Great news for WA state Democrats: 21 of the 36 remaining members of the recently diminished state House GOP caucus voted Friday to retain Rep. Richard DeBolt (R-Chehalis) as minority leader.
Why is this good news? Democrats picked up six seats last Tuesday, increasing their hold on the state House to a commanding 62-36 majority, and I think it’s fair to lay at least some of the blame for the GOP’s electoral failure at the clay feet of DeBolt and his ham-fisted, hardball tactics.
House Majority Leader Lynn Kessler, D-Hoquiam, was unsure of what to expect from the Republican leadership team in the 2007 session.
She noted the DeBolt-led GOP’s fiery tactics on the 2006 session’s opening day, when the minority tried to bypass protocol and force a vote on a sex-crime bill. The caucus’ political committee later issued mailers criticizing Democrats for their positions on sex offenders.
“In 2004, [DeBolt] was really great to work with. I enjoyed working with him,” Kessler said. “In 2006, not so much.”
If you’re looking for a reason why an Iraq-war-fueled national Democratic wave managed to sweep so many local Republicans out of office, I think you have to look at the mean-spirited, Rove-like tactics of the state and local GOP over the past couple years. The fake sex offender mailings, 2005’s last minute voter registration challenges, the vicious, gay-bashing demagoguery before and after historic passage of WA’s gay civil rights bill… all this helped to make our relatively defanged, homegrown sub-species of Republican virtually indistinguishable in the eyes of average voters from the corrupt, feral and politically rabid breed that inhabits the other Washington.
Thanks in part to DeBolt and his caucus’s efforts to mimic the tactics of their national Party, voters concluded that a Republican is a Republican. And in 2006, that wasn’t a very good thing for a politician to be.
Now the Republican caucuses in both state houses are so small that Democrats don’t really need their votes or input on anything but a constitutional amendment. (And we’re only a few votes shy of not needing them on that either.) Given this disparity of power it would be awfully tempting to dis the GOP caucus the way their Congressional leadership dissed Democrats for most of the past 12 years, but Kessler says she plans to work with DeBolt.
“Because we have this big majority, we feel an extra responsibility to work with the Republicans and keep them engaged,” she said. “I’m hoping he will accept that from us.”
If DeBolt is smart he’ll accept Kessler’s olive branch, though personally I don’t think he deserves it. Considering the geographic divide between the two parties it is in the best interests of all of the state’s residents if the two sides can manage to work together… at least during the session.
Ah, Republicans. At least a few of them are learning from the mistakes of the past. Perhaps they should consider taking a page from incoming Republican Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota, when she stated (during freshman orientation for new members of Congress):
A fine and honorable goal for any Republican. After all, we don’t want to set the bar too high for them. Perhaps they can eventually set other lofty goals like actually representing their districts and voting on bills based on the merits, rather than simply obeying party leadership!
Mr. Sucks:
ARE YOU LACTATING?
Is the division in the state legislature really Democrat/Republican or is it even more sharply geographic? Looking at the few remaining Puget Sound Republicans, we see the likes of Fred Jarrett — more liberal than any number of Democrats (even his Puget Sound neighbors) — and Skip Priest. I’d say that Skip is also more similar to the other Seattle-area House members than Bill Grant is.
Then again, I don’t know anything about the political positions of Don Barlow (assuming that he hangs onto his lead over Serben in the 6th LD/Position 1). If he’s anything like Chris Marr, maybe I’ll stand corrected.
Will WSGOP go for broke and try for a 98-0 Democratic house? Why not? They would be making history …
“Why didn’t he just show his ID?”
That’s what our righty friends queried in the Taser thread. As details emerge, a possible answer becomes evident: The victim’s name is Mostafa Tabatabainejada. Does that tell you anything? He’s a U.S.-born Iranian Muslim.
Gee, let me guess. Although a U.S. citizen, he’s a member of an ethnic group that faces hostility and discrimination, especially now with public talk of possible war between the U.S. and Iran. Could it be that he was singled out because of his ethnic appearance? Could it be that he was afraid of what would happen if the cops saw an ID with a Muslim name? Could it be that he, or other Iranian-Americans in his circle of friends and relatives, have previously had experience with the racism that runs rampant in some police departments?
Meanwhile, UCLA has appointed a respected attorney involved in the Rodney King case to head an independent investigation of the incident.
“Thanks in part to DeBolt and his caucus’s efforts to mimic the tactics of their national Party, voters concluded that a Republican is a Republican.”
Washington State Republicans consigned their party to permanent minority status in our state back in the ’80s when the religious right seized control and ran off all the moderates. The only GOP candidates who even come close to statewide office are those perceived by voters as secular moderates. Their hard-right candidates consistently take a drubbing at the polls: Carlson, Craswell, Roadkill McGavick, etc. Of course, in the case of a candidate like Rossi, the carefully crafted “moderate” image is a deceit and is utterly fake; and when voters figure this out, Rossi will get clobbered along with the rest of the wingnut freaks. This is a good thing for Democrats because it allows us to dedicate more of our limited resources to federal races in pivotal states. Keep it up, wingnuts! We appreciate your business.
I think it’s interesting to note that although Diane Tebelius has been the GOP state chair for some time now, whenever there’s a media event where a “party spokesperson” is required, Chris Vance shows up. Kinda makes you wonder who’s really runnning the show.
“Considering the geographic divide between the two parties it is in the best interests of all of the state’s residents if the two sides can manage to work together… at least during the session.”
Goldy, I agree that Democrats should be pro-active in bringing together our state’s geographically disparate polities. That’s why I support the Roger Rabbit Redistricting Plan, which will also simplify district boundaries.
The RRRP is simplicity itself. Simply draw straight lines horizontally across the map. This will pair every eastern Washington precinct with four western Washington precincts.* Spokane will be represented by the same congressman and legislators as the Rainier Valley! Think of it — Spokane and Seattle will be like sister cities! the Sound and the Inland Empire will be united as never before — they’ll be like Siamese twins!
In fact, call it the Siamese Twins Redistricting Plan if you like!
* Based on proportional representation as required by the U.S. and state constitutions; Western Washington has 80% of the state’s population.
7
Tebelius is still in her probationary employment period.
Well, they do seem to be working very hard at it. In the races where they ran moderates, the far-right Republicans did an excellent job of cutting off any campaign funding and support.
A good example of that would be Beverly Woods up on Bainbridge Island. She was apparently an honest enough person, trying to be a good State Representative for her district.
But… The far-right Republicans wanted nothing to do with her. She was branded a “RINO” and Republicans were even told to vote for the Democrat in order to move her out of the way for a wingnut candidate next time.
Yes, the Democrat, Christine Rolfes, will make an outstanding Representative, and I think that this strategy will backfire on the Republicans when they put forward a wingnut candidate, but they really don’t seem to care if they win, just that the wingnut candidate represents the party, and that they get the opportunity to play silly games with the voting numbers and make phoney claims that we’re “cheating”.
If they keep this up (and they show no signs of stopping) then they’ll alienate the remaing reasonable people in the Republican party, who will end up as conservative Democrats.
The net effect will be that we end up as two parties that are willing to work together for the good of the country, while the Republican party will end up as a footnote in history books, right next to the Whigs.
I can deal with that.
With friends like this . . . .
