More On NH Primary Voting Machine Error

I just got this in an email.... There are many people in a number of campaigns who are outraged over this news that the NH Primary Election votes were miscounted. Real upset.

THE CAT THAT CONTROLS NEW HAMPSHIRE ELECTION PROGRAMMING


John Silvestro and his small private business, LHS Associates, has exclusive programming contracts for ALL New Hampshire voting machines, which combined will count about 81 percent of the vote in the primary. And as to Super Tuesday and beyond: Silvestro also has the programming contracts for the states of Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont.


Silvestro IS the New Hampshire chain of custody in New England -- Or at least, a very large component in it.



Last fall, with the help of citizens like you, Black Box Voting began working on "Chain of Custody" projects, in which we identified some of the areas of concern that might affect many jurisdictions at once. First on the list for the Northeast U.S. is LHS Associates, a vendor with inside access to every memory card, as well as to the chips containing the "brain" of the Diebold optical scan machines.



RARE VIDEO FOOTAGE



In an unusual confluence of available video, we obtained footage of Silvestro grappling with Harri Hursti, the master hacker who had his way with the Diebold optical scans in Leon County, Florida in the famous exploit that was showcased in the film Hacking Democracy.



The exact same make, model and version hacked in the Black Box Voting project in Leon County is used throughout New Hampshire, where about 45 percent of elections administrators hand count paper ballots at the polling place, with the remaining locations all using the Diebold version 1.94w optical scan machine. Because the voting machine locations tend to be urban, this represents about 81 percent of the New Hampshire voters.



The video shows Harri Hursti testifying on Sept. 19 before the New Hampshire legislature, attempting to explain significant vulnerabilities requiring urgent mitigations; throughout his testimony, Silvestro inserted his own comments, opinions, misstatements and speculations.



VOTING MACHINE CHECKUP



One area of disagreement between Hursti and Silvestro was the amount of expertise needed to exploit the Diebold 1.94w optical scan system. Silvestro claimed (in a strange contortion of reasoning) that he doesn't hire very skilled programmers, implying that this makes New Hampshire elections more secure.



Hursti pointed out that hiring programmers with a lack of knowledge is generally not considered a security feature, and also that an average high schooler can learn to exploit the system in two days to two weeks.



WE THINK IT DOESN'T TAKE THAT LONG



Black Box Voting purchased a Diebold optical scan with 1.94w firmware, and chose a computer repair shop out of the phone book, took it in, grabbed the first available technician. It took him less than 10 minutes to zero in on the memory card as a point of critical vulnerability -- and oh my, did he point out some other intersting things!



NEW HAMPSHIRE HASN'T UPGRADED SYSTEM SECURITY



Silvestro tries to claim that the security problems have been fixed in newer editions. Whether or not they have been, it's a moot point in New Hampshire where the upgrade is not made unless the Ballot Law Commission meets, and they have not met for ages.



Silvestro then points to extraordinary measures taken by other states to enact special procedural safeguards, but of course none of those were implemented in New Hampshire either, because the Ballot Law Commission has not bothered to meet since March 2006.



IN FACT, NEW HAMPSHIRE HAS NOT IMPLEMENTED MITIGATIONS FOR KNOWN RISKS



Not only that, they have turned all the programming over to a sole source private company, taking vote counting for 81 percent of New Hampshire citizens out of the public domain.



LHS is not subject to public records requirements, as the government is, at least, not in New Hampshire. The control over memory card contents is absolute; when cards malfunction or get lost, LHS brings the replacements.



CONTROL OVER THE "BRAINS" OF THE MACHINE: ACCESS TO THE CHIP



Since LHS maintains the machines, repairs the machines, and replaces the machines -- often on Election Day -- when they malfunction, they have intimate access to the chips, sockets, ports, communications devices and other electronic components.



Silvestro stated that the chip has "read only memory" and cannot be reprogrammed without frying it under ultraviolet light overnight.



Hursti never had a chance to examine the hardware, nor have most of the recent university studies had access. But our friendly neighborhood computer repair guy differed with Silvestro on the point of plug & play reprogramming of the guts of the machine.



After I push the button to send this message out to the media and the citizenry, I'll work on getting a short YouTube video of the Accuvote checkup by our local computer repairman. And before you say, "But wait! He's not a world class expert!" -- That's just the point.



Our local computer repairman may hit or miss on some of his analyses. You'll all be able to try your hand at second guessing him as soon as the next video is up. But if he hits even one of his ideas for how to exploit the machine to steal votes, that's all it takes. From someone who is not, certainly, a world class hacker or even a hacker at all.



I'll post the link to that in a follow up here: http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/1954/71200.html?1199744175 , and invite you techs to weigh in.



Please feel free to distribute, reprint or excerpt, with link to Black Box Voting and the video link above.



Bev Harris

Black Box Voting

New Hampshire Primary Votes Miscounted According To Citizens for Legitimate Government

UPDATE Dennis Kucinich asks for recount of NH Primary votes Click here for more info and video

New News. New email I received asserts that the NH Primary Votes were miscounted! This news is all over the Internet. See below and see my video ..

News Updates from Citizens for Legitimate Government
09 Jan 2008

http://www.legitgov.org/

http://www.legitgov.org/index.html#breaking_news
Where Paper Prevailed, Different Results By Lori Price 09 Jan 2008

2008 New Hampshire Democratic Primary Results --Total Democratic Votes: 286,139 - Machine vs Hand (RonRox.com) 09 Jan 2008

Hillary Clinton, Diebold Accuvote optical scan: 39.618%
Clinton, Hand Counted Paper Ballots: 34.908%
Barack Obama, Diebold Accuvote optical scan: 36.309%
Obama, Hand Counted Paper Ballots: 38.617%
Machine vs Hand:
Clinton: 4.709% (13,475 votes)
Obama: -2.308% (-6,604 votes)

2008 New Hampshire Republican Primary Results --Total Republican Votes: 236,378 Machine vs Hand (RonRox.com) 09 Jan 2008

Mitt Romney, Diebold Accuvote optical scan: 33.075%
Romney, Hand Counted Paper Ballots: 25.483%
Ron Paul, Diebold Accuvote optical scan: 7.109%
Paul, Hand Counted Paper Ballots: 9.221%
Machine vs Hand :
Romney: 7.592% (17,946 votes)
Paul: -2.112% (-4,991 votes)

NH: "First in the nation" (with corporate controlled secret vote counting) By Nancy Tobi 07 Jan 2008 81% of New Hampshire ballots are counted in secret by a private corporation named Diebold Election Systems (now known as "Premier"). The elections run on these machines are programmed by one company, LHS Associates, based in Methuen, MA. We know nothing about the people programming these machines, and we know even less about LHS Associates. We know even less about the secret vote counting software used to tabulate 81% of our ballots. [ See also CLG's Coup 2004 and Yes, Gore DID win!.]

Please forward this update to anyone you think might be interested. Those who'd like to be added to the Newsletter list can sign up: http://www.legitgov.org/#subscribe_clg.

Please write to: signup@legitgov.org for inquiries.

CLG Newsletter editor: Lori Price, Manager. Copyright © 2008, Citizens For Legitimate Government ® All rights reserved. CLG Founder and Chair is Michael Rectenwald, Ph.D.

UPDATE: My video on this matter:

Clinton Cries, Buys New Hampshire Votes - Obama Fights On

First congratulations to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton on her New Hampshire Primary win. Second, congratulations to Senator Barack Obama for the best speech of the night.

In this video, I assert that Senator Clinton's crying peformance was just that, a performance.



And I say this is so because the Clinton Campaign has a track record of staging people in place at events to ask pre-determined questions. This was done - for example -- in Newton, Iowa, where according to the Grinnell College newspaper...

On Tuesday Nov. 6, the Clinton campaign stopped at a biodiesel plant in Newton as part of a weeklong series of events to introduce her new energy plan. The event was clearly intended to be as much about the press as the Iowa voters in attendance, as a large press core helped fill the small venue. Reporters from many major national news outlets came to the small Iowa town, from such media giants as The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, the Associated Press, and CNN.

After her speech, Clinton accepted questions. But according to Grinnell College student Muriel Gallo-Chasanoff ’10, some of the questions from the audience were planned in advance. “They were canned,” she said. Before the event began, a Clinton staff member approached Gallo-Chasanoff to ask a specific question after Clinton’s speech. “One of the senior staffers told me what [to ask],” she said.

In my video and here, I contend that the person who asked Hillary Clinton the question of how she was doing was a plant, and that the whole deal was planned. And my second reason for why Clinton ran is even more interesting.

This is a developing story, but I believe that Senator Clinton's campaign trucked in volunteers to vote for her in New Hampshire. The NH primary has a very loose system where a person can just come in and on the day of the primary vote declare an intention to move into New Hampshire.

