Medical Marijuana

According to an AARP poll:

Nearly three-fourths of older Americans support legalizing marijuana for medical use, according to a poll done for the nation's largest advocacy group for seniors.

And

Overall, 72 percent of respondents agreed "adults should be allowed to legally use marijuana for medical purposes if a physician recommends it." Those in the Northeast (79 percent) and West (82 percent) were more receptive to the idea than in the Midwest (67 percent) and Southwest (65 percent). In Southern states, 70 percent agreed with the statement.

Though 69 percent of those age 70 and older said they support legal medical marijuana use, less than half agreed it has medical benefits. Seventy percent of respondents age 45-49 said they believe in the medical benefits of pot, as did 59 percent of those in the 50-69 age group.

This poll surprised me a lot. I always imagined that older Americans would be strongly opposed to medical marijuana.

I've never been a huge advocate of complete legalization of most drugs, although I feel that marijuana is not where we should be focusing our enforcement efforts. I feel that it should probably be treated as a ticketable offense, if it's illegal at all. It just doesn't seem that harmful.

I see medical marijuana as a completely separate issue. The benefits of marijuana for cancer and glaucoma patients seem fairly indisputable, and it has always bothered me that a relatively safe, effective and natural alternative is not available for these patients primarily for political reasons.

This seems especially salient as COX-2 inhibitors (Vioxx, Bextra, etc.) are increasingly shown to have major side effects. Honestly, who appointed the people who greenlighted these drugs? Oh. Right.

You have to see this

It's a video by a spoof band called Boy O Boy, and the song is called "Weapon of Mass Affection." The funniest thing I've seen on the web in a long time.

Check it out!

Couldn't you have taken down Nixon?

From Wonkette with Joe Klein filling in:

A Wonkette operative writes:

A friend of mine just got the chance to get a White House tour, and she really wanted to see President Clinton's portrait close up. She couldn't find it, and an usher quietly told her that it had been taken down to make room for Christmas decorations. But there was Bush 41 and Reagan still on the wall.

Knowing the current president, I'm surprised the president wasn't replaced by dogs playing poker or a Big Mouth Billy Bass.

(As I write this, Amazon is sold out on the Big Mouth Billy Bass. Never underestimate the power of redneck merchandising.)

Creepy family values

From the NY Post, so you know it's true:

December 15, 2004 -- Joe Simpson, the former Baptist minister turned manager of daughters Jessica and Ashlee, doesn't shy way from talking about his offspring's physical assets. "Jessica never tries to be sexy," Simpson tells GQ. "She just is sexy. If you put her in a T-shirt or you put her in a bustier, she's sexy in both. She's got double D's! You can't cover those suckers up!"

Her father (the former baptist Minister) then said of his daughter "You show me another chick with a banging body like that and those racktacular sweater puppies to match! Schwing! If I was a younger man, boy would I love to tap that."

Ick.

Rumsfeld gives the signing machine the boot

From Stars and Stripes:

WASHINGTON — Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld will begin personally signing condolence letters sent to families of troops killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, after receiving criticism over his use of mechanical signatures.

Now perhaps you could get your boss to show up at a funeral or at Dover AFB when the remains arrive.

Stem cell reseacher makes rats walk

Fortunately he's in California where he can get his research funded if he needs to use uncontaminated cell lines.

From The State (Columbia, S.C.)

Hans Keirstead is making paralyzed rats walk again by injecting them with healthy brain cells sussed from a reddish soup of human embryonic stem cells he and his colleagues have created.

Keirstead hopes to apply his therapy to humans by 2006. If his ambitious timetable keeps to schedule, Keirstead's work will be the first human embryonic stem cell treatment given to humans.

"I have been shocked, thrilled and humbled at the progress that I have made," Keirstead, 37, said in an interview in his University of California-Irvine office, which is dominated by a 4- by 8-foot collage of famous rock stars created by his artist brother. "I just want to see one person who is bettered by something that I created."

Keirstead has been turning stem cells into specialized cells that help the brain's signals traverse the spinal cord. Those new cells have repaired damaged rat spines several weeks after they were injured.

For the last two years, he has shown dramatic video footage of healed rats walking to scientific gatherings and during campaign events to promote California's $3 billion bond measure to fund stem cell work, which passed in November.

Keirstead and his colleagues are continuing to experiment with rats to ensure the injected cells do what they're supposed to without any side effects.

Bush considers domestic spending freeze

From an article at MSGOP:

Homeland security, defense would be exempt

We wouldn't expect otherwise. It would be an empty room at the inauguration without all of those war profiteers shelling out 100 grand for a creepy candlelight dinner with you, wouldn't it. Gotta keep Wyoming safe from the evildoers.

The president has yet to make final decisions on the $2.5 trillion budget he will send Congress in February, administration officials say. Even so, he and his aides have made it clear that domestic programs will be squeezed.

I look forward to working with Congress on fiscal restraint,” the president said. “And it’s not going to be easy.”

That's our guy, the picture of modern fiscal restraint and the face of shrewd Conservatism.

Or maybe not.

Excluding homeland security and emergencies like hurricanes, domestic spending has grown by 27 percent since Bush took office in 2001.

“I really do believe that this White House gets it,” said Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., a leading House conservative.

Kerik resignation letter

High art in parody from whitehouse.org.

Check it out.

