Ahhh... With Melhman out (so to speak) there is talk of Michael Steele being the new RNC chairman.

Now the cynics will say they are picking Steele because he's black.

That isn't the reason - he was chosen because he is the poster boy of how corrupt the GOP has become:

TNR: For MD GOPer, Homeless Brigade Not New

This past Tuesday, for $100 and the promise of three meals, the GOP candidates for governor and senator recruited dozens of the least fortunate from Philadelphia's shelters -- all or most of whom were black -- to come to Maryland for the day and pass out fliers portraying the two hopefuls as "our choice" for African-American voters. (Steele is black; Ehrlich most definitely is not.)

It should be noted that the fliers identified Steele as a Democrat (how's that for the possible chair of the Republican party - I guy who doesn't want anyone to know he's a republican).

It turns out the duo pulled a very similar stunt at least once before, in 2002, according to the New Republic. Then, they pulled homeless people from D.C. shelters, and black students from nearby Bowie State, and the candidates kept their distance from the operation. Instead of telling them to distribute literature, the campaign instructed the recruits to go door-to-door in predominantly black neighborhoods, telling residents that they were "volunteers" trying to get Maryland to elect its first black lieutenant governor.

It was a debacle:

About 250 recruits, drawn by the promise of free meals and a day's pay, participated in what one recruit later called a "scam from the start." The students didn't get their meals, and they didn't get paid. The homeless recruits also weren't paid, and, that night, the van that had taken them at dawn to Prince George's County and was supposed to transport them back to Washington, D.C. never showed up.

Some more Muck about Steele:

Homeless Man to GOP Pol: "No One Has the Right to Use Me That Way"

and

RNC Chair Nominee Flashback: Steele Shifted, Lied about Bush Remarks

- rob 5:47 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Do it - please:

Sign the Petition - Get It Straight By 2008

2006 is the third election in a row shadowed by questions about the integrity of voting machines, something most Americans never dreamed could happen. Together we can make the 2006 election the tipping point—the moment when demand for an auditable, verifiable voting system forced Congress to act.

We must act now, while the nation’s attention is focused on this issue.

Urge your Senator to support legislation for paper trails and random audits for ALL electronic ballots.

I'd like them to go even farther then they push though. The random audits need to be a comparison between the electronic results and the paper results.

- rob 3:24 PM - [PermaLink] -

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You know - its easy to make fun of conspiracy folks - but have pity on them - it is an addiction and tin foil is so readily available these days.

Rumsfeld replacement (Robert Gates) was director of voting company

Did you know that Robert Gates was involved in the voting machine industry?

Gates was on the board of directors of VoteHere, a strange little company that was the biggest elections industry lobbyist for the Help America Vote Act (HAVA). VoteHere spent more money than ES&S, Diebold, and Sequoia combined to help ram HAVA through. And HAVA, of course, was a bill sponsored by by convicted Abramoff pal Bob Ney and K-street lobbyist buddy Steny Hoyer. HAVA put electronic voting on steroids.
...
VoteHere, a company shilling cryptographic solutions and filled with NSA types (another director was Admiral Bill Owens), for some reason claims they were unable to prevent themselves from being hacked. In this alleged hack, VoteHere claims that someone stole their source code. Said source code was offered to me, an obvious attempt at entrapment which I refused to touch with a 10-foot pole.

Nevertheless, VoteHere claimed to the newspapers that they had supposedly "tracked" the hacker and had identified the hacker as an activist in the election reform community.

For some reason, it was decided that I should be investigated for this "hack" of VoteHere -- nevermind that I can't remember how to change the password on my own laptop. Therefore I was interviewed by the Secret Service several times about this. Curiously, they never seemed to ask any questions about VoteHere, only my role in finding the Diebold files and publishing the Diebold memos.

