Diebold Accidentally Leaks Results Of 2008 Election Early
Diebold Accidentally Leaks Results Of 2008 Election Early
It's funny because it's true.
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February 25, 2008
February 24, 2008
Obama's record
A friend of mine sent me this in an email:
On the topic of Obama, when it comes to his record on voting while a senator why is it that a majority of the time he never really votes? It's like he is sitting on the fence watching everything but he doesn't want to jump in and make a decision.
I composed this rather longish reply to that and I wanted to share it here:
To quote the New York Times:
"Mr. Obama cast 4,000 votes in the Illinois Senate and used the present vote to protest bills that he believed had been drafted unconstitutionally or as part of a broader legislative strategy."Lisa Madigan, the Illinois attorney general who was in the Illinois Senate with Mr. Obama from 1998 through 2002, said she and Mr. Obama voted present on the anti-abortion bills.
"It's just plain wrong to imply that voting present reflected a lack of leadership," Ms. Madigan said. "In fact, it was the exact opposite."
He voted present 130 times out of 4000. It's hardly "the majority of the time".
If you want a good article on Obama's and Clinton's legislative records, you should read this diary entry on Daily Kos. Someone actually went and looked at the library of congress record of the two candidate's records in the US Senate. It's a very informative article.
I'm sure eventually someone will compare Obama and McCain, but really, McCain has been in the Senate for 35 years. He was a member of the Keating 5. He preaches against lobbyists, but then he has 59 of them working in senior positions on his campaign. In December he said that the Army Field Manual contained all the interrogation techniques the CIA needed and then last week he voted against a bill that would have made that mandatory. McCain has actually been absent many times from the Senate when his one vote would have made the difference in a bill passing. This has happened several times on bills where he claims that he cares about the issue at hand. I can't find the article on this, but if you want it, I can find it.
The truth is that the Democrats get to choose between two great candidates (and earlier 6 - Biden, Richardson, Dodd and Edwards were all great candidates). The Republicans basically didn't have a single candidate that had really demonstrated leadership during his career. McCain was the most electable from a list of pretty pathetic candidates.
There's more to say, but this email is getting long already. All I can say is, I've looked at Obama's record and I believe that he is a strong candidate who has a demonstrated track record of getting things done. Anyone who tells you differently is distorting the truth.
February 23, 2008
It's been awhile...
It's been awhile since I posted anything new. I'm currently on a train between Portland and Seattle. I love the fact that I can use my BlackBerry as a modem for my laptop. It's really come in handy several times.
This is only the second time I've taken Amtrak. It's not nearly as smooth as I thought it would be. We're getting pretty shaken around.
I think most everyone knows, or at least can guess that I'm supporting Obama. I've been volunteering on his campaign, and I've met some great people who are working on the campaign too.
I'm really frustrated by what seems to be the campaign's inability to answer the "light on substance" question. Obama is a very experienced candidate. He has a whole list of policy proposals on his website. I'm not sure what else there is to say about that.
I have a my.barackobama.com fundraising page. You can donate to the campaign though that page if you'd like. It will go towards my goal of raising $1000 for Barack Obama.
February 16, 2008
Draft Lessig
February 10, 2008
Michelle Obama at SJSU
I saw Michelle Obama speak at SJSU a week ago. It was really amazing and inspiring. I finally found a full video of the speech. I share it with you here:
Enjoy.
February 5, 2008
Election Results
February 5th is not going to be what they've said it will be.
Okay, last post before I (finally) call it a night. February 5th will probably not decide the nomination. Really the only way that happens is if one of the candidates sweeps the popular vote in most (or all) of the states. The polls (and my gut) tell me that's not going to happen.
The media really want this to be "the day". There's all this hype about how this will decide everything, and while that looked to be true a month ago, it's obviously not true now. If you read the post right before this one, you'll get the full breakdown. Anyway, sleep well, and know that the California count not coming in until Wednesday doesn't matter that much. We've got months to go before this thing is over.
Oh, and one last positive thing. Obama won the first primary of "Tsunami Tuesday," in Jakarta of all places.
February 4, 2008
Open Left:: Super Delegates To Determine Nominee
Okay, so this has been running through my head all week. Finally someone put all the numbers on one page. It's an interesting read.
From this point, quick math shows that after Super Tuesday, only 1,428 pledged delegates will still be available. Now, here is where the problem shows up. According to current polling averages, the largest possible victory for either candidate on Super Tuesday will be Clinton 889 pledged delegates, to 799 pledged delegates for Obama. (In all likelihood, the winning margin will be lower than this, but using these numbers helps emphasize the seriousness of the situation.) As such, the largest possible pledged delegate margin Clinton can have after Super Tuesday is 937 to 862. (While it is possible Obama will lead in pledged delegates after Super Tuesday, it does not currently seem possible for Obama to have a larger lead than 75)...
Raising Obama: Politics & Power: vanityfair.com
Vanity Fair piece on Obama. It's a long article but a good read. It gives a good summary of his history.
Link
February 3, 2008
Ripped Paper vs. Robocalls
I found this interesting post, I thought I'd share with you. Personally, I'll take ripped paper anyday...
A few days ago, I was walking to my neighborhood grocery store and I saw a photocopied piece of paper, partially ripped, taped to a lamp post. It was an announcement for meeting to be held in a few days time for anyone interested in helping Barack Obama win votes.
Larry Harvey in Mali
I ran into Larry Harvey and David Best while I was traveling in Mali. My dad took this picture. If you zoom in closely, you can see me reflected in his sunglasses.
February 2, 2008
Barack Obama on MTV
For those of you that didn't catch this today: