of votes were valid, a recount could be performed at a much lower cost than holding a new election.
Soylent Green is peoplicious!
Enjoy the short victory.
You have just motivated the Republican voters in Washington to the point you will never see that state go blue again.
Ha Ha yourself.
That being said, while I'm a big fan of Rossi, I think that the Republican challenge was pretty weak. When you have to rely on stats to make a decision then the choice is pretty clear - do nothing. The judge did the right thing here. He told our citizens that we'd better clean up this mess ourselves. In King County where I live, that means throwing out Dean Logan, the appointed county elections director. Since his boss doesn't think that this is necessary, it's time to remove Ron Sims as well.
If you don't want crime to pay, let the government run it.
This doesn't justify the errors in Washington, but it doesn't justify villifying one side either. Just about everyone cheated, somewhere.
I believe that it is vital, if democracy is to have any meaning, to work on developing a system that is provably reliable. It is possible to create essentially tamper-proof cryptographic signatures. If you add votes via a version control system of some kind, then sign every "version", you can "prove" the stream has not been modified since being created.
The vote would be in the form of a written-out XML file, so that it was absolutely clear as to what a vote was. Signatures would be in the form of an RSA public-key signature, where the signer was the voting machine, not the voter.
The first "signature" would cover the first vote. The second would cover both the first and second votes plus the first signature, etc.
This would prevent tampering, but it would also prevent database corruption as votes could only be added via the intended interface, as the signature entry would not be present.
There are other methods. I've suggested before that you could have "anonymous" encryption - unassociated private keys, with the voter using a public key they were provided with as their "voter registration card". That way, the vote would still be anonymous, but as only valid decryption keys would be used, only valid encryption keys could be used to generate the vote and provably only used once.
Indeed, you wouldn't even need high-tech voting. Anti-counterfeit measures used on currency would work just as well on ballot papers. Voting stations would then need to account for every ballot paper (unused, discarded, vote) going through them. It would make it considerably harder to add votes prior to the election, or for anyone to swipe a ballot box in transit and change the contents.
In the first two cases, system errors would not add valid information and therefore not produce fake votes, and the requirements to perpetrate electoral fraud (by a voter, candidate or party) would be raised sufficiently high to put it beyond the reach of the usual suspects.
In the third case, the bar would be lower than with the high-tech solutions, but definitely raised from where it is now. The idea is not to make fraud impossible, but to put it beyond the reach of "opportunists" and outside the realm of "accidents". There will always be people who try to beat any system, but you can reduce the number of people who have the skill to succeed from a few hundred million to a few hundred.
In other words, we don't need faulty systems in this day and age. Faulty systems are a choice, not a necessity, and I personally regard them as a remarkably stupid choice.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Why can't we develop a more accurate system for counting votes? With our current resources, the court contest in Washington should have been a moot point: we should have known the exact vote totals without room for doubt.
I think a reasonable margin of victory could be at about 0.1%. For ten millions votes, you would need to win by 10,000. For 100,000 votes, that's only 100 votes.
Currently, Washington State does have a method whereby close elections are handled without long, drawn-out challenges. The legislature can refuse to accept any result with a majority vote. If there was any candidate for the legislature to exercise this power, the governor's race of 2004 was it. It was too close and there were too many weird things happening. It was a Democrat controlled legislature and they refused to accept responsibility, instead telling the courts to fix it. The courts made the right decision and explained that the remedy that should be applied can't be applied because they are bound by the law as it is written. The voters are going to have to have the final say on whether the legislators made the right decision or not.
The radical sect of Islam would either see you dead or "reverted" to Islam.
Ok, I'm conservative and live near Seattle, and even I don't believe this bullshit. There are a lot of pissed off people here for sure, but this one case isn't going to change people's perceptions all that much.
