A Pumpkin We Can Believe In

My attempt at a Barack O'Lantern: Stencil and idea from Yes We Carve
(18:56) [/Politics] #

America Has Spoken

The American public has spoken and they've chosen Bush. They've chosen the war in Iraq and it's false pretexts and it's aftermath. They've chosen the trampling of civil liberties and the torturing of enemies. They've bought the tax giveaways to the rich that will result in an even more permanent privileged class at the expense of the working people. They've chosen bigotry and hate of gay people. And yes, they've given a big F-U to the environment.

Yesterday we could say that election 2000 was a fluke, a mistake, that we didn't know what we were getting. Now we know and we chose it again and we'll just have to live with it.
(12:10) [/Politics] #

Now that's a picture...

For the story behind the photo, hop over to Wonkette
(18:23) [/Politics] #

Margaret Cho

So the other day, Margaret Cho performed at a MoveOn.org show. Matt To-Lazy-To-Be-A-Real-Journalist Drudge then posted an out of context "transcript" which was picked up by the conservative muckraking site reerepublic.com. Whoopie. Conservative echo-chamber at it's best.

But then the email started to arrive. And not surprisingly most of it was pure hate. Really pathetic stuff. You can read a bunch of it here. The best tho is this response she sent to one guy. Priceless.
(13:25) [/Politics] #

Unelectable

Unelectable

pass it on...
(12:59) [/Politics] #

Something to keep an eye on... Devious doings by Senate

aids...

"It is with deep regret that I must report today that the interviews conducted to date have revealed at least one current member of Judiciary Committee majority staff had improperly accessed some of the [Democratic] documents," Hatch said.

Well, isn't that interesting...
Hatch suspends GOP aide (TheHill)
(08:55) [/Politics] #

More...

One more highlight from the previous article:

"Bush told his senior aides Tuesday that he "didn't want to see any stories" quoting unnamed administration officials in the media anymore, and that if he did, there would be consequences, said a senior administration official who asked that his name not be used."

Better than reading the Onion...
(09:13) [/Politics] #

Illustrating the point

Classic:

WASHINGTON - Concerned about the appearance of disarray and feuding within his administration as well as growing resistance to his policies in Iraq, President Bush - living up to his recent declaration that he is in charge - told his top officials to "stop the leaks" to the media, or else.

News of Bush's order leaked almost immediately.

Seems he's more interested in protecting his own image than protecting national security...
Bush orders officials to stop the leaks (Philly Inquirer)
(09:06) [/Politics] #

From bad to worse

If you thought the Florida recount was bad, wait until the next time (2004?) when they just fire up the big fancy computer and tell us who won. No recounts necessary because there will be no recount possible.

Maryland is a case in point. Currently at the center of a controversy, Maryland purchased 5000 such machines in March 2002 (at a cost of $17 million) and has signed an agreement to purchase another 11,000 at a cost of $55.6 million. The Rubin report, mentioned above, prompted Maryland Gov. Robert L. Erhlich Jr. to hire Science Applications International (SAIC) to perform an independent risk assessment Diebold's machines. The risk assessment was performed from August 5th through August 26th 2003 and the 200-page report was delivered to State officials on Sep 2. After substantial redacting the report was made public on September 24th. The SAIC found 328 security weaknesses, 26 of them critical, and concluded that "the system, as implemented in policy, procedure, and technology, is at high risk of compromise."

Diebold Machines and Your Vote (Agonist)
(09:24) [/Politics] #

Mitt ready to kill

Gee, Mitt wants the death penalty. But not to worry because he wants "a standard of certainty" before doing the deed. Never mind that won't actually deter any crime and will just end up costing us a big boatload of cash... As to the proposed safeguards:

To prevent mistakes, he said, he expected that the legislation would stipulate that "there would always be physical evidence" tying the defendant to the crime, unless the defendant confessed. "What I would not want is where somebody is looking at capital punishment based on circumstantial evidence, or even eyewitness accounts," Mr. Romney said.

Oh good... because nobody's ever confessed to something they didn't do.

Push in Massachusetts for a Death Penalty (NYTimes)
(09:32) [/Politics] #