by TChris

As TalkLeft has noted, despite the absence of mainstream media coverage of election irregularities, there remain unanswered questions about the 2004 presidential vote. In light of a new study of the Florida vote count, it's time to start demanding answers.

A nationally renowned expert on statistical research and a team of graduate students at UC Berkeley yesterday sounded another alarm bell about the Nov. 2 elections, releasing a study suggesting that irregularities in electronic voting machines in Florida may have awarded hundreds of thousands of “excess” votes to George W. Bush.

The report, published by the Berkeley Quantitative Methods Research Team, said Bush picked up 130,000 to 260,000 votes the group’s statistical analysis can’t explain from three heavily Democratic south Florida counties that used touchscreen voting equipment this year. The probability of such a discrepancy arising by chance is less than one in a thousand, according to Michael Hout, professor of sociology at the campus, member of the National Academy of Science, and leader of the research team.

Record producer and songwriter Terry Melcher died Friday night at age 62 of melanoma. He was a prominent figure on the music scene in the 60's. He was Doris Day's son. He was linked to the Charles Manson murder of Sharon Tate because he used to live in the house on Cielo Drive that Tate was killed in and had refused to give Manson a record contract. [Melcher had been introduced to Manson by Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys. Manson and some of his group moved into Wilson's house for a year, during which time the Beach Boys recorded one of Manson's songs. Manson then auditioned for Melcher, who wouldn't give him a contract, leading many at the time to speculate that Melcher had been the real target that night. Melcher had moved to Malibu and rented the house to Tate and Roman Polanski. When Melcher did live in the Tate house, his live-in girlfriend was Candace Bergen.]

He worked with an impressive array of groups, from the Byrds to the Beach Boys, Mamas and Pappas, Ry Cooder, Paul Revere and the Raiders, and more. One of his last major produced hits was 'Kokomo' by the Beach Boys, that was featured in the Tom Cruise movie, 'Cocktail.'

Heres something I didn't know: He was a member of the two-man group, the Rip Chords, whose one hit was "Hey Little Cobra" in 1964. I loved that song. Or maybe I just think I did because the radio stations played it every ten minutes when I was a kid and I can still remember the words and the tune.

R.I.P., Mr. Melcher.

The $388 billion spending bill passed by Congress Saturday may be 3,000 pages, but there's one page missing. It's the page that protected student loans, particularly those known as Pell Grants,the country's primary scholarship program.

The government moved to change its formula for college aid last year, but was blocked by Congress. Now, however, no such language appears in the appropriations bill lawmakers are considering, clearing the way for the government to scale back college grants for hundreds of thousands of low-income students.

Nearly 100,000 more students may lose their federal grants entirely, as Congress considers legislation that could place more of the financial burden for college on students and their families.

Who's responsible for this? Bush and the Republicans:

...the bill approved yesterday, brokered by Congressional leaders in a conference committee, eliminates a provision that would have barred the Education Department from changing the eligibility formula. A Senate staff member who spoke on the condition of anonymity said that the White House insisted the provision be dropped, citing the shortfall, and House Republicans were adamant in their agreement to do so.

In dollars and cents, it means:

Let's hope James Dobson and his fellow radical evangelicals are crying in their eggnog tonight, after losing a round at the Air Force Academy in their home town of Colorado Springs. A 'Jesus banner' will be taken down from the team's locker room. This was no ordinary banner. The message, part of something called the "competitor's creed," read:

"I am a Christian first and last ... I am a member of Team Jesus Christ."

The banner was put up Wednesday by the team's coach, Fisher DeBerry, who agreed Friday to take it down. The Academy seems to be taking the right course. It has warned staffers against including biblical verses as taglines on Academy e-mail. It disapproved of cadets using Academy e-mail to urge seeing Passion of the Christ. And on Thursday, the Superintendant announced the Academy would begin religious tolerance training.

Outgoing Air Force Secretary James Roche issued a statement about it. Note the use of the positive vs. the negative. Instead of saying intolerance won't be permitted, he says:

"Our policy is clear. Tolerance of gender, racial, ethnic and religious diversity is required at our Air Force," Roche said.

I like it. I bet James Dobson doesn't. His role at the Academy seems to be dwindling--it's been two years since the Academy Parachute team, which in 1993 delivered the keys to Dobson's new building to him, has performed at a religious event.

It's still Mountains High, Bias Deep at the Academy. But good for its leadership for recognizing the problem and making an effort to change.

