Good morning!

Biden was flapping his lips alright…And I can see many of you have been doing the same same this morning. Evidently you watched the debate. And yes, I did as well. I cheered Biden when he was relentless, charging forward and not backing down. And I shook my head and chuckled along with him at the lies that were coming out of Ryan’s LSOS mouth.

Biden was polite to use the word “accurate”: “Not a single thing he said is accurate”.  But we all know what he was thinking. I realize it is not PC to call a candidate an LSOS, but we all know what Biden was thinking it, didn’t we? Well Okay…not all - those of you repubs, do me and everyone in this country a favor – check your facts…get the real truth. Don’t let the “likable look” of the guy mask his many lies. If you care about country over everything else, you’ll know what ticket to punch come November 6th.

Big kudos goes to Martha Raddatz, the moderator. She commanded that table and did it with ease. I thought she was brilliant….so much better than Lehrer. I really enjoyed how she orchestrated the debate. It seems I am one of many who think the same.

This came across my plate this morning:

Roger Rivard Loses Support From Wisconsin Republicans After Saying ‘Some Girls Rape Easy’

Wisconsin Republicans are quickly disowning state Rep. Roger Rivard (R-Rice Lake), after he told a newspaper that “[s]ome girls rape easy.”

Republican Senate candidate and former Gov. Tommy Thompson became the latest to join the chorus on Thursday, putting out a statement saying he was “offended” by what the state lawmaker said.

“As a husband, a father of two daughters and the grandfather of six beautiful granddaughters, I am offended by state Representative Rivard’s indefensible remarks,” Thompson said. “We must take instances of rape and sexual assault seriously and hold the perpetrators accountable to the utmost degree.”

Rivard actually made his controversial remark — which he said was advice shared with him by his father — in December, when he talked to The Chetek Alert newspaper about the case of a 17-year-old high school student who was charged with sexual assault after having sex with an underage girl in the band room. The interview came to wider public notice after the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported on it on Wednesday.

Rivard told the Journal-Sentinel that his comments were “taken out of context,” saying his father meant to convey that if “you do (have premarital sex), just remember, consensual sex can turn into rape in an awful hurry.”

“Because all of a sudden a young lady gets pregnant and the parents are madder than a wet hen and she’s not going to say, ‘Oh, yeah, I was part of the program.’ All that she has to say or the parents have to say is it was rape because she’s underage. And he just said, ‘Remember, Roger, if you go down that road, some girls,’ he said, ‘they rape so easy,’” Rivard said.

Rivard is a freshman lawmaker and is stuck in a tight race for reelection against Democrat Stephen Smith.

Thompson had not endorsed Rivard — but Gov. Scott Walker (R) and vice presidential nominee Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) had. Both men withdrew their endorsements on Thursday, and state Rep. Robin Vos (R-Rochester) — who is leading the effort to maintain a Republican majority in the Wisconsin Assembly — also pulled his support.

It’s the second time in recent months that Ryan has had to distance himself from a fellow Republican making insensitive comments about rape. In August, after Rep. Todd Akin (R-Mo.) said women can’t get pregnant after a “legitimate rape,” both Ryan and Mitt Romney — as well as much of the GOP establishment — called on him to withdraw his bid for U.S. Senate. Since that time, Romney and Ryan have maintained their distance, but other members of the party have jumped back in to help Akin defeat Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.).

Rep. Sean Duffy (R-Wis.) said he plans to donate the amount Rivard had given to his 2010 and 2012 congressional campaigns – $500 – to the Center Against Sexual and Domestic Abuse in Superior, Wis.

Rivard has said he “very much” regrets sharing his father’s advice. He will be participating in a candidates’ forum sponsored by a group of women educators on Oct. 16.

*******

Readers: And some men make it so easy to call them sick assholes. Blog me.

Social Butterfly et al: Happy Coming Out Day! Loved reading the stories.

Rene: Ahh…that’s sweet. Thank you. Love when Mothers and daughters share in reading my blog.

Robert, RT: As always, nice to see you here. Thanks for the reminder and the link. How are you?

Julie: Love your story – Kudos to your mom.

Howie: It has been awhile. I HOPE you and Al are doing good.

Peace out. 

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

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Michelle Moquin PO Box 29235 San Francisco, Ca. 94129

Thank you for your loyal support!

