It is important to note that the question "Will an election be thrown by computer errors/hacks?" is really no longer necessary.

Unfortunately the question that really needs to be asked is "How many elections have been changed because of computer errors/hacks?"

Rolling Stone : Robert F. Kennedy Jr. -- Will The Next Election Be Hacked?

Studies have demonstrated that hackers can easily rig the technology to fix an election - and across the country this year, faulty equipment and lax security have repeatedly undermined election primaries. In Tarrant County, Texas, electronic machines counted some ballots as many as six times, recording 100,000 more votes than were actually cast. In San Diego, poll workers took machines home for unsupervised "sleepovers" before the vote, leaving the equipment vulnerable to tampering. And in Ohio - where, as I recently reported in "Was the 2004 Election Stolen?" [RS 1002], dirty tricks may have cost John Kerry the presidency - a government report uncovered large and unexplained discrepancies in vote totals recorded by machines in Cuyahoga County.
...
"Every board of election has staff members with the technological ability to fix an election," Ion Sancho, an election supervisor in Leon County, Florida, told me. "Even one corrupt staffer can throw an election. Without paper records, it could happen under my nose and there is no way I'd ever find out about it. With a few key people in the right places, it would be possible to throw a presidential election."
...
The company [Diebold] had barely completed its acquisition of Global Election Systems, a voting-machine firm that owned the technology Diebold was promising to sell Georgia. And its bid was the highest among nine competing vendors. Whispers within the company hinted that a fix was in.

"The Diebold executives had a news conference planned on the day of the award," Hood recalls, "and we were instructed to stay in our hotel rooms until just hours before the announcement. They didn't want the competitors to know and possibly file a protest" about the lack of a fair bidding process. It certainly didn't hurt that Diebold had political clout: Cox's predecessor as secretary of state, Lewis Massey, was now a lobbyist for the company.
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In late July, to speed deployment of the new machines, Cox quietly signed an agreement with Diebold that effectively privatized Georgia's entire electoral system. The company was authorized to put together ballots, program machines and train poll workers across the state - all without any official supervision. "We ran the election," says Hood. "We had 356 people that Diebold brought into the state. Diebold opened and closed the polls and tabulated the votes. Diebold convinced Cox that it would be best if the company ran everything due to the time constraints, and in the interest of a trouble-free election, she let us do it."

Then, one muggy day in mid-August, Hood was surprised to see the president of Diebold's election unit, Bob Urosevich, arrive in Georgia from his headquarters in Texas. With the primaries looming, Urosevich was personally distributing a "patch," a little piece of software designed to correct glitches in the computer program. "We were told that it was intended to fix the clock in the system, which it didn't do," Hood says.
...
Georgia law mandates that any change made in voting machines be certified by the state. But thanks to Cox's agreement with Diebold, the company was essentially allowed to certify itself. "It was an unauthorized patch, and they were trying to keep it secret from the state," Hood told me. "We were told not to talk to county personnel about it. I received instructions directly from Urosevich. It was very unusual that a president of the company would give an order like that and be involved at that level."

According to Hood, Diebold employees altered software in some 5,000 machines in DeKalb and Fulton counties - the state's largest Democratic strongholds.
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It is impossible to know whether the machines were rigged to alter the election in Georgia: Diebold's machines provided no paper trail, making a recount impossible. But the tally in Georgia that November surprised even the most seasoned political observers. Six days before the vote, polls showed Sen. Max Cleland, a decorated war veteran and Democratic incumbent, leading his Republican opponent Saxby Chambliss - darling of the Christian Coalition - by five percentage points. In the governor's race, Democrat Roy Barnes was running a decisive eleven points ahead of Republican Sonny Perdue. But on Election Day, Chambliss won with fifty-three percent of the vote, and Perdue won with fifty-one percent.

Please read the whole article (it is big - but worth your time.


The Diebold Variations (c)2004-06 Rand Careaga/salamander.eps
After using these Diebold posters for at least a year I finally tracked down where the came from, so do check out the excellent selection of Diebold posters at: Diebold Variations.

- rob 6:08 PM - [PermaLink] -

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How do you use the power given to you by the citizen's of America?

How do you make sure their hard earned tax dollars are used to provide for the common defense, promote the general wealfare and ensure the blessings of liberty?

You make sure that the rich friends of the ruling party can bilk the government for millions.

