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Electronic Burglary in the Senate
Posted by
michael
on Thu Jan 22, 2004 10:55 AM
from the breaking-and-entering dept.
from the breaking-and-entering dept.
earthworm2 writes "The Boston Globe is reporting that Republicans on the Senate judiciary committee have spied on confidential Democratic files for a year, studying their strategies and passing on the juicy bits to the media."
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Damn Republicans (Score:5, Funny)
Power Corrupts, and... (Score:5, Funny)
Power corrupts."
And PowerPoint corrupts absolutely.
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Re:Damn Republicans (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:Damn Republicans (Score:5, Insightful)
The fact that members of Congress and the President routinely usurp powers not granted to them (or even worse, explicitly denied to them) is criminal and is a direct violation of their oaths of office. The fact that we, the citizens of the US, have allowed them to do so without punishment, is shameful.
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Patriot Act (Score:5, Insightful)
But the Patriot Act says that it's legal! (Score:5, Funny)
We are exactly 20 years off on our calendar.
Re:But the Patriot Act says that it's legal! (Score:5, Interesting)
Oh, the conundrum!
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Re:But the Patriot Act says that it's legal! (Score:5, Insightful)
I say if the media is so liberal, why doesn't it attack everything Bush does? Hell, I never even see anyone questioning anything.
I just want to know the status of a few things:
Where is my 9/11 report?
Where are the WMD?
What's the status of the anthrax investigation?
What's the status of the leak investigation?
I'm not disagreeing, just felt like bringing these up. This shit should be on the news, in the 45 minute loops, until the whole story is heard.
The current administration seems to have everyone so scared of terrorists, they've become distracted.
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Clueless... like a fox (Score:5, Interesting)
While it sounds like the Dems' tech guy is missing his distro of Clue, I wonder... what if he/she left the backdoor open on purpose?
Here's a scenario:
1. Repo tech tells Demo tech about security problem.
2. Demo tech realizes that any security breach could bite the Repos in the butt if discovered.
3. Optional: Tech tells Demo leadership about the plan.
4. Demo tech keeps an eye on traffic through the breach, letting the Repos pull info until...
5.
Step 3 is optional because it assumes cluefulness on the part of political leadership, which I wouldn't want to assume. But there are some tech-savvy members of Congress (surely!) who might understand the honeypot concept.
Re:Clueless... like a fox (Score:5, Insightful)
I worked down in the Pentagon for two and a half years. I thought I had a really good grip on political machinations, having read a lot of polysci theory and having always been marginally decent at manipulating people. When I got down to Arlington I realized that the political power players are like sharks in a vast tank full of guppies.
I couldn't even believe the level of shit that people were capable of doing, willing to do, and doing every day to advance their careers and positions. A clever honeypot trick like this wouldn't be a wondrous masterstroke to top off someone's career - it'd be a move executed before they finished breakfast!
Sometimes I'm really upset by our divisive and angry Two Party System; it seems like nothing ever gets done. Other times I am very, very grateful that the government is not one gigantic unified son of a bitch, because then all those manipulative, controlling and totally evil tendencies would be aimed squarely at me.
Having clearly marked opponents gives them something to aim for and exert their energy upon.
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Re:Clueless... like a fox (Score:5, Insightful)
I fail to see what difference it would make. Whether the Democrats laid a trap or not, the Republicans would have still violated computer fraud statutes and behaved unethically.
The Republican behavior would be particularly reprehensible because they keep running on "values" and "ethics". Unlike blow jobs in the White House, which are amusing but otherwise irrelevant, stealing political strategy memos is something that cuts to the heart of ethics in politics. If these allegations are confirmed, they would show the people involved to be completely unethical, and I would hope they'd get thrown in jail for it and barred from public office.
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heh. (Score:5, Interesting)
Skip from this incident of Republicans spying back to the years during the Clinton White House, wherein the FBI was found to have pulled confidential files on tons of prominent Republicans and provided that information (quite illegally).
Quick link to info on Filegate [judicialwatch.org]
Quick summary for people who don't remember 1998: "[There was a] class action suit on behalf of the more than 900 Bush and Reagan appointees and possibly others whose FBI files were unlawfully obtained by the Clinton White House. Louis Freeh, Director of the FBI, has admitted that there was an "egregious violation of privacy without justification."