All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2012

“Though she be but little, she be fierce.” – William Shakespeare Midsummer Night’s Dream 

" Politics, god, Life, News, Music, Family, Personal, Travel, Random, Photography, Religion, Aliens, Art, Entertainment, Food, Books, Thoughts, Media, Culture, Love, Sex, Poetry, Prose, Friends, Technology, Humor, Health, Writing, Events, Movies, Sports, Video, Christianity, Atheist, Blogging, History, Work, Education, Business, Fashion, Barack Obama, People, Internet, Relationships, Faith, Photos, Videos, Hillary Clinton, School, Reviews, God, TV, Philosophy, Fun, Science, Environment, Design, The Page, Rants, Pictures, Church, Blog, Nature, Marketing, Television, Democrats, Parenting, Miscellaneous, Current Events, Film, Spirituality, Obama, Musings, Home, Human Rights, Society, Comedy, Me, Random Thoughts, Research, Government, Election 2008, Baseball, Opinion, Recipes, Children, Iraq, Funny, Women, Economics, America, Misc, Commentary, John McCain, Reflections, All, Celebrities, Inspiration, Lifestyle, Theology, Linux, Kids, Games, World, India, Literature, China, Ramblings, Fitness, Money, Review, War, Articles, Economy, Journal, Quotes, NBA, Crime, Anime, Islam, 2008, Stories, Prayer, Diary, Jesus, Buddha, Muslim, Israel, Europe, Links, Marriage, Fiction, American Idol, Software, Leadership, Pop culture, Rants, Video Games, Republicans, Updates, Political, Football, Healing, Blogs, Shopping, USA, Class, Matrix, Course, Work, Web 2.0, My Life, Psychology, Gay, Happiness, Advertising, Field Hockey, Hip-hop, sex, fucking, ass, Soccer, sox"

Good morning!

It is a rarity that I watch daytime television but when Rachel Maddow is on The Ellen Show, it causes me to pause my daily routine and take a minute to check out two of my fave girls. Although there wasn’t much substance to the interview, I still enjoyed the chitchat and seeing them….Especially Maddow, in a more relaxed environment. Ellen…she’s always in a relaxed environment having a good time.

Although, I thought I might see a different, more personal side of Maddow, she was still the political animal that I expected she would be. I mean, after a few words said about dancing with her dog, (Anyone who dances with their dog, and shows love to her four-legged as much as Maddow does, gets big kudos from me) politics was the prime topic. But then of course it would be – we are about to have the most important election of our lives. So that was perfectly fine with me. I enjoy Maddow any way I get her. I mean…who else thinks of election time as Christmas, besides Maddow? Well…lately, actually me. Oh…And I do dance with my dog Lucy too. :)

So speaking of politics…tonight is the Biden/Ryan debate, and I am right there with Maddow – “Excited!” And from what I’ve heard the VP debate in the past has been viewed by more people, than even the presidential debates. Should be illuminating and interesting to say the least. Tune in tonight 8:00 PM Eastern time to catch the chitchat beforehand.

Topic: Foreign and domestic policy
Air Time: 9:00-10:30 p.m. Eastern Time
Location: Centre College in Danville, Kentucky (Tickets)
Sponsor: Commission on Presidential Debates
Participants: Vice President Joe Biden and Congressman Paul Ryan
Moderator: Martha Raddatz (ABC News Chief Foreign Correspondent)The debate will cover both foreign and domestic topics and be divided into nine time segments of approximately 10 minutes each. The moderator will ask an opening question, after which each candidate will have two minutes to respond. The moderator will use the balance of the time in the segment for a discussion of the question.

To get you in the mood of what to expect from him this evening, here’s a clip of Ryan, the LSOS, last month, but believe me, nothing has changed:

Norah O’Donnell Grills Paul Ryan Over Defense Spending Cuts

CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell put Paul Ryan’s feet to the fire for criticizing President Obama for defense spending cuts after he supported them himself.

Mitt Romney’s “Meet the Press” appearance put the cuts back in the spotlight on Sunday. The candidate said that Republicans made a “mistake” when they agreed to a debt ceiling deal that would decrease defense spending by $500 billion over the next ten years.

O’Donnell did not give Ryan on an easy pass on the issue. “He’s talking about you because you voted for those cuts, correct?” she asked him.

Ryan said that he voted for the cuts because he was trying to find “common ground” with the Democrats to reduce the budget deficit. He added that he wrote a bill that would have reduced spending elsewhere and prevented “the president’s irresponsible, devastating defense cuts.”