Suits Say U.S. Impeded Audits for Oil Leases

WASHINGTON, Sept. 20 — Four government auditors who monitor leases for oil and gas on federal property say the Interior Department suppressed their efforts to recover millions of dollars from companies they said were cheating the government.

The accusations, many of them in four lawsuits that were unsealed last week by federal judges in Oklahoma, represent a rare rebellion by government investigators against their own agency.

The auditors contend that they were blocked by their bosses from pursuing more than $30 million in fraudulent underpayments of royalties for oil produced in publicly owned waters in the Gulf of Mexico.

- rob 4:38 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Abramoff's pals and the White House - all one big happy.

Papers show Bush allies' inside access

WASHINGTON - Republican activists Grover Norquist and Ralph Reed landed more than 100 meetings inside the Bush White House, according to documents released Wednesday that provide the first official accounting of the access and influence the two presidential allies have enjoyed.
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Earlier this month, the White House suggested to the judge in that lawsuit that such records need not be disclosed because the information was privileged and might reveal how Bush and his staff get private advice, according to court documents obtained by The Associated Press.

Yes it has indeed revealed how Bush and his staff get private advice - they get it from the mouths of crooked lobbyists who know a good shakedown.

- rob 4:33 PM - [PermaLink] -

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People who make money by charging insanely high rates on military families who are already financially stressed (and let's not forget the fact that many of them are experiencing the even more real stress of being shot at) are slimy little loan sharks. Creepy Congressmen who support the slimy little loan sharks should be headed for electorial defeat.

Putting campaign contributors above the troops.

These are America's troops. And we should support them - even if we don't support the war.

Conservative Congressman Blocking Crackdown on Predatory Lenders Targeting U.S. Troops

A Pentagon report last month found that as many one in five U.S. service members “are being preyed on by loan centers set up near military bases” that can charge interest of 400 percent or more. Increasingly, soldiers have debt levels so high they are barred from serving overseas; others suffer from “bankruptcies, divorces and ruined careers.”

So pretty much everyone of every party supports an amendment that places a 36 percent cap on such loans.

But one conservative congressman, Rep. Geoff Davis (R-KY), is trying to gut the amendment. Davis has proposed his own language — praised by the payday lending industry — that sets no real limits on predatory lenders. One of Davis’s aides admitted last week that he consulted on the legislation with “CNG Financial of Mason, Ohio, one of his top campaign donors and owner of national payday lender Check ‘n Go.”

- rob 4:30 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Al's NYU Speech from earlier this week:

Al Gore's Policy Address on Solving the Climate Crisis

- rob 4:23 PM - [PermaLink] -

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They say the next big thing is here,
that the revolution's near,
but to me it seems quite clear
that it's all just a little bit of history repeating
- History Repeating (Propellerheads)

Here we see the conficit of two other wise fine adages:

Those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it

vs.

If at first you don't succeed, try try again.

Pentagon Iran Office Mimics Former Iraq Office

The Pentagon has created a new desk to work on Iran policy. That worries some at the CIA, who point out that many of the new Iran-desk staffers are the same people who staffed the now-notorious Office of Special Plans in the run-up to the Iraq war.

Yes, it is scary:

Senior intel official: Pentagon moves to second-stage planning for Iran strike option

The official, who is close to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the highest ranking officials of each branch of the US military, says the Chiefs have started what is called "branches and sequels" contingency planning.

"The JCS has accepted the inevitable," the intelligence official said, "and is engaged in serious contingency planning to deal with the worst case scenarios that the intelligence community has been painting."

A second military official, although unfamiliar with these latest scenarios, said there is a difference between contingency planning -- which he described as "what if, then what" planning -- and "branches and sequels," which takes place after an initial plan has been decided upon.

- rob 4:18 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Remember the day when such obvious rank corruption would be big news.

Yeah I know - seems like a century ago.

Think Progress - EXCLUSIVE: Agency Report Shows Secretary Personally Blocked Contracts To Democrats

In April, Housing Secretary Alphonso Jackson told a group of real estate officials that he once canceled a government contract because the contractor was critical of President Bush. Awarding contracts based on political leanings “violates federal law.” Jackson is a “longtime Bush friend” and former neighbor in Dallas, Texas.

The Inspector General for the Department of Housing and Urban Development has conducted a detailed investigation and produced a 340-page report detailing his findings. The agency has given a copy to Jackson, but refused to release the report to the public.

