tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63682102012-01-11T22:11:08.349-06:00Catbeller. Mouse with a mission."I'm not negative, I'm ANGRY!" -- Howard the Duck's moment of satori. Or is that redundant?
Lighting more candles in the dark, because they keep blowing them out.Catbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comBlogger711100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-24492098058095134302012-01-11T22:09:00.000-06:002012-01-11T22:11:08.360-06:00From Boing Boing, today:http://boingboing.net/2012/01/11/tom-the-dancing-bug-use-your.html The Constitution does not grant us rights. The rights exist independently of the paper they are written on. The 9th amendment makes this clear: rights exist that are not explicitly stated, and the explictly stated rights do not preclude the existence of other rights that we deem we have."The enumeration in Catbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-12007266500556752122011-07-12T18:26:00.006-05:002011-07-12T18:40:19.585-05:00I joined Google+ today with high hopes of networking without Facebook's we-own-you approach to our privacy. But now, Google is demanding we use our real names as usernames. No.Turns out that Israel has been mining social networking sites like Facebook to find pro-Palestinian activists' real names - and used that information to make (?how?) other countries refuse to let the activists leave for Catbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-45725941084835140292011-02-04T22:39:00.000-06:002011-02-04T22:40:02.700-06:00Corporations are government-created entities, and exist as legal fictions at our convenience, not theirs. Their job is whatever we tell them it is. Their own theory is that they exist to make profit; nicely self-serving. They exist so that a group can perform actions without exposing individuals in the group to liability. Beyond that, they made the rest up. If they are becoming a pain, we could 1Catbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-11236933160166425562011-01-30T10:06:00.001-06:002011-01-30T10:08:42.481-06:00Our US national phone companies didn't feel the need to track and log the phone calls of their customers for over one hundred and twenty-five years, and civilization and phone company infrastructure survived unscathed.As for the need to track for purposes of managing bandwidth; expand the bandwidth so that it is not necessary. The present situation, managed artificial scarcity, exists to maximizeCatbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-37452090551237842922010-05-02T11:46:00.002-05:002010-05-02T11:50:36.942-05:00The fossil-fuel energy economy will be far more damaging than any nuclear plant breakdown. Greens didn't understand the safety factors on American nuke plants, and discounted the immense potential for planetary breakdown if we didn't stop using fossil fuels.Now we have Chernobyl in the Gulf of Mexico. This is a Phillip Wylie disaster novel. Drill, baby, drill.Obama, you Neville Chamberlin-wannabeCatbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-91662063199910746262010-01-20T07:11:00.001-06:002010-01-20T07:12:54.175-06:00The proper name for this maybe-willbe Apple tablet should be the iBook.Apple does hold the trademark, after all. And it is an iBook.Catbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-66100811546516750932009-03-23T19:28:00.004-05:002009-03-23T19:33:44.550-05:00Posted on Digg, re: Un-American: Have you listened to the right-wing media?I never really call the conservatives, except when I'm being ironic. They are right-wing. *I* am conservative.I believe in the Constitution, which mandates separation of Church and State. I believe that the government doesn't have the right to suspend the document.I believe that corporations are creatures of the governmentCatbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-86596777237163133662009-03-23T15:49:00.003-05:002009-03-23T15:51:43.233-05:00Twitter is an original idea? Um, no.Twitter users: you've rediscovered the AOL chatroom experience, circa 1993. Congrats. Yeah, it was and is fun.But it ain't original.Catbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-15735195962119059192009-03-23T15:37:00.006-05:002009-03-23T15:46:24.887-05:00Is Twitter the Vengeance of the Popular Kids' Lunch Table?Seriously. The tech world has long been dominated by loner geeks: those who wouldn't be dating the cheerleader from the Popular Table in the school lunchroom.I'm listening to Leo LaPorte's TWIT podcast, just downloaded fresh this morning. And Twitter, as they mention, has consumed the tech world. And Twitter is nothing but a popularity Catbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-77281080580611057702009-03-23T13:58:00.003-05:002009-03-23T14:01:31.788-05:00Noticing