FURTHERMORE. . .

BRAD BLOG - Diebold seems to be embarrassing itself yet again by issuing
a statement calling for HBO to pull the [Diebold] documentary, or at
least run disclaimers before, after, and throughout the film. I've seen
it. If I were them, I'd try to do everything I could to keep America
from seeing the film, as well. "Truth and accurate reporting are the
biggest casualties of the film," Diebold Election System President David
Byrd is quoted as saying in the media release. But ironically, as The
Hollywood Reporter is reporting tonight, Byrd has not only never seen
the film, but his claims that the film is "riddled with errors and
slipshod reporting" apparently refer to a completely different film.
Confusing a different film called Votergate with the short film called
Votergate, which was an early version of the film now known as Hacking
Democracy, Byrd writes a two page letter to HBO refuting several points
in the other film!

http://www.bradblog.com/?p=3708

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WONKETTE - Katherine Harris has a very, very specific Starbucks order:
"Triple Venti, no fat, no foam, extra hot, with pink sugar." It is her
fuel, it is what keeps her going. If she doesn't get it, she gets angry.
Which might be how her cash-strapped campaign ended up spending almost a
thousand dollars at Starbucks this fall alone. The FEC data is
[available], but a brilliant (and seemingly unemployed) Wonkette
Operative crunched the numbers for us:

Total Starbucks runs, July-September: 133

Total cost to the campaign: $948.05

http://www.wonkette.com/politics/katherine-harris/katherine-harris-pink-sugar-
fix-pricey-habit-212038.php


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HOUSTON JANITORS GO ON STRIKE
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/03/us/03labor.html?_r=1&ref=us&oref=slogin


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PLANET ARK - Solar power will become economically viable and available
to almost anyone in the next 10 to 15 years, Travis Bradford, a former
corporate buyout specialist, says in his book "Solar Revolution." An
interview

http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/38793/story.htm

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JENNIFER BARTOLI, MCGILL DAILY - "The bad news," investigative reporter
Seymour Hersh told a Montreal audience last Wednesday, "is that there
are 816 days left in the reign of King George II of America." The good
news? "When we wake up tomorrow morning, there will be one less day." .
. . "In Washington, you can't expect any rationality. I don't know if
he's in Iraq because God told him to, because his father didn't do it,
or because it's the next step in his 12-step Alcoholics Anonymous
program," he said. . . "You have a collapsed Congress, you have a
collapsed press. The military is going to do what the President wants,"
Hersh said. "How fragile is democracy in America, if a president can
come in with an agenda controlled by a few cultists?"

http://www.mcgilldaily.com/view.php?aid=5450

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REUTERS - A leaked video of the lavish wedding laid on by Myanmar junta
supremo Than Shwe for his daughter has sparked outrage among ordinary
people in the military-ruled and deeply impoverished nation. In a
10-minute clip posted on the Internet, bride Thandar Shwe is seen decked
out in layers of pearls and sparkling stones that appear to be diamonds,
and standing beside her husband as he pours champagne over a cascade of
wine glasses. After a reception for hundreds of guests at which a
five-tiered wedding cake is cut, the happy couple are seen posing before
an ornate gold-braid bridal suite bed, complete with red canopy
stretching up to the ceiling. Even before the video surfaced, the July
wedding was the talk of the town in Yangon, the former Burma's leafy,
colonial-era capital, amid reports of gifts including luxury cars and
houses worth $50 million -- nearly three times the 2005 health budget
for a population of 53 million.