O’Donnell continued to press Ryan, saying that the defense cuts were part of the Budget Control Act and that he supported the act. She went a step further and quoted him calling the legislation a “victory” and a “positive step forward.”

“So, you voted for defense cuts, and now you’re criticizing the president for those same defense cuts that you voted for and called a victory,” O’Donnell said.

“The goal was never that these defense cuts actually occur,” Ryan responded. He said that he supported a sequestration measure, which would have triggered automatic cuts if the supercommittee did not reach a deal. O’Donnell said that the act also contained $1 trillion in immediate cuts, including the defense cuts.

“And you also voted for those, and now you’re saying you didn’t vote for them?” she asked. He said that the Obama administration proposed $478 billion in defense cuts, in addition to cutting about $500 billion in defense from the sequestration.

“Right. A trillion dollars in defense spending, and you voted for it!” O’Donnell shot back.

“No, Norah. I voted for the Budget Control Act.”

*R*Y*A*N*L*S*O*S

Readers: Feel free to do your own fact checking. For years now I have had the link, “On The issues” as well “Factcheck.org” posted in the lefthand side of my blog to make it easy for you. A resource that is a must, especially during this time.

Steven: Thanks to your friend for the list, and you for posting it here. Those are some scary reminders. We need to get the energy, inspiration, and HOPE going like it was in 2008, and of course we need to do all we can to prevent the election from being stolen…again.

Blog me.

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

Or if you would like to send a check via snail mail, please make checks payable to “Michelle Moquin”, and send to:

Michelle Moquin PO Box 29235 San Francisco, Ca. 94129

Thank you for your loyal support!

All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2012

“Though she be but little, she be fierce.” – William Shakespeare Midsummer Night’s Dream 

" Politics, god, Life, News, Music, Family, Personal, Travel, Random, Photography, Religion, Aliens, Art, Entertainment, Food, Books, Thoughts, Media, Culture, Love, Sex, Poetry, Prose, Friends, Technology, Humor, Health, Writing, Events, Movies, Sports, Video, Christianity, Atheist, Blogging, History, Work, Education, Business, Fashion, Barack Obama, People, Internet, Relationships, Faith, Photos, Videos, Hillary Clinton, School, Reviews, God, TV, Philosophy, Fun, Science, Environment, Design, The Page, Rants, Pictures, Church, Blog, Nature, Marketing, Television, Democrats, Parenting, Miscellaneous, Current Events, Film, Spirituality, Obama, Musings, Home, Human Rights, Society, Comedy, Me, Random Thoughts, Research, Government, Election 2008, Baseball, Opinion, Recipes, Children, Iraq, Funny, Women, Economics, America, Misc, Commentary, John McCain, Reflections, All, Celebrities, Inspiration, Lifestyle, Theology, Linux, Kids, Games, World, India, Literature, China, Ramblings, Fitness, Money, Review, War, Articles, Economy, Journal, Quotes, NBA, Crime, Anime, Islam, 2008, Stories, Prayer, Diary, Jesus, Buddha, Muslim, Israel, Europe, Links, Marriage, Fiction, American Idol, Software, Leadership, Pop culture, Rants, Video Games, Republicans, Updates, Political, Football, Healing, Blogs, Shopping, USA, Class, Matrix, Course, Work, Web 2.0, My Life, Psychology, Gay, Happiness, Advertising, Field Hockey, Hip-hop, sex, fucking, ass, Soccer, sox"

Good morning!

Alex: Like a few others who have commented here, including Mike, TM who seems to be in the know (Thanks Mike for all you contribute) , I too am concerned about the republicans stealing the election. (Notice how my title is different from the original title of the write below?) They got away with it once and this time they will pull out all the tricks they can, so it is even more dire that we get out and vote and do anything we can to prevent them from their ruthless behavior.

With respect to the write that I found and wanted to share, although this write talks about the digital – no paper back-up machines, causing a problem during voting,  (the fist sentence is right on) it also talks of the real issues we face during voting this year. But as we know, the repubs will jump at this opportunity to make sure that the computers vote in their favor this coming November.

Voter fraud is a joke – as the write says, “…the risk of somebody impersonating you to cast your vote…is roughly equivalent to the probability that you’ll be struck by lightning.” So although all of voter fraud is basically hullabaloo over nothing, issues with computers and disenfranchisement is real.

