Apparently, “there is no breaking news” at the Port of Seattle today… you know… other than fact that it is closed.
Yup, all Port of Seattle container terminals are closed today due to a fatal accident that killed a longshoreman last night at Terminal 5. Docks are scheduled to re-open tonight at 6PM.
I only know this because a local freight forwarder CC’d me an angry email:
Today all of the Seattle terminals are closed due to the death of a longshore worker. Many of our customers have been asking about what the situation is at the port. I looked on the Port of Seattle website and was flabbergasted to see that nothing was written there. The SPECIAL BREAKING NEWS section said “there is no special breaking news today.” Say what?
I phoned the main number and was switched to the public affairs department. When asked if all of the terminals were closed and for how long, the woman who answered said, “I was unaware that the ports were closed today.”
Hmm. Sounds to me like this woman might have a promising career in the FDA Office of Public Affairs. But I digress. The angry email continues:
She transferred me to someone is the SEAPORTS section. This woman wasn’t sure how long the ports would be closed, put me on hold for awhile, then told me to call the individual terminals or the PMA.
How many people work in this department, and what are they supposed to be doing? I told her that I was disappointed and surprised to find that there was nothing posted on the website and that the first person didn’t even know that the ports were closed. She said she would talk to public affairs section and hung up. ALL of the Seattle SEAPORTS are CLOSED ALL DAY – and that is not important enough to put on their website????
My property taxes make me choke. I am sick that this port is unable to function without our tax support, don’t know how to run themselves profitably, and apparently have lackadaisical employees.
I’m told the longshore union normally takes off a shift whenever there is a work fatality, so the folks at the Port of Seattle, this being their supposed area of expertise, should have been fully prepared to deal with public queries.
Apparently not.
Goldy,
Don’t suppose you’d mind sharing with us the name of the company this creature works for? I wouldn’t mind trying to make sure my employer doesn’t do any business with them.
Goldie:
Don’t suppose you’d mind sharing with us the name of the company this creature works for?
I second that….I would like to at replace any business lost due to Farting in #1, and then some.
Did you say “union?”
2 Hey, dipshit…if someone manages to blow your hero Dumbya’s miniscule brains out, I’ll be sure and complain to the TV networks for pre-empting Oprah to cover the funeral.
Just kidding, of course (copyright A. Coulter)
Why would you be kidding???
I thought the emailer wasn’t mad about them being closed so much as being mad about no one at the port of seattle being able to find their ass with two hands.
TROOP LOVING LIBERALS>/b>, I need your help.
Please click on this link and sign a petition from the IAVA to give our troops the mental health care they need after serving in George W. Bush’s lost wars.
http://www2.iava.org/dia/organ.....on_KEY=420
I’d ask the conservatives to sign the petition, but since it will cost them money I know they’ll refuse to support the petition like their political leaders refuse to fund these type of programs.
Any conservative that says the signed on this petition is lying.
You know how I know?
They’re fucking TROOP HATERS, that how!!
Pathetic is being a Republican and vice versa.
Thanks for the help my fellow patriot, TROOP LOVING Liberals.
GBS
So NO conservatives and/or republicans will contribute?
Now that’s an example of positive thinking if I ever saw one. Not!
DB @6,
Yes, the emailer was angry about the lack of information available from the Port. She was not complaining about the longshoreman skipping a shift in honor of their fallen coworker.
Jack Off Burton @ 8:
If you guys weren’t such pathetic, lying, scum bag, America hating, TROOP HATING bastards, I might concede that you have a point. But, since you are what you are, I won’t.
Dick.
7 – The real TROOP HATERS – Sen. Reid $ Co……
http://michellemalkin.com/archives/007349.htm
I got a lot to say. But I don’t have a lick of common sense. It comes out all angry and garbled.
Sorry. But I’m still gonna post a million dumbass comments.
@ 12:
Duh, when you’re not making dumbass comments, we’ll let you know.
http://www.robintheboywonder.com/robinb_w_4.html
Jack Burton is actually Burt Ward. Check out his phota on the above link. This is me when I’m feeling a little gay.
al Qeada lover @ 11:
You just got to hate it, huh?
Harry Reid gets an “A-” rating from the IAVA.
His counterpart from NV, John Endign gets a whopping “D-”
Sen. John “I don’t give a fuck if the wounded troops need health care” Ensign’s D- is on par with the support WA Republicans give our military.
Stop being a TROOP HATER.
Anyone who would send troops into a useless oil war and then tell everyone that we have to be cheerleaders for the war so the troops don’t feel they are being used is a TROOP HATER.
Don’t you think the troops know that their real mission is to spare GWB the self-knowledge that he’s a useless, stubborn, stupid prick?
Why does GW Bush hate our troops? He won’t go to funerals and plans to veto a bill that would fund the troops. These are obviously the actions of a troop hater.
Why does Bush think that historians can not decide whether George Washington was a great president?
Is Bush an idiot?
Jack Burton. I challenge you to find two historians who cannot agree that Washington was a great president.
HL @18:
That’s an easy one. George W. Bush hates George Washington because George Washington was a LIBERAL!!
