Both Sarah Palin and Ted Stevens were found guilty of something and then publicly stated that they weren’t.
First Palin stated that she was exonerated of any wrongdoing (abuse of power) in the Troopergate Tasergate scandal.
Now Ted Stevens said that he wasn’t convicted. I don’t know what trial he attended.
Talk about Republicans living in their own little world. Yes, I’m talking to you Larry Craig.
Posted in Democrats, John McCain, McCain - Palin, Politics, Republicans, Sarah Palin
Tagged Ted Stevens, troopergate
Florida will be voting on November 4th to ban same-sex marriage. Under the ridiculous name of ‘Florida Marriage Protection Amendment’ this constitutional amendment will specifically discriminate against gays and lesbians. In addition, it will also discriminate against seniors and other heterosexual couples who choose to live together rather than marry.
So whose marriage are they protecting?
Imagine if there was an amendment on the November ballot called Florida Home Ownership Protection Amendment that defines home ownership as the legal contract of a white married couple. This would ban the following groups from home ownership: African-Americans, Hispanics and Native Americans. Oh yeah, unmarried whites would also be banned from home ownership.
Who could forget this from Article I, Section 2 of the United States Constitution?
Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons.
This was remedied by Amendment 14 which was ratified in 1868.
The 15th Amendment (ratified 1870) granted blacks the right to vote:
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
And women were given their right to vote fifty years later:
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.
It’s hard to believe that in the 21st century we’d be taking such a turn back towards close-mindedness. This is discrimination any way you look at it.
The Florida Marriage Protection Amendment is solely trying to ‘protect’ the word marriage for bigoted heterosexual couples.
As a result of this amendment and others like it around the country, gay and lesbian couples will be denied some of the basic rights that heterosexual couples take for granted – like hospital visitation and health benefits.
Not one newspaper in the state endorses this amendment.
Same-sex marriage is already illegal in the state of Florida, so what is the real purpose of this bill? I’d say it is two-fold. First, there is a possibility that the Supreme Court would rule that banning same-sex marriage is unconstitutional so placing an amendment like this one into the constitution would make overturning this ban more difficult. We’re really going out of our way to make sure that we lock in discrimination. Makes you proud to be a Floridian, doesn’t it?
The other reason this amendment is on the ballot is to get all the intolerant religious zealots and homophobic bigots out to the precincts on Election Day. This will help the Republicans who pathetically are proud to call these cretins their base.
Any politician who has endorsed this discriminatory amendment is either a religious zealot, a homophobic bigot or a coward who is afraid to stand up to their political base.
We’ve been cleaning discrimination from our laws since the Civil War. I cannot believe that we are voting to add an amendment like this to our laws. Today, we are targeting gays and lesbians. What’s tomorrow? Hispanics? Asians? Catholics? Jews? Liberals? Conservatives? You?
We are better than this!
Florida is better than this!
America is better than this!
Vote NO on 2!
Websites:
Posted in Democrats, Election 2008, Politics, Republicans, Uncategorized
Tagged Amendment 2, Civil rights, gay, gay marriage, lesbian, marriage
For the third consecutive presidential election, I have voted using different technology here in Florida. I showed up at the early voting site and joined my fellow civic-minded Americans in casting our ballots for either Barack Obama (applause) or John McCain (boos) or one of 11 other candidates (huh?).
In 2000, we used the punch card ballots – which provided some of the best election memories. Who could forget the butterfly ballot or the guy analyzing the hanging chads? Who knew what a chad was prior to that election? I thought it was a male name or a country in central Africa.
You cannot blame the punch cards for the nonsense of the butterfly ballot which somehow seemed to benefit Pat Buchanan in heavily Democratic Palm Beach County – known for its non-support for Buchanan.
The real issue was the chads. There were hanging chads (a piece of the ballot hanging by 1 corner), swinging chads (hanging by 2 corners), Tri-chads (three corners), and pregnant chads (a slight indentation – a dimple, if you will – but all four corners are connected).
The chads were completely avoidable if you only took a couple of extra minutes before submitting your ballot. I always did 2 things after voting but before submitting the ballot. I reviewed the ballot making sure the number of the candidate I voted for matched the number on the ballot that had the hole punched. Then I made sure that all of the holes were free of chads. It’s common sense really – which is why I believe it became an issue.
