Day: December 26, 2006

Florida District 13: Oooh-oh, That Smell!

Trish

Two things to take from this post: 1) Bush, et al campaigned way too hard for this loser to lose, and 2) Oh no, you did-int say the voters can’t see how the votes are recorded!

I didn’t think I would still be this appalled, all these weeks later, about the race in which Republican multimillionaire car dealer Vern Buchanan stole the U.S. House Florida District 13 seat. But with the Jetsonesquely named iVotronics’ manufacturer claiming that we, the voting public, have no right to know how (or if) their machines work, I’m outraged all over again.

Of all the races where there could have been problems with electronic voting machines, isn’t it funny that the one where the Bush Administration lobbied most heavily is the one that looks the most tampered with?

By now, everyone knows the story: Buchanan, according to his own internal polling, was behind Democrat Christine Jennings by three to six points going into the election. Jennings voters, upon exiting the booths, immediately reported difficulties with the touch-screen interface in that one race.

Not in dispute is how many voters were affected — about 18,000. The reason why 18,000 voters drove all the way down to the polling place, signed up for a ballot, cast a vote in every other race on that ballot, and then just stopped, is less clear.

Depending on who you listen to, 18,000 random folks lost interest and whiffed off just as they were about to choose between Buchanan and Jennings. Another theory holds that 18,000 people participated in a mass, extemporaneous protest of negative ads which somehow failed to stop them from voting in the governor’s race. That was the one where Republican Charlie Crist ran a month-long ad blitz with an empty chair portraying his opponent.

As we reported just before the election, Buchanan had some heavyweight support. Both Pres. and Mrs. Bush appeared on his behalf, with Laura making multiple visits. America’s mayor, Rudy himself, stumped for Buchanan, and the Vice President even left the secret bunker to make rare, daylight appearances. No doubt his garlic necklace kept him safe.

Yet, of all the races where there could have been problems with electronic voting machines, isn’t it a funny coincidence that the one where the Bush Administration lobbied most heavily is the one that looks the most tampered with?

And with ES&S, the machine’s maker, refusing to divulge how its machines work, things are getting fishier and fishier. Can you imagine the makers of optical scanning machines refusing to tell anyone how it scans ballots? Excuse me? When did Americans make a deal to be kept in the dark about the accuracy of vote counting? Was I out of the room?

It’s time for us all to wake up and smell the tuna — and this one’s been decomposing since Nov. 7.

Christmas Milestone in Iraq: More Dead than 9/11

Trish

Merry Christmas from George Bush:

The milestone in Iraq came on Christmas, nearly four years after the war began

In a span of a few hours, 2,973 people were killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. In a span of 45 months, the number of American troops killed in Iraq exceeded that grim toll as the war continues.

The milestone in Iraq came on Christmas, nearly four years after the war began, according to a count by The Associated Press.

The U.S. military on Tuesday announced the deaths of six more American soldiers, pushing the U.S. military death toll since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003 to at least 2,977, four more than the number killed in the Sept. 11 attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

Bush on Foreign Affairs in 2000: ‘Let Us Not Dominate Others with Our Power, or Betray Them with Our Indifference’

Jon Ponder

“The duties of our day are different. But the values of our nation do not change. Let us reject the blinders of isolationism, just as we refuse the crown of empire. Let us not dominate others with our power — or betray them with our indifference. And let us have an American foreign policy that reflects American character. The modesty of true strength. The humility of real greatness. This is the strong heart of America. And this will be the spirit of my administration.”

– Governor George W. Bush, during his presidential campaign in 2000, proving he’ll read aloud but without comprehension whatever his aides put in front of him.

On This Date – December 26

Jon Ponder
  • 2004 – A tsunami generated by a 9.0 earthquake in the Indian Ocean killed 280,000 people.
  • 1997 – Lesbian Regan Wolf of Lancaster, South Carolina, was knocked unconscious by three men who brutally beat her, strung her up from her front porch, and painted “Jesus weren’t born for you, faggot.” Despite giving police the identity of the three men, the sheriff’s office took no action. She was attacked more severely six months later.[365Gay.com]
  • 1972 – Harry S. Truman, the 33rd president of the United States, died in Kansas City, Mo., at age 88.[NYT]
  • 1893 – Mao Tse-tung, the Chinese statesman who led the communist revolution in China and became its first communist leader, was born. He died on September 9, 1976. [NYT]

Hamburger and Milk Are Primary Causes of Global Warming and Water Pollution

Jon Ponder
In California, the nation’s leading dairy state, 1.7 million cows on 2,100 dairies produce 65 billion pounds of manure a year.

Which contributes more to the greenhouse gases that cause global warming, cars or cows?

According to a study released a month ago by the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), it’s cows, hands down:

the livestock sector generates more greenhouse gas emissions as measured in CO2 equivalent — 18 percent — than transport. It is also a major source of land and water degradation.

Says Henning Steinfeld, Chief of FAO’s Livestock Information and Policy Branch and senior author of the report: “Livestock are one of the most significant contributors to today’s most serious environmental problems. Urgent action is required to remedy the situation.”

The report projects that global consumption of meat from cows and other farm animals is projected to raise from 465 million tons in the next 40 years.

The report says that methane from ruminants’ digestive system is responsible for 37 percent of methane in the atmosphere. Methane is 23 times more powerful as a contributor to global warming than carbon monoxide.

Livestock now uses 30 percent of the surface, when pastureland and the farmlands used to raise their feed are combined.

Closer to home, the pollution produced by farm factories producing meat and milk are pushing the fragile geography of the state to the brink:

In California, the nation’s leading dairy state, 1.7 million cows on 2,100 dairies produce 65 billion pounds of manure a year.

What can you do? Stop the madness. Quit eating meat. It’s that simple. The earth cannot sustain itself indefinitely as billions of people depend on these farm factories where living, sentient beings are “processed” like inanimate objects.

It is barbaric and it is killing the planet.