It goes around, it comes around, Watergate wasn't the first time, and this isn't the last time.
Politics.
feh.
Re:heh. (Score:5, Insightful)
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Criminal (Score:5, Interesting)
In the US, however, doesn't this make them terrorists and entitled to a free, one way, all expenses paid trip to Cuba? [navy.mil]
Grr! (Score:5, Funny)
Clueless media (Score:5, Insightful)
A technician hired by the new judiciary chairman, Patrick Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, apparently made a mistake
That wasn't a computer malfunction. The computer and the software worked exactly like the way they were supposed to work.
Novak again? (Score:5, Insightful)
> Commitee infiltrated opposition computer files for a year,
> monitoring secret strategy memos and periodically
> passing on copies to the media, Senate officials told The
> Globe.
> Novak is also at the center of an investigation into who
> leaked the identity of a CIA agent whose husband
> contradicted a Bush administration claim about Iraqi
> nuclear programs.
So, Novak leaks the name of a CIA operator for political gain to hide the fact that Bush lied about Iraq trying to buy uranium for nuclear weapons. Then he blows the cover of a CIA front operation to further his story. Why isn't this guy in jail?
More importantly, some Republicans keep doing crazy stuff like this. We still don't know which "senior Bush official" leaked the info to Novak, and Bush seems uninterested to find out who committed this crime. The Republicans have been desperate to bury Watergate's effect on their image, but stuff like makes it alive and well.
Oh Sweet Irony...Put Them In Prison (Score:5, Insightful)
Using the same Draconian laws that they themselves enacted, these people could end up serving hard time for their deeds, losing their rights to privacy, vote and carry a gun. That and losing their jobs and pensions, not to mention medical benefits, etc. In other words, as felons, they become no-ones.
That to me, is the definition of irony.
No political fallout for these crimes (Score:5, Insightful)
In this situation, the Republicans come away looking like the sly rogues who "got away with it," and the Democrats look like beleasguered victims... and at the end of the day, most people would rather be the victimizers than the victims, and thus will identify with the Republicans.
The law & Prison (Score:5, Insightful)
So, when will we see the perps in prison? Not that Whitewater, this-is-just-a-camp-with-a-fence type prison, but a real-live fuck-you-in-the-ass type prison? (Probably never.)
I've said it before, I'll say it again: Republicans cannot be trusted.
I can't believe this isn't big news! (Score:5, Insightful)
There's a reply up there about "this is business as usual", but I can't think of any possible excuse or mitigating of extenuating circumstances for this sort of crime. Saying that "well it's been done before" certainly doesn't make me feel any better about it.
It's hard enough to take our government, and my role in it, seriously. Blowing off this kind of scandal certainly doesn't help.
Having morality and ethics make one liberal?! (Score:5, Insightful)
I can't believe you said such a thing. Morality and ethics aside? What sort of argument is that? Having expectations that government work in a smooth and orderly fashion, in a manner that will express the will of the people, is not a liberal position. Saying "morality and ethics aside" is like saying "notions of civilization aside". If being conniving, crooked and dishonest are your ideas of how a political philosophy should work, please point me to the other side.
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Hold On Now! (Score:5, Insightful)
Translation: "I didn't do it, but even if I did you couldn't prove I did anything wrong."
Now we see the moral *squishiness* of the individuals involved. If these files had been national security documents (government documents) or salary action documents (also government documents), would Miranda still claim that they were open season for anyone who wanted to read them?
Does anyone still believe that the USA Patriot Act will be used exclusively for criminal investigations?
The devil (Score:5, Insightful)
So they are "government documents" but not "official business." And it's not stealing because they were "disclosed" by someone making a mistake setting up security. You heard it straight from the Senate Majority Leader's staff: If a sysadmin mistake allows you to get into a system, then everything in the system is freely "disclosed" and there's no penalty for copying it.
Also, documents can be "government" but not "official" - presumably the Republican Party is the only "official" government by now?
