Gerrymandering - Geological Deceit?

The way congressional districts are drawn (link to your district map here [somehow .gov seems to have "lost" that page, so use the Wayback Machine copy]) raises the very serious specter that gerrymandering may thwart the will of the people.

The way districts are drawn can change everything, and even the courts have struggled with how to deal with gerrymandering [it got lost, so Wayback Machine copy].

The reason that gerrymandering is wrong is because it is anti-voter, to the point that even when the voters overwhelmingly favor a particular outcome, they can be thwarted by gerrymandering.

In other words, the geographical design of the districts is such that it thwarts, and is contrary to, the will of the people at large. It is designed to preserve incumbency and thwart the political notion of accountability.

Furthermore, districts are carved out in strange shapes that result in districts passing through many counties, instead of being defined and bounded by one or more counties.

Thus, malfunctioning electronic voting machines in one county may actually mean malfunctioning in several congressional districts even though only one county is involved. Congressional districts can pass through multiple counties, and each of those counties can theoretically and legally have a different way of doing an election. That is, different voting machines and balloting methods.

Multiple lawsuits or election challenges may be required to challenge bad election results. This intimidates fair elections, because only big money can hire an army of lawyers to fight that kind of unfairness.

We have a dictatorial situation any time the will of the people is thwarted by their government. There is no other name for it.

Some dictatorships are less vile than others, but calling a spade a spade is what I am talking about.

We have a dictatorship if the people cannot express their will by their vote, because the other side of that coin is that they are being dictated too, i.e., told who will be elected and when.

If the government allows us to vote but that vote is meaningless, the fact is that it is a dictatorship masking as democracy, because the people cannot change the government to suit their will.

One of the unique aspects of American government is that there is a part of that governmental process which is not intended to change easily, but instead is intended to remain stable or static.

That unchanging aspect of American government is in stark contrast with the part that is intended to change regularly.

It may be easier to distinguish the characteristics by recalling that the regular changes are intended to apply to people in office, but what is not intended to change are the inalienable rights of the people in the US Constitution as amended.

For example, we don't vote on whether or not freedom of speech or religion stay as our law from election to election. We decided that a long time ago and need not revisit those issues.

In fact the "americanness" or lack thereof of an idea, position, policy, or platform can quickly be discerned by asking if that idea, position, or policy tends to keep certain people in government, i.e. incumbent for a long time, or whether instead that idea, position, or policy keeps long held inalienable rights of the people written in the Constitution incumbent and long lasting.

The American way is that the people come first and that politicians come second. This is not an anti-politician sentiment, it is a wisdom of the ages that our forefathers gave us.

They understood that power tends to corrupt politicians because they become immersed in power. Thus, the people must regularly decide how long a politician stays in office by discerning how power has effected that politician.

Some politicians learn how to neutralize the corrupting influence of power and some do not. We vote the latter out and thereby cleanse our government as needed. Regularly.

For instance gerrymandering (designed to perpetuate incumbency) is contrary to the people's inalienable right to vote office holders out of office, and is contrary, therefore, to the American sentiment.

The next post in this series is here.

Schizonatural?

This post was moved to make room.

"Big" Blogs

This post was moved to make room.

Who Is "The Enemy"?

The US Constitution requires that every president take "the oath of office". That oath is:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.

(Article II, Section 1). The words "enemy", whether domestic or foreign, do not appear in the oath.

Job one then, the only thing a president swears or affirms he or she will do, is "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States".

It would seem then that the enemy is anyone who would damage the US Constitution. An "enemy combatant", by extension, would be anyone who would damage the US Constitution by combat.

The federal court in Washington is giving the new Obama administration an opportunity to define the term.

The Bush regime defined it as anyone the president says is an "enemy combatant" whether they did combat against the US Constitution or not. Not so clear.

What is clear is that a person can obviously be an enemy or an enemy combatant, depending on whether or not combat is involved.

