by TChris

Ken Blackwell, the Ohio secretary of state who is running for governor, would probably prefer to destroy the ballots cast in Ohio for presidential candidates in 2004. Researchers who have recently obtained access to the ballots are questioning the integrity of the Ohio vote tabulation that he supervised.

After eight months inspecting 35,000 ballots from 75 rural and urban precincts, the critics say that they have found many with signs of tampering and that in some precincts the number of voters differs significantly from the certified results.

In Miami County, in southwestern Ohio, official tallies in one precinct recorded about 550 votes. Ballots and signature books indicated that 450 people voted.

Another problem:

The Wall St. Journal (free link) today examines whether bloggers should blog or not during holiday weekends like Labor Day.

In the height of summer-holiday season, bloggers face the inevitable question: to blog on break or put the blog on a break? Stepping away or bringing in a guest author often means accepting a decline in readership.

....Yet for the sliver of people whose livelihood depends on the blog -- whether they are conservative, liberal or don't care -- stepping away from the keyboard can be difficult. Unlike other jobs, where co-workers can fill in for an absent employee, blogs are usually a one-person show. A blogger's personality carries the site. When the host isn't there, readers tend to stray. August is a slow time for all blogs, but having an absent host makes the problem worse. Lose enough readers, and advertisers are sure to join the exodus.

John Amato of the incredibly popular Crooks and Liars tells the Journal:

Jonathon Edington, a 29 year old Connecticut patent lawyer, has been charged with stabbing his neighbor to death after receiving information from relatives that the neighbor molested his two year old daughter.

The police said the lawyer, Jonathon Edington, 29, repeatedly stabbed the neighbor, Barry James, 59, and then walked back home. Mr. James, whose mother found him bleeding to death just after 4:30 p.m. Monday, was taken to Bridgeport Hospital, where he was pronounced dead an hour later.

The Fairfield police charged Mr. Edington, who had no criminal record, with murder and burglary after officers said they found him in his kitchen later that afternoon, covered in blood.

Mickey Sherman, who is representing Mr. Edington said:

The Wall St. Journal (free link) reports that Bush is planning a series of speeches intended to increase support for the war in Iraq.

President Bush will launch another major public-relations offensive to strengthen support for the Iraq war -- this time likely emphasizing the high stakes and changing nature of the battle more than the progress being made. The series of speeches begins tomorrow at the annual American Legion convention in Utah and will continue through the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and on into the middle of next month.

The new campaign is aimed at framing the Iraq debate over what the White House considers the vital stakes involved in the war and reinforcing public sentiment that favors sticking it out. The speeches will be aimed at rebutting mounting public calls -- from Democrats and even a few Republicans -- for setting some kind of timetable for at least a limited troop withdrawal.

Part of the strategy is to use the speeches to increase Republican chances of victory in November:

A lawyer involved in the Valerie Plame leak case has confirmed that Armitage was the primary source for Bob Novak's column outing Valerie Plame and the source of Washington Post Bob Woodward. [Note: Edited to reflect that the article may be referring to a lawyer involved in the case rather than Armitage's lawyer. Thanks to Patriot Daily for pointing this out to me.]

But the lawyer and other associates of Mr. Armitage have said he has confirmed that he was the initial and primary source for the columnist, Robert D. Novak, whose column of July 14, 2003, identified Valerie Wilson as a Central Intelligence Agency officer.

The Times says this ends the mystery. I disagree. The question remains of whether there was a concerted effort to use Valerie Plame Wilson's undercover or classified employment status with the CIA in an attempt to smear Joe Wilson and his public statements that Iraq was not attempting to acquire uranium from Niger, as Bush erroneously claimed in his 2003 State of the Union Address.

On Monday, I wrote over at 5280.com about a DEA officer who reportedly was attempting to raise money to campaign against the legalization of marijuana initiative that will be on the Colorado ballot in November. The initiative, sponsored by Safer Colorado, would legalize possession by adults of up to one ounce of marijuana. Denver voters passed a similar initiative last year, but the state said it would continue to enforce its law which makes such possession a petty offense punishable by up to a $100 fine. (Colorado also has a medical marijuana law that allows people to obtain a state license to possess and grow up to six plants if they submit a letter from their doctor.)

Today, the DEA responded to the report it intends to campaign against the measure and says it's not true.

What else on the anniversary of Katrina? Two very different versions: Johnny Cash and Arlo Guthrie singing the City of New Orleans.

Johnny Cash

Arlo Guthrie

A friend sent me this. I didn't find a source for it other than the Feb. 2006 The Jewish Magazine, but I find it provacative and food for thought. What do you think?

The Global Islamic population is approximately 1,200,000,000, or 20% of the world population.

They have received the following Nobel Prizes:

Literature:
1988 - Najib Mahfooz

Peace:
1978 - Mohamed Anwar El-Sadat
1994 - Yaser Arafat
1990 - Elias James Corey
1999 - Ahmed Zewa

I haven't yet had an opportunity to watch the Katrina and New Orleans coverage but I'm sure you have. Here's an open thread on all things related to Katrina -- the devastation and the Adminstration's woefully inadequate response. Will this tar Bush's legacy for good?

Matthew Diaz, a lawyer for the Navy, has been charged with disclosing documents pertaining to Guantanamo.

Lt. Cmdr. Matthew M. Diaz, who was stationed at the U.S. base in Guantanamo Bay for six months, could face more than 36 years in prison if convicted at a military trial of the three charges he faces, Navy Mid-Atlantic Region spokeswoman Beth Baker said.

A charge sheet released Tuesday says Diaz, 40, printed out secret information related to national defense "with intent or reason to believe that the said information was to be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of a foreign nation." The document also says Diaz "did ... wrongfully and dishonorably transmit classified documents to an unauthorized individual."

In plain English, according to Reuters:

Diaz was accused of mailing "a multi-page classified document that contained the names and other identifying information" about Guantanamo detainees from that base to "a nongovernmental organization not authorized to receive it," Baker said.

Diaz has been in the Army or Navy for the past 19 years, a career guy. He's not in jail and he continues to work for the Navy in Jacksonville, Fl. How dangerous could he be?

Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad defended his country's nuclear program today, denounced the U.N. Security Council demand that Iran stop its enrichment program and called upon Bush to debate him in a world-wide televised event. The White House turned him down, calling the challenge a diversion.

The Security Council has given Iran until Thursday to suspend enrichment, a process that can produce either fuel for a reactor or material for weapons, or face economic and political sanctions.

"The U.S. and Britain are the source of many tensions," Ahmadinejad said at a news conference. "At the Security Council, where they have to protect security, they enjoy the veto right. If anybody confronts them, there is no place to take complaints to. "This (veto right) is the source of problems of the world. ... It is an insult to the dignity, independence, freedom and sovereignty of nations," he said.

(Guest Post by Big Tent Democrat)

From National Lampoon's "Animal House":

OTTER: Ladies and gentlemen, I'll be brief. The issue here is not whether we broke a few rules or took a few liberties . . . We did.

But you can't hold a whole fraternity responsible for the behaviour of a few sick, perverted individuals. If you do shouldn't we blame the whole fraternity system? And if the whole fraternity system is guilty then isn't this an indictment of our educational institutions in general?

I put it to you, Greg. Isn't this an indictment of our entire American society?

Well you can do what you want to us but we won't sit here and listen to you badmouth the United States of America!

From Rummy today: