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Blog CabinLong-time readers may notice that the CF blog is often a tad more serious than our previous work. This is simply a reflection of the times. CF was born and raised in the tranquil era of Clinton's presidency and the emergence of the "New Economy." But then the millenium arrived and the second "gay 90s" came to a screeching halt. Somehow the president's name was George Bush again. The dark ages have returned and are even worse than the last. |
December 01, 2007
The 18th Brumaire of Hugo Chavez
Is Hugo Chavez Venezuela's Louis Napoleon? This might just be a private joke for myself... Grad school and my new daughter still precludes me from spending any time blogging
Posted by MJuhre at 11:10 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack (2294)
April 19, 2007
FOX News Writes Its Own 'Facts'
Still no time for blogging, but I gotta backlog of crap to post sometime...Like this, for instance.
I came across this curiosity while perusing writing jobs. One always suspects FOX News just makes things up on a daily basis. Note that the title of this job is not "fact checker" -- a common position for any news organization. This appears to be a gig to write copy for the FOX news ticker that runs below the main stories, and/or create those captions--"students say gunman was a loner"--that let viewers just tuning in get a general sense of the news being presented. I wonder, though, if they check any of their facts for either of these or if their "fact writers" simply transform rumor and innuendo into "fact" by putting them on television.
Posted by MJuhre at 06:06 PM | Comments (0)
March 12, 2007
Always Remember - Now on Sale
It's been a long time. I don't have time for blogging these days. But I could not resist posting this. If discovering that the memory of Ronald Reagan has been marked down to $17.95 isn't funny enough, the folks at RonaldReagan.com gave us a bonus, with a typo that transforms "logo" into "log." Nice.
Posted by MJuhre at 05:18 PM | Comments (0)
November 09, 2006
Yeah Baby
I chose not to hold my breath before, during, or even after the elections. I find it almost as hard to believe that the Dems have total control of Congress as I do that, once in awhile still, George W. Bush is president. But now that George Allen has conceded, all I can say is "macaca ha ha."
The GOP hubris bubble has burst and its time for them to wipe those smiles off their faces, eat some humble pie...and start shredding documents faster than Kenneth Lay.
Posted by MJuhre at 06:42 PM | Comments (0)
Rumsfeld's Replacement's Connection to Electronic Voting Issue?
[Still no time for blogging myself, but forwarding of potentially useful info? Yes, on occasion. No idea how important it is that this former DCI who will become Sec. of Defense has ties to Bob Ney and the shadowy world of HAVA and black-box voting, but worth a look... ]
FORWARDED BY BLACKBOXVOTING.ORG
Rumsfield replacement (Robert Gates) was director of voting company
by Bev Harris
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfield will resign, reportedly to be replaced by former CIA director Robert Gates.
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.
You can find copies of the VoteHere lobbying forms here: http://sopr.senate.gov/cgi-win/m_opr_viewer.exe?DoFn=0
I can't get them to save to pdf, perhaps you can. Enter search terms in both "registrant" and "client" fields and put in terms "Rhoads" "Livingston" and "Votehere" (one at a time.). Then look at the gravy train while it was in the process of derailing American democracy.
I first became acquainted with VoteHere when I met a source, Dan Spillane, who is the wonderful guy that identified the Diebold source code modules for me after I found the Diebold files. He is the person who introduced me, and subsequently everyone else, to the odd role of The Election Center and R. Doug Lewis in the elections industry.
Spillane also filled me in on The Livingston Group, VoteHere lobbyists, run by Bob Livingston -- the fellow that Hustler publisher Larry Flynt outed during the Bill Clinton blow job days. Larry Flynt offered a million dollars to anyone who could locate a Republican congressman committing adultery, and out popped peccadilloes by Livingston.
Livingston couldn't live that one down, so he resigned his post as House Speaker-Elect and became a lobbyist -- but that's not all! He also launched a group called "Center for Democracy" which was going to "monitor elections." This group also featured several good old boys from the tobacco industry and some mining companies.
Former VoteHere test engineer Dan Spillane was looking into all this because he had been fired after he questioned the certification process on a touch-screen system in which he had identified 250 flaws. It was way back in November 2002 that Spillane told me, "The voting machine industry is a house of cards. And the certification and testing process is the bottom card in the house of cards."
BUT DON'T RUN OUT OF THE ROOM TO TAKE A SHOWER YET. There's more.