I'm just happy to see the Democrats now running amok and raising taxes and pushing an agenda where getting a Botox injection is treated something like a crime. I have at least some measure of faith that while the people of our great state are left-leaning, they have a lot more common sense than to buy into this agenda. There have been huge anti-tax movements in this state, which has impacted nearly every liberal agenda item, both social and economic. The Democrats have more to fear from the initiative to repeal their centerpiece gas tax than they do from the judge's decision yesterday.
If you don't want crime to pay, let the government run it.
Not likely. With the red states regressing more and more to the middle ages, the blue states will just get blue-er. Rossi didn't come out looking very statemans-like, a bit but not much. Sure, the GOP faithful are pissed. But the moderates and independents just wanted it over with. I think you're engaging in some seriously wishful thinking. WA is the bluest state in the union right now, with a Dem governor, Dem control of both houses of the legislature, and two Dem senators.
In standard parliamentary procedure (in other words, how group of people agree to thigns), if you don't have a majority behind a candidate you vote again until you do. Robert's Rules sets the standard pretty high by default - not a plurality, but a majority. It isn't fair to have the group ruled by a candidate that actually represents a minority of the group.
What this means is that in order to win, one of the candidates will have to do something to gain the support of people who wouldn't normally support him. If they can't do this, then they obviously can't lead the entire group.
A "Dark Horse" candidate is a third party candidate that represents the smallest minority of three. However, sometimes the group may compromise by elected the Dark Horse rather than one of the two leading candidates in the event none of them can get the support they need. In the Washington election, that would be the equivalent of a large group of republicans and democrats backing Ruth Bennet, the libertarian candidate, because it is a good compromise and will probably represent all three groups better than any of the other candidates could.
If they can't decide on a candidate, and a majority can't be united behind one, then the position remains empty. In this case, that would be the equivalent of having the Lt. Governor step up and become governor until one can be chosen. This isn't a bad alternative because the Lt. Governor actually won a majority and is supported by both Democrats and Republicans. (He's a Lieberman-type democrat.)
If you think carefully, this is actually a good way to handle it. Rather than have a controversial and divisive leader, have one that is less controversial and more uniting.
The radical sect of Islam would either see you dead or "reverted" to Islam.
There are 1600 known bogus votes. For everyone who ever called Bush an illegitimate President, look at Gregoire's 129 vote win and "Eat this".
You seriously underestimate the ill will this will create. Washington is about to become the win-at-any-cost state for Republicans in the next cycle. Republicans are pissed enough to hold onto this for 3 years. Bank on it.
When Washington goes Red in 2008, you think of me.
"I'm just happy to see the Democrats now running amok and raising taxes ... "
Yeah, because actually PAYING for infrastructure improvements (the viaduct, light rail, the monorail, the 520 bridge, etc) through taxes is liberal hogwash. Everyone knows the real way to do things: Just borrow the money and let your grandkids pay! BushCo has shown us the way.
If conservatives want to have low taxes, they need to start actually picking specific gov't services to cut, instead of just bellyaching about generalities. When you start talking about specific, real things to cut, people balk and don't want to do it. Until you can convince people to accept cuts in services, stop bitching about taxes.
"pushing an agenda where getting a Botox injection is treated something like a crime. "
What the hell does this mean? (I've been out of town for a couple of weeks, and may have missed a news item.)
If conservatives want to have low taxes, they need to start actually picking specific gov't services to cut, instead of just bellyaching about generalities.
Ok, lets start with the "Housing and Urban Development" program that gives individuals over $20k a year in housing vouchers. All they have to do is get to the top of a list to recieve it and not make more than x ammount of (reported) money a year. Followed up by slowly getting the feds out of health care (so the prices will finally come down). Say, increase the minimum age of medicare/medicaid by 1 year every few years for the next couple decades.
When you start talking about specific, real things to cut, people balk and don't want to do it. Until you can convince people to accept cuts in services, stop bitching about taxes.
Problem is more on the lines of who balks at what. What I balk at is probably different than what you balk at. Hence we could rarely (if ever) come to an agreement.
Fly me to the moon Let me sing among those stars Let me see what spring is like On jupiter and mars
No, they had to rely on stats because the Judge told them that was the only way they could try to make their case.
