Pete the Elder

I have had both computer and internet probelms off and on the past few months, but I now have a good working computer again so I will try to start posting again. Here are two good random music videos, the first a rap video Hayek vs Keynes face off: Fear the boom and bust” and a curling tribute video
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If you live in Texas you can vote early already, with the final election day next Tuesday, Here are my endorsements and a good site that summarizes the different ballot proposals.

For Governor I am voting for Hutchinson. I think she will be a better governor than Perry, but that in itself is not saying much. I voted for Perry last election because the other candidates were terrible, but I think Hutchinson could actually do a good job. Perry with the help of our legislature has helped keep a balanced budget (Texas is one of only about 6 states this year to do that), but I was disappointed with the poor job Perry did with the Youth Commission scandal and it is time for some new blood as Perry has now passed George W. Bush’s record as the longest serving Texas Governor.

Propositions:

1 Yes. Protects military bases through bonds.
2 Yes. Provides for more accurate home appraisals.
3 Yes. Provides consistent home appraisals
4 Yes. Texas really needs more top tier state schools.
5 Yes. Helps rural counties with appraisals
6 No. Bonds should not be issued without voter approval.
7 Yes. Lets National Guard officers run for office
8 No. This is the federal government’s responsibility and threatens the state’s balanced budget
9 Yes. Makes open beaches part of constitution
10 Yes. Extends terms for members of emergency services boards
11 Yes. Prohibits Kelo style takings for private development and other eminent domain abuses

Banjos!

A California judge has overturned a California cities use of Red Light Cameras:

A second appellate ruling has struck down a California city’s red light camera program as illegal. On September 22, the California Superior Court for the County of San Mateo, Appellate Department overturned motorist Al Bullock’s $387 conviction for making a right turn on red. Presiding Judge Mark R. Forcum concisely found that San Mateo’s cost neutral contract with an Australian company, Redflex Traffic Systems, was in direct violation of state law.

Here is a depressing blog post from redstate on how the State of Virginia has made it near impossible for military voters to vote overseas, by not providing ballots with the right signature forms and by sending out absentee ballots as late as possible. As of a few days ago, both New Jersey and Virginia had still not sent out ballots to overseas military ballots. Related to this, the Democrats are blocking a bill to use express mail to send military ballots back to registrars:

Third, if ballots were even to be sent out in a reasonable time, a question is them getting back in time. Rep. Kevin McCarthy, Rep. Dan Boren, Sen. John Cornyn, and Sen. Mark Begich have a proposal to have DoD pay for ballots to be returned by express mail, but Steny Hoyer and Nancy Pelosi are blocking consideration in the House, even though it passed the Senate last year.

I have not done an animals attack post in a while. When I visit the zoo, I see the zoo keepers actually lock the bears up, instead of tossing dog food in the corner. From CBS3 in Philadelphia:

Authorities say Kelly Ann Walz, 37, of Ross Township in Monroe County, was attacked by her 350 pound pet bear while cleaning its cage at about 5 p.m. Sunday. Walz had reportedly thrown a shovelful of dog food to one side of the cage to distract the bear while she cleaned the other side, but the animal turned on her and attacked.

I taught my 3 year the word trebuche using these videos:

“He said red, yellow, black or white/All are equal in his sight. Barack Hussein Obama“

Edit: The school desperately does not want you to be able to see this video (their first complaint was that it was released without school authorization, not that their employees had acted inappropriately). Youtube took down the first one I embedded, so this is not the original one I posted, but l will keep posting since I think it is important to see what some public schools are doing to the children in they have been entrusted with.

Previous we love the leader post

Breitbart has the details on the latest ACORN related fraud, including up to 50 forged absentee ballots in New York, forged by an ACORN front organization. There has now been a special prosecutor appointed to investigate just how bad the fraud is.

And here is a story about an ACORN voter registration trial in Las Vegas, where one ACORN worker faces 13 felony counts:

As the field director of ACORN’s Las Vegas office, he brainstormed a way to motivate meagerly paid canvassers: If they turned in 21 or more registration cards in a day, they were each given a $5 bonus.

“Hey, it’s Las Vegas,” Edwards testified Tuesday. “It’s blackjack.”

But Edwards’ “blackjack bonuses,” which he bragged about to other ACORN offices, broke the law, state prosecutors say. Nevada bars quotas or cash incentives in voter sign-up efforts: Officials fear they could lead to false registrations.

