Hmmmm

Tenn. inmate released after 22 years on death row
By ROSE FRENCH Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Judge Orders Google to Turn Over YouTube Records
By MIGUEL HELFT
Published: July 4, 2008
SAN FRANCISCO — A federal judge in New York has ordered Google to turn over to Viacom a database linking users of YouTube, the Web’s largest video site by far, with every clip they have watched there...

Are you kidding me?

Well, I wonder how much trouble I'll get in for this one?

Hope the Judge doesn't own a Mercedes.

Painful laughter from a friend

My friend sent me this recently. But still, how sad is this anyway?


While I stood in line today at a supermarket check-out stand listening to the clerk at the register inform a woman with a baby on her hip that she was $1.62 short to meet the purchase price of a loaf of bread, George Bush signed off on $162 Billion to continue the War he started in Iraq and abandoned in Afghanistan... 1.62 and 162 billion are not that far apart. Just remove the decimal point and add nine zeros and you will be on target.The Constitution bars naturalized citizens from holding office as the President. It is silent on the subject of U.S. born morons.

Abhi

I didn't ask whether Abhi read this today:

How Ignorant Are We?
...
"About 1 in 4 Americans can name more than one of the five freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment (freedom of speech, religion, press, assembly and petition for redress of grievances.) But more than half of Americans can name at least two members of the fictional cartoon family, according to a survey.

"The study by the new McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum found that 22 percent of Americans could name all five Simpson family members, compared with just 1 in 1,000 people who could name all five First Amendment freedoms."...

I'm back

What that heck did I miss in a month? Oy.

grumble grumble grumble rassaa frasssaa, grrrrrrrr. Vista sucks. The POS 'puter I bought sucks. The only good news I have is that I heard on NPR that Vista sucks so badly that support will be available for winXP till 2014.

Yes, I know I shoulda bought a MAC. I also heard that more and more people are buying MACs and therefore the assholes who write malware will be more and more focused on MAC OS.

Gah. Be back soon.

Mixed feelings this AM.

First the funny stuff. Amita Sharma has a lovely voice with slight inflections that are interesting to try to figure out. This morning on the local NPR station I really don't know where she was emotionally, but I was laughing my ass off:

San Diego Wants Blackwater to Make Training Facility Wheelchair Accessible

I can't stand Bonfiglio, & I love Mike Aguirre AND his brother.

Still plugging along until the isp sends the right driver. Dayang I miss reading y'all, but this thing is just sooooo slow. Oy. Be back soon. Vista is a pain in the ass so far.

Not happy with the Supreme Court this morning either:

Court rejects death penalty for raping children

By MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 58 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court has struck down a Louisiana law that allows the execution of people convicted of a raping a child...

and

The Supreme Court on Wednesday also cut the $2.5 billion punitive damages award in the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster to $500 million.

and watch the Supreme Court be responsible for more dead cetaceans:


Supreme Court to decide Navy sonar appeal
Mon Jun 23, 2008 1:29pm

Seriously. Who does the Supreme Court protect in these cases? It ain't the whales.

that's it, decision made

Gonna buy a new 'puter. Not looking forward to it because I heard Vista sucks, but I'm too cheap to buy a Mac for me. Only para mi princesa. She got a promotion on her job, yeah!!!!! Yes, I AM the luckiest mom in the world.


And, well wouldja lookit here. Some GOOD news on this first day of summer!!!

abstinence only education loses funding

*sigh*

Still in limbo. Can't decide whether to buy a new computer or gamble on a new hard drive on the old one, the other one, not this one. The one I'm using right now is ten years old and has 256 MB of ram. In other words, slower than shit, which is why I'm going through liberal-blogger withdrawls (NPR radio just ain't cutting it, I miss y'all ALOT) and why I haven't posted anything, or visited anyone. Arrrrgh.
Anyhoo, Happy Father's Day and I'll be back soon.

Geeks? I'll be happy to send info (I actually kept the 'puter info the last time I bought one) if you're interested in helping me decide what to do.

The World Without Us

I'll let you know if I think it's a bad thing. So far, (5 CDs into the 10 CD audio-book) I'm rooting for nature to re-take and possibly heal this planet. Humans are pretty destructive critters and they have been for a few million years

connectin' the dots

Arabs shocked by Obama speech
Arab leaders have reacted with anger and disbelief to an intensely pro-Israeli speech delivered by Barack Obama, the US Democratic presumptive presidential nominee.

