Sean Bossinger’s Doings

U.S. Investigates Voting Machines’ Venezuela Ties

The inquiry is focusing on the Venezuelan owners of a software company that last year took over a leading American manufacturer of electronic voting systems.

For those technophiles out there, like me, who revel in their übergeekness, this one's for you. In reading the article, I was waiting for the Bush administration to be all up in arms over this, but the only government official quoted was a Democratic representative.

I don't know whether that's good news or bad news, in and of itself, but I do know that having worked around computers pretty much all my life, I know that their primary function is to be manipulated by humans. Combining this with the lack of transparency in the voting machine industry causes me some consternation when it comes to democracy. I, personally, voted on an optically-scanable absentee ballot for this November's general election, which I was able to verify, online, that it had been received.

It'd be interesting to see how things fare up in Toledo Lefty's neck of the woods. She's in Ohio.

technorati tags:politics, voting machines, democracy

Blogged with Flock

White House Defends 'a Dunk in the Water'

The White House said yesterday that Vice President Cheney was not referring to an interrogation technique known as “waterboarding” when he told an interviewer this week that dunking terrorism suspects in water was a “no-brainer.”

According to Tony Snow, the White House doesn't discuss specific techniques, because it's a matter of national security.  He was especially adroit at the ole' White House Bob and Weave, but seemed to get clobbered somewhat in the video accompanying this story from the Washington Post.  I won't tell you how he got clobbered, because that would violate national security, but suffice it to say it has something to do with the constitution Mr. Snow's boss was elected to uphold, but has done a particularly superb job of avoidance on that specific part of the job description, and the journalists in the room using the constitution to get information out of the government.

Hey Tony… it was a straightforward question - “What's a dunk?”  What could a straightforward answer harm?  I mean, come on… is the CIA actually going to let the people they pick up on the battlefield of the war on terror, which extends from our living rooms to the streets of Baghdad, keep the SCUBA gear they'll now carry when our “method” gets out, when they go into the interrogation chamber?

technorati tags:bush, iraq

Blogged with Flock

The New York Times is voicing an Associated Press news article out today reporting that president Bush has signed into law an act providing for a 700 mile fence along the Mexican-American border. The AP is reporting that president Bush is hoping this gives “Republican candidates a pre-election platform for asserting they're tough on illegal immigration.” Mr. Bush was quoted as saying at the signing ceremony, “Unfortunately the United States has not been in complete control of its borders for decades and therefore illegal immigration has been on the rise.”

Finally, something on which I can agree with the president: The United States has NOT been in complete control of its borders for decades. As a free nation, we have had famously porous borders, and have, since even before our founding ancestors came over from Britain, been a land of immigrants. My question is simple: Why stop now? My answer is even easier: We shouldn't. It's a waste of time. It's a waste of money. There is no conceivable way possible, short of such draconian measures as building a Berlin Wall-style fortress around our great nation, that this would be remotely conceivable. There's not enough M1 money to fill the coffers of the lobby that represents hotels up and down the coastlines… the Fed would have to increase the money supply, and there's no way they'll do that.

The key to solving this problem is the enforcement of existing laws, not the building of new fences. Instead of throwing our tax dollars down the will-be drain that is the new fence, build some sort of database that the IRS uses to cross-reference with the Department of Homeland Security; one that tags suspect (and presently ubiquitous) I-9 applications (such as those that have used identifiers recently in the past, or perhaps hold multiple positions), and then send DHS officials out to investigate those. If the people who have provided those documents to their employers can't provide the documentation to the DHS officials, further investigation is done, and, if needed, individuals are detained until it can be sorted out, or until some set time passes after which DHS has to release the individuals under the presumption of innocence. If the individual is found to be an illegal immigrant, send them back to their home country, to come back the correct way.

Perhaps an even better way of dealing with this problem is to provide protection for our country in the form of information. Our intelligence services are at a severe loss to tell us what is going to happen to our nation in the future. We're no better off today than we were on September 10, 2001, in terms of knowing what our enemies are up to. Neither the war in Afghanistan, nor the war in Iraq, have helped us one iota in improving our access to this knowledge. I would venture an inch out on the limb and suggest that these wars have substantially hurt us, depriving us of necessary connections that could lubricate the wheels that would help provide this information, but that's an argument for a different entry on my blog…

I don't agree with the fences… in the grand scheme of things, 700 miles of fence is a huge waste of money that could be spent better at defending our nation. And before you come back at me with it, yes, I'm well aware of the fact that the president didn't actually authorize money when he signed the bill. ALSO another argument for another day - unfunded mandates. This administration is rife with them. If they don't say “Iraq” on them, you might as well hang up any chance of getting money.