On Tuesday, a judge began considering whether Edwards’ former supervisor, Amy Busefink, and the Assn. of Community Organizations for Reform Now will stand trial on 13 low-level felony charges of compensation for registration of voters.

That story also mentions that Bank of America, along with the IRS and the Census Bureau, have severed their ties with ACORN.

I have been pretty busy recently and have neglected the blog, but here are some more ACORN stories in the news. The first is the big one, where ACORN staff in New York, Baltimore, and Washington DC were caught on hidden camera giving tax evasion, housing, and money laundering advice to a “pimp” and his prostitute on how to run a brothel filled with thirteen 15 year old girls from El Salvador.

I personally like the coat the “performance artists” manager is wearing.

Congress, along with several governors, are moving to make sure ACORN no longer gets our tax dollars and the Census Bureau has decided that ACORN will no longer be used in the next census. Reuters reports

A poverty-rights group that has drawn the ire of conservatives suffered another setback in Washington on Monday when the U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly to deny it access to federal housing funds.

The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, which helps poor people fight foreclosures and fix tax problems, has received more than $53 million in U.S. funds since 1994, but conservatives’ charges of widespread fraud have begun to impact its reputation in the capital.

Last week, the U.S. Census Bureau told the group it did not want its help boosting participation in next year’s census.

Ken Blackwell makes a pretty convincing case that it is time to open up a RICO investigation of ACORN. Although considering the Obama administrations record in not prosecuting New Mexico governor Bill Richardson and the members of the New Black Panther party who threatened voters last election, I would not hold my breath on Attorney General Holder launching an investigation. I think because of Obama’s past ties to ACORN and the fact that he used to be their lawyer calls for the appointment of a independent prosecutor.

Even Jon Stewart realizes this is a problem with the “Audacity of Ho’s”:

In Miami invesitgators are once again looking into 11 ACORN workers who falsified voter registration records. The Miami Herald reports:

Eleven people hired to register potential voters in Miami-Dade County before last year’s presidential election were being sought Wednesday for falsifying hundreds of voter registration cards.

The Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office issued arrest warrants for each of the 11 suspects, all of whom worked for the local chapter of the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, (ACORN).

In honor of the 30th anniversary of the moon landing here is a clip of Buzz Aldrin punching a guy who says he never walked on the moon. Oh and there is also a video of the Apollo 11 launch.

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We can all do our part to keep health care costs down. Here is an example of how you can help!

Here are some creative new videos that are very literal.

“Random use of candles, empty bottles, and cloth and can you see me through this fan?”.

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In positive news, it looks like Texas might be getting rid of red light cameras in the near future. I do not like them, mainly because they present several due process and equal protection problems since you are imposing the burden of proof on the driver, who may not even be in the car at the time of the alleged violation and in some cases it is cheaper to pay a fine than to defend yourself in court. Or as my friend Dan learned the hard way, you may not even own the car anymore, but that will not prevent you getting a ticket when someone runs a red light in your old car. Also many municipalities have lowered the time of the amber lights at intersections after installing the cameras in order to generate more revenue, which is appalling since it increases the chance of accidents.

Some Texas cities are trying to lock in last minutes long term camera contracts to get past the legislative ban, which will also ad time to the amber lights for the existing cameras:

As some Texas legislators try to phase out the use of red light cameras, several North Texas cities are countering with new contracts that would have them using the technology for decades more.

The Plano City Council on Tuesday extended its red light contract through 2012. On Thursday, Richardson officials are expected to vote on authorizing a 10-year contract, while Irving will consider an extension to 2013.

Meanwhile, contracts already approved in Mesquite, Arlington, Southlake and University Park are for as much as 20 years.

The cities are working against a Monday deadline set out in a version of the Texas Department of Transportation reauthorization bill. The bill’s contents are in flux, but one possible outcome of the legislation would outlaw new cameras.