Great point from Digby at Hullaballoo

I've always thought of Michael Moore as a tremendous asset. Most of the people with their briefs in a twist over this are people who never would vote for a Democrat anyway. Democrats watching Fahrenheit 911 left as activists, and the movie had to impress anyone opposed to Moore's views.

A lot of vitriol has been spewed by people who obviously didn't see the film or deliberately kept the blinders on and nitpicked about the "factual inaccuracies", which basically means that "Michael edited the film and didn't give Sean Hannity a two hour rebuttal." I always challenge people to point out even one inaccuracy and guess what. They can't.

But Digby came up with a better way of handling this.

The FOX whore switched on his robotic talking points at the appropriate moment, interrupting Frost's litany of Democratic responses to terrorism with the required smirk, asking Frost how he explained the presence of Michael Moore at the Democratic convention?

Frost, like all Democrats, seems stymied by this and I don't know why. Democrats should just laugh and reply, "Oh come on. Republicans having the vapors over Michael Moore just makes me laugh. There are plenty of provocative Republican media personalities making tons and tons of money saying shocking things. Rush Limbaugh said that Abu Ghraib was a harmless college prank. Ann Coulter said that the terrorists should have blown up the NY Times. I could go on."

"But they aren't invited to sit with former presidents at the Democratic convention!"

"Nope. The sitting Vice President himself appears on Limbaugh's show."

Much better. Ridicule always trumps. I especially enjoyed watching Samantha Bee make this dipshit look like an absolute moron on the Daily Show.

Bill O'Reilly, coward

From the Media Matters Website. It's on, bitch!

Well, Mr. O'Reilly, you have attacked me publicly on numerous occasions, and you refuse to face me. You, sir, are a coward -- by your own definition of the term. You are "hiding under your desk" (to paraphrase your August 26, 2003, claim about a "coward" who declined to appear on your show) rather than allowing me on your program to discuss your insults. You are "gutless," to borrow the phrase you used on January 10, 2003, and February 8, 2001, to describe people who would not appear on your program. I attach additional examples of your pejorative descriptions of those who decline invitations to appear on your broadcast.

Thhwap (hits O'Reilly with glove) GOOD DAY...SIR.

Should you continue to refuse this offer, it is only reasonable that the American people will conclude that you are not only -- as you would put it -- a "coward," but a hypocrite as well.

Sincerely,

David Brock
President and CEO
Media Matters for America

Side note to David - if this goes the way it usually does when questioning wingnuts, I think Zell Miller has a pair of dueling pistols you can borrow. Be careful though -- they shoot farther to the right than anyone thinks, and I don't trust O'Reilly to wait the full ten count.

The grabbing hands grab all they can

Billy Tauzin (R-Pharma), author of most of the Medicare drug law recently retired from Congress. The bill has been heavily criticized as a $250 Million gift to the pharmaceutical industry and private health plans.

Let's check in with what Billy's up to today...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 15 - Representative Billy Tauzin, a principal author of the new Medicare drug law, will become president of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the chief lobby for brand-name drug companies, the trade group announced Wednesday.

Fortunately, he's retired and just doing this as a hobby, right?

Mr. Tauzin (pronounced TOE-zan) and Mr. White refused to discuss Mr. Tauzin's new salary, except to say it was comparable to the pay at other large trade associations. People at other trade groups said they believed that Mr. Tauzin would receive $2 million a year or more.

Rumsfeld taking on water...or is he?

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) is the latest to stick a shiv in Rummy.

"Make it Stop"

The Washington Post has identified a "prison within a prison" at Guantanamo. Wait for the story to break. It'll probably be full of stuff to make Charles Graner shiver.

But through the rose-colored glasses of Scott McClellan:

"Secretary Rumsfeld is doing a great job leading our efforts at the Department of Defense to win the war on terrorism and to help bring about a free and peaceful Iraq, and the president is focused on working closely with him on those matters," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan.

Bought and paid for

From a New York Times article on the inauguration:

WASHINGTON, Dec. 9 - Tickets to all official inaugural events, including an "elegant" candlelight dinner with a special appearance by President Bush: $100,000.

Tickets to all official inaugural events, two additional tickets to an "exclusive" lunch with Mr. Bush and Vice President Cheney, plus an all-access pass to any inaugural ball: $250,000.

and

Even at a time of war when more than 138,000 American troops are serving in Iraq, the organizers say that the inaugural celebration at the end of the January will not be marked by any noticeable restraint and will cost more than any other in history.

Wouldn't want to kill the buzz for all of those war profiteers. I still like Joe Klein's idea for what Kerry could do with the tickets parceled out to his office.

Kinsley article on gay marriage

Michael Kinsley just published a really interesting piece. Basically, he points out that about 15 years ago, he was approached about doing a piece in The New Republic about gay marriage. At the time, he thought it was far outside the mainstream, but he enlisted Andrew Sullivan to write an article on it.

I've felt that any polititian that rails against gay marriage, even in the conservative areas of the country is going to have some explaining to do in a few years. According to a MSGOP poll, half of 18-29 year olds support gay marriage. Not civil unions, marriage. Big ups for Gen Next!

Among the general population, 53% have accepted the idea of civil unions. Not bad, but imagine how low this number would have been even 5 years ago. Hell, imagine how low it would have been 2 years ago. Republicans successfully managed to get their base out in this election by putting referenda banning gay marriage to a vote in any state that was possible. Just how far off do they think it is before people make the small logical step to acceptance of marriage?

