Merit-bound Alley

Our Commissioner of Elections is stepping down from his post citing job stress, according to a brief mention from Rick and Ger.

Sorry about that.

Well, not really. It’s not often that an opinionated ass like me is offered as juicy a peach as this AP story.

In an effort to cease the nuclear efforts of North Korea, the US is now custom crafting it’s trade sanctions for the Oompa-Loompa of Death, Kim Jong-Il. It is with joy in my heart that I, as a concerned American citizen, can say that we are now safe from a nookyooler N. Korea now that the Power Pygmy can no longer get his Ipods, Seqways, and French Cognac. This writer suggests that the government works with Blizzard to ban his World of Warcraft account as well. I’m sure the American and European subscribers are sick of seeing “14 gnome war LFG for SKOREA plz plz kthxbye!!!11″ in General Chat.

All joking aside (for now), while this is a rather novel way to attack the diminutive dictator, I don’t see it as becoming particularly successful. I would seriously doubt that development of a nuclear arms program will be halted because Jong-Il can’t get drunk on cognac and menace the village pedestrians on his Segway. There’s a mental image I’ll take to my grave.

However, it seems like there has been a bit of thought put into this Machivellian tactic:

Defectors to South Korea have described Kim giving expensive gifts of cars, liquor and Japanese-made appliances to his most faithful bureaucrats.

“If you take away one of the tools of his control, perhaps you weaken the cohesion of his leadership,” said Robert J. Einhorn, a former senior State Department official who visited North Korea with Albright and dined extravagantly there. “It can’t hurt, but whether it works, we don’t know.”

Again, as the leadership of Korea are grown men and not preadolscent boys with perpetual Christmas stockings hanging at their fireplaces, I find it hard to believe that they would give up becoming a world nuclear power in favor plasma TVs and jet-skis. Secondly, I take umbrage to the comment, “It can’t hurt”. What about the guy who makes the Segway. The government has consigned him to bankruptcy by killing his only sale.

I really hate it when my most cynical opinions are proven correct. Specifically, that religion and patriotism are used too much in the U.S. as a blindfold and a justifier of ignorance. Here, we have a family in Pagosa Springs, Colorado who put a wreath on the outside of their house that contained the peace symbol. I guess it only stands to reason that the people would assume this family was not supporting the troops, what with that peace symbol out there. I heard that churches are replacing “peace on earth, good will towards men” with “freedom in Iraq, good will towards patriots only”.

The anti-Iraq point is understandable if I lower myself to that standard of ignorant dementia, but satanic? The peace sign? How many years would an American have to live under a rock to not recognize the peace sign? This, better than any other example I could provide, proves that the vocal idiots of America can create any divide they want, so long as they are loud enough.

Now, some may say that everything turned out okay because the neighborhood group dropped the fine. However, this incident will leave a legacy of distrust in that small neighborhood because of the insipid foolishness of a vocal few who have no qualms with lowering the curve for the rest of us as long as their views are not challenged.

Darth Benedict hopes to ease anger of his fairly recent derogatory comments about Islam during his on again off again trip to Turkey.

Said Monsignor Luigi Padovese, the Pope’s vicar in Anatolia:

“The Pope will discuss the rights of the religious minority. In a secular country, people must have the right to believe in whatever faith they choose to believe.”

Monsignor Padovese underscored his comment by stomping on a turtle then eating a mushroom, growing twice his normal size. Cardinal Mario was unavailable for comment.

I am eager to hear the Pope’s comments on the rights of a religious minority and how he will try to implement such tolerance in a country like the US, where the majority status enjoyed by the Christians can often be linked to violence and intolerance.

Okay, I finally got some good information from AG Anne Woolpolk, who is assigned to represent the Departments and Commissioner of Elections. Once the elections are over, the uncounted results go to the prothonotary (chief court clerk) of the Superior Court of Delaware where they are counted. The results then go to the individual Departments of Elections for each county. I’ve also found out that is the results have been tallied, there’s no reason that the Departments of Elections should keep them from me. What this means is that I have been bugging the wrong guy, although it would have been nice if I had been told that at the outset of this exercise. So, Mr Calio, thank you for allowing me to waste my time on a dead end and here’s your pet turtle back, safe and sound.

I suppose my next step is to contact the Departments of Elections and hold their turtles hostage.

“Thank you, Mario, but our princess is in another castle!”

UPDATE: I just got off of the phone with the Director of NCC Elections and as it turns ou, the final counts have not been released by the prothonotary. They really did do a special service for Christine O’Donnell to get her count released early, because so many people were screaming for it. Thus ends my struggle to get the results early.

Governor of Massachussetts Mitt Romney is attempting to revoke the rights of gays to marry in his state, cravenly masking it as a gambit by the Massachussetts General Assembly to block the people from putting it up to a vote. According to this slimy bastard:

“The issue before us is not whether same-sex couples should marry. The issue before us today is whether 109 legislators will follow the constitution,” declared Romney, promising to send the 109 lawmakers a copy of the constitution and their oath of office to underscore his frustration. “Let us not see the state, which first established constitutional democracy, become the first to abandon it.”

Yes, let’s please forget the fact that he’s initiating this in order to take away the rights that had been granted by the state in 2004 for gays to marry. Let’s also forget that the Assembly is trying to keep the majority from voting on the rights of the minority. Mitt Romney is apparently the vaunted protector of the MA Constitution, not a hatemonger in power! What a, dare I say, Culture Warrior!

