A Pagan's Blog

This afternoon we had a teach-in at St. Lawrence University. the first in a long time on the campus, and my first since the Vietnam era. The subject was “Save Our Constitution” and while some right wing professors sneered that it was hippy stuff, the gathering was well attended by those faculty and students who put the well being of their country ahead of their prejudices. We filled the large meeting space.
The sponsoring group, Save Our Constitution, reflected a wide range of faculty and political positions, from strong libertarian to fairly far left, at least as left goes in the US these days. My own presentation on the politics of the Big Lie was well received, which felt good. (The preceding post on this blog gives the text.)
But I’m not writing this post for self-congratulatory reasons. Rather, something happened I found very interesting. Continue Reading This Post »

What follows is the basis of a talk I will give at a teach in here at St. Lawrence University Friday, Nov, 3, as a part of a Save Our Constitution gathering of students, faculty, and members of the Canton community.

During his debate with Al Gore, George W. Bush took credit for a patient’s bill of rights law passed in Texas during his governorship. To be sure, in 1995 Texas passed such a law. But Governor Bush vetoed it. In 1997 the Texas legislature passed an even stronger bill by a veto-proof margin. Bush couldn’t veto it without its being overridden. So he attacked the bill, saying “I am concerned that this legislation has the potential to drive up health care costs and increase the number of lawsuits” and refused to sign it. The bill automatically became law without his signature.
George Bush was not reading from a prepared speech. He did not rely on research done by others. There was no compelling reason for him to bring the matter up. Further, and this is what is fairly new in American politics, he knew he had opposed the bill, and done all he could to defeat it, yet wanted American voters to believe he had supported it.
He must have been proud of his lie. During his campaign for President, Bush’s website claimed “Under Governor Bush, Texas enacted some of the most comprehensive patient protection laws in the nation.” And “While Washington was deadlocked, he passed a patients’ bill of rights” (Joe Conason, Big Lies, p. 44, NYT 3/20/00, p. A.16.) George Bush committed deliberate fraud on the American people. Continue Reading This Post »

Last week, from October 18 to 21, I was a participant at Pop!Tech’s 10th annual meeting in Camden, Maine. For those who do not know, and most do not, Pop!Tech was initiated by Bob Metcalfe and John Sculley to explore the impact of the new computer and web technology on modern society. Since its inception it has broadened to include a wider array of themes, but never abandoning its initial focus on technology and modernity.
At a time when it is hard to find much optimism about America’s future, it is wonderful to immerse oneself for several days in the company of some of the world’s most energetic and creative people. I include here the other participants as well as those who made presentations. My thanks to Anastasia, who helped put it on, for telling me about the event in time to get a ticket. So long as gatherings like this can take place, there is always hope for the future.
And what a list of presenters it was. I will not list them all. You can go here to see that august assemblage in its entirety. But those whose presentations I personally found most interesting and important in terms of my own work included:
Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired
Thomas Barnett, a Senior Strategic Researcher and Professor at the U.S. Naval War College, and currently a Senior Managing Director at Enterra Solutions
Stewart Brand, President of the Long Now Foundation and co-founder of the Global Business Network
Lester Brown, President of the Earth Policy Institute
Richard Dawkins, author of The Selfish Gene and other major works on evolutionary biology as well as critic of religion
Brian Eno, famed musician, and it turns out, much much more
Juan Enriquez, director of the Harvard Business School’s Life Science Project
Thomas Friedman, author and NYT columnist
Kevin Kelly, Wired’s editor-at-large
Over the next few weeks I will blog on their respective talks. Some I agreed with more than others, but all, including those I will not cover, taught me.
I should also mention that these very busy people all contributed their time. None were paid. Perhaps that fact more than any other indicates how valuable this gathering was.

In an interview on NPR Karl Rove claims his access to private polls indicates a Republican win in the coming elections. He and George Bush are curiously serene in the face of massive public polling to the contrary. For decades American polling has been regarded as so accurate that west coast voters often complained winners were announced before the polls closed. In earlier elections, such as 2004, these polls predicted a Democratic win. Suddenly, they were wrong. Oddly wrong.

Do you wonder why?

The October 5 Rolling Stone has an excellent article by Robert Kennedy, jr., on why Rove’s polls may not be of voters but of operatives in a position to fix elections. California’s Secretary of State has decertified Diebold machines in that state and, even more revealingly, asked the Attnorney general to consider prosecuting the company for fraud. Attorney General Bill Lockyer then sued Diebold who settled the case by paying $2.6 million in fines.

As a diary on Daily Kos demonstrates, Diebold waited two years to then use vicious tactics to punish whisatleblowers who exposed the company’s dishonesty. See also here and this Los Angeles Times article.

In 2005 Diebold again failed California tests on the accuracy and reliability of its machines. But for today’s Republican Party democracy is really not a value. Winning is. Bruce McPherson, the current Republican California Secretary of State then recertified Diebold machines one Friday night, after the close of business hours, at the start of a 3-day weekend. See the analysis at Bradblog, here.

A careful study at Princeton University has proven beyond all reasonable doubt that Diebold machines can be hacked in minutes, leaving no trace of interference. See the video for yourself.

Of course Diebold has tried to bluster its way through this (and many other) demonstration. See why their response to the Princeton study is utterly without value in this report from Computerworld, as well as an example of how Diebold deals with its customers, in this instance Utah, here.

America’s elections are too important to our liberty and well being for us to tolerate the likelihood of serious dishonesty. The higher the stakes the less tolerable the crime, and in their repudiation of the Constitution the Republican Party has already raised the stakes intolerably high for any decent person. Anyone convicted of tampering with voting results in an American election should receive an automatic sentence of life in prison. That, of course, is one law the Republican Party will not pass. If there is a “suprise” win for the republican patrty in November, Americans should think about a precedent we established against tyrants in 1776.