That is American politics. They're shocked? They're leaders?

Israeli Minister Sees Attacking Iran Unavoidable
Posted on Jun 6, 2008

Pentagon pushes out top Air Force civilian, officer
Gates: Leaders failed on nuclear mission
By Aamer Madhani | Washington Bureau

My opinion? Oh, thanks for asking. Good soldiers falling on their swords for a nasty, vicious, clueless, arrogant administration who, from all appearances are attempting to hasten Armageddon.

Blackwater opens San Diego training center

Blackwater supporter attempting to intimidate protesters in San Diego last year. He looks like an old school fat ass chief. The kind of brainwashed meathead that I love to hate. Stubborn, stupid, and vicious. Probably divorced, or with a third world mail-order bride who meekly does his bidding without questioning and has never been encouraged to become independent of his stupid fat ass. Wonder if he knew about a contract that had already been signed ?


Blackwater opens San Diego training center
By ALLISON HOFFMAN Associated Press Writer
SAN DIEGO (AP) - A new counterterrorism training facility operated by military security contractor Blackwater Worldwide echoed with the grunts of Navy sailors, a day after a federal judge ordered the city to let classes begin.

The 24 trainees batted and punched each other Thursday as they learned basic strike tactics in a corner of the 61,000-square-foot converted warehouse in an industrial area near the U.S.-Mexico border.

For the next three weeks, they'll practice shooting inside a 25-yard indoor firing range and learn to wear sidearms safely while wriggling through ship hatches and up narrow ladders installed in white metal cargo containers stacked along one wall of the building to simulate a ship. Trainers from Blackwater will quiz them on distinguishing small boats carrying cargo from those carrying bombs.

The company sued last month because city officials refused to issue final occupancy documents without a vote by the planning commission, after building inspectors had already signed off on the necessary permits. Blackwater said it faced a Navy contract deadline and accused the city of caving to political pressure.



The company has been targeted by anti-war activists and Rep. Bob Filner, D-Calif., who opposed its proposed training camp for law enforcement in a remote mountain community east of San Diego. That project was dropped after firing ranges failed to satisfy noise restrictions, but Filner and others have raised concerns that Blackwater is simply seeking a foothold near the border that could serve as a base for providing private migrant or drug interdiction services to federal agencies.

Blackwater insists the warehouse was built to provide the Navy's "ship reaction force basic" training course as part of a $400 million contract. The program is part of an initiative to train sailors in counterterrorist defense tactics after the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in a Yemeni port.

"This facility supports our oldest customer," said company Vice President Brian Bonfiglio, referring to the military.

Blackwater trains sailors from East Coast bases at its headquarters in Moyock, N.C., where it offers an advanced course using model ships floating in a private lake. It developed the California warehouse to offer the introductory program to sailors from San Diego, Guam, Japan and other Pacific bases.

Bonfiglio acknowledged that Blackwater would gladly host other agencies, including the Border Patrol or Coast Guard, at the warehouse, located in an unmarked building within sight of the border fence and the Tijuana airport control tower beyond.

"If we had a bunch of Border Patrol vehicles parked outside, they'd accuse us of trying to take over the border," he said, only half-joking. "But I'd open up our doors to any law enforcement that needed training, if I could do it."

The company has been expanding its domestic law enforcement training business, opening an 80-acre police training center in Mount Carroll, Ill., in 2007 to complement its 7,000-acre complex in North Carolina.

At the same time, Blackwater, the largest private security firm in Iraq, has come under increased scrutiny for its work abroad. Its guards are under investigation by a federal grand jury in Washington for their involvement in the shooting deaths of 17 Iraqi civilians. The company is also under investigation for possible weapons smuggling, allegations Blackwater denies.

Weapons smuggling? Like, you know, taking over Khashoggi's trade?

Democratic activist Raymond Lutz said those inquiries can't be ignored when it comes to Blackwater's domestic operations.

"To put training in the hands of private profiteers means that you're giving up your ability to oversee what they're doing and when you give it up you lose control," Lutz said. "Why doesn't the Navy train its own people?"

Bonfiglio said his five trainers offer students a depth of counterterrorism experience the Navy couldn't match without pulling its own experts from other duties.

"What we do overseas needs to be separated from what we do in the United States," he said. "Here we put all of our effort into developing training facilities that are unmatched."

The pride of the facility is the mock warship area, where shipping containers are outfitted with red lights to simulate an onboard emergency and speakers blare clanking background noise during exercises.

