Top-down 'voter fraud'

BradBlog

Clay County, KY Election Officials Sentenced to 156 Years in Election Rigging Case

The post is mostly about that and it's a good thing, but it relates to Wisconsin.

It is now officially impossible to know whether thousands of paper ballots being counted in the state of Wisconsin's Supreme Court election "recount" are the same ones actually cast on Election Day. It didn't have to be that way, unlike in Kentucky, where the voters never had a chance, and where high-ranking election officials have now been sentenced to more than 150 years in federal jail following "decades" of manipulated elections.

Thanks to serious chain of custody violations in Wisconsin --- such as ballot bags discovered to have been left "wide open" and unsealed in Waukesha County, and ballots left completely unsecured for weeks in the office of the Verona City Clerk in Dane County --- that now make it quite likely the real winner of the April 5th election for a 10-year term on the bench of that state's highest court will never be known for certain. That, even though thousands of votes have now been verified as having been miscounted during the state's partial hand-count, and even as the hotly-contested seat in question will determine the ideological balance of the court during one of the most contentious moments in Badger State history.

With results that will never be known for certain, the razor-thin contest has now become a fully "faith-based election", in contradiction to the checks and balances necessary for true self-governance.

It's "faith-based" all right - the WI Repugs have faith in their criminal election-rigging machine.

Election truism #1: It ain't the votes that count, it's who counts the votes.

I hope the WI miscreants get caught and go to jail like the Kentucky ones.

Heasline of the Day

Judges hand down the law with help from Bob Dylan

Good article. The last line:

"When Chief Justice Roberts quoted Dylan, I thought, 'Oh, no!'" said Lasnik. "Now it's not cool anymore."

No shit. Kinda makes ya wonder what music the judges forty years from now will be quoting.

The Mrs.' Gnome ...

Was installed this morning.

I asked Sam if he had one that was flipping the bird with a sign that said "Fuck Off" and he told me if he ever comes across one it's mine. Heh ...

Click pic and watch him grow.

The next bogeyman ...

Is Osama's son.

Heaven forbid we don't have some evil James Bond/Superman Villain to keep the wheels of the Military Industrial Complex turning. We gonna hunt this guy for the next 10 years now?

One of Osama bin Laden's sons went missing in the midst of the Navy SEAL raid that took the life of the al Qaeda leader more than a week ago, Pakistani security officials told ABC News today.

The officials said bin Laden's three wives, who are all in Pakistani custody, said that one of bin Laden's sons has not been seen since the raid. The son was not identified, but Pakistani investigators agreed that it appeared someone was missing from the sprawling compound, the officials said.

...

I wonder how many billions they'll squeeze out of this snipe hunt.

Headline of the Day

Senate Republicans Vow to Gut Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Nothing new, but it dawned on me that just that one headline, along with countless other similar headlines that we run across every single day, tells us all we need to know about the Repugs' class war on us and who they work for. Not their constitusheep, that's for sure.

It's a slow day...

...and an idle mind is the devil's sex toy. Or something. Until proven otherwise, I will ass-yoom the following to be satire, but you never know with these clowns.

DK

WASHINGTON---In a move that has enraged childrens groups and their supporters, House Republicans plan to introduce legislation that, if passed, would literally allow lawmakers to take candy from a baby.

The Juvenile Confection Freedom Enhancement Act would allow members of Congress to legally confiscate Tootsie Pops, Runts, Milk Duds, holiday candy, Everlasting Gobstoppers, Skittles, Razzles and other sweets that would appear on a new federal Yummy Watch List.

House Speaker John Boehner made the announcement yesterday. "We're bored to death talking about jobs, and we're not making much headway separating seniors from their Medicare," he said. "But it's pretty hard to screw up taking a lollipop from a two-year-old."

You'll figure out a way, Orange Man. Boehner could fuck up a junkyard with a rubber hammer.

The law would apply to all children up to age four, Boehner said, with exemptions for certain older children. "If a youngster appears capable of fighting back, either alone or by assembling a posse of pals brandishing dodgeballs, we'll look the other way out of self-preservation," he said.

