Random Thoughts (Political Edition)

GRtak said:
Things in Wisconsin are getting weirder by the day. They just had an election and it seems everybody is wondering why the vote totals are so,.... um, strange.

http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/lo...cle_7e777016-62b2-11e0-9b74-001cc4c002e0.html
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Apparently the clerk "forgot" how to use Microsoft Access:

Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus (R) has announced sharply amended totals for her county in the Supreme Court race from Tuesday night -- saying that she had inadvertently failed to properly import and save data into a Microsoft Access database, omitting the numbers from the city of Brookfield and its over 14,000 votes.
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"On election night, all the people that were to bring in spreadsheets, they were given a spreadsheet template," said Nickolaus. "They were asked not to change that template. When the city of Brookfield results came in on election night, extra columns were put into that spreadsheet, which would have been a problem if I had tried to import that in." Thus, she said she called them and stressed the importance of preserving the template.


"I saved them, but when I imported them into the Access database, I thought that they were saved at that time, and didn't have any real reason to believe they weren't. We used this program for the November election and the February election without any problem. So I thought we could use it again without any problem."
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http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/...thankful-that-this-error-was-caught-early.php

Big question, why the fuck are they manually importing things to a fucking Access database for an election? o_O I can't help but be a bit suspicious that this was a bit too convenient of an excuse.
 
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I agree, way to convenient.


calvinhobbes said:
Does anyone have an update on this matter of nashnul securrytah?


(click the title for the rest of the article)
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Yeah there are more than a few cities that are on the border. There are quite a few of these incidents over the last decade. Funny how we treat our good neighbors to the north. (not that the ones to the south are bad)
 
Indonesian lawmaker and anti-porn crusader busted for watching porn during parliamentary session

A conservative Indonesian lawmaker and anti-porn crusader resigned on Monday after he was caught watching porn on his computer during a parliamentary session.

Arifinto, who like many Indonesians goes by only one name, was spotted by a photographer on Friday while watching porn on a tablet device while his fellow lawmakers argued over plans to build a new parliament building.

The scandal has dominated headlines and chatter on news blogs around Indonesia, which has the world's largest Muslim population.

The lawmaker, who is a member of the strictly Islamic Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), initially claimed that the porn showed up on his computer accidentally after he clicked on a link from his email, according to the Jakarta Globe newspaper.

Arifinto spearheaded the country's controversial anit-porn bill that went into effect in 2008 despite tough opposition from the public and rival parliamentarians, who argued that the penalties were too harsh.

In perhaps the most high-profile case to date, Indonesian pop star Nazril "Ariel" Irham, lead singer of the band Peterpan, was sentenced to 3 ? years after a pair of homemade sex tapes he allegedly appeared in went viral.

House deputy speaker Priyo Budi Santoso called the incident "a tragedy" and said Arifinto's decision to resign was "a good thing," according to The Jakarta Post.

As a result of the scandal, PKS officials said they planned to confiscate some gadgets owned by party members to prevent them from watching porn.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/wor...atching_porn_during_parlia.html#ixzz1JFdv5Drs
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Or the Beeb.


I like it when asinine laws bite the asinine people who created them in the bum!
 
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Swedish TV news (been working all day, the first news I caught was the six o'clock SVT news, I know it sounds silly) reported him being captured by UN troops.

I have to say that from the superficial knowledge I've gathered of the recent hapenings, it seems like the UN are taking a more active part in actually doing things, as oposed to their old practice of being armed bystanders.
 
^
Good point.
Ban Ki Moon has been more actively involved and arguably partisan, especially in the Libyan crisis.

UN Secretary Generals of old, tended to play the honest broker in any conflict.

If correct, I was very surprised to hear reports of UN helicopter gunships firing on Gbagbo forces' positions. (Alongside the French gunships.)

In contrast, UN Forces mandates in former Yugoslavia in the 1990's conflicts, were woefully too passive and many people died as a result.

Maybe they have learnt lessons, but are still trying to find the right balance in given situations?

:?
 
From my limited understanding of the situation, that does seem quite probable, yeah.
 
