Diebold Trying to Turn the Golden State Red

Skippy has a list of state senate committee members who need to hear from us regarding McPherson's premature certification of Diebold voting machines.

Here's my report on calls I made today:

I first called Senator Don Perata's office at (916) 651-4009 and was told that they are experiencing high call volume and could only record my remarks, not answer my questions. I told him I wanted the Senator to know that I don't trust electronic voting machines in general and Diebold in particular and that McPherson's certification of their use in California is premature.

Next I called Senator Jim Battin's office at (916) 651-4037 . He's a Republican so I didn't waste my time trying to ask questions. His staffer was polite and recorded my remarks.

Senator Ashburn is also a Republican whose number is (916) 651-4018. The staffer told me he doesn't know the senator's position on the matter, but recorded my remarks.

The last person I called was Senator Cedillo's office at (916) 651-4022. His staffer was polite and didn't rush me. He expressed his opinion that the senator shares my concerns about the certification of Diebold. This staffer was the friendliest of all.

Senator Debra Bowen is very concerned about McPherson's certification of Diebold and is actively working on the issue. She prefers to be contacted by email, rather than by telephone. Contact her at debra@debrabowen.com

Senator Bowen made the following statement on her blog:

Late Friday afternoon, I learned that Secretary of State Bruce McPherson has conditionally certified the use of Diebold electronic voting machines in California’s 2006 elections.

Secretary of State McPherson’s release of bad news late on a Friday afternoon before a holiday weekend is a blatant attempt to prevent us from learning about this decision. We were in a similar position the Friday before Christmas last year when the AP ran a story disclosing voting problems from last November’s special election.

But, try as he might, Secretary of State McPherson is not going to succeed in burying this story from the people of California — this is too critical an issue to go away quietly.

With the many problems that have plagued Diebold machines, as well as the complete lack of transparency into this certification process, McPherson’s decision certainly does nothing to restore confidence in California’s elections.

I’ll have much more to say about this Diebold certification in the next few days, and I’ll be inviting you to do your part as well, but for now I just wanted to share this information with you.

In her official response to McPherson she says:

“Last December, the Secretary announced with great fanfare that he was sending the Diebold machines back for review by the Independent Testing Authorities (ITAs) because the memory cards those machines rely on hadn’t been reviewed,” continued Bowen. “Now, contrary to what he said two months ago, he’s approving the Diebold machines without waiting for the report from the ITAs. Instead, he’s basing his decision on a supposedly ‘independent state audit’ that no one has seen before today. There’s a March 1 public hearing for four other voting machine vendors before their machines can be certified for use in California, so what was the rush to certify Diebold and side-step a public hearing on this issue?”

“In August, the Secretary said any machine approved in California would have to comply with all federal standards and regulations, yet the EAC bans machines that contain interpreted code and these Diebold machines rely on that type of code to operate, so he’s gone back on that commitment,” continued Bowen. “In December, he said he’d wait for a report from the ITAs before acting on the Diebold re-certification request, yet now he’s re-certified the Diebold machines without hearing from the ITAs. He says he’s acting based on the recommendations of an ‘independent state audit’ that came out on Tuesday, but the California State Auditor hasn’t issued any reports on this issue and hasn’t been asked to do a report. Asking a board appointed by the Secretary to make recommendations doesn’t constitute an ‘independent state audit’ in my book.

GOP Prepares to Rig California Election

R.J. Eskow reports on The Huffington Blog:

The usual suspects are slipping into the Golden State. Political season is looming, there's a February chill in the Pacific breeze, and the GOP political 'family' is hard at work. California's appointed (as opposed to elected) Republican Secretary of State has recertified Diebold's voting machines, despite a damning report.

Schwarzenegger is hiring a "steely" Karl Rove insider turned Dick Cheney capo, along with other national GOP campaign pols, to run his re-election campaign.

The "shock-the-vote" gang is ready to roll into the Golden State with their patented blend of dishonest spin, old-fashioned dirty tricks - and easy-to-rig voting machines that are being manufactured by Republicans and purchased by other Republicans.

The California dream is on life-support and this gang of thieves plan to snuff it out.

Nielsen's TV Ratings

We've been contacted by Nielsen and have agreed to allow them to use our Tivo viewing habits in their ratings.

