The Insanity-Based Community
by tristero
The Times, in a review of a new documentary, “The War Tapes,” describes one of the subjects:
Specialist Mike Moriarty, at 34 the oldest of them, describes himself as a super-patriot and says he was eager to go to Iraq to exact some payback for the 9/11 attacks.
Back from Iraq, Specialist Mike Moriarty signed up with FEMA. He was last seen wading into the Gulf of Mexico, shooting the waves in retaliation for Katrina.
Kenneth Blackwell Brings To Mind An All-But-Forgotten 70’s Sci Fi Classic
by tristero
[Update 2: The Poor Man Institute is underwhelmed by the RFKJr article (in particular the accuracy of exit polls) and recc’ds this pdf instead.]
[Update: Kennedy’s article is now online. Read it. Rolling Stone also has links to additional documentation. Kennedy’s article makes serious charges in a deeply serious fashion. The ad hominem attacks from the rightwing trackbacks this post has received just ain’t gonna cut it. The specifics have to be engaged.]
It’s not online yet but Robert Kennedy, Jr. has a blistering article in the current Rolling Stone on what happened in Ohio in 2004. Plain and simple, the Republicans stole the presidential election and Kenneth Blackwell, who seems to be up to his eyeballs in the shenanigans, is quite an accomplished liar. (Confession: I have not been following this issue closely – no particular reason other than it’s impossible to follow everything. The article may be old news for some of you, but it does collect a lot of creepy stuff in one place.)
The real question, of course, is what will be done about it and NO! I refuse to give into fashionable cyncism! So yes, dear friends, I really do believe the country will focus like a laserbeam on our corrupt election practices. I have no doubt the moment there’s a squeaker and the Republicans lose a big one by 2% or less, the MSM will ensure that election reform becomes the only subject worth talking about, even more than the civil rights of 1 day-old fertilized eggs! (Unless there’s a missing young white woman that week, but that goes without saying.)
In an editorial, Rolling Stone calls for an investigation of Diebold. Well, yes. And yes to a paper record of all ballots. And yes to open source software for the machines. But actually, I always thought that Canada’s voting technology, as described by Robert Cringely made the most sense:
Forget touch screens and electronic voting. In Canadian Federal elections, two barely-paid representatives of each party, known as “scrutineers,” are present all day at the voting place. If there are more political parties, there are more scrutineers. To vote, you write an “X” with a pencil in a one centimeter circle beside the candidate’s name, fold the ballot up and stuff it into a box. Later, the scrutineers AND ANY VOTER WHO WANTS TO WATCH all sit at a table for about half an hour and count every ballot, keeping a tally for each candidate. If the counts agree at the end of the process, the results are phoned-in and everyone goes home. If they don’t, you do it again. Fairness is achieved by balanced self-interest, not by technology. The population of Canada is about the same as California, so the elections are of comparable scale. In the last Canadian Federal election the entire vote was counted in four hours. Why does it take us 30 days or more?
The 2002-2003 budget for Elections Canada is just over $57 million U.S. dollars, or $1.81 per Canadian citizen. It is extremely hard to get an equivalent per-citizen figure for U.S. elections, but trust me, it is a LOT higher. This week [December 11, 2003], San Francisco held a runoff mayoral election that cost $2.5 million, or $3.27 per citizen of the city. And this was for just one election, not a whole year of them.
We are spending $3.9 billion or $10 per citizen for new voting machines. Canada just prints ballots.
No voting system is perfect. Elections have been stolen and voters disenfranchised with paper ballots, too. But our approach of throwing technology at a problem with a result that election reliability is not improved, that it may well be compromised in new and even scarier ways, and that this all costs billions that could be put to better use makes no sense at all.
On second thought, never mind. Looks like Canada’s going Diebold as well:
A 2000 year-end report from Global Election Systems (now owned by US company Diebold and called Diebold Election Systems) states “Global reports add-on sales of 60 AccuVote systems to the City of Ottawa and 70 to the City of Hamilton as well as first-time sales of 60 AccuVote-TS systems to the City of Barrie”.
Oh, well. There’s no reason to think Diebold would purposely rig their own machines. That’s silly. Let’s go to the movies!
There’s a sci-fi flick from the seventies called Logan’s Run starring Michael York. In the 23rd Century, you’re not allowed to live past 30, but you enter Carousel (misspelled on the site, nobody’s purrfect) and try to fly to the top where, if you make it there, your body will be Renewed. People root for their pals to go the distance, but their friends fail and die. Strange…no one can actually remember anyone ever succeeding in getting Renewed. Very odd. But y’never know. Next time someone really could beat Carousel and live!
Pass the popcorn, friends.
Yea!
by digby
Blogger is back. Sort of. I think. If I can get this to actually publish I will be back in business today. Thanks for hanging in.
Sadly, I have to go out for a bit. Until I get back, I thought I’d update you on the blue state country song comments from over the week-end. A lot of people suggested Springsteen or Dylan, which makes sense. There were also a number of commenters and emailers who suggested “The Man In Black” by Johnny Cash — and Cash is always transcendently cool. Most impressively, there were a bunch of songs written by readers themselves that were great.
But I particularly liked this one, written by reader MJS:
Listen to the Wind
I’m living in the blue states
I’m living in the red
Somebody took the common man
And filled his common head
And poisoned all our brothers
And all our sisters too
Only one kind of person is happy
When I start to hate on youI’m working in the factory
Working on the big combine
I can’t afford a doctor
And the baby won’t stop crying
Our sons and daughters fight a war
Our sons and daughters die
They want us blue and red ones
To never hear each other’s cries(chorus)
Listen to me brothers
Listen sisters too
Listen to the melody
That plays inside of you
Listen to the silence
And listen to your heart
Who gets to making money
Whenever fighting starts?
Listen to the wind
It carries all our songs
Listen to the wind
Everybody join alongI’m searching for the Jesus
Who aimed to help the sick
Who gave solace to the poor of us
Who knew love was not a trick
I’m searching for the Jesus
The man, the Prince of Peace
Teach me not to cast stones
Teach me to slay that beastI’m searching for some honor
I’m searching for a life
Where I can feel compassion
Put an end to needless strife
I’m hoping that I’ll find it
Right here inside of me
Forget about red and blue states
My country ’tis of thee
Sing it like you mean it
Turn a them into a we(chorus)
Listen to me brothers
Listen sisters too
Listen to the melody
That plays inside of you
Listen to the silence
And listen to your heart
Who gets to making money
Whenever fighting starts?
Listen to the wind
It carries all our songs
Listen to the wind
Everybody join along
Sing it like you mean it
Everybody join alongI’m living in the blue states
I’m living in the red
Somebody took the common man
And filled his common head
And poisoned all our brothers
And all our sisters too
Only one kind of person is happy
When I start to hate on youI’m working in the factory
Working on the big combine
I can’t afford a doctor
And the baby won’t stop crying
Our sons and daughters fight a war
Our sons and daughters die
They want us blue and red ones
To never hear each other’s cries(chorus)
Listen to me brothers
Listen sisters too
Listen to the melody
That plays inside of you
Listen to the silence
And listen to your heart
Who gets to making money
Whenever fighting starts?
Listen to the wind
It carries all our songs
Listen to the wind
Everybody join along
Poor Joe Klein’s head will explode if populist sentiment like that catches on.
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