Monday, June 20, 2005

t r u t h o u t - The Free Press | Did Bush Steal 2004 Election?

Yes, I think he did, just like he stole the 2000 election.

The controversy surrounding the voting machines remains extremely fierce in part because major manufacturers such as Diebold, ES&S, Triad, and others are controlled by partisan Republican companies with secret proprietary software. This unfortunate lack of transparency calls all US elections into question. In a highly publicized controversy, Diebolt principal Walden O'Dell, a resident of central Ohio, pledged in a 2003 GOP fundraising letter to deliver Ohio's electoral votes to George W. Bush, leaving the indelible suspicion that he might do it fraudulently. US Senator Chuck Hagel (R-NE) is a principle in another major voting machine company, ES&S, on which many millions of votes were cast in 2004. Hagel was elected and re-elected in balloting that relied on ES&S machines. Such apparent conflicts of interest have left the poisonous impression that America's right to cast a ballot in secret has been transcended by a private partisan company's right to count votes in secret. In fact, the question of electronic voting machines remains the single largest "black hole" in the entire electoral process. Nationwide at least 30% of the votes in 2004 were cast on such "black box" machines, more than enough to have tipped the balance in the popular vote from John Kerry to George W. Bush.

So let me get this straight - the companies that control and produce the voting machines are run by partisan Republicans? Should we be surprised when the Republican candidate in the swing states is declared the winner? I've got an idea - how about America has another country, like, say, Canada, provide voting machines and software and then a consortium of international observers does the counting? That way neither Republicans or Democrats have the 'advantage'?

In the months after the election, dozens of polling experts and statisticians have scrutinized every corner of the public exit polling data as it stacks up against the official vote counts. The major pollsters and their national media clients still refuse to release the raw data. The consensus, as shown here, is that the reversal of Kerry's fortunes late on election night was in essence a statistical impossibility, with the odds at roughly 1 in 950,000. According to these experts, John Kerry should have been inaugurated in January, 2005.

It's funny that we rely on exit polls in the Ukraine as proof of corruption and vote-tampering, but when it happens in America, nobody gives a shit. If you think rigging an election is too far-fetched to realistically consider, remember that this is the same administration that misled the American public about its intentions to go to war with Iraq. This is the same administration that lied to Congress and the world about Iraq's supposed weapons of mass destruction. This is the same administration that says torture is okay as long as it's not Americans that are being tortured.

Somehow I don't think they'd have a moral problem with pulling a few strings to stay in power.

Thursday, June 16, 2005

House Votes to Limit Use of Patriot Act

This part is what I find unbelievable:

"If there are terrorists in libraries studying how to fly planes, how to put together biological weapons, how to put together chemical weapons, nuclear weapons, ... we have to have an avenue through the federal court system so that we can stop the attack before it occurs," said Rep. Tom Feeney, R-Fla.

Why am I not surprised this idiot is from Florida? Hey, fucknut, guess what? Terrorists don't need to use libraries to study all that stuff. It's called the Internet. Have you heard of it? With a fake ID and a fake Social Security number, you can get a credit card, and once you have that, you can order anything on the Internet, including books on chemical weapons, nuclear weapons, and how to fly an airplane. Do you think terrorists use their real names? Do you think there are pots of gold at the ends of rainbows? Hell, Microsoft sells 'Flight Simulator' to anybody, even to people with unpronounceable names!

There are no terrorists in libraries, just as there are no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The government saw a way after 9/11 to give their agencies greater abilities to invade privacy and they took it. I'm just glad some lawmakers have come to their senses.

Monday, June 13, 2005

Current Weather Conditions for Kitchener, Ontario

The past week has been one of the hottest and muggiest on record here in Southern Ontario, especially for a week in June. The humidex reading at midday has been around 100 degrees for eight days straight, and after playing a golf tournament on Saturday, I can tell you that a hundred degrees kicks your ass pretty handily. If it wasn't for air conditioning, I don't know if I could have lived through it, but the house my wife and I just bought doesn't have A/C, so I suspect for the first week or so of living there, I'm going to lose 10-20 pounds of water weight. We move in on June 30th to take advantage of the long weekend, and I can't wait. Our current landlord is both incompetent and ignorant, and I feel a little sorry for those who are remaining in the building. But with interest rates so low, deals are out there, so why wouldn't you try and get a house and have that monthly payment work for you instead of against you?

Monday, June 06, 2005

Pope Benedict XVI Condemns Same-Sex Unions - Yahoo! News

Pope Benedict XVI condemned same-sex unions as anarchic "pseudo-matrimony" Monday and reaffirmed the Roman Catholic Church's opposition to abortion.

Up until the last century or so, most Christian marriages were arranged and represented little more than property transactions. I understand the Catholic Church's need to keep imposing its Dark Ages views on the rest of us sinners (it's a need rooted in their fear of irrelevancy), but it's unfortunate that they still have enough influence to affect people's lives. I don't know why some people are afraid of homosexuality, or why it's important to them to prevent other human beings from experiencing the same joys and freedoms that they enjoy.

I guess when you've spent the last two millenia trying desperately to keep women in their place, burning people at the stake for being 'unbelievers', and converting foreign cultures to your unique brand of religion (hey, kids, just about everything you do is a sin, and unless you go to church and confess on a regular basis, you're going to hell! But God loves you! Really, he does! No, I'm not joking.), letting gays have their way on something just can't be tolerated.

I'm anxiously awaiting further announcements from the new Pope, as he continues to enforce the hard-line dogma that most of the planet assiduously ignores. Hey, maybe he'll bring back that old chestnut, "Don't eat meat on Fridays!" That'll be a huge hit with McDonald's.

Wednesday, June 01, 2005


Kevin Spacey to Appear in Reality Show


Now the actor-director will take on the role of mentor to showbiz interns in "Going Hollywood," a new eight-part TLC reality series... Spacey will be joined by producer Robert Evans and rapper-actor Method Man.

Spacey is an odd bird to begin with - is he gay, is he straight, is he Canadian, what's the deal? But then you pair him up with Method Man... What, to bring in the urban audience? This is airing on TLC. Only gays, home improvement nerds, and the elderly watch TLC. And what the fuck is TLC doing another reality series for, anyway? Don't we have more than enough of these? I watch TV to escape reality, okay? I'm not looking for more reality, I get plenty of that. I watch Lost and CSI and the Simpsons and I won't watch one more 'confessional' moment with some 'real' person. The irony is that these reality shows are as fake as professional wrestling, just as scripted, just as carefully edited, just as much of a joke. It's almost as bad as these 'Celebrity Home Game' poker shows. Yeah, they're pulling in those celebrities from all four corners, aren't they? Look, I'm an admitted entertainment junkie, but if I can't recognize half the celebrities at an eight-person poker table, then they aren't celebrities. They don't even make the D-list. Get them off my screen. Where's George Clooney, for Christ's sake?