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Anne Kilkenny, long-time resident of Wasilla, Alaska writes about Ms. Palin, her ability to keep secrets and her inability to either balance a budget or live within one.  Anne also spends a few moments discussing Sarah’s abuse of power. 

Just what we need, another Vice President who believes they can make whatever rules serve them in the moment.  What is the difference between Dick Cheney and Sarah Palin?  Lipstick!

About Sarah Palin: A Letter From Anne Kilkenny
By admin on Sep 3, 2008 in John McCain

What follows is an open letter written by a resident of Wasilla, Alaska named Anne Kilkenny.

I am a resident of Wasilla, Alaska. I have known Sarah since 1992. Everyone here knows Sarah, so it is nothing special to say we are on a first-name basis. Our children have attended the same schools. Her father was my child’s favorite substitute teacher. I also am on a first name basis with her parents and mother-in-law. I attended more City Council meetings during her administration than about 99% of the residents of the city.

She is enormously popular; in every way she’s like the most popular girl in middle school. Even men who think she is a poor choice and won’t vote for her can’t quit smiling when talking about her because she is a “babe”.

It is astonishing and almost scary how well she can keep a secret. She kept her most recent pregnancy a secret from her children and parents for seven months. She is “pro-life”. She recently gave birth to a Down’s syndrome baby. There is no cover-up involved, here; Trig is her baby. She is energetic and hardworking. She regularly worked out at the gym.

She is savvy. She doesn’t take positions; she just “puts things out there” and if they prove to be popular, then she takes credit. Her husband works a union job on the North Slope for BP and is a champion snowmobile racer. Todd Palin’s kind of job is highly sought-after because of the schedule and high pay. He arranges his work schedule so he can fish for salmon in Bristol Bay for a month or so in summer, but by no stretch of the imagination is fishing their major source of income. Nor has her life-style ever been anything like that of native Alaskans. Sarah and her whole family are avid hunters. She’s smart.

Her experience is as mayor of a city with a population of about 5,000 (at the time), and less than 2 years as governor of a state with about 670,000 residents. During her mayoral administration most of the actual work of running this small city was turned over to an administrator. She had been pushed to hire this administrator by party power-brokers after she had gotten herself into some trouble over precipitous firings which had given rise to a recall campaign.

Sarah campaigned in Wasilla as a “fiscal conservative”. During her 6 years as Mayor, she increased general government expenditures by over 33%. During those same 6 years the amount of taxes collected by the City increased by 38%. This was during a period of low inflation (1996-2002). She reduced progressive property taxes and increased a regressive sales tax which taxed even food. The tax cuts that she promoted benefited large corporate property owners way more than they benefited residents.

The huge increases in tax revenues during her mayoral administration weren’t enough to fund everything on her wish list though, borrowed money was needed, too. She inherited a city with zero debt, but left it with indebtedness of over $22 million. What did Mayor Palin encourage the voters to borrow money for? Was it the infrastructure that she said she supported? The sewage treatment plant that the city lacked? or a new library? No. $1m for a park. $15m-plus for construction of a multi-use sports complex which she rushed through to build on a piece of property that the City didn’t even have clear title to, that was still in litigation 7 yrs later–to the delight of the lawyers involved! The sports complex itself is a nice addition to the community but a huge money pit, not the profit-generator she claimed it would be. She also supported bonds for $5.5m for road projects that could have been done in 5-7 yrs without any borrowing.

While Mayor, City Hall was extensively remodeled and her office redecorated more than once. These are small numbers, but Wasilla is a very small city. As an oil producer, the high price of oil has created a budget surplus in Alaska. Rather than invest this surplus in technology that will make us energy independent and increase efficiency, as Governor she proposed distribution of this surplus to every individual in the state.

In this time of record state revenues and budget surpluses, she recommended that the state borrow/bond for road projects, even while she proposed distribution of surplus state revenues: spend today’s surplus, borrow for needs.

She’s not very tolerant of divergent opinions or open to outside ideasor compromise. As Mayor, she fought ideas that weren’t generated by her or her staff. Ideas weren’t evaluated on their merits, but on the basis of who proposed them.

While Sarah was Mayor of Wasilla she tried to fire our highly respected City Librarian because the Librarian refused to consider removing from the library some books that Sarah wanted removed. City residents rallied to the defense of the City Librarian and against Palin’s attempt at out-and-out censorship, so Palin backed down and withdrew her termination letter. People who fought her attempt to oust the Librarian are on her enemies list to this day.

Sarah complained about the “old boy’s club” when she first ran for Mayor, so what did she bring Wasilla? A new set of “old boys”. Palin fired most of the experienced staff she inherited. At the City and as Governor she hired or elevated new, inexperienced, obscure people, creating a staff totally dependent on her for their jobs and eternally grateful and fiercely loyal–loyal to the point of abusing their power to further her personal agenda, as she has acknowledged happened in the case of pressuring the State’s top cop (see below).

