TheTwitters for Today (2008-10-21)

• @hikikomori Qik is already on jailbroken iPhones. That's how/why it'll probably never be in the app store. I use it, it's not perfect, tho. #


• @splitdocDOTcom I wish I had known, I'd have told friends to watch. I think I'm following too many people now--keep missing important stuff! #


• It's begun: http://wvgazette.com/News/200810180251 Democrat votes switch to Republican votes in TWO counties in West VA Please pass on! #


• @beach I can't believe California is having that discussion. I'm crazy--I believe *no* marriages should be recognized by the gov. So THERE. #


• @lisarein Todd Palin is an employee of BP? As in, British Petroleum? HA! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Todd_Palin #


• @shindotv Yeah, I was reeeeally hoping things would go smoothly this time 'round but it looks like we still can't hold an accurate election. #


• In case you missed it: http://tinyurl.com/6amhjb folks in W VA watched their votes switch candidates. #


• @jwlehman Haha, I think the "Beyond Petroleum" is just a slogan. I think their company is still called "British Petroleum". :) #


• @shindotv Yes, but Shindo, our country is a Christian one, remember? :P Like I said-shocking that this stuff is even being discussed in 2008 #


• @Seiden thanks you for being concerned. Too many people assume their votes are safe, but in many cases/states they aren't. Scary stuff 4sure #


• ThePete.Com: @Seiden thanks you for being c... http://s3nt.com/y9b #


• ThePete.Com: @shindotv Yes, but Shindo, our... http://s3nt.com/y9c #


• ThePete.Com: @jwlehman Haha, I think the "B... http://s3nt.com/y9d #


• ThePete.Com: ThePete.Com: @jwlehman Haha, I... http://s3nt.com/y9s #


• ThePete.Com: ThePete.Com: @shindotv Yes, bu... http://s3nt.com/y9t #


• ThePete.Com: ThePete.Com: @Seiden thanks yo... http://s3nt.com/y9u #


• YAY! Ping.FM is back!! Wow, you never know how much you rely on something until it gets violently torn away from your bosom! #


• @shindotv You know, for people who want small government, the Republicans sure like sticking their nose in our personal lives, don't they? #


• ThePete.Com: More on Voting Irregularities http://s3nt.com/zab #


• @HumanFolly That makes perfect sense since McCain is definitely the way backward for women. Health of the mother=excuse to Senator John #


• STEALING AMERICA clip: Vote Switching (like what just happened in W VA) (http://ping.fm/Nad6Z) #


• ThePete.Com: "Stealing America" Voting Documentary: Watch It Now http://s3nt.com/zyi #


• Heading down to Trader Joe's. Supposed to be in the high 50s out--why does it look so much colder?? :( #


• Well, it sure *feels* like it's at least in the low 50s, if not a
  little colder. Then again I spent 14 years in LA what do I know abo ... #


• $1.99 Orange Juice available now a Trader Joe's for just $1.99. #

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Orignal From: TheTwitters for Today (2008-10-21)

"Stealing America" Voting Documentary: Watch It Now

Concerned about your vote counting? You should be. Check out this documentary I helped with. It talks about how a growing pile of evidence suggests that (at the very least) our election system is deeply flawed. Here it is in its entirety compliments of the filmmakers and Vimeo.com:


STEALING AMERICA: Vote by Vote from Concentric Media on Vimeo.

Head over to StealingAmericaTheMovie.Org to buy this movie on DVD.

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Orignal From: "Stealing America" Voting Documentary: Watch It Now

More on Voting Irregularities

Yesterday, I posted on some problems people were having in West Virginia when they tried to vote Obama only to watch their votes switch to McCain (read my post here: http://thepete.com/…es-in-w-va ) but who else is talking about voting problems today?



CNN.com may be covering Florida's attempts to get things right this time around (here: http://www.cnn.com/…index.html ) but generally, the mainstream media seems to be ignoring the issue of voting problems. Even CNN.com looked like it had a video about the story up, but after looking at their Florida story, I went back to watch the video but it was gone. I even went to their video page and couldn't find it. Meanwhile, here are some other sites that are posting about voting problems:



"Voters in W.Va. Say Electronic Voting Machines Switched their Obama Votes to McCain"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…36332.html



WV Voting Machines Switch Votes from Obama to McCain

http://www.democracynow.org/…/headlines



Attention Voters: Here's What You Have to Do to Make Sure You Get to Vote

http://www.alternet.org/…t_to_vote/



This next headline is my favorite:



Voting Machines Switch Votes; Officials Blame Voters

http://blog.wired.com/…chine.html



Yeah, because touchscreen voting machines ARE SO TRICKY. Don't insult our intelligence and suggest that people are rock-stupid enough to not be able to touch a box on a screen.