Think Progress has some quotes from the executive summary - like

*JACKSON had advised senior staff, to the effect, that when considering discretionary contracts, they should be considering supporters of the President,

*Secretary JACKSON’s Chief of Staff also identified other instances of Secretary JACKSON intervening with contractors whom he did not like. Reviews of political contributions indicated these contractors had Democratic political affiliations.“

- rob 3:57 PM - [PermaLink] -

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You better not surf
You better not click
you better not comment
or search the word dick

AG Gonzales is coming to down

He knows what sites you've been seeing
The logs note that you were awake
He knows if the sites are bad or good
so don't post jokes about yellow cake

AG Wants ISPs to Hold Data Longer

WASHINGTON –- U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales renewed his call for greater data retention by Internet service providers as part of the Department of Justice's (DoJ) campaign against online child pornography.

Testifying before the Senate Banking Committee this week, Gonzales told lawmakers the DoJ wants ISPs to retain more customer data for longer periods of time for help in tracking online pedophiles.

"As we've looked at ways to improve the law enforcement response to the problem of child exploitation and abuse of children, one thing we are examining is the retention of records by communications service providers," Gonzales said.
...
The issue of greater data retention by ISPs has drawn fire from privacy advocates who fear the larger pool of available information will lead to more data breaches and increased ID theft.

Yes I know that above attempt at humor didn't work.

Okay I think it is great to go after pedophiles. It seems that the internet along with greater communication has given the sick minded greater opportunities. But the truth is this data can be used with too much ease to find out almost anything about anyone. And the only thing we have to ensure there is no abuse of these records is the word of Alberto Gonzales.

I have more belief in Santa Claus than I do in the word of Mr. Gonzales.

- rob 6:08 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Ah good ol' Maryland - millions spent on Diebold machines and you end up with results that are as about as trustworthy as a Diebold salesman.

Al Wynn Brags of Stealing the Election

In the midst of all of this system failure and uncertainty, I wanted to share with you the transcript of an exchange that took place on Tuesday, September 19, between my opponent, Albert Wynn, and his colleague on the powerful House Energy & Commerce Committee:

BARTON: Down in Texas, we had a Democratic primary about 50 years ago that Lyndon Johnson won by 54 votes. And he got the nickname "Landslide Lyndon." We have Mr. Wynn next. He had a little bit of a tussle last week, but he did win. And so, I want to recognize "Landslide Wynn" for any opening statement that he wishes...
WYNN: Well, thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. In fact, they're still counting, but we're quite optimistic. And I did take a couple pages out of Lyndon's book, so if I win, it can be attributed to Texas know-how.
(LAUGHTER)
(UNKNOWN): Did you (inaudible)?
BARTON: I hope not. I hope you win fair and square.
(LAUGHTER)
WYNN: A win is a win.

P.S. Just within the last couple of hours, the Board of Elections in Prince George's County opened up a machine with no tamper tape (so much for security), and at least one other machine that recorded votes for other offices but none for U.S. Congress.

- rob 5:54 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Hilarious

Frist Blames Democratic Minority for Do-Nothing Congress, Gets Spanked

Here it is, straight from the Congressional Record:

Mr. Durbin: Will the Senator yield for a question?

Mr. Reid: I will be happy to yield for a question.

Mr. Durbin: Can the Senator refresh my memory? Was Mr. Bremmer the recipient of a gold medal or something from the President? Didn't he receive some high decoration or medal for his performance in Iraq?

Mr. Reid: The answer is, yes, he received that. I assume one would expect that from somebody who had a throne while he was over there.

Mr. Durbin: Isn't it also true that George Tenet, who was responsible for the intelligence that was so bad that led us into the war in Iraq, got a medal from the President the same day?

Mr. Reid: That is true.

Mr. Durbin: Did Michael Brown with FEMA receive a gold medal from the White House before he was dismissed?

Mr. Reid: I don't think he did. Even though he was doing a heck of a job, I don't think he obtained a medal from the White House.

Mr. Durbin: Apparently, these gold medals were being awarded for incompetence. They missed Mr. Brown, but they did give one to Mr. Bremmer. Will the Senator yield for another question?

Mr. Reid: I will be happy to.

Mr. Durbin: I am trying to recall the exact number -- it was in the billions of dollars -- that we gave to the President for the reconstruction of Iraq; is that not true?