Everyone knows conservatives hate the TROOPS, America, and Liberals.
Conservatives love to suck bin Laden’s dick, though.
@ 17:
Yeah, why does GW run to Virginia Tech for a photo op, but won’t go to one funeral for our troops?
All conservatives hate our troops because our brave soldiers represent everything conservatives are not: brave, loyal, smart, strong, honest, and most of all patriotic.
Hmmm…no news indeed.
15-Stop being a TROOP HATER.
Didn’t you read the letters in 11’s link. It is the troops asking Reid to stop hating them….
No dumbass it is what that lying skank Malkin claims are letters from troops. Even if we accept them as being actual letters from members of the troops, some of the troops are conservative W supporters and therefore troop-haters!
The Port of Seattle is a good example of a public agency that has effectively been privatized for the benefit of its owners. Yes, the port has private owners — i.e., the greedy special interests who continually have their hand in your pocket for more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more more. It is run Kremlin-style by a dictator named Pat Davis who doesn’t even bother to tell its board of directors when she decides to give hundreds of thousands of our $$$$$ to a crony as a going-away present, and by mid-level managers who tear down Christmas trees on their own say-so just to retaliate against some poor sap whose only crime was asking for less-than-equal space for one teensy little menorah to public hatred and ridicule. If ever there was a local agency with a “fuck you” attitude toward the public and taxpayers, this is it!
If I didn’t know better, I’d swear it was a federal agency run by Bushies.
All of these problems, of course, are no damn reason to elect Richard Pope to the port commission. That would merely waste another $6,000 a year, as Richard has amply demonstrated recently that he can’t pull his head out of ass long enough to wipe his own butt, let alone straighten out a grossly dysfunctional agency run by a Mussolini.
No, the problems at the port go deeper than anything Richard’s superficial intellect can solve. What’s need is an EXTREME MAKEOVER. The executive director and chair of the commission should be put under the supervision of a vigilante committee made up of 12 angry taxpayers. That might get their attention, but if it doesn’t, a rope will.* I’ve had enough. Everyone else has had enough, too. It’s time for an angry mob to take things into its own hands.**
* Just kidding! Wingnut humor.
** I’m not kidding!! I’ve really, really, really had enough!!!
“You’re Doing A Fantastic Job, Gonzo!”
The hyperisolated White House once again proved they’ve got their collective heads in a bucket by exclaiming that a guy who suffered 71 memory lapses about how he runs his department during one day of Senate testimony “has done a fantastic job in the Department of Justice.”
Brought to you by people determined to run government as badly as possible to prove government doesn’t work and should be privatized.
Incompetent Ag Dep’t Handed Out Farmers’ Social Security Numbers Like Candy To ID Thieves
In another demonstration of premeditated incompetence, the federal Agriculture Department has been posting the social security numbers of 10’s of 1000’s of people who applied for agricultural loans on a public web site for years.
WASHINGTON (April 21) — The Social Security numbers of tens of thousands of people who received loans or other financial assistance from two Agriculture Department programs were disclosed for years in a publicly available database, raising concerns about identity theft and other privacy violations.
“The Agriculture Department said that its review of the database shows that between 100,000 and 150,000 people could be at risk,” according to the New York Times.
http://tinyurl.com/2ue5z7
This is, what, the umpteenth federal agency that has compromised individuals’ sensitive personal data? This shit has been going on for years. The Bushies have been in power for, um, years. Hmmmm … maybe there’s a correlation there.
Linus@23: You assume these Moonbat!s can read. When facts jump out at them it hurts their libtard minds!
How many tunnel and condo advocates are going to run for and take the Port Commission in the name of “taxpayer reform”? Those interests hate the over the top perks only because it isn’t their people running things. Lets investigate all of the city agencies, or King County for that matter; you’ll find more of the same.
Back for just a moment to the subject of this thread, the port’s website was finally updated saying that the Port of Seattle is closed and would remain closed until 6PM this evening.
Of course, it’s long past that now, and that announcement is still there, seeming to indicate that the port would actually reopen tomorrow.
Really together bunch over there at the Port of Seattle. Of course, being that I live in Pierce County, that doesn’t bother me very much.
http://www.portoftacoma.com
Bush show up at a soldier’s funeral? That would be dishonor to the soldier.
@7 You can’t expect wingnuts who won’t give the troops battle helmets to give them medical care for what’s left of their heads.
When it comes to the well-being of our soldiers, Republicans do an awful lot of talking and damn little walking.
@22 Looks like Goldy’s post prompted the port sloths to get off their slimy behinds and take action. Again.
The port has to be supervised by a political blogger or nothing will get done.
The growing desperation of the wingfreaks is evident in their increasingly shrill rants.
Their whole house of cards is collapsing.
ArtFart says:
Bush show up at a soldier’s funeral? That would be dishonor to the soldier.
Actually if a soldier showed up at a funeral for a demcrat, that would dishonor the soldier.
Roger Rabbit says:
@7 You can’t expect wingnuts who won’t give the troops battle helmets to give them medical care for what’s left of their heads.