If one checks the NH Secretary of State's office, they will see this:

January 8, 2008 PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY ELECTION DAY - Unregistered voters may register
and vote on this day.

And this...

WHO CAN REGISTER
New Hampshire residents who will be 18 years of age or older on election day, and a United States Citizen, may register with the town or city clerk where they live up to 10 days before any election. You may also register on election day at the polling place. The town clerk's office can inform voters of what proof of qualification they should bring to register.

There is no minimum period of time you are required to have lived in the state before being allowed to register. You may register as soon as you move into your new community.

I also have it from a good New Hampshire-based source that a person can walk in and tell the town hall representative that they intend to move to New Hampshire, and still be allowed to vote.

It's also known and documented that the Clinton campaign called and paid for volunteers to show up at rallies. That's right, paid for them.

By contrast, the Obama campaign volunteers that did come in did so on their own dime.

The open question I ask is how many New Hampshire Primary voters actually live in New Hampshire? The margin of difference between Senator Clinton's voters and Senator Obama's voters is so small that this question becomes an important one. Especially since the Clinton Campaign was facing a cash crunch. Where did that money go? Some of it went to paid people living in nearby states to come into New Hampshire.

Meanwhile, Senator Barack Obama fights on and has just picked up the endorsement of the largest union in Nevada.

New News. New email asserts that the NH Primary Votes were miscounted! See below..

News Updates from Citizens for Legitimate Government
09 Jan 2008

http://www.legitgov.org/

http://www.legitgov.org/index.html#breaking_news
Where Paper Prevailed, Different Results By Lori Price 09 Jan 2008

2008 New Hampshire Democratic Primary Results --Total Democratic Votes: 286,139 - Machine vs Hand (RonRox.com) 09 Jan 2008

Hillary Clinton, Diebold Accuvote optical scan: 39.618%
Clinton, Hand Counted Paper Ballots: 34.908%
Barack Obama, Diebold Accuvote optical scan: 36.309%
Obama, Hand Counted Paper Ballots: 38.617%
Machine vs Hand:
Clinton: 4.709% (13,475 votes)
Obama: -2.308% (-6,604 votes)

2008 New Hampshire Republican Primary Results --Total Republican Votes: 236,378 Machine vs Hand (RonRox.com) 09 Jan 2008

Mitt Romney, Diebold Accuvote optical scan: 33.075%
Romney, Hand Counted Paper Ballots: 25.483%
Ron Paul, Diebold Accuvote optical scan: 7.109%
Paul, Hand Counted Paper Ballots: 9.221%
Machine vs Hand :
Romney: 7.592% (17,946 votes)
Paul: -2.112% (-4,991 votes)

NH: "First in the nation" (with corporate controlled secret vote counting) By Nancy Tobi 07 Jan 2008 81% of New Hampshire ballots are counted in secret by a private corporation named Diebold Election Systems (now known as "Premier"). The elections run on these machines are programmed by one company, LHS Associates, based in Methuen, MA. We know nothing about the people programming these machines, and we know even less about LHS Associates. We know even less about the secret vote counting software used to tabulate 81% of our ballots. [ See also CLG's Coup 2004 and Yes, Gore DID win!.]

Please forward this update to anyone you think might be interested. Those who'd like to be added to the Newsletter list can sign up: http://www.legitgov.org/#subscribe_clg.

Please write to: signup@legitgov.org for inquiries.

CLG Newsletter editor: Lori Price, Manager. Copyright © 2008, Citizens For Legitimate Government ® All rights reserved. CLG Founder and Chair is Michael Rectenwald, Ph.D.

Hillary Clinton's Mistake: On Martin Luther King, LBJ, and Barack Obama

UPDATE: Clinton on "Meet The Press"

See Blil Clinton sleep on MLK day!

Like many of you who follow politics, I saw the exchange between Fox reporter Major Garrett and Senator Hillary Clinton, where Senator Clinton said “Dr. King’s dream began to be realized when President Johnson passed the Civil Rights Act,” Mrs. Clinton said when asked about Mr. Obama’s rejoinder by Fox’s Major Garrett after her speech in Dover. “It took a president to get it done.”

After some reflection, I don't think Senator Clinton was being entirely racist, but she was certainly acting stupidly. As my video says, Dr. King's work came at a time when it was not "comfortable" -- to say the least -- to be a Black American citizen. Dr. King didn't win the Nobel Peace Prize for nothing.



As this is 2008 and we have a generation of Americans who never experienced, and it seems learned about, Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement, here's a good biography:

Martin Luther King, Jr., (January 15, 1929-April 4, 1968) was born Michael Luther King, Jr., but later had his name changed to Martin. His grandfather began the family's long tenure as pastors of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, serving from 1914 to 1931; his father has served from then until the present, and from 1960 until his death Martin Luther acted as co-pastor. Martin Luther attended segregated public schools in Georgia, graduating from high school at the age of fifteen; he received the B. A. degree in 1948 from Morehouse College, a distinguished Negro institution of Atlanta from which both his father and grandfather had graduated. After three years of theological study at Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania where he was elected president of a predominantly white senior class, he was awarded the B.D. in 1951. With a fellowship won at Crozer, he enrolled in graduate studies at Boston University, completing his residence for the doctorate in 1953 and receiving the degree in 1955. In Boston he met and married Coretta Scott, a young woman of uncommon intellectual and artistic attainments. Two sons and two daughters were born into the family.

In 1954, Martin Luther King accepted the pastorale of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama. Always a strong worker for civil rights for members of his race, King was, by this time, a member of the executive committee of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the leading organization of its kind in the nation. He was ready, then, early in December, 1955, to accept the leadership of the first great Negro nonviolent demonstration of contemporary times in the United States, the bus boycott described by Gunnar Jahn in his presentation speech in honor of the laureate. The boycott lasted 382 days. On December 21, 1956, after the Supreme Court of the United States had declared unconstitutional the laws requiring segregation on buses, Negroes and whites rode the buses as equals. During these days of boycott, King was arrested, his home was bombed, he was subjected to personal abuse, but at the same time he emerged as a Negro leader of the first rank.

In 1957 he was elected president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization formed to provide new leadership for the now burgeoning civil rights movement. The ideals for this organization he took from Christianity; its operational techniques from Gandhi. In the eleven-year period between 1957 and 1968, King traveled over six million miles and spoke over twenty-five hundred times, appearing wherever there was injustice, protest, and action; and meanwhile he wrote five books as well as numerous articles. In these years, he led a massive protest in Birmingham, Alabama, that caught the attention of the entire world, providing what he called a coalition of conscience. and inspiring his "Letter from a Birmingham Jail", a manifesto of the Negro revolution; he planned the drives in Alabama for the registration of Negroes as voters; he directed the peaceful march on Washington, D.C., of 250,000 people to whom he delivered his address, "l Have a Dream", he conferred with President John F. Kennedy and campaigned for President Lyndon B. Johnson; he was arrested upwards of twenty times and assaulted at least four times; he was awarded five honorary degrees; was named Man of the Year by Time magazine in 1963; and became not only the symbolic leader of American blacks but also a world figure.

At the age of thirty-five, Martin Luther King, Jr., was the youngest man to have received the Nobel Peace Prize. When notified of his selection, he announced that he would turn over the prize money of $54,123 to the furtherance of the civil rights movement.

On the evening of April 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of his motel room in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was to lead a protest march in sympathy with striking garbage workers of that city, he was assassinated.

In my opinion, Hillary Clinton owes the King family an appology for essentially dimishing Dr. King's contributions in her words. The Clintons are placing themselves in the position of working to divide America just as Senator Barack Obama's working to unite our country. They're doing this because they think it will work in America, but as Senator Obama and I both know, this is a different country than in was in 1992.

New News. New email asserts that the NH Primary Votes were miscounted! See below..

News Updates from Citizens for Legitimate Government
09 Jan 2008

http://www.legitgov.org/

http://www.legitgov.org/index.html#breaking_news
Where Paper Prevailed, Different Results By Lori Price 09 Jan 2008

2008 New Hampshire Democratic Primary Results --Total Democratic Votes: 286,139 - Machine vs Hand (RonRox.com) 09 Jan 2008

Hillary Clinton, Diebold Accuvote optical scan: 39.618%
Clinton, Hand Counted Paper Ballots: 34.908%
Barack Obama, Diebold Accuvote optical scan: 36.309%
Obama, Hand Counted Paper Ballots: 38.617%
Machine vs Hand:
Clinton: 4.709% (13,475 votes)
Obama: -2.308% (-6,604 votes)

2008 New Hampshire Republican Primary Results --Total Republican Votes: 236,378 Machine vs Hand (RonRox.com) 09 Jan 2008

Mitt Romney, Diebold Accuvote optical scan: 33.075%
Romney, Hand Counted Paper Ballots: 25.483%
Ron Paul, Diebold Accuvote optical scan: 7.109%
Paul, Hand Counted Paper Ballots: 9.221%
Machine vs Hand :
Romney: 7.592% (17,946 votes)
Paul: -2.112% (-4,991 votes)

NH: "First in the nation" (with corporate controlled secret vote counting) By Nancy Tobi 07 Jan 2008 81% of New Hampshire ballots are counted in secret by a private corporation named Diebold Election Systems (now known as "Premier"). The elections run on these machines are programmed by one company, LHS Associates, based in Methuen, MA. We know nothing about the people programming these machines, and we know even less about LHS Associates. We know even less about the secret vote counting software used to tabulate 81% of our ballots. [ See also CLG's Coup 2004 and Yes, Gore DID win!.]

