Dan Wood: The Eponymous Weblog

This blog post is for any readers who live in California, who care about having their votes counted properly, and who are registered to vote as Dem (or Independent, since you can request a Dem ballot at the polls).

As a programmer, I'm well aware of the many ways that one could write software that looks like it's doing one thing while actually doing another. So the fact that electronic voting machines being used today all over the country are unregulated, completely unverifiable, and in fact have been publicly demonstrated to be crackable leaves me, well, not entirely confident that my vote will be counted as I cast it. I've heard that nationwide, only 48% of voters are confident of their votes being counted correctly. (Has everybody seen this Vegas/Voting comparison?)

This is why I'm so strongly supporting Debra Bowen, who is running for the office of Secretary of State, in the primary election (this coming Tuesday). This woman is amazing — she is perfectly qualified for the job that is essentially elections chief. She is a huge proponent of verifiable voting systems, and is outspoken against the incumbent, who recently recertified Diebold machines despite their demonstrated flaws. She is truly an expert at these issues (currently chairing the state senate elections committee), and has been endorsed up the wazoo by just about every organization and newspaper that has indicated their choice.

Amazingly, though, she's "neck and neck" with her opponent, Deborah Ortiz, a state senator who has done a good job, but is just not focused on elections matters. How is it possible that they are running so closely? I think it's because most voters just aren't familiar with the candidates and how different they are; their similar first names probably doesn't help! It's astounding... Bowen has been tech-savvy for years and of course has a website (DebraBowen.com); Ortiz seems to be running off of her record on health care issues and doesn't even have a campaign website!

I certainly have some opinions about the other statewide and local (to me) candidates, but Bowen is the candidate that I think it the most important in the long run ... more important than who we choose for Governor to oppose our Governator in November. If I could only make one mark on my ballot this time around, it would be for Bowen.

So Californians, please pass the word around about Bowen. Don't let the S.O.S. be decided by randomness. Let's not allow "Florida" or "Ohio" to ever happen in California.

By now most people watching politics have heard of Richard Pombo, the guy representing the California district bordering the San Francisco Bay Area and overlapping part of Silicon Valley. He's one of the worst members of Congress, tied to the DeLay and Abramoff scandals; his personal mission which he's managed to push through the House (and is now up in the Senate) is the dismantling of the Endangered Species Act, which has managed to save the animals like the Bald Eagle and Yellowstone Grizzly Bear from extinction.

Last election cycle, the Democratic Party establishment didn't even bother to proffer a challenger, so Jerry McNerney (I've blogged about him before) got himself onto the ballot as a write-in candidate, and ran a respectable race against Pombo powered solely by the grassroots since the Demos didn't bother to give him any support.

Well, he's running again, and this time, the stakes are enormous. Getting Pombo out of Congress should be a priority for everybody in the country. We all live in Richard Pombo's District. This time, though, the Democratic establishment who ignored the district last time is financially backing another guy, a middle-of-the-road "Republican Lite" candidate, ignoring the huge grassroots support and name recognition that McNerney has managed to get since he started the race last year.

Anybody will be better than Pombo, but I believe that McNerney is the stronger candidate. I've been helping the campaign as I can, managing Jerry's weblog primarily.

I'm blogging about this because I'm trying to help the campaign raise some critical funds before the end-of-the-month campaign finance deadline of Friday Midnight. If you can help out with a donation of any amount, it will make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. And it will make me happy too! :-) Naturally you contribute online. Let me know if you did! Thanks!

I stumbled upon this fascinating article in the LA Times (registration probably required, see BugMeNot) about the legislative process in the House of Representatives these days. It discusses the way legislation is supposed to work, and how it really does work in today's Congress.

Chilling. (Unless you're a Republican, of course.)