Give the republicans a break. They are already voting in large numbers to counter all the military votes thrown out by democrats. The problem is there are still to many donks in office. Geeeeeshh.
Even if we accept them as being actual letters from members of the troops, some of the troops are conservative W supporters and therefore troop-haters!
No no no no. Most of the troops are conservatives and therefore donk-haters. Liberals are pussies by nature. Hell they get offended by little blonde haired women cracking jokes about them.
So Dan @ 39, explain to me why when Republicans had the Presidency, House and Senate for years, and the Democrats have had the Congress for a few months makes it the D’s fault?
Roger Rabbit says:
Their whole house of cards is collapsing.
Yeah, it is quite eveident:
Moonbats unable to get “gun control” mantra off the ground after the Virginia Tech killings
Supreme court ruling on partial birth abortions
Charges being dropped on the Duke rape case.
Global warming debunked by a leading meteorologist.
Yep, everything is collapsing…. on the dems. hehehehehehe
Dan @ fantasyland-
Polls favoring gun control show increasing support.
“But quietly, American attitudes toward firearms have shifted. Gun ownership is at the lowest level in three decades, and support for the regulation of firearms, which is always been high, has reached a new peak, according to one new poll. Some of the biggest supporters of gun-control are teenagers and college students.” http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/.....-ussc.html
Is it surprising that by a narrow margin that the Court made it’s ruling?
How is a local prosecutor’s misconduct linked to anything else?
And I’m sure you can find a flat earth advocate to agree with that meteorologist.
If that’s your best, you’re spent.
@39 Once again it’s necessry to dispel a wingnut myth. It’s Republicans who keep soldiers from voting.
“The Republican National Committee has a special offer for African-American soldiers: Go to Baghdad, lose your vote.
“A confidential campaign directed by GOP party chiefs in October 2004 sought to challenge the ballots of tens of thousands of voters in the last presidential election, virtually all of them cast by residents of Black-majority precincts.
“Files from the secret vote-blocking campaign were obtained by BBC Television Newsnight, London. They were attached to emails accidentally sent by Republican operatives to a non-party website.
“One group of voters wrongly identified by the Republicans as registering to vote from false addresses: servicemen and women sent overseas.
“Here’s how the scheme worked: The RNC mailed these voters letters in envelopes marked, ‘Do not forward’, to be returned to the sender. These letters were mailed to servicemen and women, some stationed overseas, to their US home addresses. The letters then returned to the Bush-Cheney campaign as ‘undeliverable.’ The lists of soldiers of ‘undeliverable’ letters were transmitted from state headquarters … to the RNC in Washington. The party could then challenge the voters’ registration and thereby prevent their absentee ballots being counted.
“One target list was comprised exclusively of voters registered at the Jacksonville, Florida, Naval Air Station. … [See this scrub sheet at http://flickr.com/photo_zoom.g.....038;size=o ] …
“A soldier returning home in time to vote in November 2004 could also be challenged on the basis of the returned envelope. Soldiers challenged would be required to vote by ‘provisional’ ballot. Over one million provisional ballots cast in the 2004 race were never counted; over half a million absentee ballots were also rejected. The extraordinary rise in the number of rejected ballots was the result of the widespread multi-state voter challenge campaign by the Republican Party. …
“The BBC obtained several dozen confidential emails sent by the Republican’s national Research Director and Deputy Communications chief, Tim Griffin to GOP Florida campaign chairman Brett Doster and other party leaders. Attached were spreadsheets marked, ‘Caging.xls.’ Each of these contained several hundred to a few thousand voters and their addresses. A check of the demographics of the addresses on the ‘caging lists,’ as the GOP leaders called them indicated that most were in African-American majority zip codes.
“Ion Sanco, the non-partisan elections supervisor of Leon County (Tallahassee) when shown the lists by this reporter said: ‘The only thing I can think of – African American voters listed like this – these might be individuals that will be challenged if they attempted to vote on Election Day.’ …
“The Republican National Committee in Washington refused our several requests to respond to the BBC discovery. … The party has refused to say why it would mark soldiers as having ‘bad addresses’ subject to challenge when they had been assigned abroad. … Setting up such a challenge list would be a crime under federal law. … While the party insisted the lists were not created for the purpose to challenge Black voters, the GOP ultimately offered no other explanation for the mailings. …
“Soldiers sending in their ballot from abroad would not know their vote was lost because of a challenge.”
__________________________________
“For the full story of caging lists and voter purges of 2004, plus the documents, read Greg Palast’s … bestseller, ARMED MADHOUSE: Who’s Afraid of Osama Wolf?, Armed Madhouse: Who’s Afraid of Osama Wolf?, China Floats Bush Sinks, the Scheme to Steal ‘08, No Child’s Behind Left and other Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Class War.”
Quoted under Fair Use; for complete article and/or copyright info see http://tinyurl.com/jv9nf
Roger Rabbit Commentary: What kind of slime suckers would take advantage of soldiers’ deployment to a combat zone to deprive them of their vote? Troop-hating Republican traitors, that’s who. We need to put these meatballs on trial and lock them up in federal prisons for violating the voting rights of our soldiers. Better yet, shoot ’em.*
* “Just kidding” (copyright A. Coulter).
