I got caught up in the hype of blogging. What I overlooked, or didn't realize, is that the vast majority of the A-list bloggers were well known within their sphere of expertise already. In the tech world, this meant they gained noteriety through either the academic world, conference circuit, or both and that their blogs enhanced their existing reputation. Most of the news sites were run by freelance journalists. And here I was, a tech guy writing primarily about politics and expecting the world to beat a bath to my door. Yawn.

   - January 18, 2006

So, the Diebold voting machines are eminently hackable. Apologists notwithstanding, that's the fact.

A modest proposal: hack the vote.

Let's put together a team of crack hackers (original definition) to protect the vote. As I see it, we would need two teams. The network gurus would monitor transmission and access, creating a verifiable evidence trail of when transmissions were made, from where, to where, time and duration. Then the forensics gurus would be on hand to verify the integrity of the hard drives. They may be able to erase the Access logs, but they can't erase the trails on the platters. I'm being overly simplistic, but you get the point.

It really doesn't matter what you're politics are. A rigged election just ain't right.

I'm reading Walter Karp's The Politics of War. It's about the lies and maneuverings carried on by McKinley and Wilson to get us into, repectively, the Spanish-American war and World War I. His tale has so many similarities to our current situation.

The Agonist has a comment this morning:

Little noticed in the west as yet, the Bush administration's latest Middle East adventure has been making furious waves in the Arab world. Dubbed the Greater Middle East initiative, the plan aims to press democracy on one of the world's least democratic regions.

Let's deconstruct. Bush/Carlyle has stated for years that their goal is for the US military to take over control of the planet, and more specifically the oil fields of the middle east and the -stans. The last thing they want is democracy in those regions because that would mean cohesive nation states would emerge that would control their own resources. So they put forward a noble initiative that plays well to our national jingoism yet  is an initiative that they not only do not support, but one that they know will fail. And in the failure of this noble initiative is their justification for increased military aggression.

To take it a step further, the Bush/Carlyle anti-terrorism strategy is not designed to make America safer. If it were, then we would be seeing money poured in to support our first-defense efforts, biological counter measures and the physical security of chemical plants. If they cared to secure America, they would take steps to defuse the boiling-point issues. Instead, they do the opposite. Their stategy is to fan the flames of discontent, destablize regional order and support the worst of tinpot dictators. By making the situation worse, they further justify their aggression.

As I've said before, the security of America is not through a war on terrorism. The security of America will come when we declare war on oil. If we were to declare a mission of energy-independence, similar to the mission of reaching the moon years ago, we would invigorate our economy, create new industries and real jobs, reduce environmental impact and build a future of hope and prosperity for our children. In the process, by taking oil out of the equation, then we no longer have a vested interest in middle east or the -stans and the terrorism issue begins to abate.

 

Patricia and I were talking last night about math and the words used describe things mathematical, like elegant and charmed.

I have always been struck that one of the simplest and most basic relations in mathematics results in a truly irrational number. The circle is arguably the earliest and by far the easiest form to draw. Pick a point, stretch a string and draw a circle around the point. Yet, in our mathematics, the relationship between the length of the string and the circumfrence of the circle is pi. Mathmeticians have computed the value of pi to a gazillion places, and still no pattern emerges. It is a random number.

This leads me to two possible conclusions. The first is that our system of mathematics is inherently flawed since the measurement of a fundamental relationship results in randomness.

The second is that our system of mathematics is correct and thereby recognizes that a full description of the universe depends on the intertwining of the rational and the irrational. It is a marriage of understanding and idicates the a priori necessity of both. The inability to measure art is no worse than the inability to measure pi.

More.

The Administration's Elmer Fudds (fear, uncertainty, doubt and deceipt) are out in force after that rascawy wabbit, Wichawd Cwawke. I'm finding the theater of absurd so well covered by the likes of TPM and Whiskey Bar that I'm setting back and watching for a while. That and the travails of the Annual Accounting. Oh, and here's theWhite House search page.

(satrical fair use)

There are new stories in the Collections section.

A nifty trick: the Kerry and Bush blogs side-by-side.

The buzz going round this weekend is about Kerry and defense (TPM, Atrios).

I'd like to see the issue pushed further. Let's start with the very notion that this is a "war" situation at all. It's only called a war because we've let Bush/Rove define it as such so that Bush/Carlyle can repeat more profits and extend more control over the global polity. The antecedents for the current drama all go back to British imperial map-drawing. Islamic fundamental rage has been brewing for decades, and it keeps on brewing. There is really nothing new, other than they had the temerity to strike decisively on US soil.

Instead, let's declare a true war, a war on oil. Let's work to transform our means of production away from carbon burning and focus on generating the fuel of now, electricity. Return to us our own energy production and release the ties to foreign deserts. Now that would be a real security to fight for.

It has seemed strange to me that the son of the CIA president would be so vociferous in his attacks on the CIA. You'd think he'd be protective.

Here's my thesis: In line with the creation of the combined special ops Praetorian Guard and the general mercenization of the military, this crew wants to hollow out the established intelligence operations what with their annoying congressional oversight. The reconstituted intelligence bureaucracy would be sheild from all scrutiny, including oversight and freedom of information, all justified because of the "wartime" conditions.

These guys see information as weaponry, to be concealed and controlled. This undermines a basic precept of capitalistic market theory that they tout so firmly. Much more importantly, it shows the disdain these guys have for the Constitution. Remember folks, it's supposed to be for the people and by the people. It's supposed to be a citizens army. Information is supposed to be about truth.

I've been thinking that it's time for some strong vocal support of George Tenet and the concept of professional intelligence analysis. His team was right about Iraq and WMD.

I'm no fan of the Patriot Act and its various extentions. However, this article by Harvey Silverglate and Carl Takei discusses a more serious threat to our liberties that they refer to as threshold rights. They argue that legislation can be unlegislated, but the Bush Administration encroachment on fundamental precepts, such as habeas corpus threatens to undermine the very foundation of our system of principles which go back to the Magna Carta.