As Mayor, Sarah fired Wasilla’s Police Chief because he “intimidated” her, she told the press. As Governor, her recent firing of Alaska’s top cop has the ring of familiarity about it. He served at her pleasure and she had every legal right to fire him, but it’s pretty clear that an important factor in her decision to fire him was because he wouldn’t fire her sister’s ex-husband, a State Trooper. Under investigation for abuse of power, she has had to admit that more than 2 dozen contacts were made between her staff and family to the person that she later fired, pressuring him to fire her ex-brother-in-law. She tried to replace the man she fired with a man who she knew had been reprimanded for sexual harassment; when this caused a public furor, she withdrew her support.

She has bitten the hand of every person who extended theirs to her in help. The City Council person who personally escorted her around town introducing her to voters when she first ran for Wasilla City Council became one of her first targets when she was later elected Mayor. She abruptly fired her loyal City Administrator; even people who didn’t like the guy were stunned by this ruthlessness.

Fear of retribution has kept all of these people from saying anything publicly about her.

When then-Governor Murkowski was handing out political plums, Sarah got the best, Chair of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission: one of the few jobs not in Juneau and one of the best paid. She had no background in oil & gas issues. Within months of scoring this great job which paid $122,400/yr, she was complaining in the press about the high salary. I was told that she hated that job: the commute, the structured hours, the work. Sarah became aware that a member of this Commission (who was also the State Chair of the Republican Party) engaged in unethical behavior on the job.

In a gutsy move which some undoubtedly cautioned her could be political suicide, Sarah solved all her problems in one fell swoop: got out of the job she hated and garnered gobs of media attention as the patron saint of ethics and as a gutsy fighter against the “old boys’ club” when she dramatically quit, exposing this man’s ethics violations (for which he was fined).

As Mayor, she had her hand stuck out as far as anyone for pork from Senator Ted Stevens. Lately, she has castigated his pork-barrel politics and publicly humiliated him. She only opposed the “bridge to nowhere” after it became clear that it would be unwise not to.

As Governor, she gave the Legislature no direction and budget guidelines, then made a big grandstand display of line-item vetoing projects, calling them pork. Public outcry and further legislative action restored most of these projects–which had been vetoed simply because she was not aware of their importance–but with the unobservant she had gained a reputation as “anti-pork”.

She is solidly Republican: no political maverick. The State party leaders hate her because she has bit them in the back and humiliated them. Other members of the party object to her self-description as a fiscal conservative.

Around Wasilla there are people who went to high school with Sarah.

They call her “Sarah Barracuda” because of her unbridled ambition and predatory ruthlessness. Before she became so powerful, very ugly stories circulated around town about shenanigans she pulled to be made point guard on the high school basketball team. When Sarah’s mother-in-law, a highly respected member of the community and experienced manager, ran for Mayor, Sarah refused to endorse her.

As Governor, she stepped outside of the box and put together of package of legislation known as “AGIA” that forced the oil companies to march to the beat of her drum.

Like most Alaskans, she favors drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. She has questioned if the loss of sea ice is linked toglobal warming. She campaigned “as a private citizen” against a state initiaitive that would have either a) protected salmon streams from pollution from mines, or b) tied up in the courts all mining in the state (depending on who you listen to). She has pushed the State’s lawsuit against the Dept. of the Interior’s decision to list polar bears as threatened species.

McCain is the oldest person to ever run for President; Sarah will be a heartbeat away from being President. There has to be literally millions of Americans who are more knowledgeable and experienced than she. However, there’s a lot of people who have underestimated her and are regretting it.

CLAIM VS FACT

•“Hockey mom”: true for a few years
•“PTA mom”: true years ago when her first-born was in elementary school, not since
•“NRA supporter”: absolutely true
•social conservative: mixed. Opposes gay marriage, BUT vetoed a bill that would have denied benefits to employees in same-sex relationships (said she did this because it was unconsitutional).
•pro-creationism: mixed. Supports it, BUT did nothing as Governor to promote it.
•“Pro-life”: mixed. Knowingly gave birth to a Down’s syndrome baby BUT declined to call a special legislative session on some pro-life legislation
•“Experienced”: Some high schools have more students than Wasilla has residents. Many cities have more residents than the state of Alaska. No legislative experience other than City Council. Little hands-on supervisory or managerial experience; needed help of a city administrator to run town of about 5,000.
•political maverick: not at all
•gutsy: absolutely!
•open & transparent: ??? Good at keeping secrets. Not good at explaining actions.
•has a developed philosophy of public policy: no
•”a Greenie”: no. Turned Wasilla into a wasteland of big box stores and disconnected parking lots. Is pro-drilling off-shore and in ANWR.
•fiscal conservative: not by my definition!
•pro-infrastructure: No. Promoted a sports complex and park in a city without a sewage treatment plant or storm drainage system. Built streets to early 20th century standards.
•pro-tax relief: Lowered taxes for businesses, increased tax burden on residents
•pro-small government: No. Oversaw greatest expansion of city government in Wasilla’s history.
•pro-labor/pro-union. No. Just because her husband works union doesn’t make her pro-labor. I have seen nothing to support any claim that she is pro-labor/pro-union.

