Links - Politics

Hotlinking is BAD. It's theft. Nobody told John McCain apparently, as his campaign stole bandwidth from a webpage designer, who pranked McCain in response. In future, all politicians should hire an internet consultant who actually knows the internet.

I'd wondered why there wasn't a lawsuit... but I guess I didn't look far enough. Snohomish County and voting machine maker Sequoia are being sued for the inability to recount votes in a transparent way (as is required by state law), therefore effectively outsourcing elections to a private company. Among the data presented was the very close election between Rossi and Gregoire for Governor, which included a "statistical impossibility" that gave Rossi considerably more votes in Snohomish County.

You'd better hope you don't end up on the list.

Afraid of subpoenas, White House staff avoids using secure White House e-mail. Instead, they use non secured e-mail that puts sensitive data at risk. Yeah, really intelligent. They might as well just hand over all our state secrets to terrorists.

Political Links

Quote of the Day:

There's not a single person in America that should vote for me because Elizabeth has cancer. Not a one. If you're considering doing it, don't do it. Do not vote for us because you feel some sympathy or compassion for us. That would be an enormous mistake. The vote for the presidency is far too important for any of those things to influence it."

-- John Edwards, in a 60 Minutes interview.

Ok, this is just bizarre: Diebold sues Massachusetts because they chose a different software. Diebold claims that their software is obviously superior, so there must be wrongdoing in the selection process. That's pretty rich coming from Diebold.

Worst Army Recruiter Ever.

The Sandbox has an article about illiteracy in Afghanistan, and why that makes our mission there near impossible.

Crimes of State

"Traitors don't get to question my patriotism." Bill Maher goes on a rant about the traitors who keep claiming that liberals aren't patriotic.

Speaking of traitors, read the story of how traitors have made John Doe's life a living hell in My National Security Letter Gag Order. If such blatant abuse of the powers of government isn't treason, then what is?

Links

This story will make your blood boil. Sending a guy to jail because he's a victim of identity theft? ARGH! Our system is broken, and needs some fixing.

I'm never donating to the Salvation Army again, after reading this tale.

Million Dollar Homes being rented for $150 a month to low-income families.

Just in case it wasn't already obvious: DON'T BUY PILLS FROM ON-LINE PHARMACIES.

Republicans who hate the Troops and voted to send them back into war before they are combat ready and fully equipped.

The paradigm has shifted: bloggers go through thousands of pages of dumped documents within hours to find the nice juicy bits. You can't hide behind document dumps any more, not when people are willing to check everything you show them.

Elizabeth Edwards' Cancer is Back

John Edwards will continue to run for President.

Of course, if he were a Republican, like, say Newt Gingrich, he would divorce her. Good thing he isn't a hypocrite Republican.

Pet Peeve: "Sacrifice"

There's been a little discussion on whether the government is "wasting" the lives of our troops in Iraq, or "sacrificing" the lives of our troops in Iraq. I vote for "wasting", as the only people capable of sacrificing our troops are the troops themselves. The government can send them over there, commit them to missions good or bad, but it cannot sacrifice them.

The lives of the troops are not the government's to give. Only the soldiers themselves can make their lives a sacrifice. They do so, and for that we honor them, even when we find the mission they've been sent on is immoral or unjust.

It is the responsibility of the government to make the soldiers' sacrifice mean something. That the government has utterly failed to do so means that the government is wasting the lives, wasting the SACRIFICE, of our soldiers.

And that's yet another reason why anyone with half a brain hates Bush and his fellow traitors for starting the Iraq war and destroying so many lives in the process. Bush could have been the most popular president ever if he'd simply finished the job in Afghanistan, with the support of the entire world behind him, first. But abandoning the real war against terror in Afghanistan for his war of oil and war profiteering in Iraq has made him worse than the terrorists in many ways, and deserving of spending the rest of his miserable, murderous life in a tiny prison cell with padded walls so he cannot hurt anyone else.

