] From a former professor:
]
] At Harvard Business School, thirty years ago, George
] Bush was a student of mine. I still vividly remember him.
] In my class, he declared that "people are poor because
] they are lazy." He was opposed to labor unions, social
] security, environmental protection, Medicare, and public
] schools. To him, the antitrust watch dog, the Federal
] Trade Commission, and the Securities Exchange Commission
] were unnecessary hindrances to "free market competition."
] To him, Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal was "socialism."
] Recently, President Bush's Federal Appeals Court Nominee,
] California's Supreme Court Justice Janice Brown, repeated
] the same broadside at her Senate hearing. She knew that
] her pronouncement would please President Bush and Karl
] Rove and their Senators. President Bush and his brain,
] Karl Rove, are leading a radical revolution of destroying
] all the democratic political, social, judiciary, and
] economic institutions that both Democrats and moderate
] Republicans had built together since Roosevelt's New
] Deal.

[ Yeah... as a Vanderbilt grad, i've had my own exposure to the "people are poor because they don't want to work hard". And as much as i try to be fair to people, it's usually the most intellectually lazy sons and daughters of priviledge that have this opinion. It's a bullshit argument from people who lack any perspective on what a normal human being is like. Bush is a rich kid. He's never been poor, and he's never been close enough to it to have a clue what it means. I don't think he's interested in discovering what it really means to be poor, or what it takes to help people. His policies are transparent, like every so-called fiscal conservative i've ever met. I'm convinced most fiscal conservatives are like most fundamentalist christians... going through the motions, preaching self righteously about beliefs and ideals they don't actually live by, when their true motivating factors are power and greed. You want to support a candidate because he'll hook you up with more money, and fuck the rest? Fine, say so outright. But i'm pretty sick of hearing the "i'm fiscally conservative, but socially liberal" line. Bullshit. 9 times out of 10 you're greedy and want more money... quit sugar coating it. Bush is bad for the average american. Period. -k]

The Bush Social Policy

] The Bush reelection campaign yesterday unveiled its first
] three campaign commercials showcasing Ground Zero images,
] angering some 9/11 families who accused President Bush of
] exploiting the tragedy for political advantage.

[ I would add that Cheney promised just last month that they wouldn't use 9/11 as a political tool. I understand that 9/11 was a major, world altering event, but showing imagery of a casket being pulled from the wreckage is the lowest sort of emotion grabbing politics i can imagine. Despicable -k]

Daily Kos || The price of politicizing 9-11

] Inside Bagle.j, the eighth variant to debut since Friday,
] and which first showed Tuesday, is text taunting Netsky
] that reads "Hey,NetSky, f*** off you b****, don't ruine
] our bussiness, wanna start a war?" (Not exactly
] Shakespeare, and the hacker's spell-checker must not be
] working.)

[ HA! Anyone else think this article is a tad melodramatic calling this a "cyber-war"?

Also, don't talk shit about someone's spelling and then write "back-and-fourth" a couple of paragraphs later... -k]

Security Pipeline | News | Worm Authors Exchange Taunting Messages

] New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer said on Wednesday
] the state's laws do not permit gay marriage, dealing a
] harsh blow to the growing nationwide battle for same-sex
] weddings.

[ Look for liberals nationwide to bash Eliot Spitzer without paying attention to the actual story... even the Reuters headline here is a little bit sensational.

Spitzer is doing his job by interpreting the language of state laws on the matter and not ignoring them out of political or personal views, which are decidedly pro-same-sex-union :

] "What motivates gays and lesbians is the same thing that
] motivates heterosexuals, and that is the desire to live
] as true partners with the protection of the law and full
] recognition of society," Spitzer told a news conference.
]
] "I know gays and lesbians want marriage and I respect
] their commitment to each other and I personally support
] their desire," he said. Still, he had to put the law,
] "ahead of my personal views or political considerations."

I guess i'm just pre-emptively getting pissed at a media that's likely to spin this as much as possible to gain controversy... the LA Times story headline is "NY Attorney General: No Gay Marriages". Irresponsible if you ask me.

Incidentally, I grew up about 15 miles from New Paltz, NY... if i were gonna try to compare it to anyplace local, I'd say it's a lot like Decatur, for what it's worth. I'm not surprised at all to see it become an early battleground for this issue in NY State. -k]

Gay Marriage Suffers Legal Setback in New York

] By the way, today in Fulton Co., there was a glitch in
] the voting machines -- people were given the wrong ballot
] -- instead of getting a Dem. ballot they got the ballot
] to vote for our flag, and after they voted and realized
] what was wrong, there was no way to go back and vote for
] a candidate. Insane.

[ From an Atlantan poster on DKos... anyone seen reports on this in the actual media? Or will they gloss over these sorts of things like usual? -k]

Daily Kos || Don't Let Them Steal The Election

[ Ha! Not bad. -k]

DJ Jibs

[ Hot damn this is cool. -k]

The DELCA project

[ This is a really interesting interview with Eugene Jarvis (he created Defender, not to mention two of my favorite games, NARC and SmashTV). It ranges around and he's got some good comments on lots of topics... worth a read. -k]

Salon.com Technology | Stopping al-Qaida, a quarter at a time

] A security issue also arose in Georgia.
]
]
] Georgia Tech student Peter Sahlstrom said he found 10
] Diebold terminals sitting unprotected in the lobby of the
] school's student center Monday. Sahlstrom, 22,
] photographed the machines in their unlocked cases.
]
]
] "Frankly, this makes me nervous and ... it validates a
] lot of the concerns I already had," Sahlstrom said in a
] phone interview.

[ Yeah... this is from *today*. Still no accountability. Still no audit trail. Still no concern for security of eVoting systems. If there's a compromise in november, the country's gonna go nuts. Sweet jesus help Kathy Cox if that shit goes down, because there are some people that're gonna wanna have a word with her, and every other moron whose given carte blanche to Diebold. -k]

Salon.com Technology | Technical problems reported in e-voting

] Among the nominees for the 2004 prize are the head of the
] U.N.'s nuclear watchdog Mohamed ElBaradei, jailed Israeli
] atomic whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu, former Czech
] President Vaclav Havel and former chief U.N. weapons
] inspector Hans Blix.
]
] President Bush, British Prime Minister Tony Blair and
] French President Jacques Chirac are also among the
] nominees.

[ If Bush wins the Nobel Peace Prize, I'm moving to Mars. -k]

International News Article | Reuters.com