Second Debate. I missed the first one. Topics for the debate are some of the consumer issues angering voters, including property insurance costs, taxes, school testing and campaign financing.

Linn is here. He won his court order. Davis looks good on TV. Of course not as charismatic as Crist, but Crist doesn't look as good on video as he does in print photos. Crist is giving the tired reasons for Iraq. He sounds just like GWB Linn is underscoring Davis' points about the Iraq. Davis gave a pretty good answer to the question about his vote on Iraq. He says he was against the war as soon as he found out that the intelligence information was bad.

Second question is about the marriage thing. Here we go! Crist only supports civil unions and not gay marriage and not gay adoption. Davis is for traditional marriage, civil unions, and gay adoptions. Linn is for gay marriage and gay adoption. Update: I didn't notice any awkwardness when Crist was talking about his divorce.

Thank you Chris Matthews for acknowledging this clean campaign. Crist is running on a conservative platform, Davis ducks his liberal label. Instead he talks about his platform and called it his values and beliefs. Matthews follows up by asking the question again, and he compares himself to Florida .... that most Floridians don't fall under a single label. Good answer and should resonate with Independents.

Crist looks good when he attacks Davis' education reform by pointing out that this will cause a rise in taxes. So far it's a wash, and Linn doesn't look all that good to me, but I didn't see the first debate and what do I know. Oh oh Linn just kicked into high gear. He looks fantastic. But he wants to outsource bussing and cafeterias. No no No!!!

Linn is calling Crist a liar, saying that Crist took money from insurance companies. Matthews is getting flustered. He reminds Linn that he cannot speak directly to another debater. Now Davis is asked about the teacher's unions campaign support . Davis says their contributions are not as much as people say because teachers don't have much money. Chris is trying to pin each one of them on where they will get the money for their tax relief plans. Linn gives a pretty good answer, that the money is already there. Davis is now summing up with a plan to make developers pay more. Linn is going on and on attacking Crist and Chris stops that good. Linn attacks Crist's plan and says it will bankrupt small towns. Matthews is really asking all the right kinds of questions that Floridians want to hear. Crist says he disagreed with Bush on Schiavo, hmmmmm. Davis blasts Crist for not speaking out, when Davis did speak out on the House floor about the Schiavo case. Whew. Commercial time.

Linn talks about how there isn't too much of a difference between the two parties. Good Lord, Chris Matthews is actually asking about he SCOTUS decision in 2000. Matthews asks if we could have confidence that our vote will be counted accurately. Then he asks Davis if African Americans will have problems at the polls. Davis is blasting Crist. Davis is going for a paper trail and random audits. Crist gives his concern about paper trails being able to be bought. Matthews pins Davis down on his support for a paper trail that also shows how the person votes. I don't think the voters understand the finer point of election reform. Davis does good for simply blasting Crist on not doing anything.

Cup cake question about grading Jeb. Davis gave Jeb a C. Linn gives him a B. He calls Crist a rubber stamper for giving Jeb an A. Then he got asks about Bush. Crist lavishes the praise. Davis gives the preznit an F and at the same time is able to equate Crist with the Bush administration. Linn gives Bush an F too. Linn blasts Crist for attending lavish fundraisers.

Update: the grand finale was Crist backpeddling on his claim that crime has gone down when murder has shown a dramatic increase. I hate to say it, but Chris Matthews rocks.

That's all folks. I can't do this.  ¶ 8:01 PM 0 comments

  80%. Update: I heard from inside sources that teachers went for Crist bigtime. That's the percentage of teachers in Broward County who voted in the primary election, according to the Broward Teacher's Union. It's a remarkable statistic. No wonder Davis is counting (no pun intended) on his education platform. Gotta go. Time to make the donuts.  ¶ 1:32 PM 0 comments

  GOTV! It's high noon, time for me to get off this computer and make some phone calls. From Salon,

George Lakoff, a U.C. Berkeley linguist best known for his work on framing, was not so optimistic that grassroots, liberal get-out-the-vote efforts will outdo the Republicans'. He cited an email he'd received noting that in California, 60,000 Republicans have already been enlisted to make phone calls in the 72 hours before the election to increase turnout. He implored the crowd to do the same for their candidates: "We need you out there making those phone calls."

