MetaFilter

The election isn't until next Tuesday, but already problems are being reported. It's not just in Texas, and not just in relation to everyone's favorite electronic-voting whipping boy, either; it's becoming clear that every vendor has its own unsolved security issues. In fact it seems that an increasing number of voices are warning that the US is in for an awful lot of contention from all parties involved after next week's vote, and that can't be good. Others are taking a non-disinterested rose-colored view of things and loudly proclaiming that there's nothing wrong with the system, or at least that no one should imply or infer or investigate the matter. Still others are quick to point out that there's nothing wrong with electronic voting, except when they're linked to a foreign government that doesn't get along particularly well with them. Whatever is true about the state of electronic voting in 2006, you can't deny that it has led to a certain plurality of opinions...
comment posted at 12:39 PM on Nov-2-06

Not Perfect, Just Forgiven? Could be just accusations, could be substantiated, but it sure sounds hypocritical. Ted Haggard, the evangelical with very close White House connections, accused of purchasing gay sex for over 3 years.
comment posted at 10:54 AM on Nov-2-06
comment posted at 11:09 AM on Nov-2-06
comment posted at 11:40 AM on Nov-2-06

Paul Bugess, director of foreign-policy speechwriting at the White House from October 2003 to July 2005, probably hates you. And now he is fed up and wants you to know just how much he hates you.
comment posted at 5:50 AM on Oct-31-06

Borrow and spend, the delayed pain Ever thought of giving the future generations a little something to remember you by? How about the gift of debt? Whatever lens you want to look at the graph, you can blame the rise on: Out of control spending on the military or social programs; The end of the US being the swing producer of oil; Expensive wars; The money no longer being tied to gold or silver and instead being a fiat currency

No matter what the reason for the spending, the GAO warns: If the United States government conducts business as usual over the next few decades, a national debt that is already $8.5 trillion could reach $46 trillion or more, adjusted for inflation. Or If you don't like the graph due to the static nature, how about a clock so you can watch the numbers move upward?
comment posted at 7:01 AM on Oct-31-06

Smart marketing or shameless pandering? Country music star Darryl Worley played to the largely conservative county music fanbase (and post-9/11 ultra-patriotic sentiment prevalent in the country at the time) in 2003 with his hit Have You Forgotten which strongly supported the impending war in Iraq. Today, with support for the war in Iraq dwindling, Worley has now released, “I Just Came Back”, which depicts a more ”somber light on (the) war”.
comment posted at 9:40 AM on Oct-27-06
comment posted at 9:42 AM on Oct-27-06
comment posted at 5:53 AM on Oct-30-06

Cheney indicated the Bush administration doesn't regard waterboarding as torture and allows the CIA to use it. "It's a no-brainer for me," Cheney said. [previously]
comment posted at 12:09 PM on Oct-27-06

Chris Bowers of MYDD is launching an ambitious campaign to Google Bomb the top 70 congressional races with negative articles for the respective republican candidates. If you don't find this ethically perturbing you can find the code for pasting in to your blog here.
comment posted at 11:17 AM on Oct-24-06
comment posted at 11:50 AM on Oct-24-06

Bush says he uses "The Google."
comment posted at 11:40 AM on Oct-24-06

Pope Benedict XVI wants to bring back the latin mass. This could be the start of a return to the old Catholic traditionalism and the undoing of Vatican II.
comment posted at 12:46 PM on Oct-23-06
comment posted at 7:30 AM on Oct-24-06

The Smithsonian's Sackler gallery opened a unique and wide-ranging new exhibit yesterday featuring fragments of Bibles from before the year 1000. "Most of the manuscripts have never been seen outside the countries where they are stored. [Some Smithsonian-owned documents in the exhibition] have never been exhibited and two have not been shown since 1978." Fragments of the Codex Sinaiticus are included in the exhibit. Along with the archaeological interest, these fragments can pose theological and historical challenges for Christians. Some, like UNC's Bart Ehrman, have lost their faith as a result of studying early Bibles; some, like Luke Timothy Johnson of Emory, believing that Christianity is about a common cultural and spiritual experience, are unmoved by the "corruptions" and differences in the New Testament over time; other Christians try to refute (MeFi link) claims that the text has changed.
comment posted at 9:34 AM on Oct-23-06
comment posted at 9:38 AM on Oct-23-06
comment posted at 10:12 AM on Oct-24-06