In Arizona one judge is standing up to what he sees as unconstitutional uses of speed cameras in his state and he has thrown out thousands of camera tickets. There is also a disturbing case of using the cameras as a way to arrest political opponents:

Arrowhead Justice Court Judge John C. Keegan last week dismissed the photo radar-based reckless driving charges filed against the Executive Director of the Arizona Republican Party. On May 6, officers from the Arizona Department of Public Safety (DPS), which is headed by Democrat Roger Vanderpool, showed up at the state GOP headquarters with a speed camera ticket in hand to arrest Brett Mecum, 30. Judge Keegan took the case as an opportunity to reinforce his previous judgment that the Arizona law governing freeway speed cameras is unconstitutional.

“Speed cameras along Arizona’s freeways are an aspect of everyday life for a vast majority of Arizonans,” Keegan wrote. “It is difficult to fathom a trip anywhere within the Phoenix metropolitan area without the omnipresence of the camera. If the statute authorizing the cameras is unconstitutional, the Arizona legislature, by enacting this statute, violates the equal protection rights of thousands of Arizonans every day.”

Keegan argued that it was unlikely that an ordinary motorist could mount a proper legal challenge to the program given that legal fees would amount to thousands of dollars while the maximum fine set by law for a freeway ticket is just $181.50. The state’s freeway program does not issue points against drivers’ licenses.

I really think we need to go back to the practice around the time of the founding where many civil fines would be donated to take care of the poor, which removed the incentive of local governments to abuse fines as a revenue source.

I have been pretty busy lately, but I took today off from work since the wife is at a conference and I needed to take care of our son. So as he runs around outside I am watching him and updating the blog for the first time in a month. So here are a couple of new voting news stories:

First off is Minnesota, where it looks like the Minnesota senate race may be decided by dead voters. Last years senate election is still being fought over in the courts and Minnesota already has very limited fraud protections since anyone can register on the day of the election and can do so without photo ID. It looks like several thousand dead people were also left on the Minnesota voting rolls and it has been confirmed that some votes were cast in the name of these people after they had died. Here are more details:

Today, Minnesota Majority announced the discovery of individuals who were deceased prior to November 4, 2008, yet have voter history records on the secretary of state’s files that indicate they voted in the 2008 General Election.

Minnesota Majority employed a data enhancement service to flag potentially deceased individuals on Minnesota’s voter registration file. Over 2,800 individuals who voted in the 2008 general election were flagged as being “deceased” prior to the election. Minnesota Majority then selected a sample of a dozen records for additional investigation. A representative drove to addresses listed on voter registration records. Interviews conducted with residents or neighbors confirmed that at least 5 individuals from the sample were deceased, the latest having died in March 2007.

In Ohio three Obama campaign workers were convicted of voting there even though they were not residents:

A Franklin County judge told three out-of-state campaigners for Barack Obama who voted here illegally that they should have known better.

The three chose Ohio over their home states — where Obama was likely to win — because they wanted to swing the Electoral College vote toward their candidate, Common Pleas Judge Charles A. Schneider said.

He ordered a year’s probation, a $1,000 fine and a 60-day suspended jail sentence for Daniel “Tate” Hausman, 32, and Amy Little, 50, both of New York, and Yolanda Hippensteele, 30, of California.

And once again ACORN workers have been indicted for illegal voter registration tactics, this time in Pittsburgh:

Authorities in western Pennsylvania have accused seven people who worked for the community group ACORN of falsifying voter-registration forms.

The seven have been charged with either forging, illegally soliciting or illegally filling out voter-registration cards in the lead-up to the 2008 election.

And if you had not heard, Obama plans to have ACORN play a major role in the next census. I can see why he wants that:

The U.S. Census is supposed to be free of politics, but one group with a history of voter fraud, ACORN, is participating in next year’s count, raising concerns about the politicization of the decennial survey.

The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now signed on as a national partner with the U.S. Census Bureau in February 2009 to assist with the recruitment of the 1.4 million temporary workers needed to go door-to-door to count every person in the United States — currently believed to be more than 306 million people.

Also in Pennsylvania, the Obama administration overruled career justice department lawyers who were trying to enforce the 1965 Votings Rights Act and decided to drop charges against a group of black panthers who stood outside a polling location last November with clubs and used racial slurs towards people who showed up to vote. A video of the thugs is below the break. Here is that story:

Justice Department political appointees overruled career lawyers and ended a civil complaint accusing three members of the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense of wielding a nightstick and intimidating voters at a Philadelphia polling place last Election Day, according to documents and interviews.

