Monthly Archives: May 2007

‘Caging’ and Other Rovian Wonders

Tinfoil or something more nutritious?

The Future of America Has Been Stolen – 10 Zen Monkeys (a webzine)

Investigative reporter Greg Palast says 4.5 million votes will be shoplifted in 2008, thanks largely to the “Rove-bots” that have been placed in the Justice Department following the U.S. Attorney firings. Being the guy who uncovered the voter “purge lists” of 2000 that disenfranchised black voters, he’s worth listening to, even if the mainstream press chooses not to.

This time around, he claims to have the 500 emails that the House subpoenaed and Karl Rove claims were deleted forever. They prove definitively, says Palast, that the Justice Department is infested with operatives taking orders from Rove to steal upcoming elections for Republicans and permanently alter the Department.

[Palast says:] Caging works like this. Hundreds of thousands of Black and Hispanic voters were sent letters — do not forward. Letters returned as undeliverable (”caged”) were used as evidence the voter didn’t live at their registered address. The GOP goons challenged these voters’ right to cast ballots — and their votes were lost.

But whose letters were caged? Here’s where the game turns to deep evil. They targeted Black students on vacation, homeless men — and you’ll love this — Black soldiers sent overseas. They weren’t living at their home voting address because they were shivering under a Humvee in Falluja.

In other parts of the interview, they guy sounds, quite frankly, like he's bats. But the stuff about past voter suppression did sound plausible; which at least raises the possibility that some of the other stuff might be right too.

Posted in Politics: Tinfoil | Comments Off on ‘Caging’ and Other Rovian Wonders

Sounding Presidential

Old news to many, I suppose, but yesterday Presidential candidate John Edwards gave a remarkably good speech — I mean remarkably good — on military power, foreign affairs, Iraq, and the 'war on terror'.

I was going to try to quote the good bits, but there are a lot of good bits, so I'll just suggest you go read it: John Edwards for President-Remarks As Prepared For Delivery At The Council on Foreign Relations.

Posted in Politics: US: 2008 Elections | 1 Comment

Florida Paper Ballots Law – The Fine Print

Daily Kos: Florida's Paper Ballots Come with a Catch

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Selected Previous Posts on Grading

Selected previous posts on grading:

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Grading Today

No blogging today: I'm grading.

Posted in Discourse.net | 6 Comments

Dangerous People

Certified Domestic TerroristIt's true that the “common law court” movement includes a lot of nutty people and probably some dangerous ones. And it's true that some of the things they do overlap with legal activities (although they often take it waaay too far). So I have a little sympathy for the bureaucrats who produced the boneheaded leaflet and training materials being mercilessly skewered by Homeland Stupidity at You are the homegrown terrorist threat. But only a little.

The FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force in Phoenix, Ariz., distributed a brochure (Images: 1, 2) to local law enforcement agencies a few years ago which defines terrorism as individuals or groups within the U.S. who engage in criminal activity to promote political or social changes. This is correct, as far as it goes, but the brochure then gives a listing of “suspicious” activities, telling law enforcement officers: “If you encounter any of the following, call the Joint Terrorism Task Force.”

Some of the things for which you should be reported as a suspected terrorist include the usual things, like weapons of mass destruction, and hate groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and Neo-Nazis, but also includes people who “Make numerous references to US Constitution,” “Claim driving is a right, not a privilege” and “Attempt to ‘police the police.’”

As regular readers know, I make frequent references to the US Constitution, and believe that there is constitutional right to travel — although its application to cars is a bit of a mess. And I'm all for policing the police although other than going to traffic court I've not done much of that myself.

Please don't report me.

Posted in National Security | 5 Comments