Democrats Seek Election Inquiry

According to Wired News several groups are investigating how electronic voting machines performed during the U.S. elections. Three Democratic Representatives asked the General Accountability Office for "an investigation into irregularities with voting machines," including a memory card reader in Ohio that gave Bush "3,893 more votes than he should have received"; North Carolina e-voting machines that lost 4,500 votes; and Florida machines from ES&S that counted absentee ballots improperly. Although the Information Technology Association of America's president said, "The machines performed beautifully," computer scientist Avi Rubin commented, "We'll never really know if this election was actually successful." Plus: More news about voting irregularities. Plus: The petition "Investigate The Vote".

Sequel for 'Fahrenheit 9/11

Michael Moore tells Variety he met with movie producer Harvey Weinstein and they plan to start working now on "Fahrenheit 9/11½". "Fifty-one percent of the American people lacked information in this election and we want to educate and enlighten them. They weren't told the truth. We're communicators and it's up to us to start doing it now", Moore said. The issues (for the next film) have not changed because of the election. "They are Iraq and terrorism." The Oscar winner will also continue preparing his other film, "Sicko", on the national health care industry.

Monument for the Beach Boys

Legends never die.

Finally. The legendary Beach Boys will get their monument and will be declared as an official historical landmark. It will be located at 3701 W. 119th Street in Hawthorne, California. According to the website Beach Boys landmark, "it was in this middle class American home, purchased by Murry and Audree Wilson in 1944, where Brian, Carl, and Dennis Wilson (three of the original five Beach Boys) spent their formative years, honing what would later become recognized and celebrated worldwide as unique musical talents. It was also at that Hawthorne home during Labor Day Weekend, 1961 where the Wilson brothers plus their cousin Mike Love and their friend Al Jardine cut the demonstration tape of their breakthrough song "Surfin'", playing musical instruments rented with money left with Brian by their father for the purchase of groceries. This, plus the writing of other memorable hit songs by Brian at this family home, such as "Surfer Girl" and "In My Room", marked the beginning of a musical legacy, which had far reaching impact not only on the State of California, but on modern music itself. The music of The Beach Boys broadcast to the world an image of California as a dream-like place of sun, sand, surfing, hot rods, and romance, transforming California from a place on the map to a state of mind. This contributed to a significant migration to this state during the 1960's; no one will ever be able to tell how many young people--perhaps measured in the hundreds of thousands--came to California to make it a permanent home due to the music of The Beach Boys, in search of what has been often called the 'California Myth'."

Americans say 'sorry everybody'

Hundreds of Americans apologized to the world for the outcome of the presidential election. This website documented it - with great pictures.

Tom Wolfe lives up to his reputation

Watch out! Legendary author and journalist Tom Wolfe is in town promoting his latest novel "I Am Charlotte Simmons" (review). The father of "Bonfire of Vanity" will show up at the Dutton's bookstore on November 15th and at the Los Angeles Central Library on December 4th. In their notice for the upcoming Tom Wolfe appearance, the fine folks at Dutton's inform us that "Mr. Wolfe has indicated that, because of time constraints, he will only be able to sign copies of his newest book. Additionally, he will be unable to personalize copies." Once a snob, always a snob. He probably hates to mingle with his readers.

One of the best movies of 2004: "Garden State"

There are some good moments in life. When you watch a great movie, for exemple. "Garden State", the directorial debut of Zach Braff (known from the TV serie "Scrubs"), is a outstanding movie. One of the best flix of this year, I would say. The critics agree, I only read good reviews). For those who missed it on the big screen, the DVD can be pre-ordered now on Amazon, but it will officially go on sale on December 28th. The film soundtrack is also AMAZING - it was certified gold for sales exceeding 500,000 albums! Plus: Director Zach Braff offers more movie insights on his blog.

Small refunds for California

As Blogger AngryBear points out,

California, the world's fifth largest economy, ... gets only $.78 back on every $1.00 it pays to the Treasury." Just how much money is California donating to the poorer states? The State's Gross State Product is about $1.4 Trillion, and in 2003 California residents and corporations paid $227 billion in gross taxes (Excel file) and recieved $36.2 billion in refunds (Excel file), for a net tax bill of about $191 billion. About 22% of that, or $42 billion dollars, went to the states on the winning side of the federal transfer game.(*) And the states that benefit the most from federal transfers are Red by nearly a 3:1 margin (based on slightly dated numbers here and here).

Mmmmmh?!

Bush Country

Somewhere in America...

