Joe Wurzelbacher's personal information was rummaged through by partisans in three state agencies.

For no legitimate purpose, with no legitimate reason for a state investigation, records were illegally accessed in the Toldedo Police Department, he office of the (state) Attorney General, and, for reasons unknown, the Cuyahoga County Child Enforcement Agency (just to let you know how vicious a fishing expedition they were willing to conduct).

There can be little doubt that Obama partisans were illegally accessing private information about a citizen.

Should be something about this popping up in the next 2-3 days.

Since Joe has already been "vetted" and has had an opposition research dossier built up on him through illegal access of government records, I guess there's no reason why he shouldn't go ahead and run for Congress.

And then chair the investigations.

I know this breaks an internet rule, but, hey -- if you've earned it, wear it proudly. more...

Posted by: Ace at 03:17 PM | Comments (68)
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And they know a bit about manipulation of public thought.

ussia's Central Elections Committee has also assigned its Centre for the Study of Election Technology to review the U. S. election campaign.

A preliminary report prepared by the group, after studying U. S. media coverage on the NBC, CBS and ABC television networks since September, has concluded Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential candidate, has a "hidden advantage."

A preliminary report obtained by the Russian daily online newspaper Kommersant concludes the U. S. television networks devoted more time to Republican candidate John McCain, but "the material that makes up that time difference can be assessed as negative."

The Russian study also said Sarah Palin, the Republican vice-presidential pick, has been subjected to more criticism than her Democratic counterpart, Senator Joe Biden.

It adds that when the presidential candidates' platforms are described, Mr. Obama's is described last, to make it look better, and when platforms are compared, "Obama's is presented preferable."

The observations appear to ape western criticisms of Russia's elections in which international observers have complained Russia's television networks are overwhelmingly pro-Kremlin and offer unbalanced and unfair coverage of opposition candidates.

Note they're releasing this defensively, to prove that Russia's own media abuses are just par for the course, no worse than that in the US.

And, apart from the murder of opposition journalists, they're pretty much right.

Thanks to locus.

Posted by: Ace at 02:53 PM | Comments (49)
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Almost exact, down to the tens digit.

Meanwhile, John Fuckin' Elway is stumping for McCain.

more...

Posted by: Ace at 02:28 PM | Comments (67)
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Another black eye.

Dr. K has a suggestion:

Today I called the local NPR affilliate during their pledge week and told them I was Doodad Pro and I wanted to make a donation. The guy actually took my name as Doodad Pro. He asked for an address, I gave him "Loving You", which he entered into his computer. Then there was a pause.

I told him that if Doodad Pro was man enough to donate over $10K to Obama, then surely they could take my measly $5 donation and suggested that NPR actually look into this.

I would encourage everyone to do this. It will seriously waste their time during their pledge drives.

Indeed.

Posted by: Ace at 02:21 PM | Comments (27)
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Smoking hot. All worth reading, but I'll quote the end:

I also happen to believe that most reporters, whatever their political bias, are human torpedoes . . .and, had they been unleashed, would have raced in and roughed up the Obama campaign as much as they did McCainÂ’s. ThatÂ’s what reporters do, I was proud to have been one, and IÂ’m still drawn to a good story, any good story, like a shark to blood in the water.

So why werenÂ’t those legions of hungry reporters set loose on the Obama campaign? Who are the real villains in this story of mainstream media betrayal?

The editors. The men and women you donÂ’t see; the people who not only decide what goes in the paper, but what doesnÂ’t; the managers who give the reporters their assignments and lay-out the editorial pages. They are the real culprits.

Why? I think I know, because had my life taken a different path, I could have been one: Picture yourself in your 50s in a job where youÂ’ve spent 30 years working your way to the top, to the cockpit of power . . . only to discover that youÂ’re presiding over a dying industry. The Internet and alternative media are stealing your readers, your advertisers and your top young talent. Many of your peers shrewdly took golden parachutes and disappeared. Your job doesnÂ’t have anywhere near the power and influence it did when your started your climb. The Newspaper Guild is too weak to protect you any more, and there is a very good chance youÂ’ll lose your job before you cross that finish line, ten years hence, of retirement and a pension.

In other words, you are facing career catastrophe -and desperate times call for desperate measures. Even if you have to risk everything on a single Hail Mary play. Even if you have to compromise the principles that got you here. After all, newspapers and network news are doomed anyway - all that counts is keeping them on life support until you can retire.