AS LONG AS TOM MCCABE RESIDES IN THIS STATE AND RUNS BIAW, ANY REPUBLICAN WHO TAKES BIAW MONEY SHOULDN’T BE TRUSTED AS FAR AS YOU CAN THROW HIM. AS FAR AS I KNOW THE WHOLE R PARTY IS A BIAW PUPPET OR PUPPET OF THE EXTREME RELIGIOUS CROWD OR THE PUPPET OF OTHER NARROW BUSINESS INTERESTS.
THE DEMS ARE THE PARTY OF THE WORKING MAN, THE MIDDLE CLASS, THE PARTY OF OPPORTUNITY, THE PARTY OF FAIRNESS. WE BELIEIVE IN AN EVEN PLAYING FIELD. WE BELIEVE WE’RE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER. WE BELIEVE TAXES SHOULD BE LOW BUT NO LOWER THAN WHAT IS SMART. WE BELIEVE THE FORTUNATE HAVE A DEBT TO THE SOCIETY THAT MADE IT POSSIBLE FOR THEM TO BE FORTUNATE. WHAT IS ASKED OF THEM SHOULD BE REASONABLE AND FAIR.
THE R’S LATELY IN THIS STATE HAVE BECOME THE PARTY OF MEAN-SPIRITEDNESS AND SELFISHNESS. THE PARTY OF US VERSUS THEM. WE SEE THIS IN THE ATTITUDES OF THE MINDLESS WINGNUTS WHO HAUNT THIS COMMENT BOARD AND (UN)SP. THEIR TONE BECOMES INCREASINGLY VICIOUS AS MORE AND MORE THE PEOPLE REJECT THEM. IF THEY WANT TO BECOME RELEVANT THEY HAVE TO PURGE THEIR PARTY OF EXTREMISM, OF NEO-CON INSPIRED MASS FEAR AND UNHINGED GREED.
10 “they really don’t seem to care if they win”
You nailed it! In the tradition of Goldwater, they’d would rather be “pure” than popular.
12 “IF THEY WANT TO BECOME RELEVANT THEY HAVE TO PURGE THEIR PARTY OF EXTREMISM, OF NEO-CON INSPIRED MASS FEAR AND UNHINGED GREED.”
If they did that they’d become an empty tent because no one would be left.
N in Seattle. What say you about the always lovely Pam Roach? And what is your point about Chris Marr and what about Lisa Brown??? I agree that the state is more divided by party at the mountains and about Fred Jarrett but not every elected official fits into this view of our state.
As for Debolt in the next session, look for him to parrot whatever Rossi dishes out. He is the message man now. Will we give him anything to work with? Time will tell.
OPINION
Friday, November 17, 2006
Neocons blame Bush for Iraq fiasco
By HELEN THOMAS
HEARST NEWSPAPERS
WASHINGTON — The mid-term elections sounded the requiem for the group of neoconservatives who helped design the disastrous U.S. invasion of Iraq.
It’s over for them and their big dreams of pre-emptive wars and conquest of the Middle East. If anything, this group has left America weakened by the tragic military misadventure in Iraq. They convinced President Bush it would be a “cakewalk” to invade and occupy Iraq but it has turned out otherwise. Those power-driven ideologues have learned that the price for their dream was high — too high.
So much for their calamitous “Project for A New American Century,” which laid out the agenda to transform several Arab nations to their liking. It also meant sending Americans to kill and die for reasons yet to be explained by the president.
The neocons now blame a dysfunctional Bush administration — not their own ignorance of the history of the Arab world. They have belatedly learned that Iraqis — like any other people — will fight any foreign invader and occupier. History would have shown them that overcoming an insurgency in the form of internal resistance has been a losing proposition. Look at the experiences of such high-powered nations as the U.S. in Vietnam, the Soviet Union in Afghanistan and the French in Algeria.
Among the first of the Iraq war architects to bail out was Paul Wolfowitz, former deputy defense secretary, who now heads the World Bank. When he spoke several months ago at the National Press Club and was asked about Iraq, he replied: “That’s not my problem.”
Many top-strata Pentagon civilians close to Rumsfeld’s inner circle are expected to be getting pink slips when Rumsfeld departs after former CIA director Robert Gates is confirmed as his successor.
Another Iraq hawk who has departed is Douglas Feith, the former Defense Department official who set up a separate intelligence unit in the Pentagon to offset the more dovish CIA analysis of the mythical military threat by Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. Feith is now teaching at Georgetown University.
David Rose has written about the demise of the neocons in an article titled “Now They Tell Us” to be published in the January issue of Vanity Fair magazine. Rose quotes Richard Perle, who long advocated “regime change” in Iraq, as being shocked at the brutality of the war. “I underestimated the level of depravity,” Perle told Rose, adding that “an American withdrawal that leaves Iraq as an anarchic ‘failed state’ is not inevitable but is becoming more likely.”
And get this: Perle, former chairman of the Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board Advisory Committee, blamed Bush. “The decisions did not get made that should have been made,” Perle said. “At the end of the day, you have to hold the president responsible,” he said. In retrospect, Perle said, if he had the chance to do it again, he would not have advocated the invasion of Iraq.
Rose said he had expected to encounter disappointment among the neocons but instead found them to be despairing and angry over the incompetence of the Bush administration they once saw as “their brightest hope.”
Former White House speechwriter David Frum who coined the “axis of evil” slogan for Bush to single out Iran, North Korea and Iraq as dangerous, also blames Bush for the Iraq quagmire.
Rose quoted Frum him as saying that the insurgency has proved “it can kill anyone who cooperates” with the U.S. — and the U.S. has “failed to prove it can protect them.” That situation, he added “must ultimately be blamed on failure at the center, starting with President Bush.”
With friends like the neocons, Bush needs no enemies.
There is an irony in the president’s diplomatic visit to Vietnam this week, evoking memories of another U.S. military misadventure. But he will also see a silver lining even in defeat, as old wounds are forgotten and new friends are made.
For that reason Bush should swallow his pride, acknowledge a colossal mistake, restore our moral image on the international stage and set the nation on a peaceful course in the 21st century.
It’s not too late.
Helen Thomas is a columnist for Hearst Newspapers. E-mail: helent@hearstdc.com. Copyright 2006 Hearst Newspapers.
the Hottiest music vidio of the year
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyuICq04_Vc
Hi, Socialist.
Interesting video, but a bit too far left, even for me. The happy scenes from the Russian and Cuban revolutions managed to leave out the purges and other abuses.
How did that “worker’s paradise” thing work out for you folks, anyway? Soviet Union still going strong? All those statues of Lenin still polished and shiny?
As with almost anything, it’s possible to go too far in either direction. We found out that pure capitalism really doesn’t work, as the folks with power manage to manipulate the marketplace to freeze out their competition.
The pure socialists and communists have, for the most part, found that those systems don’t work either.
We’ll just keep muddling along, somewhere between the two extremes, arguing over whether we’ve gone too far in one direction or the other.
No, it doesn’t work very well, but it has one big advantage over any of the systems on the extremes.
It does work.
18
“We found out that pure capitalism really doesn’t work, as the folks with power manage to manipulate the marketplace to freeze out their competition.”
Here’s how John D. Rockefeller destroyed his competitors. He moved into their sales territory and gave away heating oil FREE. After bankrupting the competition, Rockefeller then bought their assets for under 10 cents on the dollar. And guess what happened to prices when Standard Oil was the only vendor in town?
