Arizona election results

The good news: Arizona did not elect aspiring theocrat Len Munsil (who was soundly defeated by incumbent Governor Janet Napolitano), got rid of corrupt Congressman J.D. Hayworth (replacing him with former Tempe Mayor Harry Mitchell), narrowly voted down an amendment to the state Constitution to ban gay marriage and anything "similar to" it, and voted in favor of greater protections against eminent domain abuse.

The bad news: Arizona re-elected Sen. Jon Kyl and Rep. Rick Renzi, approved the creation of a new bureaucracy to continually raise the minimum wage (the main effect of which is to reduce teen employment; it has negligible positive effects for low wage earners, versus something that would genuinely be effective like reducing payroll taxes), passed the worse of the two anti-smoking measures, banned probation for methamphetamine abuse offenses, and passed all of the anti-illegal immigration measures (declaring English the official language, prohibiting illegal immigrants from posting bail or being awarded certain kinds of damages in court, and limiting educational services to illegal immigrants).

Teenager Jarrett Maupin (Al Sharpton, Jr.) was elected to the Phoenix Union High School District Board in Ward 2. Maupin, who was a member of the Republican club at Brophy College Prep before switching schools to St. Mary's and becoming a Democrat and protege of Sharpton, charged that Brophy students demonstrated their racism by referring to "blackboards."

Le Nature's water company used for a Christian Republican's scam

La Trobe, Pennsylvania's Le Nature's water company, run by Republican and aspiring evangelical leader Gregory Podlucky, was forced into Chapter 7 bankruptcy by creditors after it's turned out the CEO was engaged in major fraud. Le Nature's reported $275 million in revenue when it only had $35 million in revenue. The company kept two sets of books, and has less than $1 million in cash and over $750 million in bank and bond debt, lease obligations, and other liabilities. Two safes at the company headquarters were found to contain about $1 million in gold watches and jewelry.

Podlucky is accused of falsifying board minutes and defrauding a lender in a lawsuit filed against him by two private equity firms that are minority shareholders. Podlucky was being defended by Albert Manwaring of Pepper Hamilton's Wilmington, Delaware office, but he withdrew from the case on November 1.

$440,000 of the company's money was donated to the Missy's Place Foundation, named after Podlucky's deceased daughter Melissa, and that Foundation purchased land for Podlucky's proposed Grace Community Church of the Valley in Ligonier, Pennsylvania.

More details at the Wall Street Journal's Law Blog, Long or Short Capital, and at MIT student Jay Silver's website, who reviewed Le Nature's water only to be harassed by someone apparently associated with the company.

Le Nature's is closing its Phoenix plant and laying off 85 workers.

Republican dirty tricks in New Mexico

In New Mexico, the state Republican Party has been calling registered Democrats and telling them that their polling places have changed, giving them incorrect information. The NM Republican Party head says it was just one instance, but the Democratic Party has identified at least five, and is seeking an injunction.

UPDATE: This has now been reported to have occurred in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and New York in addition to New Mexico.

1999 U.S. war games showed at least 400,000 troops needed in Iraq

In 1999, a set of secret U.S. war games conducted as part of a simulation called Desert Crossing showed that more than 400,000 troops would be needed for an invasion and post-war administration of Iraq to prevent it from falling into chaos. That number is three times the number of U.S. troops in Iraq.

Yet Donald Rumsfeld refused to even listen to any of his subordinates who thought a plan was needed for post-invasion Iraq.

Army recruiters telling kids the war in Iraq is over

Military recruiters lying to recruits is not a new problem, but this is pretty extreme. ABC News sent students with hidden cameras to 10 Army recruiting offices in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. The students were told that no one is going over to Iraq any more, that the soldiers are being brought back. One recruiter told students that if they didn't like the Army, they could just quit.

Deceptive and harassing Republican pre-recorded political calls

The Republicans have been hitting voters over the last week or so with repeated pre-recorded political calls beginning with the phrase, "Hi, I'm calling with information about ," which have fooled many recipients into thinking that they are being harassed by the campaign of that Democratic candidate. Some recipients have received dozens of repeated calls or more.