Oh yeah, let’s not forget this, too:
“Jan. 15, 2007 – If there was one constituency President Bush could count on to back the war in Iraq through the past four years, it was members of the military. Now, their support is also ebbing. A poll conducted recently by Army Times, a commercial publication, showed only 35 percent of service members approve of the way Bush is handling the war, down from 63 percent in 2004.”
http://tinyurl.com/2tovfb
Whereas the current administration has proven incompetent to handle domestic disasters, incompetent at protecting our borders, incompetent in its war preparation and execution and incompetent in managing the Justice department.
In short, don’t believe anything wingnut liars say about the troops.
@42 Last time I checked all the Democrats I know support gun rights. I’ve been urging liberals to arm for quite some time now. If Republicans continue stealing elections we may not be able to deal with criminal GOP regimes by peaceful means, especially if they come for us. Lord knows they’ve repeated often enough their intention of killing us. Man are they gonna get a surprise when they come for me.
Actually the real truth on voter disenfranchisment is as
follows:
From Navy Seals.com
http://www.navyseals.com/commu.....fm?id=6536
By Chad Miles
A recent report issued by the National Defense Committee, a nonprofit organization that supports the U.S. military and encourages veterans to run for elective office, recently found that 25 percent of ballots cast by military personnel in the 2004 presidential election went uncounted. Incredibly, that rate of disenfranchisement could be even higher due to the fact that the study relied on voluntary disclosure of information from local election officials.
Unfortunately, the issue of soldiers being disenfranchised during an election is nothing new. We all remember the 2000 Florida recount fiasco and the events surrounding it. During that election, the rate of uncounted ballots cast by members of the armed forces was even higher at a staggering 29 percent nationwide.
In Florida, which turned out to be the pivotal state in determining the winner of the 2000 election, around 1,400 military absentee votes were left uncounted, largely because of the role of lawyers working for the Democratic Party at local canvassing boards who followed a directive from the party to challenge all military ballots on the premise that they likely were votes for Republican nominee George W. Bush.
Although many lawmakers vowed that the level of disenfranchisement seen in the aftermath of that election would never happen again, it looks like it did.
According to the committee’s study, “Military and Overseas Absentee Voting in the 2004 Election,” the largest problem in managing military absentee ballots is not hostile attorneys, but rather what military historians call “the tyranny of distance” – the unavoidable difficulties inherent in getting ballots to our deployed military people serving overseas.
During the election in 2000, the study found that, 30 percent of military personnel did not receive their ballot in time to cast a vote. When you combine that figure with the number of votes that were tossed out for various reasons – including arriving to the absentee voters via snail mail past voting deadlines – you can see that the scope of the problem is enormous.
The challenge of getting ballots to soldiers was even worse during the 2004 election due to the post-9/11 deployments of military units to Iraq, Afghanistan and dozens of other countries in support of the Global War on Terror, the committee found. Units frequently on the move and mail delays caused by local threats such as the danger of roadside bombs made the task of getting ballots to the troops even more daunting.
However, military absentee voters once again in 2004 found themselves the target of partisan political maneuvering as had happened in Florida four years earlier.
Recognizing the fact that more time would be needed to count all of the military ballots arriving from overseas, the Pennsylvania legislature in 2004 requested that Gov. Edward G. Rendell authorize a two-week extension for the acceptance of military ballots to compensate for the issues surrounding the wartime situation in which our soldiers are now engaged.
However, in Pennsylvania in 2004, as in Florida in 2000, political operatives were motivated by their longstanding knowledge that a strong majority of military voters generally supports Republican candidates.
Rendell, a Democrat, initially refused the request to assist military absentee voters. But it later was discovered that he had launched an aggressive “get out the vote” information campaign within the state’s prison population, informing inmates of voting rights and providing them with absentee ballots for the election. Other studies have shown that a majority of the prison voting population supports Democratic candidates. The adverse publicity prompted Rendell to approve the extension for military overseas voters.
In Washington state, the U.S. Justice Department threatened to sue less than a month before the 2004 election because election officials had yet to even mail out absentee ballots to military personnel overseas. What may have been bureaucratic incompetence may well have altered the outcome of that state’s gubernatorial election.
The Washington state governor’s race between Republican nominee Dino Rossi and Democratic nominee Christine Gregoire turned out to be even tighter than the Florida presidential vote count in 2000. The Republican candidate won the first two re-counts but ultimately lost the third by 128 votes. With a total of 31,910 overseas ballots mailed out for that election, it’s easy to see that even a few lost, late or missing military votes made a huge impact in the election, ultimately deciding the race.
When it was time for Congress to ratify the 2004 election results and electoral vote count for the offices of President and Vice President during a joint session last December, two Democratic legislators challenged the results on the basis of voting irregularities and disenfranchisement. Was someone finally going to raise the issue of one-fourth of our deployed military men and women not having a voice in the democratic process? No.
