The Hypocrisy Weblog

The man who became the symbol of the Palestinian freedom fight, Yasser Arafat, died at the military hospital Percy in Paris, France at 3.30 local time, the 11th of november 2004. (You may read more about the life of Arafat here.)

There’s been great controversy surrounding the president of Palestine, yet he will perhaps cause greater controversy now after his death – as his dictator-like political culture (lack there-of), has created a vacuum within the Palestinian power-structure. As a result of this failure to grow a healthy political culture in the top of Palestinian rule, there will now be a harsh, and perhaps bloody, powerstruggle. (Keep in mind that Yasser Arafat was great at cultivating the myth surrounding himself. This combined with a high sense of politic survival kept him at power as long as he has been.)

There are also issues about where he will be buried. Yasser Arafat had a wish to be buried in Jerusalem, but this will not happen, at least not in the present moment. Arafat’s final resting place will be outside PLO’s headquarters in Ramallah.
Hamas has promised to increase their attacks on Israel, and this in it’s turn will lead to retaliation on the Palestines, which undermines an eventual peace process.

A positive aspect is that with Arafat gone, the Israelis are willing to negotiate with the Palestinians again, as Israel was not willing to negotiate with Arafat.

Another aspect is for the Palestinian authority to start rebuilding their society, and tone down the focus on Israel as the big threat. This, I believe, will benefit the region in the long run.

To end my post; a great political survivor and leader is dead. Yasser Arafat was 75 years of age.

Further reading;
Wikipedia about Yasser Arafat
The Guardian; Life in pictures
The Guardian; Obituary

IMPORTANT NOTE: Before reading this post, please realize that I am not putting any political emphasis in the words written; it is an outsider’s view on one of the most important political events in world politics, and the wish for this to have been conducted fair and square.

Curious as I am, and quite faithful in the (american) democratic system, I stayed up as long as I good in order to watch the american presidential election-wake on Swedish TV.

Of course, I always have my doubts when it comes to any election where there are such high stakes involved, and now with the electronic voting system up and running in, for example, Florida I try to keep my eyes even more open and stay even more awake than in usual cases. After reading on several news-sites (IT-related mainly) and watching news coverage about the fuzz concerning the non-existent paper-receipt that every voter could get to take home in order to have a verification of their vote I raised an eyebrow, being surprised if not.

Now here comes the twist that I find very eerie; American voters reported over 1100 cases of malfunctioning machines to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). In all cases the votes could be corrected, though in some cases several corrections were necessary. Also, the EFF only heard from people who actually discovered the problem, so this can be much more widespread than the 1100 cases now reported.

To continue; The company constructing the (computer) systems handling the votes is called Diebold. Diebold is a large contributor to the Republican party. Jeb Bush is the governor of Florida. The plot thickens…

The Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), which represents the manufacturers of the e-voting machines called the problems negliable in correlation to the approximately 50 million expected to use the e-voting machines to lay down their vote on either candidate, and also claimed that the voter could correct their vote before it was registered, and that this could not be done using the orthodox paper-puncture method. (Comment; Get a new ballot?)

Some related quotes and links can be found below;

Notable Votescam quotes:

“You’ll never prove it, now get out!” — Elton Davis, TV network computer programmer responsible for magically “projecting” 100% accurate vote results.

“This may be the biggest vote fraud scandal ever to rock the nation!” — Mike Wallace of “60 Minutes” upon reviewing the Votescam evidence. However, after meeting with his higher-up’s, Mr. Wallace dropped the issue like a vial of Anthrax.

“When you’re dealing with the networks, gentleman, you’re dealing with a shadow government.” — ABC Supreme Court correspondent, Tim O’Brien, explaining why the station refused to run video taped evidence of vote fraud.

“This nation’s voting system is a total sham, ” says Landes. “In the upcoming election, a couple of corporations (ES&S and Diebold) with strong ties to the Republican Party will count 80% of the vote in virtual secrecy. Democratic candidates should be in federal court now protesting this insanity. It might be too late after the election.”

anybody in ’safe state’ want to WRECK A DIEBOLD e-vote machine and get court case rolling?
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/11/301724.shtml

E-Voting Tests Get Failing Grade & so does its fraudulent ‘creditation’ framework
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/11/301601.shtml

“I am committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year.”
Just a reminder from Wally O’Dell, CEO of Diebold Inc
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/11/301750.shtml

why do exit polls fail?
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/11/301759.shtml

50,000+ different calls about vote fraud in one day.
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/11/301773.shtml

Voting Irregularities Nationwide
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/11/301699.shtml

Could Associated Press (AP) Rig a VoteScam? – AP as sole source of raw vote totals for media Nov.2
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/10/300558.shtml

To end this post with a laugh, set your windows media player to: http://www.wc3sear.ch/misc/Voting_Machine.wmv

Which person would you like to vote for as the next president, Bush or Kerry?

Are you sure that you want to vote for Bush as the next president?

Please confirm your vote for Bush.

Thank you for voting!

Alright, I am not against the feminist-movement or anything, I’m all for equality of the sexes – I actually see INDVIDUALS, not GENDER when I look at someone when it comes to society / work and so on-related topics, but now the swedish leftwing party have gone too far (again).

They want a special tax-raise that will ONLY inflict MEN. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot?!!! The left-wing party speaks about a “collective responsibility of all men” when it comes to the abuse of women.

If this tax-raise goes through this will only backfire on women in general, which is something I, nor I think most other people want.

This tax-raise is a typical product of the leftwing party, who’s basic response to fix something is not to cure the disease, but to try and treat one or more symptoms. In their case, this “cure” spells “tax-raise”, and is considered to be the magic against all evil in the world.

This motion of the leftwing party only reveals a scary outlook on humans in general, and is yet another reason for me to never vote on them.

Link to article in swedish.

I was watching the Kerry vs. Bush debate the other night (yes,it did start at 03.00 (or 3 am) local time here in sweden), I thought about the classical “tip of the iceberg”-saying…

It’s awfully cliché, I know – but still… They don’t call it a cliché for nothing, right?!

Anyways, while this post is read by you, and the image below is digested, I have to “order” you to go to http://www.betavote.com and cast your vote. Let us at hypocrisy.nu know what you voted, and perhaps why, in the comment-function.

What I find interesting, no matter how “scientific” you may call this webpage, is how different the countries voted. There is no guarantee that these figures are real, but if you think about how the outlook is in world-politics today, and then look at the chart of votes, well… it fits the picture quite well.

PS. Note how styled up George W Bush looks compared with John Kerry!! (Seems like looks don’t matter after all!)