Over a decade ago, I saw a poster that fascinated me; it was a diamond-shape graphic that organized political leanings in two dimensions, not one (the usual left vs. right). I never saw it again until today; it's called a Nolan Chart. The other dimension is essentially authoritarian vs. libertarian. The chart makes the most visual sense (to me, at least) when it's a diamond, but the Wikipedia article shows it as a square.

There's an interesting couple of charts where somebody has rated current members of Congress on that chart. Wow, the right wing is unsurprisingly authoritarian, and as expected, there are a lot of Democrats in congress who are centrist — but quite a few who are in the Authoritarian Camp, an even one over in the right. (Zell Miller? Lieberman?)

There's a quiz where you can rate yourself on that chart. (It's sponsored by a libertarian group, so there might be a bit of bias; several of the questions were framed in such as way that might skew the results. Still, it's interesting.) FWIW, my point was in the left, but close to the top.

Finally, the article that I stumbled upon — again, a libertarian bent — has an interesting chart comparing the congressional concentration vs. Kerry/Bush voters.

Last year, I helped a bit with the congressional campaign for Jerry McNerney in the neighboring congressional district, currently held by Republican Richard Pombo. Pombo, chair of the House Resources Committee , is the guy who sends out partisan mailers at taxpayer expense, who recently suggested selling off the national parks, and who has been tirelessly working to destroy the Endangered Species Act, finally passing his "Pombo Extinction Bill" in the House of Representatives. (Let's hope the Senate kills the bill.)

McNerney's just officially entered the race yesterday, and I'm going to help the campaign from time to time. I helped set up a weblog for the campaign, which is now "live" (though not yet linked to from the main site!)

McNerney still faces some opponents in the primary, but I think he's the right guy to take down the ultra-right-winger Pombo. Doing so will mean a lot for this district in California, but just as much nationally due to Pombo's current chairmanship.

This page has a great list of specific items still needed for the S.O.S. Colaition (Saving Our Selves After Katrina), and the address to send them to.

(I'm filing this under 'Politics' instead of 'General' because of the picture of the guy poking his head up on the website here who is running the operation. He seems to make some people very angry. All the work he is doing is still going to make people angry, I'm sure, but I don't know why.)

Geez, Tom DeLay is now blaming his prosecutor, Ronnie Earle....

Congratulations to Tom Delay on his long-awaited indictment, and continuing sympathies to the people he is supposed to represent.

It's interesting, as the Center for American Progress points out, that on this same day, the President granted fourteen pardons.

Now I'm not going to assume that any of these pardons were done for political reasons (though I agree that doing it today is a good smokescreen). But it's fascinating to look at who is on the list and what their offenses were. Mail fraud, counterfeiting, drug dealers, mailing a threatening letter, and so forth.

The strangest offense: "Property damage by use of explosives and destruction of an energy facility."

Quoting Eden James, who is behind the Leave My Child Alone website (and an all-around great guy — I've known him for more than a year now):

Buried deep within the No Child Left Behind Act is a provision that requires public high schools to hand over students' private contact information to military recruiters. If a school does not comply, it risks losing vital federal education funds. ... Since most high schools turn over their student lists to military recruiters in early October, your last chance to opt out is right NOW. To opt yourself or your child out, go to: http://www.leavemychildalone.org/

Back when Clinton was president, there was an independent investigation of his financial activities.

After 9/11, there was an independent commission to investigate the security failures that led to the attacks.

So, in the wake of the bungling of the post-Katrina operations, shouldn't there be an independent investigation as well?

If you think so, sign the petition.

(And, as long as I'm linking to MoveOn, let me point out their housing project which has provided over 250,000 beds so far! And to think this is the group that the right wingers denounce as the enemy....)

It's about time they started this project! It will take a while to catch up with Luntz's playbook. Now if some "blue" moneybags (like the blue companies listed here) would send them a little "green" love...

It's amazing to see Cindy Sheehan's vigil is still in the limelight. It is getting to be more and more like the ending scene of "Field of Dreams."

One of the most interesting daily reads is the weblog of Cindy herself. The latest post is a great read.