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Showing posts from August, 2008

Unsurpringly, McCain didn't do very well at Linux World 2008

I think the final tally was something like 5-to-1 Obama over McCain. Mind you, Linux World 2008 was in downtown San Francisco, which may be the "bluest" city in the world (eat your heart out, Eugene, Oregon!). What is it? Open Voting Consortium has designed and created a secure, open sourced version of the electronic voting machine. These run Linux, but I do not see any reason why they couldn't also support Free or Net BSD, Open Solaris or some other platform (even MS Windows or OS X). Instead of paying $4000 or more for a Diebold manufactured proprietary and closed-architecture voting machine, these machines run on commodity hardware with a price tag of roughly $400 or less. And unlike their proprietary counterparts, the OVC machine provides a paper trail with a securely signed receipt. More over, the ultimate value of this system is that peer review is possible for anyone who cares to download the code and read it themselves. Unlike today, to borrow a phrase from a movi

Liberal Media

Pass it on: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/08/23/politics/animal/main4376842.shtml Fournier Is At It Again By Steve Benen (Political Animal) FOURNIER IS AT IT AGAIN.... The latest piece from Ron Fournier, the AP's Washington bureau chief and the man responsible for directing the wire service's coverage of the presidential campaign, on Joe Biden joining the Democratic ticket, is drawing a fair amount of attention this morning. More importantly, McCain campaign staffers are pushing it fairly aggressively to other reporters, in large part because it mirrors the Republican line with minimal variation. Who is Ron Fournier? http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Ron_Fournier Ron Fournier is the acting Washington bureau chief for Associated Press (AP). [1] He formerly served as the AP's chief political writer and subsequently as "online political editor". In mid-2006, Fournier was a founding member and editor in chief of the online political and socia

Politics and Religion Redux - Its going to be a long road to November

I am ambivalent about this commercial, but stripped of its religious underpinning, I agree with (and who wouldn't) the underlying argument. In the 1990s, especially after the 1994 mid-terms and Newt Gingrich's "Contract With America", the hegemony of the right wing and the religious right became iron-firm (although it has its roots with Reagan, a draft-dodging Hollywood actor and sportscaster who beat last centuries most authentically religious president, Jimmy Carter, partially by appealing to "family values" conservatives). The net effect of the past 31 years of religious rule in America has arguably been a disaster for many people. The effect of the cynicism of "new" Republican rule and their systematic and intentional bungling of services can been seen on a daily basis in San Francisco, a city that is understandably liberal. Reagan's dismantling of services for the poor, the addicted and the mentally ill has now become my problem, as a San

The Obama Nation

Folks, As you know, Jerome R. Corsi of "Unfit to Serve: Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" infamy has penned another precious tome to fuel the pulpy conflagration that is this election cycle, namely, " The Obama Nation ". This screed is poised to overtake, if it has not already, the #1 slot in the New York Times Nonfiction Bestsellers list, which is ironic as by most reasonable accounts the book is a work of fiction. Never mind that many book stores have received bulk orders of the book, some by the palette. Surely not all of the book's readership is also fictional. Yet, Corsi has enjoyed a plethora of media coverage, bolstered by the "fact" of his latest opus' "status" as a top selling book. If this offends your sense of fairness, Nation, you are not alone. The Corsi commentator conundrum requires containment. But what can be done? As you know, I would never, never, never recommend that we, as Obama supporters, take the tack of hitt

The Change You Deserve

See New Republican slogan and more funny videos on FunnyOrDie.com See more funny videos at Funny or Die Of course, its not just Republicans. Harold Ford Jr, head of the Republicans in Democrats clothing "Democratic Leadership Council" famously said "the constitution doesn't poll well." If that doesn't sum up the failure of the American body politic, and its constituency, surely the flat "Money Bomb" of the Accountability Now PAC is further evidence. On the entire Internet, only 2300 people could be bothered to contribute money to be used to hold politicians feet to the fire for their failures on FISA, the Global War on Terror, torture and so on. On the anniversary of Richard M Nixon's resignation, and here, 34 years later, we collectively shrug. Shameful. Once again, and near Alexandria, our empire feeds it's coffers with foreign riches. Abroad, too many of us for too long have been tempted to shield ourselves under the banner SPQA - S