Fraud and Related Activity in Connection with Comp (Score:5, Informative)
(1) having knowingly accessed a computer without authorization or exceeding authorized access, and by means of such conduct having obtained information that has been determined by the United States Government pursuant to an Executive order or statute to require protection against unauthorized disclosure for reasons of national defense or foreign relations, or any restricted data, as defined in paragraph y. of section 11 of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, with reason to believe that such information so obtained could be used to the injury of the United States, or to the advantage of any foreign nation willfully communicates, delivers, transmits, or causes to be communicated, delivered, or transmitted, or attempts to communicate, deliver, transmit or cause to be communicated, delivered, or transmitted the same to any person not entitled to receive it, or willfully retains the same and fails to deliver it to the officer or employee of the United States entitled to receive it;
(2) intentionally accesses a computer without authorization or exceeds authorized access, and thereby obtains--
(A) information contained in a financial record of a financial institution, or of a card issuer as defined in section 1602(n) of title 15, or contained in a file of a consumer reporting agency on a consumer, as such terms are defined in the Fair Credit Reporting Act (15 U.S.C. 1681 et seq.);
(B) information from any department or agency of the United States; or
(C) information from any protected computer if the conduct involved an interstate or foreign communication;
(3) intentionally, without authorization to access any nonpublic computer of a department or agency of the United States, accesses such a computer of that department or agency that is exclusively for the use of the Government of the United States or, in the case of a computer not exclusively for such use, is used by or for the Government of the United States and such conduct affects that use by or for the Government of the United States;
(4) knowingly and with intent to defraud, accesses a protected computer without authorization, or exceeds authorized access, and by means of such conduct furthers the intended fraud and obtains anything of value, unless the object of the fraud and the thing obtained consists only of the use of the computer and the value of such use is not more than $ 5,000 in any one-year period;
(5)
(A)
(i) knowingly causes the transmission of a program, information, code, or command, and as a result of such conduct, intentionally causes damage without authorization, to a protected computer;
(ii) intentionally accesses a protected computer without authorization, and as a result of such conduct, recklessly causes damage; or
(iii) intentionally accesses a protected computer without authorization, and as a result of such conduct, causes damage; and
(B) by conduct described in clause (i), (ii), or (iii) of subparagraph (A), caused (or, in the case of an attempted offense, would, if completed, have caused)--
(i) loss to 1 or more persons during any 1-year period (and, for purposes of an investigation, prosecution, or other proceeding brought by the United States only, loss resulting from a related course of conduct affecting 1 or more other protected computers) aggregating at least $5,000 in value;
(ii) the modification or impairment, or potential modification or impairment, of the medical examination, diagnosis, treatment, or care of 1 or more individuals;
(iii) physical injury to any person;
(iv) a threat to public health or safety; or
(v) damage affecting a computer system used by or for a government entity in furtherance of the administration of justice, national defense, or national security;
(6) knowingly and with intent to defraud traffics (as defined in section 1029) in any password or similar infor
What's the big deal? (Score:5, Funny)
Patriot Act cyber terrorists! BURN THEM! (Score:5, Interesting)
On the slim chance that any of the Republican senators are prosecuted, how much would you like to bet that they get off with a reprimand and a slap on the wrist?
Now, if the janitor in that office had been caught paging through the Dems' (or the Repubs') confidential memos, you can be sure he would have been prosecuted as a computer criminal. Judges are getting more heavy-handed as of late, and it's becoming increasingly more popular to invoke the Patriot Act in cases of computer crime. There's a very good chance that our poor janitor would have been tried, and convicted, as a terrorist.
But, because the criminals in this case are rich, powerful, important white men with many friends in government, they'll likely get off scot free.
I say: give these slandering, pandering, filibustering, dirty-bird legislators a taste of their own medicine! Let them be tried under the inappropriately harsh laws that snuck into the books under THEIR noses. It'll never happen of course, but it sure would be nice.
Re:Confidential files (Score:5, Insightful)
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Duh. (Score:5, Insightful)
By want, I assume that you meant took. Maybe yes, maybe no.
But when you competitor does, it's pretty clear that it's theft.
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Re:Confidential files (Score:5, Insightful)
besides, this isn't the same. if you correctly interpret the 2600 definition of hacking, the GOP folks should have disclosed the security vulnerability, not exploited it for their own benefit.