Please forward this update to anyone you think might be interested. Those who'd like to be added to the Newsletter list can sign up: http://www.legitgov.org/#subscribe_clg.

Please write to: signup@legitgov.org for inquiries.

CLG Newsletter editor: Lori Price, Manager. Copyright © 2008, Citizens For Legitimate Government ® All rights reserved. CLG Founder and Chair is Michael Rectenwald, Ph.D.

Barack Obama Wins Dixville Notch and Hart's Location New Hampshire!

These are the first two towns that historically place their vote in for President first in New Hampshire: Dixville Notch and Hart's Location. Senator Barack Obama got nine votes; Senator Hillary Clinton Three votes; former Senator John Edwards took in one vote. Here's the rest of the story from the AP

Obama, McCain Get Early Votes

Jan 8 01:28 AM US/Eastern
By CLARKE CANFIELD
Associated Press Writer

DIXVILLE NOTCH, N.H. (AP) - Residents of two tiny towns stayed up late to give Barack Obama and John McCain early victories in the New Hampshire presidential primary.
Voters in two small New Hampshire villages, Dixville Notch and Hart's Location, cast the initial ballots just after midnight Tuesday.

In Hart's Location, Democrat Obama received nine votes, Hillary Rodham Clinton received three and John Edwards received one. On the Republican side, McCain received six, Mike Huckabee received five, Ron Paul received four and Mitt Romney one.

In Dixville Notch, on the Republican side, McCain received four votes, Mitt Romney two and Rudy Giuliani one. On the Democratic side, Obama received seven votes, John Edwards two votes and Bill Richardson one vote.

Long-shot GOP hopeful Rep. Duncan Hunter attended the vote in Dixville Notch, where results were announced before 12:06 a.m.

"It epitomizes people-to-people politicking," Hunter said minutes before the votes were cast.

Hunter received no votes in either town.

State law allows towns with fewer than 100 people to open at midnight and to close as soon as all registered voters have cast ballots.

While most New Hampshire residents have to wait until around daybreak to vote, those in the two far northern towns have been going to the polls at midnight for decades. The Balsams, located about 20 miles from the Canadian border, has been holding its early bird voting since That's when former owner Neil Tillotson, who died in 2001, arranged for early elections by having Dixville incorporated solely for voting purposes. Hart's Location began midnight voting in 1948 because most residents were railroad workers who had to be on the job during normal polling hours. Townspeople, weary of the media attention and the late hours, did away with it after the 1964 election but revived the practice in 1996.

In Dixville this year, there were three registered Republicans, one Democrat and 12 who were undeclared. Hart's Location had eight Democrats, eight Republicans and 13 undeclared.

With more candidates on the ballot--42--than voters in town, longtime Hart's Location town clerk Marion Varney, 86, wouldn't venture a guess Monday on how the voting would turn out. In 2004, Wesley Clark got the most Democratic primary votes in Hart's Location and Dixville.

"I don't even know for sure who I'm going to vote for," said Varney. "I think I might just close my eyes and mark the ballot."

The two places have a friendly competition about which is first to cast its ballots.

New Hampshire Secretary of State William Gardner recalls getting phone calls in years past from people claiming that Neil Tillotson had illegally cast the first ballot at The Balsams before midnight--that they had seen it on C-SPAN.

"I'd say it was done on 'Tillotson time,'" Gardner said. "If he said it was midnight, then it was midnight."

Hillary Clinton Tears Up During New Hampshire Speech; John Edwards Attacks Her. Is Clinton Able To Stand The Rigors Of The Campaign?

By now, you may have heard or even seen Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton become choked up and almost cry when a supporter asked her how she was doing. If you haven't seen it or know what she said, I've got it right here for you. This is video and below it, the text from Huff Post:



Clinton Makes Emotional Vow to Fight On - The Huffington Post

PHILIP ELLIOTT | January 7, 2008 06:40 PM EST |

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. — Hillary Rodham Clinton's eyes welled up and her voice broke repeatedly Monday as she talked with voters in a restaurant about her campaign for the presidency. The former first lady was making a last-minute pitch for support as she spoke on the eve of the state's primary, with polls showing her trailing Democratic rival Barack Obama.

Asked by a sympathetic voter how she keeps going in the grueling campaign, she replied, "It's not easy. It's not easy."

"And I couldn't do it if I just didn't, you know, passionately believe it was the right thing to do," she said, her voice catching.

"You know, I've had so many opportunities from this country, I just don't want to see us fall backwards," she said, her voice trailing off. The voters crowded into the restaurant applauded encouragingly.

"So," she continued, then paused, seemingly to control her voice as her listeners applauded again. "You know, this is very personal for me. It's not just political. It's not just public. I see what's happening, and we have to reverse it. And some people think elections are a game. They think it's like who's up or who's down.

"It's about our country. It's about our kids' futures. It's really about all of us together. You know some of us put ourselves out there and do this against some pretty difficult odds. And we do it, each one of us, because we care about our country. But some of us are right and some of us are wrong. Some of us are ready and some of us are not."

She concluded, "And so when we look at the array of problems we have and the potential for it getting _ really spinning out of control, this is one of the most important elections America's ever faced. So as tired as I am _ and I am _ and as difficult as it is to try to kind of keep up with what I try to do on the road like occasionally exercise and try to eat right _ it's tough when the easiest food is pizza _ I just believe so strongly in who we are as a nation so I'm going to do everything I can to make my case and, you know, then the voters get to decide."

After she spoke several of the people in the Cafe Espresso audience crowded around Clinton and offered sympathetic support.

_________________

Presidential Candidate John Edwards waisted no time in spearing the already wounded Clinton:

Edwards, speaking at a press availability in Laconia, New Hampshire, offered little sympathy and pounced on the opportunity to bring into question Clinton's ability to endure the stresses of the presidency. Edwards responded, "I think what we need in a commander-in-chief is strength and resolve, and presidential campaigns are tough business, but being president of the United States is also tough business."

Here's my take on the issue.

____________________

When Senator Clinton was ahead in the polls and raising money, she was just fine emotionally. Meanwhile, Senator Obama and Former Senator John Edwards and Governor Bill Richardson were all behind in the polls and fighting. They handled it all well, emotionally. Now, when Clinton is behind in the polls, and lost her first primary, she all-but falls apart.

This has nothing to do with being a woman and is unique to Hillary. I think she's so consumed with the personal ambition of achieving what her husband Bill Clinton reached -- The Presidency -- that any sign, even a small one considering how far we have to go in this thing -- gets to her emotionally.

That's not what people want in a president.

Indeed, this Facebook poll of her "tearing" is not a good one. It reports that 64 percent of the poll respondents don't think the moment helped her, where 18 percent believed it helped and 18 percent thought it would have no effect. But the poll question is weird in that it asks one to make a prediction. The real truth is that the people who wrote a response on Facebook believed that it changed their view of her -- and they're voters.

Barack O'Bama The Irishman, American Indian, Kenyan, and Scot

I saw that over at Democratic Underground. Some poster calls himself Barack O'Bama! Too funny.

But then I decided to Google that name and it turns out that Obama has Irish roots. Check this out from the Chicago Sun Times... Barack Obama is American Indian, Irish, Scottish, Kenyan, and Pilgrim!

For sure, Obama's South Side Irish
ANCESTRY | One of his roots traces back to small village

May 3, 2007
BY BRIAN HUTTON
DUBLIN -- Presidential hopeful Barack Obama's ancestry has been traced back to a shoemaker in a small Irish village, it was reported Wednesday.

Obama's campaign wasn't talking about the revelation, but Chicago Ald. Ed Burke (14th) said he wasn't surprised.

"I could tell from the very first time I saw him -- he's got such a way with words," said Burke, who himself can trace ancestors to counties Clare and Kerry.


» Click to enlarge image

Sen. Barack Obama waves to the crowd at the St. Patrick's Day Parade.
(AP file)

RELATED STORIES
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Records unearthed in the home of an elderly Irish parishioner who died recently have shed new light on the Illinois senator's ancestry.
A Church of Ireland rector scoured files from the church -- the equivalent of the U.S. Episcopal Church -- dating to the late 1700s. He confirmed that Obama descended from Moneygall, County Offaly.