Since the ballots are secret, they can't tie the ballots to the voters. So they can't say definitively whether the manufactured and illegal votes were for gregoire or rossi.
But a little thinking will make it obvious-- in fact, the judge in his summary talked about incidence of fraud (my word) covering what I think was as many as 10,000 ballots.
Its clear from this trial that wholesale fraud occured.
The problem is, that they can't prove that the fraud was for gregoire, even though it was obvious: Every time they recounted, the king county election workers "Found" a bunch of new gregoire ballots. Often many hundreds of them at a time.
This is a stolen election. Its a small picture of the election stealing that went on nationwide to get bush into office. (Does anyone really believe that all the counties in florida voted the exact opposite of their party affiliciations? EG: %70 democratic counties went exactly %70 republican, while %70 republican counties also went %70 republican?)
Election fraud is part of the strategy. IT is flagrant, it is proven many times, and it is ignored by the mainstream media. Since both parties engage in it, neither party wants to do anything about it.
And this means our democractic "checks and balances" is no longer effective (if it ever was.)
Yeah, and you guys panned the ipod too: http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/10/23
Wow....all you need to do is replace 'Gore' and 'Gov. G' with 'Bush' and 'Rossi' with 'Gore', and you have exactly what Dems were saying after the 2000 election.
Funny how being on the other side of the issue can change your tune, isn't it?
____
~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey
That didn't happen after Bush v. Gore, not even in Florida. I don't see why Washington should expect anything different.
Yes, Bush has fraudulently won two elections while Gregoire has fraudulently won one election.
"Democracy" is a joke, at least in this country.
Why isn't Bush working to bring democracy here? Oh, that's right, if we could oust him by simple vote we would, and did.
But Bush knows well the maxim attributed to Stalin: It doesn't matter who they vote for, it matters who counts the votes.
Yeah, and you guys panned the ipod too: http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/10/23
That's a good point-- both Repbulcians and Democrats have shown themselves to be irresponsible with money, and the only real difference is how they choose to damage the economy to do it.
That's why you should vote for another party! Oh, wait, it seems the republicans and democrats have made running a third party campaing effectively illegal with their "Election reform" laws.
No big surprise there.
Yeah, and you guys panned the ipod too: http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/10/23
When Chris gets reelected I will likely have forgotten you, and your silly boast. The Soviet of Washington will stay blue for a long time to come. A bunch of yokels in sparsely populated counties watching the roads for the vast armies of the UN come to bring clean water and condoms are not all that numerous. Remember most felonies are committed by Republicans. Stock Fraud, embellzement, bigamy etc. Smoking Pot is not a felony.
Sorry about the writing. Robot fingers, you know? Cliff Steele in DOOM PATROL #23
No, Rossi didn't go through the proper channels to the Legislature because it is predominately Democrat.
He picked his court venue based on the politics of the court, which leaned Republican.
The Republican judge in this case found against every point the Republicans brought up for their case, including the fraud charges.
Computer age or not, you're dealing with human processes, which can never be absolutely perfect. Even if the vote was 99.9% accurate, that still leaves 2,900 votes that may be wrongly counted.
Usually, this is no big deal since most of the time elections involve a blowout that does not end so close. This only became a problem because we're in that 0.1% margin of error.
No, Rossi tried everything he could to become governor, including the fraud that got his original cheating victory thrown out. When he originally won (by the skin of his cheating teeth), he blabbed all about how Gregoire should let him keep the office "for the good of the state", without all that "divisive" complaining. When the tables were turned, Rossi of course ignored all his own self-serving "advice", and the "good of the state", in favor of his attempts to try again in the courts himself. Then, when he got his day in court, he charged Gregoire's campaign with "fraud", but presented no evidence of fraud. Just evidence of the same kind of badly run election we've got all over the country, that usually favors the Republicans running their state election commissions.