In 2004, we were upgraded to touch screen machines. I liked the speed of which I cast my ballot but still wonder to this day who I really voted for. Black Box Voting has proven to be easily hackable (which doesn’t appear to be a word unless you are a computer security person) as demonstrated by Bev Harris from BlackBoxVoting.org.
Once you push the button completing your ballot, the selections disappeared from view into a black hole and stored on removable disks never to be seen by me again – thus the name Black Box Voting.
The big question was why couldn’t this method of voting produce a paper receipt? I get a paper receipt at the ATM, the gas station and at restaurants. Why not when I vote?
So instead of rectifying this situation, these machines were tossed and a new more difficult method of voting was introduced. Paper ballots. Which brings me to my experience yesterday. Oooh, it was so much fun.
My hour long wait in line
I showed up at the library promptly at five pm. Fortunately, a cold front (or what we in Florida know as a cold front) was beginning to make its way into the area so temperatures weren’t brutal. For that, I was truly grateful. In fact, it made the mood of my new temporary friends much more pleasant.
One older woman toggled between phone calls and listening to music on her phone. I know this to be true because she hummed or sang along when she wasn’t speaking to someone on the phone.
One car apparently had an issue parking and slid into a ditch and provided the line with some brief entertainment as he drove around trying to gain traction in order to work his way out. I probably would have called triple-A, but that’s just me.
I saw a good number of Obama stickers but none for McCain. I also enjoyed the mental game I play every time I wait in line for an election. Who’s that person voting for? The great thing is that there is no right answer though I think I’m pretty good.
As I closed in on the entrance to the building, I was along the wall of the building. Cars occasionally drove around searching for a parking spot. A Honda Accord approached my area and stopped about 15 feet from me – facing me. The engine revved. The driver was an older woman (probably in her 80’s). Her knuckles sat atop the steering wheel. I looked for a place to run – maybe behind a tree. (And yes, I realize that I’m profiling and normally I am against it, but when a car is 15 feet from me and I find myself possibly a moment away from injury, I profile.) Then, I noticed that my civic-minded temporary friends were doing the same thing. So we began sharing our thoughts.
The revving continued. The car inched closer. I moved up in line and the tires angled along with me. I was still in the line of site. I adjusted my getaway plan for my adjusted position in line. We discussed and laughed more. Someone pointed at the driver.
Moments later, a little girl – about 10 – got into the car and they drove off without incident. And there’s the flaw with profiling. But it did kill nearly 10 minutes.
I started wondering how much money I could get if I sold my spot in line to someone who just arrived. Then I wondered how much money I could make by selling my place in line all day long. I’m guessing a couple hundred dollars, especially on the very hot or rainy days.
It was now 5:45 and one of the poll workers came out of the building and began the chant that would continue nearly non-stop for 15 minutes.
“If you are not in line at 6:00 today, you will not be voting today.”
Who was he telling? The people already in line weren’t going anywhere. The people who would be arriving at 6:01 weren’t there yet. But the announcement continued about once per minute.
Inside the polling place
At five minutes until six, I sat down at the registration desk. I handed over my voter’s registration card and my driver’s license. I was asked to confirm my date of birth and my address and then asked to sign the signature plate – which is becoming more frequent at more and more stores.
A receipt printed out listing my name, address, party affiliation, ballot type (since early voting allows us to vote anywhere within the county which we have registered. I took my strip of paper and proceeded back outside to stand in a new line.
“If you are not in line at 6:00 today, you will not be voting today,” I heard bellowed once more followed by the countdown of 10 to 1.
“3 – 2 -1.” Applause. Then I noticed an SUV pulling into a spot. You could tell that the people in line wanted her turned away. It wasn’t even 6:01 yet. What a tough crowd. What would it hurt letting the woman vote? It’s not like she’d vote before them.
Now back inside the building, I realized what the next step of the process was. We were waiting for our ballots to print out of 1 of 2 printers. These must have been 2 of the largest printers I have seen. They appeared to be as large as the luggage scanner at the airport. (I did say appeared).