The challenge concerned votes cast in the state of Ohio, which turned out to be the pivotal state in 2004 with enough electoral votes to swing the election and the Presidency to John Kerry. The challenge centered on disqualification of a newly created provisional ballot, not the military vote, and was nothing more than a symbolic protest by the party that had lost the presidential election.
It appears that once again the rights of military overseas voters are no longer an issue within the political establishment.
We should not have to still be struggling with this issue. Before the 2004 election, the Department of Defense launched an online voting system called the Secure Electronic Registration and Voting Experiment (SERVE), designed to give military personnel deployed around the world the ability to vote instantly online. This would have obviously corrected the problems surrounding the reliance of postal mail for balloting, and put an end to the partisan shenanigans we saw in Florida with Democratic Party lawyers targeting military voters for ballot rejection.
Alas, DoD officials opted to shut down the SERVE program before the election due to security concerns dealing with the sensitive nature of the data and the possibility of illegitimate votes being tabulated. Since DoD manages to send thousands of classified messages daily around the globe, many of them stamped “Top Secret,” it is hard to imagine that these security and privacy concerns cannot be resolved.
It is ridiculous to have our troops filling out paper ballots and placing them in the mail in a day and age when publicly available technology allows you to take a picture and send it to someone on the other side of the world with a small cellphone. The disenfranchisement on the scale that we have seen in recent years is unacceptable, but it is definitely correctible.
If DoD officials take the time to develop a secure and dependable electronic voting system, some election results may be drastically different in the years to come – but unlike the number of contested elections we have seen since 2000, the results will more likely reflect the judgment of all of the voters – including those serving in harm’s way to protect our freedoms.
Contributing Editor Chad Miles is a U.S. Army veteran who served with the 82nd Airborne Division and the 5th Special Forces Group during the 1990s. He founded the website WhoServed.com, which tracks the military service of previous and current U.S. government leaders, and is currently
Tinyurls?????? Must be a site for tiny brains. hehehehe
What do democrats think of the military….hmmmmmm…
However, in Pennsylvania in 2004, as in Florida in 2000, political operatives were motivated by their longstanding knowledge that a strong majority of military voters generally supports Republican candidates.
Rendell, a Democrat, initially refused the request to assist military absentee voters. But it later was discovered that he had launched an aggressive “get out the vote” information campaign within the state’s prison population, informing inmates of voting rights and providing them with absentee ballots for the election. Other studies have shown that a majority of the prison voting population supports Democratic candidates. The adverse publicity prompted Rendell to approve the extension for military overseas voters.
The democratic record on the military vote… well lets just say it’s criminal. hahahhahahahahahhahahahaha
hehehehehehehhehehehehehhehe
Gee, if the Democrats were engaging in such criminal acts, then why hasn’t the Bush Justice department been able to make the case?
Tell me about the Republican record of governing. Talk about criminal……
Come on Dan, are your guys incompetent or are your allegations a bunch of BS?
maybe both?
52
Why do you think McKay is gone. One of Bush’s biggest flaws it reaching across the political aisle and appointing the enemy to positions of power. It is Bush’s fault McKay was a justice to begin with and the whole State of Washington suffers. Oh well.
DOOFUS: YOU’VE QUOTED THAT BULLSHIT BEFORE. IT’S JUST MORE RIGHT-WING BULLSHIT. THE CHIMP YOU WORSHIP HAS PROSECUTED SO-CALLED VOTER FRAUD THROUGH HIS LAME-ASS U.S. ATTORNEYS (THE ONES HE DIDN’T FIRE). MOST OF THE CRAP PROSECUTED IS PIDDLY-ASS STUFF – PEOPLE CONFUSED ABOUT THE LAWS. ONE CASE WAS JUST THROWN OUT IN WISCONSIN BY THE APPELLATE COURT. THE JUDGE SAID THE EVIDENCE WAS “BEYOND THIN”.
80 SOME CASES – A TEMPEST IN A TEA-POT. AND NOT ONE CASE POINTING TO ANY EVIDENCE OF THE RIGHT-WING WET DREAM – WIDESPREAD ORGANIZED VOTER FRAUD.
YOU’RE A LOSER DOOFUS. YOU’RE INSANE DOOFUS. YOU KNOW WHAT INSANITY IS DOOFUS? DOING THE SAME THING OVER AND OVER EXPECTING DIFFERENT RESULTS. IT’S WHAT YOU DID OVER HAQ THE MENTALLY ILL BAPTIZED CHRISTIAN AND IT’S WHAT YOU’RE DOING NOW.
BUT KEEP DOING IT DOOFUS. YOUR IDIOCY IS TOO FUNNY.
53
The truth hurts. It’s especially tough on liberals. What amazes me is that liberals actually believe the drivel they post.
Why do you think McKay is gone…reaching across the political aisle and appointing the enemy
YOU’RE HILARIOUS DOOFUS. MCKAY SERVED ON THE COMMITTEE TO ELECT BUSH FOR PRESIDENT IN 2000. THAT’S HOW HE GOT THE USA JOB.