MASSIVE GOP FRAUD IN 2006 ELECTION
In a previous thread I quoted an article that estimated Democrats would go into the 2006 elections with a 4.5 million vote disadvantage as a result of GOP suppression tactics and dirty tricks.
Using a nearly identical figure, this article argues that GOP strategists skewed the vote by 4% but lost control of Congress anyway because they underestimated the depth of anti-GOP sentiment among voters.
http://tinyurl.com/yft9xz
Clear Evidence 2006 Congressional Elections Hacked
By Rob Kall
OpEd News
Friday 17 November 2006
A major undercount of Democratic votes and an overcount of Republican votes in US House and Senate races across the country is indicated by an analysis of national exit polling data, by the Election Defense Alliance (EDA), a national election integrity organization. …
“We see evidence of pervasive fraud, but apparently calibrated to political conditions existing before recent developments shifted the political landscape,” said attorney Jonathan Simon …, “so ‘the fix’ turned out not to be sufficient for the actual circumstances. … When you set out to rig an election, you want to do just enough to win. The greater the shift … the greater the risk of … provoking investigation. What was plenty to win on October 1 fell short on November 7.”
“The findings raise urgent questions about the electoral machinery and vote counting systems used in the United States,” according to Sally Castleman, National Chair of EDA. … “The numbers tell us there absolutely was hacking going on, just not enough to overcome … the actual turnout. … [T]hey … figured out the percentage they needed … when the … vote rigging software was distributed weeks before the election, and it wasn’t enough,” Castleman commented.
Election Defense Alliance data analysis team leader Bruce O’Dell, whose expertise is in the design of large-scale secure computer and auditing systems for major financial institutions, stated, “The logistics of mass software distribution to tens or even hundreds of thousands of voting machines in the field would demand advance planning – at least several weeks – for anyone attempting very large-scale, systematic e-voting fraud, particularly in those counties that allow election equipment to be taken home by poll workers prior to the election. The voting equipment seems to be designed to support two types of vote count manipulation – techniques accessible to those with hands-on access to the machines in a county or jurisdiction, and wholesale vulnerabilities in the underlying behavior of the systems which are most readily available to the vendors themselves. Malicious insiders at any of the vendors would be in a position to alter the behavior of literally thousands of machines by infecting or corrupting the master copy of the software that’s cloned out to the machines in the field. … For this election, it appears that such changes would have to have been done by early October at the latest,” O’Dell explained.
In a reprise of his efforts on Election Night 2004, Jonathan Simon captured the unadjusted National Election pool (NEP) data as posted on CNN.com, before it was later “adjusted” to match the actual vote counts. … Simon explained, “Their advertised reason to do the exit polls is to enable analysis of the results by academic researchers – they study the election dynamics and demographics so they can understand which demographic groups voted what ways. As an analytic tool, the exit poll is considered more serviceable if it matches the vote count. Since the vote count is assumed to be gospel, congruence with that count is therefore assumed to give the most accurate picture of the behavior of the electorate and its subgroups.
“In 2004 they had to weight it very heavily, to the point that the party turnout was 37% Democrat and 37% Republican, which has never been the case – leading to the claim that Rove turned out the Republican vote. This was nowhere witnessed, no lines in Republican voting places were reported. As ridiculous as that was, the distortion of actual turnout was even greater in 2006. The adjusted poll’s sample, to match the vote count, had to consist of 49% 2004 Bush voters and only 43% 2004 Kerry voters, more than twice the actual margin of 2.8%. This … translates into more than a 3,000,000 vote shift nationwide, which … was enough to have altered the outcome of dozens of federal races.
“It should be very clear that weighting by a variety of carefully selected demographic categories, which yields the pre-adjustment exit polls, presents a truly representative electorate by every available standard except the vote count in the present election. So you have a choice: you can believe in an electorate composed of the correct proportions of men and women, young and old, rural and urban, ethnic and income groups, Democrats, Republicans, and Independents – or you can believe the machines. Anyone who has ever wondered what is really in a hot dog should be aware that the machines are designed, programmed, deployed, and serviced by avowedly partisan vendors, and can easily be set up to generate entirely false counts ….”
Simon concluded, “These machines are completely and utterly black box. The idea that we have this enormous burden of proof that they are miscounting, and there’s no burden of proof that they are counting accurately – that, first and foremost, has to change.”
Election Defense Alliance issued the following statement:
As in 2004, the exit polling data and the reported election results don’t add up. “But this time there is an objective yardstick in the methodology which establishes the validity of the Exit Poll and challenges the accuracy of the election returns,” said Jonathan Simon, co-founder of Election Defense Alliance. The Exit Poll findings are detailed in a paper published today on the EDA website.
The 2006 Edison-Mitofsky Exit Poll was commissioned by a consortium of major news organizations. Its conclusions were based on the responses of a very large sample, of over ten thousand voters nationwide*, and posted at 7:07 p.m. Election Night, on the CNN website. That Exit Poll showed Democratic House candidates had out-polled Republicans by 55.0 percent to 43.5 percent – an 11.5 percent margin – in the total vote for the US House, sometimes referred to as the “generic” vote.
By contrast, the election results showed Democratic House candidates won 52.7 percent of the vote to 45.1 percent for Republican candidates, producing a 7.6 percent margin in the total vote for the U.S. House … 3.9 percent less than the Edison-Mitofsky poll. This discrepancy, far beyond the poll’s +/- 1 percent margin of error, has less than a one in 10,000 likelihood of occurring by chance.
By Wednesday afternoon the Edison-Mitofsky poll had been adjusted, by a process known as “forcing,” to match the reported vote totals for the election. This forcing process is done to supply data for future demographic analysis …. The final result, posted at 1:00 p.m. November 8, showed the adjusted Democratic vote at 52.6 percent and the Republican vote at 45.0 percent … exactly mirroring the reported vote totals.
The forcing process in this instance reveals a great deal. The Party affiliation of the respondents in the original 7:07 p.m. election night Exit Poll closely reflected the 2004 Bush-Kerry election margin. After the forcing process, 49-percent of respondents reported voting for Republican George W. Bush in 2004, while only 43-percent reported voting for Democrat John Kerry. This 6-percent gap is more than twice the size of the actual 2004 Bush margin of 2.8 percent, and a clear distortion of the 2006 electorate. There is a significant over-sampling of Republican voters in the adjusted 2006 Exit Poll. It simply does not reflect the actual turnout on Election Day 2006.
EDA’s Simon says, ” … The Democratic margin of victory in US House races was substantially larger than indicated by the election returns.”
“Many will fall into the trap of using this adjusted poll to justify inaccurate official vote counts, and vice versa,” adds Bruce O’Dell, EDA’s Data Analysis Coordinator, “but that’s just arguing in circles. The adjusted exit poll is a statistical illusion. The weighted but unadjusted 7 pm exit poll, which sampled the correct proportion of Kerry and Bush voters and also indicated a much larger Democratic margin, got it right.” O’Dell and Simon’s paper, detailing their analysis of the exit polls and related data, is now posted on the EDA website.