From the Kinsley Article in the Salt Lake (yes, Salt Lake) Tribune:

Today's near-universal and minimally respectable attitude - the rock-bottom, nonnegotiable price of admission to polite society and the political debate - is an acceptance of gay people and of open, unapologetic homosexuality as part of American life. This would have shocked, if not offended, the great liberals of a few decades ago - men such as Hubert Humphrey.

Such a development is not just amazing. It is inspiring. American society hasn't used up its capacity to recognize that it harbors injustice, and it remains supple enough to change as a result. In fact, the process is speeding up. It took black civil rights a century, and feminism half a century, to travel the distance gay rights have moved in a decade and a half.

My feeling is that the right knew that this was the last election that these amendments could pass. Those young voters I mentioned in the second paragraph? They're politically active, and they're pissed. So go ahead wingers. Get into bed (metaphor intended) with Falwell, Robertson and Santorum. In five years you'll be overtaken by events, and people will look at you as a paleoconservative Strom Thurmond-class relic. And we know where that got Trent Lott. Apologizing his ass off on BET.

And speaking of Santorum, I'll be setting my TiVo for good ol' Man-on-dog's tearful apology on a very special Queer Eye about 5 years from now.

Zell Miller, whore

From, you guessed it, Faux News:

WASHINGTON — For one night only, it'll be spitballs and Swift Boats (search) together on the same stage — a who's who of Sen. John Kerry (search) bashing.

The American Conservative Union on Thursday announced it has tapped Sen. Zell Miller (search), D-Ga., to present the "Courage Under Fire" award to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth at the Conservative Political Action Conference's Feb. 16 banquet.

and, of course, a nice blowjob from said whore for the Swift Vets:

"The swift boat veterans performed an invaluable service to America," Miller said in a statement. "These veterans took a lot of undeserved criticism for daring to speak the truth."

Mr. Miller, those are some lovely red pumps you're wearing.

Washington Recount Update

This Daily Kos diary discusses how the recount is being done in Washington. It sounds like they've made an effort to allow the observers a fair way to see each ballot and a really effective process to count everything without the possibility of cheating.

It's lengthy, so I'm not going to quote the whole thing, but it sounds like the process is well in hand. Wish I could say the same thing about the news coming from Ohio.

Cahill: We underestimated the Swift Vet ads

From Newsday:

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- The campaign manager for Sen. John Kerry's failed presidential bid said Wednesday she regrets underestimating the impact of an attack advertisement that questioned Kerry's Vietnam War record.

Mary Beth Cahill, who spoke at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government with Ken Mehlman, President Bush's campaign manager, said the Massachusetts senator's campaign initially thought there would be "no reach" to the ad from Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

Instead, the ad, which initially aired in just three states, became a central issue of the campaign, eventually forcing Kerry to personally deny the group's allegations that he did not deserve his combat medals.

"This is the best $40,000 investment made by any political group, but it was only because of the news coverage that it got where it did," she said.

"In hindsight, maybe we should have put Senator Kerry out earlier, perhaps we could have cut it off earlier."

No Shit. I hope upon hope that she for some reason was too busy to watch Fox for a few days. They fanned the flames, and this was the lead story for about a week. I can imagine someone thinking "They have an ad budget of 40,000. There's no possibility that they'll get any traction. We shouldn't even dignify this kind of slime with a response."

This kind of mistake had better never happen again. These people have an entire 24 hour network at their disposal, bought and paid for by their legislative action.

Remember, these are people who, from the president down, have no sense of shame. No shot is too cheap.

The only way to beat them is to dive into the sewer after them and wrestle it out in the slime.

More rats abandoning a sinking ship

Trent Lott became the latest Republican to stick a shiv in Donald Rumsfeld

BILOXI - U.S. Sen. Trent Lott doesn't believe Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld should resign immediately, but he does think Rumsfeld should be replaced sometime in the next year.

"I'm not a fan of Secretary Rumsfeld," Lott, R-Mississippi, told the Biloxi Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday morning. "I don't think he listens enough to his uniformed officers."

Unfortunately, it's more of a case of Lott being an opportunistic whore than feeling empathy for the troops. If you read through the entire article, his real motives become clear - PORK. In this case, he's saving a Naval Station in his home town.

On another military issue, Lott said he hopes the Base Realignment and Closure Commission will consider closing bases overseas rather than in the United States.

"I think we're looking at closures at home before looking at other parts of the world," he said.

Keesler Air Force Base and the Seabee Base in Gulfport most likely will be spared, Lott said, but Naval Station Pascagoula could be affected.

Deep South Judiciary Roundup

First of all, from Louisiana:

A white judge who wore blackface make-up, handcuffs and a jail jumpsuit at a Halloween party will be suspended for six months, the Louisiana Supreme Court ruled on Monday.

The justices voted 5-2 to suspend Judge Timothy Ellender for a year without pay for dishonouring his position, but to defer half of that penalty. Ellender will lose more than $50,000 in pay, one judge noted.

Which two justices voted against this?

Ellender, who is white, testified the costumes worn by him and his wife -- she was dressed as a police officer -- were meant only as a joke to show he was her prisoner.

The justices agreed Ellender did not mean to insult blacks.

Nevertheless, they ordered him to take a sociology course "which will assist him in achieving a greater understanding of racial sensitivity".

Ummm...Couldn't he have been a white prisoner without resorting to all of the minstrel show bullshit? And, please. "The justices agreed Ellender did not mean to insult blacks?" Is there a non-offensive way to take a guy in blackface dressed as a prisoner? Something tells me that the sociology class is going to be a hoot.