You had to hope that your ballot actually came out when it was supposed to come out. Someone in the other printer line was waiting since her ballot did not print out. She was waiting a good 10 minutes before it printed out. I couldn’t help but think that someone got her ballot by mistake. If that was the case, would the 2 cancel each other out?
That would mean someone would have gotten 2 ballots by mistake. I don’t know how the system would just not print one ballot. It makes no sense.
After my 4 page ballot (front and back) printed out, I moved to yet another line. This is number 3. This time the poll worker stapled part of the 4 pages of my ballot together, verified that my ballot matched the ballot-type I was required to receive based on the original receipt they provided me. She then confirmed that I was who I said I was by asking me. She kept the stapled 4 page portion of my ballot and my receipt. I kept my ballot that was inside a secret folder.
I thought the secrecy thing was really bizarre since I was able to read the name of the people in front of me in line as well as their party affiliation, just like I know people read mine.
Next, I move to line number 4. It is time to vote. I am the only one in line but have been asked to wait.
My voting experience
I get led to the rickety table / booth in the corner. I put down my water bottle and begin to prepare my ballot. I pick up the provided pen only to notice something unbelievable scary. I can not read the ballot. It is a blur.
The procedure for this should be relatively simple. Take the provided black pen and completely color in the oval next to the person or answer you would like to vote for. You must completely color in the oval making sure you do not drift out of the lines.
Like I said, this would be a simple task, except for the fact that I couldn’t comfortably read the ballot.
For clarification purposes, I am in my mid 40’s and I wear contact lenses for distance. I normally do not need reading glasses unless the conditions are correct:
End of day – check.
Relatively poor lighting in the room – check
Need to read details – check
So here I am. Standing at the voting booth, with a 4-page ballot (front and back) and unable to read the ballot. I looked at John McCain / Sarah Palin and right below it Barack Obama / Joe Biden.
Fear started to take over that I would accidentally vote for McCain or Chuck Baldwin. Either that or I’d incorrectly fill in the oval. I started filling in the oval for Obama / Biden only to realize that there is no way I can verify that I am within the oval – at all.
So, knowing that I never need reading glasses when the contact is out of my eye, I proceeded to remove one contact from my eye. Immediately upon doing so, I realized I made an enormous mistake. The poor lighting was a huge issue and I couldn’t see the ballot any better without the contact as I could with the contact.
I am now beginning to literally sweat. I never felt my civic responsibility would be so stressful.
In order for me to see the oval, I needed my eye to be about 2 inches from the paper. My left eye (without the contact) flush against the paper and my right (with contact) tightly shut. Then I realized that I am only in my 40’s. What the hell will this be like in my 60’s?
I completed the Obama oval only to realize that I had to do this another 30 times. On deck was my Congressional representative.
I found it quite difficult to move my head from name to oval and back again to confirm who I was voting for. It took me more than 20 minutes to fill out my ballot and I went to the polling place with a spreadsheet listing all of my choices.
I tried to review my selections realizing that I still can not read them so I only verified that I voted for Obama – Biden and against Amendment 2 – The (so-called) marriage protection amendment.
Now I got to proceed to another line. This would be 5 for those scoring at home. It was time for the ballot scanner. I had both of my contacts in but was still disoriented by the poor lighting and vision problems I encountered.
I believe there were 5 ballot scanners. I waited in this line less than 2 minutes. I received instructions on how to feed the ballot into the machine thinking to myself, I know how to work a printer. It more resembled a large fax machine.
I fed the first sheet into the machine and saw the message that thanked me for voting and that it was received successfully. I proceeded to insert pages 2 and 3 as I had the first.
I attempted to insert page 4, I received a message that my ballot did not insert correctly. The poll worker came running over to me and said your paper jammed. I thanked him for stating what I already knew. He had me push a button which kicked the ballot back to me at which point it was safe for me to insert once more.
After the machine thanked me, the poll worker thanked me and gave me my I Voted sticker. I confirmed with him that my first 3 pages were successfully completed even though the fourth jammed. He said that the machine treats every page independently so there would be no concern.