And then the opportunity presents itself: an attractive young candidate whose politics likely matches yours, but more important, he offers the prospect of a transformed Washington with the power to fix everything that has gone wrong in your career. With luck, this monolithic, single-party government will crush the alternative media via a revived Fairness Doctrine, re-invigorate unions by getting rid of secret votes, and just maybe, be beholden to people like you in the traditional media for getting it there.

And besides, you tell yourself, itÂ’s all for the good of the country . . .

I think that's about right-- they've decided to burn the last drop of their credibility to vindicate their own personal politics.

People get into different forms of work for different reasons. It's not just money. And people attracted to journalism are, of course, bewitched primarily by the thought of changing the world.

Well, they're going all-in on this one.

As this reporter notes, however, the odds of Barack Obama having a successful presidency, even if elected, are quite a bit short of 50:50.

Bad bet.

Thanks to CJ.

Posted by: Ace at 02:07 PM | Comments (62)
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Yeah.

There you go.

Thanks to Mary.

Posted by: Ace at 01:58 PM | Comments (25)
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The important things in life.

Jets by 11? I don't fuckin think so.

Dave's picks, to give you a star to guide by... more...

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 01:53 PM | Comments (6)
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Well who wouldn't?

Arthur writes, quoting the above-linked article:

Trouser-moisteningly terrifying news broke this week, as it emerged that sinister forces within the US military are looking to develop a remorseless robotic wolfpack capable of hunting down "a non-cooperative human subject" in "an indoor environment".

Typical robots for this type of activity are expected to weigh less than 100 Kg and the team would have three to five robots.

...

Not only will the skies of tomorrow be black with automated armadas of Reaper slay-planes, Fire Scout unmanned kill-choppers and possible crewless raygun cyber bombers; not only will thousands of years of human civilisation rapidly be reduced to smoking rubble; but even the option of cowering like a hunted beast in a cellar, sewer or tumbled monument has now been snatched away. Those hoping to survive for years after the machine uprising, subsisting on refuse and scuttling rat-like through the ruins until loneliness and horror finally bring merciful insanity and death, have been balked. Soulless squads of steel stormtrooper assassins will prowl the shattered cities of humanity like hunting velociraptor packs, sniffing out and snuffing the cowering remnant meatsacks, until a lifeless Pax Robotica rules the entire Earth unchallenged.

I'll be in my bunk.

But there's more! Some Brit professor thinks these robot wolfpacks are just the first step.

Wright has also predicted the coming of "a modern techno-politics" deploying "machine operatives" and "self-deciding automated sentinels" armed with a terrifying sci-fi panoply of microwave rayguns, pulse lasers, tranq bombs, plasma-lightning mob blasters, "vortex energy rings" and sonic beam weapons.

Microwave rayguns
Pulse Lasers
Tranq Bombs
PLASMA-LIGHTNING MOB BLASTERS
V O R T E X E N E R G Y R I N G S
Sonic Beam Weapons

The future can't come fast enough!

Barney Frank just wrote to say that the future will be delayed pending further notice.

Posted by: Ace at 01:40 PM | Comments (32)
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So sayeth the editor of a Virginia newspaper, complaining his paper could not possibly assign a single reporter to do the eight hours of work necessary to have a national scoop.

Funny -- private citizens were able to prove this all in an hour.

But for this Virginia newspaperman, journalism now means "Wait for the AP to do it."

Oh, yeah -- I'm sure that's on the way.

Suggestion: Start calling local papers and tell them McCain is doing this. Gauge their interest. Record them.

Get them to do the legwork, checking McCain's site out, seeing if fake donations go through.

They won't. So eventually they'll call back, asking what's going on.

Then tell them you were wrong, it was Obama, not McCain.

And we'll see how their interest suddenly dissipates.

And see if they'll now try the same deal with Obama's site-- of course, they won't.

And then ask them why.

Posted by: Ace at 01:31 PM | Comments (24)
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Hillary supporters complained widely that unfair, repressive and even outright thuggish tactics were used to deprive them of the right to register their preference during the Democrat Primaries.

It has been mentioned here and elsewhere that when you go to vote, you should hang around nearby for a while and simply observe the situation.

Bring video recording equipment. Be respectful and unobtrusive.

You could even call up your municipality and volunteer to work the polls, and get a worm's eye view of the goings-on. Pay attention.

Every incremental contribution to fraud that Obama's folks racked up netted them an illegitimate victory.

Every small effort on the part of honest citizens can similarly add up to a massive movement to help keep elections legitimate.

And don't let anybody keep you from exercising your right to vote.

Posted by: LauraW at 01:30 PM | Comments (19)
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