Quantcast
Channel: AlanF
Browsing latest articles
Browse All 50 View Live

A victory in the quest for verified voting

Good news - the Pentagon abandoned a plan for Internet voting:http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040205/ap_on_el_ge/internet_voting_3 For information about verified voting initiatives,...

View Article



Bush proves he served at least 4% of his duty

White House Releases Bush Military Record The title of the article made me apprehensive, but the contents of the article made me laugh. The best they can come up with is that he was paid for six days...

View Article

Talking to swingers...

... swing voters, that is. I see us doing two basic types of persuasion: (1) motivating and preparing the faithful to go out and take action in various ways (write letters, canvas for a campaign, talk...

View Article

Duct tape for voting terminals?

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Maryland's sleek new voting machines will be swathed in tamper-proof tape during Tuesday's primary election, but that won't make computer scientist Avi Rubin any more confident...

View Article

International Election Monitors Take on Florida

It has finally happened:Four years after Florida became the object of international ridicule, officials for the Catholic group Pax Christi USA will place monitors from 30 countries at polls in four...

View Article


US mourns '88 Iraq chem weapon attack - the hypocrisy!

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=535&ncid=535&e=16&u=/ap/20040316/ap_ on_re_mi_ea/iraq_attack_anniversary_1Kurds Mark Saddam's '88 Chemical Attack By MARIAM FAM,...

View Article

Aznar's party threatens to sue Almodóvar

Wow, Aznar's party really knows how to do public relations.BBC article

View Article

Repub firm jams NH Dem phones

This seems like a really big deal to me. I'm not sure why I haven't found any mentions of it here. Maybe we're all too obsessed with trying to guess Kerry's VP pick? Here's the link:Ex-Head of GOP...

View Article


Hunting of the President

I saw The Hunting of the President yesterday. I left the theater realizing just how good a movie Fahrenheit 9/11 was. Wish I could say the same for THOTP.

View Article


What goes on inside the mind of an undecided?

I've often felt frustrated and bewildered by those who could remain undecided between Bush and Kerry for so long. I especially had trouble trying to reconcile the fact that many of them seemed pleasant...

View Article

The hat and the hamster

Of all the foolish mistakes in the speech written by Karen Hughes and delivered by the Bush twins, I would argue that none was more revealing and fatal than the offhand remark about their hamster....

View Article

Don't Nobody Mess with the Rooster

I just submitted this piece to the same newspaper that printed "A Tale of Two Hamsters" (a first draft of which I posted here as "The Hat and the Hamster"). Let's hope they publish this one as well! If...

View Article

How can we prevent GOTV phone bank jamming?

We New Englanders have been hearing a lot about voter fraud in other parts of the country. Well, here's an article about phone jamming in New Hampshire that should remind us to build up defenses...

View Article


Open Questions: Diary of a Search in Progress

When I first became acquainted with Daily Kos, I was surprised to discover that an entry was called a "diary." For me, the word still evokes the flowery fabric-covered book with the tiny lock that lay...

View Article

Open Questions: Setting Private Goals in Public

Welcome to "Open Questions." For those of you new to the series (and that means all but the two of you who visited my first installment :->), this is a series in which I intend to explore personal...

View Article


Verified Voting Needs Geeks and Poets

I'm sure most of you would agree that the best antidote to fear is organized action. Many of us fear that our voting system is in danger of slipping out of the control of the people. Paperless...

View Article

Circles on the Green

I wrote this letter to a local paper about tonight's candlelight vigil for Cindy Sheehan, and they published it this morning. My original title was "Circles on the Green," but they renamed it to "Vigil...

View Article


Verified Voting Looking for New CEO/Pres

In an earlier post, Verified Voting Needs Geeks and Poets, I mentioned that Verified Voting was looking for programmers, press release writers, and other talented folks. Still true. We are currently...

View Article

Billboard Followup with Action Points

This is an attempt to try out an "action-point" approach in order to address an issue. In this case, the issue is Lamar Advertising's refusal to honor its contract with the DNC to place billboards...

View Article

How to Tell the CA Sec'y of State "No Diebold!"

I answered Sen. Debra Bowen's call to ask the California Secretary of State, Bruce McPherson, to rescind Diebold certification. However, his office responded by sending me a form letter. I might have...

View Article

Canvassing west of Boston: getting the lead out

I sent this letter to the DNC describing my canvassing experience yesterday. Some day, in another diary, I may describe the more colorful aspects of my conversation with my canvassing partner Fran, the...

View Article


Ruining people's day: Jonathan Simon on election integrity

Last Wednesday, I found myself roaming through the idyllic, lilac-bedecked streets of Harvard in an attempt to find a talk on election fraud. I eventually found the building (the Cambridge Society of...

View Article


Rena, lungfish, and a stolen cap

Last night, I read RenaRF's poignant diary recounting her experience of being tortured in high school. She reflected on how gay-bashers continue as adults to act the way her tormentors did. I suspected...

View Article

Did we learn nothing from Mike Stark yesterday?

Not the DK community's proudest day. The very day after Mike Stark posts Chris Graham responds, an addendum suggesting that his criticism of the reporter in his earlier The media: a cautionary tale...

View Article

A Tour Through the Election Integrity Landscape (Part 1)

A couple of weeks ago, someone asked me to write an introduction to the election integrity (EI) landscape. I thought that was an excellent idea, a nice complement to the diaries focused on media...

View Article


(MA-SoS) Freaky Friday: Trading Places with a Green

Yesterday morning, I visited Daily Kos and discovered a diary by "Senior citizen." He and I belong to the Yahoo! "election integrity and reform" group, so I'm familiar with his writing. I knew from his...

View Article

Women Donors Network says "Boo!" to "Count Hackula"

Readers of the New York Times who encountered the Women Donors Network's new ad this Monday might have gasped in horror... or laughed. Or both. Let's see what you think about it. Follow me over the...