This nonsense eventually culminated in a gag order and a letter from the U.S. Attorney to appear in front of a federal grand jury with information on all the visitors to the Black Box Voting Web site.
...
VoteHere never sold any voting machines that I can find, but apparently did set up some deals to embed its cryptography into some voting systems. We found memos in the Diebold trash about VoteHere's crypto-crap, and Maryland Director of Elections Linda Lamone shows up in VoteHere-related letters. Sequoia Voting Systems signed an agreement with VoteHere, but its not clear to me whether they ever did anything about it.

Seriously though - it does allow you to go "hmmmm" free of guilt.

- rob 3:22 PM - [PermaLink] -

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The internet has brought conversation back - not just politics, but art, culture, videos of skateboard accidents. All these things are available and open to discussion.

The corporate media has taken over all broadcast outlets and many of the newspapers and magazines. They control the conversation. They limit the ideas. They minimize change.

The internet gives information back to the people.

With access being neutral new ideas will flurish. Thousands, hundreds of thousands, millions will be employed providing services in job descriptions that didn't exist a decade ago. That will only happen if the internet remains neutral.

The phone remained basically unchanged for three quarters of a century due to the lack of competition - the barrier of entry. There is almost no barrier now - it is all competition - and look at the fun - and the jobs - and the innovation - and the revenue - and the home made star trek episodes.

New Democratic Congress: Save the Internet!

- rob 2:34 PM - [PermaLink] -

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If the New York Times wants to save money on editorials they'd only need to change a few words and they could rerun this October 18, 1991editorial against the nomination of Robert Gates. (true he was being nominated for head of CIA at the time).

David Boren, the committee chairman, commends Mr. Gates for forthrightness. Yet he overlooks occasions when Mr. Gates helped skew intelligence assessments and was demonstrably blind to illegality. The illegality concerns the Iran-contra scandal. Mr. Gates contends he was `out of the loop' on decisions about what to tell Congress. And he defends his professed ignorance on grounds of deniability--that he was shielding the C.I.A. from involvement. These contentions defy belief.

The testimony of other puts Mr. Gates, on at least two occasions, very much in the loop. He supervised preparation of Director William Casey's deceitful testimony to Congress about the scandal. And one C.I.A. analyst, Charles Allen, says he informed Mr. Gates, before it came to light, of three unforgettable details: Oliver North's involvement, the markup of prices of arms sold surreptitiously to Iran, and diversion of the proceeds into a fund for covert operations. In a telling lapse of his reputedly formidable memory, Mr. Gates could not recall the details when Congress asked two months later.

The second criterion concerns intelligence estimates. Incorrect forecasting should not be disqualifying; estimates can be wrong for the right reasons of political expediency, that's `cooking the books.'

The hearings have documented at least three cases of such slanting: a May 1985 estimate on Iran, estimates of Soviet influence in the third world, and assessments of Soviet complicity in the assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II. Mr. Gates has responded to their testimony but not refuted it. He evidently went to great lengths to manipulate the process, because highly reticent career officials testified against him in public. That electrifying development demonstrates how little confidence Mr. Gates enjoys in the agency.
...
Thomas Polgar, a C.I.A. veteran, urged the committee to consider the message that confirmation would send. Would officials wonder whether it was wise for outspoken witnesses to risk their careers by testifying? Would they say to themselves, `Serve faithfully the boss of the moment; never mind integrity? Feel free to mislead the Senate--senators forget easily?

By voting no, senators will vote to remember.

Gates has been involved in arming bin Laden, Gates has been involved with arming Iran. Maybe he's a great selection for the job because of his knowledge of that area of the world - he played a large part in making it a mess.

So here's my dilemma - Gates is bad, but I don't see how he could be more incompetent than Rumsfeld - so do we hope he gets confirmed just because it means we get rid of Rummy that much quicker?

- rob 5:26 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Electronic Voting - Because the excitement of an election should never end

Dist. 13 voting analysis shows broad problem

More than 18,000 voters who showed up at the polls voted in other races but not the Buchanan-Jennings race.

That means nearly 13 percent of voters did not vote for either candidate -- a massive undercount compared with other counties, including Manatee, which reported a 2 percent undervote.