WHY AM I WRITING THIS?

First, I have long believed in the importance of being an informed voter. I am a voter registrar. For 10 years I put on student voting programs in the schools. If you google my name (Anne Kilkenny + Alaska), you will find references to my participation in local government, education, and PTA/parent organizations.

Secondly, I’ve always operated in the belief that “Bad things happen when good people stay silent”. Few people know as much as I do because few have gone to as many City Council meetings.

Third, I am just a housewife. I don’t have a job she can bump me out of. I don’t belong to any organization that she can hurt. But, I am no fool; she is immensely popular here, and it is likely that this will cost me somehow in the future: that’s life.

Fourth, she has hated me since back in 1996, when I was one of the 100 or so people who rallied to support the City Librarian against Sarah’s attempt at censorship.

Fifth, I looked around and realized that everybody else was afraid to say anything because they were somehow vulnerable.

CAVEATS

I am not a statistician. I developed the numbers for the increase in spending & taxation 2 years ago (when Palin was running for Governor) from information supplied to me by the Finance Director of the City of Wasilla, and I can’t recall exactly what I adjusted for: did I adjust for inflation? for population increases? Right now, it is impossible for a private person to get any info out of City Hall–they are swamped. So I can’t verify my numbers.

You may have noticed that there are various numbers circulating for the population of Wasilla, ranging from my “about 5,000″, up to 9,000. The day Palin’s selection was announced a city official told me that the current population is about 7,000. The official 2000 census count was 5,460. I have used about 5,000 because Palin was Mayor from 1996 to 2002, and the city was growing rapidly in the mid-90’s.

[Thanks, ThePresidentialCandidates.us]

I stumbled across this interesting dissertation on the Cult of $cientology, L. Ron Hubbard’s delusions and the current ‘leaders’.  It’s one of the first articles I’ve seen that spells out the enormity of the con that they are running.

What You Didn’t Know About Scientology

- by Mark Owen ©, Jan. 27th, 2006

All men shall be my slaves.
All women shall submit to my charms.
All mankind shall grovel at my feet.

- L. Ron Hubbard Affirmations

There has been a revival of interest in Scientology recently, largely driven by the ministrations of Hollywood jackanapes Tom Cruise.

An episode of South Park titled ‘Trapped in the Closet’ aired in late 2005. The cartoon featured Scientologists Nicole Kidman and John Travolta trying to coax Cruise out of a closet, a reference to rumors concerning his sexual preference. Also featured was an L. Ron Hubbard character denigrating Cruise’s acting ability. The extremely litigious Cruise immediately threatened Paramount with legal action, and it is unlikely that the episode will air again.

It is perhaps timely to revue some of the history of the ‘church,’ its membership and especially its mercurial founder Lafayette Ronald Hubbard.

Various Scientology hagiographies of Hubbard are widely divergent from known facts. This is mainly due to the phantasmagoric history that Hubbard fashioned for himself and repeated ad nauseum to his followers.

Hubbard would often boast of a distinguished pedigree, claiming descent from nobility going back to the Norman Invasion. He also claimed at various times to have been a barn-stormer in a circus, a great white hunter in Africa, an explorer of the upper Amazon and a heavily decorated naval officer, the recipient of more than 2 dozen medals and palms. He also claimed that his naval exploits were the inspiration for Henry Fonda’s character in the film Mister Roberts. On the day the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor he stated that he was the only person to survive the sinking of the destroyer he was on near the coast of Java and that he swam ashore and lived for weeks on the jungle flora. Later he would be wounded in the back and kidneys by machine-gun fire, making urination difficult.

The truth is somewhat more prosaic. In fact, Hubbard’s urinary difficulties stemmed from a bout of gonorrhea contracted after sex with a prostitute named Fern. Court documents in Hubbard’s own handwriting later confirmed this.

[Thanks, Mark Owen]

Continue reading ‘What you don’t know about $cientology’

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And to think this almost slipped through the cracks…..

Oh, if this were only to come to pass.  That the lying and thieving current administration get their just desserts.  What a day that will be.

We’ll be dancin’, dancin’ in the streets…….