Column: Computers could steal this election

Sometimes, the news media and our political leaders make us worry about the wrong things.

A recent Washington Post poll found that 74% of Americans favor requiring voters to show government-issued photo ID. A plurality cares more about voter fraud than the risk that some eligible persons will be denied the right to vote.

The potential for fraud in this year’s presidential election is real, but not in the form of voter impersonation. Remember those hackable voting machines that caused trouble in 2000, 2004 and 2008? Well, they’re back, and they still have the potential to steal your vote.

“It is highly likely that voting systems will fail in multiple places across the country,” says a report by a consortium of non-profits organized to track the problem.

On the other hand, the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law has looked at some closely analyzed elections and evaluated the risk of somebody impersonating you to cast your vote. That risk, it says, is roughly equivalent to the probability that you’ll be struck by lightning.

Meanwhile, the danger that malicious hackers or accidental errors can change your vote is as real as ever. The worst horror story originated in Volusia County, Fla., where a corrupted memory card subtracted 16,000 votes from Al Gore‘s count in 2000.

Each party vulnerable

Problems have occurred in every election since, and the risk does not discriminate between parties. In 2004, memory limitations on new touch-screen voting machines in Carteret County, N.C., caused 4,500 votes to be lost. There was no way to retrieve them.

In Horry County, S.C., the 2008 GOP presidential primary was disrupted when touch-screen machines failed in 80% of polling places. There was a shortage of backup paper ballots, and confused voters were directed to other precincts. In a Palm Beach, Fla., municipal election last March, a software flaw gave votes to the wrong candidate in the wrong race. It took a court-sanctioned recount to set matters right.

The non-profits trying to drum up awareness in the brief time left before Nov. 6 are Common Cause Education Fund, the Newark Constitutional Litigation Clinic at the Rutgers School of Law, and a newer outfit called the Verified Voting Foundation. They have raised a variety of red flags.

The worst voting machines are strictly digital with no paper backup, and they are still used in at least some counties in 16 states. In those places, your vote goes into a black box with no way for you to tell whether your choices were correctly recorded. Just as bad, there is no independent, auditable trail for a post-election recount.

Battleground states not prepared

Among the key battleground states, Virginia, with its 13 electoral votes, has inadequate provisions for post-election auditing, according to the consortium’s recent report. And Ohio, with 18 electoral votes, was rated “needs improvement” because it does not have a law requiring post-election audits.

In the swing state of Pennsylvania, most counties use paperless electronic voting equipment, “which makes independent audits impossible.”

Some states have improved. In my part of North Carolina, for example, a voter marks a paper ballot, then feeds it into a machine that reads the marks electronically. The paper record is kept in case a recount is needed.

Public debate over possible voter impersonation draws attention away from this problem. The motivation behind the pressure to require voters to show government ID was confirmed with admirable frankness by Mike Turzai, Republican leader in thePennsylvania House of Representatives. A widely viewed YouTube clip shows him checking off a list of accomplishments to applause at a June meeting of the state’s GOP Committee. His list included:

“Voter ID, which is going to allow Gov. Romney to win the state of Pennsylvania, done.”

In other words, the Voter ID laws work against the ideal of an unbiased election. People without passports or driver’s licenses tend to be some combination of old, poor, or frail, all categories that tend to vote Democratic.

But that kind of bias is at least open and subject to negotiation. Poll taxes, literacy tests and the all-white Democratic primary were once used to keep blacks from voting in the South. The civil rights movement eventually built enough support to overcome them. The new ID laws might someday fall on the same basis.

But hackers, corrupted memory cards and machine failures are much more difficult to see and overcome. Somebody could steal an election, and we’d never know it. Both parties are at risk.

“There is still time to fix the problems,” says Pamela Smith, head of the Verified Voting Foundation.

But the hour grows late.

******

Readers: It’s hump day. – what’s going on in your world? Blog me.

  &  

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

Or if you would like to send a check via snail mail, please make checks payable to “Michelle Moquin”, and send to:

Michelle Moquin PO Box 29235 San Francisco, Ca. 94129

Thank you for your loyal support!