here that the Apple stock didn't get trounced after the iPhone 3.0 announcement. Perhaps Apple's puzzling decision to stop announcing new products on a predictable semi-annual schedule and instead pop them out randomly with almost no notice to anyone has screwed up the stock-shorting geniuses' timing. About damned time.Catbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-19546265413219431992009-03-23T13:54:00.002-05:002009-03-23T13:58:05.901-05:00The Wall Street Journal says that Netflix stock is overvalued, despite the fact they are taking over the video market and have future revenues of Apple-like levels stretching out before them.Someone has decided it is time to short the stock and suck the profits out of its marrow. The Real Stock Market is about to fleece current shareholders of yet another excellent company. Get a cat food Catbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-65266534522027925902009-03-17T10:49:00.003-05:002009-03-17T10:53:55.272-05:00Apple is about to release iPhone 3.0 in an hour. Gentleman, start shorting the stocks! Whee!Cramer actual admits talking Apple stock prices up and then immediately selling short and talking the price down again. He said it was easy to do an very profitable as well.I said some time back that Apple announcements always caused a major shortselling spree. I keep taking a bath on this, while the Catbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-70239513232401850182009-03-12T10:53:00.002-05:002009-03-12T10:58:25.514-05:00Now it is possible, with lithium titanate or lithium iron phosphate batteries, to charge a car's battery pack in minutes. However, people are pointing out that it would take a 180 KW pipe to charge the car. Not available. Fail, say they.Think a little. What you need is a sidewalk or garage capacitor/battery array that charges slowly and constantly off a 120 or 240 volt pipe from the grid or your Catbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-91122140035478884572009-03-09T10:08:00.002-05:002009-03-09T10:21:18.920-05:00The Seattle Post-Intelligencer newspaper died today.Comedy Central should form a news team, hell, a news network, around its Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert core group. Comedians of the "left" seem to be much more informed then the "middle" wing of the various mainstream news media.Stewart understands that he needs the news networks to actually provide him some news to work with. But that seems Catbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-36970877032867185442009-03-03T22:02:00.000-06:002009-03-03T22:03:41.174-06:00What? - no one has noticed that Rush Limbaugh is running for president?Catbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-67161286520753559362009-02-06T18:56:00.002-06:002009-02-06T19:07:44.067-06:00Fire Sale!I hear the talking Democratic heads on Rachel Madow carefully pointing out that the Republicans should remember that so much depends on what they do right now - depression or recession, loss or win.Damn. I must point out what they surely know but cannot say - but should.If the economy tanks, if we enter a Greater Depression, those who hold wealth - and Republicans represent them - will Catbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-29193920515659756752009-02-04T13:29:00.002-06:002009-02-04T13:29:54.068-06:00http://tinyurl.com/gaimanbatmanCatbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-14153281505247520812009-01-23T12:16:00.001-06:002009-01-23T12:18:18.119-06:00So Obama frees the stem cell lines for research today.A ban Bush put in place to save baby souls.And remember this well: he took a week off to think about this subject before issuing the ban. Went on a retreat, listened to "spiritual leaders" about the subject. What didn't he do that very special week?I'll give you a hint: he didn't read a report called "Bin Laden determined to strike within the Catbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-47616615808918464912009-01-19T11:33:00.001-06:002009-01-19T11:36:16.396-06:00If George Bush has left the White House already, who the hell is the President at the moment? Is he phoning it in?Catbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-60068629164411962822009-01-09T11:26:00.001-06:002009-01-09T11:26:54.480-06:00Paper vs. electronic ballots I can't stress enough: Franken could win this election because the voters, through their election process, could count the actual ballots, on actual solid really real pieces of paper. If an electronic system was in place, no recount would be possible, as the ballots would be unexaminable and totals only available through the kindness of private