What possible reason could the Ohio GOP offer for expressly prohibiting poll workers from assisting voters in completing election forms or locating their correct polling place? One can only suppose that the objection to counting good ballots tainted only by worker error stem from that same noxious paranoid soup that has infected all modern electoral politics: mistrust for voters, mistrust for government workers, and mistrust for the single most basic premise of any democracy—that we want more people to vote, not fewer. Almost every aspect of the recent efforts to “improve the integrity” of the voting system actually ends up undermining the integrity of the system. But punishing voters for poll-worker error and silencing poll workers best placed to help voters achieves new lows in cynicism. The net effect will serve no purpose other than to raise doubts about voting as a whole.
All I can say is that around here any party representative who “helps” anybody to vote this way or that breaks the law. Quite rightly so! Getting a free ride to the correct polling station is of course entirely legal. With luck all those who get a ride vote the opposite way (just out of devilment). :-D
“
President, to president, to president: POTUS’ best confidant may be his predecessors.
This is a pretty fascinating op-ed if you’re into history, politics and/or nonpartisanship.
“You will be our president when you read this note,” George Herbert Walker Bush wrote to Bill Clinton, the man who defeated him in the 1992 campaign, denying Bush the provisional vindication that reelection provides until history has its chance to judge from a distance. Nonetheless, in Oval Office tradition, Bush left a note for Clinton to read on taking office, and it echoed the message of transitions past, even between bitter political rivals: “I am rooting hard for you.”
This leaving notes for your successor just in case you don’t (or can’t) get re-elected is a time honoured tradition. Over here on a small island of the European coast such missives are oft-times whimsical. A couple of years ago when the Libs (slightly oddly) combined with the Cons to oust the Labs the newly incumbent Treasury Secretary discovered a note that said “I’m afraid to tell you there’s no money left”. Sadly (due to events) the whimsy turned out to be true
Photo: President Obama, right, and former President Bill Clinton talk during a game of golf at Andrews Air Force Base. Credit: Evan Vucci / Associated Press
Somewhat surprisingly this is a painting
(by Carl Thompson)
For a time segment that seems to have been less than a day this week, the original RickRoll vid on Yootoob was subject to this
Whaat?
Good ol’ AVG, the distributors of what used to be (but isn’t now) the best freebee anti-virus-n’stuff suite claim copyright to the RickRollD?
LOL, LOL and thrice LOL.
How would, or could, AVG do that?
Apart from any other consideration, if AVG had actually done this, they’d playing with fire.
The RickRoll meme is *claimed* by our good friends over at 4chan who tend to get cross and (try to) kick back when “their” memes are adopted by others - even though a meme is not a meme unless it goes viral and becomes common property!
Anyway good ol rib-high-waist-band-Rick was back up there within 24 hours.
This is good.
The thing that is bad is that the Toob offered no explanation or apology. Surely someone in the office could have posted a comment to the effect “Sorry the system screwed up. This vid was erroneously blocked for some hours.”
Actually a robot could do that every time some other robot’s decision was wrong.
;-)
I toyed with the idea of inserting misleading links at various points in the above text (badger badger badger, for example) in true RickRoll tradition but decided against. The only link you need is this one.
Greetings tumblrs :-)
So, any time now we can expect that nice little tumblr radar box on the dashboard to contain some paid-for content.
Is this “Shock-horror!”
or is this an entirely sensible way for tumblr towers to grab some long-awaited cash?
It’s the latter, of course.
Social/community web facilities don’t exist in a vacuum. They can’t go on forever being “worth” millions but making no money.
Far better (I think) to do a bit of commercial engineering now rather than sitting on hands until the only way is a total re-invention.
If you were thinking about moaning about commercialisation I suggest you consult an ancient Yahoo *member* or an SU “early user” because those two (among many places - even good ol’ MySpace) woke up when the roses were dead and no matter how hard they run it’s all uphill because the changes they had to - in the end - make, alienated the core fan-base.
tumblr towers am doin’ good -probably!
(By: Kayla Presley)
I just can’t resist giraffes 
I just can’t resist pictures of giraffes
“Fan Throated Lizard - Sitana ponticeriana” by Arindam Bhattacharya :)
Who’s a pretty boy? ;-)
Memories of Sunday mornings…
and so
I have things to do
(therefore gone)
See?
I keep trying to get my head around the tumblr messages thing.
Even in the magical new “fan mail” (spit) thing, I can see what you said to me but I can’t see my reply. This leaves the door wide open for you getting multiple replies from me - day after day after day after…
follow the variations on 
climb the music tree
tumblr stuff I've liked 
in the beginning
mail me or
