Speaking of voter fraud:

“The South Carolina State Election Commission has just released its initial review of allegations from the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles that more than 950 deceased voters appeared to have ballots cast in their names after they died. The commission found that of the 207 cases reviewed, there was no evidence in 197 of them that fraudulent votes had been cast. The commission said that records in the other 10 cases were “insufficient to make a determination.”
. . .
“But in South Carolina, the issue is highly charged because the state is currently battling the Justice Department’s decision to block implementation of its new voter ID law. The allegations of “dead” people voting have fueled arguments that photo ID is needed to stop fraud at the polls. The Justice Department argues that the law is unnecessary and would discriminate against African-American voters who are less likely to have the required photo ID.”

LINK.

Speaking of on-line privacy:

“The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), which triggered the [congressional] hearing by publishing a trove of secret government documents in January, told Raw Story on Thursday that a second round of documents they’ve obtained directly contradicts testimony given on Feb. 16, showing that the DHS instructed their analysts to do exactly what the Department denied.

‘“There were several exchanges that they had with members of Congress in which they sort of distanced themselves from the idea — that they weren’t engaging in this monitoring of public reaction to government proposals,” McCall told Raw Story. “But that’s… Well, it’s not true, according to the documents we obtained.”’

LINK.

Is the Revolving Door Big Enough?: 400 Former House Staffers Registered to Lobby in Past 2 Years

41% went to lobbying firms, 21% to corps and 19% to business/trade associations.

LINK.

Case-history in how they do it:

Insight: Bankers escape big penalties in FDIC failed bank cases

LINK.

This is interesting:

Colombia wants to export military expertise

“Colombia has grown from being a recipient of U.S. mililtary aid to an ally that is able to share its military experience and knowledge with other countries in the Americas, the country’s defense minister said Friday.
“We want to contribute to the development of the capacity of other nations in the region, Central America and the Caribbean” in order to fight drug trafficking throughout the Americas, Defense Minister Juan Carlos Pinzon told reporters in Washington.”

LINK.

Could it possibly be related to this:

Guatemala pres: Drug war requires more than arms LINK.

which evoked this response:

Napolitano to visit Guatemala for talks on drugs LINK.

Spencer Ackerman jumps in to the Israel-firster debate on the side of the language police.

As someone who had one and didn’t like it, it would be just fine with me if vasectomies were outlawed :)

Seriously, when are we going wake up and realize that these culture war issues are diversions that the two parties trot out every couple of years to energize their bases.

Yawn.

Zi·on·ism (z-nzm) n. A Jewish movement that arose in the late 19th century in response to growing anti-Semitism and sought to reestablish a Jewish homeland in Palestine. Modern Zionism is concerned with the support and development of the state of Israel.

Example: Haim Saban is a Zionist and proud of it, so why use a silly euphemism like “Israel-firster”

I think we do recognize them as diversions by cynical politicians, bmull, but as the recent VA debacle illustrates, they can have very serious consequences.

Shepard Fairey will not go to prison. He already settled with AP in exchange for half the rights to his creation. No money was involved.

What AP should really be concerned about is advocacy sites editing AP articles to suit their slanted agenda. The result is then posted under the AP byline. I’ve seen this repeatedly, and it’s both confusing to readers and damaging to AP’s brand.

Hopefully the Administration’s insertion into the online privacy debate won’t end up making things even worse.

So… I guess you are new around here ;)

Yes, these are a kick in the ass for the lemmings.

Re Iran from the NYT this morning: “U.S. Agencies See No Move by Iran to Build a Bomb.” But I’m sure I heard a very different message from Brian Williams and Andrea Mitchell just last evening. So confusing! /s

Regarding the DOMA chronicles. . .

I’m not a lawyer but wonder how the House GOP appeals that DOMA issue in court. Wouldn’t there have to be a specific member(s) of that group having to demonstrate personal harm caused by overturning DOMA in order to have standing to appeal?

Wasn’t that the case, in a parallel sense, when ACA was set up and the juggernaut against it began? — there are three or four business owners lined up now (after some shuffling) to fill that “harmed party” slot.