I have a hunch that the new Obama administration will say "enemy combatant" is any non-citizen who seeks to harm the US Constitution by combat.

There is another part of constitutional law that deals with citizens who would take up arms against the US Constitution. It is called treason.

Treason is mentioned in Art. I, Sec. 6, Art. II, Sec. 4, and is defined as:

Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.

The Congress shall have Power to declare the Punishment of Treason, but no Attainder of Treason shall work Corruption of Blood, or Forfeiture except during the Life of the Person attainted

(Article III, Section 3). Since Article III is the one that deals with the Judicial Branch, the courts, it would seem that such behaviour is for the courts to handle, not for military commissions or tribunals to mumbo jumbo through.

The military is for military matters, and the courts are for judicial matters.

Stay focused.

Control Alt Delete

Look out.

Here comes the blue screen pink slips for 5,000 Microsoft employees. Yes, Bush and Company even got to Microsoft, home of the wealthiest man on earth.

The hangover from the drunken Bush brawl will last a long time.

And the mental drunks in that regime, that nightmare for America, and the cronies still in government who enabled it, will blame the doctors and nurses who are trying to revive America. And through propaganda they will try to minimize the Bush years of damage.

"Somebody else did it" is the new GOP mantra.

Republicans in the Congress, have you no shame?

I Feel Free

Somehow a feeling of freedom seems to be growing in our nation.

Are we really a nation of peace, fairness, and prosperity?

Do we really care for other nations, peoples, and places?

Do we really care about keeping our planet habitable for the human and other species?

In the last few days I have felt like a political spring is coming; after a cold, brutal, and uncaring winter.

America is stirring and that is a good thing.

Big Brother Is A Republican

It is all coming out in the wash.

Where there is smoke there always is some fire.

New information shows that wire tapping has been going on and that it was ordered by Bush and Cheney.

But what is shocking is that it was to a degree that would make the K.G.B. blush:

Former National Security Agency analyst Russell Tice, who helped expose the NSA's warrantless wiretapping in December 2005, has now come forward with even more startling allegations. Tice told MSNBC's Keith Olbermann on Wednesday that the programs that spied on Americans were not only much broader than previously acknowledged but specifically targeted journalists.

"The National Security Agency had access to all Americans' communications -- faxes, phone calls, and their computer communications," Tice claimed. "It didn't matter whether you were in Kansas, in the middle of the country, and you never made foreign communications at all. They monitored all communications."

(Spy Becomes Whistleblower, emphasis added). These crimes cannot stand or our nation will be damaged further.

Prosecution must take place.

GOP Soft on Crime

It is a crime to torture.

Bush and Cheney did not know that.

They didn't know anything they didn't want to know and will never know anything they don't want to know. That is how it is with all psychotics.

The Attorney General nominee Holder is being pressured by senators in the GOP. They want him to NOT prosecute anyone who committed the crime of torture.

Torture is a special crime to the GOP senators.

The D.O.J. has been The Department of Just Us ... Isn't that special?

It is time to bring back America's Department of Justice.

White House & Capitol Built By Slaves !

The White House was built by slave labour. But now a daughter, yes a descendant of one of those slaves lives in the White House. Amazing!

We still have the records with the names of the slaves and the owners who were paid for the work their slaves did. The First Lady is a descendant of those slaves:

Did you know that slaves helped build the White House and the U.S. Capitol? Or that right in front of where Barack Obama is going to take his oath of office used to be a tent city for slaves and workers?

(Slaves Built White House and U.S. Capitol [it got "lost", so Wayback Machine Version]). America has moved on ... so ...

Imagine blogging on The People's Blog ...

Imagine the government allowing your input ...

Imagine change in action in your country and your world so that you can watch executive orders [it got lost, so Wayback Machine Version] as they unfold ...

It is enough to inspire Americans to hold out hope over fear.

Freeze ... hands up ... move away from the regs !

