A Forum for Grinches and Ho-Ho-Hoes - Page 75

Adder · 01-06-2005, 11:06 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Bad_Rich_Chic
I have generally been of the "come the paperless revolution" persuasion, particularly with respect to lawyering (where computing seems to have produced vastly more, not less, paper, sigh) but also generally, including with respect to voting. However, I have been set on my back foot by the fact that every last "computer guy" I have talked to about it insists that, knowing what they do about computers, they will never, never, never agree to vote electronically and will always insist on voting by paper ballot.

Oddly enough, I have had computer guys (well, girls, actually) tell me that even they, low level programmers that they are, could easily create programming that would enable secure electronic (internet) voting. And these people are suspicious leftist types too.

Frankly, what little I know about it suggests that this sort of thing should be doable over some sort of computer network with sufficient safegaurds to be reliable (or at least much more so than paper). Think about it. No matter how bad your firm's IT department is (and our totally sucks), you protect the security of confidential info every day.

Adder · 01-06-2005, 11:08 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Replaced_Texan
We have an election that was won by 42 votes here in Harris County. One of the nice things about the recount was that it got to demonstrate to everyone that our electronic voting system (called eSlate) DOES generate a paper record. Of course the asshole Republican wouldn't let it go and has asked the legislature to overturn the entire election based on unspecified allegations of voter fraud and the hearing will be January 27.

Sounds like most of the plaintiffs in my cases.

Ad(you're honor, we're like totally sure they did something really, really, totally bad, even though there is no evidence)der

Adder · 01-06-2005, 11:17 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by sgtclub
$65 dollar tires are cheap

No. That's ridiculousl fucking cheap. Gattigap has apparently not yet made it to GP and had never bought performance tire.

Ad(not that I would know or anyting...)der

bilmore · 01-06-2005, 11:34 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
But you are very consistent. Any bad news re Iraq, and you question the messenger.

No, I just most closely associate him with Josh, and then I always question the messenger.

(ETA) - I could give you pages, right now, on bad news out of Iraq. I think we just differ, as we've said before, in how we think that bad news will ultimately play out.

bilmore · 01-06-2005, 11:40 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Adder
Oddly enough, I have had computer guys (well, girls, actually) tell me that even they, low level programmers that they are, could easily create programming that would enable secure electronic (internet) voting.

So could I, which means that I would completely trust any voting program which I wrote. And loaded into the machine. Which said machine I got to go through and wipe clean and test prior to loading. And which I could guard without fail from wiping to loading to voting to counting.

(But, it's not just the "secure" part. As long as the system isn't transparent - i.e., as long as people can't walk away absolutely KNOWING how they actually voted, and how the system recorded their vote, there's no solution. The perception of disenfranchisement - even by whackos - is enough to allow them to opt out of any sense of governance by the winner.)

Tyrone Slothrop · 01-06-2005, 11:51 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by bilmore
No, I just most closely associate him with Josh, and then I always question the messenger.

I have Googled off and on since I responded the first time, looking for some shred of a web page supporting your characterization of Nelson as an inaccurate partisan, and have found nada. So it's nice to see that you question him only because Josh cites him.

Quote:

(ETA) - I could give you pages, right now, on bad news out of Iraq. I think we just differ, as we've said before, in how we think that bad news will ultimately play out.

Well, I hope you're right.

Tyrone Slothrop · 01-07-2005, 12:49 AM

The Jerusalem Post reports, Sri Lanka requests more medical aid from Israel.

bilmore · 01-07-2005, 01:05 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
I have Googled off and on since I responded the first time, looking for some shred of a web page supporting your characterization of Nelson as an inaccurate partisan, and have found nada. So it's nice to see that you question him only because Josh cites him.

No, I googled him too since I posted that. { "Chris Nelson" report politics } gets a lot of hits on blogs - mosly Josh, but quite a few others of that ilk. And I was about dead on about the "implosion" comment. That was the word he used. Just as the economy really took off. I think he must have studied under Krugman.

(Wish we could actually see the Report, but it's apparently not on-line.)

bilmore · 01-07-2005, 01:15 AM

From my new favorite blog, The Diplomad, manned by several deep-cover State Department pukes who dislike the ingrained liberal State cant (at http://diplomadic.blogspot.com/ ) :

(Too long, but it's all good.)

-------------------

Warning to Potential Readers of this Posting:

The Chief Diplomad is just back from the office. It's 4 am. Mosquitoes are everywhere. The internet is painfully slow. Your "friendly" Chief Diplomad's plan to move on to another set of duties, for now, has fallen by the roadside. He must remain in the current job for now. The local Guardian correspondent has called the Embassy; he is doing a negative story on the US relief effort based on "information" provided by the UN at a press conference. The Diplomad is in a dark, dark mood. So, of course, just as anyone else would do in such circumstances, The Diplomad writes about the UN.