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=oddlyEnoughNews&storyid=
2006-11-02T122821Z_01_BKK17382_RTRUKOC_0_US-MYANMAR-WEDDING.xml


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UPI - Saying it was dissatisfied with other choices, the newspaper of
Illinois' third-largest city endorsed Green Party candidate Rich Whitney
for governor. "We believe Whitney ... could clean up state government
while leading Illinois toward school finance reform, job growth,
environmental responsibility and social justice," the Rockford
Register-Star said in its endorsement Wednesday. The newspaper bypassed
endorsing Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich, under federal investigation
for corruption, and Republican challenger Judy Barr-Topinka, whose "main
qualification is having a lower indictment potential than the
incumbent," the Register-Star said. Whitney, a Carbondale, Ill.,
attorney, is a viable candidate, the newspaper said, because of his
position on education financing, energy and the state's transportation
system. He also did not accept corporate donations, another plus, the
newspaper said. . . A recent poll showed Whitney had 13 percent support.
He needs to pull in at least 5 percent on Tuesday to ensure that Green
Party candidates could be on the ballot under the same requirements as
Democrats and Republicans.

http://insider.washingtontimes.com/articles/view_upi.php?StoryID=20061101-041323-7141r


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THE MICHIGAN INITIATIVE to ban affirmative action in public employment
is losing ground. 44$ now opposed it against 40% who support it.

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MEMBERS OF SKULL & BONES
http://home.comcast.net/~plutarch/skullbones.html

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CORRUPT CONTRACTOR DATABASE
http://www.pogo.org/db/

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AP - Nationwide, more than 30 percent of the roughly 6,100 legislative
seats on the ballot already have been decided because the candidates are
running unopposed, according to an Associated Press analysis. In South
Carolina, 73 percent of the candidates for state House and Senate have
no opponent. In Arkansas, 70 percent. In Georgia, 68 percent. In North
Carolina, half. . . In 11 states, more than half of the races for state
House and Senate are uncontested.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/10/27/running.unopposed.ap/index.html

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BALLOT ACCESS - New York state uses a party-column or party-row type of
ballot. The order of parties on November 7 will be: Republican,
Democratic, Independence, Conservative, Working Families, Green,
Libertarian, Rent is Too Damn High/Socialist Equality, and Socialist
Workers.
The old-fashioned lever machines only have 9 columns or 9 rows, so the
Board has put the Rent is Too Damn High Party (which only has nominees
for Governor & Lt. Governor) in the same column/row as the Socialist
Equality Party (which only has a candidate for US Senate). This is the
last year New York or any other state will be using old-fashioned
mechanical voting machines.

http://www.ballot-access.org

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MSNBC - In New York, the [National Republican Campaign Committee] ran an
ad accusing Democratic House candidate Michael A. Arcuri, a district
attorney, of using taxpayer dollars for phone sex. "Hi, sexy," a dancing
woman purrs. "You've reached the live, one-on-one fantasy line."
It turns out that one of Arcuri's aides had tried to call the state
Division of Criminal Justice, which had a number that was almost
identical to a porn line. The misdial cost taxpayers $1.25.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15435421/

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PAUL LEVY, PUBLIC CITIZEN - A small environmental group in Texas with
the cute name of "Downwinders at Risk" created a large styrofoam effigy
of Texas Governor Rick Perry kissing a dirty smokestack that emblazoned
with logos of several Texas polluters. After the effigy was displayed
outside a gubernatorial campaign debate, one of the polluters, TXU,
threatened to sue for trademark infringement and dilution unless DAR
removes its logo from the effigy. We have explained to the lawyer who
signed this threat that citizens are allowed to use logos to depict
companies they want to criticize, and that in any event the trademark
laws don't apply given the completely noncommercial use and the utter
impossibility that anyone would be confused into thinking that TXU
sponsors DAR's message.

http://www.citizen.org/litigation

http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/texassouthwest/stories/
DN-perryfloat_24tex.ART.State.Edition1.3e68694.html


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THE DECLINE OF SHOP CLASS
http://www.thenewatlantis.com/archive/13/crawford.htm

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WHY RUNOFFS DON'T WORK
http://fairvote.org/?page=1489

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INSTANT RUNOFF VOTING EXPLAINED ON YOU TUBE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqblOq8BmgM

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