The incident - which gained national attention when it was captured on videotape and distributed on YouTube - had prompted the government to sue the men, saying they violated the 1965 Voting Rights Act by scaring would-be voters with the weapon, racial slurs and military-style uniforms

Career lawyers pursued the case for months, including obtaining an affidavit from a prominent 1960s civil rights activist who witnessed the confrontation and described it as “the most blatant form of voter intimidation” that he had seen, even during the voting rights crisis in Mississippi a half-century ago.

Change!
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This time two former ACORN employees are facing 39 felony charges in Nevada for their registration activities:

Nevada authorities are accusing the political advocacy group ACORN and two former employees of illegally paying canvassers to sign up new voters last year.

Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto filed charges Monday alleging the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now had policies requiring employees in Las Vegas to sign up 20 new voters per day or be fired.

Nevada Secretary of State Ross Miller and Masto say that’s voter registration fraud, and it violates state law banning quotas for registering new voters.

A criminal complaint filed in Las Vegas Justice Court accuses ACORN and two former employees of 39 low-level felonies.

These charges are a follow up to the investigation I first mentioned here.

Jimmy: Hey, what gives?
Jimmy’s Dad: You said you wanted to live in a world without zinc Jimmy. Well now your car has no battery.
Jimmy: But I promised Betty I’d pick her up by 6:00. I better give her a call.
Jimmy’s Dad: Sorry Jimmy. Without zinc for the rotary mechanism, there are no telephones.
Jimmy: Dear God! What have I done?
(Jimmy pulls out a gun and points it to his head and fires)
Jimmy’s Dad: Think again Jimmy. You see the firing pin in your gun was made out of…yep…zinc.
Jimmy: Come back zinc, Come Back!!

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Detroit joins the list of cities with more registered voters than actual people eligible to vote.

Detroit election officials confirmed Monday what an analysis of census and population records shows: The city has more registered voters than it has residents over the voting age of 18.

But Detroit is doing nothing wrong. The problem? The 1993 National Voter Registration Act, which took effect in 1995, requires local officials to wait two federal election cycles before purging their voter rolls. That means that all cities carry ineligible voters each year.

Kurt Metzger — director of the Detroit Area Community Information System, the city’s newest data center — did the new analysis using 2000 U.S. Census data, SEMCOG population figures and the age distribution report in the 2007 American Community Survey.

He estimates that Detroit’s population is about 853,000, which includes 603,000 people over 18 — 30,000 fewer than the city reported as its total of registered voters.

And again the National Voter Registration Act is a large part of the problem.

Pro Illegal immigration protesters interrupted a speech by former congressman Tom Tancredo by using threats and mob violence:

UNC-CH police released pepper spray and threatened to use a Taser on student protesters Tuesday evening when a crowd disrupted a speech by former Colorado congressman Tom Tancredo opposing in-state tuition benefits to unauthorized immigrants.

Hundreds of protesters converged on Bingham Hall, shouting profanities and accusations of racism while Tancredo and the student who introduced him tried to speak. Minutes into the speech, a protester pounded a window of the classroom until the glass shattered, prompting Tancredo to flee and campus police to shut down the event.

The Deconstructed Man by Alfred Beste was the first ever Hugo Award winner for best novel back in 1953 and it turns out to hold its own pretty well. It describes a world in the distant future where telepathic talent is well developed in significant minority of the population so that “espers” now dominate much of elite society. The esper guild is fairly benign and devoted to enhancing society and one of its major accomplishments is eliminating premeditated murder since it is pretty hard to plan out a murder or other serious crime when you encounter several people a day who can read your thoughts. The plot revolves around an industrial tycoon who decides to murder his chief rival who has brought in a large number of very talented espers to run his business. He develops a plan to do this with the help of several espers who are not happy with the guild, pulls off the murder, and the rest of the book plots out the case made against him by the police.

For the most part this story still works and is reminiscent of works like minority report (which I have yet to read) about technology restricting people’s ability to carry out premeditated crime. The dialog and characters were still interesting and the author was creative in the use of overlapping sentences to convey how a room full of telepaths would communicate with each other. The future technology stuff was not very creative however and the author fell into the trap that science fiction writers from the 50’s fall into with having computers and communications only slightly advancing from their state in the 50s. One interesting twist was requiring the police to present their case to a computer that would predict the chance of conviction in order to secure an indictment. On the whole a decent read.