End of Warning.

. . .

This Embassy has been running 24/7 since the December 26 earthquake and tsunami. Along with my colleagues, I've spent the past several days dealing non-stop with various aspects of the relief effort in this tsunami-affected country. That work, unfortunately, has brought ever-increasing contact with the growing UN presence in this capital; in fact, we've found that to avoid running into the UN, we must go out to where the quake and tsunami actually hit. As we come up on two weeks since the disaster struck, the UN is still not to be seen where it counts -- except when holding well-staged press events. Ah, yes, but the luxury hotels are full of UN assessment teams and visiting big shots from New York, Geneva, and Vienna. The city sees a steady procession of UN Mercedes sedans and top-of-the-line SUV's -- a fully decked out Toyota Landcruiser is the UN vehicle of choice; it doesn't seem that concerns about "global warming" and preserving your tax dollars run too deep among the UNocrats.

Sitting VERY late for two consecutive nights in interminable meetings with UN reps, hearing them go on about "taking the lead coordination role," pledges, and the impending arrival of this or that UN big shot or assessment/coordination team, for the millionth time I realized that if not for Australia and America almost nobody in the tsunami-affected areas would have survived more than a few days. If we had waited for the UNocrats to get their act coordinated, the already massive death toll would have become astronomical. But, fortunately, thanks to "retrograde racist war-mongers " such as John Howard and George W. Bush, as we sat in air conditioned meeting rooms with these UNocrats, young Australians and Americans were at that moment "coordinating" without the UN and saving the lives of tens-of-thousands of people.

Seeing these UNocrats perched at the table, whispering to each other, back-slapping, shaking hands, they seemed like a periodic reunion of old cynical Mafia chieftains or mercenaries who run into each other in different hot spots, as they move from one slaughter to another, "How are you? Haven't seen you since Bosnia . . .." As the hours wore on, however, and I nervously doodled in my note pad, shifted in my chair, looked at my watch, and thought about all the real work I had to do that evening, I decided that, no, labeling them mafiosos or mercenaries was much too kind. They seemed more to be the progeny resulting from a mating between a mad oracle and a giant carrion-eater. They were akin to some sort of ancient mythical Greco-Roman-Aztec-Wes Craven-Egyptian-bird-god that demands constant sacrifice and feeding, and speaks in riddles which only it can solve. Yes, I decided, the UNocrats are great hideous vultures, roused from their caves in the European Alps and in the cement canyons and peaks of Manhattan by the stench of death in the Turd World. They leisurely take flight toward the smell of death; circle, and then swoop down, screeching UNintelligble nonsense. They arrive and immediately force others, e.g., the American tax payer, to build them new exclusive nests in the midst of poverty, and make themselves fat on the flesh of the dead. My friends, allow The Diplomad to present to you The High Priest Vulture Elite (HPVE).

These genuinely repulsive, arrogant creatures survive only because the world's rich countries, the non-Turd World, allow them, too. We in the First World find it politically impossible to reveal their pronouncements as the cant they are. For many in Europe and among the New York Times crowd, helping maintain these mad vultures substitutes for genuine action, "The UN is on the job!" In addition, for many senior bureaucrats and minor politicians, there is always the hope that if they play the game right, they, too, can join the High Priest Vulture Elite: We see the ranks of the HPVE full of Scandinavians and leftist Americans, and the occasional pompous Euro-Brazilian, all of whom parlayed mediocre domestic careers of lip-biting humanitarian symbolism into well-paying tax-free sinecures in the HPVE.

Who are the victims? Well, of course, the tax payers of the First World come immediately to mind. But really, after all, for us it's just money. Money comes and goes. The big victims of the HPVE are the world's poor countries who pay with the lives of their children; who get diverted by HPVE mumbo jumbo and its promises of aid and technical assistance from taking actions to develop their own countries and fend off the HPVE.

This is not complete, but the hour is late (please forgive spelling/grammatical errors.) Let me post this now. The Diplomad will get some sleep, then -- as time allows --continue examining the HPVE in subsequent postings, in particular, how the Turd World appears gradually to be waking up to the fact that the HPVE exists only to exist.

Tyrone Slothrop · 01-07-2005, 01:25 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by bilmore
No, I googled him too since I posted that. { "Chris Nelson" report politics } gets a lot of hits on blogs - mosly Josh, but quite a few others of that ilk. And I was about dead on about the "implosion" comment. That was the word he used. Just as the economy really took off. I think he must have studied under Krugman.