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Re:Confidential files (Score:5, Insightful)
Since both parties are stinkin liars, I don't think you can believe either story.
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Re:Confidential files (Score:5, Insightful)
> about it along time ago.
Reminds me of that scene in the Simpsons when Bart and Lisa are arguing about hockey. Bart starts swinging his arms saying, "I'm going to swing my arms like this, and if you get hit, it's your own fault".
Simple point: these Republicans had no business digging through anyone's files. Saying, "oh, by the way, we've got access to some stuff that you don't want us to see. Hope you fix your security breach soon, or we're liable to dig through your stuff again!" isn't much of an excuse.
Unless these Republicans would like us to just assume from now on that they have no ethics and act accordingly.
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Re:Confidential files (Score:5, Insightful)
Source code wants to be free (or so thinks 95% of the /. readership -- disclaimer: I'm part of that 95%), but I think you'd take an entirely different approach when you start talking about private memos.
If I access your computer and steal your private journals or letters to your sweetheart and leak them to the media is that "freeing information"? And don't go saying that they deserved it because it wasn't password protected (according to the article the techie neglected to put a password on the documents) -- if I steal handwritten letters to/from your sweatheart out of an unlocked filing cabinet does that make it ok?
The truely disgusting part about all of this is that the "Liberally-biased media" (in the eyes of Fox News and all the Conservative pundits) probably won't even pick up on this -- think we'll be seeing this on CNN or MSNBC anytime soon? I doubt it. Imagine the uproar if the Dems got caught doing something like this....
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Re:Confidential files (Score:5, Interesting)
We all cheered then, didn't we?
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Re:Confidential files (Score:5, Insightful)
- it was publicly disclosed that they were leaked -- Slashdot didn't steal the memo and then secretly use it to undermine Microsoft -- and
- more importantly, the Microsoft memos weren't leaked due to a security exploit -- they were leaked, not stolen -- and
- the programming community hasn't made any secret about exploits in Microsoft's security when they are found.
The Republicans' responsibility was to report the security breach, and to not exploit it regardless of whether it was fixed. (Leaving your door unlocked may be stupid, but it does not make it legal or ethical for others to steal your things.)This incident is really quite different from the Halloween Memo; it's much more akin to Cliton allegedy breaching the FBI files of political enemies. IMO, that would actually have been a valid foundation for an impeachment case
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Re: Imagine the uproar if the Dems got caught... (Score:5, Informative)
The 'Dems' were not caught spying on cell phone call. The call was intercepted by a couple in Florida who paid a $500 fine.
The tape was, in fact, leaked to the media by a democratic congressperson, according to this article (which is not friendly to the congressperson):
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/c
It is disingenuous, at best, to call what happened an example of "spying" on phone calls by Democrats. An elected official received the tape from ordinary citizens; no goverment employees or party apparatchiks involved in the interception of the call.
I would also like to see some evidence to support your contentions about "big laughs" and "fun little caper".
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Re:Confidential files (Score:5, Informative)
I know this is /. and you probably didn't read RTFA but there was no hacking. The technician screwed up.
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Re:Confidential files (Score:5, Insightful)
Some people consider this to be like Watergate, but I see it as far worse. The original Watergate crime was a single breakin relating to a political campain, this has to do with private internal discussion of Senators about matters of government. Ok, sure there might have been some real partisan politics mixed in, but the Republican staffers would have had to wade through a lot of messages to get to the parts they wanted to publish. I don't think that it's treason, but it's damn near.
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Re:Confidential files (Score:5, Funny)
Perhaps they employ the same security consultants as Valve software?
Best wishes,
Mike.
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Another thing.. (Score:5, Interesting)
A technician hired by the new judiciary chairman, Patrick Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, apparently made a mistake that allowed anyone to access newly created accounts on a Judiciary Committee server shared by both parties -- even though the accounts were supposed to restrict access only to those with the right password.
Does this mean the party that controls the senate gets to hire the technician who manages the servers? Am i the only one who sees a problem with that?
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Re:Confidential files (Score:5, Insightful)
If the files were supposed to be confidential, shouldn't they have been protected?
