Build Date: Thu May 1 02:40:47 2025 UTC
Vodka recipes and bragging about german X do not bad people make.
-- Winter Mute
Fuck You, Bill Jones, My Vote Is STILL For SALE!
2000-11-06 01:24:30
Goddamnit! It's like, every time you turn around, THE MAN is coming down on the Internet. You know what I have to say about that? "Fuck you, 'THE MAN'!" I don't care if you're Bill Jones or the Chicago Board of Elections, if you squash freedom of expression and the press, you have a fiery shit burrito with your name on it waiting for you in Hell.
Gar gar gar! So here's the big hoo-haw: this guy made this perfectly funny and amusing Web site called Voteauction.com, linked to at the end of this page. The point of Voteauction.com is simple: there are thousands of folks out there who are making a HUGE business out of buying and selling YOUR vote. They do media spots, they do polls, they do campaigns, they do "walk-around money", they do whatever it takes to get your vote.
Now, how fair is -that-? I mean, it's YOUR VOTE, shouldn't you be seeing some of this moolah? The deal with VoteAuction.com is that you could put your vote up for auction, and then you'd get paid and told just whom and what and where to vote for. VoteAuction.com cuts out the middle man, and pass the savings on to YOU!
HAW HAW HAW! It's a JOKE, get it? Selling votes is COMPLETE and UTTER BULLSHIT, whether it's done in NBC board rooms or on a crazy half-ass Web site. This is called POLITICAL SATIRE, and it's Constitutionally-protected free speech. The whole point of VoteAuction.com was to point out how egregious election-buying *is* in this country by taking the process to its logical conclusion.
Well, it seems some folks don't see it quite that way.
The original creator of VoteAuction.com, James Baumgartner, was visited by officials from New York State Board of Elections, who told him that they were going to press charges of TREASON against him. That's right, TREASON. As in, literally being subject to a FIRING SQUAD for a SATIRICAL WEB SITE. Yipes! The man backed down, which, like, I would, too.
Of course, there are folks on this here Innurnet who don't take that kind of shit lightly, such as RTMark, authors of the fantastic gwbush.com site. They managed to get VoteAuction.com moved off-shore to Austria, where it could continue to operate outside the clutches of the asswipes at the NY Board of Elections.
That's when the real evil shit began. Because, first Domain Bank, the original registrar for voteauction.com, then Network Solutions, registrars for the altered "vote-auction.com," yanked the registrations and fixed up the root domain servers so they would NEVER, EVER work. This is not about court injunctions or subpoenas or trademarks or what have you -- the domain registrars pulled the plugs without informing the VoteAuction.com people, or giving any reason.
Meanwhile, our own wankbot Secretary of State here in CA, Bill Jones, as well as the Chicago Board of Elections, have both filed in court to get everyone involved in voteauction.com hung by their asses from the nearest flagpole. You've just got to wonder when the Chicago Board of Elections comes down on you for fixing votes, man. CHICAGO, this what we're talking about here. I mean, don't they have some OTHER work to be doing in cleaning up elections, nudge nudge fucking WINK WINK!?
There's a lot of angles about this story that can make you mad. Like, the fact that it's FUCKING CHILLING to think that a few spineless, venal bastards at various domain registrars have so much control over what gets published and what doesn't. No legal responses, no agreements, no nothing. Having your domain name hoisted is like having a newspaper and all of a sudden someone lets the air out of all the tires of your delivery trucks. It's effectively squelching the free press, and it's WRONG WRONG WRONG.
But what's even darker is that law enforcement is even putting pressure on the registrars in the first place. Like, when major Presidential candidates are spending HUNDREDS of MILLIONS of dollars to buy elections, why the HELL is this system coming down on a small satirical Web site? Can we talk about taking the LOG out of your fucking EYE before you go after the splinter in your neighbor's? Thank you? Because this is a WARPED system we have here, folks, and if you can go to the WALL for even TALKING about that system's defects, man, we're farther along the road to destruction than you think.
Check out voteauction, do what you can to support them, send some mail to the running dog shit-suckers linked above. Don't let them keep us down, dammit.
T O P S T O R I E S
California Glory Hole attracts huge crowds
A glory hole at Napa's Lake Berryessa is drawing huge crowds. According to Chris Lee, the general manager for the Solano County Water Agency, the glory hole hasn't been active since 2019, and only restarted operations on Feb 4. (More...)
Republican State Senator busted after soliciting a teenage girl
Republican State Senator Justin Eichorn of Minnesota was arrested for soliciting a teen girl on Monday just hours after he introduced a bill proposing "Trump derangement syndrome" (TDS) as a form of mental illness. (More...)
Parents claim measles is not that bad after having only one child die
The parents of a Texas girl who died from the measles are defending their decision not to vaccinate their daughter. "She says they would still say 'Don't do the shots,'" an unidentified translator for the parents said. "They think it’s not as bad as the media is making it out to be." (More...)
Delusional rich man tries to fire town staff
"I'm mayor now" said write-in mayoral candidate and founder of Pirate’s Booty Snacks Robert Ehrlich after losing the election for Mayor of Sea Cliff, NY. Then he tried to take over the Village Hall and fire everyone. (More...)
Musk claims Xitter security is staffed by idiots
Earlier this month Xitter experienced a massive outage. In an interview, Musk told Fox Business that he believes the attack came from "IP addresses originating in the Ukraine area." (More...)
The Future Ain't What It Used To Be
Ideas have taken horrifying shape and rooted into our modern reality. (More...)
C L A S S I C P I G D O G
Things to Say When You're Losing a Technical Argument
Mr. Bad and Crackmonkey collaborate on a fine Mr. Bad's List. We put together ALL the TECHNOLOGY you ever need to know in order to STUMP your OPPONENT in a technical argument. Use these only when your back is against the wall -- they're definitely desperation tactics. (More...)
It's not like I have a heroin problem, see. I'm just a self-indulgent brat who likes to live beyond her means. When I zip down to my corner Money Mart for a little cash-till-payday loan, I'm really not planning to spend it on drugs. I'll spend it on sushi. Seventy bucks of interest for a two-week $400 loan is perfectly reasonable, if you really need that hamachi. (More...)
During a magnificent sunny day in a fast receding autumn, the Spock Science Monitor reporters once again blew the playa dust off of their computers and covered the 2002 Burning Man Decompression – held every year just east of Portola Hill in beautiful San Francisco. Both an afternoon and evening issues were released to the unsuspecting crowd of freaks attempting to in some small way experience the euphoria of the playa – if but for a brief afternoon far from the desolation of Northern Nevada. (More...)
What the hell is going on with Sony?
Is anyone else as confused as I am with what's happening with the Sony Playstation network hack? (More...)
It was early in May last year when I first heard about Spock Mountain Research Labs. I was working on a story about a Hungarian scientist's new approach to nucleopeptide synthesis when I got a call from my friend Albert. (More...)