I rarely post about politics, but this Governor race here in Washington State has been mindbending and has made this a national story. First Dino Rossi (Republican) wins by 261 votes and then a machine recount is demanded because it’s so close and he wins that by 42 votes out of 2.9 million ballots cast and then another hand recount was demanded by Christine Greoire. Now, KOMO4 reports:

The head of the state Democratic Party said late Tuesday that recount results from King County give Democrat Christine Gregoire an eight-vote victory in the closest governor’s race in state history. Neither King County nor the Republican party could confirm the hand recount results on Tuesday night.

Will Washington state residents find out today who the Governor of Washington is actually going to be? Somehow, even though the election was nearly two months ago, I’m doubting it. Hope I’m wrong.

When it comes to policies and procedures, there’s wrong, right and just plain common sense. The latter needs to be exercised here, IMO, but Yahoo has a history of stupid policies and procedures (the infamous $600 “maybe we’ll list you” listing fee comes to mind).

The Marine, Justin Ellsworth, 20, was killed in November by a roadside bomb in Falluja while assisting civilian evacuations before the large-scale military offensive against insurgents in the city, according to a report in the Detroit Free Press. But when Ellsworth’s father John tried to recover his e-mail account, he was barred due to Yahoo’s policy of not giving e-mail passwords to anyone besides the account holder.

It’s Christmas time for pete’s sake, Yahoo should just give Justin’s father access to thier KIA son’s email. Who are they protecting by not giving his father access? Or am I just all wrong on this and Yahoo should stick by their policy?

While working, I am listening to CNN via WinTV and they just ran a story on: could election 2004 end in a tie – again? It is possible in a couple different computer ways. Put me in the group that hopes no matter who wins that somebody wins tonight. CNN is already reporting that Florida is not going to count their 65,000+ absentee votes until as late as Thursday. Somebody needs to get a handle on the whole Florida voting backend because they seem to be terribly prepared, despite four years to get things right. Four years ago sucked because all we seemed to hear about is Florida hanging chad and who stole the election and I sure hope that there is closure tonight. Check out electoral-votes.com prediction:



As of this writing, there haven’t been any surprises compared to this projection. Kerry has Vermont (13), Illinois (15), Maine (4) and Bush is being predicted to take Alabama (9), Georgia (15), Kentucky (9), Oklahoma (7), Tennessee (11). BTW, I didn’t link to the electoral-votes site because it’s loading very, very slow. The site must be getting totally pounded at the moment.

For those who aren’t interested in politics, I’m going to be adding a new column along the right with recommended downloads that I’ve been writing about lately. Every Tuesday I pick out two new downloads to feature in my tech column at Kblogger.com.

If you are an American citizen and are allowed the right to vote, then today is the day to get out and do so. I’ve already been to the polls and cast my vote among a large turn-out. It was nice to see the polls teeming with people. Here’s a couple election-related links:

- Hour by hour guide to watching the poll results today to watching the returns.
- USA Today battleground states tracker
- MSNBC has a list of poll closing times around the country (see below).
-Races to watch from the NY Times.
- a closer look at swing states: Florida, Missouri, Ne Hampshire, New Mexico, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Wisconsin
- ABC News: Create your own customized election results page with up to 12 races or issues that you care about.

I wonder what this means: “illegally admitted juveniles” into a cybercafe in China? Are juveniles not allowed internet access in China or what? thestandard.com:

A high-profile government crackdown on Internet cafes in China resulted in the temporary closure of 18,000 Internet cafes between February and August, but few cafes were closed permanently, according to the official Xinhua news agency. The crackdown on Internet cafes that took place earlier this year was led by China’s Ministry of Culture and was principally targeted at those cafes that illegally admitted juveniles, operated without a license, or allowed users to access or spread information deemed undesirable by authorities.

The part about “spread information deemed undesirable by authorities” just has a creepy, Orwellian feel to it, doesn’t it?

Pakistan Information Minister Sheikh Rashid believes Al-Qaeda terror network kingpin Osama bin Laden may be dead and conversely Secretary of State Colin Powell thinks Bin Laden is still alive:

“I don’t know where he is,” Powell said. “I don’t know his state of health. I believe he is still alive, but I can’t prove that. He clearly is in hiding and he is on the run.”Powell went on: “He is not popping up on television and he is not showing himself in a way that he can be captured.”

Will capturing and bringing to justice Bin Laden ever bring closure to the families of the 9/11 tragedy? I still remember that day, 9/11/01 as we were on vacation, of all ironic places to be, in Vegas at the time. Vegas was not the Vegas you’d expect, but then no place in America was normal on that fateful day. I distinctly remember waking up and seeing those horrible images of the planes hitting the building on the news and thinking I must have been watching a movie and not real news. As I turned channels and saw the coverage on every channel, the horror swept over me.