The village today holds little more than a couple of pubs, shops and a Roman Catholic church.

Canon Stephen Neill, from a nearby town, began delving into Obama's past after a U.S. genealogist told him about the possible connection. "I would be convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that this is categorical evidence of Mr. Obama's link to this part of the world," said the rector.

It was initially believed the would-be president's great-great-great-grandfather Fulmuth Kearney was the only one of his family to have sailed from Ireland to New York at age 19 in 1850.

But the newly uncovered records show other family members had in fact emigrated to America since the 1790s.

They also reveal that Fulmuth's father, Joseph, was a shoemaker -- a wealthy skilled trade at the time. "They would have been among the upper echelons of society back then," said Neill.

He said he thinks the name Fulmuth -- unusual for an Irish man -- was most likely a surname that was taken as a first name.

Obama was born in Hawaii to a black man from Kenya and a white woman -- with Irish links -- from Kansas. "I've got pieces of everybody in me," he has been quoted as saying.

But does the piece from Moneygall make Obama -- who lives in the South Side's Kenwood neighborhood -- South Side Irish?

"Of course," Burke said.

Press Association of Ireland, with Sun-Times Staff Reporter Matthew Nickerson contributing


OBAMA'S FAMILY TREE
His roots spread into so many places, it's hard to keep track. Here's a breakdown of reported links:
• American Indian: Obama said he had a "full-blooded Cherokee" in the family, but a genealogist said he couldn't find proof of that.

• Irish: He's traced to Fulmuth Kearney, who sailed to New York from Ireland in 1850. But where in Ireland? The counties are feuding: One expert says Kearney was from Meath, another Carlow. Now comes the news of ties to County Offaly.

• Kenyan: Obama's father came from the Luo group.

• Pilgrim: One direct ancestor was Edward FitzRandolph, married in Massachusetts in 1637. He was a Pilgrim father from Nottinghamshire, England.

• Scottish: There's even a royal link. Obama is descended from William I of Scotland, who reigned from 1165 to 1214. William was a politically and physically strong king. He charged Henry II's army single-handedly but was captured.

Sources: Sunday Times of London, Daily Mail of London, Chicago Sun-Times, Press Association

Senator John McCain Overtakes Mike Huckabee..In The Polls

I'm not sure I trust the polls because of the extreme uncertainty of the Republican Presidential race, but now John McCain, as of this writing, is considered the front runner even as Mike Huckabee was the winner in Iowa. Let's see if this holds in the Tuesday NH Primary.

Laure Manaudou's Website Down - Nude Photos Still A Hot Topic

I can't understand why Laure Manaudou's nude photos are so popular, but they are, and the issue has stayed "hot" for several weeks now. Acccording to this blog, the website was placed offline because "she had outdated information (still pictures of her and her italian boyfriend, and the whole thing wasn’t updated since november 2006) and her blog is getting lots of comments that her lawyer or herself probably doesn’t want others to see."

As to who placed the pictures, that question remains unanswered.

Another Clinton Mistake - Calls Russian President Putin "Souless" ; He's Times "Person Of The Year

If Putin heard this comment, I'm sure that's his expression.

Of all of the really, really terrible -- ok, just plain dumb -- mistakes to make, Senator Hillary Clinton reffered to Russian President Vladomir Putin -- Time Magazine's "Person of The Year" as "Souless" according to Ben Smith in the Politico.com website magazine.

That's not smart and that comment, coupled with her combative performance and false mailers are painting her as a really, well, ah, "souless" Presidential candidate.

I can't wait to hear Putin's response.

What's wrong with her? Yikes!

Will Mike Huckabee and Senator Jon McCain Gang Up On Romney?

On Fox News Sunday, there's an expressed rumor -- which both candidates deny -- that Mike Huckabee and John McCain will form a temporary alliance against Gov Mitt Romney.

But one look at the exchange from the debate would seem to at least confirm the possibility.

CNN / WMUR / UNH NEW POLL: Obama Up 10 Over Clinton; Edwards At 16: New Data Has No Disclaimer

Just one day after releasing an unusual poll reporting Senator Barack Obama tied with Senator Hillary Clinton after his Iowa victory, but also as others released polls with Obama ahead by as much as 10 points, CNN / WMUR / UNH issued what CNN calls a "new" poll, this one reports Obama with 39 percent, Clinton at 29 percent, Senator Edwards at 16 percent, and Gov. Richardson at 7 percent.

What's interesting is this poll's data sheet does not include a disclaimer note, unlike the first poll.

I think CNN futher damaged the credibility of their polling by not reporting the second survey as an update, but a "new poll" when one look at the PDF file shows it really is an undate.

But it's good they corrected the obvious data problem in the first poll.

Clinton Lies About Obama Abortion Record - Huff Post

Click to see the new video on Clinton's Martin Luther King "mistake".

Wow. This is a sure sign of desparation on the part of the Hillary Clinton campaign. To attempt to mislead voters in this way, or any way, is totally wrong and dangerous to boot. What they're thinking I don't know. She's also lied about his record on the Patriot Act. Read this below from the Huffington Post

Clinton Criticizes Obama in NH Mailer

NEDRA PICKLER | January 5, 2008 07:13 PM EST | Huffinton Post

MANCHESTER, N.H. — Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton criticizes rival Barack Obama's record on abortion rights in a mailing sent to New Hampshire voters _ her first direct attack on the Illinois senator since his victory in Iowa.

The mailer says that seven times during his time in the Illinois state Senate, Obama declined to take a position on abortion bills, while Clinton has been a defender of abortion rights.

During his eight years in the legislature, Obama cast a number of votes on abortion and received a 100 percent rating from the Illinois Planned Parenthood Council for his support of abortion rights, family planning services and health insurance coverage for female contraceptives. He voted against requiring medical care for aborted fetuses who survive, a vote that especially riled abortion opponents.

He also joined other state Democrats in voting present on some bills.

The mailing comes amid division within the Clinton campaign over how negative to go against Obama after his victory Thursday in the Iowa caucuses. The campaign has made a decision to hold off on any television advertising, positive or negative, until after a nationally televised debate Saturday night.

Obama also has been criticized by the political arm of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which has endorsed Clinton. Seven international vice presidents sent a letter protesting the "wholesale assault on one of the great friends of our union."

"Supposedly, we are involved in this primary because we're concerned about access to the next Democratic president," the signers argued. "So why would we want to develop a hostile relationship with the man who could be that next president?"

During the Iowa campaign, the Clinton campaign criticized Obama's position on health care in Iowa. But she is taking a different approach in New Hampshire.

"A woman's right to choose," the mailing says on the front, then flips to the back, "demands a leader who will stand up and protect it."

It says Clinton has a record of fighting "far-right Republicans" to defend abortion rights, while Obama has been "unwilling to take a stand on choice."

"Seven times he had the opportunity to stand up against Republican anti-choice legislation in the Illinois state Senate," it says. "Seven times he voted present _ not yes or no, but present. Being there is not enough to protect choice.

"On January 8 you have a choice," it closes. "Vote for Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary, Tuesday, Jan. 8."

The mailer says "Paid for by Hillary Clinton for President" and has a return address of her office in Manchester. Clinton spokesman Phil Singer said the campaign decided to send the piece because "as Senator Obama has said, `voting records matter.' This is a critical issue for New Hampshire voters and they deserve a straightforward presentation of the facts about both candidates."

Obama spokesman Bill Burton responded, "The Clinton campaign's false negative attacks were rejected by Iowa voters, and we expect that they'll suffer the same fate here in New Hampshire."

Fox News' Bill O'Reilly Endangers Obama As Presidential Candidate - Should Appologize

Fox News Bill O'Relly may have thought he was jusfied in placing his hands on Obama campaign staffer Marvin Nicholson, but the reality and details show he went too far. Here's what happened according to Lynn Sweet:

O'Reilly grabbed Nicholson's arm and shoved him, another eyewitness said. Nicholson, who is 6'8, said O'Reilly called him "low class."

"He grabbed me with both his hands here," Nicholson said, gesturing to his left arm and O'Reilly "started shoving me." Nicholson said, " He was pretty upset. He was yelling at me."

Secret Service agents who were nearby flanked O 'Reilly after he pushed Nicholson. They told O'Reilly he needed to calm down and get behind the fence-like barricade that contained the press.

Obama had his back turned at this point and did not see any of this.

O'Reilly yelled "sir" at Obama and Obama walked over, not aware of what happened and told him he had an overflow crowd to visit. According to the time code from a photographer shooting the two, Obama and O'Reilly talked near 11:45 a.m. eastern time.