The Election Defense Alliance continues to work with other election integrity groups around the country to analyze the results of specific House and Senate races. That data and any evidence of election fraud, malicious attacks on election systems, or other malfunctions that may shed more light on the discrepancy between exit polls and election results will be reported on EDA’s website. …
A separate “Security Assessment of the Diebold Optical Scan Voting Terminal,” released by the University of Connecticut VoTeR Center and Department of Computer Science and Engineering last month, concluded that Diebold’s Accuvote-OS machines, optical scanners which tabulate votes cast on paper ballots, are also vulnerable to “a devastating array of attacks.” … Similar vulnerabilities affect other voting equipment manufacturers, as revealed last summer in a study by the Brennan Center at New York University which noted all of America’s computerized voting systems “have significant security and reliability vulnerabilities, which pose a real danger to the integrity of national, state, and local elections.” …
EDA’s Simon summarized, ” … [A] Democratic victory does not equate with a fair election. It’s wishful thinking … to believe that the danger of massive election rigging is somehow past.”
EDA continues to call for a moratorium on the deployment of electronic voting machines in US elections; passage of H.R. 6200, which would require hand-counted paper ballots for presidential elections beginning in 2008; and adoption of the Universal Precinct Sample (UPS) handcount sampling protocol for verification of federal elections as long as electronic election equipment remains in use.”
http://tinyurl.com/yft9xz
GENERAL TALKS ABOUT RECRUITING CRISIS
“Volunteer Force May Be ‘Severely Degraded’ Soon, Retired General Says
“By Leo Shane III
“The Stars and Stripes
“Saturday 18 November 2006
“Washington – The all-volunteer force could be ‘severely degraded’ within two years …, according to a retired Army four-star.
“‘We’re in trouble,’ said retired Gen. Barry McCaffrey …. [W]e’ve had … problems … with the … quality of people coming into the armed forces … we’ve quadrupled the number of the lowest mental categories. … We’re putting 6,000, 7,000, 8,000 moral waivers into the armed forces.’ …
“Other panelists noted that private contractors in Iraq can make baseline salaries over $100,000, while young privates often make only a small fraction of that amount.”
For complete story and/or copyright info, see http://tinyurl.com/ylaw8w
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Why not use the taxpayer money that currently pays six-figure salaries to mercenaries to improve pay for uniformed soldiers? Why are we using public money to pay mercenaries, anyway?
Meanwhile, Bush has renominated rightwing judicial candidates opposed by Democrats, and the GOP’s incoming minority leader is issuing threats against Democrats using their new Senate majority to block these nominees. http://tinyurl.com/yd9l2q
Roger Rabbit Commentary: I don’t see even a scrap of “bipartisan cooperation” from the Republicans. If, despite being the minority party, they want to play hardball then fuck ’em, we should play hardball too — by putting impeachment back on the table.
EXCELLENT ARTICLE ROGER. APPARENTLY THE FIX WAS IN. THE WINGNUT LOCALS AND COMPANIES WHO HAVE HIJACKED ELECTIONS TOOK THEIR ORDERS FROM ROVE. ROVE WAS DELUDED BY HIS METRICS. THE PEOPLE SPOKE BUT THEY HAD TO SPEAK LOUD TO DROWN OUT THE CHEATING AND DECEIT. THE DISGUST WITH THE CORRUPTION WAS EVEN DEEPER THAN ANY OF US COULD IMAGINE.
I BELIEVE THE OPTICAL SCAN BALLOTS ARE A GOOD COMPROMISE BUT CHEATING CAN OCCUR WHEN THEY ARE COUNTED SO A RIGOROUS STATISTICAL CHECK ON THE COUNT IS ESSENTIAL.
THE WINGNUTS ALWAYS SAY THAT THE MILITARY AND PUBLIC SAFETY ARE THE FIRST PRIORITY OF GOVERNMENT. THIS BETRAYS THEIR AUTHORITARIAN IMPULSE. THE MILITARY IS NOT THE FIRST THING MENTIONED IN THE CONSTITUTION. JUSTICE RANKS HIGHER. THERE CAN BE NO JUSTICE WHEN EVIL MEN LIKE ROVE GAME THE SYSTEM TO TAKE POWER AND CLING TO IT.
THE WINGNUT ACTIVITY IS VERY LIGHT HERE AND AT (UN)SP. THE RIGHT-WING HANGOVER AND DEPRESSION MUST BE DEEP INDEED.
Good article, Roger. I don’t know anything about EDA but their article has the ring of truth about it. I can believe the Republicans stacked the deck by 4% against the people. The people in this case were just pissed off enough that they went an extra 10% in the direction of the Democrats.
We now have a little less than two years to implement election machine reform. We need to start by taking all touch screen machines out of service and not returning them to service until the companies involved agree to an audit of the voting software. If they claim the software is proprietary and a trade secret, the machines go to the electronics recycler, do not pass go, do not collect 200 thousand votes. The only secret there can be where the vote is concerned is the secret ballot — not the process by which that ballot is arrived at.
I’ll second that thought. We’ve got a pretty good system here in Pierce County, with machine readable paper ballots. Low spoilage rate, too as the ballots are checked for accuracy immediately, and if they are not readable, they are given back to the voter who can then fix the problem.
I can see no advantage to a paperless touch-screen system of voting unless you consider the ability to cheat undetectably to be an advantage.
“It’s not the people who vote that count. It’s the people who count the votes.” (normally attributed to Josef Stalin)
As a pollworker, I found that voters who opted to use the touch screen machine liked it. The two things I kept hearing were that it’s faster and easier than a paper ballot. Getting in and out quickly is a big deal for people who vote on their way to work.
Over on Sucky Politics, Stefan posits his Theory of Corruption. Namely, that corruption is a function of being the majority party; therefore, as of January 2007 the Democrats will be just as corrupt as the Republicans.
I have a question. Does this mean the GOP corruption is Rove’s fault?
I’ve occasionally argued in favor of a hybrid system — one where the voter uses a touch screen to choose their candidates, but then when they are done, the system prints out a paper ballot for them, marked with their choices. The paper ballot then goes in the hopper only after the voter has looked it over and is satisfied with it. This would give you the security of a paper ballot, but with a number of additional advantages — no partially-filled ovals, the voter can read the screen and vote in a language more comfortable for them if English isn’t their first language (or have it read to them if they are blind), a machine check against the paper ballots, and the like. You could even create a Scantron-type system to scan the ovals and separate the ballots by candidate in case of recount (Rossi ballots in one pile, Gregoire ballots in another, and the like) to make the recount faster.
Unfortunately many of my friends are so soured on machine voting of any type that they refuse to consider a system like this. Honestly I can’t say that I blame them. I just don’t think we should be throwing the baby out with the bathwater just yet with regard to machine-assisted voting.
29
I can believe that, which is why one of the big GOP disenfranchisement tactics is to create a situation where you have to stand in line for hours to cast your ballot — but only in districts with heavy Democratic turnout. I think there’s probably a system out there somewhere that will be secure enough to entrust with the foundation of our democracy, but I don’t know what it is. Maybe it hasn’t been invented yet.
32 Certainly not by letting GOP partisans run elections.
33
Exhibit A: Katherine Harris
Exhibit B: Ken Blackwell
Hey YOS LIB BRO
how about turning off the ALL CAPS. makes your posts hard to read and I end up skipping over them.
IF I TURNED ALL CAPS OFF I WOULDN’T BE YO’S LIB BRO.
32 Did anyone see any Republicans doing a rain dance on election day?
37
I’m pretty sure I saw some little puddles forming down around their shoetops, but I’m just as sure it wasn’t rain.
