corruption in florida

okay i've been bad. haven't blogged in awhile. too busy contemplating relationships and jobs.

but this i had to post. according to the blue lemur.com, a computer programmer in florida is claiming congressman tom feeney (r-fl) requested the development of software which would allow vote totals to be tampered. check it out at

http://www.bluelemur.com/index.php?p=477
http://www.bluelemur.com/index.php?p=479

looking forward to hearing more about this story. clinton curtis, watch your back, brother.

war damn eagle

i'm currently in birmingham, alabama. i was at a conference in new orleans for work last week (www.harmreduction.org) and decided to spend some time back in sweet home. i managed to schedule some meetings for work, so it's not a complete waste of time here, but i'm mostly here to see friends.

fortunately i'm down here for the greatest game in history, the iron bowl. and being an auburn fan, this game is that much more important. auburn has the potential to be national champions this year. i'm currently listening to the paul finebaum show, the most influential sports show in the south. listen at www.finebaum.com. i need to remember to grab a newspaper for my brother, a bigger auburn fan, on sunday, after the big win!

WAR EAGLE!

rip jonathan magbie

thank god for colbert i. king, the washington post columnist who has been keeping jonathan's death in the media and keeping the government accountable. if any justice does come out of jonathan's death, it will be mostly due to king's work. If you don't know about jonathan's case, he was a quadriplegic who was incarcerated for marijuana possession (don't you feel safer?). he died a week later, in a jail that was not equipped to care for him and his condition.

from king's latest column:

When sentencing Magbie on Sept. 20, Judge Retchin said
she had assurances that the jail could accommodate Magbie's needs. But wait a
minute. In response to my request, the D.C. Superior Court sent me at 4:09 p.m.
yesterday a copy of a transcript of a July 20 bench conference that Judge
Retchin had with Magbie's attorney, Boniface Cobbina, and Charles Stimson,
assistant U.S. attorney. Judge Retchin asked Stimson why the government was
offering Magbie a guilty plea to a misdemeanor and was dismissing all other
counts of his indictment.

Stimson spelled out the government's reasons, and
then said this to Judge Retchin: "So, with all those things in mind, that's why
we did what we did, and I think it's a fair offer, and I think both sides got
something. I would also say, talking to the jail, that they can't accommodate
Mr. Magbie because when he was arrested, they actually had to take him in an
ambulance to the hospital to be catheterized because he gets catheterized every
four or six hours sometimes. So, you know, these were all part of our
considerations."

That was three months before Judge Retchin sent
Magbie to jail. Oh, my goodness.

to read the rest of king's column, click here.

jesus, who will save the environment?

i was flipping channels and landed on cnn. they were discussing bush's "environmental policy" for his next term, which included drilling for oil in anwr. they then went on to the next item, the latest global warming report on how the polar icecaps are melting, buildings have fallen into the ocean, roads and oil pipelines are in danger from falling into the ocean, and polar bears will most likely be extinct within the next century. we always have zoos, right bush?

space needle under attack!! 

the abortion issue

it looks like other people i know are starting blogs now, too. i think the election had something to do with it. besides hearing about all the blogs that were influencing the media, i think our frustration and need to vent have drawn us to the medium of blogs.

morality was the issue. but whose morals? and why were certain morals more important than others? abortion is a big issue. i heard interviews with plenty of voters who were upset with the way bush is running the country, but are so pro-life that they absolutely could not vote for kerry.

i read an interesting article in this month's issue of harper's. "Gambling With Abortion: Why both sides think they have everything to lose," by Cynthia Gorney. it gave me a new insight into the pro-life movement, which is obviously well-intentioned. i just never realized to the degree that the pro-choice movement has been ignoring the fact that abortion is a hideous procedure that should be discouraged.

i personally am pro-choice in that i don't think the government should be involved in such a personal decision. but i do think abortion is absolutely awful and i would not want anyone to have one without a good reason. that's why we need more eduction, family planning and real sex eduction, not this abstinence-only. while abstinence is a great concept to include in the curriculum, the kids it reaches probably were not going to have sex anyway or were on the fence. we really need to reach those kids that are going to have sex anyway, and convince them that birth control is essential, that it's terrible to have a child at such a young age, and that having an abortion is the worst experience they could ever go through and should be avoided at all costs.

this country also needs to do more to promote adoption. we never hear anything about it. everyone is having 7 babies at a time these days due to expensive fertility measures and the media celebrates it, oprah gives them presents and we check in on them a year later. this should not be celebrated. adopting children should be celebrated. we need to make it easier and more affordable. there are way too many foster children and homeless, parentless children in the world ... and way too many abortions.

so i made a fucking blog

what the hell? everyone else has one. i should be able to share my opinions, too. besides, my friends will be happy i can write my thoughts here instead of emailing them with my incessant babbling. so this is it. now you get to read my thoughts, about why i love seattle, why i'm a liberal, why i'm devoting my life to ending the war on drugs, why i love bluegrass music, and ... other stuff you don't give a shit about.

diaries never worked for me. maybe this will.