Rahm Emanuel is the new White House Chief of Staff.

Today, in his first day of office, he put a freeze on all Bush administrative regulations until they are reviewed.

This was reported on Countdown With Keith Olberman, MSNBC.

If so, it shows that Obama delegates and that he intends to look at all things bushie.

Then fix them many at a time.

Update: A copy of the memo in PDF format is available.

Flight 44

Oh what a relief it is.

Now we have a chance.

That seems to have been the feeling of the hundreds of thousands or millions in Washington today. It was great to find we still have a chance.

Bush did not completely destroy us. But is is not over yet.

One thing is absolutely sure ... it was too close for comfort.

Inauguration Day 2009 - The 'Rebellion' Strikes Back

Why are we so glad and why is there palpable joy in the crowds in Washington today?

After all, we have massive deficits in the federal and state budgets, the economy is dangerously sick, torture, unending wars, and a reputation so low in the world that even Libya's Qadafi never had to suffer it.

There is so much joy because the people sense that some very bad players are leaving power and some very good players are taking over that power.

It is a reason to rejoice. We still have a chance to turn this baby around and find America once again.

But we all know, and our new President Obama has said, we are in this together and it will take all of us to get ourselves back home.

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Today will the "progressive" blogs which I fingered in this Dredd Blog thread play like they do not allow hate speech on their blogs?

Martin Luther King, Jr. gave our nation many priceless gifts. On the other hand those who opposed him and civil rights back then tried to steal our soul.

The "progressive" blogs that allow hate speech today are lost and will never find America until they reject hate speech.

They are failing but America is alive to live another MLK day.

Psyops Psyche!

The masters of "psyops" are simply going by the book.

The scope of their planning boggles the mind of most.

But many are aware of it:

And one of the striking features of the modern period is the institutionalization of that process, so that we now have huge industries deceiving the public and they're very conscious about it, the public relations industry. Interestingly, this developed in the freest countries in Britain and the US roughly around time of WWI, when it was recognized that enough freedom had been won that people could no longer be controlled by force. So modes of deception and manipulation had to be developed in order to keep them under control.

(Noam Chomsky, emphasis added). Psyops are in plain site and invisible all at the same time.

The psyops folk are good at their craft.

You underestimate them at your peril.

However, they have not figured out how to change the fundamental mistrust Americans have in governmental power ... so the classic "power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely" is still believed by a majority of the public.

But the psyops folks have weakened that sentiment by a massive strike of anti-conspiracy theory infusions into the public arena for years now.

If your reaction is a "conspiracy theory" one liner, you have illustrated that point.

I mean, only denial would not allow one to go to the Internet links provided in this thread.

Visit them to see the massive evidence of institutional psyops.

They are so for real.

These psyops have been debilitating in many areas, and once lost, is difficult to turn around and regain the territory that was lost to psyops.

People like to think they are correct and therefore, in general, tend to support the status quo.

Psyops folks are well aware of all of this, and have untold billions of dollars at their disposal, as well as many military and other universities and schools to use.

And with those mental warfare weapons being spread via the Main Stream Media each and every day they are free to advance their agenda to new areas.

And they certainly do (Info Wars, Pentagon News Control Operations, Symposia).

The first phase of any psyop mental coup involves capturing the mind. This is pure hardcore military doctrine:

Capture their minds and their hearts will follow ...
Psychological Operations (PSYOP) or Psychological Warfare (PSYWAR) is simply learning everything about your target enemy, their beliefs, likes, dislikes, strengths, weaknesses, and vulnerabilities. Once you know what motivates your target, you are ready to begin psychological operations.

(Psywarrior, see also Air University Psyops). And they do know all that about anyone they want to know it about these daze (yes, daze not days).

Open Thread

Share any subject under the sun with the rest of us.

Carpet Baggage

Some of the leaders of the Election Integrity movement ("EI") currently in vogue are struggling to make it appear that they are in it for the money.

