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Up to the minute notes on the current state of free thinking and free living: Kentucky moonshine - original analysis and reporting from MoreThings, and all round pop culture museum of sight and sound - photo galleries, mp3 and video downloads.
Al Barger and MoreThings - getting people's goats since 1998.
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November 13, 2004
CBS News fires producer for truthful reporting
Reports indicate that CBS News has fired the unnamed producer who broke into the last five minutes of CSI: NY Wednesday night to report the death of Yasser Arafat in a French hospital.
The apparent offense seems to have been truthful reporting. To best knowledge, no one has been so much as reprimanded for the purely malicious and transparent fraud of the infamous National Guard memos. Accurately reporting that this important person has died without proper authorization, however, constitutes a firing offense.
Perhaps the producer should have whipped up a little script more in keeping with the left-wing views of CBS. Perhaps they should have reported that Yasser Arafat died a martyr's death with rifle in hand after taking out a battalion of IDF soldiers. Maybe that would have gotten the producer a promotion instead of a sacking.
posted by Al at 11/13/2004 01:48:00 PM
November 12, 2004
Remembering Arafat's victims
Yasser Arafat was buried today. The respectful and even loving tone of such as Christiane Amanpour tends to make me want to hurl chunks.
Arafat was the father of modern terrorism. Bin Laden aspires to one day be as wicked as Arafat. Arafat is Charlie Manson to Bin Laden's Mickey Knox.
Jeff Jacoby has the right idea: Today would be a good time to remember some of the people massacred by the great Palestinian father.
Perhaps his signal contribution to the practice of political terror was the introduction of warfare against children. On one black date in May 1974, three PLO terrorists slipped from Lebanon into the northern Israeli town of Ma'alot. They murdered two parents and their child at home, then seized a local school, taking more than 100 boys and girls hostage and threatening to kill them unless a number of imprisoned terrorists were released. When Israeli troops attempted a rescue, the terrorists exploded hand grenades and opened fire on the students. By the time the horror ended, 25 people were dead; 21 of them were children.
Thirty years later, no one speaks of Ma'alot anymore. The dead children have been forgotten. Everyone knows Arafat's name, but who ever recalls the names of his victims?
So let us recall them: Ilana Turgeman. Rachel Aputa. Yocheved Mazoz. Sarah Ben-Shim'on. Yona Sabag. Yafa Cohen. Shoshana Cohen. Michal Sitrok. Malka Amrosy. Aviva Saada. Yocheved Diyi. Yaakov Levi. Yaakov Kabla. Rina Cohen. Ilana Ne'eman. Sarah Madar. Tamar Dahan. Sarah Soper. Lili Morad. David Madar. Yehudit Madar. The 21 dead children of Ma'alot -- 21 of the thousands of innocents who died at Arafat's command.
If there is a hell, it's meant for the likes of Yasser Arafat.
Good riddance.
posted by Al at 11/12/2004 10:34:00 PM
Franklin County Vote Counting Massacre 2004
Dang, they accidentally counted our votes this time.
This was my first reaction to the original vote count the day after the election. All the Libertarian candidates on the ballot in Franklin County drew 6-8%.
Frankly, I tend to be pretty skeptical of vote counting. This stems in significant part from my first experience as a 21 year old candidate back in 1984. Briefly, in my campaign for state legislature that year I knocked on over 3,000 doors (besides everything else) to be credited with less than 200 votes.
Indeed, I was following precinct maps in Connersville, and there were four whole precincts where I personally knocked on every door that came back credited with ZERO votes. Perhaps I'm not the most totally convincing candidate, but that could not have been right. What, I couldn't convince even ONE person out of a thousand voters in those precincts to vote for me? That put me off politics for years. Why run if they're not going to count your votes?
Still, in truth some of these original numbers for the Libertarians in Franklin County this year seemed high. I don't know if 707 people in Franklin County had even heard of our presidential candidate Michael Badnarik. My total of 821 Franklin County votes for US Senate seemed pretty reasonable, though. I got 13% two years ago running for tax assessor, so something like 9% in this vote might be about reasonable.
Still, there was definitely something absolutely out of whack. At the emergency Election Board meeting last week, I got this funky official Statement of Votes Cast document from the clerk breaking down straight ticket votes throughout the county, with columns for "Democratic (LIB)" and "Libertarian (DEM)." Right away, you can see that there's something wrong. Also, this document seemed to indicate 1,022 straight ticket LIB votes, and but 60 DEM. Hmm.
The suggestion was that one little data entry error simply flipped the counts for straight ticket votes between the Libertarians and the Democrats. However, that can't possibly be right either. Even in the election night count, no Libertarian in the county got as many as 1,022 votes. Who knows what happened? I know I've never seen any plausible theory to explain.