Mr. Reid: It started out at $18 billion. But as the Senator from Illinois will remember, part of that money, stacks of one-hundred-dollar bills, was used by some of the contractors who were sent over there to play football games -- some of these same people.
...
Mr. Durbin: I ask the Senator from Nevada if he might comment on this as well: Are we not in a situation where the President has told us that he wants to "stay the course'' in Iraq, and Vice President Cheney, when asked a week ago, said he wouldn't change a thing in the way they have done this war in Iraq? Is it very clear that unless there is a change in leadership in this town soon, we are going to continue down this disastrous course, exposing our soldiers to danger every single day, their families to the anxiety of separation, and the taxpayers of this country to billions and billions of dollars more being spent that don't make us any safer?

Check out the video here.

I'm not sure if this is the Bremmer on the throne photo they are talking about, but here's a Bremmer photo:

- rob 6:16 PM - [PermaLink] -

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More riots erupt in Budapest

In Hungary people riot when it is revealed that the government knowing lied about the true size of the deficit.

In America we re-elect the government that lies about the true size of the deficit.

Remember the huge deficit numbers you hear - those are lies. The true deficit is much much larger.

The deficit number the government uses is AFTER they steal from the surplus that social security has that year to pay down the deficit a bit. They have been doing this accounting lie for a decade.

Social Security will have a surplus until 2012 or so, and at that point they'll be wanting their "loans" back. Officially that is what it is - a "loan" but it is a loan that the government doesn't account for in the deficit numbers.

So when in 2012 (or so) you hear about Social Security running a deficit and being subsidized with income tax dollars - remember it is a lie. Social Security will just be asking for the money back - the money it loaned the government.

But Americans won't riot. Americans don't even know (for the most part).

- rob 6:13 PM - [PermaLink] -

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The next three months are absolutely critical, but we won't tell you that for another 2 months because we don't want facts to be discussed before an election.

Facts have a well documented liberal bias.

Group Says Iraq Needs to Prove Itself

U.S. experts studying what to do next in Iraq said Tuesday that the next three months are critical and Baghdad's government must make more progress toward controlling the violence and rebuilding the nation.
...
Hamilton and his co-chair, former Secretary of State James A. Baker III, said Baghdad's government needs to secure a capital reeling in sectarian violence, make progress on national reconciliation, and provide electricity, water, and other services that Iraqis need.
...
At a downtown Washington news conference, Hamilton and Baker declined to say what their assessment is of the situation in Iraq now or to indicate anything about their upcoming recommendations. They said recommendations won't be given to the government or made public until after the November election - to avoid politicizing them. They said they would not be more specific about when the findings might be released.

But Hamilton said the study group agreed that the next three months in the campaign are important.

"Each of us agrees that the next three months are critical," Hamilton said. "The challenges ... are many and they are daunting."

- rob 6:05 PM - [PermaLink] -

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image thanks to a Farker named Funmike

Press Gaggle by Tony Snow

The people the President talks to, including Zal Khalilzad, our Ambassador, and General Casey, they've expressed confidence in Prime Minister Maliki's, not only desire, but his ongoing efforts to work toward, number one, suppressing terror, number two, creating national reconciliation in building the basis for a stronger democracy in Iraq. So, no, it is not true to say that there is a lack of confidence in the Prime Minister.

And it's also worth, again, reminding people who are trying to leap to conclusions, that the man has been in power for barely more than 100 days and, frankly, there has been significant progress and he continues to work with General Casey and with Ambassador Khalilzad so that we can reach that end state of a government that can sustain, govern, and defend itself.

- rob 5:57 PM - [PermaLink] -

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And from TPM Muckraker - Halliburton to Wounded Employee: You'll Get a Medal -- If You Don't Sue

Halliburton will help its combat-zone employees get the honors and recognition they deserve -- if they promise not to sue the company.

and proof that corporate campaign donations translate directly to favorable laws is yet again offered forth by the GOP:

The K Street Project Lives!

A roomful of about 100 high-dollar-donor lobbyists and political action committee directors huddled late last week with Rep. Tom Reynolds (N.Y.), chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, for an election update and strategy session.
According to one source who was present at the meeting, Reynolds used the election briefing to spread the word that the endangered House GOP will not look favorably on PACs that start “hedging their bets” by upping their contributions to Democrats. The source at the meeting said Reynolds made sure the attendees know that the NRCC would have no choice but to report back to all House Republicans details of any PACs or companies that shift their giving.