Sounds about right.

Believe it or not, there's more.

Yawn.

Kill me ...

Please, just shoot me and get it over with quickly. Heh ...

Tourism ...

Since I haven't been in touch with what's going on, except for hearing about Osama being killed and checking the weather report, for close to a month, I actually caught the local news in full this morning.

Seems we have a new tourism angle here on Long Island. The serial killer demographic.

Indeed, if you're a serial killer, or somebody who just needs to get rid of a body, bring it to Long Island and get rid of them near the beach road.

HAUPPAUGE, N.Y. (WABC) -- Suffolk DA Tom Spota announced this afternoon that the eight bodies discovered along Ocean Parkway since December were the victims of not one, not two, but at least THREE and possibly FOUR separate killers.

The new bodies found in Suffolk County are not connected to the first four found in Gilgo* Beach, Suffolk County investigators have concluded.

Some of the remains recently found were parts missing from victims initially discovered dumped in Manorville in 2000 and 2003.

...

Now, the Mrs. and I know this area well. It's on a barrier island between Robert Moses State Park (where I used to cut school as soon as the weather got warm) and Jones Beach State Park (where the Mrs. worked to put herself through college), both beaches connected by the Ocean Parkway.

It's the perfect place to get rid of bodies.

1) It's deserted. The little communities along the parkway are mainly summer camps (set back from the highway behind 50 - 100 yds of brambles and other pointy shit, plus shit that gives you a rash) and there's little activity in the winter.

2) Jurisdictional matters. It's fucked up where the NY State Police patrol Ocean Parkway, the NY State Park Police keep an eye on the parks themselves, all the little beach communities have their own constable or two, and the county line falls somewhere in between the two parks so either Nassau County PD or Suffolk County PD gets called for the bigger crimes. Ain't none of those organizations gonna go poking around in the brambles and poison ivy on the side of the parkway if they don't have to.

3) There are always cars parked on the grass on the side of the parkway because the Atlantic Ocean is on one side of the highway (300 yds) and a picturesque bay on the other (500 yds) and there are sections of the beach where people are allowed to go 4-wheeling (with a permit, of course) so a car on the side of the road goes relatively unnoticed, especially in the winter when it's bloody cold out there (wicked wind comes off the Atlantic).

So, all you serial killers, bring your body parts to Long Island and dump them where they go unnoticed for almost a decade. While you're at it, could you spend some money here too before you go back home?

Thanks.

*When we were kids, we thought we were so smart calling it "Dildo Beach".

Bill Maher to GOP: President Obama Just Ate Your Lunch

This is outstanding! Transcript here.

Thanks to dubbleplusgood.

Quote of the Day

From "The Circle of Life, the Takedown of Bin Laden, & Why Bush Didn't Return to the Scene of the Crime" at Words of Power which you should read:

The imperial mentality is so profound, throughout western society, that no one can perceive that they are glorifying bin Laden by identifying him with courageous resistance against genocidal invaders. It's like naming our murder weapons after victims of our crimes: Apache, Tomahawk ... It's as if the Luftwaffe were to call its fighter planes "Jew" and "Gypsy."

I think I will name my revolver "Neocon".

Oh, the irony...

Ironic Times

Pakistan Threatens U.S. on Cooperation if Any More Unilateral Attacks
Will unfriend us on Facebook.

Michele Bachmann Compares Tax Burden to Holocaust
Koch Brothers to Anne Frank.

12% of Australian Men 16 to 24 Want Less Sex
12% of American men 16 to 24 just booked flights to Australia.

Advice to that 12% of Australian men 16 to 24: Join the Army. Your troubles will be over...

Where I been ...

Vacation's over. See yas when I see yas.

Beard-on-veil action

Will Durst on bin Deaden:

The most-wanted man on the planet. Found. And you had to admire the way it was done; members of Navy SEAL Team Six firing two warning shots into the head. One for each tower. The target was totally unarmed and never had a chance. That's known as synchronicity. Live by the sneak attack, die by the sneak attack.