You can try to spin this (repeated) Republican defeat in attempting to take office through a court. But it's obvious that Rossi was doing everything he could, even things he couldn't, to take the Governor's office, regardless of the merits, or the damage to Washington. Of course politicians do anything to win, but we don't have to like it.
Now that both sides have been hurt in their war over shoddy state election work, maybe there's a mutual interest in fixing the system. Continuing to fight the war after its over will only get in the way of that more important work.
--
make install -not war
mia culpa.
Sorry about the writing. Robot fingers, you know? Cliff Steele in DOOM PATROL #23
Your original point was that this was a voting machine issue, when clearly it was not.
Just give up now. You obviously have no idea what you're talking about.
Botox is now being taxed with a "sin tax" in the same way that cigarettes and liquor are. Last I knew, Tacoma was still trying to outlaw smoking in public establishments, as though it were a crime to smoke. (For the record, I stopped smoking 20 years ago and I hate it. But I don't have a "right" to go into a smoke-free bar. If they want my business then they have to provide me with a smoke-free environment.)
they need to start actually picking specific gov't services to cut, instead of just bellyaching about generalities.
I'm all over user fees. Want to drive on a new road then pay a toll. What sold me on the $30 tabs was that much of my car tab money was being diverted to other purposes, like public transportation and police/fire services. If you want the stuff then pay for it directly. I'd gladly pay $5/trip to get into and out of Seattle if I didn't have to sit in rush hour traffic.
Just borrow the money and let your grandkids pay! BushCo has shown us the way.
I totally agree. Being a conservative, I just don't understand this whole deficit spending logic of the current administration. But I hope you'll agree with me that the same holds true for the Social Security Trust Fund. Otherwise you're a hypocrite.
If you don't want crime to pay, let the government run it.
Actually, the judge was very skeptical about this. He basically said "I'll let you try to convince me, but the burden of proof is very high". I think that the judge did this only because he wanted to allow the Republicans the air time to make their case. We all know what would happen if we relied on stats to determine elections.
Since both parties engage in it, neither party wants to do anything about it.
So vote for a third party candidate then.
Since the ballots are secret...
So let's get rid of the secret ballot. I guess I've never understood why this is necessary.
it is proven many times
Proven by whom? It seems to me that even this judge said that hard evidence was not available.
manufactured ... votes
You have proof of this, or do you just suspect that this was the case?
For as much as I wanted to see Dino win, we have to abide by the law. If you don't think that it's working then do something about it other than complain.
If you don't want crime to pay, let the government run it.
The ballots are secret in order to prevent voter intimidation. This way i can't be pressured in to actually voting one way or another (though i can be pressured into public support) because those who seek to intimidate me do not really know how i voted.
Wow, it seems to me we need a verifiable vote, and more measures to ensure the accuracy of said vote.
As an independent, I welcome this change. Every Republican tactic suggests they do not. I wonder how many Red states there would be if/when the elections are fair. In fact, I wonder if the outcome of the last 2 PRESIDENTIAL elections would be the same. You think the reds in WA are pissed, I wonder if they are as pissed as every non-Republican in the country.
You wishing for a "fair" election reminds of the phrase "Be careful what you wish for, you might just get it."
I know this is not what you said - I wouldn't expect any Republican to wish for a fair election. It might reflect the true will of the people and illustrate just how out of touch you are. Then you would have to go through that whole wrestling with your world view being wrong, then justify changing to the new winning side. We know how Republicans hate to be wrong.
ymmv
It will take several things:
Valid voter verification:
Voter registration will have to have some kind of at-the-poll-verifiable biometric data. For example, to get a voter registration card, you will have to present either a picture ID, a fingerprint, or something else that you can bring with you to the polls. When you vote, your photo-id or fingerprint or whatever will be matched up to your voter-registration records, if they don't match, you get to vote provisionally. Anyone registering late or on election day will vote provisionally. If they could possibly swing the outcome of any race, provisional ballots will be verified at the least possible inconvenience to the voter, but in some cases, visiting the voter will be necessary. If all elections are certain before provisional ballots are cast, or the election is decided during such counting, the remaining ballots would remain uncounted but recorded as part of the voter turnout. Yup, your vote might not count.*
Valid Vote Verification
Electronic ballots must, of course, provide a human-readable printout that the voter can inspect. Paper ballots must be scanned at the time of voting and unreadable ballots rejected so the voter can redo the ballot. Valid ballots should also generate a human-readable printout the voter can inspect, in case of errors with the vote-counting machine.
