Don't Mess With EU Privacy Laws

Copyright cop wedding crashers fined by Spanish court

The next time you have a wedding, make sure your videographer isn't a secret spy for the RIAA or similar copyright group. This real-life scenario happened to a couple in Spain thanks to the efforts of the Spanish General Society of Authors and Editors (SGAE), a rights group for musicians and artists. But although the group managed to bust the reception venue for copyright violations, SGAE itself has been fined for violating the privacy of the newlyweds.

The incident originally took place back in 2005, when SGAE snuck a private detective into the wedding reception acting as a cameraman. The group had suspected the venue—La Doma restaurant near Seville, Spain—for using music without paying royalties. Predictably, this series of events have horrified privacy advocates who argue that the couple's privacy was breached. As noted by The Sunday Times, however, the issue has come to light recently because SGAE has increased its efforts to catch venues that are avoiding royalty payments, and another, similar case is about to go to court.

SGAE claims that the video was taken by guests. However, in the case of the La Doma video, a Seville court ruled that it could not be used as evidence of copyright violations because it was "a clear violation of the constitutional rights to a person's own image." Despite this, La Doma was fined €43,179 for illegally using the music. La Doma got off lightly compared to the SGAE, which was nicked for €60,101 for the privacy violations. So the SGAE's copyright enforcement cost it nearly €18,000—not including court costs.

SGAE apparently doesn't feel that it has done anything wrong, and apparently plans to continue crashing weddings in order to catch venues in the act (and maybe sneak a slice or two of cake in the process). "Using private detectives to investigate fraud is common. We will carry on doing it," SGAE director Pedro Farre told the Times. On the other hand, with cameramen being fined upwards of US$86,000, SGAE may soon find itself hard-up for volunteers to carry out its dirty deeds.

I think the article is overblowing the risk to investigators here. The privacy violation is NOT about the intrusion into the wedding party ("wedding crashers"), it's about the information that was collected about identifiable individuals--in this case, I'd guess embarrassing video of drunken guests dancing horribly ("constitutional right to a person's own image"). The message is clear: don't take video. The only information the investigator needs is the song played, and the time and place. Record more than that and you're asking for trouble.

Report: Russia's Venezuela Visit Filled With Mishaps

Not the dangerous kind, the funny kind.

Tal Cual, a Venezuelan daily newspaper, described the exercises as a “clash of civilizations” due to the strange and even hilarious events that occurred. To start with, the Cuban officers brought along by the Venezuelan navy as interpreters were not allowed by the Russians, who could not understand why the Venezuelan navy had to rely on Cuban personnel. When Venezuelan strongman Chavez tried to visit the ship “Admiral Chabanenko,” his bodyguards were not allowed to go aboard. A fistfight broke between the Russian sailors and the bodyguards -- one Russian sailor suffering a broken nose.

The Venezuelan participation in the exercises was finally reduced to two frigates, F21 and F24, and the transport ship T81, since the other units were not seaworthy. The access of Chavez to the flagship Russian “Peter the Great” was not allowed. In retaliation, Chavez refused to receive Russian President Medvedev at his arrival, sending his colorless vice president Ramon Carrizales instead. Medvedev was reportedly not amused, but his visit had objectives to fulfill that were more important than his irritation at Chavez’s faulty protocol.

Source.

Insulting: Jim Ryan Calls for Leaders with "Moral Compass"

Jim Ryan--the former IL AG who ran for Governor and lost to Blagojevich--needs to shut the hell up and just fade away.

In response to the corruption charges against Blago, Ryan had this to say:

"I feel bad for the people of Illinois," said Jim Ryan. "They need to rise up and say we need authentic leaders with a moral compass and we haven't had that in a while."

This, coming from a guy who tried to advance his career through entrapment schemes.

Illinois Attorney General Jim Ryan is trying to make a name for himself in law enforcement circles by conducting his own sting operation against private-party firearms sales. Ryan has been pushing his agents to violate Illinois law in order to get people to sell them "illegal" firearms over the Internet. Could this "tough-on-crime" charade be a political ploy by Ryan? After all, in Illinois primary elections are in March and 2002 is an election year.

According to the Associated Press, Ryan’s agents were able to procure some firearms: a semi-automatic pistol and two so-called assault weapons. However most of the cases could not be prosecuted either for a lack of evidence, or because Ryan violated an Illinois law prohibiting entrapment operations. The sting, which resulted in only one conviction -- Christopher Tocco of Goodrich, Michigan who pleaded guilty to unlawful use of a machine gun--has been severely criticized by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF)...

Trying to trick innocent people into breaking the law and sending them to prison so your political career might take off. Yeah, some moral compass.

Fuck off.

Linked: British Purge Commanders Over Iran-Hostage Drama

THE British navy has completed a discreet clean-out of the senior figures involved in the debacle over the arrest by Iranian Revolutionary Guards of 15 British sailors and marines.

Those involved in the Royal Navy's humiliation at the hands of Tehran have been pushed out of their high-profile jobs as part of an attempt to sweep away any reminder of the debacle...

The victims include two vice-admirals, the captain of the ship on which the boat crews served and a senior official in the failed public relations operation that followed their return to Britain.

Full article

OI Fails at Reading Comprehension

I really dropped the ball on this one. In the beginning of November, I said the natural born citizenship issue was dead because Hawaii authorities confirmed the validity of the birth certificate.

I'm a fucking moron.

Here is the story in its entirety:

State officials say there's no doubt Barack Obama was born in Hawai'i.

Health Department Director Dr. Chiyome Fukino said today she and the registrar of vital statistics, Alvin Onaka, have personally verified that the health department holds Obama's original birth certificate.

Fukino says that no state official, including Republican Gov. Linda Lingle, ever instructed that Obama's certificate be handled differently.

She says state law bars release of a certified birth certificate to anyone who does not have a tangible interest.

Some Obama critics claim he was not born in the U.S.

Earlier today, a southwest Ohio magistrate rejected a challenge to Obama's citizenship. Judges in Seattle and Philadelphia recently dismissed similar suits.

Notice the sentence "State officials say there's no doubt Barack Obama was born in Hawai'i" is NOT attributed. The attribued statements are "Health Department Director Dr. Chiyome Fukino said today she and the registrar of vital statistics, Alvin Onaka, have personally verified that the health department holds Obama's original birth certificate," "She says state law bars release of a certified birth certificate to anyone who does not have a tangible interest," and "Fukino says that no state official, including Republican Gov. Linda Lingle, ever instructed that Obama's certificate be handled differently." None of these statements answers the question as to the contents of the birth certificate. All we have is an unattributed assertion by the reporter that the contents are in order.

The question of the eligibility of the President-Elect is still live. And it seems that we don't have an effective legal mechanism to get a look at that damn thing to end this issue once and for all. The only thing I can think of right now is that a subordinate of the then sworn-in President would have to replicate the Berg suit. Berg lost on standing of course; standing being satisfied by a subordinate being the plaintiff, the court could not dismiss the case prior to discovery, which would mean that damn elusive little piece of paper could be taken as evidence and the relevant official deposed under oath. Short of that happening, I'm out of ideas.