He just came right around the barricade. They shook hands and Mr. O’Reilly said he thought Sen. Obama was great and that he loved him and loved to have him on the show and said he would think about coming on after the primaries.

Here's a video that captures part of the incident:



This behavior on the party of O'Reilly is, in my opinion, not unlike that of a zealout who could present a security danger to a Presidential Candidate. Suppose by approaching Barack the way he did, Bill O'Relly distracted agents just enough to allow an assailant to get in? That would be more than disasterous, yet the threat is there.

For his part, Bill O'Reilly seems to revel in this and seems emboldened. Senator Obama was nice and gracious to him as is natural for a candidate of his character. But it does not discount the danger and disrespect O'Reilly's behavior brings to the Presidential Race.

New Hampshire Voters Slam Clinton; Praise Obama After Debate

As this video shows, Senator Clinton's rather wild-eyed response to John Edwards' statements that she is not the candidate of change did not set well with New Hampshire Voters.



What matters is not what the Mainstream Media thinks, but New Hampshire voters. People are not electing a policy nerd, but a leader. Obama is that person. Clinton came off as desperate and the Obama staff knew they could win just be letting Hillary be herself.

A brilliant approach; she played right along with it.

James Koteki On The Presidential Race After Iowa

James Koteki has emerged from his YouTube channel Emergency Cheese to have another video talking-head platform on Politco.com. I enjoy his modern take on politics; here he looks at the presidential race past Iowa:

Obama Ahead In All NH Polls Except CNN Poll - Did CNN Bias Impact Their Poll?

Several Polls have been conducted after the Iowa Caucus and all of them have Senator Obama ahead save for one poll: The CNN / WMUR / UNH Poll, which has Obama and Clinton tied at 33 percent, with Edwards at 20 percent.

Why is the CNN Poll the only one that does not have Obama ahead? It's a good question as last year, many pollsters had Senator Clinton in front in national polls, except a June 5th USA Today / Gallup Poll, which had Obama tied with Clinton. Frank Newport of Gallup, Inc., stated that he actually called for a new poll with a different sample size because he could not believe that Obama was tied, and wanted to be consistent with other polls. So what kind of sample configuration did they use this time?

Well, the introduction to the PDF file reads "Interviews with 672 likely New Hampshire primary voters in
New Hampshire conducted by telephone on January 4-5, 2008." When I read "most likely" voters, that is older voters. But the file data does not tell us what the age range was. But my guess is that the average age was skewed up over the other polls, thus explaining how Clinton could tie Obama.

But even with that, the CNN / WMUR / UNH Poll reports that 60 percent of the people responding said that Senator Obama was the most inspirational candidate and that 72 percent had a favorable response to him, versus 46 percent and 18 percent respectively for Senator Clinton and 58 percent and 13 percent for former Senator Edwards.

Wow. That seems to be the foundation for a potential landslide in Obama's favor in New Hampshire.

But still the question of how the CNN / WMUR / UNH Poll could come out with a Clinton / Obama tie and not an Obama lead is active. In the search for the answer, I found this note in the PDF file, which you can get by clicking on this link.

The data have been weighted to adjust for numbers of voters and telephone lines within households, respondent sex, and region of the state. In addition to potential sampling error, all surveys have other potential sources of non-sampling error including question order effects, question wording effects, and non-response.

To "weight" data is to change it by adding a mutiplier, thus effecting the final outcome of how the data reads. What's very disturbing is that the data file does not explain how the data was "adusted" and what was effected. That's scary and my guess is that that weighting process is at the center of the "tie" we see in this poll, versus the other polls. Take a look below.

But before you do, consider the constant CNN bias that has been exacted against Senator Obama and for Senator Clinton, as well as the CNN personalities like Larry King, who support Hillary Clinton, yet claim to report the news without bias. Also, ask why both CNN and ABC are only mentioning the results of the CNN / WMUR / UNH Poll, and not the others?

I'd call this a massive bias against Senator Obama, and the mainstream media trying to control what you the voter thinks. But in an Internet World, that's hard to do, plus, it should be considered illegal.

Here are the polls:


RealClearPolitics.com Average

Obama 33.2
Clinton 31.2
Edwards 19.2
Richardson 5.0

McCain 32.7
Romney 27.8
Huckabee 12
Giuliani 9.5
Paul 8.5
Thompson 2.2

Concord Monitor (January 5)

Obama 34
Clinton 33
Edwards 23
Richardson 4
Kucinich 3

McCain 35
Romney 29
Huckabee 13
Giuliani 8
Paul 7
Thompson 3

See full results here.

***

CNN/WMUR Poll (January 4-5)

Clinton 33%
Obama 33%
Edwards 20%
Richardson 4%
Kucinich 2%

Sampling error: +/-5% pts

McCain 33%
Romney 27%
Giuliani 14%
Huckabee 11%
Paul 9%
Hunter 1%
Thompson 1%

Sampling error: +/-5% pts

See full results here.

+++

American Research Group (January 5)

Obama 38%
Clinton 26%
Edwards 20%
Undecided 8%
Richardson 3%
Gravel 3%
Kucinich 1%

Barack Obama leads John Edwards among men 42% to 21%, with 19% for Hillary Clinton. Among women, Obama leads Clinton 35% to 31%, with 20% for Edwards. Clinton leads Obama among Democrats 34% to 32%, while Obama leads Edwards among undeclared voters (independents) 49% to 21%.

McCain 39%
Romney 25%
Huckabee 14%
Giuliani 7%
Paul 6%
Undecided 6%
Hunter 1%
Keyes 1%
Thompson 1%

John McCain leads Mitt Romney among men 42% to 21% and McCain leads Romney 35% to 30% among women. McCain leads Romney 44% to 19% among undeclared (independent) voters, with 18% for Huckabee. Undeclared voters are now 27% of the total Republican vote.

See full results here.

+++

Rasmussen Reports (January 4)

Obama 37%
Clinton 27%
Edwards 19%
Richardson 8%
Kucinich 3%
Gravel 1%

See full results here.

McCain 31%
Romney 26%
Paul 14%
Huckabee 11%
Giuliani 8%
Thompson 5%
Some other candidate 2%

Hillary's Stupid Move - Hits Obama On Prison Sentences As Courts Give Judges More Power In Effort to Have Fair Sentencing Guidelines

Senator Hillary Clinton is either desparate, totally out-to-lunch, or just plain stupid. I'm not sure which one. But Senator Clinton has decided to attack Senator Barack Obama on his opposition of harsh prison sentences, according to The Huffington Posts' Thomas Edsall and in an article that's not very detailed indeed.

Remember the Feds just relaxed sentencing on drug crimes because the courts had a terrible race-bias problem where Blacks were being charged with more serious sentences for drug possession offenses than Whites, yet because of the rules, Federal judges had their hands tied.

No more.

So Hillary Clinton walks into this head first and gets a knock on the head. What she was thinking, I don't know, but it was certainly dumb. Clinton has long wanted America to think she's the person for African Americans, but like the whole deal with the HIV AIDS Bill she rejected at the same time she claimed she was the person who made sure HIV AIDS fund for the treatment of African Americans was in good supply, people have seen her use "triangulation" politics again and again.

The truth is that many of us hold Senator Obama in high regard and want him to succeed. And the truth is that Senator Clinton can't say that she's behind Blacks and then vote against bills that make outcomes of, in this case, the drug court, fair and reasonable.

Britney Spears Needs Our Help And Prayers

Britney Spears is going through a terrible period in her life, which is not like what you would go through because as of this writing you don't have her money, fame, or access.

This video shows her being brought to the hospital by ambulance and also a bunch of photogs trying to get into a car that was obviouly new to them..

CNN's Jeffrey Toobin Tells LIE About Barack Obama - Says He Flip-Flopped on Iraq - Send Jeff an EMAIL!

CNN commentator Jeffrey Toobin has twice today got on CNN and said
that Barack Obama "flipped flopped" on Iraq, which we all know is not
true.

I need your help in sending Jeff an email or 100 telling him that he's
wrong, and showing why.

This, below the line, is what I sent to him via his contact page at this link:

http://www.jeffreytoobin.com/contact/

And his Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/inbox/?compose&id=629136693

___________________________________________________________

Title: You Are Wrong About Barack Obama and Iraq

Greetings Mr. Toobin,

Twice today, you've appeared on CNN and accused Senator Barack Obama
of flip-flopping on Iraq. You know and I know that's not true. You
know that Senator Obama has opposed the Iraq War since 2002.

NBC's Tim Russert tried to accuse Senator Obama of this on his show,
and Obama corrected him. In the same show, it was revealed that Tim
Russert misquoted Senator Obama.

Jeff, I enjoy your commentary, but this is a terrible error on your part.

Please see this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytsf4qw4OIc

Then please correct your statement the next time you appear on CNN. ASAP.