VoteHere was a company shilling cryptographic solutions and filled with NSA types (another director was Admiral Bill Owens, another crony of Rummy, Perle and Wolfowitz). For some reason this company claims it was unable to prevent itself from being hacked. In this alleged hack, VoteHere claims that someone stole their source code. Said source code was offered to me in October 2003, an obvious attempt at entrapment which I refused.
Nevertheless, VoteHere claimed to the media that its master security experts 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 in connection with 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. (As if they couldn't get that in less dramatic ways in post-Patriot Act America). Attorney Lowell Finley (now with http://www.VoterAction.org ) went to bat for me on this. A reporter named George Howland from the Seattle Weekly also got wind of it. When it hit the press, and with Lowell Finley's help, their harassment of me stopped.
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.
Robert Gates stepped away from VoteHere shortly before he showed up in Chapter 8 of my book, Black Box Voting, in a short bit about the VoteHere company history. You can read that here: http://www.blackboxvoting.org/bbv_chapter-8.pdf
I don't know about you, but I'd rather use a paper, pencil, and count by hand at the polling place than have former CIA director Robert Gates fooling around with my vote.
But that's just me.
-- Bev Harris
Founder, Black Box Voting
P.S. Since the HBO special, I have plenty of moral support, but even after the Secret Service interviews and all the rest of the nonsense my husband and I have had to put up with, there are others who have had it rougher.
I'd like you to take a moment to visit this Web site -- not affiliated with Black Box Voting -- to meet one of the heroic citizens in this movement who has faced the most brutal retaliation of all:
Stephen Heller. If you saw the HBO film "Hacking Democracy" you may remember a scene where I am chastising Diebold for lying about correcting problems with its product. I refer to "Release Notes." Those notes came from a source. Stephen Heller is being threatened with up to five years in prison for allegedly leaking me those documents. Kevin Shelley then decertified Diebold, and recommended criminal prosecution of Diebold. Diebold was never prosecuted, but Stephen Heller is being prosecuted RIGHT NOW. I hope you will donate to his defense. If not for citizens like him, where would your vote be now?
To contribute to Stephen Heller's defense fund:
http://www.hellerlegaldefensefund.com/
* * * * *
Black Box Voting is a nonprofit, nonpartisan 501c(3) elections watchdog group supported entirely by citizen donations. We refuse funds from any vendor or vested interest.
To support Black Box Voting: click to http://www.blackboxvoting.org/donate.html or send to:
Black Box Voting
330 SW 43rd St Suite K
PMB 547
Renton WA 98055
Posted by MJuhre at 03:40 PM | Comments (0)
November 02, 2006
Just Too Crazy
There's little time for blogging these days, as family life and school take precedence. But this was just too crazy to let it just go by...
My wife Myra and I were lying in bed with the TV and the laptop on. I was reading a reply to something I posted on Roadfood.com and turned to Myra and said, "Oh yeah so I've confirmed that your great grandfather Harry Perry did indeed invent the lobster roll" (it is family lore and, in our kitchen, we have a sign that hung at Perry's restaurant that tells the tale of Harry inventing Connecticut's signature sandwich).
One second (literally) after I said this, a David Cross character on Comedy Central's new show, Freak Show said, "Now who wants lobster rolls?" and threw lobster rolls out into a crowd of cartoon extras.
Should anyone care? No, but it was just too crazy.
Posted by MJuhre at 10:55 PM | Comments (0)
September 01, 2006
Overseas Fathers Replaced by "Flat Daddy" Images
We're almost there folks! We are closing in on the time when images may fully supplant real and corporeal objects.
Am I babbling again?
Maybe. But it makes sense to me.
Cardboard-cutouts of American soldiers currently serving abroad are being used to sooth their Stateside children, according to this Boston Globe story (archived here ).
I can't decide if these ersatz family members might really be useful for some kids, or if it simply makes an already sad situation even sadder and more twisted. I can't imagine what happens when daddy gets killed, and all that's left is the cardboard cutout in the living room.
Posted by MJuhre at 10:54 AM | Comments (0)
August 18, 2006
Turkey, Iran Team up to Attack the "Other" Iraq
As if there weren't enough going on in the Middle East already, the other, other, other war in the region may be heating up.
Who knew?
The Northern, Kurdish-controlled section Iraq, a region so relatively stable that it bills itself to tourists as "The Other Iraq", has been bombed by Turkey and Iran for at least four days without so much as a peep from the American press.
"Scores of Kurds have fled their homes in the northern frontier region after four days of shelling by the Iranian army. Local officials said Turkey had also fired a number of shells into Iraqi territory," writes the the UK's Guardian newspaper today.