On Thursday, workers were reinforcing a maze of wooden walls appended to the cargo containers at the request of city inspectors, who are still reviewing Blackwater's application to use the simulated ship area under an amusement-park ride permit, Bonfiglio said.

City lawyers said the company misled inspectors by applying for permits piecemeal and under the names of affiliated companies instead of making a single application to open a training center with firearms. District Court Judge Marilyn Huff ruled Wednesday that the company did not need to seek special approval because the area is already zoned for vocational school use.

The city has not said whether it will appeal.
2008-06-06 09:00:13 GMT


What won't be on TV in San Diego tonight.

Does the Constitution Permit Government to Favor Religion over Nonreligion? Justice Scalia Says Yes

Thus, there is literally nothing in the Constitution’s text to support a distinction between monotheistic and other faiths, while there is strong textual support for the principle that government may not favor religion over nonreligion. That ought to be more than enough to commend the principle to Justice Scalia, who is a self-described textualist.


McCain Wins? We're McFucked
Main Category: Abortion
Article Date: 12 Feb 2008

The bureaucratic behemoth DoD and your tax dollars

Let's see how the fuckers are spending your money today.


Tomgram: William Astore, Militarizing Your Cyberspace
posted June 05, 2008 10:49 am

...it's now proposing a massive $30 billion cyberspace boondoggle, as retired Air Force Lt. Col. William Astore writes below, that will, theoretically, provide the Air Force with the ability to fry any computer on Earth...

Attention Geeks and HackersUncle Sam's Cyber Force Wants You!
By William J. Astore

... Part of the Air Force's new "above all" vision of full-spectrum dominance, America's emerging cyber force has control fantasies that would impress George Orwell. Working with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Department of Homeland Security, and other governmental agencies, the Air Force's stated goal is to gain access to, and control over, any and all networked computers, anywhere on Earth, at a proposed cost to you, the American taxpayer, of $30 billion over the first five years...


Judge allows Blackwater to open San Diego center
By ALLISON HOFFMAN – 15 hours ago

SAN DIEGO (AP) — A federal judge Wednesday ordered the city to allow military contractor Blackwater Worldwide to begin using a new counterterrorism training center in a warehouse outfitted with an indoor firing range.

District Judge Marilyn Huff ruled that the company would suffer irreparable harm if it could not begin holding classes there for Navy sailors.

Frankly, I'm wondering who this judge, or her husband is playing golf with? So tell me again how judges interpret the law to benefit the people they are paid to serve?

Oh. My. God

I am appalled by this woman. As an older white woman who did support Hillary, I can say with all honesty that I WILL vote for Obama. Bitch just clinched it for me.

The MoJo Interview: John Cusack

Interview: The former Lloyd Dobler banters with MoJo editor Clara Jeffery about his movie War, Inc., her inner 16-year-old, and what it's like to still be Gen X's favorite antihero heartthrob.

By Clara Jeffery

May 28, 2008


Hmmmm, ya think we'll ever get to see War Inc. in San Diego?

Bwaaaa Ha ha hahahahahah.

When Cusack was making his teeny-bop weirdo/hero movies I was working in the bowels of the already vast, overblown, overpaid military-industrial-complex. I wasn't overpaid, hell the outsourcing was outsourced. No security clearance. Shit jobs. Shit pay. No piss test needed. I was cute. Somebody would slide their card for me if I needed to go somewhere.

Now you don't get past the lobby without fingerprints, palm scans, eye scans, voice activation or some other nifty security measure. Not to mention the ubiquitous cameras.

Some shit never changes, though:

Indefensible Spending
Posted on Jun 1, 2008
The Joint Strike Fighter program is expected to cost taxpayers $300 billion. Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England, who penned an infamous Defense Department memo, is seen above hawking the plane.
By Robert Scheer
This Op-Ed was originally published in The Los Angeles

Compare and Contrast

From the ruins, Chinese begin to rebuild lives
6/2/2008
By Paul Wiseman, USA TODAY
...Reconstruction has started, even as the communist government attempts to feed and shelter about 5 million people left homeless by the massive disaster...

Earthquake relief lifts the foundering reputation of the ‘people’s premier’
June 02, 2008 Scotland's award-winning independent newspaper
...Western nations praised China for its fast and effective help to earthquake victims, and its willingness to accept international aid. China's efforts looked especially good compared with the slowness and secrecy after the devastating cyclone in neighbouring Burma.