They make movies about themselves, appear on talk shows about themselves, promote themselves, fight with other EI movement leaders, fight legislation that would improve things, and above all seek to generate a following. A following to support them. "Follow me to truth" is their mantra.

Since that style is not bottom up, it has gone "bottoms up" in its effectiveness and impact on the problems they whine about. If you get my drift, they give new meaning to grass roots or bottom up movement.

Like the infamous "Decider" they have generated a top down mechanism and the results have yet to trickle down to electronic voting machines.

They likewise have failed to explain why their demands for paper ballots is the way to election heaven. After all, the people of the United States and the whole world in general are happy with the November election results.

And the only election still mired up in recounts and lawsuits in the style of Bush v Gore is a paper ballot election in Minnesota. That state uses paper ballots by law. But that election is the only undecided election in the happiest election in decades.

The origins of the movement began with more integrity. In 1985, for instance, they were getting the attention of the New York Times through meaningful articles, and they had a type of influence that would get things done more for the voters than for themselves.

Even the evil empire's DRE machines were eschewed long before the current crop was born (1989 Electronic DRE Hoodwinks).

The electronic voting machine (EVM) watchdogs twenty and more years ago were saying what was said before congressional committees in the past few years:

He pointed a thumb at the floor. "When we first started looking at this issue, back in the middle seventies, we found there were a lot of these systems that were vulnerable to fraud and out-and-out error," he said.

(1988 Article by Dugger, emphasis added). You can shock the hell out of the EI audience (who think they started the movement yesterday) with these quotes from a 1988 official report:

4.13 Summary Of Problem Types

4.13.1 Insufficient Pre-election Testing
4.13.2 Failure to Implement an Adequate Audit Trail
4.13.3 Failure to Provide for a Partial Manual Recount
4.13.4 Inadequate Ballots or Ballot-Reader Operation
4.13.5 Inadequate Security and Management Control
4.13.6 Inadequate Contingency Planning
4.13.7 Inadequate System Acceptance Procedures

Concern had been heightened by a series of articles published in the summer of 1985 in the New York Times. The articles cited statements by two computer experts reporting that a computer program widely used for vote-tallying was vulnerable to tampering. Several elections were identified in which losing candidates claimed that it would be possible to fraudulently alter the computer programs that were used in their contests.

(NIST Report 1988, emphasis added). No one mentioned that twenty years is enough to have more than "suggested rules" which are admittedly inadequate ... which election war lords are ignoring anyway.

It seems that no matter what company one goes to to have an EVM certified, one person does the certification. How large of a "conspiracy" is that anyway:

There are currently three certified laboratories that collectively constitute the “Independent Testing Authority” or ITA: Ciber, Wyle Labs, and Systest. Arguably this designation is a triple oxymoron. Their “independence” is compromised by the fact that the testing that takes place is paid for by the vendors, in effect making them the ITA’s “clients”.

The testing process that does take place and the standards to which voting machines are tested are considerably weaker than other accepted standards for the security of computer-based products. The testing is done in secret and detailed results of the testing are not released for public scrutiny. As for the ITA being “authoritative” there’s little to support such a designation.

While the testing of voting system software has been done by several different companies over the past decade the one consistent element is that the testing has always been done by an individual named Shawn Southworth … operating out of Huntsville, Alabama and currently employed by Wyle Labs. Who is Shawn Southworth and what are his qualifications? We are not allowed to know. Like the rest of the process, Mr. Southworth’s credentials are shrouded in secrecy.

(The Lone Tester, bold added). Doesn't it appear that the movement related to the EVM world has failed to help congress?

All federal bills designed to improve the situation failed because of factions within the movement which have been engendered by these so called leaders.

Even though some of their websites are prospering (Velvet Revolution, Black Box Voting), their election integrity results are not. It seems so less than yesterday.

The grass roots folks in the EI movement deserve better, because the movement is still valid. Throw the bums out.