If the missing votes had broken for Jennings by the same percentage as the counted votes in Sarasota County, the Democrat would have won the race by about 600 votes instead of losing by 368, according to a Herald-Tribune review.

- rob 5:17 PM - [PermaLink] -

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George and Rummy really think they are the smartest guys in the room.

Like the Enron boys from Smartest Guys in the Room Bush and team think that the fact that others believe in reality is just prove that they "don't get it."

Enron would explain how they made money and people didn't "get it." How is all your trading at losses, etc. etc. making money? And the Enron boys would just say "tsk tsk tsk, you just aren't bright enough to understand, but don't worry your little head about it, it is very very complex and not many can - why don't you go eat a banana." In the end it was revealed they hadn't figured out how their business plan would make money either. And it all came crashing down.

Iraq is now crashing down (and has been for some time). Intelligence reports show the world is becoming a more dangerous place. But you see that is all proof of what a good job Bush and company are doing. You are just too damn stupid to figure that out.

President Bush Nominates Dr. Robert M. Gates to be Secretary of Defense

SECRETARY RUMSFELD:... The great respect that I have for your leadership, Mr. President, in this little understood, unfamiliar war, the first war of the 21st century -- it is not well-known, it was not well-understood, it is complex for people to comprehend. And I know, with certainty, that over time the contributions you've made will be recorded by history.

Actually if you take that statement and combine it with Rummy's poetry you can only reach one conclusion - Rumsfeld is often high.

Press Conference by the President

THE PRESIDENT: ...Secondly, I'm an optimistic person, is what I am. And I knew we were going to lose seats, I just didn't know how many.

Q How could you not know that and not be out of touch?

THE PRESIDENT: You didn't know it, either.

Q A lot of polls showed it.

THE PRESIDENT: Well, there was a -- I read those same polls, and I believe that -- I thought when it was all said and done, the American people would understand the importance of taxes and the importance of security. But the people have spoken, and now it's time for us to move on. [emphasis mine]

You stupid American voters - I guess you do not understand the importance of taxes and security. Let me explain it you again: Taxes and Security are important. Competence and results are not. God, I can't believe you don't understand that.

- rob 5:15 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Now don't be shocked, but there seems to have been issues with E-voting!

E-Voting Glitches Abound: Five States with the Biggest Problems has a nice rundown of issues at Montana, Indiana, Ohio, New Jersey, and Colorado.

Wha? No Florida?

Don't you worry your little head about it - you know they had problems: Buchanan wins in Dist. 13, for now

Republican Vern Buchanan was clinging to a 368-vote edge over Democrat Christine Jennings for the 13th Congressional District early this morning.
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The results were loaded with controversy as nearly 13 percent of all ballots cast in Sarasota didn’t include a choice for Congress. That difference, and scattered reports of difficulty finding the race on Sarasota’s touchscreen ballots, raised concerns about under votes in the race.

Supervisor of Elections Kathy Dent couldn’t explain why 8,000 to 10,000 fewer people voted in the congressional race than in other high-profile races for governor, attorney general or U.S. Senate. But she said nothing mechanical went wrong with the county’s $4.7 million touchscreen voting machine system.
...
Throughout the day voters complained that touchscreen voting machines were not registering votes for Jennings properly. Jennings campaign held a midday press conference to warn the problem was widespread.

At about 11:30 p.m. with the results still in great doubt, Jennings address supporters at a reception at Michael’s on East in Sarasota.

“Right now, the most important thing, and I think that my opponent would agree, is to make sure that the rights of Florida voters are protected and that every vote is counted,” she said.

We need to fix this.

We need transparent and auditable elections. Everywhere - even in Florida.

- rob 6:10 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Next steps for the long-term health of America

Obviously this is an incomplete list

• Get a hold of the deficit. In less then a decade the Social Security trust fund is going to knock on treasury’s door and to get back the money its been loaning the government for the past 15 years or so.
  