  ¶ 12:45 PM 0 comments

  Jim Davis Internet Ad And More From Maggie. Jim Davis Internet Ad:
here.

Stay The Course:
here.

Keith Olbermann on Advertising Terror:
here.

Bush Interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC (More Stay the Course. This is unbelievable!)
here.

Jon Stewart Lampoons Lincoln Diaz-Belart (hysterical!)
here.

Voters in Congressional District 21:
here.  ¶ 7:09 PM 0 comments

  Top Ten Dirtiest Jobs In Science. Do they call the scientists who work in the bio-weapons division of the defense department hot zone administrators instead of hot zone superintendents?

I'm taking a break from phone banking. Everyone is answering my calls and everyone plans on voting this time around.  ¶ 5:53 PM 0 comments

  Jim Davis' Flyer. Update 2: The flyer was paid for by the AFL-CIO. It just doesn't make sense. In any event, Jim Davis finally grew a pair.
Update 1: Is Florida going to get as crazy as Connecticut? What if Charlie Crist really is gay?
I just received a Davis flyer in the mail today. Bob Graham's picture is on the front cover. Bob Graham's picture is on the second page. There isn't a single picture of his running mate, Daryl Jones. Jones isn't even mentioned in the print. It's so disappointing.  ¶ 6:33 AM 0 comments

  How To:
steal an election
make a mass extinction .  ¶ 6:39 PM 0 comments

  MyDD Google Bomb. I have worked with computers for thirty years, when we used to have to use punchcards to program what we wanted the computer to do. I have written my own word processing applications to be able to write documents on the first personal computers. But I have no idea what I am doing.

Update: I wish I could google bomb this blog.  ¶ 12:44 PM 0 comments

  Cheney In Charge. Cheney Needs A Charge. Number Two denies he ok'd torture. However, he actively pursued a torture initiative by asking Congress to ok human rights abuses by Americans. His double speak is as disgraceful as the torture policy itself. For crying out loud, won't anyone in this Republican administration take some iota of responsibility for the current domestic and foreign policies?  ¶ 11:51 AM 0 comments

  China In Charge. Update: Yeppers. The Port Authority in Panama is sponsoring the project to widen the Panama Canal. I grew up in the Canal Zone. My father was a pilot (piloted the ships through the Canal.) This was the view from my second story window in Corozal. You can see the mud flat on the side of the Canal. A huge crocodile used to sun himself there. I'd check him out each afternoon. In any event, China runs the Port Authority.


The reports that I've read since this article appeared fail to include one sentence of Li's quote.

"We hope all relevant parties will maintain coolheadedness, adopt a responsible approach and adhere to peaceful dialogue as the main approach," Li said at a joint appearance before reporters.

China is talking to US too.  ¶ 8:34 AM 0 comments

  First Florida. Now Maryland and Ohio. If there was fraud in Maryland, it could be exposed, if the programmer didn't write a destruct command into the code.

Update: Election reform activists won a victory in the courts to preserve the 2004 Ohio ballots. The article failed to mention which court passed down this decision.  ¶ 3:11 PM 0 comments

  RIP. Habeas Corpus. God Bless the King.

Ironically, the news ran a story today about a prisoner being detained at Guantanamo who was once tortured by the Taliban. Good job, brownies.  ¶ 10:21 AM 1 comments

  dKos Speaks. There was a diary at dKos about voter suppression that has generated some response in the progressive blog community. Anastasia P, the journalist, attempted to put the matter to rest. Her basic premise was that if suppression did exist, there would be reports of it. In the absence of such evidence, irregularities could be easily discovered by citizens who show up to vote early.

I hate to burst this Kossack's bubble (head) but voter suppression is difficult to detect until the day of the election when the suppressed show up at the polls to vote. CBS reports

"Voter suppression doesn't happen with intimidation on Election Day," said Michael Waldman, executive director of The Brennan Center for Justice, "but rather through silent and sometimes secret government actions in the weeks leading up to an election."