So yeah. I blew it by sucking at reading comprehension. I guess I just wanted it to be over and I saw what I wanted to see instead of what was actually on the page.

H/T: Conservative Thinker

Sometimes It's Easy to Tell Who the Good Ones Are

081207-M-6159T-144 CAMP BASTION, Afghanistan (Dec. 7, 2008) U.S. Senators John McCain, left, and Joe Lieberman leave the airfield aboard Camp Bastion. U.S. Military service members and British Royal Army personnel briefed U.S. Senators McCain, Joe Lieberman, and Lindsey Graham on the progress and status of their area of operations in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. (Official U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Pete Thibodeau)

I tried Googling this meeting and came up empty--no news coverage, except for this photo taken by a USMC photographer--er, sorry. Joker--combat correspondent. I much prefer the politicians who still Give A Shit when the campaign is over and attention is elsewhere.

Not Again

MOSCOW, December 8 (RIA Novosti) - One naval officer died in a fire on Russia's Baltic Fleet frigate the Neukrotimy (Indomitable) on Monday, a senior Navy official said.

"The body of an officer was discovered during a thorough search of the ship," Captain 1st Rank Igor Dygalo, an aide to the Russian Navy commander, said.

Earlier reports said no one had been hurt in the fire that broke out early on Monday on the frigate anchored at Baltiisk, the Baltic Fleet's main base.

A regional emergencies official said the fire was put out at 14:00 Moscow time (11:00 a.m. GMT).

He said five firefighting teams, including a special firefighting boat, had been involved in extinguishing the fire.

The Baltic Fleet press service said only insignificant damage had been caused to the vessel, while the cause of the fire had yet to be established by a special investigations commission.

Dygalo said the frigate, at the end of its operational life span, was due to be taken out of service, adding there had been no weapons on board the ship when the fire started.

The Krivak-2 Project-1135 Neukrotimy, built in 1978, was damaged in 2005, when a practice mine exploded during rehearsals for Russia's Navy Day, causing a 3-meter hole in the ship's hull and flooding the ship's engine room.

This is senseless. These guys really need to work on their safety procedures.

Rest in peace.

Source.

US in the ICC?

Boldly said, but I remain unconvinced. ("You are not prepared!!!" Ahem.)

Maybe for no other reason other than that it was just a lousy article. Of course, on the issue of the ICC, what really matters is the risk of the body being used as a political weapon against American Soldiers. Out of 19 paragraphs, only 3 sentences are dedicated to this issue:

Initial U.S. fears that the court would be politically motivated have proved groundless. The court’s respect for the principle that it can exercise its jurisdiction only when national courts prove unwilling or unable to do so has proved unbending. Attempts to bring British forces in Iraq before the court for alleged crimes have been rejected by the prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo of Argentina.

That definitely got my attention, and it's worth considering. But this issue needs to be explored comprehensively to make an informed decision here, and two supporting facts is hardly weighty analysis. The rest of the article? Fluff about how the everyone else is doing it and whining about how unilateral Bush is. Crap we've heard 1000 times before that isn't all that convincing.

For what it's worth, Cohen has a point about us needing to shake the perception that we don't care about international law, because the development of new international rule sets is going to be vital to winning the GWOT. We need to be leading in that area, not be pariahs. But there is a lot more to international law than just the ICC. Right now, the crucial issue in this realm is the UNSC, and that should be painfully obvious to everyone. It's possible that we can make progress with the ICC, but there are serious practical issues that have to be worked out that can't simply be dismissed as "groundless."

China Stepping Up

Major General Jin Yinan has announced China's intention to get involved in anti-piracy efforts in the Gulf of Aden. This has the potential to be huge---for once, instead of being the UNSC member obstructing solutions to international problems, they're going to play an active part. This comes on the heels of a unanimous UNSC reslolution that renewed authorization to persue pirates into Somali waters, authorized the detention and disposition of suspected pirate vessels, and perhaps most significantly, called on member states to establish laws to enable them to prosecute those arrested.

I've been looking forward to the opportunity for the US to start working with China as a partner rather than as a rival. And for that to happen, China has to start realizing that its interests coincide with ours---in open, secure markets, regional stability, and increased connectedness. Their intention to get involved in the piracy issue means that they're starting to think about more responsibilities as a major power and less about the Taiwan issue or a potential rivalry with us. (EDIT: Galrahn beat me to it: "that might be the smell of maturity.") As this plays out, we can look forward to an increasing partnership with China, which means the looming war between us becomes less likely, and hopefully at some point we'll be able to reallocate part of that part of the defense budget to something more useful. Good times.

WANT

Too bad I don't like crying and/or puppies.

Thinking Strategically (Or, How Galrahn Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Pirates)

Gal's given me another reason to plug Information Dissemination with two of his latest insightful posts. So seldom do we find anyone who thinks about the big picture.

I'm not going to bother quoting key passages, as these are definitely worth taking in in their entirety:

Observing the Strategic Success of US Policy Toward Somali Piracy

Are Pirates the Problem, Or the Solution?

(Related OI post: Piracy a blessing in disguise?)

One Less Vertical Scenario Playing Out

I guess we can sleep a little easier knowing that the BrahMos will not be exported as widely as previously feared:

There were initial hopes that Russia and India could export up to 2,000. China and Iran have expressed interest in the weapon, but only Malaysia, Chile, South Africa, Kuwait and the UAE (United Arab Emirates) have been approached with a sales pitch. No one has placed an order.

Smart people, not selling to China and Iran. India apparently realizes that its relations with us are a bit too important to throw away to make an easy buck or two. It also seems that we figure into the poor sales elsewhere.

Earlier this year, India ordered 800 more of the new PJ-10 BrahMos missiles. Attempts to find export customers, however, have not succeeded. India believes this is because they have not previously been a major arms exporter, and have not developed the skills and techniques to sell high-tech weapons. Another reason, which the Indian arms salesmen don't like to dwell on, is that BrahMos was originally designed to go after heavily defended American aircraft carriers. Few countries see attacking the U.S. Navy as a promising military strategy. That, and the high price of the BrahMos probably accounts for most of the sales resistance.

I might suggest that they could find potential customers in NATO, but I doubt India's partners will like that idea. What a pity.

Such an Odd Place...

I knew the Somali pirates were getting rich and living the glamorous life, but I didn't realize the size of the boom they're causing:

But in northern coastal towns like Haradhere, Eyl and Bossaso, the pirate economy is thriving thanks to the money pouring in from pirate ransoms that have reached $30 million this year alone.

In Haradhere, residents came out in droves to celebrate as the looming oil ship came into focus this week off the country's lawless coast. Businessmen started gathering cigarettes, food and cold glass bottles of orange soda, setting up small kiosks for the pirates who come to shore to re-supply almost daily.

Dahir said she is so confident in the pirates, she instituted a layaway plan just for them.

"They always take things without paying and we put them into the book of debts," she told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "Later, when they get the ransom money, they pay us a lot."

For Somalis, the simple fact that pirates offer jobs is enough to gain their esteem, even as hostages languish on ships for months. The population makes sure the pirates are well-stocked in qat, a popular narcotic leaf, and offer support from the ground even as the international community tries to quash them.