  
• Lobbying. Reform how this works – money tempts. Reps come in and make decisions based on hopes of being rewarded with future lucrative lobbying jobs. Its bribery with a time delay.
  
  
• Make voting a priority. Set some standards. Make sure election results are transparent and auditable. This is getting pathetic.
  
  
• Election reform has to continue. The politicians get the power by following the campaign donors, not so much the people. If this means publicly funded elections than maybe that is where it has to go.
  
  
• Change in power in the House needs to come easier. That means gerrymandering has got to stop. There has to be a standardized way to make districts. And that is just the way it will be.
  
  
• The FCC needs to be a real authority again. It is our airwaves. Major corporations use our air to generate millions upon millions. They have a responsibility to the public, which they ignore because the FCC now ignores it. Bring back ownership restrictions so as to encourage smaller independent owners – encourage more voices. It used to be that you could not own more then 7 stations, and could not own a newspaper and a TV station in the same market. These restrictions made sense, and actually encouraged competition and allowed the markets to be better served.
  
  Make the threat of losing a license real. You can show whatever you want and do what every you want and as long as you don’t show a breast there is almost no chance of losing a license. It used to be a real threat. A station’s license was not guaranteed. Every time the license was up for renewal TV stations would advertise that they were up for renewal and ask for local support. No concerns now – once you’ve got the license your only responsibility is to take in the money. No local programming, no documentaries.
  
  Don’t ask me why, but near my I have a bunch of TV Guide’s from the mid-seventies. Even during the beginning of the fall season the network stations (all affiliates) are filled with local programming and even, gasp, prime time documentaries. Not any more – but it could be again. A few media conglomerates largely determine the national conversation. Local voices are needed again – even if it is Less Nesman at WKRP.
  
  
• The Democrats have to become strongly pro-SMALL-business. Multi-nationals do not serve democracy. Citizens are not served by multinationals. Huge conglomerates do not care about our nation or any nation – they have no allegiance save for money. Small companies take interest in local events and concerns. Small companies promote competition, employ locally, and stir innovation.
  
  Create more regulatory loopholes for small companies. Simply accounting and tax requirements for small companies. Make it easy to be small – and give no quarter to multinationals.

- rob 5:51 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Hopefully Republicans will take a look in the mirror and wonder what happened to them. Where did the bloat come from? Where did their hair go? Why are their eyes so blood shot?

We need a Republican Party. A real republican party that actually stands for what they say they stand for – anti-big government, law and order, pro small biz, and fiscal responsibility. Almost opposite of what they became when they were in power. And see that is it. They were in power and the Democrats didn’t challenge them. And they bloated and decayed and atrophied.

Democrats need the Republicans. It will be their check. Keep them on the path of who they are – if not many more of them will have cash in the freezer. Human nature.

What would even be better would be multiple parties. But if not that we need a sane healthy Republican party and a sane healthy Democratic party.

Hopefully the Republicans will go into detox – drink a lot of tea – and get all the toxic crap they build up in their systems for so many years now.

- rob 5:51 PM - [PermaLink] -

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I have to admit I don't remember much of Gates's tenure as head of CIA back in President Daddy's days. But it can only be good to get someone more competent in there. This will save lives.

CIA in H.W. Bush era? Wouldn't that mean Gates's armed bin Laden?

GOP officials: Rumsfeld stepping down

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, architect of an unpopular war in Iraq, intends to resign after six stormy years at the Pentagon, Republican officials said Wednesday.

Officials said Robert Gates, former head of the CIA, would replace Rumsfeld.

The development occurred one day after congressional elections that cost Republicans control of the House of Representatives, and possibly the Senate as well.

Of course the election had nothing to do with it and Rummy just wanted to spend more time with his family.

- rob 1:29 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Bush and his administration believe smart people can't be trusted.

Smart people who take facts into consideration often believe in evolution or that condoms prevent pregnancies and STDs better then fake promises to wait.

Smart people say that you should know what you are doing before you do it.