- rob 7:32 PM - [PermaLink] -

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America should be a role model, but George seems to have others.

With his "extraordinary extraditions" Bush seems to have looked to Argentina's military dictatorship as a guide.

And when it comes to supressing the truth, well the Soviet Union shines as a beacon to George.

With extrordinary extraditions Senator says media study suppressed

WASHINGTON - Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin on Monday ordered a formal investigation into why two agency reports on media ownership were never made public.

ADVERTISEMENT

Martin was responding to a request by Sen. Barbara Boxer (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif., who earlier in the day made public a second FCC study that she says was shelved by agency officials.

Last week, Boxer released a draft of an FCC study that showed locally owned stations air more news than local stations controlled by outside owners. A lawyer with the FCC told The Associated Press last week that FCC managers ordered the destruction of that report; the lawyer is no longer with the agency.
...
Boxer released the second report Monday afternoon. The FCC Media Bureau report analyzes the impact of deregulation in the radio industry. The report states that from March 1996 through March 2003, the number of commercial radio stations on the air rose 5.9 percent while the number of station owners fell 35 percent.
...
The report, apparently prepared in 2003, was never made public, nor have any similar analyses followed, despite the fact that radio industry reports were released in 1998, 2001 and 2002, Boxer said.

In a letter to Martin sent earlier Monday, the senator wrote, "This is the second report in a week that I have received that appears to have been shelved by officials within the FCC and I am growing more and more concerned at these developments."

If the media allows diverse opinions the free market of ideas is wide open, and when it comes to the free market of ideas the GOP leans on government handouts to fight of the competition of facts.

- rob 3:25 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Keith Olbermann lets it rip

Bloggermann: Bush owes us an apology

An apology is this President's only hope of regaining the slightest measure of confidence, of what has been, for nearly two years, a clear majority of his people.

Not "confidence" in his policies nor in his designs nor even in something as narrowly focused as which vision of torture shall prevail -- his, or that of the man who has sent him into apoplexy, Colin Powell.

In a larger sense, the President needs to regain our confidence, that he has some basic understanding of what this country represents -- of what it must maintain if we are to defeat not only terrorists, but if we are also to defeat what is ever more increasingly apparent, as an attempt to re-define the way we live here, and what we mean, when we say the word "freedom."

Because it is evident now that, if not its architect, this President intends to be the contractor, for this narrowing of the definition of freedom.
...
"Mr. President, former Secretary of State Colin Powell says the world is beginning to doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism," he was asked by a reporter. "If a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and former secretary of state feels this way, don't you think that Americans and the rest of the world are beginning to wonder whether you're following a flawed strategy?"

“If there's any comparison between the compassion and decency of the American people and the terrorist tactics of extremists, it's flawed logic,” Bush said. “It's just -- I simply can't accept that. It's unacceptable to think that there's any kind of comparison between the behavior of the United States of America and the action of Islamic extremists who kill innocent women and children to achieve an objective.

Of course it's acceptable to think that there's "any kind of comparison."

And in this particular debate, it is not only acceptable, it is obviously necessary, even if Mr. Powell never made the comparison in his letter.

Some will think that our actions at Abu Ghraib, or in Guantanamo, or in secret prisons in Eastern Europe, are all too comparable to the actions of the extremists.

Some will think that there is no similarity, or, if there is one, it is to the slightest and most unavoidable of degrees.

What all of us will agree on, is that we have the right -- we have the duty -- to think about the comparison.

And, most importantly, that the other guy, whose opinion about this we cannot fathom, has exactly the same right as we do: to think -- and say -- what his mind and his heart and his conscience tell him, is right.

All of us agree about that.

Except, it seems, this President.

With increasing rage, he and his administration have begun to tell us, we are not permitted to disagree with them, that we cannot be right, that Colin Powell cannot be right.

And then there was that one, most awful phrase.

In four simple words last Friday, the President brought into sharp focus what has been only vaguely clear these past five-and-a-half years - the way the terrain at night is perceptible only during an angry flash of lightning, and then, a second later, all again is dark.

“It's unacceptable to think," he said.

It is never unacceptable to think.
...
It now shows us a President who has decided that of all our commanders-in-chief, ever, he alone has had the knowledge necessary to alter and re-shape our inalienable rights.