Heathrow said:
.. and in other Euroland news:
BBC News - European Central Bank 'encouraged' Portugal to seek aid

After Greece, then Ireland it seems that Portugal are the latest eurozone country to need a bailout.

For the last year or so, the bond markets have seen Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain, as the main "at risk" countries. Being lovers of acronyms, they have dubbed these countries as "the PIGS group". :rolleyes:


(Note: For emerging countries, with high growth, who are likely to join the G8 club soon, the acronym used is BrIC - Brasil, India and China. Don't you just love those City Boys and their wacky names. :lol:)
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What do you notice about the high growth countries?

Yes none of them are in the EU!

What do you notice about the in the s**t countries?

Not only are they in the EU they are also in the EURO - double whammy.

Heathrow said:
^
Good point.
Ban Ki Moon has been more actively involved and arguably partisan, especially in the Libyan crisis.

UN Secretary Generals of old, tended to play the honest broker in any conflict.

If correct, I was very surprised to hear reports of UN helicopter gunships firing on Gbagbo forces' positions. (Alongside the French gunships.)

In contrast, UN Forces mandates in former Yugoslavia in the 1990's conflicts, were woefully too passive and many people died as a result.

Maybe they have learnt lessons, but are still trying to find the right balance in given situations?

:?
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I am amazed - for UN read France I bet you. The UN do bugger all unless one of a very few countries are supplying troops - and we all know who they are. ...
 
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Yes but Germany is a well run country, always has been even when you have nutters in charge your 2nd tier officials are excellent.

Your industry has not been shipped off shore to China has it? Ever wondered why not?

Oh and if I were in Iceland I'd vote for joining the EU - what is my countries key industry to me?

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article543333.ece

"FRANCE has been fined the largest amount imposed by the highest court of the European Union for flouting EU fisheries law over 20 years on a scale that posed a serious threat to fish stocks.

Paris was fined ?20 million (?13.75 million) by the European Court of Justice yesterday after it found the French Government guilty of allowing fishermen to catch and sell small, immature fish in defiance of EU efforts to conserve fish stocks.

Citing the duration and seriousness of the offences, the court also imposed a recurring fine of ?57.8 million every six months until France complies with Union policy.

The court considered this to be one of the most serious breaches of European law because France shrugged off two decades of inspections, warning letters, legal threats and court action by the European Commission, which upholds EU policy.

France, one of the most frequent transgressors of Union law, had already been found guilty of the same offence by the court in 1991 but largely ignored the judgment.
The court has never previously imposed. ..."

Well that is all right then. Do France ever pay any fines like these?
 
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Cobol74 said:
Yes but Germany is a well run country, always has been even when you have nutters in charge your 2nd tier officials are excellent.
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When Ireland was booming, Germany was hardly growing at all. I can't be bothered looking up a sauce for this right now, but listening to the opposition piliticians in those days of stagflation you'd have thought the country was going to the dogs.

Cobol74 said:
Your industry has not been shipped off shore to China has it? Ever wondered why not?
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Parts of it have, mainly mining and metals. Even entire plants have been disassembled and shipped to China where they were put together again.

Anyway, our automotive industry is currently in an excellent state. But that wasn't the case in the early nineties when people like Ignacio L?pez were doing their best to beancount it into oblivion or folks like Edzard Reuter were trying to build it into something it could never be. They burnt billions upon billions in the process. However, we never had a Margaret Thatcher and in many cases, unions and employers agree on things rather than fight until one side goes down - notable exceptions do occur, but they're notable due to their rarity.

Cobol74 said:
Well that is all right then. Do France ever pay any fines like these?
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Would you be as indignant about (possibly) unpaid EU fines if they were the UK's to pay? ;)
 
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The German economy isn't carried by large corporations. The vast majority are small and mid-sized companies, often family-owned for generations, who are innovative and world-leading in their respective fields.

Here in my area are two prime examples of that:

1. The Meyer Werft, which is one if not the world-leading maker of cruise ships. Most of their suppliers also come from the region.