Next up on the deep south judiciary roundup. Alabama.

A judge refused to delay a trial Tuesday when an attorney objected to his wearing a judicial robe with the Ten Commandments embroidered on the front in gold.

Here's a few pictures. The robe itself:

And the judge posing with it. Guess justice truly is blind.

What is it about Alabama, anyway? I mean, they had the one ton Franklin Mint Edition of the Word of God there, and this guy is so obviously trying to steal the Judge Roy Moore spotlight.

The case raised comparisons to former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, who was removed from office in 2003 for refusing to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the rotunda of the Alabama Judicial Building in Montgomery.

Moore said Tuesday he supports McKathan's decision to wear the Ten Commandments robe.

"I applaud Judge McKathan. It is time for our judiciary to recognize the moral basis of our law," Moore said.

Then again it is Alabama...

"This court finds you guilty of taking the name of Dale Earnhardt in vain. You are hereby sentenced to an eternal roasting in the tar pits of hell. May the lord who sent these tablets embroidered on my robe have mercy on your soul. (Bangs gavel) Bailiff, please remand this man to the green room of purgatory." GIT-R-DONE!

Don't touch it, you'll go blind

Gotta love an administration that doesn't place any value on science or facts. First, they told us that the existing stem cell lines were valid. You have to love what the folks on the $170 Million abstinence only gravy train are telling kids in their sex ed programs.

The survey was conducted by the staff of congressman Henry Waxman of California, a longstanding Democratic critic of the Republican administration's approach to sex education. His team concentrated on the 13 programs that are most widely used, and found only two of them were accurate.

Now for what the kids are actually being told with a straight face:

The Bush administration is funding sexual health projects that teach children that HIV can be contracted through sweat and tears, touching genitals can result in pregnancy, and that a 43-day-old fetus is a thinking person...

Other "facts" include that abortion can lead to sterility and suicide, half the gay male teenagers in the US have tested positive for HIV, and condoms fail to prevent transmission of HIV in 31% of incidences of heterosexual intercourse. US government figures contradict all of these assertions.

And then there's this gem:

Mr Waxman also criticised some programmes for reinforcing sexist stereotypes to children. One - Why Know - says: "Women gauge their happiness and judge their success by their relationships. Men's happiness and success hinge on their accomplishments."

Another program, Wait Training, says: "Just as a woman needs to feel a man's devotion to her, a man has a primary need to feel a woman's admiration. To admire a man is to regard him with wonder, delight, and approval. A man feels admired when his unique characteristics and talents happily amaze her."

...In other news, a woman's place is in the house, children should be seen and not heard, calico cats are a harbinger of the devil and frogs give you warts.

It reads like Mao's Little Red Book written by Phyllis Schlafly.

Who wrote this bullshit anyway? (The education programs, not Rep. Waxman's report) I'm guessing that these programs were pounded out by the Partnership for a Drug Free America which produces propaganda with a similar level of hyperbole. Hell, maybe Ashcroft pumped them up with caffeine and sent their drafts back a few times for an extra helping of fire and brimstone.

Lying to kids completely destroys the credibility of the person delivering the message. 53 percent of high school kids are having sex anyway. Teaching abstinence is fine, but students need to know the truth, including how to properly use the different methods.

Medals of Honor

I've been looking around for something that describes how I feel about Bremer, Tenet and Franks receiving the medals of honor that they were awarded a few years ago. The Daily Show did a good job yesterday.

However, Fafblog really did a great job with it.

"Can my dog have one too?" "Hell, why not?" says the president. "We got like a truckload a these things."

Rats abandoning a sinking ship

From the WaPo:

This time it's William Kristol (editor, right-leaning Weekly Standard) sticking yet another shiv into the human pincussion that is Rummy.

Bonus points: The title of the article is "The Defense Secretary We Have." Oooh. Snarky!

So the Army is in charge. "They" are working at it. Rumsfeld? He happens to hang out in the same building: "I've talked a great deal about this with a team of people who've been working on it hard at the Pentagon. . . . And that is what the Army has been working on." Not "that is what we have been working on." Rather, "that is what the Army has been working on." The buck stops with the Army.

At least the topic of those conversations in the Pentagon isn't boring. Indeed, Rumsfeld assured the troops who have been cobbling together their own armor, "It's interesting." In fact, "if you think about it, you can have all the armor in the world on a tank and a tank can be blown up. And you can have an up-armored humvee and it can be blown up." Good point. Why have armor at all? Incidentally, can you imagine if John Kerry had made such a statement a couple of months ago? It would have been (rightly) a topic of scorn and derision among my fellow conservatives, and not just among conservatives.

Kristol goes on to chide the secretary and to remind us where the buck should stop.

In any case, decisions on troop levels in the American system of government are not made by any general or set of generals but by the civilian leadership of the war effort. Rumsfeld acknowledged this last week, after a fashion: "I mean, everyone likes to assign responsibility to the top person and I guess that's fine." Except he fails to take responsibility.

And finally, the coup de grace.

These soldiers deserve a better defense secretary than the one we have.

When the right wing media turns on you, you're done like dinner. May your shivs join those of John McCain, Norm Coleman and Chuck Hagel. Kick his ass, Sea Bass!

And Mr. Secretary, when you decide to get out of the country for a few days to let the heat subside, you might want to avoid Germany for a little while.