What are they drinking while they pound their keyboards, Kool-Aid?  ¶ 8:31 AM 0 comments

  Tainted Love Is In The Air. I can take off my tin foil hat now.  ¶ 6:55 AM 0 comments

  Man Accused Of Having Sex With Dog. His wife must be a real bitch. (I wish I had written that, and yes, this is the most popular news story at Yahoo today.)  ¶ 6:22 AM 0 comments

  600,000 Dead. Scientists use models to predict deaths from disease. However, when they use the same techniques to estimate civilian deaths in Iraq, the preznit declares that their conclusions are grossly exaggerated. If almost one million Iraqis have fled their homes since the beginning of the war, one can't help but think about the number of civilian deaths. Remember at the beginning of the war, our troops were careful to engage the enemy only when there were no civilians in the area?  ¶ 11:31 PM 0 comments

  Charlie Crist Is Not Gay. I hate this. I hate this. I hate this, even if Crist is a hypocrite.  ¶ 9:10 PM 0 comments

  Waaaaapublicans. Every administration suffers embarrassing leaks. Deal with it crybabies. You got caught with your pants down. I need to get off this 'puter.  ¶ 3:46 PM 0 comments

  E Voting. It's Not Just A Conspiracy Theory Anymore. Lou Dobbs, of CNN, is running a series on e voting flaws. I can't get the video to go past the commercials. It'll be on Yahoo's list of videos if you don't catch it on Yahoo News' front page. Scoop has an account of the inner workings of the EAC ( US Election Assistance Commission. The news is also covered in the Brad Blog

I'll try to find the EAC's memos as well as the documentation chronicling the EAC's invitation to the NIST, asking them to join the IEEE's initiative to do the exact same thing that the IEEE had been doing. It wasn't that difficult to follow the progress of the IEEE. Where was the media coverage, especially in the light of the public mistrust in e voting? The IEEE was concerned about the switch to the EAC"S focus on the NIST's guidelines. The IEEE was also concerned with the EAC's lack of forward movement to complete the project. The machines use a code with huge holes opening up the possibility of hacking into the machines without being detected. These defects and other major defects, as well, are so obvious that I believe in the strong possibility that the holes were created intentionally.  ¶ 3:40 PM 0 comments

  Scrambling To Keep Up With The E Vote News. Two articles just came off the wire. One is about the problems election administrators are facing, the other is about individual state's voting problems.  ¶ 3:31 PM 0 comments

  Scrambling To Prevent Fraud. The AP rocks.  ¶ 3:19 PM 0 comments

  The Ultimate Voyeur's Wardrobe. Can you imagine? Invisible people everywhere?  ¶ 3:10 PM 0 comments

  Educational Software Is Lame. Even the better ones are b-o-r-i-n-g or have endless screens that simply confuse the users. I have used CCC which has an artificial intelligience and costs around $100,000 and it's amazing. The education sector purchases quite a bit of expensive software, and should be able to get a bang for its buck.  ¶ 3:05 PM 0 comments

  Election Reform. My heroes.  ¶ 3:04 PM 0 comments

  The Bumper Of My SUV, Etc. Etc. Etc. Chely Wright , the darling of the Pentagon, may have gotten the finger from another driver (and who hasn't,) but Denise Grier received a ticket for her bumper sticker. Denise is seeking damages for "emotional distress." I can't believe the government is fighting this. The policeman was wrong, law against profanity or no law. It wasn't even profanity, just a vulgar (but funny) joke. You gotta love the irony. I grew up near several military posts. We stopped the car, got out and pledged when the American flag was raised. So, my question is, "Why can't we all just get along?"

The Chicks made the news this week. You go girls.

Bush and Cheney can't get their stories straight. Are the Republicans going to keep control of Congress or not? What does Bush that Cheney doesn't?
Another election, and Chimpy is smirking, and with the the Macaca gendarme no less. The WH has the video of his latest press conference. His facial expressions when he's talking about the Democrats and their position on terrorism do not mirror the seriousness of the terror issue. If you don't want to watch the whole thing the smirking starts around 33:00. Also watch the expression after he mentions Ayman al-Zawahiri. When he finishes answering the question and goes on to Mr. NPR, he looks positively gleeful, talking more about the Democrats. Who knows. As a photogenically challenged person myself, I won't judge. However, I'm going to hold him to the statement that the 600,000 civilian deaths were a made up exaggeration. He really should be more prepared and offer a revised figure. The press corp is on another walk-about.