Thanks and Happy New Year,

Zennie Abraham

_______________________________________________________________


Please help me by flooding Toobin's email box and facebook message
area. This does work, folks. It really does.

Thanks,

--
Zennie Abraham, Jr.

John Edwards' Alledged Lover Rielle Hunter Pregnant By Either "Edwards Operative" Or Edwards Himself

UPDATE: JOHN EDWARDS ADMITS TO AFFAIR

UPDATE: EDWARDS / HUNTER ALLEGED BABY PHOTOS SURFACE

UPDATE: JOHN EDWARDS CAUGHT VISITING RIELLE HUNTER AND CHILD JULY 21, 2008.

UPDATE: EDWARDS VISIT CONFIRMED BY SECURITY GUARD

EDWARDS AFFAIR VIDEO LINK

BREAKING:





As John Edwards prepares to go negative on Barack Obama after Obama's big Iowa win, there's a looming spectre of a story that should be of concern to him and it seems to be.

This is a story that will not go away and it comes up again, as The National Enquirer and Sam Stein over at the Huffington Post first introduced a story asserting that former U.S. Senator and Presidential Candidate John Edwards had an affair in 2006.

I wrote about it a while back , but focused on the Enquirer / Clinton angle. But I'm done with that as the story has massive legs.

Now, the Enquirer is reporting that the woman of interest as the supposed lover, Rielle Hunter is pregnant, and has a photo , shown here, to prove it. Now this is where the story gets even weirder. Because both the Enquirer and the Huff Post report...

Now, as the Enquirer has published photos of a clearly pregnant Hunter, she has gone on the record confirming that she is pregnant but denying that Edwards is the father. She claims that the biological father is Edwards operative Andrew Young, a married man who confirms both his extramarital affair with Hunter and that the baby is his. Hunter, who lived in New York, has recently relocated to a gated community in North Carolina near Young and his family. But, the Enquirer claims that Hunter is privately telling friends that Edwards fathered the baby.

That's the Huff Post's watered -down version of what the Enquirer reported, which is this:

The ENQUIRER has now confirmed not only that Rielle is expecting, but that she's gone into hiding with the help of a former aide to Edwards. The visibly pregnant blonde has relocated from the New York area to Chapel Hill, N.C., where she is living in an upscale gated community near political operative Andrew Young, who's been extremely close to Edwards for years and was a key official in his presidential campaign.

And in a bizarre twist, Young — a 41-year-old married man with young children — now claims HE is the father of Rielle's baby! But others are skeptical, wondering if Young's paternity claim is a cover-up to protect Edwards.

And what's interesting even more is that the Huff Post's original article by Sam Stein was taken down. But this Google search result will show that it was Sam Stein who gave more life to the story.

So let me get this straight. It's not Edwards, but an Edwards "oprative" -- who's marrried? Either way you spin it -- Edwards or Edwards operative -- the story seems, well, seemy at best with two married men behaving badly. Take your pick. And one things for sure : it's connected with John Edwards, one way or another.

It also brings up a question" will a John Edwards Presidency be like a Bill Clinton affair, all over again, with another sex scandal and a "Monica Lewinsky" running around?

The other question is why is the mainstream press ignoring this story that's all over the Internet? Redstate raises this issue, quoting Mickey Kaus...

"But there's a second way to divide the electorate that asks how the voters inform themselves. Do they rely on the traditional Mainstream Media (MSM), or do they get their political information from the Web, from cable news, from the tabloids, etc. This division may have once seemed unimportant, but it doesn't anymore--its seriousness is suggested by the MSM's impressive resistance to stories bubbling up from the blogs and the tabs that don't meet MSM standards (putting aside whether you regard those standards as high or merely idiosyncratic). "Rielle Hunter"--the woman whom the National Enquirer alleges was John Edwards' mistress--was the top-searched name on the MSN site at one point Thursday, I'm told. Meanwhile, in the traditional mainstream press, 'Rielle Hunter" was mentioned only ... well, zero times.
Of the two ways to divide the electorate, the second is arguably more important. After all, even those who don't follow politics, will eventually inform themselves before the election.** But if the MSM/Web barrier remains as robust as it's been, those who inform themselves from the MSM will find out something different, when they finally tune in, than those who go to the Web and learn both the news and what might be called the "undernews."

But this thing -- this story -- is all over the blogsphere, and as Bloggers have pointed out as well , the CNN's and ABCs of the world are trying not to pay attention to it.

Clinton Campaign Head Mark Penn Says He Will Use Same (Racist) Strategy Against Obama in NH

Some people never learn and Clinton Campaign head Mark Penn is one of them. Read this new account in the LA Times Blog. Either Penn's not playing with a full deck or is tone-deaf, but whatever the case, he does not understand the new America. He just does not get it. He thinks America will buy a strategy already considered racist in many corners and failed in Iowa. Read the text...

Clinton aides hint now things'll get nasty - LA Times Blog

While you were sleeping, the chartered jet of the third-place finisher in the Iowa Democratic caucus winged its way from Des Moines to Manchester, N.H. And it sounds like some decisions were made on that plane that may alter the course of that party's presidential race.

At her concession speech in Des Moines Thursday night Hillary Clinton was all gracious and determined and smiling. But hours later on that flight someone named Mark Penn, who happens to be her chief political strategist, ominously told a gaggle of reporters, including The Times' Peter Nicholas, that the campaign's focus needs to shift now onto, you might have guessed, someone named Barack Obama.

The Illinois senator happens to be the first-place finisher in those same caucuses and now Clinton, once the inevitable Democratic nominee, is playing catch-up. Things could get nasty with some pretty sharp media contrasts made in coming days, it would seem. "This has been very much a referendum on her,'' said Penn. "And people will take a harder look at the choice and the kind of president who will be needed in these times.''

Penn hinted that the Clinton campaign may be poised to mount a more aggressive campaign in New Hampshire than in Iowa. "Time and again in the Democratic primaries," he said,....

"you've seen people latch onto the new, seemingly fresh candidate only to then take a sobering look at the choice they have when it comes down to the end of it. I think you're going to see that again.''

He claimed that Obama's record is comparatively unexplored and he suggested the news media should ask itself about taking a closer look at Obama's history. "Does everyone know everything they need to know about Barack Obama?'' Penn asked. "That's a decision you're going to have to make. I think at this point his record is not very well known. And she is really well-known. She's fully vetted, fully tested. And I don't think that process has occurred with Barack Obama.''

For weeks now Clinton aides have been threatening on and off the record to use some bad stuff against their chief opponent. First, two of them told conservative columnist Robert Novak the Clintons had very damaging information on Obama, but they weren't going to use it. Then her New Hampshire co-chair, Billy Shaheen, said, not that any Democrat would use Obama's admitted youthful drug use against him, but boy, would the Republicans have a field day with that later this year.

Early this morning Penn told Nicholas he didn't believe Obama was positioned to win in New Hamsphire, which votes Tuesday. "The only thing Obama has going for him in New Hampshire," Penn added, "is some sense of momentum. Let's see whether or not that sustains itself ... when people really focus in on the choice of picking a president.''

Some adjustments need to be made in the Clinton strategy, Penn admitted. Clinton's strongest appeal in Iowa, he said, was with older voters. Now, she must reach across generational lines. "I think her appeal as we move forward can be broader than it was (in Iowa),'' Penn said. "And I think that will happen.''

The architect of the Clinton campaign claimed she is still positioned to win the nomination and he sought, as every political strategist would at a time like this, to play down the Iowa setback. "This is a bump in the road," he said. "No question about that. But we're in a very, very strong position to move forward and tackle the challenges that this presents.''

Kinda makes you remember that long internal memo that someone named Mike Henry wrote to Clinton last spring. At the time he was her deputy campaign manager. And he wrote: “My recommendation is to pull completely out of Iowa and spend the money and Senator Clinton’s time on other states. If she walks away from Iowa, she will devalue Iowa — our consistently weakest state.”

At the time the campaign disavowed that leaked document.

But that was last spring. And this is now.

Chris Matthews On Obama's "Projectile Victory" - Video

Arianna Huffington's Beautiful Article On Obama's Win

This is a great and emotional and heartfelt article by Arianna Huffington is one that should read again and again.

Obama Wins Iowa: Why Everyone Has a Reason to Celebrate Tonight

Even if your candidate didn't win tonight, you have reason to celebrate. We all do.

Barack Obama's stirring victory in Iowa -- down home, folksy, farm-fed, Midwestern, and 92 percent white Iowa -- says a lot about America, and also about the current mindset of the American voter.

Because tonight voters decided that they didn't want to look back. They wanted to look into the future -- as if a country exhausted by the last seven years wanted to recapture its youth.