Twice a day, I drive past downtown Bellevue on 405. It always amazes me how many cranes are set up over downtown Bellevue. It’s hard to see all of them at once, but I think there are around 10 – 12. I like seeing them because to me, they symbolize economic vitality. Construction cranes are big stiff dicks sticking up into the sky for everone to see. >b>Men with money and a vision building something made of dirt, steel, glass and concrete. The people who run Bellevue have done a real good job of making downtown a hign end place where Big Money Fellas work but also mananged to make a place where BMFs can live too. Bellevue is the center of the civilized universe.
I had to go into downtown Bellevue today (Saturday) and when I was done spending my money, I drove by the site where the wreck happened. You gotta see it to appreciate it. It’s worse than the pitchers. Smashed buildings and bent metal. Flashing lights. Men working frantically. BFD, Ness Cranes, and DOL cleaning up the wreckage and trying to figure out WTF happened.
So I read the stoopid fucking shit that the stoopid fucking girlz in the papers (especially the PI) write and my gd blood boils:
1) The asshole stoopid fucking girlz at the soon to be defunct PI seems to think that the crane operator was responsible since he had a history of drug problems. Don’t get me wrong: I’d like to see all meth addicts have their fucking heads blown off and I’d be glad to pull the trigger. But the fact that the crane operator had drug problems six fucking years ago has nothing to do with the accident. Unless he designed the foundation and left out a few bolts then he’s a victim too.
2) Here’s the real fucking story; The crane was erected at the Bellevue site on Sept. 9 by Tukwila-based Northwest Tower Crane Service Inc., according to Tamara Hardy, the company’s safety director. “This is the first one that’s ever toppled for us that we know of that had anything to do with a geographic location that we work in,” Hardy said.
3) People who lived and worked near the construction project noticed that the crane seemed to sway a lot during the windstorm that happened earlier this week and before the collapse. I wonder if Tammy has ever heard of metal fatigue. I wonder if she knows that reversed stresses on steel structures have a limited number of cycles that can lead to catastrophic failure. Ummm…. apparently not.
4) Investigators found out today that every fucking bolt and every fucking weld in the base failed BEFORE the fucking thing collapsed. So tell me… how the fuck could the safety director of a construction project that was nothing more than a fucking hole in the ground NOT KNOW that every fucking bolt and every fucking weld in the base had failed? Tell me… how the fuck can that happen.???? So instead of focusing on the crane operator, maybe the focus ought to shift to the stoopid fucking woman who obviously had her head up her ass.
I looked in the Washington State Department of Licensing for “Tamara Hardy”. I was looking to see if she has a Professional Engineers license. Surely somebody in a position as director of safey should have a PE license and a steel license. The query returned “No Match”. She has NO FUCKING QUALIFICATIONS. NONE. But at least she’s diverse.
Here’s my final point: Innocent people end up DEAD when unqualifed stoopid fucking people like Tammy Hardy are put in positions of responsibilty due only to their EEO status. Tamara Hardy is the fucking poster babe for what’s wrong with the way FUWA and most of American business and government does business.
Memo to girlz at PI and Seattle Times: Here’s your next story:
Safety Director Unqualified:
Tamary Hardy who was director of safety at construction site in Bellevue where one innocent person died was found to have no technical qualifications whatsoever for her job.
Typically, persons in such positons are required to have a “Professional Engineering” license to prove they have professional competence in engineering fields and are required to pass two rigorous eight hour exams. Apparently Ms. Hardy didn’t bother to attain such qualifications.
In addition, she appeared to be completely unaware of the concept of “metal fatigue” which can lead to catastrophic failues in steel structure subject to high magnitude reversing stresses which occured during the wind storm earlier in the week. Investigation into hiring practices of here employer reveals that she was hired because of her vagina, without regard to her obvious lack of technical skills and qualifications.
Try that girlz: Let me know how it goes.
MTR – IF YOU’RE NOT GONNA PAY YOUR BET THEN GO TO BUMFUCK, CHINA WHERE THEY STILL PRACTICE REAL HE-MAN CAPITALISM.
WE WONT FUCKIN’ MISS YOU.
NOW PAY YOUR FUCKING GAMBLING DEBT LOW-LIFE
39 MTR
I was so with you all the way until this…”people like Tammy Hardy are put in positions of responsibilty due only to their EEO status”
It does not seem to me as if you know a goddamn thing about either her qualifications or her so-called “EEO status.”
Other than that reversion to type, your comments about the accident mirrored mine earlier today.
DEMOCRATS WIN CONTROL OF MONTANA LEGISLATURE
A state senator’s decision to switch parties gives the Democrats a 26-24 majority in Montana’s senate.
The Democrats already control Montana’s house by 50-49, which may change to 51-48 depending on a recount in a race that a Democratic candidate lost by only 24 votes.
Daddy – I want to read what you said “…Other than that reversion to type, your comments about the accident mirrored mine earlier today. “…
Where is it?
Here’s the fucking fact:
An unqualified woman… Tamara Hardy was given a position of reponsibility. An innocent man died as a result of Tamara Hardy’s lack of qualifications.
I want to know why Tamara was given that job when she was CLEARLY unqualifed to hold it.
I have a PE license. I want to know how Tamara Hardy got away without having one. Was it purely because she has a vagina?
The wingnuts on the jihad blog are tripping over themselves defending the crane operator, who has a criminal record longer than the crane’s jib boom.
Pay your gambling debt, woman-hater!
The rethug minority is of no concern to us. They got their ass kicked. And there’s no reason why the Wash Dems should give these inbred assholes the time of day. I say TELL THE FUCKERS how it’s gonna go and let that be that. We have damn near a supermajority. Fuck those punks. We don’t need to be bi-partisan. We won BIG because people hate the GOP.
I jus’ wanna know..
whyizzit that a woman who has no professional qualifications was allowed to oversee safety on a highly complex technical job that was CLEARLY beyond her comprehension.
Why must innocent people die purely for the sake of “diversity”.
Explain that to me?
Tamara Hardy does not have a PE license. She does not have a steel license. She has no fucking business being Director of Safey on a complex technical construction job.
Go here: http://www.dol.wa.gov/business/checkstatus.html
and query “Tamara Hardy”. See for yourself she does not have a Professional Engineering license.
Ask yourself why FUWA does not require people in these positions to prove that they are qualified to do the job EVEN IF THEY HAVE A VAGINA.
Tell me…
Even if you have a vagina, that does NOT mean that you are exempt from the laws of physics.
Tammy Hardy was unqualified for the job she held. Why was she allowed to hold that position?
Was it because of her vagina? Certainly, it was not because of her brain.
Why do you moonbats think it’s OK for innocent people to DIE for the sake of diversity.
I’m waiting…
Whole buncha silence here now…
Jus’ what I ‘spected.
Assholes…
none
I THINK YOU SHOULD PAY YOUR FUCKING GAMBLING DEBT!
A LITTLE EXTRA TREAT FOR THE BET-WELSHING, GINGRICH LOVING, JERK:
READ THE WHOLE THING AND
PAY YOUR GAMBLING DEBT!
“Vagina”
There. I said it.
George Bush isn’t qualified to be president. It must be that he has a vagina.
In fact. The whole Republican party is full of incompetent vaginas.
MTR is a well lubricated vagina.
Nothin’ could be finer than to be in her vagina in the moooornin’.
Nothin’could be sweetah than to stick her with my peetah in the mooooornin’
If I had Alladin’s lamp for only a day.