So we had this whipstitch all night re-count trying to meet a Secretary of State deadline of noon on Friday the 12th. It was thrown together in a few hours by the same Fidlar company that screwed it up when they had plenty of time to do it normally before the election.
I'm agnostic about these newly revised numbers. For one thing, I was not allowed within 10 feet of the actual re-counting Thursday night. They were putting big piles of what looked like ballots through these machines, but I certainly wasn't able to look at them. As county chair and a ballot candidate myself, I should have been pretty much looking over their shoulders.
Also, I have trouble believing my own vote total here. They wiped out over three quarters of my original votes, leaving me with but 171 votes in all of Franklin County. I was credited with approximately 1.2% of the vote statewide, which was fairly consistent within a half percent in about every county. That 171 votes would be saying that I got no more votes at home than anywhere else. Again, maybe nobody likes me, but I would expect at least a couple of hundred extra votes from family and friends.
But then, maybe that's all the more votes I really got. I haven't seen any evidence of anyone acting in bad faith. Knowing her, I find it highly unlikely that our clerk, Marlene Flashpohler, would be involved in any monkey business with the votes. If votes were screwed with, it would have had to been when she wasn't looking.
Still, I don't have any confidence in the new vote totals. I've never been offered a viable explanation for what happened, and I wasn't allowed to get close enough to the re-counting to really see what they were doing. I'd rather ascribe the problems to incompetence rather than fraud, but it's still messed up.
Also, it appears that there will be no opportunity to ask for a recount of these new numbers, as the deadline to request one was Friday noon. It was only Friday AM that these new numbers were conjured up, so there you go. There's no apparent legal opportunity for review.
Ah well. All I can do as a candidate is to say my piece to the voters as best I can, and however many votes I get, and how many get counted, is largely beyond my control. I do what I can.
posted by Al at 11/12/2004 08:10:00 PM
November 11, 2004
Brother, can you spare a couple of hundred votes?
We're having some issues here in Franklin County, Indiana, seemingly stemming from new voting machines or software from Fidlar Election Company. The general election last week was our first time using them.
All the Libertarian Party candidates got in the 6-8% range- about half a dozen times more than anywhere else in the state. Heck, I'm not even the top vote getter among Libertarians here.
I'm getting ready to go watch a re-count, or "re-canvas" as our poor beleaguered county clerk insists on calling it. We're due to convene within the hour at the courthouse, with several representatives of Fidlar trucked in, and new memory cards. Thankfully, we do have actual physical ballots to "re-canvas."
They seem to think that there was a simple error that switched the straight ticket votes for the county between Libertarians and Democrats.
Looking at those numbers scares me a bit, though. 1022 "Democratic (LIB)" votes versus 60 "Libertarian (DEM)" votes, according to this "final canvas" sheet would seem to mean I'd personally owe them 962 votes (1022 minus 60) from my US Senate bid.
Problem is, I only got 821 votes in Franklin County, which looks like it means I'm going to be owing them 141 votes. What am I going to do? I already spent the 821 votes, let alone paying back the 141 I'm short.
Can anybody spot me a few hundred votes till the next election?
Here are the vote listings from the Secretary of State for Franklin County as of today, 11-11-2004 at 6PM as I head out to re-canvas:
President and Vice-President of the United States Statewide
Kerry, John F. John Edwards (Democratic) 2299
Badnarik, Michael Richard V. Campagna (Libertarian) 707
Bush, George Walker Dick Cheney (Republican) 6978
Kennedy, John Joseph No Candidate Filed (Write-in(Dem)) 0
Cobb, David Patricia LaMarche (Write-in(Green)) 0
Bone, Lawson Mitchell No Candidate Filed (Write-in (Ind)) 0
Nader, Ralph Peter Miguel Camejo (Write-in (Ind)) 10
Brown, Walt Mary Alice Herbert (Write-in(Socialist)) 0
United States Senator Statewide
Bayh, Evan (Democratic) 4597
Barger, Albert (Libertarian) 821
Scott, Marvin (Republican) 4396
Governor and Lieutenant Governor Statewide
Kernan, Joseph E. Kathy Davis (Democratic) 3218
Gividen, Kenn Elaine Badnarik (Libertarian) 759
Daniels, Jr., Mitchell E. Becky Skillman (Republican) 5822
Kapetanov, Velko No Candidate Filed (Write-in (Ind)) 0
Attorney General State
Hogsett, Joseph H. (Democratic) 2771
Milewski, Aaron T. (Libertarian) 839
Carter, Steve (Republican) 5920
Superintendent of Public Instruction State
Williams, Susan (Democratic) 2891
Hauptmann, Joe (Libertarian) 937
Reed, Suellen (Republican) 5600
United States Representative District 6
Fox, Melina Ann (Democratic) 2715
Roots, Chad (Wick) (Libertarian) 740
Pence, Mike (Republican) 6154
State Senator District 42
Welsh, Barry Alan (Democratic) 1000
Jackman, Robert N. (Republican) 2447
State Representative District 55
McGlothen, Jason B. (Democratic) 651
Marcum, John (Libertarian) 345
Hoffman, Robert A. (Republican) 2731
District 67
Holland, Christopher A. (Democratic) 316
Duncan, Cleo (Republican) 1115
District 68
Bischoff, Robert J. (Democratic) 3164
Goodpaster, Mike (Libertarian) 659
posted by Al at 11/11/2004 06:02:00 PM
November 08, 2004
New album releases, week of 11-9-2004
Looks like another week of thin gruel. Elton John does have a new album, though. Peachtree Road might be worth a listen. His recent albums have been pretty marginal, but this is the guy who wrote "Burn Down the Mission" and "Levon." Plus even just the titles of this have something of the weird creative flavor of classic era Elton.