"Regardless of how the money is coming in, legally or illegally, I can say it has started a life in our town," said Shamso Moalim, a 36-year-old mother of five in Haradhere.

"Our children are not worrying about food now, and they go to Islamic schools in the morning and play soccer in the afternoon. They are happy."

I find this curious because of the warlord situation there. As I see it, the warlords' primary interest is to hold onto power. That means they'd either be in on the piracy business or demanding a shit ton of "protection" money. And maybe they are. But an economic boom is empowering to the common folk. They're getting jobs, vehicles, going to school.... not exactly the picture of dependency that we've come to identify with Somalia since the 90's. They're even doing business overseas and getting wired up on the 'net--getting connected with the rest of the world.

This may seem perverse, but maybe this piracy thing is a bit of a blessing in disguise. It's hard to keep a population dependent on you when they're doing business and getting connected. No, that's not a justification, but it is food for thought, because disconnectedness is what defines danger and instability these days. Right now, it seems Somalia is too far gone to connect to the rest of the world (much like Afghanistan) and not suitable for a nation-building type program, but maybe as the seeds of connectedness are sown through this piracy, that will start to slowly change.

Silver lining or not, I still think more aggressive measures need to be taken to stop this problem.

Piracy Leading to Disruption in Int'l Trade

You know it's serious when you can't get your Wii games.

Alarmed at the growing number of attacks off Somalia, international merchant shipping is edging closer to doing the unthinkable in peace time: by-passing one of world's most vital trade routes.

Somali pirates have been plundering ships off the Horn of Africa for years, but the recent surge in attacks has spilled out into the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea, threatening access to the Suez Canal.

Now big firms employed in moving everything from oil, gas and coal to toys, are urgently considering whether to travel round South Africa's Cape of Good Hope instead.

***

The alternative voyage round the Cape of Good Hope would add upwards of three weeks to a typical journey, delaying goods to buyers and increasing transport costs.

***

Giles Noakes, chief maritime security officer at BIMCO, a big industry association, said two operators, one a gas carrier and a tug operator Svitzer, a maritime logistics group, were already routing their fleets via the Cape.

"The next group that I expect to be going round the Cape are the big dry bulkers -- carriers of coal, grains and iron ore -- who also cruise at lower speeds," Noakes said.

How long are we going to let these mosquitos bite us before we spray the nest?

Peek-A-Boo

The JMSDF sees you!

No info yet on how close they came to the G-Dub. Hans are noisy fiddle luckers, though, so hopefuly not that close.

I can't help but wonder if this story was intended to coincide with the SCOTUS news, as it doesn't say when the subs were detected.

Victory!

SCOTUS is full of awesome and win today:

U.S. Supreme Court Lifts Restrictions on Navy Sonar (Update3)

By Greg Stohr

Nov. 12 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. Supreme Court lifted restrictions on the Navy's use of sonar during training exercises off the Southern California coast, ruling that national security needs trumped environmental concerns.

A divided high court rejected arguments by environmentalists that the judge-ordered restrictions were warranted to protect whales and other marine mammals.

The environmental interests ``are plainly outweighed by the Navy's need to conduct realistic training exercises to ensure that it is able to neutralize the threat posed by enemy submarines,'' Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority.

Well, not that divided... two dissents and two concurrences for a 6.5 to 2.5 majority. Not bad.

I See What You Did There

First, giving credit where credit is due, Conservative Wahoo saw it first.

Here is a story about how the press covered the election. It is amazing in three respects. First, if there was ever any doubt about the widespread perception that the mainstream media has a liberal bias, this should prove it once and for all. Second--and I was surprised by this--it shows that Fox News Channel really is living up to its "Fair and Balanced" motto (I thought they would have had a slight conservative tilt, but the data shows otherwise). Finally, it's remarkable because despite what the raw data shows, the Pew Research Center still managed to present the data in a form that made it appear that FNC was skewed right and that the network news outlets were right in the middle.

Absolutely amazing. The problem with Pew's presentation is that it compares each outlet to the average of all of them, and then decides that if a network is to the left or right of that average, then they are left or right politically. The obvious problem with that is it assumes that the media as a whole is centrist. But it doesn't take a genius to figure out that the media as a whole can be on one side or another--especially when you have a network like MSNBC out there pulling the average way, way out to the left. A better method of analysis is not to assume anything, but to compare the way the networks treated the candidates. No spin, just straight up.

So here is the raw data that the story is based on. The data tells a pretty clear story, when you look at is for what it really is. So, here is what it looks like when you compare how the networks covered the candidates:

FNC
Negative Stories
Obama: 40%
Mcain: 40%
-BALANCED-

Positive Stories
Obama: 25%
McCain: 22%
-BALANCED- (slightly Obama favoring)

MSNBC:
negative stories:
Obama: 14%
McCain 73%
--Tilted against McCain by 5 to 1 ratio--

Positive stories
Obama: 42%
McCain: 10%
--Tilted for Obama by 4 to 1 ratio--

CNN:
Negative Stories
Obama: 39%
McCain: 61%
--Tilted against McCain by 1.7 to 1 ratio--

Positive Stories
Obama: 36%
McCain: 13%
--Tilted for Obama by 2.8 to 1 ratio--

NBC
Negative Stories
Obama: 20%
McCain: 54%
--Tilted against McCain by 2.7 to 1 ratio--

Positive Stories
Obama: 43%
McCain: 17%
--Tilted for Obama by 2.5 to 1 ratio--

CBS
Negative Stories
Obama: 27%
McCain: 57%
--Tilted against McCain by 2.1 to 1 ratio--

Positive Stories
Obama: 21%
McCain: 8%
--Tilted for Obama by 2.6 to 1 ratio--

ABC
Negative Stories
Obama: 27%
McCain: 56%
--Tilted against McCain by 2.1 to 1 ratio--

Positive Stories
Obama: 49%
McCain: 15%
----Tilted for Obama by 3.3 to 1 ratio--

So there you have it. When FNC says "Fair and Balanced", at least in this election, they meant it. CNN, MSNBC, and the old networks favored Obama in their coverage by a 2-5 to 1 margin. The data proves it.

Peril On the Sea

Developing:


RIA Reports a major tragedy at sea:

Over 20 killed in Russian submarine accident

MOSCOW, November 9 (RIA Novosti) - More than 20 people were killed in an accident at a nuclear submarine of the Russian Pacific Fleet, an aide to the Russian Navy commander said Sunday.

"More than 20 people were killed during sea trials as a result of accidental launch of the fire-extinguishing system at a nuclear submarine of the Pacific Fleet on November 8," Capt. 1st Rank Igor Dygalo said. "Shipyard workers and servicemen are among the victims."

He said the Navy commander-in-chief had ordered to stop the trials and the submarine was heading to a temporary base.

Dygalo said 208 people, including 81 servicemen were onboard the submarine.

First Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Kolmakov and Navy commander-in-chief, Admiral Vladimir Vysotsky are heading for the site of the accident, Dygalo added. He did not specify the type and name of the submarine.

A source at the Russian Pacific Fleet told RIA Novosti that the accident had not damaged the submarine's reactor.