(Wish we could actually see the Report, but it's apparently not on-line.)

My search for "Nelson Report" and "implosion" turned up nothing. And notwithstanding who tends to quote him, I found no one suggesting that he is biased in some way.

In case you're keeping score at home, my running totals:

Inaccuracies: 0
Allegations of Bias by People Other Than Bilmore: 0

bilmore · 01-07-2005, 01:33 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Tyrone Slothrop
My search for "Nelson Report" and "implosion" turned up nothing. And notwithstanding who tends to quote him, I found no one suggesting that he is biased in some way.

Are you spelling "google" correctly? Cuz' . . . here's page 1 of, like, 1500, on my search . . .

... is, according to TPM sources and sources quoted in this evening's Nelson Report,
where the ... of this, and you would be correct to suspect that politics, or the ...
www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/003778.php - 12k - Cached - Similar pages

Air America Radio | The Al Franken Show
... Talking Points Memo describes Friday’s Nelson Report, a credible Washington-based
tip sheet that focuses on politics, Asia, trade policy, and foreign policy ...
www.airamericaradio.com/weblogs/ alfrankenshow/index.php?/franken/explosive/ - 23k - Cached - Similar pages

Air America Radio | The Al Franken Show
... The Nelson Report is a daily political tip sheet and analysis written for ... Katherine
Lanpher talk to Arianna Huffington about the power of grassroots politics. ...
http://www.airamericaradio.com/weblo...show/index.php - 57k - Jan 5, 2005 - Cached - Similar pages
[ More results from www.airamericaradio.com ]

CAIN: Issue: Collusion - Details of Source Material
... Rosemary Nelson Report Appendix D continued, [PDF File; 4641KB]. ... (2000) The Politics
Of Force: Conflict Management and State Violence in Northern Ireland. ...
cain.ulst.ac.uk/issues/collusion/source.htm - 15k - Cached - Similar pages

BAD ATTITUDES: Politics, War, Economy, Guess That About Covers It ...
... October 29, 2004. Politics, War, Economy ... Informed sources quoted by the influential
Nelson Report say explosives from Al Qaqaa are the “primary source” of ...
badattitudes.com/MT/archives/002037.html - 24k - Cached - Similar pages

Steve Gilliard's News Blog : Freedom is messy, it also kills and ...
... got out, but not released until today, when requested by The Nelson Report, State
Department ... of this, and you would be correct to suspect that politics, or the ...
stevegilliard.blogspot.com/2004/ 10/freedom-is-messy-it-also-kills-and.html - 33k - Cached - Similar pages

America's Debate -> Another Dropped Ball?
... The Nelson Report claims that QUOTE. experts were reluctant to say exactly how much
of ... Another told him, "You would be correct to suspect that politics, or the ...
www.americasdebate.com/forums/ index.php?showtopic=8333&mode=threaded - 78k - Cached - Similar pages

Morse Target
... of Samuels International and Editor of The Nelson Report, a respected ... of California,
Berkeley and did graduate studies in politics, developmental economics ...
www.jiaponline.org/specialreports/ 2001/march15/morse.html - 26k - Cached - Similar pages

RConversation: Politics
... 07:52 PM in Politics | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack. ... War&Piece has exit
poll results from the Nelson Report also favoring Kerry. ...
rconversation.blogs.com/rconversation/politics/ - 42k - Cached - Similar pages

American Politics Journal -- Resistance Isn't Futile
American politics journal, ... Joshua Micah Marshall passes on an item from the Nelson
Report, a preeminent DC paper on foreign policy, that has grave, grave import ...
www.americanpolitics.com/20030114Baker.html - 17k - Cached - Similar pages

bilmore · 01-07-2005, 01:34 AM

Cool.

On Dec. 2, 2003, the Tucson Citizen published a letter to the editor that harshly criticized America's conduct of the war in Iraq. The following month, a group of local residents, offended by the letter, filed a lawsuit against the paper alleging "intentional infliction of emotional distress." The newspaper asked a local judge, Leslie Miller, to throw out the suit on First Amendment grounds, but she refused. Now, the Associated Press reports, the Arizona Supreme Court is considering whether to overturn Judge Miller's ruling.

Free speech problem, right? Lots of ACLU types up in arms?

Nope. Dead Silence.

( http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/ and then scroll down)

bilmore · 01-07-2005, 01:49 AM

I'll add:

Worked in Foreign Affairs for Carter;

Senior Advisor to Senator Byrd (so, maybe bipartisan, since he's got that whole Klan thingie going for him, I guess; )

and, probably most damning,

A Berkeley grad.