Apple's Newest Product

This MadTV clip (YouTube) is a very interesting look at ... well... the iRack. If the clip is still up, go check it out. It's about four minutes long.

Scandals

Once more for the slow kids: Replacing U.S. Attorneys is normal at the beginning of a President's term. It's absolutely unheard of to do so in such numbers halfway through your second term in office.

Clinton didn't do it, nor did Reagan.

And thanks to the so-called "Patriot Act", the replacements for the fired U.S. Attorneys are being allowed in without Congressional hearings, also unheard of.

What's worse then firing a U.S. Attorney then lying about the reason? Replacing the fired guy with a criminal.

Walter Reed continues to scandal, with Boing Boing reporting about a vet blogging from the hospital. Can't tell if it's real or not.

Speaking of real or not, The Questionable Authority has been digging into some recent stories, and found one to be complete lies (thank goodness!) and isn't sure about the other. Although he admits that it hardly matters if the second one is true, because our military is stretched to the breaking point.

If You Aren't Outraged...

...you aren't paying attention. Latest Bush-connected crime:

Faulty Pumps Installed in New Orleans

Citing internal documents, The Associated Press reported Tuesday that the Corps installed the 34 pumps last year in a rush to fix the city's flood defenses, despite warnings from one of its experts that the machinery was defective and likely to fail in a storm.

At the same time, the Corps, the White House and state officials were telling residents that it was safe to come back to New Orleans, which was devastated in August 2005 when Hurricane Katrina breached the city's floodwalls.

...

The Corps and the politically connected manufacturer of the equipment, Moving Water Industries Corp. of Deerfield Beach, Fla., are still struggling to get the 34 pumps, designed and built under a $26.6 million contract, working properly.

...

MWI is owned by J. David Eller and his sons. Eller was once a business partner of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush in a venture called Bush-El that marketed MWI pumps. And Eller has donated about $128,000 to politicians, the vast majority of it to the Republican Party, since 1996, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

But then, that's the neocon way. Anything for a buck, anything to help out a crony, and if it kills people... oh well. Neocons don't give a flying fig about other people, they only worship the almighty dollar and themselves. And the conservatives of this country have been led by neocons for far too long. Long enough that the entire Republican party stinks of their corruption.

Another Linkdump

How U.S. Attorneys (used to) Get Appointed, a look into the politics of U.S. Attorneys and why the current crop of firings is so odd.

Speaking of the U.S. Attorneys firings, it brings the Washington State 2004 Governor election into the spotlight yet again, and yet again, there is no proof that fraud happened. In fact, the Republicans had a Republican leaning judge in a Republican area with a bunch of Republicans who looked over the facts and determined there was no fraud. Unless it was a case of Republican poll workers hiding ballots in King County in an attempt to make sure they weren't counted. Luckily, the ballots were found on the recount, so if they were hidden, the attempt to alter the election was foiled.

Paintball Recruiting. Hey, if they already have some fighting skills, they might as well attempt to recruit them.

Thugs vs Soldiers

Blackwater. Why is America hiring mercenary armies to go in and sully our good name and reputation?

Maybe because Shrubya's choice to fight an illegal war has stretched our military to the breaking point and destroyed what little faith we had left in our government?

Various Links

Saturday Political Cartoons.

Bloggers outreport Reporters on Libby Trial. "One blog puts more boots on the ground than any commercial news operation."

Death Before Dishonor.

Cat Flu?

Let's build in Flood Plains! Bush Administration proves again that it learns nothing from the past.

General Eaton: "Republican Congress worst thing that's happened to US Army and Marine Corps" Amazing how ignorant people continue to vote Republican in the mistaken belief that conservatives actually care about our troops. Conservative voters may care, but the neocon Republican party politicians care only about corporate profits.

