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"One does have to wonder why a company [Diebold] that makes ATMs would go to the trouble of adapting those machines so that they are much less secure and much less reliable than they were originally, in addition to no longer having a paper output - doesn't one?"

{ 10:21 AM }

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Jenna's private army. The person who directed me to the "new Bush ranch in Paraguay" story (see here) also had this to say via email:

[Eventually] Jenna will wind up engaged to the son of some rich industrialist or someone with a claim to a royal bloodline in South America. Those 400 Marines are probably the beginnings of what will eventually be Bush's private army. The Bushes are starting to wear out their welcome in the US. They have to move on to somewhere with less oversight.

And that's what this election in twelve days is really all about — oversight and accountability.

{ 9:38 AM }

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--AZ-Sen: Jon Kyl

--AZ-01: Rick Renzi

--AZ-05: J.D. Hayworth

--CA-04: John Doolittle

--CA-11: Richard Pombo

--CA-50: Brian Bilbray

--CO-04: Marilyn Musgrave

--CO-05: Doug Lamborn

--CO-07: Rick O'Donnell

--CT-04: Christopher Shays

--FL-13: Vernon Buchanan

--FL-16: Joe Negron

--FL-22: Clay Shaw

--ID-01: Bill Sali

--IL-06: Peter Roskam

--IL-10: Mark Kirk

--IL-14: Dennis Hastert

--IN-02: Chris Chocola

--IN-08: John Hostettler

--IA-01: Mike Whalen

--KS-02: Jim Ryun

--KY-03: Anne Northup

--KY-04: Geoff Davis

--MD-Sen: Michael Steele

--MN-01: Gil Gutknecht

--MN-06: Michele Bachmann

--MO-Sen: Jim Talent

--MT-Sen: Conrad Burns

--NV-03: Jon Porter

--NH-02: Charlie Bass

--NJ-07: Mike Ferguson

--NM-01: Heather Wilson

--NY-03: Peter King

--NY-20: John Sweeney

--NY-26: Tom Reynolds

--NY-29: Randy Kuhl

--NC-08: Robin Hayes

--NC-11: Charles Taylor

--OH-01: Steve Chabot

--OH-02: Jean Schmidt

--OH-15: Deborah Pryce

--OH-18: Joy Padgett

--PA-04: Melissa Hart

--PA-07: Curt Weldon

--PA-08: Mike Fitzpatrick

--PA-10: Don Sherwood

--RI-Sen: Lincoln Chafee

--TN-Sen: Bob Corker

--VA-Sen: George Allen

--VA-10: Frank Wolf

--WA-Sen: Mike McGavick

--WA-08: Dave Reichert

{ 4:30 PM }

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Illinois GOP plans appointment to replace dead sex predator. What a sweet Republican family values story:

Brent Schepp's name will remain on the ballot as the Republican candidate for the Kane County Board's 3rd District in Aurora, despite his death Tuesday in a car crash.

Carole Holtz, Aurora Election Commission director, said it would be "very expensive" to reprint ballots without his name at this point.

"My ballots are printed, everything is set," for the Nov. 7 general election, she said Wednesday.

But it would not be set if the Kane County Republican Organization decided to put a new candidate in Schepp's place. The GOP can slate a candidate up to 15 days before the election, which is Monday, Oct. 23.

If officials did that, the Election Commission would have to reprint its ballots. Still, Kane GOP Chairman Dennis Wiggins said Wednesday the county organization is "not planning to put anyone in there."

"We can't stop a write-in, obviously," Wiggins said. "But my recommendation is we just leave it alone."

If Schepp's name stays on the ballot, people still can vote for him. If Schepp were to win, it then would be up to the county board to replace him.

Board Chairwoman Karen McConnaughay, R-St. Charles, would make the appointment, with the advice of the county GOP organization. Then the board would have to approve the appointment. That is the standard situation when there is a county board vacancy.

Schepp, 36, died Tuesday morning when his car crashed into the concrete support of a pedestrian bridge over Eola Road, south of Diehl Road, on Aurora's far-northeast side. The accident occurred four days after a Kane County grand jury indicted Schepp with felonies of criminal sexual assault and aggravated criminal sexual abuse, and a misdemeanor count of providing alcohol to minors.