Obama might pursue criminal charges against Bush

· Biden says criminal violations will be pursued
· Democrats have issued subpoenas to Bush aides
· 3 staffers have been held in contempt of Congress

Elana Schor in Washington
guardian.co.uk,
Wednesday September 03 2008 19:32 BST

Democratic vice-presidential nominee Joe Biden said yesterday that he and running mate Barack Obama could pursue criminal charges against the Bush administration if they are elected in November.

Biden’s comments, first reported by ABC news, attracted little notice on a day dominated by the drama surrounding his Republican counterpart, Alaska governor Sarah Palin.

But his statements represent the Democrats’ strongest vow so far this year to investigate alleged misdeeds committed during the Bush years.

"If there has been a basis upon which you can pursue someone for a criminal violation, they will be pursued," Biden said during a campaign event in Deerfield Beach, Florida, according to ABC.

"[N]ot out of vengeance, not out of retribution," he added, "out of the need to preserve the notion that no one, no attorney general, no president — no one is above the law."

Obama sounded a similar note in April, vowing that if elected, he would ask his attorney general to initiate a prompt review of Bush-era actions to distinguish between possible "genuine crimes" and "really bad policies".

"[I]f crimes have been committed, they should be investigated," Obama told the Philadelphia Daily News. "You’re also right that I would not want my first term consumed by what was perceived on the part of Republicans as a partisan witch hunt, because I think we’ve got too many problems we’ve got to solve."

Congressional Democrats have issued a flurry of subpoenas this year to senior Bush administration aides as part of a broad inquiry into the authorisation of torturous interrogation tactics used at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp.

Three veterans of the Bush White House have been held in criminal contempt of Congress for refusing to respond to subpoenas: former counsel Harriet Miers, former political adviser Karl Rove, and current chief of staff Josh Bolten. The contempt battle is currently before a federal court.

[Thanks, Guardian]

The National Organization for Women (NOW) doesn’t think too highly of Sarah Palin, John McCain’s Vice-Presidential running mate.  In fact, from the tone and the content of the following article, they think quite poorly of her.

I think that the majority of the voters that McCain & Co. thought they were targeting will see through this poorly disguised facade and either stay Democrat or swing Democrat.

Palin is bringing so little to the table that most commentary is worthless, but the following article is priceless.

Not Every Woman Supports Women’s Rights

August 29, 2008

Statement of NOW PAC Chair Kim Gandy on the Selection of Sarah Palin as John McCain’s Vice Presidential Pick

Sen. John McCain’s choice of Alaska governor Sarah Palin as his running mate is a cynical effort to appeal to disappointed Hillary Clinton voters and get them to vote, ultimately, against their own self-interest.

Gov. Palin may be the second woman vice-presidential candidate on a major party ticket, but she is not the right woman. Sadly, she is a woman who opposes women’s rights, just like John McCain.

The fact that Palin is a mother of five who has a 4-month-old baby, a woman who is juggling work and family responsibilities, will speak to many women. But will Palin speak FOR women? Based on her record and her stated positions, the answer is clearly No.

In a gubernatorial debate, Palin stated emphatically that her opposition to abortion was so great, so total, that even if her teenage daughter was impregnated by a rapist, she would "choose life" — meaning apparently that she would not permit her daughter to have an abortion.

Palin also had to withdraw her appointment of a top public safety commissioner who had been reprimanded for sexual harassment, although Palin had been warned about his background through letters by the sexual harassment complainant.

What McCain does not understand is that women supported Hillary Clinton not just because she was a woman, but because she was a champion on their issues. They will surely not find Sarah Palin to be an advocate for women.

Sen. Joe Biden is the VP candidate who appeals to women, with his authorship and championing of landmark domestic violence legislation, support for pay equity, and advocacy for women around the world.

Finally, as the chair of NOW’s Political Action Committee, I am frequently asked whether NOW supports women candidates just because they are women. This gives me an opportunity to once again answer that question with an emphatic ‘No.’ We recognize the importance of having women’s rights supporters at every level but, like Sarah Palin, not every woman supports women’s rights.

[Thanks, NOW]

As we wind down the worst presidency in the history of this once great country it behooves us to reflect upon the man and the myth that is George W. Bush.

And so, I present to you, a daily ‘Bushism’ or two…..

"Dick Cheney and I do not want this nation to be in a recession. We want anybody who can find work to be able to find work."
-G.W. Bush

"The legislature’s job is to write law. It’s the executive branch’s job to interpret law."
-G.W. Bush

"They misunderestimated me."
-G.W. Bush

I  live in Seattle.  In a relatively quiet neighborhood, although my particular street is a cut through from Highway 99 to Greenwood Avenue.  One of the things that makes my neighborhood quiet are the traffic circles on many of the intersections.