Bush's re-election in 2004 was a monument to the power of fear and fear-mongering. Be Very Afraid was Bush/Cheney's Plans A through Z. The only card in the Rove-dealt deck. And it worked. America, its vision distorted by the mushroom clouds conjured by Bush and Cheney, made a collective sprint to the bomb shelters in our minds, our lizard brains responding to fear rather than hope.

And the Clintons -- their Hillary-as-incumbent-strategy sputtering -- followed the Bush blueprint in Iowa and played the fear card again and again and again.

Be afraid of Obama, they warned us. Be afraid of something new, something different. He might meet with our enemies. His middle name is Hussein. He went to a madrassa school. A vote for him would be like rolling the dice, the former president said on Charlie Rose.

And the people of Iowa heard him, and chose to roll the dice.

Obama's win might not have legs. Hope could give way to fear once again. But, for tonight at least, it holds a mirror up to the face of America, and we can look at ourselves with pride. This is the kind of country America was meant to be, even if you are for Clinton or Edwards -- or even Huckabee or Giuliani.

It's the kind of country we've always imagined ourselves being -- even if in the last seven years we fell horribly short: a young country, an optimistic country, a forward-looking country, a country not afraid to take risks or to dream big.

Bill Clinton has privately told friends that if Hillary didn't win, it would be because of the two weeks that followed her shaky performance in the Philadelphia debate.

But it wasn't those two weeks. Indeed, if we were to pinpoint one decisive moment, it would be Bill Clinton on Charlie Rose, arrogant and entitled, dismissive and fear-mongering. And then Bill Clinton giving us a refresher course in '90s-style truth-twisting and obfuscation -- making stuff up about always having been against the war, and about Hillary having always been for every good decision during his presidency and against every bad one, from Ireland to Sarajevo to Rwanda.

So voters in Iowa remembered the past and decided that they didn't want to go back. They wanted to move ahead. Even if that meant rolling the dice.

Again, this moment may not last. But, for tonight, I am going to savor it -- and cross my fingers that it may stand as the day that fear as a winning political tactic died. Killed by an "unlikely" candidate -- as Obama called himself again and again -- who seized the moment, and reminded America of its youth and the optimism it longs to recapture.

Mike Huckabee Wins Iowa For Republicans; Ron Paul Gets 10 Percent - Huff Post

Not to be forgotten in the Obama victory is that Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee won Iowa as well. He beat Mitt Romney by almost 10 points.

Ron Paul got a good 10 percent of the Iowa vote and beat Rudy Giuliani.

Barack Obama's BIG IOWA WIN; On To New Hampshire

I just returned from Tosca in San Francisco and the home of a rousing Barack Obama party. Senator Obama gave the best speech I've ever heard him give in this campaign and that's saying a lot. We all agreed that because the nation was watching him, he had the chance to hit it -- nail it -- out of the park and he did. It was one of those "Where were you when?" moments.

Here's the speech:



Wild.

I'm not at all surprised we won; I would have been had we lost. I've done almost a year of volunteer work and I can tell you that Barack reminds you of high school, where you voted for the most popular person and his or her skin color was not an issue. That's the real beauty of America. It's been lost in the minds of people, until now.

At Tosca, people started chanting "USA. USA" as Barack was speaking. I was one of them. I've never been so proud of being in America and being an American citizen.

More on this awesome development, soon.

Presedential Candidate Chris Dodd Drops Out Of Race

After an extremely poor showing in tonight's Iowa caucus, Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd has decided to abandon his run for the White House and drop out of the race.

Strapped by low support, lack of resources and financial stability, Dodd had no other choice than to surrender his attempt to provide change for the country that so dearly needs it.

While the Dodd Squad was terminated tonight, it must be recognized that he put forth a valiant effort and it's essential for him to be rewarded for the hard work he consistently showed for several months.

Barack Obama- Projected Winner In Iowa

According to numerous reports out of the Hawkeye state, Barack Obama has catapulted ahead of rivals Hillary Clinton and John Edwards to win the Iowa caucus.

His rampant surge in the past several weeks to connect with caucus-goers and continue to advocate his mission of change appears to have paid off favorably in his quest for the Democratic nomination.

With New Hampshire kicking off the primary contest next Tuesday, the momentum and unconditional support is overwhelmingly in Obama's favor.

Titans' top receiver breaks ankle, will sit out wild-card game

This injury to the Titans top wide receiver will severely hamper their ability to upset the AFC West champion Chargers.

Associated Press

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The Tennessee Titans will be without top receiver Roydell Williams for the first round of the playoffs after he broke his right ankle in practice Wednesday.

Coach Jeff Fisher said Thursday that Williams was having surgery to repair the bone at the base of the tibia, which will require a plate and screws. Williams was hurt during practice Wednesday, but was able to walk off the indoor practice field by himself.

Fisher said X-rays showed the severity of the injury late Wednesday night.

The Titans have already lost top tight end Bo Scaife after he suffered a lacerated liver in last week's win at Indianapolis.

Williams was tied with Justin Gage for the team lead in receptions with a career-high 55. He was second with 719 yards for a team-high four touchdowns.

Receiver Brandon Jones has been on injured reserve with a groin injury since Dec. 15.

Parcells, Dolphins hire Ireland as new GM

NFL.com

The Miami Dolphins named Jeff Ireland as their new general manager, the team announced Wednesday. Ireland joins the Dolphins after a seven-year stint with the Dallas Cowboys, where he spent the past three as the team’s Vice President of College and Pro Scouting.

“I am excited about joining the Dolphins as their general manager,” Ireland said. “I know the great tradition of the team, and in my mind they are one of the flagship franchises in the NFL. They have a great owner in Wayne Huizenga, who I know is committed to making the Dolphins into winners once again. I am looking forward to working with him and everyone else in Miami to achieve that goal.

“I also want to thank Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys organization. I enjoyed my tenure with the team, and I would not be where I am today without the help of so many people there.”

Prior to being elevated to his most recent role with the Cowboys in 2005, Ireland had served as national scout with Dallas since 2001, during which time he evaluated the top collegiate talent in the country. In his four years in that post, the Cowboys drafted four Pro Bowl performers in safety Roy Williams, center Andre Gurode, cornerback Terence Newman and tight end Jason Witten.

Ireland got his start in the NFL as a scout with the Kansas City Chiefs, where he spent the 1997-2000 seasons. He also was a scout for the National Football Scouting combine from 1994-96.

Before becoming an NFL scout, Ireland coached the special teams at the University of North Texas from 1992-93. This followed his playing career at Baylor University, where he was a kicker from 1988-91.

A native of Abilene, Texas, Ireland is the stepson of former Kansas City Chiefs standout linebacker/center E.J. Holub and the grandson of former Philadelphia Eagles player and longtime Chicago Bears personnel man Jim Parmer.

First Noelia, Then Laure Manadou's Nude Photos, Now Chua Soi Lek Sex Tape Scandal - He Says It's Him

Wow. I'm wondering what the whole Sex Tape/ Photo scandal craze is about! First we have Noelia , then Laure Manadou's Nude Photos , and now Chua Soi Lek's sex tape scandal. I'm wondering if Ron Paul's got one out there, considering his Internet following. But today we have Chua Soi Lek.

Who?

Chua Soi Lek is the Malaysia’s Minister of Health, and according to the New York Times, Lek has a racy tape that has been sold on the streets of Malaysia and is now in the Internet -- no link here.

According to the Times,

It seems the ministerial sex romp in question was captured on tape — from four different angles — and then edited into not one but two full-length DVDs, which were peddled on streetcorners and even seemed to reach some people as junk mail, according to the New Straits Times, a major Malay daily controlled by the ruling party.

As you might guess, the tapes have produced one helluva political scandal, which Malaysian officials initially addressed with several creative versions of “no comment.”

So I checked the newspaper "New Straights Times and found...

"Johor police chief Datuk Hussin Ismail said police were investigating the matter under Section 292 of the Penal Code for distribution of obscene materials.

The discs were reportedly dropped into the postboxes of selected houses and shops in Muar and Batu Pahat. Residents found the discs on Sunday morning.
The name of the minister involved is said to have been written on the DVD cover.

"We have reason to suspect that the discs contain pornographic material and, as such, it is an offence to either possess or distribute them," Hussin said.

Those found guilty under Section 292 may face a jail term of up to three years, a fine or both.

Seems like he did this and was set up as the distributor of the tape. I know a politician understanding the law against distribution of obsence material in that country would not then do that. Makes no logic.

And now, Dr. Lek has admitted to being the man in the tapes. His wife -- poor lady -- has stated she would stand by her man.

Obama Maintains Iowa Lead By 4 Points In New Poll 32 Percent; Clinton Third

A new poll released today , January 2nd, has Senator Barack Obama ahead of both former North Carolina Senator John Edwards with 29% and New York Senator Hillary Clinton at 27%. Delaware Senator Joseph Biden received 5%; New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson 2%; Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd received 1%; Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich 1%; and 3% were undecided.

