Money down the toilet

You know, Lou Dobbs isn't my favorite person in the world, and I definitely can't say I agree with
everything he says...

But recently he posted an opinion piece that made a lot of sense to me.

Now keep in mind that I don't advocate drug use, nor do I think that legalization of drugs should mean that anyone can do drugs anywhere, at any time. IF we were to legalize, it would mostly mean governmental regulation (similar to alcohol and cigarettes) and sin taxes galore. BUT it would definitely help reduce funding to terrorists and drug cartels, reduce violent crime since turf wars could be fought in courts rather than on the streets, and help ensure that kids don't have ready access to weed, meth, crack, or whatever else is currently on the buffet table for early teenagers.

Anyway, this post isn't necessarily about my views, as it is about the views Lou Dobbs put forth on CNN.com a few days ago.

I know that thousands upon thousands of people currently make their living waging the war on drugs, and that number is beginning to explode as we build more prisons and such. But if we sit down and have a frank discussion about it, I'm sure we could come up with some way to reduce the number of lost jobs by creating new jobs helping people get off the drugs that currently put them behind bars.

I'd love to hear your thoughts and comments on this topic...

Ohio recount 2004... convictions

I'm not exactly a "news junkie" in the sense that my life doesn't revolve around reading up on everything that I possibly can, and I definitely don't have a tv permanently tuned to CNN or FoxNews...

But I do read CNN.com every day at work... sometimes 3 or 4 times a day just to see what might have occurred while I was chained to my desk. And I ALSO read CourtTV.com every day...

But for some reason, this story was never appeared as a major headline on either news outlet...

Apparently, on January 24th two election workers from Ohio's most populated county, Cuyahoga County, were convicted on felony charges of negligent misconduct of an elections employee, as well as misdomeanor charges of failure of an elections employee to perform their duty.

Those charges don't sound very horrible on the face, but once you realize what they did...

Jacqueline Maiden, the elections coordinator of the Cuyahoga County Elections Board, and Kathleen Dreamer, the Ballot Manager, worked behind closed doors and secretly reviewed pre-selected ballots for three days in an effort to pick ballots they knew would not cause discrepancies with the original tallies in the recount effort.

Of course, no one can say for certain if the actions of these two publicly trusted individuals placed in positions of relative authority would have changed who won the presidency in 2004... but being as close as it was... it's certainly possible.

So if there was a conviction of poll workers who had tampered with a recount that possibly could have drastically changed the course of this nation for the past 4 years... wouldn't you think that story would be national news?

Apparently CNN.com didn't...

And neither did CBSNews.com... (even though CBS5.com from California had a story about it)

And neither did MSNBC.com...

I first searched Google using the name of one of the convicted persons...

Only the LA Times, Washington Post, and CBS5 (from CA) were in the top 20 results

Then I added the name of the news agency I wanted to have pop up in the search results along with the name of the convicted felon...

This time I also received ABCNews.go.com and CBSNews.com, but neither of these were stories about the conviction, they were about the fact that the trial was taking place...

I then searched the websites of all the major news outlets (ok... not all the major newspapers... but definitely the TV networks who also run major news websites). I finally was able to find a quick blurb on most of the news sites, but still not all of them.

CBSNews.com (in the article about the impending trial... they never ran a story about the convictions in that case, and neither did ABCNews.go.com) added that the defense attorney stated that the workers were "just doing it they way they were always doing it," suggesting that a faulty or possibly corrupt system has been in place in Ohio for years. And recall all the actions that Mr. Blackwell (Ohio's Secretary of State 1998-2006 AND co-chair of Bush's re-election committee 2004) took to disenfranchise voters in the 2004 election...

In Ohio, the process for a recount is for each county to randomly choose 3% of its ballots and tally them by hand and by machine... if the tallies match, the rest of that county's ballots may be counted by maching... if not, they need to be counted by hand. In this case, the poll workers instead "chose sample precincts that did not have questionable results to insure that no discrepancies would emerge," according to Prosecutor Kevin Baxter.

Most of you who read my blog know that I am an advocate for eliminating the electronic voting kiosks and reverting to hand-counting paper ballots so that results can be confirmed independantly. And most of you reading this are probably thinking, "Who cares... it probably didn't change the election anyway". And you might be right that it might not have changed the results of the election.

But if you couple this "minor" indiscretion with a conspiracy to hack or rig the electronic voting machines (which can be done with a Palm Pilot in less than 5 minutes), then you are looking at some VERY sketchy elections in the future.

I'm not saying that the hand-counted paper ballot is necessarily the best way to go in a society that is so technologically capable... but until a system is created that is infallible or at the very least difficult to tamper with and not easily get caught... I feel that it's the safest way to instill trust in the voting population of our country.

I AM Straight... I knew it!!

Well, as of yesterday, Ted Haggard has emerged from his intensive counseling and is now convinced that he is "completely straight"...

And apparently no one cares. Did you see it in the news anywhere? I didn't... I saw a blip on www.dailykos.com and went searching for the story.

Well, I guess it's good that he's convinced that he's completely straight... now as long as another Mike Jones doesn't come along with a little meth, he should be ok.

Let's all bow our heads and pray... today, we have witnessed a miracle.

Ski Liberty

I took my sexy little woman snowboarding over the weekend to a little mountain in Southern Pennsylvania called... yep... Ski Liberty.



She had a great time from what I can tell. It's hard to determine if she's being completely honest through the moaning and groaning that comes with a fresh case of whiplash and knees so bruised you wouldn't wish them on a West Virginian trailer park slut trying to climb the ladder in the family business.

Seriously though, she got a little beaten up by the mountain, but that was in the morning... by the afternoon, she had the slopes tamed and under her control. She even conquered a black diamond on her first day out this season. I was quite impressed, not only by her continuous improvement, but by the dedication and determination she exuded. A weaker human would have given up after the third or fourth head-over-heels spill, but she kept getting right back up and asking for more.

You know, it's pretty easy to spoil yourself by going to really nice places and having really nice things... but at some point you realize that although you liked those things a little better than the basics you had before... it's really the basics that you need.

I've been snowboarding for years and years, starting back before there was such a thing as the "X Games" (or a series of videogames dedicated to said games) and many mountains had segregated sections for snowboarders, if they were allowed on the mountain at all. I've ridden the slopes on the east coast and on the west coast, and yes, there is definitely a difference.

But what I noticed this past weekend, is that in spite of all the wonderful mountains I've experienced, carving down the hill where it all started with the woman I love, watching her repeatedly inflict more pain upon herself just so she'll eventually be skilled enough to ride with me on some of the steeper slopes, was all that I really needed to have a great time on my board.

Of course, I'd rather that she didn't get hurt at all, but I'm also a realist and know that you can't just jump on a board and go and never get hurt. So let me warn you now... If you're going out to snowboard for the first time... wear kneepads!!! You'll thank me later.

What If...?

The brainchild of Francis Stokes, the series "God, Inc." asks the question...

What if all the problems on Earth are really were caused not by a spiteful deity, or karma, or fate, but just plain office politics and the Peter Principle?

And I must say... it's pretty well put together. Of course, the actors are relatively amateur, but not too bad.

Episode 1


Episode 2


Episode 3


Episode 4


Episode 5


more to come... (I hope)