I do know that with some pi$$ poor voting standards, it bears repeating that we may see more 51-49 results. I think having worthless standards is worse than no standards at all. It's unbelievable that the government bought voting machines with no standards while an ATM machine made by the same company was developed with strict protocols. With two separate groups (the IEEE and the NIST) working on developing a set of standards, why haven't we gotten reliable and verifiable machines yet, Senator Dodd?  ¶ 11:53 AM 0 comments

  Cheney's Trippn'.
What a good ol vice preznit. Hey, I have nothing against his foul mouth, but he's such a control freak. Why can't he control himself? The all powerful one threw another conniption fit in Denver (NYT, subscription required) the other day. A man was taking his eight year old son to piano lessons, when he encountered the Number Two at a shopping mall. Mr. Howard took the opportunity to express his disapproval of the Iraq War. As he was leaving the mall, the local authorities arrested him on a misdemeanors harassment charge. Mr. Howard spent three hours in jail. I wonder what they did with his little boy. Secret Service man, Eric Zahren, told police that the father

wasn't acting like the other folks in the area, and that he became argumentative and combative when agents tried to question him.

A state judge later dropped the charge.

The original indication was that he had pushed the vice president. Later it looked to be that he had just spoken to him,

according to the county district attorney. The Secret Service declined to comment. Cheney's on crack. Doesn't he know that the majority of Americans disapprove of his administration's Iraq policy. It seems to me that our vice preznit would like to put us all in handcuffs. Too bad a little thing like the law is getting in his way.

Update: Congress passed a law allowing the government to jail an American suspect without the protection of Habeas Corpus. If Cheney keeps up his violent gun-toting arrogance and his paranoid behavior, the Mr. Howards of the USA had better watch out that they aren't labeled enemy combatants.  ¶ 11:02 AM 0 comments

  Ig Nobel Awards.
The Peace Prize is pretty cool. You can hear the audio clip here, that is, if you're not too old.

Ornithology. Ivan Schwab (pictured at the left) for exploring and explaining why woodpeckers do not get headaches.

Nutrition. Wasmia Al-Houty and Faten Al-Mussalam for showing that dung beetles are picky eaters.

Acoustics. D. Lynn Halpern, Randolph Blake and James Hillenbrand for trying to learn why people are irritated by the sound of nails scraping on a blackboard.

Mathematics. Nic Svenson and Piers Barnes for calculating the number of photographs you have to take to ensure nobody in a group will have their eyes closed.

Literature Daniel Oppenheimer for his report "Consequences of Erudite Vernacular Utilized Irrespective of Necessity: Problems with Using Long Words Needlessly."

Medicine Francis Fesmire, Majed Odeh, Harry Bassan and Arie Oliven, who published studies titled "Termination of Intractable Hiccups with Digital Rectal Massage."

Physics Basile Audoly and Sebastien Neukirch for their study of why, when you bend dry spaghetti, it usually breaks into more than two pieces.

Chemistry. Antonio Mulet, Jose Javier Benedito, Jose Bon and Carmen Rosselló for their study "Ultrasonic Velocity in Cheddar Cheese as Affected by Temperature."

Biology. Bart Knols and Ruurd de Jong for showing that the female malaria mosquito, Anopheles gambiae, is equally attracted to the smells of Limburger cheese and of human feet.

Peace. Howard Stapleton for inventing an electromechanical teenager repellent device, which makes an annoying noise designed to be audible to teens, not to adults.