The most serious accident regarding Russian submarines occurred on August 12, 2000, when the nuclear submarine Kursk sank following an onboard torpedo explosion, killing all 118 crewmembers.

The story does not identify the sub, but the Nerpa seems like the likely candidate, as it is known to have been undergoing sea trials at the time.

Update: They are calling freon gas the cause of death.

The Cynicism Returns

It's the 2nd half of the video that's worth watching. I don't know what the deal is with that prop sword he had on his back, but the officers clearly have more of a problem with him being there than the object he was carrying at first, because after someone removes it they continue to demand that he leaves, while he insists on being able to exercise his 1st Amendment rights. And he gets arrested for it.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?

Positive Signs from SCOTUS on Sonar

It would appear that the Supreme Court has a bit of a pro-Navy leaning in the "Sailors v. Whales" case.

In a closely watched environmental case, justices Wednesday morning repeatedly sounded sympathetic to Pentagon officials who want to run large-scale Navy exercises off the Southern California coast. While the resulting underwater sonar storm disturbs marine mammals, it also helps prepare sailors for combat.

"I thought the whole point of the armed forces was to hurt the environment," Associate Justice Stephen Breyer said, half-jokingly. "Of course they're going to do harm."

***

Chief Justice John Roberts raised the specter of an undetected "North Korean diesel submarine to get (closer) to Pearl Harbor" if sailors couldn't train with sonar, and Associate Justice Samuel Alito asked pointedly if a judge could be considered "an expert on anti-submarine warfare." Alito added that there is "something incredibly odd" about a trial judge making a decision "contrary" to the Navy's requirements.

Even Breyer, who at times has been skeptical about other claims of executive authority, suggested that "an admiral (who) comes along with an affidavit that seems plausible" might outrank a "district judge who just says" the training should stop.

***

Associate Justice David Souter pressed Garre vigorously, insisting that the Navy may have brought the emergency circumstances on itself, but Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy added that a presidential declaration of military necessity "certainly must be given great weight."

Full story here.

Linked: Michael Crichton on the meaning of Science

The late Crichton reminds us of that consensus is not science.

Let's be clear: The work of science has nothing whatever to do with consensus. Consensus is the business of politics. Science, on the contrary, requires only one investigator who happens to be right, which means that he or she has results that are verifiable by reference to the real world. In science consensus is irrelevant. What is relevant is reproducible results.

(From the Wall Street Journal)

A Respite from Cynicism

We made history yesterday by electing our first (half-) black President, and whatever else this election means, all Americans should be proud of this accomplishment. Aside for South Africa under apartheid, I can't think of any racial minority heads of state (a few ethnic/nationality minorities according to a quick google search), so we've earned some real progressive cred that few if any of our critics could dream of having.

More importantly, we've turned a page on race relations here in the US. For too long, entire communities have felt like they were not part of the American dream because of their race and that the system was rigged against them. Many believed that the white majority valued whiteness more than ideas. These feelings created bitterness, and sometimes, violence. But now, a post-racial America is within our grasp. To be sure, the racial antagonists will be there to remind everyone of that tiny part of the path to equality that is still in front of us, trying to cultivate the anger they thrive on; but, the reality of a President Obama will illuminate the reality the antagonists don't want America to see. The reality, as shown as clear as can be by a white majority voting without regard to their race, that racism is no longer prevalent. The reality that the American Dream is accessible to anyone who applies him/herself to achieving it. The reality that the culture of victimhood is a dead end.

Radicals on the left, for too long, have told Americans that their country should be despised, and many Americans became corrupted by this expanding culture of toxicity and cynicism. Too many of us were not proud to be Americans.

So, instead of being angry or depressed about the outcome, I think we should enjoy this moment and make the most of it. Let us affirm our values, our optimism, and our faith in each other. We'll need them in the times ahead.

Election day: fraud, intimidation, and other irregularities watch

Black Panthers block polling place doors; possible arrest





GOP pollwatchers thrown out of 12+ polling places in Philly.

100,000 Georgia Voters Also Registered in Either Ohio or Florida

Man Confesses Fraud to CNN; CNN says "that's OK"!

Accuracy of State Polls

Something to keep in mind:

The first thing that jumps out at you if you read the state polls, is that there are a lot more polling groups doing polls at the state level, than at the national level. Also, most of the polling groups which do national polls, do not also do state polling, probably because it is expensive and difficult to try to cover all of the states on a consistent and timely basis. I have written before that national polls often focus on urban centers, which means that many of the states would require a functionally different methodology to work than what is used nationally. State polling tends to be smaller in respondent pool size, smaller in budget, and less frequent. Some polling groups only do one poll for the whole campaign, and it's common for even major groups to do a poll only once a month....

2006 was a bad year for republicans... it's not surprising that democratic party supporters gained a few points (usually 1 to 3 points) relative to 2004 in voter participation. So I went back and looked at voters by party affiliation, and compared those balances to this year's weighting by Survey USA. In thirty-six states, the party affiliation weights for democrats used by SUSA was five points or more higher than in 2006, a high-water mark for democrats. In twenty states, the party afiiliation weights for democrats used by SUSA was ten points or more higher than in 2006, and in eight states, the party affiliation weights used for democrats by SUSA was thirteen points or more higher than in 2006. Significant battleground states affected by this bias are as follows:

Pennsylvania: D+5 in 2006, SUSA using D+19, 15 point variance
Indiana: R+14 in 2006, SUSA using R+1, 13 point variance
Nevada: R+7 in 2006, SUSA using D+6, 13 point variance
Colorado: R+3 in 2006, SUSA using D+9, 12 point variance
Iowa: R+2 in 2006, SUSA using D+10, 12 point variance
Virginia: R+3 in 2006, SUSA using D+9, 12 point variance
Ohio: D+3 in 2006, SUSA using D+13, 10 point variance
Missouri: R+1 in 2006, SUSA using D+7, 8 point variance
North Carolina: R+1 in 2006, SUSA using D+5, 6 point variance

I've looked at the publicly available records on historical election participation, 2008 new voter registrations, and the Census information on these states, but I can find no valid reason for such large and arbitrary changes in political affiliation weightings. I would therefore submit that the models being used for many of the state polls have design flaws, which threaten the credibility of their published results.

Source.

A Sign of the Scale of Fraud?

I hope not. But we'll never know until we get serious about stopping it.

From Election Journal

Found: 2000 people registered in Indiana and Florida from one county

November 2, 2008 by Soren

The Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette compared the Allen County, Indiana voter file to the Florida voter file and found 2,000 probable overlaps with the same name and birthday:

The Journal Gazette compared the list of 222,000 active registered voters in Allen County with the list of more than 12 million registered voters in Florida and found that 2,172 registrations have the same first and last names, middle names or initials and the same birth dates and are listed as active, eligible voters in both places.

This could be very significant. Both Florida and Indiana are close states, and Allen County contains a significant portion of the votes in IN-03, where Congressman Mark Souder is in a close re-election race.

How many more of these are there? How many have voted?