*In states where the actual number or percentage of voters voting for losing candidates actually matters, all votes must be counted. For example, if a state says your Presidential Candidate must get 4% of the vote to get automatic ballot access, then all provisional ballots in that state must be counted until it is certain he does or does not have 4%.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
From the Seattle Times (emphasis mine): [Judge] Bridges said there was no evidence to suggest fraud, intentional misconduct or any attempt to manipulate the election. He said election officials "attempted to perform their responsibilities in a fair and impartial manner."
... clear and convincing evidence that improper conduct or irregularity procured Ms. Gregoire's election," the judge said.
Now please stop spreading your lies.
While he had stern words about how King County ran the election, Bridges said that even there, Republicans failed to show any intentional wrongdoing.
"While there is evidence of irregularities, as there appears to be in every election based on the testimony of various county election officials, there is no
I love how my comment is moderated as a troll, but the parent, which really IS a troll, isn't.
Yeah, and you guys panned the ipod too: http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/10/23
How about any or all of the following:
If you don't want crime to pay, let the government run it.
All of those suggestions are based on the assumption that the election is conducted in a valid manner, except the last one.
As for the last one, the fraud in our election system has been printed in newspapers and blogs across the country, and has been backed up with hard evidence regularly.
I'm complaining in the hope that some people will actually wake up and stop living in the fantasy land idea of what this country is that their government sells them.
As for me, I have retirement plans in place. The US will not be getting my tax dollars for too much longer.
I'm voting in the most effective way-- with my feet.
Yeah, and you guys panned the ipod too: http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/10/23
Neither republicans nor democrats want fair elections. Notice that all their campaign reform laws make it harder for third parties (Eg: you can't spend money unless you money comes from a major party, and you can't get major party status unless you won one of the previous elections, etc.)
I think as long as voting has been going on in this country, political parties have been trying to manipulate the system to concentrate power for themselves-- they've been very successful.
Another example of this is gerrymandering... both parties do it, and they do it ruthlessly.
What we need is for the americans to wake up and realize that our elections are nowhere near close to being fair, objective, or accurate.
Yeah, and you guys panned the ipod too: http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/10/23
Which is his right, by the way, underr the constitution.
The idea that the legislature is the only proper channel is false, and is not supported by the state's constitution.
If the courts didn't have authority to rule on matters of law, according to the constitution, then there would be no use for courts at all.
The constitution gives them this authority.
Yeah, and you guys panned the ipod too: http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/10/23
'One of the most famous pieces of Usenet trivia out there is "if you mention Hitler or Nazis in a post, you've automatically ended whatever discussion you were taking part in".'
As to saying I was denying the holocaust or some such drivel You must be a loon. You alluded to nazis not me. Neither do I nor does the FAQ defend them. And as far as I am concerned you invoked Godwin's law, and I see no reason to argue with an unbalanced mind. However I cannot let such an accusation go un-challenged. However will ignore you in the future.
as the author points out in;
'3. Author's Note on the Holocaust Over the years, I have received several emails regarding this FAQ regarding the Holocaust itself, either disputing the holocaust or the numbers listed in this FAQ. I'd just like to make it clear that I don't have any particular desire to debate these points; this FAQ is meant to point out and explain a quirk of human nature, not to codify the history of World War II. '
Sorry about the writing. Robot fingers, you know? Cliff Steele in DOOM PATROL #23
Wow, lots of firetossing here. I'll just reply to the first of many.
Dude, it was a joke.
