"Earlier this week former employees of Sproul & Associates (operating under the name Voters Outreach of America), a firm hired by the Republican National Committee to register voters, told a Nevada TV station that their supervisors systematically tore up Democratic registrations." [via The New York Times]

Knowing that President Bush swore "to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States", I would expect outrage from the White House. But, given the Bush Administration's willingness to break law, I doubt that the President will fulfill the oath he took. Of course, diabolical characters like Karl Rove would point out that the Constitution doesn't guarantee an individual right to vote.

Wow. I just watched the video of Jon Stewart on Crossfire. Astounding. I can't believe CNN aired it.

Stewart swatted Begalia and Carlson around. Tore them apart. Exposed them as the vapid whores they are.

I can post the video somewhere, if you'd like to see it.

STEWART: But the thing is that this -- you're doing theater, when you should be doing debate, which would be great.
BEGALA: We do, do...
(CROSSTALK)
STEWART: It's not honest. What you do is not honest. What you do is partisan hackery. And I will tell you why I know it.
CARLSON: You had John Kerry on your show and you sniff his throne and you're accusing us of partisan hackery?
STEWART: Absolutely.
CARLSON: You've got to be kidding me. He comes on and you...
(CROSSTALK)
STEWART: You're on CNN. The show that leads into me is puppets making crank phone calls.

Jon Stewart is brilliant.

Pirates and Emperors.

Corel Corporation acquires Jasc Software. Is there some synergy I'm missing here, or is this just competition elimination?

Loftcube. I want one.

POTD

How to become an obnoxious internet cam whore in five easy steps.

Eric Manes, Archie Dury, and Martin Kunert distributed 150 digital video cameras to people in Iraq. Voices of Iraq is the result. Screening in New York, Washington D.C., and Los Angeles this fall.

More than I ever wanted to know about shoe lace knots and shoe lacing methods.

The two year-old Transportation Security Administration spends $460,000 for an awards banquet. Additionally, the Inspector General of the Homeland Security Deparment is investigating the TSA's compensation paractices:

The investigation by the Homeland Security Department’s inspector general, Clark Kent Ervin, also found the TSA gave its senior executives bonuses averaging $16,000, higher than at any other federal government agency, and failed to provide adequate justification in more than a third of the 88 cases examined.

The report said lower-level employees were shortchanged, with a far lower percentage receiving bonuses.

"A substantial inequity exists in TSA’s performance recognition program between executive and non-executive employees," the report said.

It is good to see that we're spending $81,000 for plaques and screwing the rank-and-file baggage screeners instead of, I don't know, stopping hijackers.

Oh, and good job with Cat Stephens, guys.

The two year-old Transportation Security Administration spends $460,000 for an awards banquet. Additionally, the Inspector General of the Homeland Security Deparment is investigating the TSA's compensation paractices:

The investigation by the Homeland Security Department’s inspector general, Clark Kent Ervin, also found the TSA gave its senior executives bonuses averaging $16,000, higher than at any other federal government agency, and failed to provide adequate justification in more than a third of the 88 cases examined.

The report said lower-level employees were shortchanged, with a far lower percentage receiving bonuses.

"A substantial inequity exists in TSA’s performance recognition program between executive and non-executive employees," the report said.

It is good to see that we're spending $81,000 for plaques and screwing the rank-and-file baggage screeners instead of, I don't know, stopping hijackers.

Oh, and good job with Cat Stephens, guys.

Seymour Hersh at Berkeley (RealVideo). Worth watching.

POTD

KERRY: Well, two leading national news networks have both said the president's characterization of my health-care plan is incorrect. One called it fiction. The other called it untrue.

The fact is that my health-care plan, America, is very simple. It gives you the choice. I don't force you to do anything. It's not a government plan. The government doesn't require you to do anything. You choose your doctor. You choose your plan. 

If you don't want to take the offer of the plan that I want to put forward, you don't have do. You can keep what you have today, keep a high deductible, keep high premiums, keep a high co-pay, keep low benefits.

But I got a better plan. And I don't think a lot of people are going to want to keep what they have today. 

[...]

SCHIEFFER: Mr. President?

BUSH: In all due respect, I'm not so sure it's credible to quote leading news organizations about -- oh, nevermind. Anyway, let me quote the Lewin report. The Lewin report is a group of folks who are not politically affiliated. They analyzed the senator's plan. It cost $1.2 trillion. 

Right. Nevermind, indeed.

Mr. Schieffer: Mr. President I want to go back to something Senator Kerry said earlier tonight and ask a follow-up of my own. He said, and this will be a new question to you, he said that you had never said whether you would like to overturn Roe v. Wade. So I'd ask you directly would you like to?

Mr. Bush: What he's asking me is will I have a litmus test for my judges. And the answer is no, I will not have a litmus test. I will pick judges who will interpret the Constitution. But I'll have no litmus tests.

I simply don't understand how my fellow Americans would consider electing a man who will not answer a yes-no question. A man who won't clearly state his intentions. This baffles me.

I also wish the press had the balls to call the President on his behavior, or to keep asking for an answer until they get one.

He didn't ask you about a litmus test, Mr. President. He asked you about Roe v. Wade.

Blinking fonts.

That prozac-laced debate was the worst of the three. President Bush was incomprehensible. Kerry was a laxative.

The only high point was that the President claimed to have some kind of prayer-sensitive radar in his head. That is fantastic. Lets hope the voices in his head don't tell him to invade any more sovereign countries.

POTD

I forgot to mention: Gnosis reborn as Shangri-La.

E.L. Doctorow: "The Unfeeling President"

[Windows Media format -- I couldn't find the recording in any other format]

E.L. Doctorow: "The Unfeeling President"

[Windows Media format -- I couldn't find the recording in any other format]

E.L. Doctorow: "The Unfeeling President"

[Windows Media format -- I couldn't find the recording in any other format]

E.L. Doctorow: "The Unfeeling President"

[Windows Media format -- I couldn't find the recording in any other format]

POTD

Fight the power.

"Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of State and corporate power."

  -- Benito Mussolini

No matter how hard I try, after all these years I still don't understand binary XML. Just don't grok it.

In the second debate, President Bush said:

"Non-homeland, non-defense discretionary spending was raising at 15 percent a year when I got into office. And today it's less than 1 percent, because we're working together to try to bring this deficit under control."

Kevin Drum runs the numbers. Oops.

VerifiedVoting.org is looking for geeks to volunteer their time to help with the upcoming presidential election.

Ken Salazar and Peter Coors, candidates for a Colorado senate seat, were on Meet the Press this past Sunday.

Yikes. I wanted to like Salazar, I really did. But I ended up disliking both candidates just about equally. Salazar seemed not to want to commit to a party-line opinion, but somehow managed not to make a case for moderation, either. Neither seemed to have thought out their opinions terribly well.

Maybe they were nervous.

The New York Times: Lawyers' Group Sues City Over Arrests of Protesters

I hope there is a lengthy discovery phase that uncovers the instructions given to the rank-and-file police. I want to see if there was systematic suppression of speech.

Sir Winston Churchill: "A fanatic is one who can't change his mind and won't change the subject."

Today is Ann Coulter's birthday. Let us all take a moment to think about how fortunate we are to have ways of making money that don't involve lying and whoring ourselves for publicity.

POTD