I was tired of playing guessing games with Blogger. Therefore, I have decided to pack my bags and say adios to Blogger. I have moved on and looking forward to a new journey over at my to my new place over at xicanopwr.com.

For the folks at Google, if you happen to be data mining, you have the worst customer service I ever seen. Yes, I realize that you people at Google are slowly herding people to your new Blogger Beta. What I do not appreciate is the random inability to access Blogger blogs. Sure, I would move to your Beta, however, you would not let me migrate my posts.

How do I hate thee? Let me count the ways -

It is frustrating that oftentimes Forbidden to access my own blog from the dashboard of my Blogger, I find it amusing that I would experience a 403 Forbidden access error. It is even more amusing that someone over at Google and in their infinite wisdom decided to write a script telling people like me that I have to contact myself and grant myself approval! IT'S MY GOD DAMN BLOG!! WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING!!!

If this is the way Google handles post-acquisitions, then is it safe say that this is just a small glimpse of what will become of YouTube's future in days to come; because, Lord knows you will put Google Video before YouTube. The only winners here are you - killing off the competition - and the former owners of YouTube who just made a cool billion dollars. The losers are us the consumers.

Another factor for my departure, I got tired of all Blogger's glitches. When they do happen, I have to go back and delete all of the double posts Blogger decided create. That's because you never know whether clicking something on Blogger will actually accomplish what it was intended to do and lately, it seems like clicking does nothing but bring up an annoying message - "document contains no data." Ummm, what the hell do you call the diary I just wrote?

Oh sure I could go look up Blogger Status to see what is happening, if I could ever get to it too. See, the trouble is, whenever Blogger does experience of their little hiccups, it tends to affect too. Forget the Discussion group; it is a zoo in there.

So Blogger it was fun while it lasted, but it is time to move on.

Everybody, please change all general links you may have to the new location.

This old blog will still be here for a while, so any links to specific posts will not be affected.

Adios! See ya there.

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I find it hard to consider the Texas election went smoothly for the Republicans. They continue to slime their way to "victory" through fraud and strident propaganda, as they did after election since the 1980s. The only way to stop it is to face it, and then shout so long and loud until the people finally perceive that their suspicions are perfectly just - and ultimately say BASTA!

Ever since Bush family carpetbagged their way to Texas and the rise of the Texas GOP things have never been the same. The problem here in Texas, Democrats and the media continues to claim endlessly, that there is no problem, or that the problem is not partisan malfeasance but "human error."

Here is a list of problems that has been reported in the media that occurred during the elections.

Date	Problem Type	County	Description
11/9/06	Machine malfunction	Falls, Hill, Bosque	Falls, Hill and Bosque counties reported glitches either with counting votes or long waits for residents wishing to cast ballots. Falls County ran out of ballot paper. Bosque County early votes apparently were counted twice in all races. About 1,300 duplicate votes being recorded in numbers that were sent to the Texas Secretary of State’s Office. Hill County had problems with the vote-counting machine, the operator could not get votes from paper ballots to combine with votes submitted electronically. Story
11/9/06	Machine malfunction	Tarrant	Votes were not properly recorded on an electronic machine. Others were not even aware they could have voted on an electronic voting machine. Story
11/9/06	Machine malfunction	Tom Green	San Angelo - People had to wait nearly 11 hours for final election results. Story
11/8/06	Machine malfunction	Hidalgo	Top election official discovered the mistake when early voting results giving long-shot Constitution Party candidate an extra 2,000 over the Democratic incumbent. The problem was the software that compiles the totals. Story
11/8/06	Machine malfunction	San Patricio	Officials were still dealing with computer glitches and had to hand count the vote which delayed the results for the State Representative District 32 race. Story
11/8/06	Machine malfunction	Grayson	The new electronic voting system had trouble processing votes. Story
11/8/06	(Other)	Fort Bend	Machines were delivered to the wrong precincts, delaying voters and casting some uncertainty on ballots already cast. Story
11/7/06	Machine malfunction	Harris	Houston Three of the seven E-Slate voting machines at Lockhart Elementary school weren't working properly since the polls opened at 7 a.m. Two were inactive, one was "misnumbering itself." Technicians arrived 2-1/2 hours later. Story
11/4/06	Machine malfunction	Williamson	ES&S iVotronic failed pre-election testing when straight party selections did not record a vote for Precinct 3 Commissioner. The same problem occurred at the beginning of early voting, but it was corrected and no votes were affected, Stacy said. Story
11/3/06	Machine malfunction	El Paso	Vote-switching by Diebold touch screens. Review screens show the wrong choices - switching Democratic vote to Republican in at least one case. County attorney is investigating. Some voters had to correct the review screen three times, before it registered correctly. Story Story2
11/2/06	Machine malfunction	Collin	Near Dallas. Vote-switching to Republicans. Diebold touch screens switch votes from Libertarian to Republican, and from Democrat to Republican. Story
11/1/06	E-Poll malfunction	Denton	A county server that identifies and qualifies voters malfunctioned. A lack of paper ballot backups prevented at least one woman from voting. Story
10/28/06	Machine malfunction	Jefferson	Vote-switching from Democrat to Republican on the ES&S iVotronic screen. "Friday night, KFDM reported about people who had cast straight Democratic ticket ballots, but the touch-screen machines indicated they had voted a straight Republican ticket. Story
10/26/06	Machine malfunction	Travis	Austin - Hart InterCivic eSlate chops off the last part of candidate names on the review screen. This is the same problem that occurred on the machines in Virginia. Officials have complained to the manufacturer for two years, yet they insist the votes are counted correctly. Story