All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2012

“Though she be but little, she be fierce.” – William Shakespeare Midsummer Night’s Dream 

" Politics, god, Life, News, Music, Family, Personal, Travel, Random, Photography, Religion, Aliens, Art, Entertainment, Food, Books, Thoughts, Media, Culture, Love, Sex, Poetry, Prose, Friends, Technology, Humor, Health, Writing, Events, Movies, Sports, Video, Christianity, Atheist, Blogging, History, Work, Education, Business, Fashion, Barack Obama, People, Internet, Relationships, Faith, Photos, Videos, Hillary Clinton, School, Reviews, God, TV, Philosophy, Fun, Science, Environment, Design, The Page, Rants, Pictures, Church, Blog, Nature, Marketing, Television, Democrats, Parenting, Miscellaneous, Current Events, Film, Spirituality, Obama, Musings, Home, Human Rights, Society, Comedy, Me, Random Thoughts, Research, Government, Election 2008, Baseball, Opinion, Recipes, Children, Iraq, Funny, Women, Economics, America, Misc, Commentary, John McCain, Reflections, All, Celebrities, Inspiration, Lifestyle, Theology, Linux, Kids, Games, World, India, Literature, China, Ramblings, Fitness, Money, Review, War, Articles, Economy, Journal, Quotes, NBA, Crime, Anime, Islam, 2008, Stories, Prayer, Diary, Jesus, Buddha, Muslim, Israel, Europe, Links, Marriage, Fiction, American Idol, Software, Leadership, Pop culture, Rants, Video Games, Republicans, Updates, Political, Football, Healing, Blogs, Shopping, USA, Class, Matrix, Course, Work, Web 2.0, My Life, Psychology, Gay, Happiness, Advertising, Field Hockey, Hip-hop, sex, fucking, ass, Soccer, sox"

Can’t stay away for too long. There’s just too much to report.

Good morning!

Group seeks US inquiry of Mitt Romney’s filing on Bain

WASHINGTON — A Democratic group supporting President Obama’s reelection has asked the Department of Justice to investigate whether Republican Mitt Romney violated federal law by stating on a 2011 ethics filing that he was not involved with Bain Capital operations “in any way’’ after 1999.

The Globe, citing numerous Securities and Exchange Commission filings, reported in July that Romney continued to serve as chief executive and chairman of Bain Capital, as well as the principal in a number of Bain-related entities, until as late as 2002.

The organization MoveOn.org Political Action, a liberal group, seized on those discrepancies in a letter dated Thursday to the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section. The group, citing its own review of the public records, contends that Romney may have violated the False Statements Act by lying on his 2011 federal financial disclosure statement.

In the 2011 disclosure, which Romney was required to submit as a presidential candidate, the former Massachusetts governor stated that he “has not been involved in the operations of any Bain Capital entity in any way’’ since Feb. 11, 1999. MoveOn.org contends that appears to be false.

“There is substantial evidence that Governor Romney was in fact involved with the operations of Bain Capital after that date,’’ MoveOn.org said in its letter to the Justice Department. In a press release, the group asserts there is “substantial evidence that Mitt Romney may have committed a felony.’’

A Romney campaign spokesman, Ryan Williams, dismissed MoveOn.org’s move as a political attack. A standard to prove a felony under the False Statements Act is that a person knew the statement was false.

“This is nothing more than a political stunt from a liberal special interest group that is desperate to distract from the record unemployment and skyrocketing deficits caused by President Obama’s failed economic agenda,’’ Williams said.

Romney took a leave of absence from Bain in 1999 to run the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. But he did not relinquish his ownership stake or title. The timing is important politically for Romney, because a first line of defense for the Republican nominee against Democratic attacks over Bain business practices has been to say he bore no responsibility for Bain-owned companies that went bankrupt or laid off workers after 1999.

MoveOn.org, in an accompanying legal memorandum, cites a number of Bain documents regarding Bain investments that Romney signed after 1999. It says he bore ultimate fiduciary responsibility for the company after that date.

“Although Governor Romney may deny having exercised that power, that ultimate responsibility and authority over tens of millions of shares of stock of other companies, and his awareness of the acquisitions evidenced by his signing of the forms, is clearly inconsistent with his flat disavowal of ‘any’ involvement in the ‘operations of any Bain Capital entity in any way,’ ’’ said the memorandum.

The Justice Department also did not respond to a request for comment.

The MoveOn.org lawyer who wrote the memorandum laying out the group’s argument for the Department of Justice, Joseph E. Sandler, said in an interview Wednesday that Romney’s disclosure statement does not square with the facts.

“I think it’s pretty difficult to explain. He’s at the top of the chain — the sole shareholder, and director, and chief executive officer,’’ he said. “How can someone in that position have no operational involvement in that entity or any entity beneath it? It doesn’t add up.’’