HE’S GOT AN “R” NEXT TO HIS NAME. HOW STUPID CAN YOU BE?
WINGNUTS LIKE YOU SUFFER FROM A PROFOUND MENTAL ILLNESS. WHEN PEOPLE IN YOUR OWN PARTY SHOW THE TINIEST BIT OF INTEGRITY, YOU START CALLING THEM DEMOCRATS.
I KNOW THIS MENTAL ILLNESS EXISTS BECAUSE THE HEAD OF BIAW, TOM MCCABE HAS IT IN SPADES. HE CALLED MCKAY A DEMOCRAT IN A LETTER TO DOC HASTINGS.
WHO KNOWS? MAYBE YOU ARE MCCABE.
The truth hurts. It’s especially tough on liberals.
YOU GOT THE FIRST PART RIGHT. THE TRUTH IS THAT YOU’RE INSANE. THAT HAS TO HURT.
IT’S ONLY TOUGH ON LIBERALS WHEN INSANE PEOPLE GRAB THE REIGNS OF POWER.
IT’S WHAT YOU DID OVER HAQ THE MENTALLY ILL BAPTIZED CHRISTIAN AND IT’S WHAT YOU’RE DOING NOW.
Yeah, what Haq actually said. The fact thay Haq was a life long liberal living in “red country”. Yeah I said that. Again I cant help if it is the truth.
Dan Rather at 8:48 PM posted from that Seal wannabe page again.
I think it was klake that tried that bit last time, when I pointed out that the folks that run that site are not now and never have been Navy Seals. The site sells protein powder and cheap knives to folks that read “Soldier of Fortune”.
Chad Miles is a former Army Sergeant that ran against John Conyers in Michigan, and lost big time..
Real Navy Seals get rather “testy” when wannabes misuse the Trident. I was stationed at NAB Coronado with Assault Craft Unit ONE (and just to be completely clear, I am NOT claiming to be a Seal. NONE of my momma’s kids are stupid enough to claim that title without earning it). Nevertheless, NAB Coronado is the main training base for the Seal teams, and I got to know a number of them.
Some of the bravest, most honorable maniacs the world has ever seen. And you may quote me.
Oh, and “Dan”? I’d be happy to mention to some real Seals that you seem to think it’s ok for wannabes to use their Trident. They might disagree. Would you like to explain it to them? Where would you like me to have them meet you to speak with you about it?
And where would you like them to send your remains?
(I can do Ann Coulter humor too, where appropriate.)
@49 Bwa-ha-HA-HAA!!! Chad Miles is the wingnut extremist who got his nose wiped on the pavement trying to unseat John Conyers. As I recall, Miles got 15% of the vote — not exactly a rising tide of popular support! Navyseals.com is a rightwing militarist blog.
Thanks for playing.
Chad Miles is from Michigan and doesn’t know a damn thing about what happened in the Washington governor’s race. There was no military disenfranchisement here.
Of over 15,000 military/overseas ballots in King County, only 16 were disqualified for being returning too late to be counted. The percentage of military/overseas ballots that were returned AND COUNTED was identical to the civilian turnout — approximately 81% in both cases.
Washington has the most generous military voting requirements in the nation. Soldiers don’t even have to be a registered voters. If their home of record listed in their military records is in this state, they can vote.
Nor did overseas military personnel need to request or receive an absentee ballot. They could get a Federal Write In Ballot from the unit voting assistance officer. Over 10% of King County’s military ballots in 2004 were FWIB’s, proving this procedure was accessible to soldiers and many used it.
In filling out a FWIB, they didn’t even have to know the name of the candidate they were voting for. They could mark their ballot “R” for governor and it would be counted as a vote for Dino Rossi.
Dan Blather is spewing bullshit.
@55 There’s widespread voter fraud, all right, but it’s all being committed by Republicans.
Isn’t it fascinating that Republicans want our soldiers to sacrifice their lives for “Iraqi democracy” while they work overtime to keep Americans from voting in our own country?
Every time Doofus or some other wingnut posts their “voting fraud” bullshit again, I’m going to re-post the truth about the GOP’s expensive and extensive operations to keep black soldiers from voting.
GOP = racist motherfuckers.
Reason #1 on why I post only once or twice a week here. Dan Rather, if that’s your real name, I don’t know how you sleep at night. You are either mentally deficient, or a sociopath. Let me know either way.
And Roger, have you ever considered starting your own blog? I agree with you on most of your points, but you need to look at other websites, post some stuff there, or start your own. I like you. But don’t drink and post, my good fellow.
YOS LIB BRO said:
Well, they used to call them “RINOs”, but recently they’ve started to call them “Democrats” because they end up joining the Democratic Party.
By now, he may well be correct in identifying Mr. McKay as a Democrat. After the way the Republicans have treated him, he’s probably given up any hope that the Republicans will ever manage to get the neocons out of leadership positions.
News from the Future
Washington DC, 2016
The split of the Democratic Party into the Conservative Democrats and the Liberal Democrats has become official, with each section nominating their own candidate for President.
The two parts of the only remaining major political party have cited philosophical differences as the prime reason for the break, although the leaders of both parties continue to speak positively about each other.