Gordon Brown last week said the response of Wen and other Chinese leaders in Sichuan was "nothing short of magnificent". Some US commentators have also pointed out the relatively sluggish response of George W Bush to Hurricane Katrina in 2005....


FEMA’s Deadline to Close Trailer Parks Leaves Many Hopeless
By Anna Boyd
12:53, June 2nd 2008
...“I’m under more stress now than in the hurricane. They don't even do me the courtesy of responding. It's just, ‘When are you going to leave? When are you going to leave?’ They don't seem to care where we end up,” Ghulam Nasim, 79, a retired doctor who packed his things, but remained in his trailer said, according to the LA Times. And like him are many other residents who lack alternatives....

Why oil costs over $120 per barrel

Posted by Euan Mearns on May 29, 2008 - 9:29am in The Oil Drum: Europe
Topic: Economics/Finance
Tags: cera, declines, demand, energy density, iea, mega projects, net energy, oil prices, opec, peak exports, peter jackson, spare capacity, supply [list all tags]

Long article. If you don't want to read it, the tags should be a hint.

Dem lawyers: Fla., Mich. can't be fully restored

Background information for people like me who look at this whole thing and wonder wtf? How did this thing get so fucked up?

The 2008 Florida Democratic presidential primary took place on January 29, 2008.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The 2008 Michigan Democratic primary took place on January 15, 2008
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

And what's up now?

11:55 AM 5/28/2008 Primaries Florida Voter's Lawsuit Dismissed
By Krissah Williams

(Oy, dis is Democracy?)

Dem lawyers: Fla., Mich. can't be fully restored
Wednesday, May 28, 2008 (Or click on title link)
By NEDRA PICKLER Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - A Democratic Party rules committee has the authority to seat some delegates from Michigan and Florida but not fully restore the two states as Hillary Rodham Clinton wants, according to party lawyers.

Democratic National Committee rules require that the two states lose at least half of their convention delegates for holding elections too early, the party's legal experts wrote in a 38-page memo.


...The DNC staff analysis argues that the Rules and Bylaws Committee was fully within its rights to strip all 368 delegates from the two states when they scheduled primaries in January. Party rules said their nominating contests could be no earlier than Feb. 5. Michigan voted on Jan. 15, Florida on Jan. 29.

The analysis also said there is an option to restore 100 percent of the delegates - by a recommendation of the Credentials Committee that meets later this summer. However, that would mean a final decision would not be made until the first day of the convention in Denver since Credentials Committee decisions have to be approved by the full convention as it convenes - risking a floor fight...


...Florida was supposed to get 211 delegate votes at the Aug. 25-28 convention in Denver, but the DNC says it won't settle seating the Florida delegation until its Credentials Committee meeting in Washington D.C. on May 31....

'This is childish," says a delegate.

270 to win Interactive map site with historical information about Presidential elections.

Tomgram: Frida Berrigan, The Pentagon Takes Over

posted May 27, 2008 09:19 am

This is part of what I was trying to point out when I said the other day that "I've had it with the people who seem to think that Obama is some sort of fucking messiah."

...The Pentagon's massive bulk-up these last seven years will not be easily unbuilt, no matter who dons the presidential mantle on January 19, 2009. "The Pentagon" is now so much more than a five-sided building across the Potomac from Washington or even the seat of the Department of Defense. In many ways, it defies description or labeling...

And I will repeat that it's just not the damn neocon Bushtards. This shit has been going on since Truman (who had a hell of a time trying to control the military, by the way, and the scientists who made that damn atomic bomb never got to tell him they didn't want the fucking thing used) and this country has always had a sickening love affair with militarism. Did anybody have the heart to tell the troops that the people who are making beau coups bucks on this war don't give a shit whether they get the medical/psychiatric care that they need? That the beau coups buckaroos don't give a shit whether they get job training? Well, they probably know that already, they joined the military to get job training.

How Birthrate Is Turning Modern Conventional Warfare on Its Head

By Gary Brecher, Taki's Magazine. Posted May 26, 2008.

A bizarre new trend is emerging: traditional armed conquests are increasingly less effective, and countries with high birthrates have the edge.

I loved this article. I always thought that the goal of religious leaders was to outbreed the competition. Well, now what? With religious leaders still pushing the sheeple to go forth and breed on a shrinking, changing planet, doesn't that mean that the people involved in resource conflicts will use religion to justify their superiority and rights to said resources?

Yep.