Letter from Conyers

via the Blue Lemur:

From John Conyers' letter to the Hocking County (includes Xenia) prosecutor and the FBI special agent in charge. He's playing hardball.

On December 13, my staff met with Ms. Eaton who explained to them that last Friday, December 10, Michael Barbian, Jr., a representative of Triad GSI unilaterally sought and obtained access to the voting machinery and records in Hocking County, Ohio, modified the computer tabulator, learned which precinct was planned to be the subject of the initial test recount and made further alterations based on that information, and advised the election officials how to manipulate the machinery so that the preliminary hand recount matched the machine count. Ms. Eaton first relayed this information to Green Party representatives, and then completed, signed and notarized an affidavit describing this course of events, a copy of which is attached.

The reasons the technician gave were kind of vague and well, weak.

The Triad official sought access to the voting machinery based on the apparent pretext that he wanted to review some “legal questions” the officials might receive as part of the recount process.

Conyers spells out what they can use to sweat the details out of the technician.

There are several important considerations you should be aware of with respect to this matter. First, this course of conduct would appear to violate several provisions of federal law, in addition to the constitutional guarantees of equal protection and due process. 42 U.S.C. §1973 provides for criminal penalties against any person who, in any election for federal office, “knowingly and willfully deprives, defrauds, or attempts to defraud the residents of a State of a fair and impartially conducted election process, by . . . the procurement, casting, or tabulation of ballots that are known by the person to be materially false, fictitious, or fraudulent under the laws of the State in which the election is held.” 42 U.S.C. § 1974 also requires the retention and preservation, for a period of twenty-two months from the date of a federal election, of all voting records and papers and makes it a felony for any person to “willfully steal, destroy, conceal, mutilate, or alter” any such record. Further, any tampering with ballots and/or election machinery would violate the constitutional rights of all citizens to vote and have their votes properly counted, as guaranteed by the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Again, I don't think it's enough to make the difference, but the recount is certainly making a lot of people very, very nervous. I've seen enough to know that there was substantial voter suppression in this election; people waiting in line for 10 hours is prima facie evidence of that. However, hopefully this will finally cause someone to be prosecuted, and hopefully he'll squeal on someone higher up.

Did anyone not see this coming?

The missile defense system failed another test It was meant to be in operation by the end of this year. They even had a homing beacon on it and waited for clear weather. Maybe if they slowed the rocket down a little bit.

Meanwhile, we can't seem to find the money to armor our Humvees for troops that are already on the ground. Just exactly what does Rumsfeld have to do to get fired?

An attempt to launch an interceptor missile as part of the U.S. missile defense shield failed early Wednesday in the first test of the system in nearly two years.

The Missile Defense Agency said the ground-based interceptor automatically shutdown "due to an unknown anomaly" shortly before it was to be launched from Kwajalein Atoll in the central Pacific Ocean.

and

The missile defense shield was meant to be in operation by the end of 2004.

In earlier tests, missile interceptors had a record of five-for-eight in hitting target missiles.

Ed Rendell Considering Moving Up Pennsylvania Primary

Please tell me that this means he's considering running for president. He's got the right personality for the job and used to be mayor of a major city (Philadelphia.) He's also the governor of one of our three major swing states. Finally, his state is adjacent to Ohio. Our best chance in 2008.

HARRISBURG - The late spring date for Pennsylvania's presidential primary effectively eliminates the fifth-biggest electoral state from the nominating process, Gov. Rendell said yesterday in announcing the formation of a task force to study the timing of the primary and other election issues.

Rendell, reviving a proposal that has cropped up often over the years but has failed to gain any traction, said he would like to move the state's presidential primary from late April to late January or early February.

"Pennsylvanians are deprived of their rightful place in the selection of a nominee because of the lateness of the primary," Rendell said at a news conference.

Am I the only one that noticed...

That the Little Green Footballs patch...

Is a reptile fucking a dead pig?

I think I just figured out where Young Republicans come from! Honestly guys, you made it too easy. On the other hand, it'll be the must-have outfit for the next Brooks Brothers riot. Say, for consistency, shouldn't that shirt be brown?

From a Pandagon post

Zell Miller's been hired by Fox News. Expect the expected.

What really killed me on this was this comment:

"Pistols at noon, Chris!!!"

Help for the Kerik job search

According to CNN, you can now hire a professional wingman.

At Arriviste Press, a small Boston-based publishing house, writers have launched a Virtual Wingman service on the company's Web site. All clients have to do is plug in a few details about themselves and what the sort of date they're looking for and, using that information, the virtual wingmen will craft a personal ad, free of charge.

Meanwhile, in cities such as Chicago and New York, a person can rent out a real, live wingperson on an hourly basis.

And I was thinking, Kerik's got some time on his hands and more hot publishing mogul lust than he knows what to do with. Maybe he wants to share the wealth.

This got me thinking...Could I also hire a professional cockblock to doom my competition? My guess is this guy's friend (same article) would take care of it for a few bucks. Hell, he might even handle it pro bono for a few shots of tequila if you aimed him the right way..

He was a senior at Villanova University, and his roommate was playing the role of wingman when they met two cheerleaders for the Philadelphia 76ers basketball team.

"We were going out of our way to make myself seem like a fun guy -- and things were going well," Dybsky says. Then his roommate, who'd gotten a little too drunk, abruptly threw up all over the table.

A fun idea from Wonkette.

Actually, from Joe Klein, who is filling in for her this week.

Apparently, each Senator gets a number of tickets to the inaugural balls, including Kerry. Klein's idea?