Lincoln Chafee, leader of the Conservative Democrats, said “Both parties continue to have the best interest of the country at heart. In our system of government, it is vital that honest differences between people of good will are aired and discussed, and that the voters are given a real choice.” He continued to say “Regardless of which candidate the voters choose, the next President will be a person of great integrity and moral courage.”
Outgoing President Obama stated that while he would remain with the Liberal Democrats, “Either candidate will make a fine leader for our country, and will continue to rebuild our stature throughout the nations of the world”. He wished both Ms. Snowe (CD) and Mr. Edwards (LD) the best of luck in the upcoming campaign.
In other news, Former President Bush issued the following brief statement:
“I, your President for Life, condemn these pretenders. My loyal followers can rest assured that I will return, at the head of my mighty army, to reclaim the glory that once was America!”
The Republic of Argentina has once again requested that the United States allow them to extradite the former President, however the State Department continues to insist that, without an extradition treaty, this would not be possible. When the Department’s press liaison was asked when talks leading toward such a treaty would be resumed, he answered “no comment”.
Stop voting for Pat Davis et al.
Didn’t Richard Pope run for “Main Port Authority Guy” at one point.
At least if Pope was head of it all, it would be more like a screwball comedy.
FYI, the following link will take you to a signup form for Commissioner Lloyd Hara’s email newletter, which may provide a better read on Port developments than all 20-some PR staff.
http://visitor.constantcontact.....1416303768
Note also, Port Commission meetings are streamable on the Port website, and rebroadcast on County TV (Ch 22 or 78/80 depending on your cable provider). Next regular meeting is Tuesday, and there’s an increasing schedule of public meetings and outreach events.
Didn’t you read the letters in 11’s link. It is the troops asking Reid to stop hating them….
These troops didn’t write:
http://tbogg.blogspot.com/2007.....-they.html
Hey…let’s get to talking about the latest No Child Left Behind scandal.
This will get good in the next few days I’m sure.
“The Justice Department is conducting a probe of a $6 billion reading initiative at the center of President Bush’s No Child Left Behind law, another blow to a program besieged by allegations of financial conflicts of interest and cronyism, people familiar with the matter said yesterday.
The disclosure came as a congressional hearing revealed how people implementing the $1 billion-a-year Reading First program made at least $1 million off textbooks and tests toward which the federal government steered states.”
Rabbit – No military disenfranchisement? Really? Just for a sanity check, run that one by Brian Suits. Let us know what he says.
Dumass..
If I got a 400 Billion retirement bonus I’d be closed for a while too.
WingNut@73 You mean the Brian Suits who had so many different military postings in his ever so short stay in Iraq, that he seemed to be Karl Rove’s Prom Date?.
You mean the Brian Suits who seems to have gone through some sort of “AIT” with Jeff Gannon?
You mean the Brian Suits featured in the LondonYank’s Blog? And on Daily Kos?
Youy mean the Brian Suits with ONLY ONE DEPLOYMENT TO IRAQ?
You can’t mean the Brian Suits reputed to have fallen down and bruised himself when startled by an incoming round
and qualified for a Purple Heart6?
Naw, dumbass, you can’t mean that Brian Suits.
Did someone say purple heart??? I got one of those in Vietnam. Now if you excuse me I need to get this grain of rice that is stuck to my lying ass.
NATIONAL DEFENSE COMMITTEE
Rear Admiral (Ret.) James J. Carey—Chairman
Samuel F. Wright—Director, Military Voting Rights Project
1201 S. Court House Rd., Suite 735
Arlington, VA 22204
(703) 486-4247 (voice) (703) 486-1274 (fax)
samwright50@yahoo.com
http://www.nationaldefensecommittee.org (Web site)
March 30, 2005
MILITARY AND OVERSEAS ABSENTEE VOTING IN THE 2004 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
24% Disenfranchisement Rate Is Unacceptable
The National Defense Committee (NDC) faxed a military/overseas absentee voting questionnaire to the nation’s 7,838 local election offices (LEOs), and 761 of them returned completed questionnaires. Those LEOs reported receiving 131,772 completed Federal Post Card Applications (FPCAs) from active duty service members, spouses and adult children of service members, and overseas Americans. Only 4,363 of those absentee ballot applications (4%) were rejected, either for lateness or for procedural deficiencies.
A total of 126,952 absentee ballots were mailed to the 131,772 FPCA applicants. Only 94,359 of those ballots came back on time and were counted—meaning that 37,413 FPCA applicants were disenfranchised. That figure includes marked ballots that came in on time but were rejected for procedural deficiencies. Also included are ballots
that came in late and ballots that never came back at all, as well as the 4,820 rejected applications. Finally, unmarked ballots returned to the LEO, by the Postal Service, as “undeliverable” are included in the 37,413 disenfranchised voters. The 761 LEOs also reported receiving 10,845 completed Federal Write-in Absentee Ballots (FWABs) and counting 5,363 of them. For purposes of this report, we are assuming that persons who were among the 131,258 FPCA applicants cast the 5,363 counted FWABs. Adding in these counted FWABs reduces the overall disenfranchisement rate to 24%, an unacceptably high rate.