And if the Republicans are hackers doesn't that mean we should be supporting them??
Since information wants to be free and all.
You are probably trying to be funny, but what is not funny about this is if these computers were cracked by one of us and not a Republican staffer, these same Republicans would be howling for blood and nailing asses to walls. This is complete and total bullshit. There was a security problem that could be fixed and the Dems did not fix it. But the Republicans cracked their computers and shared confidential information. They broke the DMCA and several other anti-cracker laws in the process. Someone pointed out that the Dems have pulled this kind of thing as well, but two wrongs do not make a right. The staffers should be treated just as any other civilian would be in this case. And the Dem admin who refused to patch the machine should be fired and investigated to see if s/he is not part of this on the sly.
Some choice points from this article:
As the extent to which Democratic communications were monitored came into sharper focus, Republicans yesterday offered a new defense. They said that in the summer of 2002, their computer technician informed his Democratic counterpart of the glitch, but Democrats did nothing to fix the problem.
Other staffers, however, denied that the Democrats were told anything about it before November 2003.
He said, she said. Regardless of the truth, the Republicans had no right to crack computers just because the potential for exploitation was there. Republican prosecutors and judges would never accept this as a defense for a cracking case, in fact they would laugh as they sent Mr. Cracker off to Federal Pound-Me-In-The-Ass Prison and have done so repeatedly in similar cases. A cracker who informs his/her target of the potential exploit before using it to break into a computer is never afforded any kind of legal protection.
Reached at home, Miranda said he is on paternity leave; Frist's office said he is on leave "pending the results of the investigation" -- he denied that any of the handwritten comments on the memos were by his hand and said he did not distribute the memos to the media. He also argued that the only wrongdoing was on the part of the Democrats -- both for the content of their memos, and for their negligence in placing them where they could be seen.
"There appears to have been no hacking, no stealing, and no violation of any Senate rule," Miranda said. "Stealing assumes a property right and there is no property right to a government document. . . . These documents are not covered under the Senate disclosure rule because they are not official business and, to the extent they were disclosed, they were disclosed inadvertently by negligent [Democratic] staff."
Again, bollocks. These were confidential memos which were clearly meant only for their recipients, just like all office memos and business emails are. And I love the blame-the-victim here, where they try to put the blame on the Dems for having an exploitable computer. So by placing their confidential memos on a machine that can be cracked, they are in fact releasing this info to the public with no intellectual property rights (like copyright) asserted? Really? So if I crack the TIA computers that means the Republicans released the information for free into the public domain? The Microsoft Source that was stolen is actually legal, free, and clear? Can I get an affidavit from John Ashcroft to this effect?
All this adds up to prove that the Republicans' vaunted belief in the rule of law is complete bullshit. The party has been taken over by outlaws who seem to think the law does not apply to them. The fact that this kind of cracking can occur at the highest levels of government with NO investigation into prosecution leads directly to a determination of gross negligence on the part of Bush, since he is teh top cop in the country and it is his job to make sure the laws are enforced and obeyed, especially by the staff of his party members.
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Re:Confidential files (Score:5, Interesting)
DMCA Violation!!!!!
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Re:WTF! (Score:5, Insightful)
Not that it makes this right, but let's face it, since Watergate this kind of stuff has been happening with both sides and nobody has been punished yet.
Finkployd
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Re:Way to go GOP! (Score:5, Insightful)
Tell everyone that you're all for fair play, an even playing field for everyone but then read other people's confidential memos to gain an unfair advantage. How sleazy is that?
I wonder what Republicans who thought Bill Clinton getting a blowjob was worthy of impeachment have to say about Senators and their staffs committing crimes punishable by up to a year in prison?
Wow, you say something I can agree with for once!
They won't think anything of it. You might have some real outrage from the handful of decent Republicans in the Senate (McCain, Snowe, Collins all come to mind), but the party establishment itself (which was taken over by the Southern religious right wing a long time ago) won't say a damn thing.