Recall that when the Indiana voter-ID law went to Supreme Court, one of the plaintiffs was Faye Buis-Ewing, who was registered in both Indiana and Florida and was fraudulently claiming homestead tax exemptions in both states.

The Homestretch

We're almost there, and like the rest of you I'll be happy when it's finally over. These things seem to be starting earlier every cycle, and this one's been draining.

I've got two good reads for you. I can't vouch for the validity of either, but they purport to be from sources within the Obama campaign. The message: don't trust the polls, this is closer than we think.

Here's #1: I can't say I care for a lot of the comments on the attached video, but there's a lot of editing going on there so hopefully it's not a representative sampling. Communist? Close enough. Muslim terrorist? No.

...and I'll post #2 directly (highlighting mine). If this is really from the inside, you can't get better strategic insight.

What you were never intended to know in this election

A Hillary staffer comes clean

Posted by: Anonymous_14

Thursday, October 30, 2008 at 04:52PM CDT

26 Comments

After a long and careful consideration of all the implications and possible consequences of my actions today, I have decided to go through with this in the hope that our country can indeed be guided into the right direction. First, a little personal background… I am a female grad student in my 20’s, and a registered Democrat. During the primaries, I was a campaign worker for the Clinton candidacy. I believed in her and still do, staying all the way to the bitter end. And believe me, it was bitter. The snippets you’ve heard from various media outlets only grazed the surface. There was no love between the Clinton and Obama campaigns, and these feelings extended all the way to the top. Hillary was no dope though, and knew that any endorsement of Obama must appear to be a full-fledged one. She did this out of political survival. As a part of his overall effort to extend an olive branch to the Clinton camp and her supporters, Obama took on a few Hillary staff members into his campaign. I was one such worker. Though I was still bitterly loyal to Hillary, I still held out hope that he would choose her as VP. In fact, there was a consensus among us transplants that in the end, he HAD to choose her. It was the only logical choice. I also was committed to the Democratic cause and without much of a second thought, transferred my allegiance to Senator Obama.

I’m going to let you in on a few secrets here, and this is not because I enjoy the gossip or the attention directed my way. I’m doing this because I doubt much of you know the true weaknesses of Obama. Another reason for my doing this is that I am lost faith in this campaign, and feel that this choice has been forced on many people in this country. Put simply, you are being manipulated. That was and is our job – to manipulate you (the electorate) and the media (we already had them months ago). Our goal is to create chaos with the other side, not hope. I’ve come to the realization (as the campaign already has) that if this comes to the issues, Barack Obama doesn’t have a chance. His only chance is to foster disorganization, chaos, despair, and a sense of inevitability among the Republicans. It has worked up until now. Joe the Plumber has put the focus on the issues again, and this scares us more than anything. Being in a position to know these things, I will rate what the Obama campaign already knows are their weak links from the most important on down.

1 – Hillary voters. Internal polling suggests that at best, we are taking 70-75% of these voters. Other estimates are as low as 60% in some areas – particularly Ohio and western PA. My biggest problem with this campaign’s strategy was the decision NOT to offer Hillary the VP slot. She was ready and able to take this on, and would have campaigned enthusiastically for it. This selection would have also brought virtually all of her supporters into the fold, and the Obama campaign knew it. Though I have no way of knowing this for certain, and I do admit that I am relying on internal gossip, Senator Obama actually went against the advice of his top advisors. They wanted him to choose her, but the only significant opposition to this within the campaign came from Barack and Michelle Obama. In short, he let personal feelings take precedence over what was the most logical thing to do. Biden, by the way, has been a disaster inside the campaign. Everyone cringes whenever he gives an interview, and he creates so many headaches as the campaign has to stay on their toes in order to disseminate information and spin whatever it was he was trying to say.

2 – Sarah Palin. Don’t believe what the media is telling you about how horrible a choice she was. Again, our internal polling suggest that though she has had a minimal impact on pulling disaffected Hillary Democrats to McCain, she has done wonders in mobilizing the base for McCain. Another thing – we were completely taken by surprise with her pick. In my capacity in the research department, I looked into the backgrounds of Leiberman, Romney, Pawlenty and Ridge, and prepared briefs. I don’t mind bragging that we had pretty good stuff on all of them. With Leiberman, the plan was to paint him as an erratic old-timer who didn’t have a clue as to what he was doing (pretty much a clone of McCain). In Romney, we had him pegged as an evil capitalist who cut jobs. Pawlenty was going to get the “Quayle treatment”, or more precisely: a pretty face, with no valid experience. Tom Ridge was going to be used to provide a direct link from McCain to Bush. As you can see, we were quite enamored of all of them. Then the unexpected happened – Sarah Palin. We had no clue as to how to handle her, and bungled it from the start. Though through our misinformation networks, we have successfully taken some of the shine off. But let there be no doubt. She remains a major obstacle. She has singlehanded solidified “soft” Republican support, mobilized the McCain ground game, and has even had some appeal to independents and Hillary voters. This is what our internal polling confirms.

3 – Obama’s radical connections. Standards operating procedure has been to cry “racism” whenever one of these has been brought up. We even have a detailed strategy ready to go should McCain ever bring Rev. Wright up. Though by themselves they are of minimal worth, taken together, Rev. Wright, Bill Ayers, Father Pfelger, and now, Rashid Khalili, are exactly what the campaign does not need. The more focus on them, the more this election becomes a referendum on Obama. The campaign strategy from the very beginning was to make this election a referendum on Bush. Strategists have been banging their head on how successfully McCain has distanced himself from Bush. This has worked, and right now the tide is in his favor. People are taking a new look at Barack Obama, and our experience when this happens tells us this is not good news at all. When they take a look at him, one or more of these names are bound to be brought up. McCain has wisely not harped on this in recent weeks and let voters decide for themselves. This was a trap we set for him, and he never fully took the bait. Senator Obama openly dared him to bring up Ayers. This was not due to machismo on the part of Obama, but actually due to campaign strategy. Though McCain’s reference to Ayers fell flat in the last debate, people in the Obama campaign were actually disappointed that he didn’t follow through on it more and getting into it. Our focus groups found this out: When McCain brings these connections up, voters are turned off to him. They’d rather take this into consideration themselves, and when this happens, our numbers begin to tank.

4 – The Bradley Effect. Don’t believe these polls for a second. I just went over our numbers and found that we have next to no chance in the following states: Missouri, Indiana, North Carolina, Florida, New Hampshire and Nevada. Ohio leans heavily to McCain, but is too close to call it for him. Virginia, Pennsylvania, Colorado, New Mexico and Iowa are the true “toss up states”. The only two of these the campaign feels “confident” in are Iowa and New Mexico. The reason for such polling discrepancy is the Bradley Effect, and this is a subject of much discussion in the campaign. In general, we tend to take a -10 point percentage in allowing for this, and are not comfortable until the polls give us a spread well over this mark. This is why we are still campaigning in Virginia and Pennsylvania! This is why Ohio is such a desperate hope for us! What truly bothers this campaign is the fact that some pollsters get up to an 80% “refuse to respond” result. You can’t possibly include these into the polls. The truth is, people are afraid to let people know who they are voting for. The vast majority of these respondents are McCain supporters. Obama is the “hip” choice, and we all know it.