I tend to like traffic circles.  They are much more friendly than stop signs in controlling the flow of traffic through an intersection that gets sporadic traffic flow.  In my neighborhood in particular, the traffic can be heavy in the mornings and afternoons during rush hours, but be sparse during other times of the day.  Commuters tend to think that barreling down my street to get from the 99 to Greenwood is somehow going to save them time somewhere.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer had a post in their Police Blog that asked "Do you have to drive all the way around traffic circles?"  The reply would shock about 90 percent of the drivers in my neighborhood, unless they are just lazy bastards.  But that’s a different story, isn’t it?

Here is the verbatim text:

Q: When you approach a traffic circle and want to turn left, can you go around the left side of the circle or do you have to stay right and drive all the way around?

A: In most situations, you’ve got to drive all the way around the right side of the circle, Seattle Police spokesman Mark Jamieson said.

Drivers who don’t risk a $124 ticket.

According to Seattle Municipal Code 11.54.040, a code regarding illegal turns, "no person shall make a left turn or a semicircular or U turn except through an opening provided for that purpose in the physical barrier, median barrier, or no-passing zone line on any limited access facility."

Jamieson pointed to code 11.53.080, which states that when there is a physical barrier, planted area or median island "every vehicle shall be driven only upon the right-hand roadway unless directed or permitted to use another roadway by official traffic-control devices or peace officers."

Jamieson didn’t know how often people are ticketed for breaking the traffic circle law.

Here’s the complete text form 11.53.08011.53.080 about medians and barriers in divided streets:

Whenever any street has been divided into two (2) or more roadways by a physical barrier or by a planted area or by a median island not less than eighteen inches (18") wide formed either by solid yellow pavement markings or by a yellow cross-hatching between two (2) solid yellow lines so installed as to control vehicular traffic, every vehicle shall be driven only upon the right-hand roadway unless directed or permitted to use another roadway by official traffic-control devices or peace officers.

No vehicle shall be driven over, across or within any such physical barrier or planted area or median island, except through an opening in such physical barrier or planted area or median island, or at a crossover or intersection established by public authority. (RCW 46.61.150)

I asked this Jamieson question after a friend complained I was breaking the law by driving around the left side of traffic circles. I told her my driver’s ed teacher had no problem with it, and was sure I was fine.

We made a bet. Now I have to vacuum and wash her car.

[Thanks, Seattle PI]

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As we wind down the worst presidency in the history of this once great country it behooves us to reflect upon the man and the myth that is George W. Bush.

And so, I present to you, a daily ‘Bushism’ or two…..

"It’s your money. You paid for it."
-G.W. Bush

"Anyway, after we go out and work our hearts out, after you go out and help us turn out the vote, after we’ve convinced the good Americans to vote, and while they’re at it, pull that old George W. lever, if I’m the one, when I put my hand on the Bible, when I put my hand on the Bible, that day when they swear us in, when I put my hand on the Bible, I will swear to not—to uphold the laws of the land."
-G.W. Bush

"They want the federal government controlling Social Security like it’s some kind of federal program."
-G.W. Bush

In what could be the most interesting news of the Republican Presidential Campaign, Sarah Palin’s 17 year old daughter has been confirmed as being 5 months pregnant.  That’s gotta be a blow to the radical Christian Right, don’t you think?

Palin underwent a "full and complete" vetting examination before McCain chose her as his running mate, but somehow this little faux pas went unnoticed.  McCain’s campaign must be trying to play down questions about whether the 72 year old Arizona senator adequately researched his surprise vice presidential candidate or whether he chose the first-term governor without bothering to look into her background.

And to think this news broke on the opening day of the Republican National Convention.  Yikes!

Was the idea that grabbing a woman as a running mate to woo the dissatisfied Hillary supporters just too attractive to McCain?  Or is this just another example of McCain’s semi-senility?

The Radical Christian Republicans haven’t had too much luck with their Vice Presidential daughters recently.  How they must be gnashing their teeth.

Pregnancy of Sarah Palin’s daughter shakes up McCain campaign

Mary Altaffer / Associated Press

The Palin family announces that teenager Bristol will marry the father. The news raises questions about John McCain’s vetting of his running mate.

ST. PAUL, MINN. — Republicans swung into damage control Monday as their scaled-back convention was overtaken by news that the unmarried teenage daughter of vice presidential hopeful Sarah Palin was five months pregnant.

The revelation introduced a highly personal and unpredictable element into a presidential campaign already steeped in gender politics.

In a statement released hours before the convention opened, Palin and her husband, Todd, did not say when their daughter Bristol, 17, told them of her pregnancy. Bristol intends to marry the father, the statement said — a move that drew widespread praise from religious leaders and convention delegates.

John McCain, campaigning in Ohio and Pennsylvania, did not take questions from reporters. But aides said the Arizona senator was aware of the Palin family’s situation when he stunned observers Friday by choosing Alaska’s governor as his running mate. His aides also warned that the media would face a backlash if it pried too deeply into the Palins’ lives.