In preparation, I've gone through the entire Faux Snooze channel listings and put 3-thumbs down on each of their programs. In addition, I put 3 thumbs up on The Daily Show and Countdown with Keith Olbermann.

Does anyone have any other suggestions?

Don't Miss "Dealing Dogs" on HBO

C.C. Baird was America's most notorious dog dealer. For years he supplied the country's research labs with thousands of animals. Some of these dogs were strays, others were suspected to be stolen pets. One fearless animal rights group was desperate to shut down Baird's multi-million dollar operation. It finally succeeded in placing one of its agents undercover for six months inside his Arkansas kennel to videotape the hideous crimes committed against the dogs. This is the story of that harrowing investigation and its historic outcome.

Each year, 42,000 dogs are sold to veterinary schools and research labs by Class B dealers, who are required by federal law to buy the animals from pounds, shelters and small breeders and to treat them humanely. However, many Class B dealers violate the law. DEALING DOGS exposes the abuses that took place at one of America's most notorious Class B dealers - Martin Creek Kennel in Arkansas.

This important film featuring IDA's Doll Stanley premieres on HBO Tuesday, February 21 at 10:00 p.m. (ET/PT). It will air again Monday, February 27 at 10:30 p.m.

Stop Global Warming

The Stop Global Warming Virtual March is a non-partisan effort to bring all Americans together in one place to prove that global warming is here now... and, it is time for us to do something about it.

One person can can change the world. Over 275,000 people have already joined. Imagine what millions of marchers can do! Together we will be heard.

Join the March Now!

www.stopglobalwarming.org

It’s easy! There is every reason in the world to become a virtual marcher. Why? Because it affects our public health, our national security, our economy, our planet's future.

On Earth Day 2006, the March will arrive in Washington, DC and use the strength of our numbers to urge 1) Our government to join the rest of the world in addressing global warming, and 2) American business to start a new industrial revolution on clean energy products that reduce our dependence on oil and other global warming pollution.

Thanks to "anonymous" for this information.

Global Climate Change vs Bird Flu

While the corporate media obsess over the bird flu, they're ignoring a looming danger; global warming and the melting of the glaciers:

Glacier Melt Could Signal Faster Rise in Ocean Levels: Greenland's glaciers are melting into the sea twice as fast as previously believed, the result of a warming trend that renders obsolete predictions of how quickly Earth's oceans will rise over the next century, scientists said yesterday.

The new data come from satellite imagery and give fresh urgency to worries about the role of human activity in global warming. The Greenland data are mirrored by findings from Bolivia to the Himalayas, scientists said, noting that rising sea levels threaten widespread flooding and severe storm damage in low-lying areas worldwide.

The scientists said they do not yet understand the precise mechanism causing glaciers to flow and melt more rapidly, but they said the changes in Greenland were unambiguous -- and accelerating: In 1996, the amount of water produced by melting ice in Greenland was about 90 times the amount consumed by Los Angeles in a year. Last year, the melted ice amounted to 225 times the volume of water that city uses annually.

....

The Greenland study is the latest of several in recent months that have found evidence that rising temperatures are affecting not only Earth's ice sheets but also such things as plant and animal habitats, coral reefs' health, hurricane severity, droughts, and globe-girdling currents that drive regional climates.

....

While sea-level increases of a few feet may not sound like very much, they could have profound consequences on flood-prone countries such as Bangladesh and trigger severe weather around the world.

"The implications are global," said Julian Dowdeswell, a glacier expert at the University of Cambridge in England who reviewed the new paper for Science. "We are not talking about walking along the sea front on a nice summer day, we are talking of the worst storm settings, the biggest storm surges . . . you are upping the probability major storms will take place."

....


"Glaciers have retreated systematically and in an accelerated fashion in the last few decades," Casassa said. One glacier that provided Bolivia with its only ski slope five years ago has splintered into three and cannot be used for skiing, the scientist added.

Most climate scientists believe a major cause for Earth's warming climate is increased emissions of greenhouse gases as a result of burning fossil fuels, largely in the United States and other wealthy, industrialized nations such as those of western Europe but increasingly in rapidly developing nations such as China and India as well. Carbon dioxide and several other gases trap the sun's heat and raise atmospheric temperature.