2. Enercon, the technological leader in wind turbines. They own 40 % of the world's patents for that technology and make the largest and most efficient wind turbines in the world.

I just read about a new startup company from Eastern Germany, that has come up with a new kind of brick, that absorbes exhausts from cars. They are currently testing that for sidewalks.

A friend of mine in Southern Germany worked in two companies, which are world leading in their sectors. One produces printing machines for carton packages and the other makes soldering machines for circuit boards, like they are used in mobile phones.

It's companies like these, which carry the German economy. The large corporations are in the focus but they're not exactly running the whole show here. That's why you will not find many of them on lists of that show, who is "big" in the world.

Steel was mentioned by calvinhobbes. There is some steel industry left but it concentrates on special kinds of high tech steel, for example the hot-dip galvanized steel used in the automobile industry.

Basically you can say, that everything that's easy to produce and doesn't exactly need high tech to be made, has left the country (with a few exceptions). But everything, that needs know-how, innovation and a technological edge, is still here.
 
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RT.com - Belarus searching for suspects in Minsk Metro blast
RT is Russia Today, the 24/7 news channel in English.

RT.com said:
Belarusian police are hunting for two suspects over the Minsk Metro bombing which killed 12 and left 192 injured. A number of people have already been detained in connection with the blast.

The country?s Federal Security Forces say three people have been detained for interrogation.

The Chief of the Federal Security Forces of Belarus Vadim Zaitsev gave three possible versions for the terrorist attack in Minsk ? one of them is indirectly connected to the presidential elections.

more
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Unfortunately, many European cities have had Metro and train stations attacked by various nutters acting as terrorists. This looks prettty bad with twelve dead and nearly 200 injured.
:(
 
Texas would like to apologize for posting the names, birthdates, drivers license numbers and social security numbers for 3.5 million people online... for a year. But I'm sure no one has used it for anything bad.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/12/us/12brfs-PERSONALDATA_BRF.html?_r=2

Social Security numbers, birthdates and other information of about 3.5 million residents have been accidentally posted on computer servers, the state comptroller, Susan Combs, said Monday. Most of the information, including some driver?s license numbers, was available for more than a year. Ms. Combs said the information included data transferred by the Teacher Retirement System of Texas, the Texas Workforce Commission and the Employees Retirement System of Texas. She said that there was no indication any information was misused.
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San Fransico is looking at requiring ID check in at bars and gatherings and events.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/04/eff-san-francisco-entertainment-commission-don-t

April 11th, 2011



EFF to San Francisco Entertainment Commission: Don?t Turn SF into a Police State


News Update by Eva Galperin

The city of San Francisco has a long history of political activism and cultural diversity, which could be in danger if the San Francisco Entertainment Commission has their way. The Electronic Frontier Foundation joined civil liberties and privacy groups in criticizing a proposal from the San Francisco Entertainment Commission that would require all venues with an occupancy of over 100 people to record the faces of all patrons and employees and scan their ID?s for storage in a database which they must hand over to law enforcement on request. If adopted, these rules would pose a grave threat to the rights of freedom of association, due process, and privacy in San Francisco.

EFF will also present comments in person at a public hearing on the evening of April 12th. If you are in San Francisco, please attend the hearing and speak out against this dangerous and short-sighted proposal or email your comments to Jocelyn.Kane@sfgov.org. See details.

Events with strong cultural, ideological, and political components are frequently held at venues that would be affected by these rules. Scanning the ID?s of all attendees at an anti-war rally, a gay night club, or a fundraiser for a civil liberties organization would have a deeply chilling effect on speech. Participants might hesitate to attend such events if their attendance were noted, stored, and made available on request to government authorities. This would transform the politically and culturally tolerant environment for which San Francisco is famous into a police state.

We are deeply disappointed in the San Francisco Entertainment Commission for considering such troubling, authoritarian, and poorly thought-out rules. The Commission should reject this attack on our most basic civil liberties. San Francisco cannot hope to remain a hub of cultural and political activity if we are stripped of our civil liberties the moment we walk through the door of a venue.
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