In the footsteps of yndy . . .

[unixronin]

. . . I link you now to the Kung Fu Monkey, who exquisitely sums up in this article about the latest terror dog-and-pony show exactly what I've been saying since 9/11:  Our government's response to terrorism is doing terrorists' work for them and handing them every goal they ever wanted, nicely arranged on a silver platter artistically inlaid with inscriptions from the Prophet.

The great Canadian plot that had organized over the internet, was penetrated by the Mounties on day one, and we were told had a TRUCK FULL OF EXPLOSIVES ... which they had bought from the Mounties in a sting operation but hey let's skip right over that.  Or how about the "compound" of Christian cultists in Florida who were planning on blowing up the Sears Tower with ... kung fu?

And now these guys. As the initial "OH SWEET MOTHER OF GOD THEY CAN BLOW US UP WITH SNAPPLE BOTTLES!!" hysteria subsides, we discover that these guys had been under surveillance, completely penetrated, by no less than three major intelligence agencies.  That they were planning on cell phones, and some of them openly travelled to Pakistan (way to keep the cover, Reilly, Ace of Spies). Hell, Chertoff knew about this two weeks ago, and the only reason that some people can scream this headline:

"The London Bombers were within DAYS of trying a dry run!!!"

-- was because MI-5, MI-6, and Scotland Yard let them get that close, so they could suck in the largest number of contacts (again, very spiffy police work).  The fact that these wingnuts could have been rolled up, at will, at any time, seems to have competely escaped the media buzz.

This is terrorism's A-game?  Sack up, people.

OK, people, pop quiz.  What's the goal of terrorism?  That's right, to create terror.  And what is our government doing about it?  Yup, that's right.  Creating terror.

"ZOMGWTFBBQ, international terrorists ALMOST BLEW UP A DOZEN PLANES WITH GATORADE BOTTLES!!!  We could all have DIED!!!"  Well, yeah.  Almost.  For values of "almost" that turn out to be "they didn't even get to make their dry run to see if it had any chance of working, they were rolled up as soon as they got ready to try it, because their entire organization had been penetrated to the core for months and they could hardly take a dump without Scotland Yard and Interpol knowing about it before they got done flushing."  Frankly, it was a non-event.  "Amateur Terrorists Fuck Up Big Time" would have been a better headline.  But to listen to the hysteria emanating from inside the beltway, you'd think they'd come within seconds of detonating dirty fusion bombs in the centers of multiple American cities and the town of Crawford, Texas.

Do you suppose it's mere coincidence that this huge media circus arrived just in time to distract attention from Joe "Hey, the Iraq War is cool!" Lieberman's humiliating rejection by his own party in the Connecticut Democratic primary?  . . . No, I didn't think so either.

Get this straight, folks, and get it good:  Al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations to their best to foment and use terror to further their political ends.

And so does the Bush administration.  It's just that the ends are different.

Back to the Kung Fu Monkey for a moment . . .

Maybe it's just, I cast my eyes back on the last century ...

FDR [in 1941]: Oh, I'm sorry, was wiping out our entire Pacific fleet supposed to intimidate us? We have nothing to fear but fear itself, and right now we're coming to kick your ass with brand new destroyers riveted by waitresses. How's that going to feel?

CHURCHILL [in 1940]: Yeah, you keep bombing us. We'll be in the pub, flipping you off. I'm slapping Rolls-Royce engines into untested flying coffins to knock you out of the skies, and then I'm sending angry Welshmen to burn your country from the Rhine to the Polish border.

US, NOW: BE AFRAID!! Oh God, the Brown Bad people could strike any moment! They could strike ... NOW!! AHHHH. Okay, how about .. NOW!! AAGAGAHAHAHHAG! Quick, do whatever we tell you, and believe whatever we tell you, or YOU WILL BE KILLED BY BROWN PEOPLE!! PUT DOWN THAT SIPPY CUP!!

Monkey's kung fu is strong.

Comments

[danjite.livejournal.com]

It all comes down to what to do about it.

Me? I gave up and left.

Do you believe as I do that the vote is rigged?

Based on your user ID I would assume you do.

So... what does one such as you do?

If you want to take this offline, lemme know. That said, I am on sporadic access for 96 hours.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

So... what does one such as you do?

Work to make it right again as long as there seems a realistic hope of doing so. In the [slightly amended] words of Carl Schurz,
"My [chosen] country, right or wrong; if right, to be kept right; and if wrong, to be set right." (http://www.babcom.com/alaric/quotations.html#schurz)

[danjite.livejournal.com]

That was it in the proverbial nutshell. I lost the belief that there is a reasonable hope.