Sick of Hillary vs Obama

This is bullshit:

Remark About RFK Keeps Clinton on the Defensive
Her Aides Say Obama Campaign Has Exploited Statement
By Anne E. Kornblut
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, May 26, 2008; Page A04

I've about had it with the Hillary Haters--- RFK Jr. ain't that pissed off about what she said.

AND I've had it with the people who seem to think that Obama is some sort of fucking messiah. They make me want to shake them while screaming, "Hey!, Snap out of it, he's NOT going to be able to clean up the mess in four years that the M-I-C made over a sixty year period!" He's got important things to deal with. Like...

Oil: A global crisis
The Iraq War means oil costs three times more than it should, says a leading expert. How are our lives going to change as we struggle to cope with the $200 barrel? Geoffrey Lean reports
Sunday, 25 May 2008

Obama is not a miracle worker. He's walking into a big fat shit storm. Kunstler gives us some history that goes back way before even the M-I-C started consuming oil.

Chalmers Johnson talks about bases and oil and gas.

Charlie Wilson's War (the movie)

Charlie Wilson's War.

I liked it. They seem to like it over at Rotten Tomatoes. Strange that my husband decided to rent it the morning I picked up Nemesis to re-read parts of it. Six straight pages are indexed under Charlie Wilson in Chalmers Johnson's book. I'm interested in what is underneath the movie, so I'm watching the author of the book, George Crile speak here (archived, recorded on Thursday, October 6th, 2005). I haven't read the book. I was reminded of this article as I watched the movie, though.

Doubt Is Their Product, Public Health Be Damned

Exposé on the Journal: Chemicals In Our Food

May 23, 2008

Religion sucks #13 FLDS version

Larry King interviews some of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints mothers (FLDS Church)

(the wives are told to "keep sweet" and silent)

Yearning for Zion mother's letter to Preznit "Iz our childrens learning?" (pdf) (very dramatic)

Texas officials appeal FLDS ruling to state Supreme Court
By Brooke Adams
The Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated: 05/23/2008 12:19:06 PM MDT

Sect parents cheer court ruling, await next step
By MICHELLE ROBERTS Associated Press Writer
..."Evidence that children raised in this particular environment may someday have their physical health and safety threatened is not evidence that the danger is imminent enough to warrant invoking the extreme measure of immediate removal," the court said...

...Of the 31 people the state initially said were underage mothers, at least 15 were reclassified as adults before the hearings were suspended...

Texas Age of Consent Laws

April 10, 2008, 10:13AM
CPS challenge is to win trust, find truth, expert says
Sect youths conditioned to deceive outsiders

A brief history of the polygamists in Colorado City, Arizona and Hildale, Utah

Forbidden Fruit
Inbreeding among polygamists along the Arizona-Utah border is producing a caste of severely retarded and deformed children
By John Dougherty
Published on December 29, 2005

Texas Town Wary of Polygamist Sect's Arrival
by Wade Goodwyn
May 3, 2005
Polygamists on Utah-Arizona Border Under Scrutiny

Prophet of the FLDS
The FLDS WAS led by Warren Jeffs, who succeeded his father as prophet in 2002. Jeffs was said to keep a tight grip on the polygamous community, using wives as rewards for loyalty among followers.
Southern Poverty Law Center
Tempest in Texas
Racist cult 'prophet' Warren Jeffs is on the move, and a tiny West Texas town fears another Waco
By Susy Buchanan --Intelligence Report -- Spring 2005

CBC's "Bust up in Bountiful."

The lost boys of Colorado City
Jul. 06, 2006
Over the past five years, a fundamentalist Mormon "prophet" has banished as many as 400 boys from his Arizona town. Now the teens, once forbidden to even watch a movie, are adrift in a world of drugs, girls and depression.
By Kimberly Sevcik

(On average, Krakauer told Texas lawmakers, FLDS women have between eight and 15 children each. And celestial wives, whose marriages are not recognized by law, are encouraged to "bleed the beast" by applying for food stamps and other welfare subsidies.) "This is the kind of stuff that, as the chief law enforcement officer in the state of Utah, keeps me up at night," Shurtleff said.

Mon May 5, 4:00 AM ET "The FLDS was relying on a lot of state funds for sustenance – welfare funds as well as money from the school district, which they dominated," says Ira Ellman, an expert on family law at Arizona State University's Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law in Tempe. "The state took over the school system and, in effect, took a lot of their income away."

Oh no, you say they work? That's how they can afford to squirt out all those brats?