Turkey, ostensibly United States's greatest ally in the Middle East, and Iran, ostensibly the United States's greatest enemy, have teamed up to shell the country that the United States is ostensibly trying to build and stabilize. Of more concern is that Turkey and Iran appear poised to cross the Iraqi border to attack the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) , according to reports filed by the Turkish Daily News.
"Citing a statement released on the official Web site of President Jalal Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), the [private Doğan News Agency (DHA)] agency said that Turkish and Iranian artillery units have been firing on the mountainous area since Saturday. The statement said the Turkish and Iranian units have been firing simultaneously, alleging that both Turkish and Iranian troops might cross the Iraqi border -- an apparent reference to a cross-border operation on the PKK camps."
In an unrelated(?) event, Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Hilmi Güler and Iranian Oil Minister Kazem Vaziri-Hamaneh, met in Ankara Tuesday to discuss expanding natural gas exports and other energy contracts. (See The New Anatolian)
Posted by MJuhre at 11:31 AM | Comments (0)
Airline Outsources Jobs; Advises Employees to Dumpster Dive
Northwest Airlines today announced that it is seeking approval for daily service between Detroit and Shanghai, likely for the purpose of ferrying American auto executives to their new, outsourced plants in China.
The announcement on the same day it offered an apology (see the LA Times to baggage handlers and other ground workers, who will soon lose their jobs after their union agreed to allow the airline to outsource their work, for advising them to eat food out of the garbage as a way to save money.
Northwest recently gave out a four-page booklet entitled "Preparing for a Financial Setback" to workers who face impending layoffs and pay cuts amid a corporate restructuring. The company's tips to soon-to-be former employees include shopping in thrift stores, taking "a date for a walk along the beach or in the woods" and not being "shy about pulling something you like out of the trash."
Not surprisingly, Northwest is in full damage-control mode, is no longer handing out the booklet, and has been removed it the corporate Web site. PLEASE somebody send one to me!
Stories
Reuters
CTV.CA (Canada)
LA Times
Posted by MJuhre at 09:52 AM | Comments (0)
August 17, 2006
Bush Administration Said to be "Considering Alternatives Other Than Democracy"
...[and at the end of page 2]
Well there's a buried lead if I ever saw one. Okay, maybe it's not a classic buried lead because, on its own, it doesn't have much to stand on. But putting this quote in the second-to-last paragraph of a front page story? Boy howdy. Half the readers of this story won't get past the fold (or, online, click to see the second page), let alone get to the last two paragraphs.
"Senior administration officials have acknowledged to me that they are considering alternatives other than democracy," said one military affairs expert who received an Iraq briefing at the White House last month and agreed to speak only on condition of anonymity.
Posted by MJuhre at 10:41 AM | Comments (0)
August 16, 2006
Elmo is an Evildoer
I just can't agree with this commentary more:
..."I am not the only one who hates Elmo. Vernon Chatman and John Lee, the creators of MTV2's dark 'Sesame Street' parody, 'Wonder Showzen,' think the evil red one is destroying the show.
'Elmo doesn't grow. People show him something and he laughs. He doesn't learn a lesson,' says Lee. 'It's the exact opposite of what old Sesame Street used to do. Elmo has been learning the same lesson his whole life, which is that Elmo likes Elmo.' " ...
-- Joel Stein in the LA Times
Posted by MJuhre at 03:29 PM | Comments (0)
Bill Clinton Bitch-slaps Lieberman, As Key Republicans Cozy Up
After supporting Joe Lieberman (though not very visibly) in the Connecticut Democratic senatorial primary, Bill Clinton gave JoeMentum a good bitch slapping on ABC's Good Morning America yesterday, saying he is in League with Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld.
Trancript:
JAKE TAPPER (ABC): Joe Lieberman said that this was basically liberals in the party purging moderates such as him and you out of the party, and that there needs to be a voice for more moderate national security voices.
CLINTON: Well, if I were Joe and I were running as an independent that’s what I’d say, too. But that’s not quite right. That is, there were almost no Democrats who agreed with his position, which was I want to attack Iraq whether or not they have weapons of mass destruction. And his position was the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld position.
Watch the video at Think Progress. (If link goes dead, hear an archived audio clip (sourced from the Rachel Maddow Show).
