Federal Register: November 4, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 213)

Computer Matching Between the Selective Service System and the Department of Education

Section 484(n) of the HEA [20 U.S.C. 1091(n)], requires the Secretary to conduct data base matches with SSS, using common demographic data elements, to enforce the Selective Service registration provisions of the Military Selective Service Act

via Doc Searls

And Canada may no longer be a haven for draft dodgers

Dodging the draft will be more difficult than those from the Vietnam era remember. College and Canada will no longer be options. In December 2001, Canada and the US signed a “Smart Border Declaration,” which could be used to contain would-be draft dodgers.

The declaration involves a 30-point plan which implements, among other things, a “pre-clearance agreement” of people entering and departing each country. Reforms aimed at making the draft more equitable along gender and class lines also eliminate higher education as a shelter.

Underclassmen would only be able to postpone service until the end of their current semester. Seniors would have until the end of the academic year.

The title of this post comes from “Fixin’ To Die” by Country Joe and the Fish, the anthem of the Vietnam war protests.

Come on all you big strong men
Uncle Sam needs your help again
He’s got himself in a terrible jam
Way down yonder in Vietnam
So put down your books
And pick up a gun
We’re gonna have a whole lotta fun

And in 2004, it’s the same old song, different war.

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An Internet message from an Al-Qaeda-linked group threatening “unbearable hell” for Americans in reprisal for President George W. Bush’s election victory appears authentic, a US official said.

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Tech glitch at voting machine gives Bush 3,893 extra votes.

A computer glitch in a Columbus, Ohio precinct gives Bush an extra 3,893 votes. Makes you wonder what other mistakes the computer made that we haven’t found.

I’m a computer programmer and quality assurance tester for a software company in Cleveland, so I know a thing or two about computer glitches. Where there’s one glitch that’s obvious, there are about 10 others that slip by unnoticed until it’s too late.

Link to AP story, via Akron Beacon Journal

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This cover is not, repeat NOT satire. It’s real.

From Slate

The Mirror wasn’t the only British paper with a striking cover. The Guardian’s “G2″ section was fronted by a page of solid black containing just two small words: “Oh, God.”

Meanwhile, the Independent ran the headline “Four More Years” along with iconic images from the first Bush term: kneeling prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, tortured prisoners at Abu Ghraib, soldiers fighting in Iraq, oil-drilling machinery, sign-wielding religious extremists, and a smirking Dubya.

In France, Libération ran a picture of the president under the headline, “L’Empire empire”—”The empire declines.”

From Steve Lopez in the LA Times

Now that I’m free, no need for reality

A far greater percentage of Americans believe in creationism than in evolution, and I had to stop thinking of them as rubes. A July poll revealed that more than half of America still believed Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, and I had to stop thinking of them as blockheads.

What I need — what I deserve as a God-fearing American — is a vehicle that burns enough gas to turn Alaska into a beach resort, or at least win me a tax credit.

By an act of divinity, the Sentra had come to a stop at Star Ford. I marched onto the lot and asked to see an SUV, and a salesman led me to the Explorer.

“Not big enough,” I said.

Read the whole thing!

And just what mindset has Steve Lopez now happily embraced?

Voters reject liberalism, an evil ideology.

By Frank Pastore, Former major league pitcher, current Christian talk show host

Since 1968, the left has taken millions captive, and we must help those Democrats who truly want to be free to actually break free of this evil ideology.

We continue to be that shining city set on a hill. And we fully accept the responsibility; we are proud to be the envy of the world.

Anyone who thinks the US is the envy of the world with everyone else wanting to emulate it, is delusional. But then, things are so much simpler when you turn off those bothersome cognitive abilities, right?

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