Pentagon funds aid polygamous sect
Posted on Sunday, April 13, 2008 9:34 PM PT
By Tim Sandler, NBC News Investigative Unit


The company was awarded $1.2 million in no-bid defense contracts, U.S. Rep. Kay Granger said in a recent letter to HASC leaders.


Texas hearings: Few answers for FLDS parents
By Brooke Adams
The Salt Lake Tribune
Article Last Updated: 05/20/2008 07:06:21 AM MDT
...The plans require parents to complete counseling, psychological evaluations, parenting classes and educational assessments; to document their marriages, children's births, living arrangements and income; and to obtain vocational training or education to become financially self-sufficient by next April...

Why Texas Authorities Deserve Credit for Good Judgment—and the ACLU for Bad

You have to give the Texas authorities credit for putting the interests of the children first. In contrast, Utah and the FBI have focused on one man at a time, an approach that appears to have done next to nothing to stop the entrenched cycle of abuse within the system. In contrast, the authorities in Arizona, Utah, and South Dakota, where other FLDS compounds are situated, have made it very clear that they would never follow the Texas authorities' lead of taking all of the children away from obvious danger.

And yes, I am aware of the fact that the taxpayers could support a half-dozen of these compounds, with seriously disabled children and not come close to what we are borrowing for this stupid war. For me, this post was about the kid's rights. If nothing else good comes from this raid, hopefully those kids will get a glimpse of life outside their compound and hopefully they will know that not everyone outside their ranch is evil.

Carolyn Jessop - Escaping from the FLDS

May 20, 2008, 5:08PM
State starts digging for money needed for costs of FLDS raid
By APRIL CASTRO Associated Press Writer
© 2008 The Associated Pres

...The initial raid cost an estimated $5.3 million, mostly in travel to the isolated Schleicher County ranch and employee overtime during the weeklong raid and search of the Yearning For Zion ranch last month. The state also paid for buses, building and equipment rental and fuel...

An incredibly expensive lesson.

TV tonight

I don't have cable, but if I did, I would watch Recount on HBO.
I'll be watching NOW and Bill Moyer's Journal.

Week of 5.23.08
PBS NOW
Rape in the Military

May 23, 2008
Bisphenol A

Jeffrey Toobin on The US Supreme Court

May 23, 2008

Legal affairs journalist Jeffrey Toobin joins Bill Moyers on the JOURNAL to discuss how our next president might shape the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court, Toobin explains, is not separate from politics as popular imagination supposes.

Resources for Veterans

(click on pic)

Black Box Voting

Distribute. Reprint. Digg. Spread. Blog.

The upcoming Black Box Voting 2008 Tool Kit ( - http://www.blackboxvoting.org/toolkit.html - ) contains innovative strategies to put real muscle into election protection. This e-mail contains a preview in the area of deterrents. We know we can't make elections perfect, but we CAN work on doing ENOUGH! So here's a place to start.

I think we're all sick to death of the "Oops Excuse." You know what I mean: Robo calls that pretend not to know they just told people something misleading, oops. Ballot accounting forms that don't add up, oops. Voting machine keys that don't get put in the bag, causing polls to open late, oops. Not enough machines allocated to certain precincts, oops, misleading translation on the ballot, oops, voting cartridges delivered late, oops, memory cards that cause machines to be serviced mid-election, oops, reported the wrong vote number, oops...

* * * NO MORE OOPS * * *

I want to talk about why it's so important to reduce the opportunity to Just Say Oops, and how we can deter the Oops, but first, here are examples of Oops Excuses just ready and waiting. These happened on Tuesday this week in Oregon:
This is being discussed HERE: http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/1954/74040.html

IMPOSSIBLE AND IMPROPER NUMBERS FROM OREGON'S MULTNOMAH, POLK, AND YAMHILL COUNTIES

- Results reported before they exist.
- Results reported before the polls close.

A rather wonderful voting rights citizen volunteer named John Howard went to the results reports posted by Multnomah County at this Web site Wednesday night and was surprised to see that results posted on Wed. May 21 at 4:28 pm time and date-stamped on 3:53 pm May 22, which happens to be Thursday!
http://www.mcelections.org/2008-05/results.shtml

Look at these pictures to see what I mean:
http://www.bbvdocs.org/OR/multnomah/May08-impossible1.jpg
http://www.bbvdocs.org/OR/multnomah/May08-impossible2.jpg

Check out the time the results were uploaded. Then look at the time and date stamp on the results: The report was "run" nearly 20 hours LATER than it was posted!