Mmmmh! A real redneck hangout. How do they serve Dubya? As a French toast? With mashed potatoes? Or in a extra-greasy sausage?

Armored tanks in Los Angeles

Just a normal day in L.A.: Robocops vs. protesters.

What the heck happened here on Tuesday night? At 7:50 PM two armored tanks showed up at an anti-war protest in front of the federal building in Westwood. The tanks circled the block twice, the second time parking themselves in the street and directly in front of the area where most of the protesters were gathered. Enraged, some of the people attempted to block the tanks, but police quickly cleared the street. The people continued to protest the presence of the tanks, but about ten minutes the tanks drove off. It is unclear as to why the tanks were deployed to this location.
According to the AmericaBlog the military folks claim the tanks were "lost" and simply stopping in front of the anti-war protesters to "ask directions." Yeah, right. They were intentionally using deadly force to intimidate peaceful protesters in violation of their First Amendment rights. Plus: The video of the "incident".

Kerry Blues

The New Yorker explains in a great article why it has the post-election blues:

The grief that so many felt at Senator Kerry’s defeat was quite unexpected, and profound enough that, for the moment at least, it held off bitterness and recrimination. On both sides, this was a campaign that vast numbers of people threw their hearts into. (...)
Along with the sadness, there is puzzlement. Incumbents, especially in time of war, have a built-in advantage. But this incumbent had led the country into a war, the war in Iraq, that half the public had come to see as a mistake, and had led the country down what more than half the public saw, in pollster’s shorthand, as “the wrong track.” The election’s outcome defies logic, and perhaps that is the point.(...)
The moral values that stirred them seem not to encompass botched wars or economic injustices or environmental depredations; rather, moral values are about sexual behavior and its various manifestations and outcomes, about family structures, and about a particularly demonstrative brand of religious piety. What was important to these voters, it appears, was not Bush’s public record but what they conceived to be his private soul. He is a good Christian, so his policy failures are forgivable. He is a saved sinner, so the dissipations of his early and middle years are not tokens of a weak character but testaments to the transformative power of his faith. He relies on God for guidance, so his intellectual laziness is not a danger.

Tomorrow is a long time

Another great piece from Outlook India about the future of the Democrats after Kerry' defeat:

Religion, homophobia, machismo, family values, and fear that floated nationalism above reason and that elevated paranoia above empathy buoyed Bush above sidebar concerns like the demise of civilization, climate, economy, solidarity, and even security.

Robert Frank exhibition

Parade, Hoboken, New Jersey. 1955. Gelatin silver print.

Wish I could go to London. The Tate Modern Museum has a great exhibition about one of the world's most influential photographer, the Swiss native Robert Frank. It includes also images of his famous book "The Americans".

Europe urges U.S. to slash its deficit

Globe and Mail reports that the dollar's most recent slide, which began after U.S. President George W. Bush's re-election last week, has sent economic shock waves from Europe to Asia as investors fret about the global fallout from record U.S. trade and budget deficits:

The euro briefly flirted with the psychological threshold of $1.30 (U.S.) Monday, before European officials began talking down the dollar. The Canadian dollar, in turn, briefly topped 84 cents, before ending the day at 83.75 cents.
The major worry in Europe is that a weaker dollar — and conversely, a stronger euro — will make the region's exports more expensive and undermine an already shaky economic recovery.
Breaking weeks of silence, European Central Bank president Jean-Claude Trichet said Monday that his patience is wearing thin. “The recent moves, which tend to be brutal on the exchange markets between the euro and the U.S dollar, are not welcome from the standpoint of the ECB,” Mr. Trichet said after a meeting of central bankers in Basel, Switzerland. He urged the United States to take steps to reduce its massive current account deficit as a way of relieving the downward pressure on the dollar. The swelling current account deficit, which includes both trade and capital flows, is the largest in U.S. history — $650-billion a year, or a hefty 5.7 per cent of gross domestic product.
A weaker dollar harms European companies — including drug makers, car makers financial institutions — by making their products less competitive in the United States and depressing profits from their U.S. operations. The impact isn't all negative. The higher euro keeps inflation at bay by tempering the high cost of oil and other critical imports.
In the United States, the lower dollar has the opposite effect. It raises the cost of many imports, while making its manufactured goods more competitive.

Purple America

The government thinks in black and white - the nation is purple.

Using county-by-county election return data from USA Today together with county boundary data from the US Census' database the smart people from Princeton University produced this graphic depicting the results. Of course, blue is for the democrats, red is for the republicans, and green is for all other. Each county's color is a mix of these three color components in proportion to the results for that county.