"It’s a private family matter. Life happens in families," said Steve Schmidt, chief strategist of the McCain campaign. "If people try to politicize this, the American people will be appalled by it."

The political effect of Palin’s announcement will depend on how voters process the news. Speaking to reporters in Michigan, Democratic nominee Barack Obama — whose mother was 18 when he was born — reiterated statements that candidates’ families should be kept off-limits.

But the gossip dominated the day’s talk after it flashed through this convention city, starting on BlackBerrys and then spreading rapidly on cable television and the Internet.

[Thanks, LA Times]

Continue reading ‘17 Year Old Daughter of Sarah Palin is Preggers’

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As we wind down the worst presidency in the history of this once great country it behooves us to reflect upon the man and the myth that is George W. Bush.

And so, I present to you, a daily ‘Bushism’ or two…..

"Families is where our nation finds hope, where wings take dream."
-G.W. Bush

"I don’t want nations feeling like that they can bully ourselves and our allies. I want to have a ballistic defense system so that we can make the world more peaceful, and at the same time I want to reduce our own nuclear capacities to the level commiserate with keeping the peace."
-G.W. Bush

"It’s important for us to explain to our nation that life is important. It’s not only life of babies, but it’s life of children living in, you know, the dark dungeons of the Internet."
-G.W. Bush

With increasing frequency, colleges and universities around the country are telling the RIAA to find other ways to identify file sharing students.  In the past the colleges have collaborated with the RIAA (much like the French collaborated with the Nazis) when the burden was light.

But as the RIAA has increased their demands for information regarding file sharing students and significantly augmented their number of ‘pre-litigation’ letters, colleges have found that their labor has been forced to increase in order to keep up.

Hiring more full time employees to deal with hundreds and sometime thousands of RIAA requests, added expenditures for software and hardware, it’s been hard trying to keep up with the unreasonable demands for victims.  And finally the schools are saying no.

The University of Wisconsin, the University of Kansas, and Oregon State university have all recently denied requests for information by the RIAA.  As Brian Rust, marketing manager of the University of Wisconsin at Madison’s Department of Information Technology, said "This is between the recording industry and the people who may be violating their copyrights."

If this trend by colleges continues, the RIAA will have to find yet another litigious way of making money rather than trying to adapt to a changing market.

Colleges push back against RIAA’s methods

Many universities say helping the recording industry track down students is taking too much time and too many resources
By Dennis Carter, Assistant Editor, eSchool News

Administrators and IT chiefs at public universities nationwide say the recording industry’s search for students accused of online piracy is cutting into their faculty’s work day. In recent months, some universities have refused to forward "pre-litigation" letters to students offering them a settlement to avoid further legal action from the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).

Forwarding these documents is not a legal responsibility of the college, administrators say, and tracking down students who might have downloaded music or movies illegally is time-consuming, forcing IT specialists to comb through an enormous university network, pinpoint specific illegal actions, and find students.

"This is between the recording industry and the people who may be violating their copyrights," said Brian Rust, marketing manager of the University of Wisconsin at Madison’s Department of Information Technology, which has seen a steady increase of subpoenas and "cease-and-desist" notices forwarded from RIAA officials in recent years. "But public institutions are an easy target. We’re very transparent about access to our network."

Higher education has been a primary ally in the recording industry’s fight against online piracy, but over the last year, university officials say tension has mounted.

Filtering or monitoring technologies designed to spot incidents of illegal downloads have forced many colleges to assign full-time employees the job of tracking down the IP addresses of network users who might have violated copyright laws, find out if those users are still enrolled in the university, and make sure the alleged violators receive notice that the RIAA is looking for them. The software has been installed at campuses across the country after the recording industry’s intensive lobbying effort for better network monitoring.

Denise Stephens, vice provost for information services and chief information officer at the University of Kansas, said the school decided to stop forwarding pre-litigation papers to students because the practice did not fit the mission of the college.

"We really had to make a decision philosophically about what our role was in this whole issue," said Stephens, who also has seen a rise in RIAA "cease-and-desist" notices. "We’d be acting as a go-between for an external party seeking to get information about our students. … We decided that was not our role."

Stephens insisted that Kansas’ new policy was not intended to pick a fight with the RIAA. She stressed that the university maintains "a zero-tolerance [file-sharing] policy," stripping students and faculty of their network access privileges in they are found guilty of internet piracy.

"This is not an effort to thumb our nose at anyone," she said.

The RIAA did not return messages left by eSchool News. In courtroom arguments and media reports over the last year, however, the group has argued that compliance with subpoenas has not been a burden to universities in the past, so it should not be considered a burden now. But higher-education officials insist compliance with the RIAA is requiring too much of their time as the organization’s anti-piracy campaign has become more rigorous.