companies. Catbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-64408720387445608632009-01-08T10:02:00.003-06:002009-01-08T10:16:49.269-06:00It struck me, in the few minutes of one of the Obama/McCain debates last year, that Obama would be a Republican in the America I grew up in. I remarked that he was just another Republican, in my rude fashion, to my couchmates at the time. So today, Firedog lake diarist DeanBaker reports that Obman is thinking of "restructuring" Social Security and Medicare to bring it in line with our national Catbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-49641602884503399352009-01-02T17:30:00.001-06:002009-01-02T17:32:46.631-06:00Here it is, a new Watchmen trailer, now with extra Rorschach! Catbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-3893270920810095892008-12-21T03:25:00.003-06:002008-12-21T03:33:03.676-06:00Gentle Reader, Al Franken looks like he will win the recount of the votes for the seat of Senator from Minnesota.This will be because, Albert Gore take note, he did not give in and concede the election to look like a statesman to the opposition party, which does not give a damn about such things.And, this is the most important thing: the votes were on paper. Paper can be reexamined. Computers Catbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-76444395293882740372008-12-17T14:14:00.002-06:002008-12-17T14:32:42.436-06:00Well, Children, it looks like OPEC is getting its act together and will cut oil production to raise prices.This is the final hammer, the trigger of Depression II. If inflation kicks back on, and no reason why not, that's the Reagonomic apocalypse. Credit collapse combined with rising prices. Damn.Catbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-67996498976554090272008-12-16T19:32:00.001-06:002008-12-16T19:32:25.656-06:00Shoe throwing Iraqi jounalist Muntathar is being torturedAccording to this Iraqi's blog, shoe-hurling journalist Muntathar is being beaten, and his colleagues were arrested and stripped. American media not covering the story, as far as I can see.read more | digg storyCatbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-36830499030068154122008-12-16T19:23:00.001-06:002008-12-16T19:23:15.122-06:00Non-union Toyota factory cuts production, says sales downToyota has announced that it has halted the start of construction of Priuses in their new, non-union 300 million dollar factory in Blue Springs, Mississippi. No word if their low, non-union labor costs have crippled their efforts to compete in the world market. Should we let them go bankrupt to eliminate their expensive non-union labor force? read more | digg storyCatbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-2189278649691805512008-12-16T17:34:00.004-06:002008-12-16T17:45:36.900-06:00Muntadhar al-Zaidi, thrower of the shoe, was tortured. Digg it here.Damn, it's hard to learn HTML and blogging on the fly.Catbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-30169627677023119412008-11-26T10:11:00.001-06:002008-11-26T10:13:19.399-06:00Originally posted on Boingboing.com on Wednesday, November 26, 2008.Why CNN Struggles to Cover The Economic Panic November 26, 2008 8:06am I feel like a man who has spent seven years in a bomb shelter, who is now opening the hatch into a new, strange world. I haven't watched TV or flown on a plane since the year 2000. I stopped listening to radio in 2001 when a favorite Sunday morning radio Catbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-387672086737987862008-11-26T10:10:00.001-06:002008-11-26T10:11:40.460-06:00Originally posted on Boingboing.com, Tuesday, November 25, 2008.Hey. Sorry, but this IS all about political bullshit, as one of you put it. This is not a random crisis which no one could foretell. We have numbers and we have causes, and they do correlate. The root cause is ideological. After the financial collapses of 1871 and 1929, it became apparent that the financial markets could not be Catbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-72828966142947430752008-11-20T15:02:00.001-06:002008-11-20T15:04:57.307-06:00There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Market. That would be my phrase: just getting that point out there. Crain's Chicago Business, a Chicago paper, claims in a front page story that the Chicago School of economics is now in the doghouse due to the ongoing rain of financial wreckage falling around our ears. Damn it, Obama, you'd better not bring in some of that dross when you bring in the Hyde ParkCatbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-46962647462110234012008-11-20T14:57:00.002-06:002008-11-20T15:01:48.075-06:00Well, that election went well. Yes, I wasn't there, but damn, didn't Lieberman pull the same damned stunt again? He's