Rita Cosby on Fox tonight did a segment on Stanley "Tookie" Williams, co-founder of the Crips who has been on San Quentin's death row for 23 years, during which time he has been nominated for a Nobel peace prize. She showed pictures of her visiting him some time back, and then aired a recent taped telephone conversation with him. What's up with this? A network showing humanity for death row prisoners?

Could there be an ulterior motive? Is it just a coincidence that San Quentin's death row is where Scott Peterson will go if the jury sentences him to death this week? She couldn't have been using Stanley Williams to keep viewers' interest in Scott Peterson at its pre-verdict pitch, could she? We hope not.

South Knox Bubba and Bubbablab posters have put together an outstanding list of the top 500 songs--in a very democratic fashion. Here were the rules:

Yeah, who needs Rolling Stone? Let's do the Bubba Blab 500!

Rules: We will list 500 songs. They will be numbered only for purposes of keeping track, not for purposes of ranking. Anybody can add any song to the list -- there is no veto power. The only limitation is that nobody can add 2 songs in a row. So if you add one, you have to wait for someone else to add one before you can add another. That's it. No limit on number of songs per artist -- if you want to put the entire Carpenters catalog on there, have at it. But only if you really like the Carpenters -- try to limit it to songs you actually like. Capiche?

Here's the final list. It's a keeper, and I'm going directly to i-tunes to do some major downloading.

Check this out--great message, great graphics--Brand Democrat via Oliver Willis.

Update: Surprise! The bill is dead! Rebellious Republicans killed it. Bush will not be happy. The New York Times has more.

Bump and Update: The worst may be gone:

Negotiators dropped immigration and law enforcement provisions sought by the House that civil liberties groups said were anti-immigrant and would deny immigrants due process, negotiators said.

Bump and Update: The worst of the anti-immigrant provisions reportedly have been removed:

There has been a fight on the Senate floor today, Saturday, over a provision that would allow the Chair of the Appropriations Committees to peek at our tax returns. Daily Kos has some news about it, but here is the exact language, which I'm told may not have been publicized yet. Republicans have now apologized for trying to sneak this through and pulled it. They are blaming it on a staffer. It was snuck into the 3,000 page spending bill virtually in the middle of the night.

Hereafter, notwithstanding any other provision of law governing the disclosure of income tax returns or return information, upon written request of the Chairman of the House or Senate Committee on Appropriations, the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service shall allow agents designated by such Chairman access to Internal Revenue Service facilities and any tax returns or return information contained therein.

by TChris

Colbert King wants to know what should happen "when the criminal justice system renders an injustice itself -- one so egregious that it results in a tragic death and an irrevocable shattering of lives of family and friends?"

Washington D.C. Superior Court Judge Judith Retchin sentenced Jonathan Magbie, a quadriplegic, to 10 days in jail for simple possession of marijuana. She did so even though the prosecution didn't ask for jail and even though she knew that the jail couldn't accommodate Magbie's disability.

Magbie died in the custody of the D.C. Department of Corrections.

Why she decided to incarcerate Magbie, totally dependent, unable to breathe reliably on his own -- and a first-time offender -- remains an unanswered question that court officials would just as soon see go away. It won't. It can't.

TalkLeft's background coverage of this case appears here and here.

by TChris

To show his support for free expression, Ray Morris spent a week living on the roof of an adult bookstore in Salina, Kansas.

"I can't stress enough that I am not promoting porn," Morris said. "I'm promoting the idea of choice. Everyone has a right to choose whether they want to enter these stores."

Morality activists are circulating petitions calling for a grand jury to investige whether the store is selling obscene materials. A similar petition drive resulted in indictments against a bookstore near Abilene.

Morris considered his week-long protest to be a positive experience. Ironically, a few people disagreed with his position on obscenity by making obscene gestures.

by TChris

Judges are often asked to decide whether a juvenile who has been accused of a serious crime should be prosecuted as an adult. Because that decision is usually discretionary, hinging upon the judge's evaluation of several factors, parents sometimes question why other kids are treated as kids while their own child is exposed to the harsh consequences of an adult conviction.

Lisa Cervantes wonders whether the decision to waive her son into adult court was fair.

His mother not only is confident of his innocence but also is angry that he was ordered to stand trial as an adult -- while a judge ruled last week that another Salinas teen will be tried as a juvenile for murder. That teen, a 17-year-old Salinas girl, is accused of driving drunk and killing two people near Lake San Antonio. "She's white and she goes to Notre Dame (High School)," Cervantes said Friday. "I'm Latina and I'm from the east side. She can be rehabilitated and my son can't. What's up with that?"