As part of my research duties, I scour right wing blogs and websites to get somewhat of a “feel” as to what is being talked about on the other side. Much of it is nonsense, but there are some exceptions which give the campaign jitters. A spirited campaign has been made to infiltrate many pro-Hillary sites and discredit them. A more disorganized, but genuine effort has also been made to sow doubts among the unapologetically right wing sites such as redstate.com. Don’t you guys get it? This has been the Obama campaign’s sole strategy from the very beginning! The only way he wins is over a dispirited, disorganized, and demobilized opposition. This is how it has been for all of his campaigns. What surprises me is that everyone has fallen for it. You may point to the polls as proof of the inevitability of all of this. If so, you have fallen for the oldest trick in the book. How did we skew these polls, you might ask? It all starts with the media “buzz” which has been generated over the campaign. Many stories are generated on the powerful Obama ground game, and how many new voters were registered. None of this happens by coincidence. It is all part of the poll-skewing process. This makes pollsters change their mixes to reflect these new voters and tilt the mix more towards Democratic voters. What is not mentioned or reported on is not the “under-reported cell phone users or young voters” we hear so much about. What is underreported is you.

I changed my somewhat positive opinion of this campaign during the unfair and sexist campaign against Sarah Palin. I will never agree with her on the issues and will probably never vote for her, but I am embarrassed of what has happened. I can’t ignore our own hand in all of this. What I do know is that I will not be voting for Obama this time around. Treat that as you will.

It's dead, Jim UPDATED: NO, It's Not, I Need To Learn to Read

UPDATED 9 DEC 2008: After reviewing the content of the linked story (below), I must retract this post. The attributed remarks do not substantiate Hawaii as the place of birth; they establish that Hawaii is in possession of a valid certificate but NOT its contents. The reporter does make an unattributed statement that the President-elect was born in Hawaii, but without attribution to an official this statement has zero significance (and is really, really bad reporting).

The Obama "natural born citizen" issue is over.

Hawaii officials have confirmed the validity of the birth certificate. Granted, I would have preferred this come out in a deposition under oath than in an AP story, but this is what we have, and considering the standing issue, this is as good as it's going to get. It'll have to do. So, it's over, and that's a good thing.

I urge other anti-Obama citizens to drop it.

And no, the Indonesia issue is not worth pursuing. As accomplished as Berg seems to be, the idea that you can define the meaning of "natural born citizen" in terms of statutory law is quite simply fallacious. You can surely use statutes to inform your interpretation of the constitution, but statutes cannot by themselves establish the meaning of the constitution. And if you think the Court is going to interpret the meaning of the phrase in anything but the broadest sense possible--which would easily include anyone who is a citizen at birth according to the 14th Amendment--you've simply lost touch with judicial and political reality.

It's over. This will be won or lost at the ballot box, as it should be. Cast your vote and accept the outcome. We're better than the Gore supporters of 2000.

About Time: USN Establishes Anti-Piracy Command

Better late than never, I guess.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

U.S. Navy establishes anti-piracy command

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Navy has established a unit to fight Somalian pirates in the Gulf of Aden.

U.S. Central Command has formed the Maritime Security Patrol Area, comprised of air and naval assets, to battle pirates from Somalia. MPSA has been augmented by warships from allied countries and operations would be directed by Combined Task Force-150.

"A force of coalition navy warships will patrol the area, and aircraft will fly in the airspace above," Centcom said.

The new U.S. navy unit was launched in August 2008. MPSA was said to have monitored, tracked and boarded suspected pirate ships.

Freedom of Speech on the 'Net: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

AUSTRALIA will join China in implementing mandatory censoring of the internet under plans put forward by the Federal Government.

The revelations emerge as US tech giants Google, Microsoft and Yahoo, and a coalition of human rights and other groups unveiled a code of conduct aimed at safeguarding online freedom of speech and privacy.

The government has declared it will not let internet users opt out of the proposed national internet filter.

Source.

On the corporate side, this is encouraging. Yahoo and Google's past cooperation with China's censorship efforts was analogous to a farmer being paid to spread agricultural pests and believing the deal was profitable for him. It's good to see that they've pulled their heads out of their asses and realized that taking a stand on the principles that make their livihoods possible is, *gasp!* , good for business too!

Australia... I just don't know what's wrong with them. Haven't they learned curtailing freedom is not the answer?

Linked: European Transplants Worry about Socialism

Credit goes to Uppity Woman, once again, for finding this article.

The protesters waving signs along College Avenue before Barrack Obama speak had more in common than just their opposition of the senator. Nearly half of them were foreign born.
***
“I lived under socialism and we were taxed hug amounts and it was going to people who did not work,” said Dijkstra, who moved to the United States in 2003. “That is part of the reason I fled home.”

Reminds me of an older post here.

Not too long ago two friends of mine were talking to a Cuban refugee, a businessman who had escaped from Castro, and in the midst of his story one of my friends turned to the other and said, "We don't know how lucky we are." And the Cuban stopped and said, "How lucky you are? I had someplace to escape to." In that sentence he told us the entire story. If we lose freedom here, there is no place to escape to. This is the last stand on Earth.

Caught, But Not Prosecuted

It looks like 13 people got caught not only committing "registration fraud," but actually cast fradulent ballots. And the prosecutor is letting them go.

Thirteen campaign workers for Barack Obama yesterday yanked their voter registrations and ballots in Ohio after being warned by a prosecutor that temporary residents can't vote in the battleground state.

***

On Thursday, [prosecutor] O'Brien cut a deal with 13 out-of-staters, including four from New York, who tossed out their already-cast ballots and admitted they didn't meet residency requirements.

Cut a deal? YGTBFKM!!! Unless this deal includes prison time, this prosecutor is abdicating his duty.

Let's Raise Taxes During a Recession!

Linked: Obama Campaign Website Set Up To Accept Fictitious Names!

Check this out. Looks like the Obama Campaign deliberately omitted standard safeguards to prevent donations under false names.

This simply should not, and could not, happen in any business or any campaign that is honestly trying to confirm the legitimacy of its donors. Furthermore, I don’t see how this could possibly happen without some kind of help from a credit card company. Card companies as a rule simply do not alow any business to process credit card transactions where the name on the card doesn’t match the purchaser’s name.

In short, under the current Obama contribution system setup, any eager friend from any country can contribute unlimited amounts of money by simply making up fake names and addresses.

And Obama’s system is set up to facilitate this fraud. This is truly scandalous.

Image: The author's credit card statement after donating under the names John Galt, Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden, and Bill Ayers. As you can see, all of the transactions were processed.


From Uppity Woman (who herself is relaying from No Quarter).

API and the Michelle Obama Tapes

API's latest post says they need more time to go over the tapes to redact parts that may jeopardize national security?

What could Michelle Obama possibly have said that could jeopardize national security? Bullshit. Others have called shenanigans, and I'm inclined to agree. It's definitely put up or shut up time.

Thoughts on the Financial Crisis, From a Democrat

And by far the best article I've read this campaign season.

I'm just glad that someone in the business has the courage to speak up when something is going horribly, horribly wrong.