now, or may be, the 60th vote to kill a fillibuster, so they are letting him sit on his chairmanship where he will no doubt still block all investigations into the Bush administration, while exercising "bipartisanship" by letting a thousand Whitewaters bloom against Obama.Al Catbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-32767581997424673782008-10-03T11:04:00.001-05:002008-10-03T11:04:35.803-05:00ALL RIGHT! I tend to not post for a while.Catbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-65602999879326989152008-05-13T14:17:00.002-05:002008-05-13T14:21:16.116-05:00For the record, today I coined the neologism "hippyphone" on Slashdot. Just to let y'all know, that was mine.A hippyphone is a wifi, meshed, encrypted, free phone system, distributed against the collective cell phone (read: government's) companies most strenuous objections. Should run on open bands, but no doubt would be crushed under boots wielding a battering ram almost immediately.Catbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-44990526036571149692008-03-04T20:52:00.002-06:002008-03-04T21:01:05.619-06:00On Digg.com today (Moses was high on drugs, Israeli researcher says), someone posted about Mohamed the prophet:He didn't need drugs he had pre-pubescent girls and boys for pleasure instead.I posted: Unlike the Bible?For each sequential near-genocidal attack on peaceful Semitic city-states, God commands the Israelis to kill all the men but keep the hot women and young girls for slavery (wink-winkCatbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-34553158564922682442008-02-29T17:33:00.002-06:002008-02-29T17:52:16.895-06:00Yahweh of the Old Testament runs his human gerbils in a giant Stanford/Milgram experiment. ALL arguments are from authority and cannot be denied. Abraham sacrificing his son with blade and fire - a test of how far the "teacher" (of Abraham's son) will go if ordered to do so. (This story is basic and older than the Hebrews, having shown up in tablets from Ebla that predate Israel by a thousand Catbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-43573245133913999282008-02-29T15:43:00.002-06:002008-02-29T15:52:13.503-06:00If you really want to make an atheistic movie, make the Bible. No interpretations, just what's in the Bible. The god-mandated rapes and child killing, the incest and wars for property, the abject lack of any moral vision other than obedience to the authority of the priests and prophets and occasionally a king or two, all informing us as to what god wants. And we can leave Jesua bin Josef out of Catbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-24576868582242573412008-02-29T12:23:00.006-06:002008-02-29T18:05:25.101-06:00 Don't have a pony to back in the Obama/Clinton match-up. In my thoughts, I'd imagined them agreeing that the runner-up would be asked to be Vice-President.That was before it turned out that the Clintons were members of the Klan all along. Imagine my surprise, as Bill had lost the governorship of Arkansas once to the white supremacist backlash to his civil rights beliefs as governor. And Catbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-48643922442507098462008-01-23T11:20:00.000-06:002008-01-23T11:38:28.041-06:00Someone is making a shitload of money shorting Apple stock today. Stock has gone down about 20 percent in a few hours -- this is intentional. Brokers will make piles shorting, then buying the stock at bargain prices. They are having a party. Meanwhile, old fashioned conservative investors are being wrecked. And this for a company making records sales...Catbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-50186624941097880212007-05-09T23:14:00.000-05:002007-05-09T23:20:32.862-05:00Says here that next week VOIP calls from major providers must be made tappable by good ol' Homeland Security. Seig heil and all that.Um, guys? Word from an old techie? We don't need Skype to make a VOIP call. We were making VOIP calls before some enterprising businessman decided to hook it up to the main phone system.Anyone can use some easy to find software and make a PC to PC VOIP call withoutCatbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-19879694194574843392007-04-18T02:29:00.000-05:002007-05-09T23:11:29.457-05:00Guns can't be controlled. How exactly would we do it? House to house searches, Iraq style? How many people would we be willing to put in prison for non-compliance? Does anyone think that Americans with guns are going to give them up because a law is passed? Are we willing for Prohibition III, the biggest and most futile of them all? What happens when fifty million or so people decide the law is Catbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-1176624963927159402007-04-15T02:25:00.000-05:002007-04-15T03:16:03.940-05:00Today, I