Can you give me a reason to believe there is, truly, a reasonable hope?

And by reasonable, I'd take 30%.

This is not an intellectual bullshit exercise- I am eager- desperate- to be convinced.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

I cite the growing frustration and dissatisfaction that I see with the administration's constant snow-jobs, the growing strength of the Libertarian Party, the success of the Free State Project in New Hampshire, and the growing awareness I'm seeing -- even in the mass news media -- that the Emperor has no clothes.

Of course, against those stand the growing erosion of Constitutional rights, President Bush's continual challenging (or overstepping) of the limits of his constitutional authority, and the increasing partisanship and polarization of the political system and the electorate.

[ithildae.livejournal.com]

The government of this country is still dependent on the electorate. When the frustration of the electorate gets high enough, the government will change.

This is not a unique moment on American history. The particular combination may be new, but the factors of; international problems, domestic unrest, economic uncertainty, and political polarization are not really new. In the past, new political parties are formed. Look at where the parties are now, George Soros is dragging successful centrist democrats to the woodshed. And the Republicans are imploding as a small group of ideologues are dragging the party to the deep weeds. I suspect that the centrists for small government, will link up with the libertarians and a chunk of the democrats and blow both parties out of office. All the Gerrymandering in the world cannot predict that kind of explosive change.

If we get an American elitist leader for such a party, someone like Reagan or JFK, someone that can reclaim the center and leave the fringes to hyperventilate about their petty concerns, that are so important to the "party", It has happened before, I expect it to happen again.

(I will not speculate on the social agenda of such a party, it would be futile.)

"May you live in interesting times.", is not a blessing. These are interesting times.

As for King George's adventurism in international disputes, Americans are a very insular people. Leave us alone, and you will be let alone, is the historical model. The cold war, right after the success of WWII produced a temporary aberration. We will not support international intervention anywhere for long, even when we should.

There is hope. People are just not quite desperate enough to shed the fringe gobbledygook yet. But we are close.

[danjite.livejournal.com]

There is the difference: You believe in the electorate, I believe that the vote is rigged.

I believe that it is rigged in some very pretty ways that will effectively yield a minor majority by picayune margins to the republican candidates.

Based on your response above, I take you to be well edumactated and thus likely well read.

Please tell me: Why do you believe the vote isn't rigged? What gives you such deep founded faith in the system? Please share! I want to believe!

Looking forward to your reply.

[ithildae.livejournal.com]

That is a hard question. I think that I have hope because of my cynicism.

I don't believe in conspiracy theories. Period. There need to be too many people involved in virtually every scheme. I just can't believe that so many people can hang together against the feeling of having a secret.

Rigging the vote requires too much up front material and planning. Someone, somewhere will find the evidence, and report it. There will be trails for determined investigators to follow. It will all come out. I am not stating a timeframe, but all will be known.

The number of people involved in vote rigging would just be too great. There would need to be people from both parties. I can't see that happening. There is just too much scrutiny by too many eyes, many hostile to the republicans, in this case.

There is a demographic trend that is troubling. People are tending to move into areas that already vote the way they do. The red districts are getting redder, and the blue districts are getting bluer. For that reason, I don't think there will be a change of control in congress. That is not vote rigging, that is computer controlled Gerrymandering.

I also have a belief that the American voter will not tolerate fraud in counting the vote. If there is real evidence, (unlike what we had in Florida, which was simply accusation) you will see a massive backlash. You would see civic institutions, like the police and army, not following orders. The folk that enforce or serve as a result of the election, would simply refuse to go along. (That would be the safest course of action, and the wisest political choice.) We Americans can be quite idealistic (and simplistic) about things like voting. Those ideals will stop government cold. It will be messy, but it will work out.

I think that we have about a decade of more and more autocratic presidents (honestly, that is the only way the executive can function when the senate will not confirm many needed people. Not for partisan reasons alone, but because they want to close a facility in a state.) I really do see a third party forming somewhere from the middle, because the democrats and republicans are both abandoning the middle. I see that new party shredding the Gerrymandering and computer voting models. I see it catching both parties with their pants down. I can easily see it modeled on the Bull Moose party.

My advice would be to learn what is needed to run a political party locally, and then latch onto the bandwagon of a new group that actually supports most to all of what you feel. That still works in this country. That is why I still feel that this is a Great Country.

[danjite.livejournal.com]

I believe that you are considering an outmoded model for vote tampering, the retail (local) rigging method. What I am concerned about is wholesale, high-level counting adjustments.

Bear in mind, I was a paid (County) election judge and a security analyst. I feel my opinion is a more-than-edumactaed one.