Stop me if you've heard this one before - Republican congressman blames democrats for legal troubles. The house ethics committee didn't see anything wrong with Weldon's activities, but one can't help but wonder how Weldon is helping his constituency by traveling to Belgrade on behalf of one of Slobodan Milosevic's pals, who is, incidentally, a client of Weldon's daughter's consulting firm. At least no one is accusing Weldon of trying to choke his mistress.
comment posted at 12:32 PM on Oct-20-06
comment posted at 12:51 PM on Oct-20-06

Somehow.
comment posted at 11:22 AM on Oct-20-06

About as Subtle as a Terror Attack. We all know Bush doesn't do nuance. Well, apparently the GOP doesn't either, especially not in close midterm elections. The following is a (presumably web-only) video:

A ticking sound reminiscent of a bomb timer grows progressively louder until the last repeated phrase ("What is yet to come will be even greater") is shown, followed by the sound of a beating heart, fleeting images of explosions and terrorists in training, and ending with the message "These Are The Stakes. Vote Nov. 7."

The video can be found here.
comment posted at 7:04 AM on Oct-20-06
comment posted at 11:26 AM on Oct-20-06

BLACK MAN #1: "If you make a little mistake with one of your 'hos,' you'll want to dispose of that problem tout suite, no questions asked."

BLACK MAN #2: "That's too cold. I don't snuff my own seed."

BLACK MAN #1: "Maybe you do have a reason to vote Republican."

Holy mackerel! Republican issue ad woos black voters with modern versions of Amos 'n' Andy talking about knocked up "hos". Yo bettah votes fo' Kingfish!
comment posted at 10:55 AM on Oct-19-06

Hooray for Kinky Friedman -- Friedman isn't going to solve Texas' problems, but neither is any other politician. The whole premise of his campaign is to mock the process—as his slogan goes, "How hard can it be?"
comment posted at 11:57 AM on Oct-6-06
comment posted at 12:58 PM on Oct-6-06
comment posted at 1:00 PM on Oct-6-06

A U.S. presidential candidate declares that terrorism is no longer a priority on her agenda. Madrid based Institute for Studies of Conflict and Humanitarian Action imagines an end to the War on Terror. By Balder Hageraats
comment posted at 9:30 AM on Oct-6-06
comment posted at 10:02 AM on Oct-6-06
comment posted at 11:54 AM on Oct-6-06

Folkstreams.net has two goals. One is to build a national preserve of hard-to-find documentary films about American folk or roots cultures. The other is to give them renewed life by streaming them on the internet. The films were produced by independent filmmakers in a golden age that began in the 1960s and was made possible by the development first of portable cameras and then capacity for synch sound. Their films focus on the culture, struggles, and arts of unnoticed Americans from many different regions and communities. The filmmakers were driven more by sheer engagement with the people and their traditions than by commercial hopes. Their films have unusual subjects, odd lengths, and talkers who do not speak "broadcast English." Although they won prizes at film festivals, were used in college classes, and occasionally were shown on PBS, they found few outlets in venues like theaters, video shops or commercial television. But they have permanent value...

folkstreams.net Currently streaming are the films The Land Where the Blues Began , Cajun Country , Jazz Parades: Feet Don't Fail Me Now , Talking Feet: Solo Southern Dance: Buck, Flatfoot and Tap , Ray Lum: Mule Trader and Pizza Pizza Daddy-O , among many others.
comment posted at 6:37 AM on Oct-6-06

Freemasonry has a long history of accusations of evil conspiratorial machinations, both in print and elsewhere. But it seems that, if you ask most Masons, they're just in it for the booze. Now, the newspaper of record is taking a look at the Masons' efforts to open up to the public in this post-Da Vinci code age.
comment posted at 9:58 AM on Oct-6-06

I guess sometimes when there's smoke there *is* fire. As a followup to our discussion yesterday about Congressman Mark Foley and his questionable emails to a 16 year old former page, sexually explicit IMs have now come to light, and the Congressman submitted his resignation in a letter late this afternoon to Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert.
comment posted at 12:39 PM on Sep-29-06
comment posted at 12:41 PM on Sep-29-06
comment posted at 12:47 PM on Sep-29-06
comment posted at 12:48 PM on Sep-29-06
comment posted at 12:49 PM on Sep-29-06