I don’t envy the position of the MA legislature. This smarmy piece of shit is making them choose between the Constitution of their state, and the Bill of Rights. Whether or not they allow the people to vote to revoke the right of gays to marry, they will be unwillingly turning their back on a constitutional law. So far, their hesitiation to allow this shows a commendable loyalty to Civil Rights, but how long can they hold out against the teeming, frothing masses of neo-conservative bigotry?

God, how slick! The kind of devious genius that the Governor is using for no better reason than to steal the hard-won rights of a minority. Don’t forget, in his demented mind, he’s the good guy:

Yesterday, though, Romney said there is no question that the majority of state legislators on Nov. 9 decided to “usurp the Constitution, to abandon democracy, and substitute a form of what this nation’s founders called tyranny” for the will of the people. He said the constitution “plainly states” that legislators must vote directly on petitions from citizens.

Note the strong words: usurp, abandon democracy, tyrrany. Sounds great unless you have held in your mind that his version of democracy means taking the right to marry away from a minority group, and his tyrrany is the GA’s struggle to defend the civil rights of a minority group. But, you were supposed to forget about that, because he’s simply defending the state constitution and not initiating a draconian bid against the rights of a minority.

I’ll leave you, dear reader, with a thought: it was never a basis of our legal system that the majority could dictate the rights of the minority. The rights of every single American are unalienable, tempered by the Bill of Rights against miserable attempts, such as this, of a majority to mandate the rights of a minority. Every attack on civil rights, successful or unsuccessful or unavailing, blatant or hidden, is an attack on the spirit of what we struggle for: peace and happiness for all. There is no peace when there is inequality.

UPDATE: 

…a spokesman for House Speaker Salvatore F. DiMasi said, “The speaker is not going to respond every time the governor stages a cynical political ploy designed to impress right-wing Republican voters in primary states.” (link)

Now, that’s a quote!

Well, stories of pedophile priests are in the news again, somehow shocking the people of America who hear about this at least once a year. We all know that certain priests molest some child, then the Church hides it for years until the child grows up to be an adult who finally brings his pain to light. I’m not going to discuss the hows, wheres, or whys of this abhorrent violation of a child’s trust. Instead, I will share a story from my churchgoing days as a child.

The priest of my congregation in New Jersey was a good man; wise, respected, respecful, and full of life and love. I so happened that one day, a junior priest of the parish told us that Father (I’ll call him) Smith had been excommunicated from the Church because he had fallen in love with one of our nuns and had gotten her pregnant. Most of the congregation did not feel betrayed by Father Smith, instead we were happy that he had found a happier life than being a priest could offer. Those that knew him and the nun more closely wished them a happy life together. Father Smith was just that kind of guy.

The irony of the situation is that the priest had found a loving realtionship with an adult woman and was excommunicated, while those that prey on helpless children keep their positions and suffer no ill consequences for their betrayal even when the church is fully aware of their impropriety.

Yet the Church sees itself as a bastion of morality in an evil word. Un-fucking-believable.

Jason of Delaware Liberal has posted his prediction for the 2008 races. I was reading through it, forming my own opinions and thinking what a political addict he is. Then, I realized that I was studiously reading the post, forming my own opinions.

Touche, Jason, though you weren’t even trying.

Well, I have run into an interesting little bit of information. According to the CoE office, only Christine O’Donnell’s write-in tally will be available. For the other numbers, we will have to wait until the beginning of the next year. I have written back to the CoE to find out why this is, but have yet to receive a response. Once I get one, it will be posted here.

 UPDATE: I have received a reply from Frank Calio and have replied back to him. See below for the transcript.

Mr. Calio,

     Thank you for your prompt reply. I didn’t realize that you were going out of your normal procedure for Christine. However, if the information for the other write-in candidates has been tallied with Christine’s and your office has that information would you be willing to provide at least the write-ins for Karen E. Peterson to me? A simple spreadsheet, as was provided to me by your receptionist of the Sussex county write-ins before they were made generally available, will be suitable.

Thanks in advance,

Joseph J. Madjeski

 

- Hide quoted text -

On 11/16/06, Calio Frank B (Elect_COE) <Frank.Calio@state.de.us> wrote:

Mr. Madjeski,

      The only reason we will post Ms. O’Donnell’s votes is that she announced she would be having an organized write-in campaign; none of the other write-ins, which number in the hundreds are announced.

      If you wish to see the names of the other write-ins they should be available by the first of the year when we print the election results book.

      Please watch our web site; when all of her votes are certified we will post them on our site. Thanks for your interest.

Frank B. Calio

State Elections Commissioner

111 S. West St., Suite 10

Dover , DE 19904

Phone: 302,739.4277

Fax: 302.739.6794

e-mail: Frank.Calio@state. de.us <mail to: Frank.Calio @state. de.us>

Tyler Nixon, a strong advocate of renewable alternative energy sources, brought this meeting to my attention. He will also be attending, if you’d like a chance to meet him. 

Meetings and Events

November LWVNCC General Meeting
 Alternative Sources of Energy for Delaware
Goodstay Center Gold Ballroom
Wilmington Campus of University of Delaware, Pennsylvania Avenue, Wilmington, Delaware
Wednesday, November 15, 2006, 7:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Speakers:
          Steven Hegedus on Solar Energy
          Willett Kempton on Wind Energy
          Barry Marrs on Biofuels for Energy
Free Public Meeting
Learn the facts about fuel alternatives to fossil fuel use and what alternatives can address Delaware’s reliance on non-sustainable sources of energy.
Sponsor - The League of Women Voters of New Castle County
Co-Sponsors- ( not confirmed) Delaware Alliance for Clean Energy, Delaware Nature Center, Audubon Society, Sierra Club