experienced my first bandwidth throttling by my ISP.Randomly: ISPs claim that they cannot provide the service at the speeds we contract for. This would be called "breach of contract", except, of course, we have no contract, not one that previous eras would recognize. An ISP contract says, in so many words, that you contract to give them money, and per terms, cannot change the contract. Catbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-1176478202489050012007-04-13T10:29:00.000-05:002007-04-13T10:30:02.490-05:00And he was the definitive Bright.Catbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-1176478089473619792007-04-13T10:24:00.000-05:002007-04-13T10:28:09.483-05:00Just realized: Isaac Asimov was the first blogger. He detailed his life in every essay and article he wrote, each eight-hour workday of his life. We've thousands of his posts. He was a early PC adopter, using his TRS-80; we never would have pried his fingers off of his PC today, had he not been removed from our lives. He would have loved blogging. I wonder what the isaacasimov.com/blog would Catbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-1176096386379462192007-04-09T00:22:00.000-05:002007-04-09T00:26:26.396-05:00Well, I didn't know this! I am a Bright.Houston, we have a word! The world is moved with a single word. If you create a word, you can create a universe.I am not an atheist; the term is loaded with presuppositions of a binary choice that is obviously false, given the number of religions in the world. Agnostic is a word I used frequently, but Dr. Dawkins has convinced me that some things are Catbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-1176088903354730182007-04-08T22:18:00.000-05:002007-04-08T22:21:43.363-05:00People who truly believe in an eternal hell never imagine themselves in it. Hell is for other people. It's designed for other people.Catbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-1164221059232423482006-11-22T12:41:00.000-06:002007-04-08T22:27:29.006-05:00Posted on Huffingtonpost. com today:Not believing in a religion is not a belief.Everyone is an atheist, by the definition given. Do you believe in Krishna? No? You're an atheist. Thor? Atheist. Ishtar? Souless you are.The implication here is that God exists, and to not believe is in itself an act of faith, therefore a religion itself.This shouldn't even be a debate. Atheism is a term loaded with Catbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-1164219902368597092006-11-22T12:10:00.000-06:002007-04-08T22:27:55.800-05:00Two racist black men walk into this night club, see, and scream down the comedian with prejudiced epithets, calling him a cracker and a white boy, interrupting his professional work and infuriating the comic.The comic cuts loose with a Pryoresque tirade, returning their own racism with matching fire. Apparently he was funny. Took them down.But his career is in ruins, and the racists who should Catbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-1164065865583256602006-11-20T17:33:00.000-06:002007-04-09T00:28:06.886-05:00Definition of a police state: when the police stop being our protectors, and start being our prison guards.Catbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-1163100231944197452006-11-09T13:15:00.000-06:002007-04-09T00:28:40.306-05:00Ted Rall at the Smirking Chimp is saying in his article today entitled "Our Long National Nightmare Has Just Begun: Like Cornered Rats, GOP Losers More Dangerous Than Ever", what I've been thinking since last January: In January 2006 HomeSec awarded a $385 million contract to Kellogg, Brown and Root, the subsidiary of Halliburton Co., to build "temporary detention and processing capabilities"--Catbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-1163033528730689492006-11-08T18:42:00.000-06:002007-04-09T00:28:55.750-05:00Senate nominally Democratic, but will be a Republican majority in a pinch.And, the author begins to order his thoughts about "conspiracies" and misunderstood e-voting dangers Looks like my option (1) from yesterday came true: a Democratic majority Senate only with Lieberman cooperating, or if he turns traitor, Cheney will break the tie votes in Bush's favor. The Democrats really haven't taken Catbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-1162974091926791012006-11-08T02:17:00.000-06:002007-04-09T00:34:43.496-05:00For the last quarter century since that grinning moron became president in the Eighties, I've felt like a stranger drifting through the fog-covered grounds of a mental institution. Up was down, right was wrong, and nothing was ever anyone's fault, unless a blue dress was involved.Not so much now. Even Howard the Duck