"This study underscores the need to take swift, meaningful actions at home and abroad to address climate change," said Vicki Arroyo, director of policy analysis at the Pew Center on Global Climate Change.

The data highlight the lack of meaningful U.S. policy, she added: "This is the kind of study that should make people stay awake at night wondering what we're doing to the climate, how we're shaping the planet for future generations and, especially, what we can do about it."

So we're destroying the earth for future generations and the polar bears are starving, but the bird flu is coming, the bird flu is coming, the bird flu is coming...

Flying Spaghetti Monster Sighted on Billboard

Flying Spaghetti Monster Billboard

Another Nail in the Coffin of Creationism

By examining fossils from a prehistoric fish, two Swedish scientis have concluded that our ears evolved from an organ once used for breathing. The fish, Panderichthys, was precursor to the first tetrapod, the animal that crawled onto land and eventually spawned all four-legged vertebrates, including humans (aka Darwin fish).

A bottom dweller, Panderichthys or Darwin fish, had a spiracle, a tube for breathing water through the top of its head while its face was buried in the mud. From the spiracle's anatomy and its position in the head relative to the fish's unusually short jawbone (a known ancestor of the modern ear's stirrup bone) scientists deduced that it was a precursor to a fully deveoped middle ear.

"It's a great fill-in-the-gap story that shows a nice transition stage at an important point in evolution." Mark Wesneat told the Washington Post.

This discovery is a repudiation of the claim by advocates of intelligent design that the ear is so complicated,it could only have been created by God or the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

"In my opinion this is another nail in the coffin of the creationist view," Westneat said.

Society of Hens

Recently I included the following comments in this blog:

Some of you will think I'm weird (and you'd be right) but I love watching a society of hens interacting with one another, scratching for bugs or weeds, taking dirt baths, making funny crooning noises and talking to one another. I find it soothing - like meditating.

Someone, in an attached comment, chided me for anthromorphizing chickens and then discussed their mating practices.

I'm not sure exactly where this person thought I was likening chickens to people. Was it because I called it a society, instead of a flock, or because my experience of watching them produced a release of endorphins in my brain?

Perhaps the misunderstanding lies in the fact that I was describing a society of HENS (female chickens) and the respondent was describing roosters who seem to rape the hens.

Those of us who raise chickens in this neighborhood (classified as a suburb) have only hens. We wouldn't want to annoy our neighbors with roosters who feel compelled to get up at the crack of dawn and wake up everyone else.

We don't get up with the chickens here.

My two Rhode Island Reds are now 2 weeks old. They are rapidly growing and they have wing and tail feathers and the tiny beginnings of combs on their heads (not visible to the camera yet).

The cats are fascinated by them, but won't be allowed to mingle with them until the chickens are large enough to discourage predation.

Was Big-Time Dick Tortured?

A 24-hour news-free period followed Darth Cheney's shooting of his hunting buddy. The story was finally broken when the owner of the property on which they were hunting quail told a local reporter about it.

The White House Press Corpse was spitting mad because they'd been kept out of the loop so they beat up on little Scotty McClellan today who did his usual bobbing and weaving.

Scotty says they didn't report that Cheney shot someone sooner because they were still gathering all the facts.

Apparently it took them more than a day to gather all these facts. Not one reporter asked, and I wonder, if they had to torture Cheney for 24-hours before they could get the facts.

Big-Time Dick Bagged a Hunter

The Vice Real President of the U.S. bagged himself a hunter today while shooting at harmless birds.

Cheney Shoots Fellow Hunter in Texas Accident: "Vice President Cheney accidentally sprayed a companion with birdshot while hunting quail on a private Texas ranch, injuring the man in the face, neck and chest, the vice president's office confirmed yesterday after a Texas newspaper reported the incident."

We recently honored a local bird hunter here. He successfully killed 4 birds this season, and today we awarded him with the badge bib of honor. (Shhh, don't tell him, that his bib of honor will interfere with his ability to kill more birds. )

Brodie, accomplished bird hunter, wearing his bib of honor.

I wish someone would give Big-Time Dick a bib and save the lives of innocent birds.

Learn more about cat bibs at catgoods.com.

Did You Have Your Beetle Juice Today?

