Fate, It Seems, Is Not Without a Sense of Irony

So said Morpheus to Neo when explaining what the remaining humans knew about the history of the war against the machines.

Four years ago, it was widely publicised — and largely ignored by people who mattered — that the CEO of Diebold, the company that produced millions of electronic voting machines, had said he and his company were “committed to delivering the state of Ohio to President Bush” (that’s a paraphrase, but the quote is generally accurate in both content and spirit) in the 2004 election.

How quickly and conveniently some forget.

The Ohio Republican Party is now extremely upset that their lawsuit to force disclosure of voter registration database mismatches has been thrown out. (On quite solid grounds, by the way, but we shouldn’t let sound legal reasoning by the Supreme Court of the United States get in the way of a little blatantly partisan bickering, should we?)

Pot, kettle, black.

posted on 17 October 2008 at 1813politix0 commentstrackback

‘Bout That Time Again

Rumour has it there’s an election coming up.

I picked up my absentee ballot today and, as I was tossing it in the car, had a realisation: I have never voted at the polls in a presidential election. In 2000, I was living in Australia. In 2004, I was living in Jacksonville. In 2008, I will very likely be flying the entire day.

Let’s just hope the ballot gets counted.

posted on 15 October 2008 at 1901politix0 commentstrackback

Voter Responsibility

In a few weeks, the good citizens of Evansville, Indiana will go to the polls and cast votes for President, Congresscritters, judges, and…coroner.

Will someone please explain to me why a job requiring a great deal of technical expertise and a medical degree is an elected office?

We don’t elect a Surgeon General and we don’t elect a Secretary of the Treasury, so why is the coroner of Evansville an elected office?

Some things are above politics. Performing autopsies and determining a cause of death is one of them.

posted on 06 October 2008 at 1706politix0 commentstrackback