might think twice about cranking today.Good night and good luck.Catbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-1162972062375084172006-11-08T01:43:00.000-06:002007-04-09T00:34:30.756-05:00Or, worse case scenario, Lieberman switches parties and the Republicans win all up-and-down votes by the use of Herr Cheney breaking ties.Worst case scenario, the Repubs somehow change the votes during the recounts and all the other speculation becomes moot.But, as I thought, they couldn't affect the House races. Too many moving targets. And, hey, Bush can't install any more Supreme Court Catbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-1162971277514087662006-11-08T01:28:00.000-06:002007-04-09T00:35:00.483-05:00Looks like Tester for Montana! Virginia still in play. If Virginia stays blue, then they are 49 Democrats, 49 Republicans, 1 Socialist (figure as Democrat), and 1 Lieberman (treat as Republican) in the Senate.I think Firedoglake has it right, when they predict Lieberman will position himself for some major worship to tip votes the Democrat's way. Else, deadlock, with ties decided by Cheney.Catbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-1162970823738386562006-11-08T01:25:00.000-06:002007-04-09T00:36:28.643-05:0048/49 -- with Montana still in play, but leaning towards a Democrat/Republican tie, 49/49... I think CNN is counting Lieberman as a... Democrat in their breakdown of the Senate?Catbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-1162969457573860522006-11-08T01:01:00.000-06:002007-04-09T00:35:26.320-05:00McCaskill takes the Senate seat for Missouri. She's giving the victory speech. The flying Diebold monkeys have not landed, and I am a very happy man. CNN has not confirmed.Larry King is predicting the flying lawyer monkeys will land and slow it down for months. So much for the people deciding elections rather than the lawyers, eh?Catbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-1162968095898052692006-11-08T00:36:00.000-06:002007-04-09T00:51:49.823-05:00Virginia, Missouri, Montana. Margins of victory around one percent in each of these Senate races.This is when the flying monkeys in Diebold and Sequoia may be called. Just a tiny, tiny tweak in three precincts in those three states can give the Senate to the Republicans. One bag man with a laptop can move the totals in three aggregating PCs. And he doesn't even have to leave home to do it, thoughCatbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-1162966570973837522006-11-08T00:14:00.000-06:002007-04-09T00:52:54.510-05:00The Senate seat in Missouri is hanging on for the Democrats by 13,000 votes, with St. Louis county not yet reporting en masse.Webb DECLARES VICTORY! Demos need TWO more senators to take control of both houses! CNN not declaring for Webb yet, though.Catbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-1162966321443246052006-11-08T00:07:00.000-06:002007-04-09T00:35:58.806-05:00Paul Begala just said on CNN that his sources are begging for lawyers to run to Virginia immediately to monitor the ballot counting. I feel a chill...Republican on staff immediately said that lawyers shouldn't decide elections. This from the party that lawyered the 2000 race into a Supreme Court intervention to prevent the completion of the recount in Dade County, Florida.Something is Catbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-1162964623501787672006-11-07T23:41:00.000-06:002007-04-09T00:35:49.480-05:00If the sentencing of Saddam to death by hanging at the behest of our proxies was Karl Rove's big surprise, then he's been drinking his own urine for far too long.The war's a farce, so's the trial, so's your neocon liar's club, Mr. Rove.Catbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-1162962749163406332006-11-07T23:08:00.000-06:002007-04-09T00:53:11.976-05:00Democrats take the House.For twenty-four of the last twenty-six years, I have endured the growth of the evangelical, authoritarian right. Only two years of my adult life have not been touched by the madness, and those two years the Democrats opposed their own president.Now, we have an angry sane majority in the House. May I be wrong about the Senate. Please.Catbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-1162958407349028422006-11-07T21:57:00.000-06:002007-04-09T00:37:50.650-05:00No matter what happens in the Senate races, win or lose, the Democrats will have the House, as I predicted. Too many targets, too many places to intervene for the Republicans to change the totals.Still hoping my negative prediction about concentrating on stealing the essential Senate elections to avoid investigation and prosecution won't pan out.Catbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-1162952828906917372006-11-07T20:24:00.000-06:002007-04-09T00:54:10.030-05:008:22 