ETA -

Oh, and:

"The President in other words has tied himself to the tracks; somewhere in the distance even he can probably hear the faint whistling of the next train; and when it comes to rescue, there's not much help in sight. As Chris Nelson of the Washington insider newsletter the Nelson Report put it the other day, "It is not too soon to suggest that the Bush Administration is imploding on all issues at all levels. Where is the good news coming from? Gas prices at the pump are not going down. The Fed is raising interest rates. Houses, cars and the jobs they create will be curtailed."

http://www.motherjones.com/news/dail...05/05_527.html

(Sorry - it was May, not Feb.)

Tyrone Slothrop · 01-07-2005, 02:29 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by bilmore
Are you spelling "google" correctly? Cuz' . . . here's page 1 of, like, 1500, on my search . . .

... is, according to TPM sources and sources quoted in this evening's Nelson Report,
where the ... of this, and you would be correct to suspect that politics, or the ...
www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/003778.php - 12k - Cached - Similar pages

Air America Radio | The Al Franken Show
... Talking Points Memo describes Friday’s Nelson Report, a credible Washington-based
tip sheet that focuses on politics, Asia, trade policy, and foreign policy ...
www.airamericaradio.com/weblogs/ alfrankenshow/index.php?/franken/explosive/ - 23k - Cached - Similar pages

Air America Radio | The Al Franken Show
... The Nelson Report is a daily political tip sheet and analysis written for ... Katherine
Lanpher talk to Arianna Huffington about the power of grassroots politics. ...
http://www.airamericaradio.com/weblo...show/index.php - 57k - Jan 5, 2005 - Cached - Similar pages
[ More results from www.airamericaradio.com ]

CAIN: Issue: Collusion - Details of Source Material
... Rosemary Nelson Report Appendix D continued, [PDF File; 4641KB]. ... (2000) The Politics
Of Force: Conflict Management and State Violence in Northern Ireland. ...
cain.ulst.ac.uk/issues/collusion/source.htm - 15k - Cached - Similar pages

BAD ATTITUDES: Politics, War, Economy, Guess That About Covers It ...
... October 29, 2004. Politics, War, Economy ... Informed sources quoted by the influential
Nelson Report say explosives from Al Qaqaa are the “primary source” of ...
badattitudes.com/MT/archives/002037.html - 24k - Cached - Similar pages

Steve Gilliard's News Blog : Freedom is messy, it also kills and ...
... got out, but not released until today, when requested by The Nelson Report, State
Department ... of this, and you would be correct to suspect that politics, or the ...
stevegilliard.blogspot.com/2004/ 10/freedom-is-messy-it-also-kills-and.html - 33k - Cached - Similar pages

America's Debate -> Another Dropped Ball?
... The Nelson Report claims that QUOTE. experts were reluctant to say exactly how much
of ... Another told him, "You would be correct to suspect that politics, or the ...
www.americasdebate.com/forums/ index.php?showtopic=8333&mode=threaded - 78k - Cached - Similar pages

Morse Target
... of Samuels International and Editor of The Nelson Report, a respected ... of California,
Berkeley and did graduate studies in politics, developmental economics ...
www.jiaponline.org/specialreports/ 2001/march15/morse.html - 26k - Cached - Similar pages

RConversation: Politics
... 07:52 PM in Politics | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack. ... War&Piece has exit
poll results from the Nelson Report also favoring Kerry. ...
rconversation.blogs.com/rconversation/politics/ - 42k - Cached - Similar pages

American Politics Journal -- Resistance Isn't Futile
American politics journal, ... Joshua Micah Marshall passes on an item from the Nelson
Report, a preeminent DC paper on foreign policy, that has grave, grave import ...
www.americanpolitics.com/20030114Baker.html - 17k - Cached - Similar pages

WTF? In the world where I live -- the Sun is yellow here -- simply establishing that lefties cite or quote a source does not establish that the source is biased or inaccurate. A lot of conservatives consult the phone book every day. This does not mean that the phone book is inaccurate or conservatively biased.

Tyrone Slothrop · 01-07-2005, 03:13 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by bilmore
"The President in other words has tied himself to the tracks; somewhere in the distance even he can probably hear the faint whistling of the next train; and when it comes to rescue, there's not much help in sight. As Chris Nelson of the Washington insider newsletter the Nelson Report put it the other day, "It is not too soon to suggest that the Bush Administration is imploding on all issues at all levels. Where is the good news coming from? Gas prices at the pump are not going down. The Fed is raising interest rates. Houses, cars and the jobs they create will be curtailed."

Good God, man. He made a prediction in May that proved wrong. Clearly he's a mistake-riddled hack! And you defend the Bush Administration's statements about Iraqi WMD. Amazing.