There is nothing racist in what Harry Reid said. Perhaps it is a bit cynical of the American public, which is dangerous ground for a publicly elected official, but it’s also an accurate and damning representation of the current state of race relations in the United States.

I notice that ABC has gone pretty fully right wing on this one (perhaps because Reid is no friend of big business?) and is digging up turmoil over this non-story as much as they can. When did ABC become Fox?

Along with Michael Steele, two sitting United States Senators need to apologize for overstepping their bounds and interfering with the executive branch setting foreign policy. Senators Lieberman and McCain are backing Netanyahu and undermining not only the sitting president’s foreign policy but that of the first George Bush. We elect our president to do foreign policy, and that is not supposed to be the job of our senators. They should apologize and step down from public office as neither has done much of use for years and years.

Update: “Talking about racism does not make you racist; advocating racism does.”

Independent should be reserved for those who really are independent.

If you are on MySpace and Facebook; you’d best be VERY careful about the applications you use.

If you are wondering why mainstream media is dying, Fake Steve poses a credible argument: because they’ve abdicated their responsibilities as the 4th estate.

Check out Fake Steve Jobs’ Article for yourself; it is a fun read. Blogs are often a better source of news than newspapers.

It is interesting to note that most of the early commenters are always paid lobbyists; so disregard most of the comments until the public has had more time to respond.

The OpenCongress site locks up some browsers; you might also try: H.R. 3962 (Library of Congress)

Virginia polling stations are open 6am to 7pm today. Don’t chance it, get to the station plenty early.

Though I am mighty disappointed with the ads of both Creigh Deeds and Steve Shannon, I am very happy to vote for them and enthusiastically endorse them to all Virginians. I wish they had not gone negative in this off year election where getting out the vote is always critical; and I wish Shannon’s campaign had not pandered to fear-mongering that is normally the stuff of Rove-advised Republican campaigns; but in both cases I genuinely like the candidate and think they will be good in their office. They are also both running against the wing-nuttiest theocrats we’ve seen in a while.

I am less certain of Bolling vs Wagner. Wagner was not my first choice for this slot from the Democratic side, and though I do not like Bill Bolling’s stand on most issues; I do respect him. I will probably vote Wagner, but cannot endorse either.

The delegate’s race in my district is easy; I am thrilled to both vote for and endorse John Bell. He has run a positive campaign and it long overdue that we reject the insanity that has been our delegate for far too many years.

• Deeds
• Wagner
• Shannon
• Bell

I will also be following the Werkheiser vs Albo race, and heartily endorse Greg Werkheiser for delegate.

My time is worth money and yours is too. Please call your own phone from work or a friend’s phone; let it ring and go to voicemail. See for yourself what people calling you are hearing…

If you don’t like it; please do something about it. Find out from your carrier what options need to be saved to eliminate the unnecessary and time consuming (and call minute burning) instructions. If your carrier is uncooperative (T-Mobile, Verizon, and AT&T: I am looking at you), then subscribe to YouMail or Google Voice (both are free, both are excellent voice mail services for older phones without visual voicemail of their own, both help intercept and block unwanted calls, both allow you to set custom greetings for calls from your friends).

Huge thank you to Robert for the Google Voice invite. I have now used both Google Voice and YouMail; and love them both. They are somewhat unnecessary on a modern smart phone like the iPhone; but on older phones they are very useful services.

If you are confronted with one of these annoyingly long outgoing messages instructing you on how to do what you’ve already known how to do since 1982, you can sometimes bypass the instructions if you already know the service carrier of the person you are calling:

• AT&T: * or #
• Sprint: 1
• T-Mobile: #
• Verizon: 1 or *

Sources:
http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/30/the-mandatory-15-second-voicemail-instructions/

http://lifehacker.com/5226278/hack-your-voicemail-to-save-time

http://www.boingboing.net/2009/10/20/voting-machine-sourc.html

Basically this proves that the logical check sum that most election processes in the United States require is simply not enough insurance (and it never has been). The check sum only verifies that votes have not been added or dropped. It does not prove that some percentage of votes haven’t been tallied in column B when they were meant for column A.

We need Verified Voting immediately; and if that is technologically impossible – we need to go back to hand counted paper ballots until verified and source code visible machines can be made.

As for Sequoia specifically? I’d like to see an explanation for why skewing source code is needed if they have any integrity at all. It took effort to add the skewing routines, effort that must have already been used. I you are not sick to your stomach thinking about what this means already, for the last several elections; please take a deep breath and start reading again.

In order to vote in the general election, voters must be registered by October 5th! You can check your voter registration status online and learn how to register here:
http://www.sbe.virginia.gov/cms/Misc/Frequently_Asked_Questions.html

This election is critical because the 2010 census triggered redistricting will happen while the people elected this election are in office. All state elections are important if you are concerned with what Virginia does with your money and what laws get made, and you should be if you live here or pay taxes here.

The State Board of Elections Website has candidate lists for all the Delegate’s races in PDF format here:
http://www.sbe.virginia.gov/cms/documents/List_of_Cidates_By_Office_District[HOD].pdf

You can also find out what is on your ballot here:
https://www.voterinfo.sbe.virginia.gov/PublicSite/Public/FT2/PublicElections.aspx

You can find out which district you are in by looking at your own voter registration card, or by entering your full zip code at Project Vote Smart:
http://www.votesmart.org/

The calendar of events pertaining to this election (registration deadline, absentee voting dates, etc) is here:
http://www.sbe.virginia.gov/cms/documents/Election_Calendars_Schedules/09NOV_CAL.pdf

• Must be registered to vote by October 5th
• Absentee voters must apply by mail by October 27th
• or in person by October 31st

Election Officers are frequently needed in just about every precinct, so contact your County Election officer if you want to work as an election officer. I recommend that every voter do this at least once in their life, it is a long day for relatively little financial reward, but you will understand the system a lot better and have participated in our great democracy.

Virginia: please vote in this very important election.

If you’d written that thesis then gradually changed over the years, I might find it a fiction harder to dismiss; but you didn’t. You have been opposed to privacy, humanity, education, and equality for a very long time; I do not believe that you have suddenly seen the light. Your “heavenly lies” will not work on this unbeliever. As recently as 2001 you voted against equal pay for women. You actively pursued at least 10 of the goals in your thesis that you now disavow throughout your 14 years in the general assembly. While in the assembly, you voted to forbid private companies from extending insurance benefits to domestic partners. That is not even government’s place!

Where are my Libertarian friends? Call this “government should only be big to monitor your bedroom” clown out and help defeat him.

Where is the outrage about McDonnell’s positions on women’s rights and equality in the work place?

I am offended as a Buddhist by McDonnell’s theocratic ideals. I am offended as a married man by McDonnell’s treatment of women and gay friends. I am offended as a former divorcee by McDonnell’s attempt to make it hard for people who have made a mistake to correct their own mistake at minimal expense (No Fault Divorce).

It is outrageous that either of the two major parties in our country can even think of backing this man. It is also completely unbelievable that McDonnell’s sudden shift towards more moderate positions is so perfectly timed to coincide with his serious run for the governor’s office.

He is clearly dishonest and is not even apologetic about it. It is also scary the kinds of ideals that Regent University’s propaganda agenda in education fosters.

Update: wow, I wish I had read Vivian Paige’s excellent posting on the same subject before I wrote this, she is far more eloquent than I am, and her posting on Bob McDonnell’s World is definitely worth a reading.

This is one such story:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/14/AR2009081401495_pf.html (sorry for any pop-under advertisements)