Pulp Audio Weekly - Geek News and Reviews
You say you don't deny the holocaust, but you would say that a holocaust survivor talking abou the parallels between nazi germany and america is violating goodwins law, and is therefore a "loon".
Godwins law is based on the premise that it can't happen here. It is this kind of denial that lets it happen. What do you think the people who lived thru germany
Today, on Lew Rockwell.com I found the following:
Those were the magic words of the time: "Papiere Bitte. (Translation: "Papers, Please.") Hearing those words, even now, causes dull echoes of sounds akin to bodies hitting dirt, or bullets penetrating flesh to thud into my mind. Because, if those papers weren't correctly in order, or, if you were a Jew sneakily present in any place (including the grocery store) which displayed the usual "NO JEWS OR DOGS ALLOWED" sign, you were dead meat - literally. And, yes, of course I'm talking about my childhood as a little Jewish kid in Nazi Germany.
No one ever forgets stench. Whether it is a long-forgotten encounter with a ripe skunk, or a ripe egg, or a ripe decomposing body, once one of those odors has been brain-documented, then even the slightest tinge of such an aroma pops back up immediately, along with the circumstances under which it first offended the nostrils.
And, that's what's happening now. I smell the long-forgotten skunk, the long-forgotten rot of fascism. What is happening all around can no longer be denied. What I ran away from so desperately in 1938 is coming back full circle. Only the jack-boots have not yet arrived.
America quite literally saved my life. The love and gratitude deep in my heart for this country will never go away. But I'm scared now. Haunted by deep fear for the generations to come, who may wind up as I did - looking over their shoulders, scurrying for cover, mute with terror. And it hurts.
Think I'm some kind of elderly nut-job neurotically manufacturing dictatorship? Well, let's look at the 82 billion dollar defense bill passed just a few weeks ago, which (with a vote tally of 100 to 0) had the Real ID Act hidden inside it. This law allows a national identification process in which each and every person in the U.S.A. will be on computer.
This ID will be based on driver's license applications, although it isn't just for driving. Just like the infamous "Internal Passport" of Nazi Germany, no one will need it unless needing to fly, cash checks, apply for jobs, walk the streets, enter federal buildings - or drive. As stated in Time magazine on May 15, 2005, "If you are a wealthy recluse with liquid assets, it doesn't concern you." Everyone else better watch out! Well, maybe that wealthy recluse had better watch out also. After all, he/she might be of a forbidden religion, or of suspicious racial origin.
Legal "ID Theft" and legal "illegal surveillance"? The Real ID Act links driver's licenses of all states, creating a data base including the private details of every single U.S. citizen. It mandates that your driver's license share a common machine-readable digital photo of you, all the better to track your every movement. It hands the federal government unfunded mandate power to dictate what data all states must collect for license holders, including everything from fingerprints to retinal scans. And, if you don't drive, you'll still need to submit to the national ID card. How else, after all, will the cop who doesn't like the shape of your face, or the fact that you are (God Forbid) wearing a turban get to arrest you? Yes, "Papiere Bitte" has come home to roost.
And, folks, that's only the beginning. More technically sophisticated techniques will be implemented as they occur. If the Nazis had had electronic surveillance, phone bugging and all else that the Patriot Act not only condones but advises, there would have been an even tighter grip on the populace.
After all, the Patriot Act is modeled directly after Gestapo methods: Those 3:00 AM home intrusions - without warrant or reason for arrest - will get
Yeah, and you guys panned the ipod too: http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/10/23
I hope that you'll choose to stick it out for a while. There really are a lot of great people in this country. You'll only be losing out if you choose to leave.
If you don't want crime to pay, let the government run it.
Republican Dino Rossi decided last night to not appeal
Yes, but who decided to split the infinitive?
you can have my violent video games when you pry them from my cold, dead hands.
Prime UID Club
You are a nutball.
Sorry about the writing. Robot fingers, you know? Cliff Steele in DOOM PATROL #23
It's sad. America had a good run and I suppose it will happen here, mimicking Germany's history all too close. It is not a question of If it will happen anymore. It is a question of When.