Smart people just don't get the Bush and the neocon belief that wishes do come true and that the world will bend to you "will" rather than just respond to actions and decisions.

So they don't like smart people.

Smart people studied what would happen if we invaded Iraq and came up with a result that was accurate. But it was ignored.

It was a report from smart people. What the hell do they know.

War simulation in 1999 pointed out Iraq invasion problems

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A series of secret U.S. war games in 1999 showed that an invasion and post-war administration of Iraq would require 400,000 troops, nearly three times the number there now.

And even then, the games showed, the country still had a chance of dissolving into chaos.

In the simulation, called Desert Crossing, 70 military, diplomatic and intelligence participants concluded the high troop levels would be needed to keep order, seal borders and take care of other security needs.
...
"The conventional wisdom is the U.S. mistake in Iraq was not enough troops," said Thomas Blanton, the archive's director. "But the Desert Crossing war game in 1999 suggests we would have ended up with a failed state even with 400,000 troops on the ground."

- rob 4:06 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Sometimes Maryland is ashamed that Ohio and Florida get all the credit for being dysfunctional when it comes to elections.

It tries you know - Maryland really tries

Sample Ballots in Pr. George's Misidentify Candidates

Inaccurate sample ballots describing Republican Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. and Senate candidate Michael S. Steele as Democrats were handed out to voters in at least four polling sites in Prince George's County this morning.The ballots were handed out by people who said they arrived by buses this morning from Pennsylvania and Delaware.
...
After a two-hour bus ride to Maryland, Markle said the workers were greeted early this morning by first lady Kendel Ehrlich, who thanked them as they were outfitted in T-shirts and hats with the logo for Ehrlich's reelection campaign. Nearly all of those recruited, Markle said, are poor and black. Workers traveled to Maryland in at least seven large buses.
...
Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin (D), who is running against Steele, called the fliers "fraudulent" and said he believed they might work in Democrats' favor by angering voters and encouraging more to get to the polls. "I think it speaks to a lack of integrity of the people who would put out something like this to try to mislead voters," said Cardin. "It has the Ehrlich-Steele authority. If they put this out, they should be ashamed of themselves."

"I don't think I've ever encountered anything like this in all my years of campaigning," he added. "I haven't seen anything as abruptly misleading by a candidate running for governor or United States senate. Voters should be outraged. It's a real statement about the type of ethics they have. This goes over the edge for me."

Let's hope America hasn't gone over the edge.

Vote.

- rob 3:59 PM - [PermaLink] -

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almost nostalgic for old fashioned voter fraud?

Election fixing charges fly in Utah county

Daggett County has registered 947 voters for Tuesday's election. According to the most recent Census figures, that's four more than the county's population in 2005.
...
The Democrats also say the father of a Republican deputy running for sheriff has 14 adults registered at his household. McKee hasn't responded to messages from The Associated Press.

- rob 3:18 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Another excellent "special comment"

Go to the site and read in full: Olbermann: Where are the checks, balances?

Saddam Hussein, found guilty in an Iraqi court.

Who can argue against that?

He is officially, what the world always knew he was: a war criminal.

Mr. Bush, was this imprimatur, worth the cost of 2,832 American lives, and thousands more American lives yet to be lost?

Is the conviction of Saddam Hussein the reason you went to war in Iraq?

Or did you go to war in Iraq because of the weapons of mass destruction that did not exist?

Or did you go to war in Iraq because of the connection between Iraq and al-Qaida that did not exist?

Or did you go to war in Iraq to break the bonds of tyranny there, while installing the mechanisms of tyranny here?

Or did you go to war in Iraq because you felt the need to wreak vengeance against somebody, anybody?

Or did you go to war in Iraq to contain a rogue state which, months earlier, your own administration had declared had been fully contained by sanctions?

Or did you go to war in Iraq to keep gas prices down?

How startling it was, sir, to hear you introduce oil to your stump speeches over the weekend.