The flaws of each voting system used through out Texas and the country have exposed repeatedly by folks like Mark Crispin Miller, Bev Harris, Brad Friedman, Clint Curtis, Lynn Landes, Earl Katz and Bruce O'Dell. If that is not good enough, they also have been exposed through many academic studies like, NYU's Brennan Center for Justice, Princeton's Center for IT Policy, and a group of computer scientists at Johns Hopkins, Rice and Stanford universities. Even the US Government Accountability Office has put their two cents in. What more will it take to have people look into this matter? Are you waiting for it to be broadcast on your local news, you can forget it. Research conducted by the Media and Democracy Coalition (MDC) in twelve states - California, Texas, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Florida, Ohio, Washington, Oregon, Arkansas, Virginia, Montana, and Maine - found that in "every one of those states, most citizens already live in highly concentrated media markets with few choices for news and views."

More media mergers in these highly concentrated markets will reduce already insufficient local news coverage and eliminate diverse voices and viewpoints and, in every case, exceed US Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission Merger Guidelines. Yet these mergers would be approved by the FCC under its proposed new rules with "no questions asked."

In Texas, in certain areas are "vulnerable to domination by politicians or their deep pocket supporters."

The refusal to talk about election fraud by top Democrats in Texas can only be explained that they cannot, will not, wrap their minds around the implications of what is happening now, and what will keep on happening until we, as a people, face the issue. By refusing to speak about the growing danger of such fraud, it makes it hard for people to conceive that fraud can ever occur. There are no defenders but us for our besieged democracy. And it is up to us, not as party members, or as liberals, moderates and conservatives, but as Texans to do that vital work by spreading the word what is happening. Isn’t our democracy still worth fighting for?

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There is a lot to be excited about yesterday’s election. The country has spoken and they said enough is enough and handed the Democrats a victory.

The Democrats have won 228 seats leaving the Republicans 196. This now means Rep Nancy Pelosi of CA will become the new Speaker of the House, not only will it be Dudya worst nightmare, but she will now be the first woman to lead the chamber, which also means she is 3rd in line to the Presidency. CAN WE TALK ABOUT IMPEACHMENT NOW!

In the Senate, Democrats won four of the six seats needed to take control of the Senate. I salute the people of Ohio, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania and Missouri for cleaning up there house by saying goodbye to Mike DeWine of OH, Rick Santorum of PA, Lincoln Chafee of RI and Jim Talent of MO. Thank you.

What about here in Texas? Nope, No celebrating here!