This is a frightening, and a dangerous, delusion, Mr. President.

If Mr. Powell's letter -- cautionary, concerned, predominantly supportive -- can induce from you such wrath and such intolerance, what would you say were this statement to be shouted to you by a reporter, or written to you by a colleague?

"Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government.”

Those incendiary thoughts came, of course, from a prior holder of your job, Mr. Bush.

They were the words of Thomas Jefferson.

He put them in the Declaration of Independence.

Mr. Bush, what would you say to something that anti-thetical to the status quo just now?

Would you call it "unacceptable" for Jefferson to think such things, or to write them?
...
On this newscast last Friday night, Constitiutional law Professor Jonathan Turley of George Washington University, suggested that at some point in the near future some of the "detainees" transferred from secret CIA cells to Guantanamo, will finally get to tell the Red Cross that they have indeed been tortured.

Thus the debate over the Geneva Conventions, might not be about further interrogations of detainees, but about those already conducted, and the possible liability of the administration, for them.

That, certainly, could explain Mr. Bush's fury.

That, at this point, is speculative.

Well, though Keith didn't use the "w" work (as in "war crimes") but he is putting that meme out there.

The philosopher Voltaire once insisted to another author, "I detest what you write, but I would give my life to make it possible for you to continue to write." Since the nation's birth, Mr. Bush, we have misquoted and even embellished that statement, but we have served ourselves well, by subscribing to its essence.

Oddly, there are other words of Voltaire's that are more pertinent still, just now.



"Think for yourselves," he wrote, "and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too."

Apologize, sir, for even hinting at an America where a few have that privilege to think and the rest of us get yelled at by the President.

Anything else, Mr. Bush, is truly unacceptable.

Yeah, I quoted a lot. But not the whole thing. So go read it all, or watch the video (available here or here).

- rob 1:47 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Kafka and Orwell - You'd never believe what Bush has done to America. If Bush actually read I think he had read your works and mistook them for text books rather than warnings.

Canadian Was Falsely Accused, Panel Says

TORONTO, Sept. 18 -- Canadian intelligence officials passed false warnings and bad information to American agents about a Muslim Canadian citizen, after which U.S. authorities secretly whisked him to Syria, where he was tortured, a judicial report found Monday.

The report, released in Ottawa, was the result of a 2 1/2-year inquiry that represented one of the first public investigations into mistakes made as part of the United States' "extraordinary rendition" program, which has secretly spirited suspects to foreign countries for interrogation by often brutal methods.
...
Arar, now 36, was detained by U.S. authorities as he changed planes in New York on Sept. 26, 2002. He was held for questioning for 12 days, then flown by jet to Jordan and driven to Syria. He was beaten, forced to confess to having trained in Afghanistan -- where he never has been -- and then kept in a coffin-size dungeon for 10 months before he was released, the Canadian inquiry commission found.

O'Connor concluded that "categorically there is no evidence" that Arar did anything wrong or was a security threat.

Maybe this is why real trials are important?

Did we win the heart and mind of Mr. Arar?

At what point does the "I" word (for impeachment) get replaced with the "w" word (for war crimes) in the national dialog?

- rob 11:44 AM - [PermaLink] -

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I guess there is a competition of MSNBC between Joe Scarborough and Keith Olbermann about who can be the most blunt about the failures of George Bush.

Obviously Olbermann is in the lead in quantity and quality, but Joe (a former Republican Congressman) puts in a good one.

Save Yourself, Blame Bush - washingtonpost.com

I can't help but feel sorry for my old Republican friends in Congress who are fighting for their political lives. After all, it must be tough explaining to voters at their local Baptist church's Keep Congress Conservative Day that it was their party that took a $155 billion surplus and turned it into a record-setting $400 billion deficit.

How exactly does one convince the teeming masses that Republicans deserve to stay in power despite botching a war, doubling the national debt, keeping company with Jack Abramoff, fumbling the response to Hurricane Katrina, expanding the government at record rates, raising cronyism to an art form, playing poker with Duke Cunningham, isolating America and repeatedly electing Tom DeLay as their House majority leader?

How does a God-fearing Reagan Republican explain all that away?

Easy. Blame George W. Bush.
...
Even when the administration would not give generals the troops they needed to win the war in Iraq, Republican leaders did nothing. When the president refused to veto a single spending bill while the deficit spiraled upward, Republican leaders looked away. And when chaos was reigning in the streets of New Orleans and across the Gulf Coast in Katrina's horrific aftermath, Republican leaders remained mute.