Our report probably understates the problem, because we depend upon voluntary responses by LEOs. These officials certainly understand that the NDC is not a government entity, and that they have no legal obligation to
complete and return our questionnaire. Those officials with good news to report (all the ballots came back on time and were counted) are more likely to respond than those with bad news to report. During the Global War on Terrorism, the military voter is a moving target—military service moves the voter around the world, often on short notice. The military postal system cannot keep up with the military absentee voter and deliver the unmarked ballot in a timely manner. Another problem in 2004 was that mailing of absentee ballots was delayed in several states by litigation about listing Ralph Nader on the ballot.
In our view, a military absentee voter disenfranchisement rate of 24% is unacceptable. Surely if we can send these American men and women into combat at the risk of losing their lives, we can take the time to fix this system, both legislatively and logistically, so that every single one of those who want to vote are assured of being able to vote
and further assured that their vote will be counted
Did someone say purple heart??? I got one of those in Vietnam.
Actually, you were awarded three, along with a Silver Star and a Bronze Star. Amazing you would have forgotten the others, unless… No, it couldn’t be true… Could it be that you are not John Kerry, the presidential candidate and victim of the Swift Boat Liars for Bush?
Of particular note, in this conflict we have common soldiers being denied the Purple Heart after suffering brain trauma tyhrough being blown up by IED’s, and yet Brian Suits, clearly a friend of this administration, will receive a Purple Heart, and a;; it entails under questionable circumstances.
Fortunately, Mr. Suits has not received a Silver Star or a Bronze Star. . .under any circumstances. He may have received a deep tongue kiss from Karl Rove, for his services. . . .
Another TJ says:
Did someone say purple heart??? I got one of those in Vietnam.
Actually, you were awarded three, along with a Silver Star and a Bronze Star. Amazing you would have forgotten the others, unless… No, it couldn’t be true… Could it be that you are not John Kerry, the presidential candidate and victim of the Swift Boat Liars for Bush?
Your right. I shot myself in the ass three times along with stubbing my toe and spraining a finger. Thanks for reminding me.
“John Kerry” said:
Um, no. If those 37,413 ballots were returned and not counted, then they would have been disenfranchised. If they weren’t returned, then that just means they weren’t returned.
Data submission was incomplete at best. In some states, most of the counties submitted data, in others, very few did. One state does not track the data by county, and made no submission.
And since the data was compiled using voluntary submissions to an organization with a rather partisan group running it, and was generally incomplete, the overall conclusions were based on incomplete data, and are, therefore, worthless.
Although I do note one thing in reading over the data. Two states have more military absentee voters than any other states. The (incomplete) data suggests that both of those states had somewhat higher than average “disenfranchisement” rates in 2004.
Texas and Florida.
So, “John”, why are the Republicans trying to keep military personnel from voting?
81
Easy John, just look up the counties these bases are located in. You will find most of these bases are located in blue counties. Next question please.
well it looks as if this comment thread should have been shut off about 30-40 comments ago, since it is way off it’s original topic.
no wish to quell the spirited chatter about who the real troop haters are, but the fellow killed on the docks was a friend of 25+ years. if you have nothing to say about whats going on with the port, please find another thread.
Norm:
Threads around here tend to wander, but you do make a good point that none of us really gave much thought to the death that was the basis for the port shutdown.
We could make the excuse that with all the other deaths through war and massacre, one death through an accident doesn’t grab much attention.
But… For the family and friends of that one, their loss is as great as those in Virginia, and that of the family and friends of the casualties in Iraq.
Thank you for reminding us of that. Your friend and those that loved him will be in my prayers.
Just a little point about this. Yes, there was a tragic accident. But a work stoppage, that isn’t part of the investigation? On Sept. 12, 2001 Thousands of firefighters across New York, went to work at their normal stations, running their normal calls. Many went to work, after pulling an all nighter at the pile, and many went back to the pile after their shift. They did not call in, they did not stop going on Aid, Medic or Fire responses. They went to work.
J. Barelli: Thanks for the thoughts & words. I dont normally get worked up over a topic drift; but this time I felt it appropriate to wave the bloody shirt.
As for the shootings @ V. Tech; it goes so unimaginably far beyond the pale, that all I can say is my prayers go out to them.
Union Fireman: that is as it should be; essential services, police, fire and EMS are just that, essential. If there was priority cargo on that terminal, there should be a procedure for getting to it’s destination, if not, thats a matter for the body politic to resolve. Otherwise, I really dont feel that a 22hr delay in a shipment of car parts, grain, sneakers or whatever matters a whit.
I cant speak to structural firefighting, as I’ve no qualifications in that. I do however have some experience in wildland firefighting and no one told us we could take the day off after the 30-Mile fire fatalities. my hats off to you structure types, but you know as well as I that fatigue kills just as certainly as extreme fire behavior can.
Be careful out there. ok, off my soapbox now. peace.
to our host; thanks for the forum, it helps to vent a little.