Have you watched Fear Factor on TV as people eat live insects? And did you think, "I'd never do that!" Well, fear is not a factor for you, if you drink Tropicana Ruby Red grapefruit juice or eat certain flavors of yogurt because you are consuming the residue of beetles! I'm not making this up. It's in the Wall Street Journal.

WSJ.com - Is There a Bug in Your Juice? New Food Labels Might Say: "Food makers may not want to dwell on it, but the ingredient that gives Dannon Boysenberry yogurt and Tropicana Ruby Red Grapefruit juice their distinctive colors comes from crushed female cochineal beetles.

Pressed by consumer advocates, the Food and Drug Administration is expected to publish a food-labeling proposal online today that would require companies to disclose when a food contains beetle-derived colorings including vivid-red 'carmine' and bright-orange 'cochineal' (pronounced coach-in-EEL). The public has 60 days to comment before a final ruling is made.

Under current FDA regulations, food labels must identify certain man-made colorings by name, such as FD&C Red No. 40. But for carmine, cochineal and other naturally occurring ingredients, companies can use terms such as 'color added' or, oddly, 'artificial color.'"

The Center for Science in the Public Interest, a Washington public-health advocacy group, and a small but vocal group of consumers who are allergic to the ingredients have pushed for stiffer rules. Joining the chorus are vegetarians, who don't want to eat insects, and consumers observing kosher dietary practices.

Some of the other products that contain crushed beetles are:

Hershey's Good and Plenty candy
Dannon Fruit on the Bottom: Boysenberry yogurt
Yoplait Thick & Creamy Low Fat Strawberry Yogurt
Tropicana Orange Strawberry Banana Juice
SoBe Orange Cherry Citrus drink

This is not a comprehensive list. Beetles are also found in cosmetics.

Emotions in the Vacant Space of Bush's Gray Matter

I was watching as Jimmy Carter castigated George Clueless Bush today at Coretta Scott King's funeral. Speaking of the Kings, Carter said:

"It was difficult for them then personally with the civil liberties of both husband and wife violated as they became the target of secret government wiretaps."

Later, he said that Hurricane Katrina showed that all are not yet equal in America. The mostly black audience demonstrated their agreement with a standing ovation and Bush's face contorted into an odd pinched look, as though he was sucking on a lemon.

I can understand why Bush's cronies screen his audiences before he speaks. He has no control over his facial expressions as emotions flit effortlessly across the vacant span of his brain.

My Favorite Quotes

Rep. Charles Rangel, when asked what he thinks about George W. Bush, said:

"Well, I think he really shatters the myth of white supremacy once and for all."

And a bumper sticker seen on a car in the parking lot of New Leaf in Felton, California:

"We have so much intelligence, we can't afford to educate our children"

The Peace of the Buddha

Friday, after walking around Big Basin Park, we stopped at the Buddhist monastery on Big Basin Way.

The pagoda is lovely and the setting is peaceful and for a few moments, I forgot that our country's leaders are power-mad, cold-blooded killers.

It's a Girl - I Hope

Saturday we drove to Pajaro to purchase a couple of Rhode Island Reds. The chick sexer is correct about 90% of the time, so we hope we have two female chicks.

We made a brooding box for them in the sauna and placed lightbulbs over their box to keep them warm.

They were hatched in New Mexico on February 1st and shortly after breaking out of their shell, a "sexer" forces an evacuation of their bowels and pulls their "vent" (nice word for rectum) wide open to figure out if they are male or female.

After surviving that sort of rough treatment, they are placed in cardboard boxes and mailed to stores or individuals. (I just learned about this procedure, this weekend.)

You might think this is rough treatment for a newborn animal, but these chicks were lucky because if they were headed for a factory farm, their beaks would have been cut off, they'd be pumped full of antibiotics and placed in stacked cages where (if placed near the bottom) they'd soon be covered in the feces of chickens in upper cages. After about a year of being manipulated to produce a maximum number of eggs, they are burned out and discarded.

Our two chicks were placed in a box for the ride home, but we got delayed along the way by a sick seagull. The gull was limping around on a sidewalk so I got out of the car and tried to approach the bird, but it stayed just out of reach. It's beak was open and it could spread its wings, but didn't fly away. Unable to catch the bird, I called an animal rescue service to come and pick it up.