US Senator
Kay Bailey Hutchison (R) - 2,659,253 61.68%
Barbara Ann Radnofsky (D) - 1,554,305 36.05%

Governor
Rick Perry (R) - 1,715,324 39.02%
Chris Bell (D) - 1,309,828 29.80%
"Kinky" Friedman (I) - 553,493 12.59%
Carole Keeton Strayhorn (I) 789,700 17.96%

Lt Governor
David Dewhurst (R) - 2,513,277 58.19%
Maria Luisa Alvarado (D) - 1,616,999 37.44%

Attorney General
Greg Abbott (R) - 2,554,681 59.51%
David Van Os (D) - 1,598,475 37.24%

Before the elections, the Republicans had a 22-seat lead in the 150-member House of Representatives. After the elections, the Rethugs only lost two seats, which one of those seats happens to be my district. Farewell, Martha Wong, please do let the doorknob hit ya where the good Lord split 'ya. Congratulations Ellen Cohen!

And congratulations to Valinda Bolton for defeating her Rethug challenger Bill Welch.

Texas is considered as one of the most populous Republican state in the country. There were a few races the GOP was hoping to keep; however, there was one seat that was predicted to change Democratic - the abandoned seat of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. Since the courts denied the Republicans to replace DeLay on the ballot, well, it looks like they wasted over $1 million trying to educate voters on how to cast a write-in vote for Shelley Sekula-Gibbs on the electronic voting machines.

There is a possibility to take away another seat from the Rethugs and that is in the 23rd Congressional District, currently held by sell-out Henry Bonilla. This is the same district where the Supreme Court ruled that the district violated the Voting Rights Act. The finding led to a new district and set up a special open election.

Bonilla has drawn seven challengers, six of them are Democrats - Rick Bolanos, Lukin Gilliland, Augie Beltran, Adrian DeLeon, Albert Uresti, and former Rep Ciro Rodriguez. Guess who was the favorite for the Dems, one clue - it sure wasn't any of those Chicanos. The big wigs were all pulling for the wealthier gringo Lukin Gilliland, even some Latinos felt the gringo would do better. Silly gringos, when will they ever learn? They backed the wrong horse because the run-off against Bonilla is Ciro Rodriguez. My choice the minute he threw my hat in, however, not my district. The Texas Democratic Party had better not sell him out as they routinely do, the people have spoken, and they had better listen.

Although I may not be happy, this state was not part of the change that occurred through out this country. I have the strangest feeling we should look closely into these elections to see if there was any foul play, such as "computer glitches" that continue to plague San Patricio County.

Other counties with "computer glitches" -
Grayson County -

In Grayson County a new, electronic voting system was the biggest issue for some people.

Even though a trial run in the primaries went off without a hitch, the electronic voting system introduced Tuesday actually slowed the voting process down in some precincts.

Hidalgo County -

The county's top election official discovered the mistake when early voting results in House District 28 put long-shot Constitution Party candidate Ron Avery ahead of popular Democratic incumbent Henry Cuellar by almost 2,000 votes with roughly 2,200 tabulated.

The problem was not in the touch screen voting machines, nor the cartridges that record the totals, but in the specific software program written to compile the totals, Navarro said.

Election Systems and Software, which employs the programmer, provides voting equipment to 145 of the 254 counties in Texas, according to the secretary of state.

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Sorry for the lack of posts. There is a couple of reasons, one good and one bad. Currently, I am working on a project. The completion of the project will depend on the next issue. Currently, my uncle is in town because he is scheduled for open heart surgery. Not only is my uncle here in town so are all my relatives from my father's side of the family.

Normally, I would write what this day means, but I am sort of on call. Please excuse my short absence and remember to go vote.

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From Current.TV

you gotta vote

(click image to play)


Enjoy

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I have done my civic duty and voted today. I went to my local grocery store since it was designated as one of the county's early voting location. For whatever good it will do, I, at least, can say I've done my civic duty. Will my vote be counted fairly and correctly; I don't know?

What I do know, I was forced to vote on the county's paperless Hart-Intercivic "eSlate" touch-screen voting machine. Since it is paperless, I do worry about my vote not being counted.