That silence -- proof that it is better to be feared than loved in politics -- has had devastating results.

- rob 5:55 PM - [PermaLink] -

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A large percentage of Americans who die while driving off the road fell asleep at the wheel.

The fact that Bush hasn't implemented a program to have a camera installed in every car monitoring your every move so a security agent watching you drive can shout "wake up" if you dose, is proof that Bush isn't serious about saving American lives.

Wired News: One Million Ways to Die

Sept. 11, 2001 was undoubtedly one of the darkest and deadliest days in United States history. Al-Qaida's attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center killed 2,976 people, and the country recoiled in horror as we witnessed the death of thousands of Americans when the towers fell.

In the five years since that shattering day, the government has spent billions on anti-terrorism projects, instituted a color-coded alert system that has never been green, banned fingernail clippers and water bottles from airplanes, launched a pre-emptive war on false pretenses, and advised citizens to stock up on duct tape and plastic sheeting.

But despite the never-ending litany of warnings and endless stories of half-baked plots foiled, how likely are you, statistically speaking, to die from a terrorist attack?

For the past 11 years here is some of the data:

• 254,419 killed by driving off the road.
• 19,415 killed by the flu
• 3,949 killed by law enforcement
• 3,147 killed by terrorist acts.

- rob 5:50 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Politics before Policy

Politics before competency

Politics before our troops

Bush and the neo-cons put Politics before America

Ties to GOP Trumped Know-How Among Staff Sent to Rebuild Iraq

After the fall of Saddam Hussein's government in April 2003, the opportunity to participate in the U.S.-led effort to reconstruct Iraq attracted all manner of Americans -- restless professionals, Arabic-speaking academics, development specialists and war-zone adventurers. But before they could go to Baghdad, they had to get past Jim O'Beirne's office in the Pentagon.

To pass muster with O'Beirne, a political appointee who screens prospective political appointees for Defense Department posts, applicants didn't need to be experts in the Middle East or in post-conflict reconstruction. What seemed most important was loyalty to the Bush administration.

O'Beirne's staff posed blunt questions to some candidates about domestic politics: Did you vote for George W. Bush in 2000? Do you support the way the president is fighting the war on terror? Two people who sought jobs with the U.S. occupation authority said they were even asked their views on Roe v. Wade.

Many of those chosen by O'Beirne's office to work for the Coalition Provisional Authority, which ran Iraq's government from April 2003 to June 2004, lacked vital skills and experience. A 24-year-old who had never worked in finance -- but had applied for a White House job -- was sent to reopen Baghdad's stock exchange. The daughter of a prominent neoconservative commentator and a recent graduate from an evangelical university for home-schooled children were tapped to manage Iraq's $13 billion budget, even though they didn't have a background in accounting.

I think a lot of this is due to the belief of the neo-cons in the righteousness of their cause. They have a religious fervor in their belief that their actions will bring Pax Americana upon the world. The Project for the New American Century was their manifesto and those who swore allegiance to it were infallible, and those who did not follow their political philosophy were inherently flawed.

I'm sure O'Beirne believed that screening politically was indeed the best way to a competent work force. Dogmatic thinking.

Somehow this all makes me think of Charles Babagge, the 19th century designer of "calculating machines," (basically analog computers), and his encounter with government leaders:

"On two occasions I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question."

Bush is like those members of parliament who somehow believes that doing the wrong thing with the wrong people for the wrong reason will yield the correct result.

- rob 5:23 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Just Brilliant:

Hotel Minibar Keys Open Diebold Voting Machines

Like other computer scientists who have studied Diebold voting machines, we were surprised at the apparent carelessness of Diebold’s security design. It can be hard to convey this to nonexperts, because the examples are technical. To security practitioners, the use of a fixed, unchangeable encryption key and the blind acceptance of every software update offered on removable storage are rookie mistakes; but nonexperts have trouble appreciating this. Here is an example that anybody, expert or not, can appreciate:

The access panel door on a Diebold AccuVote-TS voting machine — the door that protects the memory card that stores the votes, and is the main barrier to the injection of a virus — can be opened with a standard key that is widely available on the Internet.

Thanks to Boing Boing for the link.

- rob 12:38 PM - [PermaLink] -

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