I walked out of the polling place and had an epiphany. Why I couldn’t have it 25 minutes earlier is beyond me. I should have called the poll worker over to me and told them that I was unable to see the ballot. I’m sure a magnifying glass or better lighting would have resolved this for me.
As I walked to the car, I thought of how foolish I must have looked and wondered if I had taken the longest amount of time to cast the ballot. I then kicked myself for not asking for something to make my life easier and at the same time was proud of the effort I put forth in order to cast my vote.
I also wondered what issues would come out about this new voting process and what type of ballot I could look forward to in 2012. I kind of wish they’d bring back the chads.
Posted in Barack Obama, Democrats, Election 2008, John McCain, McCain - Palin, Obama - Biden, Politics, Republicans
Tagged Campaign 2008, vote 2008
From the ‘I swear I’m not making this up’ file.
For years, I have been sitting at my office and my co-worker has been letting go. And not just regular farts but ones so horrific that tears would form in my eyes as I would grasp for air praying for a clean breath. His argument for sharing the putrid offense was that he had hypertension and it was great for his blood pressure.
Turns out, my co-worker had been telling me the truth.
The unpleasant aroma of the gas, called hydrogen sulfide (H2S), can be a little too familiar, as it is expelled by bacteria living in the human colon and eventually makes its way, well, out.
The new research found that cells lining mice’s blood vessels naturally make the gas and this action can help keep the rodents’ blood pressure low by relaxing the blood vessels to prevent hypertension (high blood pressure). This gas is “no doubt” produced in cells lining human blood vessels too, the researchers said.
“Now that we know hydrogen sulfide’s role in regulating blood pressure, it may be possible to design drug therapies that enhance its formation as an alternative to the current methods of treatment for hypertension,” said Johns Hopkins neuroscientist Solomon H. Snyder, M.D., a co-author of the study detailed in the Oct. 24th issue of the journal Science.
I picked up 2 amazing facts in the above 3 paragraphs.
First, there are scientists that observe and measure farts produced by mice.
Second, they are planning on designing a drug that will help my co-worker and others like him to produce more farts. And the way I am interpreting this article, not just regular farts – but of the all terrifying ‘silent-but-deadly’ variety.
From the article: “A smelly rotten-egg gas in farts controls blood pressure in mice, a new study finds.”
Didn’t I also recently read that the methane produced from moose farts is a major contributor to Global Warming? Kill the planet – save a life. I’m just saying.
The article caught my attention because the title ‘The Stink in Farts Controls Blood Pressure’ seemed more like something from The Onion than from LiveScience.
And now I know why kids don’t have high blood pressure. There is nothing you can do to stop them from letting ‘em rip. They love cutting farts. Now we can encourage people to be themselves.
Now, does this mean that we’ll need to set up Farting Zones in restaurants, airports and the workplace? I can picture the annual physicals at my doctor’s office. I’ll have blood, urine and farting tests. Turn your head and fart.
The full article includes quite a bit of scientific information, but my mind couldn’t get past the thought of thousands of people on this drug therapy cutting ghastly farts everywhere I went. I know that’s a tad immature, as I’m not thinking of the long-term benefits, but whenever I get a whiff of the sulphur farts, my mind thinks of little else.
Hydrogen sulfide is the most recently discovered member of a family of gasotransmitters, small molecules inside our bodies with important physiological functions.
This study is the first to reveal that the CSE enzyme that triggers hydrogen sulfide is activated itself in the same way as other enzymes when they trigger their respective gasotransmitter, such as a nitric oxide-forming enzyme that also regulates blood pressure, Dr. Snyder said.
Because gasotransmitters are common in mammals all over the evolutionary tree, these findings on the importance of hydrogen sulfide are thought to have broad applications to human diseases, such as diabetes and neurodegenerative diseases.
I was supposed to learn here that releasing these gasotransmitters, we could one day see a reduction of hypertension, diabetes and neurodegenerative diseases. But all my mind got out of this was that SBD’s (silent-but-deadly farts) are common to all mammals.
I’m guessing the product that will be welcomed by the public once this drug therapy is released is one that deadens our sense of smell or a product that you rub just below your nostrils that blocks the fart smell and may even offer scented varieties – like new car smell.