It's the same level of hypocrisy they use when they all fall in behind George-I-was-too-busy-snorting-crack-to-report-for -my-National-Guard-duty W. Bush, but bash McCain (or other Patriots like Senator Cleland) as being "unpatrotic". They actually ran attack ads against Cleland linking him to Bin Ladin -- the man lost three of his limbs in Vietnam! Yet how dare we criticize Bush for snorting crack and avoiding the war (not to mention his DWI) -- he's the President after all and you need to respect the office.
Hell, since I'm ranting, let's talk about yelling at the Dems for "blocking" Bush's nominates when the vast majority of them have been confirmed (rubber-stamped is more like it). The Democrats in the Senate have been a whole lot nicer to Dubya then the Republicans ever were to Clinton -- much to my dismay.
There are a few decent Republicans (mostly in the Northeast where they actually still stand for fiscal responsibility and haven't been taken over by the religious right) -- but they are few and far between -- and I won't vote for any Republican for Federal Office until they expunge the Southern Religious Right from the party. Which is really too bad because there are actually a few Republicans that I like and am in a position to vote for -- I hope Giuliani run's for Governor of NY and not the Senate seat open in 04. It'd kill me to have to vote against him, but I would because we can't allow the Republicans to continue to control the Federal Government.
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Re:The goods (Score:5, Insightful)
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Re:The goods (Score:5, Insightful)
You guys in the US have a problem - both your major parties suck.
Plus, you've got all these unelected bureaucrats behind the scenes, holding tons of power for decades, pulling the strings etc. Heh in a Disney movie those bureaucrats would be the evil Grand Viziers.
Heh and the US electronic voting systems are a big joke. With those crappy systems, sending UN/independent observers to monitor your elections won't help at all.
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Re:The goods (Score:5, Insightful)
Yup. Few people realize that other parties exist. (I think it's funny they're called third parties, all of them.) USians have been raised to belive that voting for a third party is "throwing your vote away." Personally, I think it's the other way around. In truth, I really don't mind a two party system -- it's just that the two parties currently in power suck.
People can't find a candidate they trust, so when it comes time to vote, they either vote for the party their parents voted for, or the cute one. Unfortunately, they don't recognize the third party candidates' names because the Two Parties have made laws that make it tough for third parties to raise funds for a decent campaign.
Maybe this year I'll do a write in. CmdrTaco, maybe?
Yeah, I hate 'em. My state [geogia.gov] uses those stupid Diebold machines. *shudder*
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Re:The goods (Score:5, Insightful)
Whereas you'd be likely to get something a bunch of jokers whipped out in VB which can't even ensure that the total vote counts aren't negative. Already happened in the US.
Shouldn't it be treason to ship code of such low quality for _supposedly_ such a critical purpose?
But maybe it doesn't really matter - in many countries the choice is between Evil or Wicked. It's just to keep the people satisfied.
If you notice there's never a choice for "none of the above" or "reopen nominations".
Neither is there an option for a negative vote - you can't say "No". You can only vote for and never against. It'll be more useful if people could say No to candidates. That way you could actually win but have a net negative score. That'll be rather more useful than spoilt votes. Can't brag if that happens
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Re:The goods (Score:5, Insightful)
Someone in Bush's whitehouse compromises an agent whose mission involves intercepting terrorists trying to buy weapons of mass destruction, compromising a front company set up by the CIA for such purpose, and you think it is the same thing. Even if the accusations from your questionable source are true, at worst it is making public investigations by people on the outside: it is not stealing internal papers of Congressman. It is not compromising national security. I thought Republicans cared about fighting terrorism. I guess that is just when it involves giving away defense contracts. When it comes to something that could actually be effective, it just doesn't rise to the same level of importance does it?
Not to mention the whole lying to Congress about WMD thing. Lying to Congress vs lying about an affair in civil court: which matters more? But since Bush lied in only 17 words, it doesn't count, right? I guess "I did not have sex with that woman." doesn't count either; I mean that is only 8 words.
Some of the stuff your link is talking about is public record anyway. I don't see indication of breaking and entering to obtain said files there. Even just obtaining the files in this case, was done illegally.
No one said Republicans have a monopoly on corruption in Washington, but they sure have perfected it.
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Re:The goods (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.opensecrets.org/softmoney/softcomp1.asp ?txtName=Microsoft [opensecrets.org]
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