This new poll comes on the heels of the much criticized Des Moines Register poll which had Obama with a six point lead over Clinton, followed by Edwards.

When Republicans were polled on whom they would support in 2008 for the Republican Presidential nomination, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney led with 30%; followed by former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee with 28%; Arizona Senator John McCain 16%; former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson 13%; former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani 4%; Texas Congressman Ron Paul 4%; California Congressman Duncan Hunter 1%; and 4% undecided.

“The Republican race continues to be extremely close although at this point the momentum is with Mitt Romney and John McCain who is making a strong bid for third,” said David E. Johnson, CEO of Strategic Vision, LLC, who conducted the pol of 600 Democrats and Republicans.

But the poll does not take into account the impact of Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich's instructions to his supporters to back Senator Obama as a second choice.

Mike Huckabee Press Conference Where He Shows Ad He Said He Would Not Air

I don't know if he's so smart he's dumb or so dumb he's smart, but I'm betting he thinks that voters don't care.

We will see tommorrow in Iowa.

Sports Business Simulations Turns Five Years Old

In 2002, a former aide to The Mayor of Oakland met the head of the University of San Francisco Sport Management department to discuss stadium financing, and the need for a new stadium for the Oakland Baseball. In that meeting, USF Professor Dr. Dan Rascher, PhD, took note of Zenophon "Zennie" Abraham’s web-based simulation game The XFL Simworld, and said "I need that for my class."

When Mr. Abraham finished his second simulator in late October 2002, the Oakland Baseball Simworld, he met again with Mr. Rascher, and Sports Business Simulations (SBS) was born. On January 24th of 2003, SBS became a Delaware Corporation, with seed capital, and based in Oakland.

Now, SBS is about to turn five-years-old.

SBS is the first company who's products are built around the Forio Macro Language (FML) programming language developed by San Francisco-based Forio Business Simulations. "Forio's partners, Michael Bean and Will Glass have been our friends and advisers over the last five years," said Zenophon "Zennie" Abraham, SBS's Co-Founder and CEO.

Abraham says that SBS is an entity unique to the San Francisco Bay Area. "I mean only here can one easily meet people who have the resources, talent, and skill to start an online business like this. The Bay Area culture made SBS possible."

Sports Business Simulation's charge is to build online business Simulations of sports teams and leagues for use in the classroom. For just $15, a student has unlimited use of SBS' simulators for an entire class semester or quarter. SBS products are not designed to replace textbooks, they are developed to enhance the classroom experience.

SBS has two simulators: the XFL Simworld and the Oakland Baseball Simworld, but has plans to add a new simulator based around the fitness industry in one month.

The SBS website itself has expanded dramatically during its five years of growth. In 2003, there were just the simulations. Now, the "sims" as they're called are joined by a network of over 40 blogs, over 100 message boards, a Facebook-style social network, video shows, and pages with links to the offerings of affilate partners, like StubHub.com," said Abraham.

SBS now has an online marketing division because Abraham said too many of his friends wanted articles and videos for their business. "It got so bad I started what we call "SBS-ON" at http://sbson.com. We now have clients in the transportation and real estate industries and are looking to expand. It actually helps us promote our sims."

The SBS sims have been used by many high schools and colleges in America. The Oakland Baseball Simworld has been the focus of numerous academic papers. "What's happened over five years is that the Oakland Sim has developed a kind of cult following. It's a complex online game with over 100 decisions and asks one to run a numerical copy of the behavior of the Oakland Athletics Baseball Organization. It's kind of a sports business fantasy game."


For more information:

510-387-9809
http://www.sportsbusinesssims.com

New Orleans Again Set To Be Bloodiest City In U.S

NEW ORLEANS (AP) ― The bloodiest city in the country in 2006, reeling from crime in its struggle to recover from Hurricane Katrina, got even worse in 2007.

New Orleans registered 209 homicides last year, a nearly 30 percent increase from the 161 recorded in 2006.

The FBI's rankings for 2007 will not be out until much later in the year, but New Orleans' population is thought to be 295,450, which would mean a rate of about 71 homicides per 100,000 people.

Even the most generous population estimate in 2006 put the number of people in the city that year at 255,000. That meant a real homicide rate of 63.5 per 100,000 residents. To compare that number with some other notoriously bloody cities, the rate for Gary, Ind., was 48.3 and Detroit's was 47.1.

The killings are drug-related or retaliatory for the most part, police have said. The upswing comes despite continued patrols by the National Guard and state police and the addition of two new classes of police recruits in the past year.

But beefed-up policing efforts can only do so much, said Rafael Goyeneche, executive director of the Metropolitan Crime Commission of Greater New Orleans.

"The police and the criminal justice system is expected to clean up the mess, but they didn't create the mess," Goyeneche said. "They aren't responsible for the social problems of the city, the failure of the school system, the degeneration of the family unit. And until the city does something to rectify those problems, crime and murder will continue to be a problem."

There are hopeful signs, however, Goyeneche said, pointing to improved schools in the city since the 2005 storm, grass-roots efforts to tackle crime, and a growing effort to upgrade city life.

"This city is beginning to do some things that I've been waiting 25 years to see," Goyeneche said. "I think there is a renewed sense of purpose; people are focused and demanding more than what was in play before Katrina hit."

Zed Shaw Lets Loose On New Year's Eve - Programmers Need A Union

Zed Shaw's a person not know to the general public, but is considered a star in the programming community. Zed's the creator of a kind of server called Mongrel that hosts Ruby applications. But his extensive development experience and advanced-for-a-programmer-age, combined with what seems to be a long string of experiences with bad men have caused him to let loose with a rant that would please Ron Paul and give Laure Manadou nude photo seekers a reason to turn their heads for a day.

Zed's website contains a blistering account of communications with other program managers and developers that left me howing. By design, it's not made a lot of people happy. Take this commenter over at Ruby Inside:

I don't mind a good rant, but this is way over the top.

He's done well for the Ruby community and for that I have a lot of respect for the guy.

Granted all in that post were wrong.

First off, if he thinks he is moving to a different language and going to command anywhere near the same respect that he had a few days ago, then he's got a fucking huge mountain to climb. No one is going to look at that post and say "he's not a backstabber, our community is fine."

Secondly, His complaints are more with Rails than Ruby and to quit a whole scene because of one framework is ridiculous. There are others around. If he doesn't like the way DHH codes Rails, easily he could just port to Merb. Secondly, the public-facing people of a scene does not equal the quality of a product in itself. He did mention it but mostly it was "fuck it, i'm leaving, this community sucks because everyone else is at fault and I've had too many bad experiences with it.'

He also seems to be very immature. All the way he threatens with violence to the point you wonder if he's truly grown up. He was even a protagonist in the IRC chat. Granted he didn't get what he deserved, but he didn't exactly act numinous.

Or this:

The guy's not doing himself any favors with his rant; he comes off sounding like a narcissistic psycho. He may be smart [although really, how hard is it to build a web server that's faster than WeBrick? It's like building a sort function that's faster than bubblesort] ... but face it, the software field is chock full of smart loners who can't get along with others. Despite the evidence he musters up against a host of other people, he's the one I'd be backing away the quickest from.

I'm not sure if this is going to help Zed's chances at future employment, but it could make him a star in the entertainment community. But his rant is a good view at how terribly screwed up the programming culture is.

In reading the comments, what many -- and I mean many people -- are missing is that this is a person who's been treated terribly in his pocketbook. Doing work and not getting paid for it, and being "effectively homeless for six months" as he put it would upset anyone.

But it shed light on just how the younger generations of people, or at least the tech people, don't pay attention to politics and by not starting a union of any kind have allowed this terrible "slave climate" to develop and fester.

I think Zed's rant's good for bring attention to the cultural issues that the industry faces, but I'm not certain it will spark real change at all. But I'm waiting for his follow-up. Maybe that will be the prod that gets things going.

Dennis Kucinich Tells Iowa Supporters To Back Barack Obama - MSNBC

If Presidential Candidate Dennis Kucinich does not reach the 15 percent support threshold in the Iowa Caucuses, he's instructed his supporters to back Barack Obama in Iowa, according to MSNBC.

"This is obviously an 'Iowa-only' recommendation, as Sen. Obama and I are competing in the New Hampshire primary next Tuesday where I want to be the first choice of New Hampshire voters," Kucinich said in a statement."

"I hope Iowans will caucus for me as their first choice this Thursday, because of my singular positions on the war, on health care, and trade. This is an opportunity for people to stand up for themselves. But in those caucus locations where my support doesn't reach the necessary threshold, I strongly encourage all of my supporters to make Barack Obama their second choice. Sen. Obama and I have one thing in common: Change."

All I can say is this is a major development in the campaign and swings the momentum toward the already surging Obama.