Today, October 25, 2006, marks two occasions:

1) I turn 36; and,
2) Danny Harrold Rolling has a needle stuck in his vein, and is murdered by the State of Florida in retaliation for the five heinous murders he committed in 1990 at the University of Florida (where I happened to be a student at the time).

Many friends of mine disagree with my stance on the death penalty… many family members, too. Very close family members, such as . However, after giving it some very serious thought, I posted the following rudimentary item on http://nodeathpenalty.blog.de - a German website run by a gentleman named Joachim, who shares similar views to me:

Ich bin überhaupt gegen die Todesstrafe, aber als ich in 1990 ein Student bei der Universität von Florida war, kommt Danny Harold Rolling zur Stadt, fünf Studenten schändlich zu ermorden. Meine Wut dazu ist tatsächlich aufgelöst, und es gibt keine Weg diese fünf Studenten ihre Leben wiederherzustellen. Deshalb meine ich, daß Herr Rolling, und andere die so abscheuchlichen Verbrechen begehen, in einer 3m x 3m Gefängniszelle (mit Toilette) stecken werden sollen, nur eine Existenznahrung gefüttert zu werden, nie wieder das Licht der Welt zu erblicken.

Basically, I'm saying that I was angered by Rolling's actions, but that I am over that anger. My answer to the question about what to do with him, aside from killing him, is that we should stick him in a 3m by 3m cell, with a toilet, and feed him a subsistence diet - never letting him see the light of day again.

It would keep a murderer off the street, and it would free up the hundreds of thousands of dollars that was spent keeping the appeals process going (which is still going, by the way, even at this late hour), to try to keep his sorry ass alive.

Someone out there pinged me for more gossip, rather than the intellectual-type fodder I have been foisting upon you, so here are some tidbits:

• Things are going great on the home-front. The kids are getting big, and one, in particular (Donovan), will be five on October 30. We're still trying to figure out where we're going to have the party. I'm game for Chuck E. Cheese's, but is right - their food is crap. Very crap.
• On the school scene, things are okay, but not great. I have one class that I'm getting useful knowledge out of - my Geographic Information Systems course. The other course, Dynamics of Contemporary International Relations really gives me no incentive to perform the readings for the course, but I'm starting to get into my readings, from the standpoint of satisfaction of curiosity. I'm enjoying one reading in particular, one on which I have to present at this coming weeks' seminar, about Settler Colonialism in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. What's interesting about it is that it talks about the policies of separation of indigenous families' children to place them in forced schooling. My research hopefully will take me to some of these same indigenous communities, and this is some good information to have, at least from a historical perspective.
• hasn't been around on here much, because she's busy completing her BFA degree from Academy of Art University, in an on-line format. The degree is something she's wanted for quite sometime, and we just decided to bite the bullet and make the investment. It's a bit difficult getting used to her being in school, but she seems to enjoy it. Maybe I'll ping her and get her to post on it.
• On the health scene, some of you may be aware that I am a Type II diabetic. I have been for quite some time. I am now on an injectable medication called Byetta. It's a synthetic version of a protein found in the saliva of Gila monsters. One of my friends asked if I now get the urge to climb up on rocks to sun myself, to which I almost responded “Yes, and I have the overweight tourist's Spedo on to get maximum sun”.
• On the work scene, things are pretty steady since the last boss left. I miss Margie, and got to see her today, when she showed up to cater a baby shower for one of my coworkers (Rosemanie). Margie is a great person, but it was time for her to retire and spend time with her family. Her and her husband, Jim, now get to travel quite a bit, and she's much more relaxed. Other than that, not many things have changed here. Oh, the old CIO left a bit ago, and we don't have a new one yet… it's only been since May? And the interim boss, his former underling, the associate VP, has decided that no organizational changes are going to be made… but has promoted a couple of people since, much to the chagrin of some other people. I just keep on keepin on… That's the way it be.

I hope some of my other friends out there start posting again. , , , … where are you?!?!?!