I do think Bin Laden will be found by next year’s anniversary of 9/11 but whether he will be dead or alive, I don’t know. I think it would impact the terrorists more if Bin Laden was captured alive, as Saddam Hussein was, probably in some dirty hole in the earth. There are some wild conspiracy theorists who believe Bin Laden has already been captured and the Bush administration is going to wheel him out like some puppet just before the election. I don’t think so.

Please put the families of 9/11 victims in your thoughts today.

Those hot or not guys, Jim and James are putting money where their passion is when it comes to voting. http://voteornot.org/

Get $100,000 for telling friends If someone you refer wins the sweepstakes, YOU will also get $100,000, so you both win. The more people you refer, the more chances you have to win!

Go ahead and sign up and then start referring your friends (they promise not to spam them).

Elligibility: The sweepstakes is open to U.S. residents who have legally registered to vote in time to vote in the November 2004 General Election. Employees of Eight Days, Inc. and members of their immediate families are not eligible to enter. Void where prohibited. Game begins September 3, 2004 and ends November 2, 2004.

In what is probably the most unsurprising revelation, former President Bill Clinton reveals some of the personal insight in his memoir about how the Lewinsky scandal affected his marriage. Bloomberg:

Following a year of marital counseling and months spent sleeping on a White House couch, Clinton says he felt better and the marriage emerged strengthened by the scandal, according to the Times. Clinton said “old demons” that have plagued him all his life led to the affair, which also came close to costing him the presidency, the Times said.

Blah, blah, blah, what inquiring minds really want to know what’s his cigar collection like these days?

Recently I was having a conversation online with someone who characterized the act of paying taxes as a contractor as ”being screwed“ and I take exception to this position. Specifically I mentioned the case of Willy Nelson and the back royalties that he suddenly was coming into. I wondered how if he was in tax trouble and had outstanding royalties due him that it was interesting that the IRS hadn’t found and attached / encumbered those assets:

What I meant was if Willy Nelson had been in tax trouble they can put liens on assets and unclaimed royalties are indeed assets, not liabilities to the artists

If Willy had been audited when he was having tax trouble (and I’m sure he was audited if he was in trouble) then I’m surprised that this wasn’t one of the areas he was audited in when the IRS looked for money to attach / encumber. At that time this should have come out that he had money due him. Accountants and auditors are odd that way.

Being an independent contractor for the last 10+ years and receiving money this way myself, I would not characterize the responsibility of paying taxes as “being screwed.”

Do I enjoy paying taxes? No! But I don’t think the fact that I have to pay them — pay something – necessarily means I’m “being screwed?” No.

Now, as for the amount of tax dollars having to be paid, and as for it being equitable for small business owners and those working in the middle class? Well, don’t get me started on that one! The amount of taxes due is an entirely different bag of worms and depending on an individual or business position I might characterize that as “being screwed.”

It is my opinion that from purely a tax perspective being really poor or really rich is the best place to be. The really poor don’t have to pay and the really rich can shelter themselves in so many different ways that they can maximize reduction of their overall personal tax burden and at the end of the day they have the means to pay their tax bills, whatever they are (assuming they aren’t totally foolish with their spending like Mike Tyson reportedly has been).

The bottom line is if one earns money the he/she has an obligation to pay taxes out of that and this should be obvious to anybody in the workforce with an IQ above their shoe size.

Record companies (much as we might not care for their ethics and tactics; see: $50 million in royalties due to thousands of artists the labels have “lost track of”) and the artists are not maintaining an employer/employee relationship, they are clearly striking up business deals and contracts for intellectual property.

Ignorance of the laws is no excuse for Willy Nelson or any other independent contractor. At one time, anyway, Willy did have the $$ to pay for professional advice and counsel for his situation. The only person he can blame for not getting and taking that advice is himself, assuming of course this is what happened.

I shed zero tears for those who have the means to pay their taxes and choose not to do so.

However, those who are unable to pay their taxes because of true financial burden — it’s out there — my heart goes out to them. Most of us have been there at one time or another and that sucks.

This is an attractive political proposal, if it is fact and not fiction.

In a speech in Minneapolis on Monday, Bush said “every corner” of the United States should be in reach of high-speed Internet links by 2007. Broadband connectivity guarantees “that we have access to the information that is transforming our economy,” he told the annual gathering of the American Association of Community Colleges.

When is John Kerry going to start making some attractive promises on his campaign? Perhaps he has and I’ve just missed it, but I’m all ears and eyes for what his platform is going to be (this of course assumes he actually gets the Democratic nomination, but I think that’s pretty much a lock at this point).

Also of interest is that Bush is specifically addressing broadband internet via powerlines, which is a newer and emerging technology. He isn’t looking at the existing broadband technology (cable, DSL, satellite):

… it was noteworthy that Bush singled out powerline broadband, details about what to do with the regulation of DSL (digital subscriber line), cable and satellite Internet access were absent. “Why not say anything about the current broadband providers and the regulatory burdens they already face? He’s getting specific about an emerging broadband technology, but not (about) current ones.”