Bin Laden to states: Don’t vote for Bush

Speech mistranslated by most media as threat against foreign countries.

The tape of Osama bin Laden that was aired Friday on Al-Jazeera included a specific threat to “each U.S. state,” designed to influence the outcome of Tuesday’s election, according to the Arabic translators at the prestigious  Middle East Media Research Institute.

“This message was a warning to every U.S. state separately. When he [bin Laden] said, ‘Every state will be determining its own security, and will be responsible for its choice,’ it means that any U.S. state that will choose to vote for the white thug Bush as president has chosen to fight us, and we will consider it our enemy, and any state that will vote against Bush has chosen to make peace with us, and we will not characterize it as an enemy.

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West Palm Beach early voter madness:

Police are in riot gears. Protestors are being restrained. Lines are stetched for hours.

Mark tells us that “the problem with the electronic voting machines is that you have to mark the ballot perfectly like a palm pilot, or it will default to a Bush-Cheney vote!”

This should effect the elderly or poorly sighted. A pollster has to come and recalibrate the vote. It’s crazy down there. More to come…

Our lawyers won’t let ‘em steal em’.

Good Ohio news, at least for now.

An order by U.S. District Judge Susan Dlott of Cincinnati found that the application of Ohio’s statute allowing challengers at polling places was unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge John Adams of Akron said poll workers are the ones to determine if voters are eligible. “In light of these extraordinary circumstances, and the contentious nature of the imminent election, the court cannot and must not turn a blind eye to the substantial likelihood that significant harm will result not only to voters, but also to the voting process itself, if appointed challengers are permitted at the polls,”

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Socialist physician Tabare Vazquez swept to a landslide victory in this country’s presidential election Sunday, bringing the left to power for the first time in Uruguayan history.

“We’re sick of the Whites and Reds,” said Adriana Curcio, a 33-year-old Montevideo resident, referring to the colors that symbolize the National and Colorado parties. “They’ve stolen everything and left the country dying of hunger.”

Uruguayan voters gave another loud rebuke to <outgoing President > Batlle’s polices Sunday when they voted 2 to 1 for a constitutional referendum prohibiting the privatization of water utilities.

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Not much choice in plans for Iraq

No single campaign issue has defined the presidential candidates’ differences more clearly than the war in Iraq. Yet it seems that whoever wins Tuesday’s election will steer a remarkably similar course in the troubled country.

“If you keep doing what you’re doing, you keep getting what you’re getting.”

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Voting 2004: This time it’s personal

The spinning and selling, they say, the doublespeak and dissembling, have managed not just to sway and confuse as political operatives intended, but to set neighbor on neighbor. (”Red states, blue states — we’re a nation of gang colors,” one political scientist observed sadly last week.)

A Bush-backing Marine recruit was charged with trying to stab his girlfriend in the neck with a screwdriver after she threatened to leave him and vote for John Kerry.

Nor will any of this heal after the election. There will be an internal blood bath in whichever party loses, and the national polarization will continue and widen.

The coming decade of turbulence

We are about to enter in to a turbulent decade of politics, to which the last few years have been a kind of prequel. With differences recessed because of a national shock of 911, and with the fading glow of the boom that people looked back to in hope - the amount of agitation in comparison to what we have experienced - a panic followed by a depression that is being staved off, but not cured, by a borrowing binge - we have watched and waited.

It’s about to change, and this election is going to be the kick off for it.

People get ready…

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Here’s the latest numbers

Young mobile voters pick Kerry Over Bush, 55% to 40%.

Polling firm Zogby International and partner Rock the Vote found Massachusetts Senator John Kerry leading President Bush 55% to 40% among 18-29 year-old likely voters in their first joint Rock the Vote Mobile political poll, conducted exclusively on mobile phones October 27 through 30, 2004.

Pigskin Prediction: As Go the Redskins…

Since 1936, the outcome of the Washington Redskins last home game has predicted the next president. When the Redskins have won their last home game, the incumbent party has retained the White House. Sunday, the Redskins lost their last home game before the elections to the Green Bay Packers, 28-14.

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It’s everywhere now, isn’t it?

In my office, snuggled next to each other, is cell phone charger, cordless phone, and wireless network booster box - wireless devices all. I may get a wireless media server soon, then I can stream from the computers to the TV or stereo.

Verizon now has wireless computer access for virtually all of Los Angeles, so, with a notebook computer, you’re always online anywhere in LA.

Imagine what the next few years will bring!

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