By the time we finally got our "girls" home, they were very thirsty and hungry and a little chilled. I had sheltered them with my hand during most of the ride, trying to keep them warm, but by today, one of them wasn't feeling well.

I read web sites and called people until I found someone who recommended that I change their diet for a couple of days. They're now eating something called "chicken scratch" and I think the sick one is going to survive.

Overnight, their wing feathers seemed to grow about a quarter of an inch. Is that possible? Maybe it's my imagination.

Rob has them eating out of his hand and they run to us when we put our hands in their brooding box.

Today they are 5 days old and very cute. One has dark marks by her eyes which reminds me of the make-up worn by ancient Egyptians so I named her Isis. The other one, the sick one, is very vocal so I'm considering calling her Gabby. Also in contention is the name "Lady Di" ("Di is for the major symptom of her illness which required that I bathe her nether regions.)

I'm enjoying my role as chicken farmer, could you tell?

Getting Back to Basics

Yesterday was unusually eventful for those of us who hide away in the Santa Cruz mountains. Rob started the day by driving up to Ano Neuvo to shoot elephant seals (with a camera, of course).

In the afternoon we drove up to Big Basin park, near Boulder Creek, and discovered that a movie crew was at work there. We'd heard about the casting call for extras, but we hadn't realized that production had already begun. We don't know much about it except that the director is David Arquette and the extras are "colorful" (hippies, punks, etc.)

On our way home, we stopped at the Ben Lomond Feed and Seed which is also a biodiesel station and business was hopping there. We were told that the owner is in Los Angeles with Bonnie Raitt and Willie Nelson doing an event to publicize the merits of biodiesel.

We purchased some raw food for our cats and asked some questions about raising chickens. Some of you will think I'm weird (and you'd be right) but I love watching a society of hens interacting with one another, scratching for bugs or weeds, taking dirt baths, making funny crooning noises and talking to one another. I find it soothing - like meditating.

I need to learn about raising them from babies and providing them with a coop that will keep them safe from predators at night. If anyone has any recommendations, I'd love to hear from you.

American Democracy: RIP

Records Sought For CIA Leak Case May Be Missing From White House... The Huffington Post: "Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald is raising the possibility that records sought in the CIA leak investigation could be missing because of an e-mail archiving problem at the White House."

It's Nixon all over again, only worse this time. Nixon's secretary took the blame for accidentally erasing 18 minutes of a subpoenaed tape. Who will take the blame for the missing incriminating emails that have disappeared from the White House?

Nixon spied on his enemies, as Bush is doing.

Nixon had a personality disorder (he was paranoid). Ditto, only Bush is paranoid with a cowboy complex and what's up with the twitching jaw, anyway? What kind of drugs is this egomaniac on?

Nixon lied about the Viet Nam war, Bush decided to invade Iraq and then made up various stories about why he did it.

Our founding fathers attempted to protect American democracy by building a separation of powers and Bush is subverting those protections. In typical Texas-style megalomania, he declares himself king and dares a weak and cowed Congress to do something about it.

Not only has he usurped power, he is slowly tearing down the wall between church and state.

It's sad to witness the death of democracy.

We Don't Need No Steenkin' Free Speech

Cindy Sheehan who was invited by Rep. Lynn Woolsey to attend the state of the union speech, was arrested and taken away in handcuffs.

What crime did she commit you might wonder?

She wore a t-shirt with an anti-war slogan on it.

We'll all sleep better tonight. (snark)

BREITBART.COM - Activist Cindy Sheehan Arrested at Capitol: "Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a fallen soldier in Iraq who reinvigorated the anti-war movement, was arrested and removed from the House gallery Tuesday night just before President Bush's State of the Union address, a police spokeswoman said.

Sheehan, who had been invited to attend the speech by Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif., was charged with demonstrating in the Capitol building, a misdemeanor, said Capitol Police Sgt. Kimberly Schneider. Sheehan was taken in handcuffs to police headquarters a few blocks away and her case was processed as Bush spoke.

Schneider said Sheehan had worn a T-shirt with an anti-war slogan to the speech and covered it up until she took her seat. Police warned her that such displays were not allowed, but she did not respond, the spokeswoman said.

Police handcuffed Sheehan and removed her from the gallery before Bush arrived. Sheehan was to be released on her own recognizance, Schneider said.