NOT A BIG DEAL? "OOPS?"

Now, don't run out and headline that I'm calling this fraud, because I am not. What I AM calling it is incorrect and improper and unacceptable and in the case of the Yamhill and Polk county results I'm about to tell you about, probably illegal.

Elections, like bookkeeping and your bank statement, are all about numbers. The books have to balance. And in elections, times and dates are all-important. After all, if the report could be produced a DAY ahead of time, why not a MONTH ahead? If the computer clocks (oops) aren't reading out the right day, that opens doors to mail-in ballot-counting fraud that may be simply too scrumptious to resist.

What happened in Multnomah County suggests that the reports from the system are able to be set to whatever time the operator desires and/or that someone deliberately reset the clock on the system to a time in the future. Think about it this way: If your company bids on a tendered construction project in Multnomah County, and bids are advertised to close at a specific time, are you allowed to "bend the clock"? No, and if you try that you'll likely be charged with attempting to rig the bid. If you are successful in coercing a County employee into falsely dating and time stamping your documents, that employee would likely be fired for dishonesty and charged with falsifying documents. This is a presidential election we're talking about - at the very least, it's as important as a procurement bid.

POSTING COUNTY-WIDE RESULTS BEFORE THE POLLS CLOSE:

Polk County and Yamhill County, Oregon posted results on the Internet BEFORE the polls closed, at 7:31 and 7:41 pm, respectively. The polls didn't close until 8 pm.

(BUT REALLY. ARE A FEW OOPSIES SUCH A BIG DEAL?)

Oopsies enable unfair election practices and can be enablers and cover-ups for fraud.  It's like this: Do you close the gate so the child doesn't get near the street, or -- oops! -- leave it open -- oops! left it open again -- no big deal, all I did was leave a gate open, it's not like he got killed or anything.

Our collective refusal to accept the Oops Excuse is a method to keep more gates closed to prevent certain types of fraud -- ie, the plausible deniability kind -- from escaping.

We should also look at these Election Oops excuses through a real world lens.  For example:

If you write 29 checks but your bank statement says there were 27, does that feel "safe enough" to you?

What if you get a bank statement dated a month in the future with a reported balance? (With ballots, of course, the public really can't check to see whether the reported results are true or false.)

Many election officials are county AUDITORS and CLERKS. These professionals are collecting license fees, and overseeing bookkeeping and financial transactions that (even in small counties) amount to millions of dollars. Somehow I think if they showed up with $28,000 missing from the public bank balance, the media wouldn't accept "Oops" as readily as it accepts missing and mismatched and impossible election numbers.

ARE WE BEING TOO TOUGH ON ELECTION OFFICIALS? Let's look at the accountability expected of others:

- The teenager working at the mall has to balance the till at the end of the day.
- Chuck E. Cheese pizza parlor employees have to correctly account for the tickets.
- McDonald's employees have to match cash to receipts.

In fact, anyone who's worked in a bar or a supermarket or any kind of retail setting knows that you can't just say "oops" when the cash in your till doesn't match the receipts. You don't get to change the time stamps on things and you aren't allowed to open and close at the wrong times.

If we can require accountability from teenagers and minimum wage workers, perhaps it's time we start requiring our election officials to report only votes that actually exist at the time and date the computer assigns to the report, MAKE SURE THE NUMBERS BALANCE, and pay attention to the clock to make sure we don't post results until the polls close.

No More Oops.

Watch for the 2008 Tool Kit for ways to invoke consequences -- and ultimately DETER -- the next crop of Oops Excuses.

* * * * *

Black Box Voting is a national nonpartisan, nonprofit elections watchdog group working to improve public controls in our elections. More:  http://www.BlackBoxVoting.org

Bev Harris
Founder - Black Box Voting

Please help us print the Tool Kits...we are planning to distribute 10,000 of these Pocket Election Protection Guides FREE, in addition to making them available for download on the Internet. I got a great price, but the print run will still cost a bundle, as will shipping and mailing them to the college students, retired folks, computer guys, accountants, writers, and information collectors we have in mind. Would you like us to send you one? Let us know, and while you're doing that, remember that we are supported entirely through small citizen donations. If not now, when?

TO DONATE: http://www.blackboxvoting.org/donate.html
to mail:
Black Box Voting
330 SW 43rd St Suite K
PMB 547
Renton WA 98057

Because I need it 'splained to me one more time, OK?