[Thanks, eSchool News]

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The years of hard work have finally paid off for Barack Obama.  Following speeches by both Former President Bill Clinton and newly minted Vice Presidential candidate Joe Biden, both the Democrats and the Obama’s got what they came for.  And that was reconciliation between the Obama’s and the Clinton’s and the most historic presidential nomination to date.

Seemingly upstaging the opportunity for the individual delegates to have their moment in the limelight, Senator Clinton called an end to the roll call vote and declared "Let’s declare together with one voice right here, right now, that Barack Obama is our candidate and he will be our president."

It’s unanimous: Democrats nominate Obama by acclamation

SENATOR CAPS HISTORIC NIGHT WITH SURPRISE APPEARANCE

By Dan Balz and Anne E. Kornblut
Washington Post

Article Launched: 08/28/2008 01:30:13 AM PDT

DENVER - Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois completed an improbable and historic journey Wednesday when he was nominated by acclamation as the Democratic candidate for president, becoming the first African-American to lead a major political party into a general-election campaign.

Obama, who just eight years ago attended his first Democratic National Convention and who four years later shot to national prominence with an electrifying keynote address at the gathering in Boston, was given a final symbolic boost Wednesday by Sen. Hillary Clinton, who moved from the convention floor to suspend the roll call of the states and formalize her former rival’s nomination by acclamation.

The gesture of conciliation brought to a conclusion the closest and hardest-fought nomination battle Democrats have waged in the modern era of presidential politics, pitting two historic candidacies in a contest that divided the party and left bitter feelings lingering among Clinton loyalists.

But after days of nervous speculation about how the long and often contentious competition would end in Denver, the nomination-by-acclamation set off a joyous scene on the convention floor, as delegates danced to the strains of "Love Train" and then broke out in chants of "Yes, we can! Yes, we can!"

Hours later, the convention confirmed Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., as the party’s vice-presidential nominee, and as he finished his acceptance speech, Obama made a surprise visit to the stage to praise

his new partner; his wife, Michelle; his former rival, Clinton; and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, who had delivered a powerful speech on behalf of Obama earlier in the night.

"I think the convention’s gone pretty well so far, don’t you think?" Obama said. He cited his wife’s speech Monday, and then, referring to Hillary Clinton’s speech Tuesday, said, "If I’m not mistaken, Hillary Clinton rocked the house last night."

In his acceptance speech, Biden, the fiery chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, cast himself as a champion of working-class families - a key target group Obama has struggled to win over - and laid out a critique of Sen. John McCain of Arizona, the presumptive Republican nominee.

"I am here for everyone I grew up with in Scranton and Wilmington," he said. "I am here for the cops and firefighters, the teachers and assembly-line workers - the folks whose lives are the very measure of whether the American dream endures."

Bill Clinton’s speech

Biden was preceded on the podium by Bill Clinton, whose conduct during the nominating contest prompted considerable criticism from Democrats backing Obama and who has complained in private that he was unfairly attacked.

But the former president, like his wife Tuesday, delivered a rousing speech that made a strong argument that the election of Obama is critical to the country’s future.

"Everything I’ve learned in eight years as president and the work I’ve done since, in America and across the globe, has convinced me that Barack Obama is the man for this job," Clinton said.

Clinton drew a thunderous and sustained welcome from delegates, who cheered and waved American flags and chanted "Bill, Bill, Bill, Bill," as he sought to quiet them. "I am here first to support Barack Obama," he said, setting off another round of applause.

Clinton acknowledged that, "in the end, my candidate didn’t win" the nomination. But then, citing his wife’s speech Tuesday, he said: "Hillary told us in no uncertain terms that she’ll do everything she can to elect Barack Obama. That makes two of us." That set off a fresh round of applause that grew louder when he added: "Actually, that makes 18 million of us, because, like Hillary, I want all of you who supported her to vote for Barack Obama in November."

Obama touched down in Denver just as nominating speeches were getting under way and headed to his hotel to continue working on the acceptance speech he will deliver tonight.

Roll call of states

Wednesday, Clinton met with her delegates and, over shouts of "No, no," told them they were free to vote any way they wished. "I’m not telling you what to do," she said to some applause. But she added: "I signed my ballot this morning for Senator Obama."

The roll call of the states, which was the subject of lengthy negotiations between the Obama and Clinton campaigns, began shortly before 4 p.m. Clinton wanted her name put in nomination in recognition of her historic candidacy, and many of her delegates were demanding the opportunity to record their support for her.

But early in the roll call it became clear many of them already had shifted to Obama and the spectacle had been choreographed to produce a party united behind him.

The first example of the shift to Obama came when Arkansas, the home state of Bill Clinton and a state she carried overwhelmingly during the primaries, cast most of its 47 votes for him.

Other Clinton states followed suit.