Vote counting is computerized. Over 80% of the votes in the US are counted by machinery made by either ESS or Diebold, both companies which are stated to be dedicated to the Republican party. The code and algorithms used by these companies is secret and there is no oversight of these companies. In fact, oversight of these companies is specifically prohibited. Further, the US forbids international vote inspectors to make sure we have free and fair elections.

In the past, vote rigging required so very much collaboration, that even with the fraud the level of participation necessary made it a nearly valid popular system. Today, I think that any election could be manipulated in statistically conceivable ways be as few as three people- if they are the right people.

If you do your online research, you night start to see what I mean.

I am dearly hoping I am wrong. But I expect that the neos will continue control of both houses by squeeking close margins in tightly contested districts. It'll look really good. It'll look really fair.

Am I paranoid? Perhaps. But what if- what if I am right?

What would you do if you thought the system was fixed- really fixed- and the vote doesn't matter? Remember that advocating non-vote based change in itself is illegal.

[ithildae.livejournal.com]

I actually do understand the system. The problem is that votes can be (and are) audited by hand, in some cases. If there is a single case of vote counting problems discovered, it will all come out. It may work in the short term, but it will destroy future election chances.

The demographics alone are sufficient explanation for most close elections. I use Hanlon's Razor, "Never attribute to malice, that which can be explained by stupidity (or incompetence.)" Really good software up front, means that the vote doesn't really matter. There is no need to rig the vote, because the district is rigged. That is why I think a new party will form. Too many voters are not being represented in Washington.

Showing evidence of a rigged vote will really mobilize the American public. That has not been done yet. Even so, look at the reaction from the Florida fiasco, or the Ohio count.

(I have zero sympathy for the Ohio charges of fraud. We security professionals warned for years about not having an audit trail, ignoring us was a bipartisan issue. Sit down and shut up about it. Learn from that mistake.)

What you truly believe is not something that I can change, even if I wanted to. I believe that there was some very suspicious outcomes in Ohio. But there is no proof. If you want to study election fraud techniques, visit the old south, they have it perfected. Our overall democracy has not really suffered for it.

It really goes back to demographics. The American electorate is quite evenly split. There is not any party that has the default majority. (The republicans are trying to fix that.) These elections are going to be contentious. That is why I believe that a new party will form. I am ready to support it when it shows up. I am ready to help it succeed. I am just not smart enough to start it up on my own.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

The problem is that votes can be (and are) audited by hand, in some cases.

Not on Diebold touchscreen machines. There is no paper trail. Zero, zip, zilch, nada.

[ithildae.livejournal.com]

That is why I commented on the Ohio problem separately. There are a number of state and local governments that have repudiated orders for that generation of machine, because of that fact. They finally realize just how vulnerable they are.

I think that electronic voting machines are an abomination. Optical scan are usually just fine. Why change? We lose more than we gain in the transition. Digital does not alway mean better! Computerized does not automatically mean better! Somebody is hard of listening.

[dafydd.livejournal.com]

Do you mind if I link to this?

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Go for it.

[olafthunderfoot.livejournal.com]

For a price I'd do about anything
Except pull the trigger
For that I'd need a pretty good cause
Then I heard of Dr. X
The man with the cure
Just watch the television
Yeah, you'll see there's something going on

Got no love for politicians
Or that crazy scene in D.C.
It's just a power mad town
But the time is ripe for changes
There's a growing feeling
That taking a chance on a new kind of vision is due

I used to trust the media
To tell me the truth, tell us the truth
But now I've seen the payoffs
Everywhere I look
Who do you trust when everyone's a crook?

Revolution calling
Revolution calling
Revolution calling you
(There's a) Revolution calling
Revolution calling
Gotta make a change
Gotta push, gotta push it on through

I'm tired of all this bullshit
They keep selling me on T.V.
About the communist plan
And all the shady preachers
Begging for my cash
Swiss bank accounts while giving their
Secretaries the slam

They're all in Penthouse now
Or Playboy magazine, million dollar stories to tell
I guess Warhol wasn't wrong
Fame fifteen minutes long
Everyone's using everybody, making the sale

I used to think
That only America's way, way was right
But now the holy dollar rules everybody's lives
Gotta make a million doesn't matter who dies

Revolution calling
Revolution calling
Revolution calling you
(There's a) Revolution calling
Revolution calling
Gotta make a change
Gotta push, gotta push it on through

I used to trust the media
To tell me the truth, tell us the truth
But now I've seen the payoffs
Everywhere I look
Who do you trust when everyone's a crook?

Revolution calling
Revolution calling
Revolution calling you
(There's a) Revolution calling
Revolution calling
Gotta make a change
Gotta push, gotta push it on through