View Article

Election protection hotlines in depth

I've updated the dKosopedia List of election integrity hotlines and addresses (short name: Election protection hotlines) to help us get an overview of the different election protection hotlines that...

View Article

"Go big or go home": Interview with Paul Jay, IWT/The Real News, Part 1

Now that we've broken a corrupt party's stranglehold on political power, it's time to put the corporate Goliaths of the media on notice. I was pleased to see a healthy debate two days after Election...

View Article



"Oh, you mean the REAL news!": Interview with Paul Jay, IWT/The Real News,...

In our last installment "Go big or go home": Interview with Paul Jay, IWT/The Real News, Part 1, I introduced you to the fearless Paul Jay and his network Independent World Television (IWT), with its...

View Article

"We'll go where the facts take us": Interview with Paul Jay, IWT/The Real...

In my first installment "Go big or go home": Interview with Paul Jay, IWT/The Real News, Part 1, I returned to 2005 to explore the roots of my obsession with Independent World Television/The Real...

View Article

"Seeking truth, not balance": Interview with Paul Jay, IWT/The Real News, Part 4

In my first installment, "Go big or go home": Interview with Paul Jay, IWT/The Real News, Part 1, I took us back to the first murmurs about Independent World Television/The Real News. IWT/TRN is the...

View Article

"We want all of you!": Interview with Paul Jay, IWT/The Real News, Part 5 of 5

In my first installment, "Go big or go home": Interview with Paul Jay, IWT/The Real News, Part 1, I took us back to the prehistory of IWT/TRN, the courageous TV network that will search out the truth...

View Article


My letter to the AP about Plame puff piece

I saw Julie Hirschfeld Davis's AP puff piece on Plame, commented on it on an open thread, found the address to which I could send a complaint, and did so. That address is info@ap.org.After I sent it, I...

View Article

Definitive list of reasons to regret Imus's departure

Yup, I've heard too much about Imus, too. Too many dire warnings that his being taken off the air will blow back in our faces when the censors go after all the progressive commentators. Too many...

View Article

Invisible Airwaves Crackle with Life

... and no, I'm not talking about Imus's departure from radio.As some of you are aware (how many? take the poll!), liberals were roundly punished for winning the 2006 elections by having progressive...

View Article


Who (Almost) Killed Progressive Talk Radio?

Yesterday, in Invisible Airwaves Crackle with Life, I told you about hopeful signs in the struggle to get progressive talk radio back on the airwaves, particularly in Boston. I also mentioned that the...

View Article


Grassroots Meet Rainmakers: Boston Progressive Talk Radio

[cross-posted at Blue Mass Group]This week, Air America "pre-founders" Sheldon and Anita Drobny came to Boston to meet with Save Boston's Progressive Talk Radio, which is working to put progressive...

View Article

What does Daily Kos accomplish?

Yup, this is meta. But it's meta that's trying to go someplace new.I believe it could be helpful to develop a toolbox for exploring such questions as:"What purposes does DK achieve?""How well does it...

View Article

Holt's paper ballot bill (H.R. 811) scheduled for debate

What would you say if a bill that had attracted a majority of House members as cosponsors was prevented from reaching the floor? Doesn't sound very democratic, does it? But that's just what happened to...

View Article

So how does Daily Kos measure up?

In my May 13 diary, "What does Daily Kos accomplish?", I began with these questions:"What purposes does DK achieve?""How well does it succeed in them?""How can we quantify that?""Which purposes are in...

View Article


Little Miss Sunshine at the FCC Hearing

(crossposted from my blog, Activist Land)Last Thursday, a group of members of the Save Boston's Progressive Talk coalition drove to Portland, Maine to testify at an FCC hearing. Little did we know...

View Article

"The Real News" Junkies Get a Fix

Withdrawal symptoms are brutal, especially when they last for decades. And we've been jonesing for something approaching journalism on the evening news for a long, long time.What would you say if I...

View Article


Rally Monday - Save KLSD - San Diego Progressive Talk Radio

[cross-posted at Calitics -- any suggestions regarding other CA/San Diego blogs would be welcome]I've been posting on progressive talk radio a fair amount this year, focusing on the efforts of our...

View Article

Jon Elliott Wants You to Save KLSD

On Saturday I blogged here and on Calitics about how we need to save KLSD, the lone progressive talk radio station in San Diego, which may be flipped to sports unless enough listeners make themselves...

View Article


Another Jon Rallies for KLSD

For those of you who haven't been tuned in, Clear Channel is threatening to add San Diego's KLSD (K + Liberal San Diego) to the long list of radio stations to lose progressive talk. The company's modus...

View Article

"Smells like mean spirit": FRIDAY: FCC in Seattle

[to be crossposted to Washblog]Gotta love this groan-worthy statement (in PDF format) from the Democratic FCC commissioners, Copps and Adelstein, regarding the upcoming FCC hearing in Seattle this...

View Article

Beyond paralysis

[cross-posted from Activist Land and Truth & Progress]Yesterday, I read an arousing diary, HOW TO BE A CLIMATE HERO (which had been crossposted from Truth and Progress). The author, Audrey...

View Article

Canvassing is All About Showing Up

[cross-posted from Activist Land and Blue Mass Group]I co-lead a local group of Obama supporters preparing to canvass in New Hampshire, the swing state closest to us. (For those unfamiliar with the...

View Article


Signed, Sealed, Delivered: Boston Progressive Talk On the Air!

Okay, I admit it. I'm still not very good at dealing with good news. Remember the Onion video of the Obama zombies who, after devoting months of work to their candidate, enduring countless ups and...

View Article

Browsing latest articles
Browse All 50 View Live




Latest Images