Suddenly, the cameras zeroed in on Clinton within a throng of people on the convention floor moving toward the stanchion marking the New York delegation. A cheer went up as her image appeared on the big screens in the arena.

Then, Clinton did the honors for the man who had denied her dream of becoming the first woman ever nominated to lead a major party. "With the goal of unity," she said, "let’s declare together in one voice, right here, right now, that Barack Obama is our candidate and he will be our president."

Clinton then moved that the convention suspend the rules and the continuation of the roll call vote and asked that Obama be nominated by acclamation. Her motion triggered another thunderous round of applause and cheers from delegates.

[Thanks, Mercury News]

As we wind down the worst presidency in the history of this once great country it behooves us to reflect upon the man and the myth that is George W. Bush.

And so, I present to you, a daily ‘Bushism’ or two…..

"I think we ought to raise the age at which juveniles can have a gun."
-G.W. Bush

"It’s one thing about insurance, that’s a Washington term."
-G.W. Bush

"Drug therapies are replacing a lot of medicines as we used to know it."
-G.W. Bush

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Well, it looks like that old adulterer William Jefferson Clinton still doesn’t know when to keep his mouth shut.  Speaking in front of a group of former world leaders, Billy waxed on with some almost incomprehensible story about Candidate X versus Candidate Y.  I said almost incomprehensible because it’s obvious that the mysterious Mr. X is Barack and Mr. Y is McCain.  Although the gist of the story was a little vague….

Yes Bill, we know you’re bitter.  Yes Bill, we know that it’s probably too late for the two of you to start over.  But good grief man, why don’t you keep your bitterness and bile to yourself until we can get our official Candidate chosen? 

Or is this some ‘clever’ way of saying that you are going to vote for McCain because your bigoted self would rather see another four years of the Bush-like policies rather than voting along party lines?  Does your wife know about this?  Or is she too going to revert to her Republican roots?

Clinton’s ‘Candidate X’ Analogy Stirs Questions About His Obama Support

by Stephen Clark
Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Hours before former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton took center stage Tuesday night in Denver to offer words of healing for the Democratic Party, her husband was detonating what could be interpreted as another blast at presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.

Speaking at a forum of ex-world leaders less than a mile from the site of the Democratic National Convention, Bill Clinton drew an analogy that had many wondering whether the former president had made peace with the idea of an Obama candidacy.

“Suppose for example you’re a voter and you have candidate X and you have candidate Y,” Clinton said. “Candidate X agrees with you on everything but you don’t think that person can deliver on anything. Candidate Y disagrees with you on half the issues but you believe that on the other half, the candidate will be able to deliver.”

“This is the kind of question that I predict — and this heas nothing to do with what’s going on now — but I am just saying if you look at five, 10, 15 years from now, you may actually see this delivery issue become a serious issue in Democratic debates because it is so hard to figure out how to turn good intentions into real changes in the lives of the people we represent.”

Whether Clinton, who for 20 years has been the star of the Democratic Party, intended the analogy to represent a futuristic look at presidential politics, its relevance to the current candidacies of Republican John McCain and Obama were unmistakable.

The former president is scheduled to put the capstone on the Hillary-Bill public endorsement of Obama during a convention speech Wednesday night.

Tensions were simmering on Sunday about the speech, in which the former president was said to have preferred to address domestic issues, but the theme of Wednesday night’s proceedings is foreign policy.

Obama said Monday he’d spoken to Clinton about the speech, saying he told Clinton he could talk about anything he likes.

“Bill Clinton knows a little bit about trying to yank the economy out of the doldrums,” Obama said. “It wouldn’t make sense for me to want to edit his remarks.”

Obama said Monday that the Clintons “couldn’t have been more clear” in their support for his candidacy.

Playing second fiddle to the new Democratic order doesn’t mean the former president can’t influence an Obama administration.

“Bill Clinton’s place in the hearts of Democrats is very secure. He rescued us from the wilderness” said former California Gov. Gray Davis, a Democrat. “We had been wandering there for 40 years, having lost three presidential elections.

“Now we’re turning a page. Barack Obama is going to be our next president and I expect Bill Clinton to be campaigning for him.”

Davis added that Clinton could serve as an ambassador or envoy for an Obama administration the way he has for President Bush.

FOX News political analyst Michael Steele said he believes Clinton will use his Wednesday night speech to try and restore his image, especially with black voters, who were part of his base of support.

“I think this is about Bill, not Barack,” Steele said, adding that Clinton can and will restore his image.

“He still has a role to play,” he added. “He will assert that role in any number of ways. We’ll see one of those ways when he gives a speech at the convention.”

Devine said he expects Bill Clinton to be supportive, adding that one role Clinton could perform is that of attack dog on the Republicans.

“If anything I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see Clinton give a very strong speech in support of Obama,” he said.

[Thanks, Faux Fox News]