Bill must have felt some pleasure letting Lieberman hang out to dry. In the six years since Bush's black ops team kept him from the Vice President's office, Lieberman has not once criticized the Bush administration for its deceptions that led to the Iraq War, but back in 1998, he chastised Clinton, saying he was immoral and abused his office. Back then, Lieberman took Clinton to task over the Monica Lewinsky scandal, saying "such behavior is not just inappropriate. It is immoral."
With a wink to Lieberman, Bush and RNC Chair refuse to endorse GOP candidate.
Clinton's cold shoulder to Lieberman comes as Republicans warm up to the senator by refusing to support the Republican challenger.
This week, White House Tony Snow tripped over himself attempting to explain why Bush is not endorsing the Republican Connecticut senatorial candidate, Alan Schlesinger, leading some to speculate that Lieberman might actually make a switch to the Republican party. (Audio clip sourced from the Rachel Maddow Show.
Last week on Chris Matthews's "Hardball" (MSNBC), Republican National Committee Chair Ken Mellman also refused to endorse the GOP candidate. (Audio clip sourced from the Rachel Maddow Show.
Posted by MJuhre at 11:34 AM | Comments (0)
August 14, 2006
Surprise Suprise -- NYC’s only GOP Congressman is as Corrupt as the Rest
Vito Fossella Rep. (R- Bay Ridge and Staten Island) may picture himself as a kindly friend of children and Muppets.
But in reality, Fossello increasingly resembles so many of his Republican Congressional peers as multiple corruption scandals gain steam.
Yesterday, the Daily News reported Fossello changed his story regarding accusations he violated House rules by using more than $160,000 in taxpayer money for his reelection campaign. The "Muppetgate" allegations center around Fossella's using pictures of himself sitting with Sesame Street’s Elmo in conjunction with a direct-mail campaign promotion.
If misusing taxpayer money for a political campaign isn’t bad enough, The Brooklyn Papers recently reported that Fossella misused more than $52,000 of his campaign money for pleasure trips to Las Vegas and a skiing trip to Colorado, took $16,000 in gifts from political consultants and corporate sponsors for “fact-finding missions” to such places as the Turnberry Isle Resort in Florida.
One such political consultant, the now disgraced Jack Abramoff, hosted a $1000 per-ticket fundraiser for Fossella.
Democratic candidate Stephen Harrison hopes this fall to unseat Fossella, who thus far has refused to debate the challenger. I don’t know much about Harrison, but here’s hoping he is part of a 2006 Democratic Revolution that takes back the House and leaves New York City with 100% Democratic Congressional representation.
(Additional links to the above stories and more can be found at Harrison’s website).
More reading reading:
"Target the Corrupt Republican Campaign" blog
"Challenger wants 4 debates with Fossella" (Staten Island Advance)
Posted by MJuhre at 11:29 AM | Comments (0)
Warrior Souls
I debated momentarily on whether to categorize this nod to Gawker.com as a "Light Hearted Crap" or "Crazy New Order" post. Its connotations a la The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire led me to choose the latter.
Posted by MJuhre at 10:46 AM | Comments (0)
August 10, 2006
Lieberman's Phone Call From the 'Architect' of Bush's 2004 Reelection
Yesterday, I began a post with "If Connecticut voters needed any more evidence that Joe Lieberman is not a 'true Democrat'..." Well, we didn't need more but we got it anyway.
Reuters reports that Chief GOP strategist Karl Rove (I know that's not his title anymore, but let's get real) called Lieberman on election day to "wish him well," though he denied offering Lieberman help from the White House.
Yesterday, ABC News's George Stephanopoulos wrote on his blog that source told him Rove called Lieberman and said "The boss wants to help. Whatever we can do, we will do."
----------------------------------
On the lighter side, Liebermania knows where it's at.
Posted by MJuhre at 02:09 PM | Comments (0)
Cheap Lieberman Website Not Hacked
Joe Lieberman’s accusation that Lamont supporters "hacked his site" may have been more than just a disingenuous, if ill-fated ploy to garner last-minute voter sympathy.
While no evidence has been produced to support the accusation, which still appears on Lieberman’s site as of today, Joe Lieberman might really believe his site fell victim to a vicious denial-of-service (DoS) attack.
But only because he doesn’t know anything about managing a website, bandwidth limitations or, for that matter, the difference between bloggers and hackers (the latter of whom, of course, should really be referred to as crackers -- and I ain’t talking about Pat Robertson -- but I digress ).
Investigators of the story point to evidence suggesting that the number of Internet requests to Joe2006.com simply exceeded the bandwidth allotted to the site, which was hosted on a $14.95/mo account at “myhostcamp.com.”