I feel little but contempt for Shania Twain, as would any fan of country music. After maybe three albums, she's MORE than got enough HUGE STUPID (and I do NOT mean "stupid fresh") HITS for a greatest hits album, though.
What with the Ashlee Simpson nonsense, even Britney Spears might start sounding relatively good at this point. I swear I'd be buying her Greatest Hits: My Prerogative before I'd listen to Shania Twain.
I'd also probably rather hear Britney than another album of Linda Rondstadt's pointless covers of Broadway standards. However, Hummin' to Myself is out this week, if anyone is just dying to hear Linda sing "Miss Otis Regrets." At least she's not butchering Elvis Costello.
Soundtrack's out now to the Spongebob movie, featuring among others Wilco, Ween and Motorhead.
Note also a new second greatest hits volume from Toby Keith, featuring "The Angry American" and "Beer for My Horses." I don't care much for his music, but the mere mention of his name seems to inflame the pinkos. That alone makes his album worth a mention. Liberals, just THINK how Toby must be savoring last week's humiliating defeats for the Democrats. Just THINK of it. That bastard.
CLICK HERE for the complete list of this week's major releases. Labels: new_album_releases
posted by Al at 11/08/2004 11:31:00 PM
Rickie Lee Jones's birthday
Rickie Lee Jones turns 50 today. Happy birthday!!
THE REST OF THE STORY
posted by Al at 11/08/2004 10:35:00 AM
November 07, 2004
Icky Girl Music: Joni Mitchell's Birthday Mastermix
Joni Mitchell was born 61 years ago today, on November 7, 1943 in Alberta, Canada. Much as any decent person might normally hate Canadians, what with their beady little eyes and their heads so full of lies, you've got to stop and give respect to this classic artist.
She's usually described primarily as a songwriter, and certainly not without reason. She's had a unique melodic style, and a lot of jazz gained skill in harmonics that has coalesced into a hella catalogue of songs.
However, the known recordings of almost all her songs (save a Nazareth cover of "This Flight Tonight") are her own. She's quite a unique vocal performer with a really good instrument.
On top of which, whoever she's got producing from record to record, she's gotten a lot of really interesting arrangements that add a lot to the already excellent basic songs. Indeed, Led Zeppelin and Prince and Elvis Costello have all cited her as a model, particularly for creating orhcestral colors. Dig particularly, for examples, on "The Jungle Line" or "Carey." She's got a very painterly consciousness of her tone palette.
Here's a little late arriving email quote from Sananda Matreiya aka Terence Trent D'Arby:
Were Joni Mitchell born instead John Mitchell, she'd easily and without typical chauvinist reluctance be ranked as one of the greatest artist of the second half of the century. Her genius is not only a novelists eye for vignettes and imagery but also in the complexity of her harmonic ear and brilliant melodies. More men owe a debt to her in my profession than have yet had the balls to own up to. For me she easily ranks with the big boys of my Valhalla, Wilson, Wonder, Dylan, Bacharach etc.
If you haven't got any Joni Mitchell, then your priorities in life are just messed up. The Blue album comes top recommended, along with Court and Spark. I've never seen a Joni Mitchell compilation I was real satisified with, though.
So, of course, I've made my own mix CD. It would be worth your time to hunt down mp3s P2P and whip up your own copy of:
ICKY GIRL MUSIC - THE JONI MITCHELL MASTERMIX
 The Jungle Line
Help Me
Carey
Big Yellow Taxi
God Must Be a Boogie Man
This Flight Tonight
You Turn Me On, I'm a Radio
Raised on Robbery
Court and Spark
Free Man in Paris
In France They Kiss on Main Street
My Old Man
The Last Time I Saw Richard
All I Want
California
River
A Case of You
People's Parties
Blue
Song to Aging Children Come
Twisted
Little Green
Both Sides Now
posted by Al at 11/07/2004 01:45:00 AM
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