During last March's 2006 Primary Election in Texas, there were numerous reports of "computer glitches" through out the state. Many of those "glitches" occurred in Tom Green, Zapata, Webb, Tarrant, Jefferson, Winkler and Duval counties using the Hart InterCivic System and machine-counting irregularities. One of the biggest "glitch" resulted in a 100,000-vote malfunction in Tarrant County.

PDF file for Voting systems by county in Texas.

For information about which voting system is being used in your state, click here.

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I have been meaning to write this, but, once again Blogger was not cooperating.

On October 27, 2006 Indymedia journalist and videoblogger Brad Will was the killed while covering the teacher's strike in Oaxaca. He was known to have supported the protesters and their cause New York City Independent Media Center reported that Will was shot Friday in the stomach while he was documenting the assault on the Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO) at the barricade by armed paramilitary forces. He died on his way to the hospital.

shooting occurred today in Oaxaca City, Mexico, leaving New York City Indymedia journalist Bradley Will dead after being shot in the chest by paramilitaries. He died before reaching the hospital, according to La Jornada.

Milenio Diario reported that one of their photographers, Oswaldo Ramírez, who was standing near Will, was also shot and injured. Oaxaca's state prosecutor's office officially reported that there were two others, including a protesting teacher, were shot to death and several people were wounded during the shootings.

Illustration: D.R. Latuff

Reporting for Narco News, Diego Enrique Osorno reported that the Mayor of Santa Lucia, Jaime Martínez Feria, confirmed that the armed men who were dressed in civilian clothes were "police acting in legitimate defense against the threat of an occupation of City Hall." According to Osorno, the murders were a coordinated by armed individuals reportedly working for the state political parties, calling themselves "neighbors." Although it has been reported in the US media that the identified murderers were from the local police, what is being excluded is who is behind the assaults. El Universal recently revealed who took part in the murder of Brad will. According to El Universal, those involved in the murder of Brad Will were the chief of police (Seguridad Publica) of Santa Lucia del Camino, Avel Santiago Zárate, the chief of personnel of the PRI affiliated City Council, Manuel Aguilar, and a local elected Delegate of the PRI, David Aguilar Robles.

Before the slaying of Will, John Dickie, a British filmmaker based in Oaxaca, reported that he had heard an anonymous person on Oaxaca's clandestine radio station, Citizen's Radio (Radio Ciudadania: 99.1 FM), tell their listeners that Brad "was an armed terrorist, and there is more to this than meets the eye" and "Indymedia is a branch of the APPO." As to why the government would make such a claim.

This is a critical time for President Vicente Fox as he has one month left in office before he turns it over to his successor Felipe Calderon. It is nor hard to connect some dots as what has transpired over the weekend. For those who have not been following the situation in Oaxaca, the two significant events that have took place in the past few days. The first was the killing of Brad Will and the two innocent souls. The other, over the weekend thousands of police armed with automatic rifles, riot shields, tear gas, armored vehicles, and helicopters invaded Oaxaca and pushed back protesters through sheer force.

After the violent take over of Oaxaca, La Jornada reported there were three casualties, Jorge Alberto López, Fidel García, and an unidentified 14-year-old.

It is interesting, that after five months of complete apathy, Fox finally decided to act to "restore peace." Did Fox finally find his excuse to in federal police? The situation that is currently taking place is very reminiscent of an event that happened over ten years ago.

Back in 1994, when the Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN) launched its campaign to fight for the rights of the indigenous peoples of Chiapas, the Mexican government had utilized an array of tactics to discredit the movement in the press, to torture, rape, imprisonment and outright murder. In Feb 1995, Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo deployed 70,000 troops into the jungles of Chiapas also to restore government control, what was widely known as "low intensity warfare."

Narco News has published Will's final moments captured on his camera.

Brad Will (1970-2006): Final Report

Technorati : APPO, Brad Will, Felipe Calderon, Felipe Calderón, Mexico, Oaxaca, President Vicente Fox
Del.icio.us : APPO, Brad Will, Felipe Calderon, Felipe Calderón, Mexico, Oaxaca, President Vicente Fox, Vicente Fox
Ice Rocket : APPO, Brad Will, Felipe Calderon, Felipe Calderón, Mexico, Oaxaca, President Vicente Fox, Vicente Fox

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