These campaigns are paid for by the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) and have occurred in at least Illinois, New York, and New Hampshire. They've been partially stopped in New Hampshire after intervention by the state Attorney General--but only by discontinuing calls to voters on the national Do Not Call list.

One of the New York calls can be heard here (WAV file).

UPDATE: Here's a list of the twenty districts where these calls are occurring and which Democrats they are attacking. They're in California, Illinois, Florida, New York, Virginia, Kentucky, Georgia, Iowa, North Carolina, Connecticut, Kansas, New Hampshire, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania.

UPDATE: The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has sent the National Republican Congressional Committee a cease and desist letter.

UPDATE (November 7, 2006): The New York Times and the Washington Post have covered the story. Michigan Representatives Conyers and Dingell have asked Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to investigate the issue.

The Two Faces of Diebold

SAIC was commissioned to perform a study on security issues in Diebold voting machines by the State of Maryland. One of the conditions Diebold set on the report in return for allowing access to their machines for the study was the right to redact whatever they wanted from the public version of the report.

The public version of the report (PDF) was 38 pages. The unredacted version was 152 pages plus 41 pages of appendices.

The private version of the report has now been leaked, and Rebecca Abrahams writes about the differences.

Adrienne Shelly died

Adrienne Shelly, an actress who starred in Hal Hartley's films The Unbelievable Trust and Truth, was found dead in her NYC office by her husband. She was 40.

Shelly, an agnostic, was a writer and director of independent films as well as an actress.

UPDATE (November 7, 2006): A 19-year-old worker, Diego Pillco, who was helping renovate the Manhattan apartment that was Shelly's office, has confessed to killing her and hanging her from the shower rod in the apartment bathroom.

Very sad.

UPDATE (February 18, 2007): Adrienne Shelly's murder has now been fictionalized into an episode of Law & Order that aired last week, titled "Melting Pot." The episode is really a mix of Adrienne Shelly's murder and Theo van Gogh's murder after making the film "Submission" with Ayaan Hirsi Ali--the character Erin Garrett is a combination of Shelly and Hirsi Ali. She is found hanged in her film office, and to have recently made a documentary film called "Fire Under the Veil." (Shelly and Hirsi Ali are both known for being atheists, but atheism doesn't factor in the Law & Order episode.)

This may be the first time when the murder of someone who appeared on Law & Order was fictionalized in an episode of the show. She appeared in the episode "High & Low" in 2000.

Amway president and Michigan gubernatorial candidate Dick DeVos caught lying

Amway president and creationist Dick DeVos told a story about his high school football coach giving him an inspiring talk as he started him as quarterback. The football coach says it never happened, DeVos was never a starting quarterback on the varsity squad, and that he wasn't a star on the field.

Disclosure: It's my opinion that Amway is a sleazy company run by dishonest and paranoid people. I was served with a subpoena in a lawsuit Amway filed against Proctor & Gamble which was trying to claim that P&G was involved in a conspiracy against Amway's business by paying people to post Amway-critical information on the Internet. That subpoena was part of a fishing expedition and intimidation campaign; Amway tried to get access to the complete contents of my computer hard drives. The case was eventually thrown out of court. I spent a few thousand dollars to protect my rights; Amway spent a whole lot more.

UPDATE (November 8, 2006): Incumbent Governor Jennifer Granholm defeated DeVos in yesterday's election.

IDiots

ID advocates Tim McGrew and Sal Cordova have accused P.Z. Myers of misrepresenting Jonathan Wells when he pointed out that Wells had selectively edited a quote from a paper by William Ballard in BioScience. McGrew wrote that "Myers is lying through his teeth" about the quotation appearing on p. 35 of Wells' Politically Incorrect Guide to Intelligent Design.

Myers points out that McGrew and Cordova have failed to see what's right in front of them, and adds some red arrows to a scan of the page to help them see.

Will either of them apologize for their IDiocy?

UPDATE: They've admitted they were wrong about the quotation on p. 35, but argue that the text on the earlier pages is not guilty of the misrepresentation that Myers claimed with regard to the p. 35 quote.