*M*I*T*T*L*S*O*S*

Blog me.

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

If you love my blog and my writes, please make a donation via PayPal, credit card, or e-check, please click the “Donate” button below. (Please only donations from those readers within the United States. – International readers please see my “Donate” page)

Or if you would like to send a check via snail mail, please make checks payable to “Michelle Moquin”, and send to:

Michelle Moquin PO Box 29235 San Francisco, Ca. 94129

Thank you for your loyal support!

All content on this site are property of Michelle Moquin © copyright 2008-2012

“Though she be but little, she be fierce.” – William Shakespeare Midsummer Night’s Dream 

" Politics, god, Life, News, Music, Family, Personal, Travel, Random, Photography, Religion, Aliens, Art, Entertainment, Food, Books, Thoughts, Media, Culture, Love, Sex, Poetry, Prose, Friends, Technology, Humor, Health, Writing, Events, Movies, Sports, Video, Christianity, Atheist, Blogging, History, Work, Education, Business, Fashion, Barack Obama, People, Internet, Relationships, Faith, Photos, Videos, Hillary Clinton, School, Reviews, God, TV, Philosophy, Fun, Science, Environment, Design, The Page, Rants, Pictures, Church, Blog, Nature, Marketing, Television, Democrats, Parenting, Miscellaneous, Current Events, Film, Spirituality, Obama, Musings, Home, Human Rights, Society, Comedy, Me, Random Thoughts, Research, Government, Election 2008, Baseball, Opinion, Recipes, Children, Iraq, Funny, Women, Economics, America, Misc, Commentary, John McCain, Reflections, All, Celebrities, Inspiration, Lifestyle, Theology, Linux, Kids, Games, World, India, Literature, China, Ramblings, Fitness, Money, Review, War, Articles, Economy, Journal, Quotes, NBA, Crime, Anime, Islam, 2008, Stories, Prayer, Diary, Jesus, Buddha, Muslim, Israel, Europe, Links, Marriage, Fiction, American Idol, Software, Leadership, Pop culture, Rants, Video Games, Republicans, Updates, Political, Football, Healing, Blogs, Shopping, USA, Class, Matrix, Course, Work, Web 2.0, My Life, Psychology, Gay, Happiness, Advertising, Field Hockey, Hip-hop, sex, fucking, ass, Soccer, sox"

Good morning!

You know how much of a fan I am of NPR. I am listening to it every minute I am in my car. This came across my radar.

Piecing Together ‘The World’s Largest Jigsaw Puzzle’

When the Berlin Wall came down in 1989, East Germany’s secret police, the Stasi, frantically tore up millions of files gathered during decades of spying on its own citizens.

More than two decades later, the vast array of secret papers collected by the Stasi is still in huge demand. So far this year, 70,000 people have applied for access to the Stasi archives.

Many are young Germans — some searching for information about relatives, others just eager to know more about their country’s past.

To help meet this demand, archivists are now using groundbreaking computer technology to reconstruct those shredded files.

A Painstaking Mission

In a room as spotless as a doctor’s clinic, Karina Juengert is working at her desk. Beside her, there’s a big brown sack filled with small scraps of paper. She picks out one of these scraps, examines it closely and drops it into a tray.

Juengert was barely a toddler when Soviet-controlled East Germany collapsed. At 24, her working life is devoted to piecing together some of the nastier remnants of her nation’s past.

She has no doubts about the merits of what she’s doing.

“Nobody is going to spend time and energy tearing up documents that have no importance. So the work we are doing is, yes, of absolute importance,” Juengert says.

The sack Juengert is dipping into is full of documents ripped up by the Stasi in the dying days of its rule.

She’s one of a team employed by the government of the now unified Germany to put these papers back together again for the vast archive they’re creating of Stasi files.

At times, Juengert finds this work painful.

“My job consists of really just sorting out the first level, but of course I get an idea sometimes of what some of the files are about, and absolutely it does anger me. But I don’t experience as much of that in my task, in my job, as some of the others do,” Juengert says.

Jungert works in the giant complex that was the Stasi’s headquarters in Berlin. Her room is at the end of several long corridors. Walk those corridors, ride from floor to floor on the old wooden, jump-on, jump-off, paternoster elevator, and you’ll have no trouble imagining when this place was full of spies, prying into every corner of the lives of their fellow citizens.