I suspect Joe and some members of his team have also made a fallacious mental connection between the buzz over their campaign being "blogged down" and activities performed by black hat hackers.
See: "Lieberman's 'hack' was no such thing"
"Joe Lieberman Website May Not Have Been Hacked - Report"
Posted by MJuhre at 12:32 PM | Comments (0)
August 09, 2006
Shia Leaders Propose Dismantling of Iraq
Civil war? What civil war?
The Bush administration’s blind insistence that Iraq will not erupt in civil war received two major blows this week.
A political bloc of Shia Muslim leaders say that a plan to secede from the new Iraqi government and divide the country along religious lines is the only way to avert sustained sectarian violence. See article in the Los Angeles Times.
Meanwhile, on August 7, General George Casey admitted to ABC news that Iraq is poised for civil war, saying “A countrywide, a threat of a countrywide civil war, I think that, I would say, that probably is the most significant threat right now.”
Posted by MJuhre at 04:43 PM | Comments (0)
Joe Lieberman Needs to Step Aside
If Connecticut voters needed any more evidence that Joe Lieberman is not a "true Democrat," as many have exclaimed, or, at the very least, is not loyal to his party or his constituents, they got it when JoeMentum confirmed last night that he would run as an "Independent Democrat," against Ned Lamont and the Republican nominee to hold onto his Senate seat.
"For the sake of our state, our country, and my party, I cannot and will not let that result stand," said Lieberman about his failed primary bid (emphasis mine).
Conventional wisdom says that Lieberman's move will split the Democratic vote and ensure a Republican victory. While the November election could prove the exception to the rule (since many Connecticut Republicans support Lieberman and, so far, the likely GOP nominee for the seat, Alan Schlesinger, isn't gathering much steam), Lieberman's willingness to risk a GOP victory in Connecticut and retention of the Senate in 2006 just proves that he cares more about himself than his party or his constituents.
Lieberman is calling himself an "Independent Democrat." There is no such thing.
Sadly, the political reality on the ground in the modern United States is that a candidate either represents a party or is an "Independent." Lieberman's "Independent Democrat" nomenclature is window dressing for the kicking and screaming child within.
Add this childishness to Lieberman's decision to support Bush's Iraq policy and you get what Lieberman himself ironically dubbed "JoeMentum" -- a downward spiral to political loss.
Many politicians cross party lines on an issue here and there, and are not tarred and feathered for it. Much has been made of Lieberman's unwavering support for Bush's Iraq policy and it is true that his support for a policy that is acutely unpopular with Democrats and, increasingly, with voters of all parties was, in the end, beyond the bounds of political safety.
But his real death knell, of course, came from the venom Dems felt over Joe Lieberman's complacent willingness to offer a reacharound to the same man who, in 2000, unapologetically reamed him out of his just claim to the vice presidency.
There's the rub. To many Democrats, Lieberman simply looks like a lapdog to the GOP. To appear as Bush's little Dem bitch in a time when the GOP's lockstep unity has marginalized anyone left of Dick Cheney, is unacceptable. The majority of Connecticut Democrats last night made it clear that they want their party and their representative to face the GOP head on, not prone. That the newcomer Ned Lamont better reflects their ideals, values, and interests than does Joe Lieberman.
But Lieberman just doesn't care. He is thinking not of his constituents, but of himself. He just wants to keep his Senate seat, probably to foster his delusion that one day he can still win the presidency, or at least the vice presidency.
Joe, if you want to prove to your accusers that they're wrong -- take one for the team. Bow out gracefully, go out with some dignity and complete your corrupt bargain with Bush to replace Donald Rumsfeld as Secretary of Defense.
Posted by MJuhre at 09:46 AM | Comments (0)
August 02, 2006
Goodbye US Bill of Rights -- Hello Sinclair Lewis
It can't happen here. "Or can it?" wondered writer Sinclair Lewis in 1935.
A Bush administration plan for special military courts would give Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld the power to make ANY crime committed by a US citizen fall under military jurisdiction.
Goodbye Amendments 5 and 6 to the US Constitution, which of course are two of the ten Amendments we call the Bill of Rights.
See the Washington Post article, "White House Proposal Would Expand Authority of Military Courts."
------------------------
Amendment 5
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
Amendment 6
In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.
Posted by MJuhre at 03:45 PM | Comments (0)
Hummer Humping
Posted by MJuhre at 03:30 PM | Comments (0)