Here's a cool, interactive map that shows you just how hackable each state's vote is:

http://dvice.com/…/index.php



Hear of any voting irregularities? Post about them! Blog 'em, Tweet 'em, Utter 'em, comment here about 'em--just make sure you bring them up!

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Orignal From: More on Voting Irregularities

Dem Votes Switch to Repub Candidates in W. VA

Yep, it's already happening. Thanks to the honestly brilliant idea of early voting, a handful of West Virginian voters have reported seeing their votes switch from Obama to McCain. It's happened in two different West VA counties and the elections in that state are run by Republicans.



In the last two presidential elections there have been numerous reports and abundant evidence of election irregularities and even downright fraud. Now, an October 18, 2008 article at WVGazette.com (here: http://wvgazette.com/…0810180251 ), reports that it's happening again.



PLEASE:



When you go to vote, whether it's early or not, please look very carefully at your vote. Whether you've got punchcards, ink-a-vote, computers or the old lever-machines, things can go wrong! (I found out the hard way back during the primaries: http://tv.thepete.com/…feels-like )



I know it sounds stupid, but you must make sure you vote for whom you mean to vote for and if you see something go wrong, DO NOT HESITATE. Please let a balloting place volunteer know ASAP what happened.



DON'T stop there! Report it to your friends, family and post it on the 'net. Let me know or go to BradBlog.com and comment there. Or blog about it yourself! Open a Twitter account or an Utterli.com account or a Kwippy.com account and TALK ABOUT IT!



THIS ISN'T ABOUT DEMOCRAT VS. REPUBLICAN!



This is about YOUR VOTE COUNTING--REGARDLESS OF WHO YOU VOTE FOR.



Please don't give into the BS rhetoric. Yes, these are Dem votes in West Virginia, but as real Patriotic Americans, we should want EVERY American vote counted accurately.



Election Resources Online:



http://BradBlog.com/

http://GregPalast.com/

http://bbvforums.org/



WHEN POSTING ON TWITTER PLEASE USE HASHTAGS. Hashtags are bits of text preceded by "#" that will identify your posts to search engines that are looking for election irregularity posts on Twitter and other microblogging sites. NotMyGal.com has posted the best hashtags to use when reporting voting problems:



* #votereport

* #EP{two-letter state code} - e.g. EPNY for New York, EPOH for Ohio (for serious legal issues only)

* #machine - use this tag to signal a problem with a voting machine

* #registration - use this tag to signal problems with the registration process, people being turned away for paperwok reasons

* #wait:time - use this tag to signal a long wait. Add a colon and the wait time in minutes - e.g. #wait:30 for half an hour, #wait:120 for two hours



Check out more on these hashtags and more about fighting this very serious issue in the "Saving Democracy with Twitter" post at NotMyGal.com here: http://is.gd/4oiS



Please pass this information on to every American you know. Some states have already started voting and it's important that we all know to be aware that this is possible and has happened.



Also, it's my understanding that "Stealing America", a documentary about election irregularities will be available in it's entirety for free starting tomorrow at StealingAmericaTheMovie.Org. Don't quote me on that--I'm waiting to hear back from the director. Please watch and learn how these irregularities have happened before. Thank you!

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Orignal From: Dem Votes Switch to Repub Candidates in W. VA

@kariedwards I agree. Supporti...

@kariedwards I agree. Supporting Obama is like saying you hate America and that you love socialism! Send the commies back to Russia! :P

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Orignal From: @kariedwards I agree. Supporti...

"Why We Fight" Docu-Maker: Voting Is Not Enough

A couple years back Eugene Jarecki made a well-received documentary about why America fights its wars today (which happened to feature a clip of John McCain saying bad things about the military industrial complex). Jarecki was on Democracy Now this morning and he wrote a piece at HuffPo, as well, both hyping his new book "The American Way of War" and hyping what he thinks every American should do about our government.



Seems he thinks voting is great, but it's not enough.



Tell me about it! :P



I'm not very trusting of our election system or our balloting system to expect voting to be enough--but even if the way we elect our leaders was flawless, it still wouldn't be enough. In his interview with Democracy Now's Amy Goodman this morning (transcript here: http://www.democracynow.org/…erican_way ), goes into more detail: "But I dare say, no matter how busy people are, we all have two things that we can do that are very crucial. One is to figure out, honestly, candidly, that we all have a bunch of time we waste in life watching American Idol, surfing the internet, whatever we do that's our version of wasting time. And we all have something, no matter how busy we are. It's sort of human nature. You've got to take some of that time and figure out how to direct it toward social change, because if all you do is vote at election time and sort of wake up and go, "Oh, my god, something's happening; I'll throw my vote in," it services your conscience, it services your feel—your desire to feel like you're doing something, but the actual practical implications of that are that a single candidate, up against the incredibly tangled corruption of this system, is hopeless. And they're made more hopeless by the fact that we are disengaged, because without a public mandate, somebody like Barack Obama will enter the White House, and, as you see, it's already happened in the evolution of his policy paradigms, he'll enter the White House without a mandate. And if he doesn't have a mandate, those enormous forces of power will give him a mandate. They'll give him a very clear mandate."