This is what I’d want and here’s what I’d saaaaaaaaaay!!!!
Nothin’ could be finer than to be in her vagina in the moooornin’.
First, to my knowledge, the Director of Safety position in this state does not require either a PE license or a steel license. (If you know of such a requirement, please reference it.)
That being the case, the fact that she does not have such a license is not surprising.
I am in a business that requires a state license (Real Estate). Many of the state inspectors that work in this area do not have real estate licenses. This doesn’t mean that they are not experts, but simply means that their positions do not require a license.
You may or may not be correct in assuming that Ms. Hardy was not qualified for her position.
If she is qualified, this qualification could be in the form of years of training and experience (perhaps in another state).
If she is not qualified, then I will assume that the families of the person killed will sue, and both she and the people responsible for hiring her will be facing a judge. Some folks may even be looking at jail time.
But… you seem to be making an assumption based primarily on the fact that she is a woman.
What is her training? Where else has she worked? What is her level of experience? Have you bothered to check any of these before simply spewing filth?
A quick check of several job search sites showed a number of positions open for “Safety Director”. While they all had requirements for significant education and experience, none of them required a license of any kind. Personally, I think they probably should, but they don’t.
The fact that she does not have a license that, while related to her job, is not required by her job is neither surprising, nor is it evidence that she was hired for any reason other than her expertise.
It is no more surprising than the fact that you would automatically assume she was hired for her sex without bothering to look further, or that you have apparently no respect or use for women except for household drudgery and as receptacles for sperm.
IF it turns out, after proper investigation, that she is unqualified for her job, THEN we can ask why she was hired for that position.
But of course, none of that really matters to you. She’s just a “stoopid fucking woman” taking away a man’s job.
48
Mark The Redneck KENNEDY says: I jus’ wanna know.. whyizzit that a woman who has no professional qualifications was allowed to oversee safety on a highly complex technical job that was CLEARLY beyond her comprehension. Why must innocent people die purely for the sake of “diversity”. Explain that to me? — 11/18/2006 at 9:00 pm
The explanation is so simple I’m amazed you overlook it, welsher! To wit: The crane was set up by MEN whose dicks are bigger than their brains. That crane would still be standing if a woman or a rabbit had tightened those bolts. Pay your gambling debt, pigfucker.
Redneck hates women because a plastic blow-up doll rejected him.
I have to go to bed, and I can’t read all the comments. I have a dream. I wish the 5 different branches of the Republican party split off and form their own parties.
Jesus Freak Branch: Want to force their god down ever American’s throat at ever opportunity, and to hell with separation of church and state, and the constitution.
Corporate Branch: Want to give ever single shred of power in our government to the corporate lobbyists, and large $$ campaign contributors.
Libertarian Branch: Want to end all government. Every moron for themselves. To the victor goes the spoils. Forget about clean air, water, or any form of protection from anything at all.
Neo-Con Military Industrial Complex Branch: Endless wars based on lies and cooked intelligence. Propoganda to steer trillions of dollars into the Military Machine providing jobs making armaments, tanks, smart bombs, bodybags, and coffins.
Conservative Financial Branch: They only want to tax the working poor, and middle class to pay for the most basic services, which are to be cut more every year till all budgets are zero. They want to let corporations pay nothing in taxes, zero investment income taxes, and no Estate Taxes. Let the billionares all become trillionares, and the other 99% of Americans get to live in diseased, rat infested squalor. Put America back to the middle ages because of selfish greed. I got mine, and I don’t care if you starve mentality branch.
There are really 5 branches of the GOP. Let them go their separate ways, and fight over all the low IQ Americans that still call themselves Republicans. I am sure one of these 5 branches appeal to every single Republican far more than the Democratic Party……..
64 The GOP gets parted out … lol!
Greetings from Alaska!
Washington state political junkies all know Ted Stevens, Alaska’s Senator for Life who just tried to knock of Maria Cantwell. He just announced that he’s running for re-election, and we did an media analysis of the way Alaska’s two largest daily newspapers covered the same event:
http://www.fairbanksopenradio......d/show/434
DARKNESS OF HEART
At times, I can’t help but admire the literary imagination of righty ranters. In today’s Seattle Fish Wrapper letters column, Peter McKeown of Marysville manages to fuse “Bush” and “America” into a quantum singularity:
“President Bush was just the whipping boy for the Democrats. Take him out of their arguments and insert America and you will see what they really want to destroy.”
Note: Mr. McKeown’s letter contains the predictable cloned Halloween shrieks about “Democratic … hatred for President Bush” and “demoralizing … our military” and “Blame America First leftist media” and “great victory for our enemies” and “their goal of world domination” and “just how devoid of substance, with no plan to solve any of our nation’s problems, these Democrats are.”
http://tinyurl.com/y6u33t
Roger Rabbit Comment: This dude must have just returned from a kayak excursion up the Congo River.
While Mr. McKeown pens fantasy, Bryan Nelson of Tumwater writes credible non-fiction:
“I … marvel at the continuing rhetoric from the far right …. Let me provide some reality for these folks so they understand better the politics of the Iraq war.
“First, ‘victory’ is going to be dummied way down, so it will no longer include a ‘Western-style’ democracy ….
“Nor will ‘victory’ include ‘defeating the terrorists’ because, quite frankly, no one has realistically defined that term.
“Once we have again redefined ‘victory,’ we will then have put enough lipstick on this pig to pass it off to the American public …. Then the Democrats will force the issue of leaving Iraq, while … the right will complain and fear-monger ….
” … [T]he Democrats will be blamed while the Republicans … will secretly celebrate our leaving, as they … want out just as badly as the Democrats do, before [the 2008 campaign] rolls around.”
(Same link as above)
The P-I, as a rule, gets more sensible letters — like this one from Tony Olson of Puyallup:
“I would like to thank … Rush Limbaugh, Michael Medved, Kirby Wilbur, John Carlson, Sean Hannity … ad infinitum ad nauseam. With the help of your glorious flapping pie-holes, gentlemen, America has finally been persuaded to vote blue once again. We Americans owe you all a debt of gratitude, for a job well done.
“There is still more work to do, so please don’t stop …. Who knows, with your continued hot-air contributions to global warming, we may once again have a Democratic president in a couple of years, to go with your finely established Democratic House and Senate. Thanks to you all once again, gentlemen … !”
http://tinyurl.com/yz7xug
Roger Rabbit Comment: He’s got a point. The average American knows a pig farm by the smell, no matter how much whitewash is on the barn.
I just can’t get the picture of Sean Hannity out of my mind. You know, the “scene” where he boasted “we did find WMD’s in Iraq” remember? You know there are still people watching TV that believe everything they hear.
Uh Sean…. What WMD’s were you referring to? The rusted old shells that were not useable 15 years ago? Please explain what WMD’s we “found” ok?
The best thing about the “wingnut” ideology is the fact that it is based on 100% fiction, and not fact. Here is a little “reality” for the wingnuts.
Iraq was a threat to America before the invasion, I agree. A very, very, very, very small threat. By invading Iraq, and helping Al Queda recruit (see Abu Gharib), OUR REAL THREAT, ISLAMIC FUNDAMENTALISM ONLY GROW STRONGER BY THE SECOND!!!!
Thank You George Bush for making millions of people that used to care less about me want to kill me. Never mind the $2 TRILLION this nightmare will cost (and counting) taxpayers.