  ¶ 8:02 PM 0 comments

  Doesn't The Secret Service Have Anything Better To Do? Typical pedo-bondage behavior. They also target little girls. The Secret Service apprehended a teenage girl at her school for posting a "Kill Bush" webpage (it's a federal offense.) They questioned the 14-year-old without her parents there with her (it's legal.) You can read a much more grammatically correct version here.  ¶ 10:23 AM 0 comments

  The Top Ten Ways To Destroy The Earth are listed at LiveScience. If we only succeed in destroying ourselves (which is a more likely scenario,) go to treehugger.com to find out just how long it will take the earth to recover from the after-effects of man's destruction.  ¶ 1:25 AM 0 comments

  Feds Finger Kolbe For Sleeping With Pages In The Wild. How Many tents did they pitch? That is the question. This is the public servant who bunks with young Republicans. Ugh period.  ¶ 1:11 AM 0 comments

  It's Friday The Thirteenth. The vice preznit is being sued by the man who expressed his disapproval of the Iraq War to Mr. Cheney face-to-face. Mr. Howards' free speach landed him in the slammer. Now Mr. Howard is suing the vice preznit. If this case actually makes it to court, Cheney has no one to blame but himself. Very sweet.  ¶ 8:26 PM 0 comments

  Jim Davis Rocks. I'm sure that I voted for the right man in the primaries. Three of loser Rod Smith's supporters have founded a bipartisan committee and have endorsed Charlie Crist for govenor. Just what we need, another Republican in charge. 4 more years = 12 years of bipartisanship(t). Good Lord. I can't imagine which Democrats are going to be included in this bipartisan coalition. Smith deserved to lose. I wish more people would throw Jim Davis some money.  ¶ 8:03 PM 0 comments

  They Think.

Therefore, they are.  ¶ 7:13 PM 0 comments

  Charlie Crist is not gay. One of my friends heard the rumor. I told her some of the details. If it is true, what can you say about Crist being the representative of the Republican Party. What a bunch of hypocrites. Especially the churches.  ¶ 6:22 PM 0 comments

  " I am always getting the shaft," said Foley in an email to Jeb Bush. Reuters and blogs are the only sources I can find that reports the original email. I might be wrong on that because I only did a quick and dirty search. The headlines say he felt snubbed. Foley's suggestive language is not fit for a headline.  ¶ 6:01 PM 0 comments

  Trolling For Foley. Tallahasee. The Florida Democratic Party has asked the state for all records pertaining to Mark Foley.

"In Washington, Republican congressional officials are being questioned about what they knew of email communication between Congressman Foley and teenage Congressional pages - and why they didn't take specific action to ensure the safety of those minors," Florida Democratic Party Chair Karen Thurman said.

I'm not sure I am comfortable with this.  ¶ 7:32 PM 0 comments

  Flip The Vote! 51-49 sounds familiar.  ¶ 6:42 PM 0 comments

  I Am Going To Be A VST! I'm training for the position of Voting System Technician for this upcoming election. In the past I've counted hanging chads, was there when my daughter's Buddy McKay vote flip to a Jeb Bush vote, witnessed more than a few people in my neighborhood not knowing where to cast their votes because they received official looking letters sending them to the wrong precincts. I keep doing my little part to ensure a fair and accurate count of the ballots. It's like spitting in the wind, but at least none of the computer files will get lost because I'm in charge of picking up and delivering the materials and supplies. I already applied for my absentee ballot. Sweet.  ¶ 5:36 PM 0 comments

  The Miami Herald Knew. Without blogs where would Foleygate be?

What I want to know is exactly what the Republican Party intends to do with all that hush money, I mean all those campaign contributions. According to the Tampa Tribune, Charlie Crist received $500.

When did Jeb Bush and Charlie Crist first find out about the emails? I have a feeling that they all knew. Without blogs, they probably thought if the news was ever uncovered, it would get lost underneath a pile of WH press releases. (Yes, I know I already said that.)  ¶ 6:17 PM 0 comments

  Crist Praises Foley For Protecting Children. From his own page.

Crist praised the efforts of members of Florida's Congressional Delegation for their dedication to finding workable solutions on this important issue, including Reps. Mark Foley, Katherine Harris and Ginny Brown-Waite. He pledged to work with the federal government to develop and implement meaningful procedures to protect children from sex offenders, who he called "a blight on society."

Good job Brownie, oops I meant Charlie.  ¶ 12:26 PM 0 comments

  Tonight's Full Moon Is 12% Bigger. Check it out.  ¶ 8:24 PM 0 comments

  How Do You Fit Four Neocons On A Barstool? Turn it upside down.