The 26-count indictment alleged that Schepp had sexual contact with two girls, now 15 and 16 years old, between June 1 and Dec. 31, 2005.

Police on Tuesday said it appeared preliminarily the crash was "a self-inflicted act," because there was no sign of braking or evasive maneuvers at the accident scene.

Let's see: the girls were 14 and 15 years old at the time Schepp molested them. And just one short year later Karen McConnaughay, R-St. Charles, may get to appoint a replacement for their molester.

Rather than run a new candidate, the Kane County GOP decided to let people vote for their dead sex predator and only afterward select an appropriate replacement, whatever that might mean.

More background on this story here.

{ 12:30 PM }

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Why the future sucks ass. The prosecutor's argument in the Enron Skilling case:

"The Enron fraud is as large and as serious as any other fraud in the nation's history," said prosecutor Sean Berkowitz.

"This was not a one-time event where someone made an judgment in error," Berkowitz said.

He also said Skilling's philanthropy was worth noting but " ... It is not unusual for someone in his position to give back to the community, in fact it is required."

Berkowitz quoted from a victims letter: "Mr. Skilling's philanthropy was paid out of my future."

The Iraq invasion was paid out of my future.

The tax cuts to America's richest 1 percent were paid out of my future.

The no-bid Halliburton contracts were paid out of my future.

The stolen Iraqi reconstruction funds were paid out of my future.

The failure to catch bin Laden was paid out of my future.

The failure to reform Afghanistan was paid out of my future.

The destruction of New Orleans was paid out of my future.

The failures of national security were paid out of my future.

The loss of respect for America around the world was paid out of my future.

The failure of our medical system was paid out of my future.

Lay and Skilling are but symptoms of the Republican disease. Enron, which was instrumental in putting Bush-Cheney 2000 into the White House, was the virus that sickened America's future.

{ 9:23 AM }

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Crawford, Paraguay. Guardian:

As worries go, however, having the US president move in next door must come fairly low on the list.

Unless of course you are a resident of northern Paraguay and believe reports in the South American press that he has bought up a 100,000 acre (40,500 hectare) ranch in your neck of the woods.

The rumours, as yet unconfirmed but which began with the state-run Cuban news agency Prensa Latina, have triggered an outpouring of conspiracy theories, with speculation rife about what President Bush's supposed interest in the "chaco", a semi-arid lowland in the Paraguay's north, might be.
Some have speculated that he might be trying to wrestle control of the Guarani Aquifer, one of the largest underground water reserves, from the Paraguayans.

Rumours of Mr Bush's supposed forays into South American real estate surfaced during a recent 10-day visit to the country by his daughter Jenna Bush. Little is known about her trip to Paraguay, although officially she travelled with the UN children's agency Unicef to visit social projects. Photographers from the Paraguayan newspaper ABC Color tracked her down to one restaurant in Paraguay's capital Asunción, where she was seen flanked by 10 security guards, and was also reported to have met Paraguay's president, Nicanor Duarte, and the US ambassador to Paraguay, James Cason. Reports in sections of the Paraguayan media suggested she was sent on a family "mission" to tie up the land purchase in the "chaco".

Erasmo Rodríguez Acosta, the governor of the Alto Paraguay region where Mr Bush's new acquisition supposedly lies, told one Paraguayan news agency there were indications that Mr Bush had bought land in Paso de Patria, near the border with Brazil and Bolivia. He was, however, unable to prove this, he added.

Last week the Paraguayan news group Neike suggested that Ms Bush was in Paraguay to "visit the land acquired by her father - relatively close to the Brazilian Pantanal [wetlands] and the Bolivian gas reserves".

The US presence in Paraguay has been under scrutiny since May 2005 when the country's Congress agreed to allow 400 American marines to operate there for 18 months in exchange for financial aid.

As a hideout for expatriated war criminals, in addition to its energy and water (the newest precious liquid commodity) reserves, Paraguay makes perfect sense for George and Family.

{ 9:39 AM }

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3,003

(2,783 in Iraq, 219 in Afghanistan
and 1 at Guantanamo of non-hostile cause)

{ 9:33 AM }

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