70
And this just in from one of the darlings of Far Right Wingnuttistan:
Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/.....00287.html
Now let’s see, weren’t some of the meatsticks on this very blog talking just the other day about how we were winning in Iraq?
I just can’t get the picture of Sean Hannity out of my mind.
My condolences.
The problem is what happened in FL-13. When the machines get “miscalibrated”, misconfigured or otherwise fail to register votes (you touch “A” and it shows you “B”) people just give up. Voting has to work right, every time, in real-time. While it’s not impossible to make machine-assisted voting work, I think the touch screen model of voting is just fundamentally flawed.
I favor all-vote-by-mail, using optical scan ballots, for a number of reasons, including that it gets rid of a lot of voter suppression tactics and that it includes a built-in human-readable paper trail.
The only real issue is the “spoilage” you mention – people put stray marks, forget to fill out ovals, etc. I’ve seen it being almost 10%. In states like Washington, those spoiled ballots can be read for voter intent (not as dubious as it sounds). But this too could be eliminated by having computers print the ballots, sans touch screens. Rather than touch-screens, just provide a standard web site (secure), with a form that you use (radio buttons, etc.). Use it, print out your “perfect” (still human readable) ballot and submit it in the secure envelope. Or use the paper ballot if you prefer.
Voters’ data wouldn’t be stored anywhere, and you could always go to a library computer if you wanted to use that instead of your home or business computer.
Simple, solves most problems, doesn’t introduce new ones.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15773983/
It looks like even the rethugs think Baby Bush is an idiot!
I knew the rats would start coming out of the woodwork.
73
What percentage of people still don’t have computers, and don’t know how to use them? I think it’s significant — especially among elderly voters.
74 RightEqualsStupid says: I knew the rats would start coming out of the woodwork. — 11/19/2006 at 9:58 am
Roger Rabbit Reply: You mean sliding down the mooring ropes! The fucking ship is on fire! This quote (in the article you linked) is precious:
“Most troubling, he said, are his shattered ideals: ‘The whole philosophy of using American strength for good in the world, for a foreign policy that is really value-based instead of balanced-power-based, I don’t think is disproven by Iraq. But it’s certainly discredited.'”
HOW MANY TIMES have I seen wingfucks criticize Democrats for pursuing a “value-based” foreign policy such as the humanitarian interventions in Somalia and Kosovo? Wingers still excoriate Clinton for stopping a genocide in the Balkans perpetrated by a tyrant who started four wars — without a single U.S. combat death! Redneck bottle-brains who’ve failed to achieve domestic tranquility in their trailer parks presume to criticize a president because his foreign policy isn’t selfish enough! Then they go FUBAR their own war …. No, I don’t think these bozos are in a position to talk about “value-based” anything; they’ve pretty much defaulted away that territory.
I carefully designed the system to say you can use the existing ballot (paper, optical scan, use your pen) or use a computer. No problem for elderly people who don’t want to use computers.
The computer is an option for those that worry about ballot spoilage, basically.
Barelli – Then why the fuck is it that the girl who cuts your hair needs a license? Or the girl who gives you a lap dance at Rick’s needs a license? But the stoopid fucking woman who is director of safety saw no need to establish any kind of credential.
My point is that the girlz at the PI need to drop the story on the crane operator and go after the dumfuck woman who didn’t know that every fucking bolt and every fucking weld on the base of the crane had failed. How the fuck can you be director of safety and not know that? And then start asking why the fuck she was allowed to hold that position when she she has no professional credentials.
Seems clear to me that she was in a position that demands a PE license since she was responsible for safety in a public situation:
http://apps.leg.wa.gov/RCW/def.....=18.43.010
GROW UP (IMPOSSIBLE I KNOW) AND PAY YOUR FUCKING GAMBLING DEBT LOSER!
Who’s DeBolt and why does he hire incompetent women to build oil derricks in Bellevue?
Vagina lips,
It is obvious you know nothing about construction as an industry or a business. A large project has a safety director. A P.E. is not required. A working knowledge of safety procedures and regulations is. The ability to impliment an effective safety program is essential. Your attacks on this woman reveals only the depths of your ignorance.
It would appear that the design of the rather unusual crane base failed either due to faulty design (the work of PE’s)or the construction of this assembly (i.e., the field). Inspections for metal fatigue or bolt “failure” are not normally required. If this were the case you and like minded fuckers would oppose it because it constitutes “added cost” and “bureaurcratic red tape”.
Lease Crutcher is a well known firm with an admirable track record. Let us see what the investigation determines.
Fuckers like you who want to strangle OSHA of funding are directly responsible for avoidable tragedies such as this. You have blood on your hands. Chi square that, motherfucker.
Richard LaValley of Vancouver wrote to the Vancouver Columbian newspaper:
“Every terrorist on the planet is very happy, why? Because they too wanted the Democrats to win.”
Roger Rabbit Reply: Hey Dickhead, why don’t you try being original, instead of plagiarizing your talking points from every other dittohead in the country? Why not get creative and accuse the Democrats of, say, selling nuclear secrets to Iran or conspiring with the Russkies to raise gas prices? Fucking idiot.
Jeff Tanner of Vancouver wrote:
“The gloom and doom roar of the right-leaning cavilers … has been deafening since the election. The Democrats won’t take over the House and Senate until Jan. 3 of next year, yet they are already being accused of pulling our troops out of Iraq, raising taxes and spending haphazardly like there’s no tomorrow. …
“The majority of Americans wanted and voted for change. The incoming Democratic majority says they are willing to be bipartisan and want to work with the Republicans. Might I request that the pessimistic commentators try to meet the Democrats halfway, not be so repugnant and refrain from criticism until it is warranted?”
Roger Rabbit Reply: Very touching, Jeff, but read Dickhead’s letter and then tell me whether that’s realistic. Me, I’m gonna lock and load, in case these buttheads show up at my burrow with a ladder and rope. You can’t reason with eggplants.
What the 2004 governor’s election and the 2006 congressional elections proved beyond peradventure is that wingnuts are world-champion whiners and sore losers. Fuck ’em! They can kiss my cute cottontail.
Since they’ll accuse us of pulling the troops out of Iraq, raising (their) taxes, and increasing (social) spending NO MATTER WHAT WE DO, we may as well bite the bullet and get those things done by the end of the first business day in January so we can all move on to the country’s other problems.
I think we should pass a law requiring wingnuts to register at the nearest police station. We require sex offenders to do that, and they’re not as dangerous. All they want to do is molest our children! The wingnuts won’t be satisfied until they get everybody nuked, including themselves.
Here’s the link to the Vancouver Columbian letters: http://tinyurl.com/y5zpf8
78 Pay your gambling debt, freeloader! And you know what you can do with your misgoynist opinions.
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20061204/hayes
The New Democratic Populism
Christopher Hayes
“Everyone wants Virginia’s Senator-elect Jim Webb to talk about Iraq, but the man The Weekly Standard recently called a “blood-and-soil conservative” wants to talk about something else: economic inequality. The day after he accepted George Allen’s concession, Webb barely let his NPR interviewer get a word in edgewise before jumping in to correct the misperception that his bid for office was motivated solely by opposition to the war. “I decided to run because of my concern…with the economic breakdown that’s happened in this country along class lines.”