This Is What Waterboarding Looks Like -- David Corn, co-author with Michael Isikoff of HUBRIS: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal and the Selling of the Iraq War, writes about what waterboarding is and what the torturer's tools look like. Back in the day, the Khmer Rouge, among other repressive regimes, used it. Interestingly, waterboarding typically isn't employed to gain useful information. No, this near-drowning technique is most useful for eliciting "confessions". Good times, good times. ( via reddit via Diggdot.us)
comment posted at 12:33 PM on Sep-29-06

The UN reports “ Up to a million cluster bomblets discharged by Israel in its conflict with Hezbollah remain unexploded in southern Lebanon." "What's shocking" (Read down) and quote "I would say completely immoral is that 90 percent of the cluster bomb strikes occurred in the last 72 hours of the conflict when we knew there would be a resolution, when we knew there would be an end. Most of them are from America." who may ban future sales. Some people are campaigning. A brief history (Scroll down). Bravo Belgium. An unexpected link between books and bombs. Last discussion.
comment posted at 7:30 AM on Sep-27-06
comment posted at 7:32 AM on Sep-27-06
comment posted at 8:02 AM on Sep-27-06

A Rogue State. Matt Yglesias sums up what America has become after the McCain "Compromise."
comment posted at 10:32 AM on Sep-26-06
comment posted at 12:02 PM on Sep-26-06

Because you can't handle the truth. These are this week's Newsweek covers, by region. But apparently only the US gets a special cover. The US gets a different website than the rest of the world too. I feel better informed already.
comment posted at 12:16 PM on Sep-26-06

[O]ne muggy day in mid-August [2002], [Diebold consultant Chris] Hood was surprised to see the president of Diebold's election unit, Bob Urosevich, arrive in Georgia from his headquarters in Texas. With the primaries looming, Urosevich was personally distributing a "patch," a little piece of software designed to correct glitches in the computer program. "We were told that it was intended to fix the clock in the system, which it didn't do," Hood says. "The curious thing is the very swift, covert way this was done. . . . It was an unauthorized patch, and they were trying to keep it secret from the state," Hood told me. "We were told not to talk to county personnel about it. I received instructions directly from Urosevich. It was very unusual that a president of the company would give an order like that and be involved at that level."
- Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Will the Next Election be Hacked?
comment posted at 7:11 AM on Sep-22-06
comment posted at 9:13 AM on Sep-22-06

Some people call it a poll-tax: "The House yesterday passed legislation that would require voters to show a valid photo identification in federal elections over the overwhelming objections of Democrats who compared the bill to segregation-era measures aimed at disenfranchising Southern blacks." [previously]
comment posted at 10:36 AM on Sep-21-06
comment posted at 7:04 AM on Sep-22-06

Vice President Richard Cheney, a mystery and an enigma: Joan Didion pulls together what is publicly known about Richard Cheney--his career history, his ideas, the way he works. "He runs an office so disinclined to communicate that it routinely refuses to disclose who works there, even for updates to the Federal Directory, which lists names and contact addresses for government officials. 'We just don't give out that kind of information,' an aide told one reporter. 'It's just not something we talk about.'" Previously.
comment posted at 11:10 AM on Sep-21-06

Yesterday, the Arar Commission released their report on the handling of the Maher Arar case, previously mentioned here or here. The findings are widely reported; Canada is self-flagellating for being complicit in the United States' abduction and torture of a Canadian citizen. As President Bush goes to Congress to lobby for the legal authority to abduct and torture anyone without a trial, Arar should consider himself lucky: although Canada didn't help him out for a year, the Canadian government and news media were aware of and interested in his confinement, which likely saved him from the worst tortures. As a famous legal scholar commented some 240 years ago, "To bereave a man of life, or by violence to confiscate his estate, without accusation or trial, would be so gross and notorious an act of despotism, as must at once convey the alarm of tyranny throughout the whole nation; but confinement of the person, by secretly hurrying him to jail, where his sufferings are unknown or forgotten, is a less public, a less striking, and therefore a more dangerous engine of arbitrary government."
comment posted at 8:43 AM on Sep-19-06