In a way, it's too bad we ditched him so soon. Mucho bucks could have been raised by touring the country giving ordinary folks a chance to pose with the corpse like they used to do in the Old West. "Get your picture taken with the Butcher of 9/11. 10 bucks." Could have carted the remains around in a refrigerated casket shoved onto the bed of a Ford F- 250 traveling to County Fairs and Tractor Pulls. Like what happened with the World Series trophy only with more punching. Eventually the cadaver would end up in Vegas with its own Cirque du Soleil show, or as one of the stiffer stiffs on "Dancing With the Stars."

We also managed to retrieve a sizable cache of computer disks, which hopefully will reveal a vast network of terrorist contacts and sleeper-cell structures, but we all know what's really on them. Porn. Hot stuff. Muslim women wearing see-through burqas. Beard-on-veil action.

But now, thank god, this whole thing is over and our troops can come home and we won't have to take off our shoes at the airport anymore and can turn our attention to hunting down the next-biggest threat to democracy: Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

Hear, hear!

Evil GOP Bastards

I just discovered a blog called Evil GOP Bastards. Kinda cuts through the shit, huh? Here's their masthead comment:

Since the New Deal, Republicans have been on the wrong side of every issue of concern to ordinary Americans; Social Security, the war in Vietnam, equal rights, civil liberties, church- state separation, consumer issues, public education, reproductive freedom, national health care, labor issues, gun policy, campaign-finance reform, the environment and tax fairness. No political party could remain so consistently wrong by accident. The only rational conclusion is that, despite their cynical "family values" propaganda, the Republican Party is a criminal conspiracy to betray the interests of the American people in favor of plutocratic and corporate interests, and absolutist religious groups.

Why? Because they're evil GOP bastards!

That sums it up very succinctly, I think.

Suck it, birthers

I got this as an audio file from old school pal Paul in Hawaii and made this quick 'n dirty vid to share it with you. Artist is Frank DeLima (his site), whom I had never heard of before. Watch it quick in case there's some music biz bullshit and it has to go!

First photo of bin Laden funeral

A tip o' the Brain to my old school pal Paul.

Gurkhin' Around...

As we know, Queen Elizabeth II has Gurkhas for security. Their fierce warrior tradition is the bare prerequisite for maintaining peace and decorum when the Fixers are aboard.

Here some of them practice for the latest cruise:

Thanks to WorldFrontlineMedia, UK.

Apparently the Gurkhas draw mess duty aboard ship just like I did on my Med cruise. Here they practice their buffet techniques. May God have mercy on the Prime Rib:

Thanks to yourshepway, UK.

Post-cruise, a couple of the surviving Gurkhas speak:

Not a helluva lotta thanks to the Beeb YouTube channel which is not available in this country. Yeesh.

Mexican Narco-Trafficker’s Revelation Exposes Drug War’s Duplicity

Who knows what to believe and what not to? This extensive post at the Narcosphere is interesting in any case.

The revelation that Zambada Niebla claims to have been a U.S. government asset, working with its sanction, is a shocking development in the so-called drug war and has gone largely un-reported by the U.S. media. The claim, if true, adds credence to theories long in play that the Mexican and U.S. governments are essentially showing favor toward the Sinaloa drug organization and its leadership, including El Mayo and Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman Lorea, as part of a broader strategy to weaken and ultimately eliminate rival narco organizations. U.S. and Mexican government officials, of course, have consistently denied that any such arrangement is in place.

To understand the threads that connect those cases, it is necessary to revisit the mysterious crash of a Gulfstream II corporate jet on Sept. 24, 2007, in Mexico’s Yucatan region. Onboard that jet was an estimated four tons of cocaine, which appears to have been loaded onto the jet in Colombia.

The Gulfstream II sported a tail number, N987SA, linked by European investigators to past CIA rendition operations.

Narco News has previously reported that the bill of sale for the Gulfstream jet — which was sold only weeks before its crash landing — lists an individual named Greg Smith, whose name also shows up in public documents that indicate he worked as a pilot in the past for an operation involving the FBI, DEA and CIA that targeted narco-traffickers in Colombia.