We hear Kerry is also putting together a nice brunch for President Bush on Inauguration Day and that he's bought up 200 tickets to the coveted "Black Tie & Boots" Texas State Society inaugural ball, which he'll give away free to any young Republicans who want to go. As long as they're a gay married couple.

Oh please...In the name of all that is right and fun let this happen.

Maybe not even married. C'mon. Wouldn't you just love to see the Queer Eye guys show up?

...And, Mr. President, this is Kyan, Jai, Carson, Thom and Ted. Ted would like to take issue with the hot dogs served on Chinet at a formal event. Kyan has some product for you to smooth away some of those furrows caused by your grown-up 10 pm bed time and all that "hard work" you cited in the debate. Carson wants to make some snarky comments about the boots and your outfit. Something about "All hat and no cattle", whatever that means. Thom has some ideas about making the place look like it wasn't decorated by a rodeo clown, and Jai wants to teach you to boot scoot.

C'mon. Picture him in full-on cowboy getup line dancing. Imagine if someone could get Ari Fleischer or Scottie out there. Hell, they could do an hour show just on Karl Rove. Anyone got Kerry's number? Let's make this happen, people!

Oh, and Mr. President, Koizumi obviously loves your clog dancing, but you should really zip up.

Looks like this fancy lad just got his ticket!

Sometimes the power of Google just makes me feel warm all over

Actually, it should be the power of Google, WHOIS (to look up who owns internet domains), opensecrets.org (follow the campaign money), MP3 streaming audio, a brief discussion on persistant memory, Mapquest (determines, among other things, distances between points), a plain old low-tech phone call and a discussion about what kind of data could be lost if a CMOS battery died on a DOS system. It makes an old-school geek weep.

Let me explain.

It's another Daily Kos Diary, this one about a Triad (vote counting and tabulation) employee who apparently futzed with a tabulating machine, had it lose its memory somehow, swapped some parts and got it running again. The tech indicated that the election officials should post a crib sheet of the count somewhere so they could report it and have it match the previously reported count exactly.

Read it - it might be true, it might not. I work around computers and computer people, many of whom fall far short of being competent at their trade. It's entirely reasonable to me that this guy is some schlub who managed to screw up a machine, feared losing his job and tried to cover his tracks. In fact, I can even see the machine's CMOS battery dying, the machine losing the information on how many sectors were on the drive, and the tech going into a state of panic and doing something really stupid. Of course, something more sinister might be afoot.

But what really amazed me is the power of the Internet to provide information for people to sniff out the truth on this. To summarize the posts:

"Hey - I found where all of the text files containing the data are stored."

"Look! These Triad people actually host the board of elections websites."

"The son of they guy who wrote the counting software registered the board of election's website."

"They host the websites of a lot of county election boards."

"Dad gave a fair chunk of change to Dubya."

"They're all in a group/club with the Alabama elections administrator."

"Here's the audio of the original news report in MP3 format."

"They know who the technician was but are withholding it pending further investigation."

"The story is on David Cobb's (the Green candidate behind the recount) website."

"How can a dead battery destroy data stored on a hard drive." (followed by the discussion of CMOS and BIOS.)

"The Greene county board of elections is only three miles from Triad's headquarters."

"Forensic computing can tell if the technician replaced the hard drive."

"I called the president of Triad and he shed some light on the procedure for a recount."

From a related diary, the software was DOS based and written in FoxPro. (Editor's note: I used to code in FoxPro. The DOS version of FoxPro (and Dos itself) pretty much disappeared from wide use about 12 years ago. If nothing else, Triad has seriously milked the election cash cow for some time now.)

Of course, the comments contained the usual criticism of Kos because he doesn't soil his reputation with such things until they're safely out of the Tinfoil Hat realm.

And all of this in less than 24 hours from the original post.

And that's exactly my point. The Internet has made each of us an armchair Sherlock Holmes. Some, maybe all of these leads will turn out to be coincidence or red herrings. But if there is incontravertible proof of fraud out there, rest assured that it will be found by bloggers and activists following the affiliations, the meetings, the security logs and the money.

And should anyone dare to overlook it, we have long memories. If you shill for the president, it might be a bad idea to commit statuatory rape or have a nanny problem/mob ties/warrants for your arrest/multiple mistresses/who vetted this guy anyway?

Durbin's comments on Dean

From Daily Kos, based on Durbin's visit to This Week:

The following are Dick Durbins' quotes on the candidacy of Howard Dean to become chairman of the DNC. Durbin (D-IL) is my favorite senator (until the inauguration of Barack Obama, anyway.) He is currently the Democratic Whip in the Senate, and he should be Vice-President elect at the moment. (No knock on Johnny Sunshine; I just think that Durbin would have played better in the Midwest.)

Here's the quote:

I'm not going to be endorsing Howard or any particular candidate. I hope we find the right person. But I do associate myself with his remarks. He's right, we shouldn't be giving up states, saying, 'Well, they'll be red forever,' or blue forever. We have to look at a national strategy as a party. And I've learned that as I've come back to the Senate [...]

I'm open to Howard's suggestions for leadership. And I also have to tell you, don't overlook what he accomplished. He may not have moved forward in the presidential primary process, but he activated hundreds of thousands of people across America in a way we've never seen. Howard Dean made a great contribution to the American political scene. I want him as part of the leadership of the Democratic National Committee even if he's not the chairman.

