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Thursday, March 19, 2009

Around the Blogroll and Elsewhere: Special The System Is Broken edition
Posted by Jill | 5:57 AM
As I sit here in the dark, early in the morning, clutching a cup of coffee and wondering how the hell I'm going to meet a project timetable for a system with over 1200 data entry checks that have to be tested, bug-fixed, and handed off by next Tuesday in a schedule punctuated by too many meetings, I'm simply gobsmacked at the amazing job Melina has done in digging around the re-emergence of Eliot Spitzer. I haven't had a full night's sleep in over two weeks and delirium is setting in, but there is plenty to read out there from people who have been far more on the ball than I have. Here's just a few of them:

Bill Scher clued us in on a new project from the Campaign for America's Future, Dog the Blue Dogs -- designed to let the Democratic sellouts who are cozying up to Republicans who would kick them right back to the curb if they regain power, that we are not going to put up with their attempts to sabotage this nation's future any longer. And to think the loathsome Evan Bayh was on Barack Obama's VP list. One of the best sources for information on this colorless, sellout schtik dreck is Down with Tyranny, where Howie and Ken regularly report on just how useless this disgrace to his father's name is, with the most recent missive earlier this month.

Brad Jacobson of Media Bloodhound has a report at Raw Story on Federal involvement in a raid on ACORN offices in Nevada just weeks before the November election. Of particular note is that Nevada's U.S. attorney is a Bush apparatchik who replaced one of those fired by Alberto Gonzales for being unwilling to engage in bogus prosecutions for political purposes.

You have to wonder whether our elected officials even care about counting the votes when the response from Washington for the last eight years to Brad Friedman's meticulous attention to the very real problems of electronic voting machines has been "I don't know nothin' about 'puters! Math is hard!". Now even Diebold admits that its tabulation software is crap. This is a company that makes most of the bank ATMs in the country. I use ATMs all the time and not once have I encountered a mistake. You'd think the same company could make a voting machine that could run the instruction "i = i + 1" (or if you prefer, "i++") properly.

At yesterday's California Town Hall meeting, Barack Obama made very clear that he is perfectly OK with being judged on his performance after 4 years, in response to a question about whether he is going to run for a second term. I would rather see Obama address more forcefully the AIG debacle (jettisoning the complicit Tim Geithner, if that's what it takes) than shrug his shoulders and be so cavalier about turning our country over to fascists in another four years. Robert Freeman at Alternet warns us not to rest on the laurels of last November, because there are people like Robert Santelli and Rush Limbaugh out there -- wealthy media figures posturing as common people -- fanning the flames of rage that could very easily result in some very nasty people being elevated to power.

From the "Jesus H. Toe-Tappin' Christ on a Bicycle" file, via Hoffmania: The country is falling apart, and all Republicans can think of to do is stalk Democrats with video cameras trying to capture a "macaca moment".

Oliver Willis makes the case for why having Texas secede and make Chuck Norris its king is looking better every day.

And finally, to the people who gleefully help break the system and then report on its brokenness. DBK remembers the NBC bloggers summit of a couple of years ago, where he, ModFab, Mary Ann, Melina, Tata, and I all sat in the back snarking (I reported on it here, with links to the others) -- and notes its implications to the antics of Joe the Schmoe Scarborough and the rest of what Digby calls "The Village" as they happily light the torches that will burn this nation to the ground.
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3 Comments:
Anonymous Anonymous said...
Just love the summary, and all the work that went into it. Very happy to have found your blog.
3/19/09, 11:29 AM  
Blogger DBK said...
Just so you know, the Diebold offices that make the ATM software (and the bank vaults and stuff) is separate and different from the voting machine part. Diebold bought the voting machine part of the company on the early 2000s, but the rest of the business has been around for some time. I think the voting machine division is actually located in Texas, while Diebold is mainly in Ohio.
3/19/09, 2:38 PM  
Blogger Cirze said...
Thank you, Jill. Your blog is the place to find the "True Stories."

I really appreciate all you do (on top of what you already do!).

As Neil Young sings "Keep on rocking in the free world."

I'm simply gobsmacked at the amazing job Melina has done in digging around the re-emergence of Eliot Spitzer. I haven't had a full night's sleep in over two weeks and delirium is setting in, but there is plenty to read out there from people who have been far more on the ball than I have. Here's just a few of them:

Bill Scher clued us in on a new project from the Campaign for America's Future, Dog the Blue Dogs - designed to let the Democratic sellouts who are cozying up to Republicans who would kick them right back to the curb if they regain power, that we are not going to put up with their attempts to sabotage this nation's future any longer. And to think the loathsome Evan Bayh was on Barack Obama's VP list. One of the best sources for information on this colorless, sellout schtik dreck is Down with Tyranny, where Howie and Ken regularly report on just how useless this disgrace to his father's name is, with the most recent missive earlier this month
3/19/09, 3:47 PM  
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