Random Political Thoughts

Let me pipe in with me too. I've always considered marriage to be a personal contract between people. Government shouldn't be sticking its nose into private matters anyway. Let churches marry or not marry people as they please, and if government must have a hand in it, make them civil contracts that give the rights of "family" to people who ask for it... not marriage. Reserve marriage as a personal, or religious, or private matter. And get the government a little more out of our lives.

OUCH. Take a read on what firefighters think of Rudy Giuliani. I really don't think he's getting any firefighter support in his bid for president.

Health Care

A very strange comparison of private versus socialized health care. I've always been pro-universal health care, but right now, as I go day to day without any insurance, I'm even more for universal health care than I used to be.

Speaking of private health care, it turns out that Democrats unsuccessfully fought the privatization of Walter Reed. That same privatization that has led to substandard care for long-term patients.

Political Linkdump

Garrett wants us to remember what a jury REALLY is. As a juror, you have the right to judge both the criminal AND the law. It's called Jury Nullification, and judges don't want you to know about it.

You must know your rights! Because, once selected for jury duty, nobody will inform you of your power to judge both law and fact. In fact, the judge's instructions to the jury may be to the contrary. Another quote from US vs Dougherty (cited earlier): "The fact that there is widespread existence of the jury's prerogative, and approval of its existence as a necessary counter to case-hardened judges and arbitrary prosecutors, does not establish as an imperative that the jury must be informed by the judge of that power".

Confessions of an Army Torturer.

Reading Scriptures leads to Violence.

9-year-old Canadian Terrorist detained by the US.

U.S. attorneys fired, ethics rules violated. In other words, business as usual for the neo-cons.

IRAQ 101, for everyone who doesn't understand Iraq and what we've done by invading it.

Talking Points Memo on the language and reality of conservatives.

Sen James Inhofe is apparently proud to be called a Holocaust denier.

Diebold may dump e-voting unit because it's tarnished their reputation. Well, duh. Creating easily hackable voting machines with no paper trail would tarnish any company's reputation.

Heh, Funny ad.

What goes around, comes around

India is now outsourcing jobs to the United States!

The Heart of the Web is Halliburton

Crooks and Liars has the scoop on a new twist to the horrible conditions at Walter Reed. Once again, prominent in the crimes, is Cheney's good pals from Halliburton.

We, as a nation, need to demand an investigation into Halliburton, any former employee of Halliburton, and any spin-off company from Halliburton. They all need to be investigated for war profiteering. And if they are found guilty, they should be required to pay back EVERY SINGLE STOLEN CENT.

Link-a-dink

Olbermann on Gore's energy usage. Note that the conservative group that called attention to Gore's energy bills compared his home to a normal home, even though Gore's offices are there... in short, his house is also his workplace, but his critics couldn't seem to be bothered to mention that little fact. Nor do they mention all the renovations he's made and is continuing to make to become more carbon neutral. But then, conservative think tanks aren't known for their brains, just their bile.

Miami police don't like photographers. And, while I don't blame them being annoyed that they are having their pictures taken, abusing their power to arrest the guy is out of line.

Unqualified Offerings has some opinions on the Walter Reed scandal. The neo-cons do NOT believe in taking care of our troops, even though they are perfectly happy taking our troops into an illegal and immoral war and ignoring the REAL war on terror.

Washblog updates us on the firing of U.S. Attorneys by the neo-con leadership that's trying to put sympathetic scumbags into the courts instead of actual judges and people interested in justice. Now the neo-cons are lying about why they fired the judges, and slandering them in the process.

And Will has a good opinion on the whole subject of gay marriage. If it doesn't affect you, WHY DO YOU CARE?

John Edwards attacked in Second Life. Thats the danger of joining a chaotic virtual world.

And finally, a great little tale from a soldier.

Note To Dems

If you want to keep the illusion of being less corrupt than the Republicans, don't put a guy who hides $90,000 in dirty money in his freezer on the Homeland Security Committee.

Just a thought.