Anyone here know how that works?

The soaring cost of prescription drugs hits the death chamber.
Maybe they can be imported from Canada Syria.

• This was the worst day for killings in the Koran burning protests in Afghanistan. This shows no sign of letting up

.

Are they trying to tell USA something? beyond, don’t burn our holy book?

Classic Maya Civilization Collapse Related to Modest Rainfall Reductions, Research Suggests
ScienceDaily (Feb. 23, 2012) — A new study reports that the disintegration of the Maya Civilization may have been related to relatively modest reductions in rainfall.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/02/120223142455.htm

Sometimes my imagination gets away from me. Last night I began wondering more about this incident.

Suppose this had happened on a military base in the US. Suppose it were also a reckless, unfortunate chain of events where nobody was injured or killed (at first), and there was no way to unwind it anyway. Were it something potentially disturbing to the public, it would likely have been handled internally, covered up, and not unnecessarily “offered” to the media — unless media happened to be standing there, saw all, and had been watching every supposedly mundane jot and tittle of activity, eager for a scoop on anything. Note, I am not belittling the event in Afghanistan, but wondering about coincidences there.

The point here is just that the info chain in Afghanistan’s case remains murky this time — i.e., how the Korans were stored and why, how they wended their way into trash, who first noticed what they were once they were burned, who was the next to know, etc. The bad news seemed to spread with an almost implausible speed and efficiency, and with relish. Surely the actors in that chain knew the consequences would include anger, hatred, violence, probable loss of life, rather than mourning, peaceful protest, and the like. It begs the question of whether those consequences were planned and sought beforehand (or not), and by whom?

A copy of the manual is with the article:

Homeland Security Manual Lists Government Key Words For Monitoring Social Media, News

LINK.

Oh, no. Statute of limitations to the rescue.

Judges throw out Berlusconi bribery trial LINK.

This is pretty much always how Berlusconi manages to slip away.

Occupy Wall Street does not support that national convention in Philadelphia. I don’t know why the media decided to report about it the other day, but the group that organized that assembly is not part of OWS. They are a separate corporation.

From OWS Press Relations working group:

The 99% Declaration and its call for a “national general assembly” in Philadelphia in July is not affiliated with or endorsed by Occupy Wall Street, and the organizers’ plans blatantly contradict OWS’ stated principles.

NPR:

Occupy Wall Street tells The Associated Press that a national conference being planned in Philadelphia this summer was not approved by its General Assembly, meaning the group does not endorse it.

Interesting stuff out of Germany regarding Greece.

Obviously, this fellow is not a favorite of Merkel: German minister tells Greece to exit eurozone
LINK.

And surely no good will come from this: German Tax Collectors Are Volunteering For Duty In Greece, Uninvited LINK.

Oh, he’s slippery all right. Must have perfected that technique while doing all the bunga-bunga dancing.

coastal residents who are at risk from rising seal levels object to solution:

“In North America, offshore wind represents massive potential, yet little project momentum. The nascent industry may be gaining a foothold in the shallow waters off Europe, but that has yet to translate into the first installed development off the coast of the U.S.

So far, the U.S.-based projects with the deepest roots in the industry are also facing the fiercest objections from coastal residents.

Cape Wind on Horseshoe Shoal on Nantucket Sound continues to fight off legal challenges a decade after first proposing America’s first offshore wind farm.”

ttp://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2012/02/excellence-in-renewable-energy-awards-winners-innovation

NIMBY is everywhere, it seems.

Meanwhile, have you seen this, mafr? I was terrified of these things when I was a child, running around barefoot, but this is disturbing.

Toxic turtles, hunt related issues
“Testing done on snapping turtle road kill in Ontario found most of the creatures to be a toxic soup of PCBs and mercury, Ontario Nature Staff Ecologist John Urquhart says. . . . snapping turtles have been around for 40 million years but are now being pushed to the brink.”
LINK.

sad stuff. we have all the same crap in our bloodstream, tissues etc.