My friend who actually had to study how our government works to become a citizen, must think that I'm dain bramaged. Doofy me, born a citizen, spent a whole lot of my life apolitical, unregistered to vote and oblivious to the process. Oh well, live and learn. I raised an awesome human being, whaddaya want?

Clinton to the Convention?
Posted May 22, 2008 | 11:53 AM (EST)
Rachel Maddow, Superdelegates, Politics News


Press Declares Victory, Even If Obama Won’t
What, exactly, happened in Iowa last night?
Columbia Journalism Review
By Clint Hendler Wed 21 May 2008 10:24 AM

On Sunday, The New York Times, published a piece entitled “Obama to Return to Iowa, Possibly to Declare Victory.” It reported that at the just-announced event, Obama “could end up with enough pledged delegates to proclaim, without fear of contradiction, that he is now the Democratic nominee for president.”

The Progressive Crises: Global Warming and Peak Oil

Posted May 19, 2008 | 09:36 AM (EST)


Supply concern puts oil above $130 for first time
By PABLO GORONDI Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
...Oil futures are now selling for about twice what they were just a year ago. Prices have been propelled by a number of factors, including worries about insufficient supply, soaring global demand and a sliding dollar that has made oil cheaper for some buyers overseas. Speculative buying has also helped push prices higher, analysts say....


Peak Oil - Whom to Believe?
Part 1 - There's Plenty of Oil, CERAiously
Nate Hagens on May 21, 2008 - 10:14am
Topic: Supply/Production

(*Note: this post/series originally ran in March, 2007 but is a good introduction/refresher to Peak Oil issues--if you're new to this, read this piece and/or Gail's Peak Oil Overview in the top menu bar)

Update: Gotta love Senator Leahy grilling the Oil Execs today.

"10 Percent Intellectual": The Mind of Condoleezza Rice

The Weekly Spin, May 21, 2008
Blog Postings
by John H. Brown

Here's why I think that (America-centric) political scientists who have been insulated inside institutions of higher learning and business leaders should NOT be running (American) foreign policy:

...in 1981, Rice received her Ph.D. Her dissertation was published in 1984 by Princeton University Press under the title, Uncertain Allegiance: The Soviet Union and the Czechoslovak Army, 1948-1963. While the book saw the light of day thanks to a prestigious institution of higher learning, it is rather striking for the current irrelevance of its subject matter. (Neither the Soviet Union nor Czechoslovak army exists today, although nothing in Rice's study anticipated that this would be the case.) It is also full of hollow "poli-sci" prose, as illustrated by this passage from its conclusion:

Examination of the impact of power asymmetries on the development of the nature of domestic institutions may ultimately help us to understand the concepts of power and influence themselves.

The examination of Czechoslovak party-military relations along both dimensions shows quite clearly why models developed in the study of other communist states are inadequate to explain this case. The Czechoslovak party-military apparatus, which closely resembles that of the Soviet Union, does not produce the same pattern of interaction....(click on title link above)

Condoleezza Rice
(assorted biography links)
Condoleezza Rice is the 66th and current United States Secretary of State, and the second in the administration of President George W. Bush; (born November 14 1954).


World Leaders Urge Condoleezza Rice To Take NFL Commissioner's Job
March 23, 2006 -- The Onion

Update:
Blue Girl, Red State has more on Condi

Endgame: Bush & Cheney's desperate measures

hat tip Scoobie Davis

Part 1
Mark Crispin Miller


Part II



More Democratic ballots cast in Feb '08 Primary than Republican in San Diego County


They can't cheat if we are voting, observing and holding them accountable.

Behind The Rise In Prices: A Plan To Torpedo The Dollar

by Danny Schechter

This Is What Happened To Our Land, Not “NoamChomskyLand.”

New York, May 19: Who do you think was one of the Bush Administration’s key players on the economy?

...“The financial crisis that we now face was created by design. It is intended to destroy the labor movement, crush the middle class, quash Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, reduce our foreign debt by 50 or 60%, force a restructuring of America’s debt, privatize all public assets and resources, and create a new regime of austerity measures which will divert more wealth to the banking and corporate establishment.”...

(“NoamChomskyLand?” Uh, yeah, Bobo spew)
I wonder if Bobo honestly believes that H.W. Bush in his foreign relations prime could possibly clean up the mess his idiot son made? Not that any of the Bush family really cares about anything but their own war profiteering. It's part of their history.