My guess is that he's covering his bets because of his role in the Senate, but there is a rumbling consensus amongst the activists that Dean ought to be the guy.

I've liked Dean from square one, thought he should have been our nominee. Had he been, I'm convinced that we would be planning his inauguration now.

A few quick reasons why he's perfect for the job.

Unparalled grass roots fundraising skills. Soft money is history, and I'm convinced the Republicans are going to clamp down on the 527s, seeing that they lost that fight. Dean came out of nowhere to become the front-runner. Maybe the orange beanies and young volunteers were a little bit much for socially conservative Iowa, but he did manage to get people pounding pavement.

It was one scream. Get over it all ready. Seriously, take that speech, dial it down a notch and chop the scream and it would have been a motivating moment for all time. Plus, he's already shown he can laugh at it via the Yahoo ads. That, my friends is spin done right.

He has the rare gift to speak in clear sentences and cover complex topics while sounding like an everyman. This is, to me, the mark of an excellent politician. Bill Clinton has it, Obama has it (big time.) So does Durbin, Ed Rendell, John Edwards and Henry Cisneros. It's the art of staying on message without sounding like a spin doctor. It's the art of sounding candid while making a forceful point. It's the art of banishing dependent clauses from your speeches. The chairman of the DNC shows up on a lot of Sunday morning talk shows. Think about how many times we saw Terry McAuliffe and Ed Gillespie.

Speaking of banishment... Is anyone more likely to send Bob Shrum off to the Old Speechwriters' home for tired ideas? "Run a polite campaign and take the high ground. The whole Swift vets thing will backfire." Brilliant calculation, dickhead. A shrewd politician would have come out with guns blazing, thrown his opponent one of Carville's anvils and dove into the sewer after him to make sure he didn't surface after he hit bottom. Bob shall be missed.

We shouldn't have a hawk running the DNC. Not now, not ever. Bush has made a huge mistake in the war in Iraq, and we need consistent daylight between his position and ours.

Finally, I'm convinced that nobody will think outside the box more than Dean. We need to win seats in the South and the Mountain West, and he's the guy to do it.

He's not perfect. In particular, I disagree with his views on guns, but Dr. Dean has the ability to motivate people, shrewd political skills and the fundraising ability we can only dream of in a chairman. True believers aren't going to turn out for some DLC DINO. Please - listen to the grass roots and don't give the job to some insider hack.

Another Sign of the Apocolypse

I grew up in Western New York, and my beloved Bills are 7-2 in their last 9 games after starting 0-4. SI's Peter King seems to think they have a good shot at making the playoffs.

But Buffalo has scored 37, 38, 42 and 37 in wins over St. Louis, Seattle, Miami and Cleveland the past month. Since starting 0-4, the Bills are 7-2. They're rapidly becoming The AFC Team No One Wants To See Win The Second Wild Card.

OK, you could have stopped before that last sentence, dipshit.

Think of it. The Bills can make the playoffs. This guy is clearly slacking. You heard it first here, kids. The Red Sox won the series and now this. Prepare for locusts!

The Wheels are Coming off for Rummy

From today's Wolf Blitzer interview of Chuck Hagel (R-NE), via Atrios.

BLITZER: But very briefly to you, Senator Hagel, were you disappointed that the president asked Rumsfeld to stay on?

HAGEL: The president's decision is his decision. He will live with that decision. He'll have to defend that decision. And that's all I want to say about it.

BLITZER: All right, Senators, stand by. We have a lot more to talk about. We're going to take a quick break, though.

On the other hand, he still has the blind loyalty of the Freepers. Check the comments here. Bonus points, one of them even blames Clinton.

McCain has no confidence in Rumsfeld

...That makes two of us.

From the Seattle Post-Intellegencer

PHOENIX -- U.S. Sen. John McCain said Monday that he has "no confidence" in Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, citing Rumsfeld's handling of the war in Iraq and the failure to send more troops.

McCain, speaking to The Associated Press in an hourlong interview, said his comments were not a call for Rumsfeld's resignation, explaining that President Bush "can have the team that he wants around him."

Of course, he still reserves the right to a little bit of frustration.

When asked if Rumsfeld was a liability to the Bush administration, McCain responded: "The president can decide that, not me."

About election fraud

I just noticed the following on Yahoo News:

CONCORD, N.H. - President Bush (news - web sites)'s former New England campaign chairman pleaded innocent Monday to charges that he took part in the jamming of the Democrats' get-out-the-vote phone lines on Election Day 2002.

James Tobin, 44, was charged with conspiracy to commit telephone harassment and aiding and abetting. He could get up to five years in prison if convicted; his trial begins Feb. 1.

and

Two other Republicans have pleaded guilty in the phone-jamming operation and are scheduled to be sentenced in February and March.

In 2002, six phone lines run by the Democrats and the Manchester firefighters union were tied up for 1 1/2 hours by 800 computer-generated hang-up calls. Federal prosecutors said Tobin and other Republicans had hired a company to make the calls to disrupt the organizations' get-out-the-vote efforts.

Among the races affected by the jamming was the Senate contest between Democratic Gov. Jeanne Shaheen and Republican Rep. John E. Sununu. Sununu won by about 20,000 votes.

I'm really glad to see that someone is being prosecuted for this.

Just a reminder that, as far as I'm aware, nobody has been prosecuted for this:

Russell worked for a company called Voters Outreach of America, along with 300 other people. He says he got into a beef with the company over a pay dispute, and witnessed his bosses ripping up registration forms that had been filed by democrats.