H/T: Neptunus Lex

Thoughts On the Looming Citizenship Scandal

Mountain Sage and America's Right have been following a lawsuit against Senator Obama and the DNC to force them to prove Obama is a "natural-born citizen" as required to be eligible for the office of President.

The lawsuit seems frivolous at first blush, although my perception did a 180 after reading that Obama filed a motion to stay discovery pending the outcome of the already-filed motion to dismiss. Staying discovery is somewhat extraordinary and is done to prevent undue expense; here, the most crucial discovery issue is simply turning over a birth certificate, which should be dispositive of one issue in the case, if not the whole thing. It's not about cost--they're acting like they have something to hide.

The suit is two-pronged. The first prong alleges the Senator is not a natural born citizen because he was born in Kenya, not Hawaii. The second prong alleges that the Senator was adopted by an Indonesian stepfather and therefore lost his US citizenship; and, that he is currently either a naturalized citizen (not "natural born") or not a US citizen at all.

In a telephone interview that is about to be released to major media outlet, Michelle Obama allegedly admits that Obama was adopted, making the factual case for the 2nd prong.

My take on this is that only the first prong is constitutionally meritorious. The Constitution does not define terms like "natural born citizen" or "naturalized citizen," so the argument that if he was naturalized he cannot be natural born is illogical. As far as I'm aware, this has never been litigated (and I don't have Westlaw or convenient access to a law library, so I'm not looking it up!) so the courts will get to interpret the meaning of natural born citizen as they see fit. I see no reason to define it in such a way that a person loses his/her status as natural born if his/her citizenship changes, at especially if that change was due to the decision of parents and not the individual in question. I must admit, however, that I have not fully researched this, so if there are source materials explaining the rationale for the citizenship requirement, written contemporaneously with the founding, that preclude my interpretation, then I would probably change my position.

Of course, the first prong is cut-and-dry, and I'm rather afraid that Obama isn't turning over the "vault" birth certificate to resolve this issue one way or another BEFORE the election. I do NOT want to find out he's ineligible after he's already been elected, as that would be a Constitutional crisis of the highest order.

As an aside, from the reports I've seen about this Michelle Obama interview, there is more to it than the admission of the adoption. Mrs. Obama apparently goes on a rant about the citizenship allegations being a plot by white racists and about questioning his patriotism. It's hard to judge tone on the printed page, but I get the impression that the remarks were paranoid and inflammatory, and may prove to be more politically significant than the admission.

Related posts: McCain's Citizenship and Eligibility

This Ad Sums It Up Perfectly

I just don't get how we are where we are right now.



This one's almost as good:

A Proposed Solution to Voter Fraud

And it can be implemented quickly.

Start with the common sense answer: require ID, like a driver's license, that has a valid current address that matches the registration. Some states, like Indiana, already do this (as Sara pointed out).

But the objection to an ID/address requirement is the plight of the homeless, who don't have an address. We need a way to let them vote that doesn't allow nefarious individuals to vote multiple times by registering fictitious people, allowing the individual to go from polling station to polling station voting under fake names. We need to make sure the homeless can vote, but only vote once.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the Iraqi voter.



Easy. Cheap. And we can do it in time for this election.

Happy Birthday!

H/T to Eagle1 for the reminder.

Now, to send those apps off to NAVAIR...

Voter Fraud and Irregularities Watch Part II (updated)

Missouri officials suspect fake voter registration

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Officials in Missouri, a hard-fought jewel in the presidential race, are sifting through possibly hundreds of questionable or duplicate voter-registration forms submitted by an advocacy group that has been accused of election fraud in other states.

Charlene Davis, co-director of the election board in Jackson County, where Kansas City is, said the fraudulent registration forms came from the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN.

1 VOTER, 72 REGISTRATIONS: 'ACORN PAID ME IN CASH & CIGS'

CLEVELAND - A man at the center of a voter-registration scandal told The Post yesterday he was given cash and cigarettes by aggressive ACORN activists in exchange for registering an astonishing 72 times, in apparent violation of Ohio laws.

Local 2 Investigates Dead Voters

Voting records show Alexis' mom, Gloria Guidry, cast her ballot in person near her South Houston home."It was just very shocking, a little unsettling," said Alexis Guidry.It's unsettling because Gloria Guidry died of cancer 10 months before the March Primary.

Vote Early & Often? -- 105% of Indianapolis Residents Now Registered to Vote

So we have 644,197 people eligible to be registered in Marion County/Indianapolis, and 677,401 people registered. Congratulations go to Indianapolis for having 105% of its residents registered!

Ohio SECSTAE Is Violating Election Law

A federal judge ruled this evening that Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner is breaking federal law by not giving county elections boards the chance to determine whether new voter registrations are fraudulent.

Update
Convicted Felons on the Rolls in Florida

More than 30,000 Florida felons who by law should have been stripped of their right to vote remain registered to cast ballots in this presidential battleground state, a Sun Sentinel investigation has found.

Many are faithful voters, with at least 4,900 turning out in past elections.

Another 5,600 are not likely to vote Nov. 4 — they're still in prison.

Of the felons who registered with a party, Democrats outnumber Republicans more than two to one.

Two to one? Figures.

Update 2:

CBS Investigates ACORN

Joseph Borges, the registrar of voters in Bridgeport, Conn., says his office has been overwhelmed by bogus forms filled out with thousands of fake and duplicate names - two boxes alone packed with non-existent addresses - all submitted by ACORN.

Since June, election officials in at least a dozen states have raised red flags over more than 10,000 voter registration forms filed by ACORN. For example, in one Ohio county ACORN registered the same person 17 times.

ACORN Registers a 7-year Old

The Connecticut girl is 11 years too young - and nobody in her family knows how she ended up on a voter registration form submitted by ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.

"Massive Fraud" in PA has completely compromised the integrity of the system

Retired Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Sandra Newman says that she is "not confident we can get a fair election" in the state come November.

...ACORN, submitted over 252,595 registrations to the Philadelphia County Election Board" with 57, 435 rejected for faulty information. "Most of these registrations were submitted by ACORN, and rejected due to fake social security numbers, incorrect dates of birth, clearly fraudulent signatures, addresses that do not exist, and duplicate registrations. In one case, a man was registered to vote more than 15 times since the Primary election."

Obama A Member of a Socialist Party in 1996??

Politically Drunk found a newsletter from the socialist "New Party" which stated that Obama was a member of their party at the time he was elected to the Illinois Senate. Source.

I'm going to hold off judgment until this is run down by closer to mainstream sources, but I'd be surprised if it turned out to be false.

The "new party" advocates an end to private donations in election campaigns, a government takeover of the banking system, socialized health care, "[f]ull employment, a shorter work week, and a guaranteed minimum income for all adults; a universal "social wage" to include such basic benefits as health care, child care, vacation time, and lifelong access to education and training," and ending unilateral military interventions.

H/T: Mountain Sage

Illinois: Three NP-members won Democratic primaries last Spring and face off against Republican opponents on election day: Danny Davis (U.S. House), Barack Obama (State Senate) and Patricia Martin (Cook County Judiciary).