And which source of support will he support then?



What Jarecki is ultimately saying is that we've all got to do more than just "pay the minimum." You know how you've got that credit card bill and you just pay the minimum due every month yet the amount you owe never goes down? It's like that. You can't vote and expect change.



Voting, alone, pretty much guarantees that the system will NEVER change--it, in fact, promises that the system will stay exactly the same, it'll just be run by your guy. So, if you think there's something wrong with the way things are run, you have to do more than just vote.



I do more every day--I blog. I'm broke because I don't make any real amount of money off of this stuff. I do it because I am trying to change things. Part self-expression/part-picking up the mainstream media's slack, I'm trying to help make the world a better place by pointing out things you might have missed.



It's not leading a revolution or championing a law, but it's SOMEthing to help.



So, on November 4, 2008, when you go to vote, don't just pay the minimum. Take it further--start a blog, join a cause, do something to help the world be a better place.

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Orignal From: "Why We Fight" Docu-Maker: Voting Is Not Enough

In NYC on 10/22? See TheWife Sing!

Tudor10.22.08, originally uploaded by Siskita.

At noon on Wednesday, 10/22/08, TheWife will be singing at the Tudor City Greens show along with a bunch of other talented folks, too. If you're in the city and feel like checking out some great singers this Wednesday at lunch time, hit the above image for all the deets!



Hell, it's free and I'll be there!



For more info:



http://sierrainnewyork.blogspot.com/2008/10/i-sing-live-at-tudor-city-greens.html

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Orignal From: In NYC on 10/22? See TheWife Sing!

Bush to Host World Economic Summit

Oh yeah. That's a GREAT idea.



Has anyone else noticed that Bush tends to turn anything he touches to shit?



Why do people keep letting him touch things?

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Orignal From: Bush to Host World Economic Summit

W. (2008)

Positive Experience/Entertaining? Definitely--Oliver Stone is a good filmmaker. I don't always agree with the message he puts out through his movies, but his films are always entertaining and well made (in my opinion, anyway).


Technically any good? It seems like the film's script was based solely on the coverage of these events in the press. As a result, the film feels a little shallow. We did get to see humanity behind most of the characters, but not much humanity. The acting was spot-on. Brolin should get an Oscar. Thandie Newton should not. She was the only actor who seemed to be there for (unintentional) comic relief (to be fair, her Condi Rice impression was hilarious, however). Over all, the movie was surprisingly subtle (though, somehow it still felt a little ham-fisted in spots). The music was minimal (which was nice) but still managed to be overused (in only one spot, though). The casting was great and, of course, the directing was invisible. Only a few times did I see the Hand of Oliver (or the HOO) in the film.


How did it leave me feeling? Satisfied, but I can't help but think Stone should have waited until W. had left office to make this movie. For now it seems like a movie that could have been written by anyone--it's a reflection of what we all know of George W. Bush. Usually, to be really useful a film needs to be made with more of a perspective, with more distance from the events it portrays. I'm not sure what we're supposed to take from this movie aside from entertainment.


Final Rating? SIYL - See If You Like. I doubt Republicans will get a big kick out of this film. It definitely gives the benefit of the doubt from a more lefty side of things--still, it does give Bush the benefit of the doubt, which I think is awfully kind. It's certainly more than Bush deserves.

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Orignal From: W. (2008)

Oliver Stone After W. Screening Opening Night

Talk about weird coincidence. TheWife and I went out to see "W." tonight (watch for a Pocket Review tomorrow) and who does @Siskita notice on the way out but the guy who directed the damn film!



How do ya like that? Come all the way from Los Angeles to the Big Apple and we bump into a filmmaker. Go fig. Just wish I had a copy of my book on me. It's jammed with conspiracy stuff--he'd totally love it.



The good news is that "W." is well done. The odd news is that it's not a terribly deep film and seems to take only from the media as its source. Still that doesn't stop it from being entertaining.



When I shook his hand I told him the movie was great--I probably should have said "very good" instead. Ah well. I've met famous people before and I still get a little starstruck--even though I think he's kind of an asshole in real life. Still, he's a great filmmaker.



ANYway, watch for my review tomorrow :)



Want to see more pics of Oli? Check out my Flickrset here: http://flickr.com/…136383749/

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Orignal From: Oliver Stone After W. Screening Opening Night