Not four years removed from the most dismissive, the most condescending, the most ridiculing denials of the very hint at, as Mr. Rumsfeld put it, this “nonsense.”

There you were, campaigning in Colorado, in Nebraska, in Florida, in Kansas -- suddenly turning this ‘unpatriotic idea’ into a platform plank.

"You can imagine a world in which these extremists and radicals got control of energy resources," you told us. "And then you can imagine them saying, 'We're going to pull a bunch of oil off the market to run your price of oil up unless you do the following.'"

Having frightened us, having bullied us, having lied to us, having ignored and rewritten the Constitution under our noses, having stayed the course, having denied you’ve stayed the course, having belittled us about "timelines" but instead extolled "benchmarks," you’ve now resorted, sir, to this?

We must stay in Iraq to save the $2 gallon of gas?

Mr. President, there is no other conclusion we can draw as we go to the polls tomorrow.

Sir, you have been making this up as you went along.

This country was founded to prevent anybody from making it up as they went along.

Those vaunted Founding Fathers of ours have been so quoted up, that they appear as marble statues: like the chiseled guards of China, or the faces on Mount Rushmore. But in fact they were practical people and the thing they obviously feared most was a government of men and not laws.

They provided the checks and balances for a reason.
...
Saddam Hussein will get out of Iraq the same way 2,832 Americans have and thousands more.

He’ll get out faster than we will.

And if nothing changes tomorrow, you, sir, will be out of the White House long before the rest of us can say we are out of Iraq.

And whose fault is this?

Not truly yours. You took advantage of those of us who were afraid, and those of us who believed unity and nation took precedence over all else.

But we let you take that advantage.

And so we let you go to war in Iraq to oust Saddam or find non-existant weapons or avenge 9/11 or fight terrorists who only got there after we did or as cover to change the fabric of our Constitution or for lower prices at The Texaco or…?

There are still a few hours left before the polls open, sir. There are many rationalizations still untried.

And whatever your motives of the moment, we the people have, in true good faith and with the genuine patriotism of self-sacrifice (of which you have shown you know nothing), we have let you go on making it up as you went along.

Unchecked and unbalanced.

Vote.

Vote. Get Out The Vote. Remind your co-workers. Remind your neighbors.

Vote.

- rob 3:12 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Scary

"Democrats have polls, We have workers at the polls!"
- Rick Santorum (R for reptile)

from: Campaigns Implore the Party Faithful To Bring Their Loyalty to the Polls

- rob 12:24 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Vote

And Get Out The Vote

Vote Vote Vote

The GOP is proving this year they do not believe in Democracy.

Show them you do!

Vote

It's a Candidate Calling. Again.

This year's heavy volume of automated political phone calls has infuriated countless voters and triggered sharp complaints from Democrats, who say the Republican Party has crossed the line in bombarding households with recorded attacks on candidates in tight House races nationwide.

Some voters, sick of interrupted dinners and evenings, say they will punish the offending parties by opposing them in today's elections. But critics say Republicans crafted the messages to delude voters -- especially those who hang up quickly -- into thinking that Democrats placed the calls.

More coverage on the issue:

FBI looking into possible Va. voter intimidation
Officials probing reports of phone calls allegedly intended to confuse voters

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is looking into the possibility of voter intimidation in the U.S. Senate race between Sen. George Allen, a Republican, and Democratic challenger James Webb, officials told NBC News.

State officials alerted the Justice Department on Tuesday to several complaints of suspicious phone calls to voters who attempted to misdirect or confuse them about election day, Jean Jensen, Secretary of the Virginia State Board of Elections, told NBC’s David Shuster.
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News4 reported: “The viewer's e-mail stated after he had voted, he received a call from an unknown caller who said they knew the voter was registered out of state and would be arrested if they voted today. The viewer's e-mail stated he's been registered to vote in Virginia for the last three years and has the Virginia Voter Registration card to prove it.”

Vote - don't let the bastards get away with this

Democracy Matters

- rob 11:54 AM - [PermaLink] -

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