The Truth Is Out There

TheMouthPeace has released another video. The message: Don't trust the media. Don't trust the politicians. Do your own research. And TMP has a few Google suggestions for you.

The Campaign According to BSG

It's hard not to notice the parallels between some of the key people in this election campaign and many BSG characters.

Senator Barack Obama=Gaius Baltar
Hope. Change We Can Believe In.
A relative newcomer to politics, Baltar wants to run on people's hopes, not their fears as his opponent Laura Roslin is doing. Baltar capitalizes on the social conditions of the time to seize an issue which resonates with the people--permanent settlement on the planet New Caprica. Obama uses the unpopularity of President Bush and the financial crisis to attract voters. Both Baltar and Obama are intellectual heavyweights, and have the ego to go with it. Baltar believes he's the chosen one, destined for greatness and an instrument of God. Obama believes he is our savior as well. Both men have been very careless about who they associate with and who they get advice from. Both men are chaismatic leaders, and very popular with the ladies.



Rev. Jerimiah Wright = Number Six

Barack Obama receives his spiritual advice from the Rev. Jerimiah Wright, who preaches that America's is evil and that it is responsible for causing the attacks of 11 Sept. 2001. Baltar's spiritual guidance comes from an apparition of Number Six, who tells Baltar that humans were responsible for their exile from Kobol because of their barbarism and brutality. Six inspires Baltar to enter politics and helps him discover God's plan for him.

William Ayers = Tom Zarek
William Ayers and Tom Zarek are both former domestic terrorist who now seek to influence politics through other means. In both cases, the other means has involved grooming a presidential candidate.







President George Bush = Admiral Helena Cain

Both are very strong leaders who respond forcefully in a crisis. Both seek to channel anger into the warfighting effort. Both are prone to excess in the use of executive power and are known to bend the rules. More specifically, Bush allowed Kaleed Sheik Mohammed to be transferred to a jurisdiction outside the US so that he could be tortured to gain intelligence; and this was successful. Cain ordered the torture of her Cylon prisoner, Gina, to get intelligence; Gina became suicidal enough to give up critical intelligence about the nature of the Cylon Ressurection Ship.




Governor Sarah Palin = Lee Adama

Both are bright, promising young leaders who rise through the ranks quickly. Palin quickly progressed from city councilwoman to mayor to Governor, and may soon become Vice President. Lee Adama started his military career as an arrogant pilot, but was quickly given command of the Galactica's air wing and went on to command the Battlestar Pegasus. Governor Palin is best known for taking on corruption in her own party, and has already defied running mate John McCain on drilling in ANWAR and pulling the campaign out of Michigan. Similarly, Lee Adama has a strong moral compass, openly defying President Roslin by committing her to hold elections:

Apollo: Madam President, with respect, you're serving out the remainder of President Adar's term. When that term is up in seven months, the law says there's an election. I o­nly committed you to obeying the law. Roslin: You are not authorized to make any deal... Adama: You sound like some kind of a lawyer... Apollo: I swore an oath... to defend the articles. The articles say there's an election in seven months. Now, if you're telling me we're throwing out the law, then I'm not a Captain, you're not a Commander and you are not the President. And I don't owe either of you a damned explanation for anything.

Lee Adama went on to make enemies of both his father and President Roslin by participating in the defense of Gaius Baltar.

Senator John McCain = Admiral William Adama


Both are veteran pilots of a prior war that now find themselves setting policy and strategy. Although fierce and determined, there are some lines they will not cross to accomplish their missions. McCain opposes waterboarding and similar arguably cruel, inhuman and degrading forms of interrogation. Adama talked Roslin out of stealing an election and often acts as her conscience, and defied Admiral Cain when she convicted two of Galactica's crew for murder (despite the fact that the "victim" had been raping a prisoner at the time he was killed). Adama and McCain also both have failed first marriages.

Voter Fraud and Irregularites Watch

Stories about possible fraud are adding up. I'll periodically post new topics under this tag to create a sort of link-archive of potential fraud or other irregularities.

Older links:

Bad Voter Applications Found
14 Sep 2008

Several municipal clerks across the state are reporting fraudulent and duplicate voter registration applications, most of them from a nationwide community activist group working to help low- and moderate-income families.

The majority of the problem applications are coming from the group ACORN...

1,100 Voter Cards Suspect County Clerk Notified N.M., Federal Officials
17 Sept 2008

More than 1,000 new voter registration cards received by the Bernalillo County Clerk's Office in advance of the November general election might be frauds, the county clerk said Tuesday.

Maggie Toulouse Oliver said she has notified prosecutors in state and federal law enforcement agencies about the problem.

And today's...

ACORN office in Vegas raided in voter-fraud probe
7 Oct 2008

A Nevada secretary of state's office spokesman said Tuesday that investigators are looking for evidence of voter fraud at the office of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, also called ACORN.

No one was at the ACORN office when state agents arrived with a search warrant and began carting records and documents away.

Secretary of State spokesman Bob Walsh says ACORN is accused of submitting multiple voter registrations with false and duplicate names.

The raid comes two months after state and federal authorities formed a task force to pursue election-fraud allegations in Nevada.

The Record Obama Doesn't Want You to Know About

Slowly the facts are starting to accumulate about the period of time between Obama's college years and the beginning of his term in the Illinois Senate.

One of his efforts was apparently a campaign to undermine the constitution through paid-for law review articles, which, he hoped, would have created a result opposite of what was reached in Heller this summer (which he now claims to support).

During Obama’s tenure, the Joyce Foundation board planned and implemented a program targeting the Supreme Court. The work began five years into Obama’s directorship, when the Foundation had experience in turning its millions into anti-gun “grassroots” organizations, but none at converting cash into legal scholarship.

The plan’s objective was bold: the judicial obliteration of the Second Amendment.

Joyce’s directors found a vulnerable point. When judges cannot rely upon past decisions, they sometimes turn to law review articles. Law reviews are impartial, and famed for meticulous cite-checking. They are also produced on a shoestring. Authors of articles receive no compensation; editors are law students who work for a tiny stipend.

In 1999, midway through Obama’s tenure, the Joyce board voted to grant the Chicago-Kent Law Review $84,000, a staggering sum by law review standards. The Review promptly published an issue in which all articles attacked the individual right view of the Second Amendment.

In a breach of law review custom, Chicago-Kent let an “outsider” serve as editor; he was Carl Bogus, a faculty member of a different law school. Bogus had a unique distinction: he had been a director of Handgun Control Inc. (today’s Brady Campaign), and was on the advisory board of the Joyce-funded Violence Policy Center.

Bogus solicited only articles hostile to the individual right view of the Second Amendment, offering authors $5,000 each. But word leaked out, and Prof. Randy Barnett of Boston University volunteered to write in defense of the individual right to arms. Bogus refused to allow him to write for the review, later explaining that “sometimes a more balanced debate is best served by an unbalanced symposium.” Prof. James Lindgren, a former Chicago-Kent faculty member, remembers that when Barnett sought an explanation he “was given conflicting reasons, but the opposition of the Joyce Foundation was one that surfaced at some time.” Joyce had bought a veto power over the review’s content.

H/T: The Real Barack Obama