The other item that caught my attention in this article was “the research was supported by grants from the U.S. Public Health Service and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research as well as a Research Scientist Award.”
In other words, three research centers cooperated in funding this grant. That would mean that these 3 research centers had to review a request to fund the study of noxious farting by mice in order to reduce blood pressure.
Posted in Humor, Uncategorized
Tagged health, high blood pressure, hypertension, science, scientific study
Expectations are high that there will be problems at voting precincts on the day of the election. Early voting states are already reporting problems.
West Virginia: Numerous people, voting on touch screen machines, have claimed that they attempted to vote for Obama – Biden only to have McCain – Palin selected as their choice. This issue was also highly reported in 2004 on touch screens. Interestingly all reports were from people who attempted to vote for the Democratic candidate, John Kerry, only to see their vote come up for George Bush. Not one instance in 2004 nor so far in 2008 have come up the other way. I find that curious.
Does it appear that Homer Simpson attempted to vote in West Virginia?
Colorado: If reports are true, more than 10 million voters have been purged from rolls across the United States between 2004 an 2006 based on questionable grounds. In Colorado, Republican secretary of state, Donetta Davidson – who has since been appointed by George Bush to the Election Assistance Commission – and her successor Republican Mike Coffman oversaw the purging of almost one-sixth of Colorado’s registered voters. They’ll be sure to have a surprise when they attempt to vote.
The Denver Post recently ran a story where Coffman rejected claims of voter purging, yet he didn’t dispute the claims on an individual basis. He admitted that 2,454 voters had been purged within 90 days of an election and Coffman is determining whether this violates federal law.
Four thousand voters were given bad information, thus they won’t appear on the rolls. Coffman admits that this is the fault of his office. Another 37,000 were removed during a 3-week period in July which exceeds the number of deaths and people moving out of Colorado.
Where voter registration for this election is at an all-time high, how can Colorado see a net loss of 100,000 voters since 2004? There is much more to this story – Colorado disputes voter purge.
Florida: After the 2000 debacle of the ‘hanging chads’, Florida quickly implemented the touch screen voting machines which brought in a new wave of problems. The biggest complaint is that these machines did not provide a paper trail so there was no way to verify the accuracy of the counting of the votes. It also prevented any chance of a recount and put control of our elections into the company that provided the machines.
This year, the touch screen voting is gone. Now, many will have to bubble their selections directly on the ballot. Once completed, the voter inserts the ballot into a machine which counts the votes. This will open up an entire new slew of issues. First of all, since these are new voting procedures, there will invariably be delays causing people to leave rather than wait. Second, paper being inserted into a machine ultimately jams, causing delays and possibly lost votes.
What you can do: One of the thoughts I had was to go to the precinct near my home ready to tape anything that looked suspicious. If theft was occurring, I’m sure everything was being done to prevent anyone from capturing it. As it turns out, you cannot bring video equipment into the polling place in many locations, which is exactly where all the problems are occurring.
But if someone is disenfranchised, they will come out of the polling place angry. So if you follow the rules, you may be able to get an interview with a disenfranchised voter. Watch this video: Videoing your vote.
Watch this video from TPMTV and you will see just how difficult a task it is for John McCain to win this election fairly. As it stands, Barack Obama should easily have 252 electoral votes which would be the same states won by John Kerry in 2004.
Add Iowa and Obama is up to 259. It has been reported that McCain has conceded Colorado and New Mexico. If that is true, then this puts Obama over the top.
That means if McCain wins every other battleground state, most of which he currently trails, he still would lose this election. The only option that would leave is McCain winning a solid Obama state.
In order for McCain to win, he would either have to win Pennsylvania (a state McCain is heavily targeting and trailing) or Virginia and, say, New Hampshire.
Realistically, this would leave theft as the only viable option available for a McCain victory. (We can also add scare tactics as McCain is obviously intent on making us scared of Barack Obama.) Reports of problems are already coming in from early voting sites which I will address in an upcoming post.
To get a heads up, go to Steal Back Your Vote – a site by Greg Palast and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The two wrote an article for this week’s Rolling Stone magazine called Block the Vote. This is mandatory reading.
Watch this report by Greg Palast from Democracy Now!