Newest neocon pick up line. May I push in your stool?

and those are a few of the tamer ones. If you are not spending a little time on the Yahoo message boards, you are missing one of the most exciting pages in troll history. This post will self destruct, or maybe not.  ¶ 8:14 PM 0 comments

  Without Blogs Where Would Foleygate Be? A news bite that would get lost under a pile of WH press releases. I just thought I'd mention that.  ¶ 7:44 PM 0 comments

  Blubber Boy. What can you say about an ex high school wrestling coach who, as a teacher, must have signed a code of conduct, or, at the very least was bound by certain professional ethics. Quite simply, teachers are required, by law, to report any signs of abuse. Hastert knew better.  ¶ 7:08 PM 0 comments

  Send Your Kids To "Jesus Camp."
Today the NYT (free subscription required) wrote an article titled Evangelicals Fear the Loss of Their Teenagers". I've been a born again Christian. I know firsthand how spirit filled I felt when I was surrounded by my brothers and sisters in the Lord. Yet, when I spent time where there wasn't a strong Christian presence, I had a hard time keeping the faith. My boyfriend was much more interesting. Just like in the article, the church told me that I had to throw away my music, yoga books, and similar sinful items. I couldn't do it. Eventually I came to realize that any religion that threatens you with eternal damnation if you don't believe what they tell you is laughable. But that was a long time ago in a place far away.

Well, if any evangelicals are having problems with their kids these days, they can send them to "Jesus Camp". The camp's youth director is Becky Fischer. In an upcoming documentary she explained her program (programming?) to ABC.

I want to see young people who are as committed to the cause of Jesus Christ as the young people are to the cause of Islam, Fischer says early in the film, according to Brokaw. I want to see them radically laying down their lives for the gospel as they are over in Pakistan and Israel and Palestine and all of these different places.

Onward Christian Soldiers.  ¶ 4:07 PM 0 comments

  Condi Rice Is A Liar. This is more sordid than Foleygate. Do Americans feel safer now?  ¶ 1:17 AM 0 comments

  36% 33%. and dropping. There goes the preznit's legitimacy. If the buck stops here, he will be remembered as the president who put his rubber stamp on a pedophile cover up.  ¶ 7:29 PM 0 comments

  Oh My. On ABC. Foley Is An Orchid Eater. He's 52 and his boyfriends are 16. How many times does 16 go into 52?  ¶ 7:10 PM 0 comments

  There's Going To Be A Probe.
Indeed. Why do Conservatives point so much? It's all over the news in print and pictures: Republican leaders pointing out their moral values, talking points, pointing blame, and just plain pointing.  ¶ 5:57 PM 0 comments

  The Purpose Of Intelligent Design Revealed. Barbara Forrest, in her book, "Creationism's Trojan Horse," has revealed the purpose of the CDC (Center for Science and Culture) which promotes Intelligent Design. Their mission is called The Wedge. The Wedge's goal is to promote controversy about evolution in order to destroy their real target, all of modern science.

Also in 1999, a fund raising document used by the Discovery Institute to promote the CSC was leaked to the public. Informally known as the "Wedge Document," it stated that the center's long-term goals were nothing less than the "overthrow of materialism and its cultural legacies," and the replacement of "materialistic explanations with the theistic understanding that nature and human beings are created by God."

The means for achieving these goals was explained using a simple metaphor: "If we view the predominant materialistic science as a giant tree, our strategy is intended to function as a 'wedge' that, while relatively small, can split the trunk when applied at its weakest points."

You can read all about it at LiveScience.

Rick Santorium weighs in aboout evolution's moral implications, " if we're simply a mistake of nature, then that puts a different moral demand on us. In fact, it doesn't put a moral demand on us."

Conservative Christians' moral demand. Sheez. In other events, inquiring minds want to know why conservative Christian leaders are not speaking out against improper conduct in Congress,  ¶ 9:32 PM 0 comments

  Thinking Of A Few Vulgar And Snarky Remarks.   ¶ 11:10 PM 0 comments

  Bush Found Weapons of mAss Destruction. I think I have died and gone to troll heaven.  ¶ 5:24 PM 0 comments