Class lines? Mr. Webb is a man who has railed against the “collectivist taming” of American culture by Marxists and has served in the Reagan Administration. So why is he talking like Eugene Debs? “There are huge income inequalities…that we haven’t seen since the 1880s,” he said on NPR. “And wages and salaries…are at an all-time low as a percentage of wealth.'”
re 88: This is what Progressives have been saying ever since that head-bobbing, Grenada Attacking, Beirut cut-and-runner, Ronald Reagan started gibbering about “trickle down” lo these many miserable decades ago.
My favorite Reagan claim was when he attested that he had personally freed the Jews at Auswitz — in front of the horrified holocost survivors — who wondered if the old coot had lost his mind.
“who wondered if the old coot had lost his mind”
The question isn’t “if” but “when” … ?
What I mean is, this guy at some point didn’t even know who he was, and had to be fed like a baby. The secret service agents would spread leaves on the lawn so he could rake them up. Wouldn’t you love to know when he started wearing Depends?
73
Any machine-assisted voting system would need to be thoroughly tested to make sure that you don’t have misvotes where you hit the button for David Goldstein and it shows you voted for Stefan Sharkansky. That’s why the system would produce a paper ballot, which would be the only official accepted instrument of voting. You, the voter, would scan it before you put it in the hopper to make sure your ballot reflects your intentions.
(When I say “thoroughly tested,” I mean rigorously tested in the same way any other piece of software or hardware is tested. Tests run, bugs filed, and preferably put the system into use among early adopters like, say, collegiate student body elections. Then not only would you get feedback on legitimate bugs (“Your machine doesn’t register any candidates with a middle initial of Q!”) but you would get suggestions for improvements and enhancements from people actually using the system. That sort of feedback is like gold if you pay attention to it.)
I sympathize with your feelings about machine voting, but I don’t agree with them. Not yet, anyway. I’m willing to believe that a system can be designed that is as foolproof and as painless as possible. But until then, I’m voting permanent absentee.
“…I’m willing to believe that a system can be designed that is as foolproof and as painless as possible…”
It certainly can be done. These people, for instance, are already at work on it & have been for some time. All a secure voting system needs to be used is some support from those in positions of legal responsibility.
Of course, I am NOT holding my breath.
The state of Washington determined that the girl who cuts my hair needs that license, just as they determined that I need a license to talk to folks about real estate.
I didn’t make that determination for myself, nor did the girl that cuts my hair. I’ll let you speak for the lap dancers, as that is not my area of expertise.
Now, if you want to argue that the state should set minimum standards of training and experience for safety inspectors (which is the reason for licensing) I will certainly agree with you.
But they haven’t. Saying that she should have decided, on her own, which licenses (that she had no use for, as they were not required for her job) she should have obtained is absurd.
Maybe she really is unqualified, maybe not. Whatever licenses she does or does not have, other than licenses required by the state for her position are irrelavent.
That doesn’t mean that the training and experience needed to get the license is a waste, just that obtaining the license itself is a waste of time, and may not even be possible.
Further, many licenses lapse if you are not actively working in a position that requires a license. (Real estate is one example.) For someone who is not going to work in a licensed position to obtain a license is simply a waste of time.
Again from my profession, if you go through all the hoops to get a real estate license, but you don’t activate it (by working as an agent) it not only never appears in the state records, but after six months, your tests become invalid and you have to start over.
From what I can tell from the various position descriptions for “Safety Director” at several different companies, nobody requires a person in that position to have either a PE or a steel license.
The determination as to whether a license is required or not is made by the state. Most of the time, the requirements for a license is set after the trade association (or equivalent) for that field makes a proposal to the state with minimum standards of education and experience.
That’s the way licensing works. Remember, neither I, nor the girl that cuts my hair, nor the girl that gives you that lap dance made the determination that we needed a license, nor what the training and experience requirements for those licences would be. Now that I’m experienced and working in the field, I get some input, and have been routinely asking for higher education and experience requirements for licensing in my industry.
Since this appears to be about your industry, why don’t you do something productive, by helping to establish appropriate training and experience levels for this type of position? All the construction industries have trade associations (or the equivalent), and that would be the place to start.
Or, would you rather just bitch about the “stoopid fucking woman“?
Don’t worry about our future my fellow citizens…
We will soon have Alcee Hastings, one of only 6 Federal Judges ever impeached, in charge of Intelligence!
John Murtha, ABSCAM CROOK, will be in charge of ETHICS!
And Lord knows what other Demo-scumballs will rise to the rim of the toilet.
The beauty of the system I’m describing is that it would work with absentee voting. I’m a huge believer in permanent absentee/vote by mail. It’s distributed and auditable by nature – This makes it harder to game the system or suppress votes. It puts the poor and the rich on an equal footing, since all ballots are paper, and then read by optical scan machines. There are economies of scale for the money that would be required to adminster elections too – all reasons why WA state is going vote-by-mail.
All I’m saying is that one improvement to voting by mail is having the ability to print a perfectly filled out ballot at home. It’s a lot easier to take the time to review your printed ballot at home than when you’re in a polling booth and just want to get back to work. Plus, I see no reason why the computer system couldn’t be as simple as most web-based forms (drop down boxes or radio buttons, use your keyboard to type in write-in candidates). The form would easily prevent accidental over or under votes and any problems with corrections or bad handwriting. Same promise as touch-screens, but without the same problems. And none of the pesky problems of electronic voting in terms of hacking the “database” of voters choices – since they’re printing out ballots to send in. No database required.
Again, if you didn’t want to use a computer, you could use the ballot they sent you. If you did, you’d fill out the form, it would print out the ballot, you’d read it and send it in.
I think the Democrats should reach out to the Republicans. Just far enough to cuff them……
And you know what? Next election even more wingnuts will be thrown out of congress. Once we start turning over rocks, and shining light on all the no bid contracts to GOP contributors, and all the rest only a certified insane maggot would cast a vote for any Republican.
You know congress spent 10 times as much hearing time investigating Clinton’s christmas card list as Abu Gharib?
When it comes to dealing with Republicans, I think Vlad the Impaler could be of some use…..
Anyone still supporting Bush, and the GOP should catch Parkinson’s and Diabetes all at the same time. Then you can slowly die yourself so Bush can get a few extra votes from Jesus Freak Neanderthals……
No embrionic stem cell cures for you wingnut…. Just fukkin rot.
Just remember, you can’t see pictures of what we caused in Iraq. Americans are too squeamish to see gore. When you see the picture of a pool of blood on your tv screen, imagine the child that laid there earlier in 3 pieces….
Being Republican is a disease. Period. Democracy Disease.
DeBolt is not smart enough to take the olive branch, this is the same DeBolt who attempted to tell Karen Schimdt how to appropriate transpotation dollars in his district. He was summarially thrown out of her office. He has sweaty palms as well. De Bolt the Dolt
HorsesAss.Org
Wow – that redneck fella sure has some issues regarding women, doesn’t he? He doesn’t realize how much he’s embarrassing himself when he rants about how some woman he knows nothing about must be unqualified for her job because – well- she’s a woman. He doesn’t seem to understand that a director of safety is not the same job as crane inspector. All that matters to him is that she’s a woman and she’s not an engineer. Apparently, in his mysoginistic world, no woman in construction could possibly be qualified. Furthermore, it doesn’t really matter whether or not a job actually requires a P.E.; since he thinks she should have had a P. E. and she doesn’t, then, of course, she’s not qualified for her job.
Shorter Redneck: she’s a woman, so it’s all her fault!