PM CNN's pundrity just giggled about Lieberman getting sweet revenge against the Democratic senators who "threw him out" of the party and campaigned against him!MY GOD. Lieberman LOST THE PRIMARY. He was not "thrown out" of the party: he LEFT the party and ran as an "independent", received Republican money and support, and apparently has been reelected by Republicans! Who the hell are theseCatbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-1162931931727868152006-11-07T14:25:00.000-06:002007-04-09T00:54:25.740-05:00Today, November 7, 2006, we Americans will see if we have a democracy or a termite-emptied shell of what used to be a representative system.My negative prediction: the operative or operatives responsible for manipulating e-voting machines and the tabulation system that forms the more critical part of those e-voting networks will give a pass to trying to manipulate the House races, given the Catbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-1162931114142146342006-11-07T14:22:00.000-06:002006-11-07T14:25:14.156-06:00Hmp. Have to step up a bit more if I want to keep a real blog here. If anyone wants to see my older, pre-blogspot posts, search Slashdot's posts for a user named "Catbeller". Over 1700 posts so far.Catbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-1161101061923693242006-10-17T11:04:00.000-05:002007-04-09T01:03:50.186-05:00I'm a programmer. The fix is in, and this is why. 1. Exit polls did not fit election results in 2004. This is flat out impossible to believe; those same exit poll operations were in danger of being shut down in the 90's because they were *too* accurate, and the western states were complaining that the preditions were so spot on that voters might be staying home instead of voting in an already Catbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-1120342959233925142005-07-02T17:03:00.000-05:002007-04-09T01:04:10.783-05:00Sooooo... as we all expected, Karl Rove was the piece of work that orchestrated the outing of undercover CIA agent, Valerie Plame, to punish Wilson for his damning book about the secret origins of the Iraq invasion.Amazing that the two sources for this news are talking just before Tennis Sunday on the big networks, so that there will be no Sunday gabfest coverage of the implications of this Catbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-1077114008475033732004-02-18T08:17:00.000-06:002007-04-09T01:02:19.760-05:00Correction:In my January 25th post, I wrote:Kerry, though a War Hero, yes, yes, caved in to Bush early on in the Iraq propaganda blitz in '92, even though he could have read easily available analyses that refuted Bush's lie factory.Arrgghh. Obviously I meant '02/'03. Wrong Bush. Getting the rerun mixed up with the original show. I don't know the exact date that Congress resigned its power and Catbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-1077113488665718572004-02-18T08:01:00.000-06:002007-04-09T01:02:38.663-05:00Kerry Throws Away Another Gun.Well. I haven't had time to track this down, but it seems Kerry has decided that he doesn't want his supporters using the issue of George's AWOL/desertion from the National Guard in wartime to bash Bush's electoral brains out.First, Kerry can't use the fact that Bush conned us into a war, because Kerry voted for giving Bush dictatorial powers to wage war. Even so, Catbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-1076288997374806042004-02-08T20:27:00.000-06:002007-04-09T00:37:26.893-05:00NOT NOW, KATO!Remember the Pink Panther movies? If you don't, then rent them now. Get NetFlix and have the DVD's sent to you. It'll help with the analogy, and my stock portfolio will thank you.In all of the Pink Panther flicks, Inspector Clouseau, the intrepid master of asian martial arts, used his manservant Kato as an irregularly expected sneak attacker to keep his fighting skills honed.One Catbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-1075077073066896432004-01-25T17:57:00.001-06:002007-04-09T00:36:58.926-05:00Please don't throw us into the briar patch, Br'er Democrats!I've given some noodle time yesterday and today to the Kerry upset in Iowa.Republicans, according to some articles posted lately, are unhappy that Dean was squished in the first round. They claim that they would have loved to have taken on the insane, unstable, angry Dean. A cakewalk! A damned shame Kerry is moving forward; he'll be so Catbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6368210.post-1075075100832112952004-01-25T17:57:00.000-06:002004-01-25T18:00:28.106-06:00gsrgCatbellerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01629609900876597718noreply@blogger.com