Damy’s case also is tied intricately to another U.S. govermment legal action against banking giant Wachovia (now a subsidiary of Wells Fargo), which was implicated in the Damy money-laundering operation. The Sinaloa organization operative allegedly used the bank as part of his scheme.

U.S./CIA/bank involvement? Naaaah. Oh wait, there's money and power and the control of foreign countries involved...

Hey, it worked with bananas 75 years ago. Why not with drugs now?

The crux of the biscuit:

Assuming that rendition of the facts is accurate, it sure makes it hard to tell the crooks from the cops in this drug war.

Yeah, no shit and ¿quien sabe? One thing's for sure - any facts relating to nefarious US government shenanigans got renditioned a long time ago and are languishing in an undisclosed location.

Ol' Gimlet Eye got it right. He still is:

"I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents."

We operate on more than three these days, Smedley.

Pakistan army knew about operation against Osama bin Laden

Global Post

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Pakistani officials have told GlobalPost that the Pakistani army had full knowledge of the U.S. raid that led to the death of Osama bin Laden and that it played a larger role in the operation than previously acknowledged.

One senior military official, who asked not to be named because he is not permitted to speak to the press, said that Pakistani army troops were in fact providing backup support when the United States began its operations inside the compound where bin Laden had been staying, including sealing off the neighborhood where the compound was located.

Residents in the area confirmed that the Pakistan army appeared to have at least some knowledge of the operation well before it began. Several residents said that two hours before the United States launched its attack, Pakistani army personnel ordered them to switch off their lights inside and outside their homes and remain indoors until further notice.

“The army personnel cordoned off the entire area long before we heard the sounds of helicopters hovering over the area,” said Zulfikar Ahmed, who lives in the Abbottabad neighborhood of Bilal Town, where bin Laden’s compound is located. Locals interviewed by the BBC and several other local and international media outlets made similar statements (Good link - G).

This stuff is interesting to me. The important thing about who knew what and when they knew it is that we managed to keep it from the guy who was supposed to tip bin Laden off in time for him to beat feet.

bin Laden’s American Legacy

A Tomgram you should read.

It was our misfortune and Osama bin Laden’s good luck that Washington’s dreams were not those of a global policeman intent on bringing a criminal operation to justice, but of an imperial power whose leaders wanted to lock the oil heartlands of the planet into a Pax Americana for decades to come. So if you’re writing bin Laden's obituary right now, describe him as a wizard who used the 9/11 attacks to magnify his meager powers many times over.

After all, while he only had the ability to launch major operations every couple of years, Washington -- with almost unlimited amounts of money, weapons, and troops at its command -- was capable of launching operations every day. In a sense, after 9/11, Bin Laden commanded Washington by taking possession of its deepest fears and desires, the way a bot takes over a computer, and turning them to his own ends.

It was he, thanks to 9/11, who insured that the invasion and occupation of Afghanistan would be put into motion. It was he, thanks to 9/11, who also insured that the invasion and occupation of Iraq would be launched. It was he, thanks to 9/11, who brought America's Afghan war to Pakistan, and American aircraft, bombs, and missiles to Somalia and Yemen to fight that Global War on Terror. And for the last near-decade, he did all this the way a Tai Chi master fights: using not his own minimal strength, but our massive destructive power to create the sort of mayhem in which he undoubtedly imagined that an organization like his could thrive.

For all the print devoted to the operation that took him out, all the talking heads chattering away, all the hosannas being lavished on American special ops forces, the president, his planners, and various intelligence outfits, this is hardly a glorious American moment. If anything, we should probably be in mourning for what we buried long before we had bin Laden’s body, for what we allowed him (and our own imperial greed) to goad us into doing to ourselves, and what, in the course of that, we did, in the name of fighting him, to others.

9/11 was a well-delivered sucker punch, but bin Laden didn't take us down. Bush and Cheney did.

Bin Laden won by picking exactly the right time and the worst possible administration during which to deliver his blow, and his stated goal of making us impoverish ourselves continues apace.