The Stasi existed for only 40 years. Yet its multitude of agents and informers amassed enough secret files to fill more than 60 miles of shelving. When the Berlin Wall was torn down in 1989 and it was obvious East Germany was collapsing, the Stasi began destroying its most incriminating records.

“They had special shredding machines that were able to shred hundreds of meters of files,” says archivist Andreas Petter. “These machines were very powerful, but for this huge amounts of documents, kilometers of documents, even these big machines were too small.” 

Petter says the shredding machines were under such strain they eventually burned out.

“They were used too much. They were used by night and day and it was too much for the machines,” Petter says.

Panic-stricken, the Stasi’s agents resorted to ripping up files with their bare hands.

For some three months, with their country in chaos, they worked round the clock, tearing up papers and stuffing them into sacks.

When they finally abandoned their posts and their headquarters were taken over by angry protesters, they left behind 16,000 of those sacks, containing hundreds of millions of pieces of paper.

Machine Assistance

Assembling this giant paper jigsaw by hand would take many decades, if not centuries. Some documents — those torn only into a few pieces — can be reconstructed manually.

Back in that spotless office, an archivist is doing exactly that, using tape and tweezers.

The Stasi’s panicky agents ripped many of their secret papers into tiny fragments. Piecing those together by hand is extremely difficult.

There’s another option: pattern recognition computer technology developed by German scientists, called the E-puzzler.

The E-puzzler is basically a shredding machine in reverse. You scan torn-up documents into it. It matches up the pieces using color, paper texture, fonts, tear lines and other details.

“The E-puzzler works in the way that a person doing a 1,000-piece puzzle would work. You start at the edge. You look for the forest, you look for the lake and the sky, and that is exactly how the E-puzzler works,” says Joachim Haeussler, the archivist in charge of digital reconstruction.

For the past few years, the E-puzzler has been used under a pilot program funded by the German government. But it has processed only a few hundred sacks. There are more than 15,000 to go.

Haeussler now wants to greatly step up the use of E-puzzler technology, though that will require more government money.

“It will help us enormously. We couldn’t even employ the amount of people that would be needed to put together the tiny, tiny pieces of files, because some files are only half a fingernail’s worth in size,” Haeussler says.

Reopening Old Wounds 

Some Germans oppose spending so much money and effort piecing together the Stasi papers.

This is a sensitive issue in Germany. Those files contain many unpleasant secrets, including the names of so-far-undiscovered Stasi informers.

Down in the vaults of the archive, when you look at the vast array of documents, plus covertly recorded videos and audiotapes, it’s hard to imagine anyone ever archiving all of this.

Archivist Nils Sebastian says the job will be completed, though, because it has to be done. “Sure, standing here looking at the amount of files you think, ‘Does this particular file here really matter, when you think about the bigger picture?’ But of course it does, because each file is a person and the secret police really worked against the citizens of East Germany and that’s why every single file is important,” Sebastian says.

No one understands that better than the man in overall charge of this place.

Roland Jahn, federal commissioner of the Stasi archives, is a former dissident, jailed in the 1980s for supporting Poland’s Solidarity movement. After the Berlin Wall fell, Jahn was the first East German to read his own Stasi file. He found out some of his friends had informed on him.

“Of course it did hurt, but it enabled me to forgive concrete people and I think that is exactly what looking at your Stasi file can do, because it enables you to then go and question the perpetrators,” Jahn says. “And we must learn from these records, what it was like to live with the secret police and to live under a dictatorship. That is what is important.”

******

Readers: Interesting huh? I wanted to switch it up this Monday morning – Let the political animal take a breather. But hey, as always you can talk about whatever is on your mind. So…Blog me.

Zen Lill: :( So sorry to hear of Elke. I knew her passing would be soon. From what you told me, no doubt she is resting in peace. Believe me, I and anyone else who has lost their four-legged baby, knows how you feel. I’m glad to hear you are doing a little better.

Peace & Love…

Lastly, greed over a great story is surfacing from my “loyal”(?) readers. With all this back and forth about who owns what, that appears on my blog, let me reiterate that all material posted on my blog becomes the sole property of my blog. If you want to reserve any proprietary rights don’t post it to my blog. I will prominently display this caveat on my blog from now on to remind those who may have forgotten this notice.

Gratefully your blog host,

michelle

Aka BABE: We all know what this means by now :)

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