"They were thrown away in the trash. I grabbed them out," said Eric Russell. One of those forms belonged to Daren Gray, who was shocked to learn that the re-registration form he filled out was never turned in.

The company was paid directly by the Bush campaign:

Nevada Democrats came out swinging Wednesday. "Most disturbing is that Voter Outreach of America is being paid by the National Republican Party and we ask how can people have faith in government if a national party is involved in trickery in depriving people the right to vote," said Clark County Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates.

The Republican National Committee acknowledges that it hired Voters Outreach of America to register voters, but in a statement said it had zero tolerance for any kind of fraud.

The Bush campaign, more than anyone else, should want to get this and any other campaingn matter into the daylight to prove their innocence.

or maybe not.

In February of this year, CREW had filed a complaint with the FEC alleging that Norquist gave Ken Mehlman, the campaign manager for Bush-Cheney '04 a "master contact list," including the names and information of conservative activists in 37 states compiled by Norquist over a period of 5 years.

and

On November 2nd, the FEC sent CREW a letter stating that the Commission agreed that all parties had, in fact, violated campaign finance laws, but stating that Commission had determined to dismiss the matter without taking further action.

More on the recount

From a letter from Kerry's lawyer in Ohio:

2. We request that each candidate be given the opportunity to select at least one precinct for a hand count, either as part of or in addition to the three percent hand count.

For those counties that use touch screen voting systems, we request that the three percent hand count include a hand count of three percent of the ballot images stored in the each of the redundant memories of the machines selected for the recount and on any paper trail for the machines.

Read the whole letter - I think that they covered their bases fairly well. However, the salient points are contained in these two sentences. The three percent recount has to show a change to recount the whole thing.

For the first part, I'd imagine that these precincts would be good candidates to be hand counted.

At the two precincts located at Benedictine, both heavily Democratic, Libertarian Michael Badnarik received 164 votes, almost half as many as Kerry, who got 334. In the adjacent precinct, Constitution Party candidate Michael Peroutka received 215 votes to Kerry's 299.

Because most of the problems occurred in heavily Democratic precincts, the errors seem to have cost votes for Kerry, the newspaper reported.

The second sentence above (about the images in the electronic voting machines) was news to me. I had no idea that the electronic scan machines stored images. I'm glad that it's possible to view the original ballot as well as what the machine "saw."

Why we recount

From the AP:

A statewide hand recount is under way across Washington state after Republican Dino Rossi came out ahead of Gregoire by just 42 votes out of 2.9 million cast.

and

Logan said election workers mistakenly rejected 561 absentee ballots because they thought signatures on the ballots did not match original voter registration records.

However, he said that the signatures simply were not on file in the county's computerized voter registration system and that original registration records should have been checked.

This kind of thing is why we need to do recounts when things look unusual. In this case, the recount will be done by hand, which should definitively settle things. It also smooths out problems before they can occur again.

It also points to the importance of a paper trail. In a typical touch screen environment, these votes would be lost forever.

20 Amazing Facts About Voting

Still think that we don't need to do recounts and investigate the election mess?

Read this Daily Kos diary. Some of it treads into tinfoil hat territory, but a lot of it is sound analysis as to why we need oversight, quality control and spot hand counts for these systems.

Stop right there, Joe Lieberman

Looks like the Bush administration wants to make you the head of Homeland Security so they can pin any terrorist attack on the Democratic party and have your Republican governor appoint a Republican in your place.

I've already lost total respect for you based on your knives in the backs of Kerry and Dean, but in the name of all that is right and good, please don't do this.

Oh, and I've quoted two articles from Bloomberg in the same week. Gotta shower now.

For those of you wondering

what we could have done with the money spent in Iraq, here's a handy web page.

And remember that there's no way in hell that Gore would have ever gotten us into a mess like this.

"Totally Unjustified and Very, Very Wasteful"

From the New York Times:

WASHINGTON, Dec. 9 - An intense secret debate about a previously unknown, enormously expensive technical intelligence program has burst into light in the form of scathing criticism from members of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

For two years, the senators have disclosed, Republicans and Democrats on the panel have voted to block the secret program, which is believed to be a system of new spy satellites. But it continues to be financed at a cost that former Congressional officials put at hundreds of millions of dollars a year with support from the House, the Bush administration and Congressional appropriations committees.

Senator John D. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia, the ranking Democrat on the panel, denounced the program on Wednesday on the Senate floor as "totally unjustified and very, very wasteful."

It comes out of the "black budget."

Even the $40 billion figure attached to the current intelligence budget remains no more than an estimate, because spending figures remain classified by law. But much of the budget is widely understood to be devoted to the design, construction and operation of satellites and other platforms used to collect images, signals and other forms of technical intelligence.

Many critics have long complained that human intelligence programs remain underfinanced, at least in relative terms. In a directive last month, President Bush asked the C.I.A. to spell out a plan and a timetable to increase its clandestine service by 50 percent.

A lot of sensible voices are speaking out against it.

But an unclassified version of the conference report released on Wednesday reported that Senators Carl Levin of Michigan and Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, both Democrats, along with Mr. Rockefeller and Mr. Wyden, had refused to sign the compromise.

My guess? Probably the four senators got a look at what Rummy had in mind:

...In other news, Homeland Security is searching for a pair of fraternal twins with unusual haircuts.

(Yeah, I know. Rummy as Vader is a cheap shot...)