Dead horse? What dead horse?
For those of us who have long thought that the 2004 Ohio election was every bit as corrupt as the 2000 Florida election (if not more so), this is sweet.
Richard Hayes Phillips, statistician and now election reform advocate, in a legal declaration:
Having reviewed a substantial amount of forensic evidence, it is my conclusion that there is direct evidence of ballot tampering in each of the eleven counties whose public records I have examined, and that there is a compelling need to protect the evidence from destruction, presently scheduled to take place on or shortly after September 2, 2006. The Court should order all Boards of Elections to continue to preserve and protect all ballots, poll books, voter signature books, and associated records from the November 2, 2004 election until a suitable repository is found for their permanent preservation.
I will get to reading this later this week, and, hopefully, include some of what I glean from it in my election systems blog.
A little background: These ballots were scheduled to be destroyed earlier this month, but they will be preserved, thanks to these motions that were filed.
This is verrrry verrrry interesting.
Today a magnitude 6.0 earthquake occurred in the Gulf of Mexico, causing residents of the Gulf Coast to feel tremors. It didn’t cause tsunami warnings, but it is a bit unsettling for a quake this strong to occur relatively close to the New Madrid fault.
Earthquakes often trigger other earthquakes in relatively short spaces of time, because the Earth’s tectonic plates share edges with each other. In fact, another relatively strong earthquake–5.2–occurred in February of this year in the same general area. The Gulf of Mexico is on the same tectonic plate as the New Madrid fault–the North American Plate. The recent seismic activity in the Gulf is somewhat disturbing.
2006 has had a surprisingly slow hurricane season considering that it’s part of the active phase of the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation. Tropical Storm Florence is currently spinning in the Atlantic, flirting with the East Coast (but probably won’t make the commitment). Compare this with last year, when we were past the now infamous “K” name, and with 2004, which had already had two Category Four storms and a Category Five (Ivan) brewing.
Every single storm this year has struggled, from the smallest disturbance to the (so far) most powerful system of the year, Category One Hurricane Ernesto. They all experienced dry air and strong shear, which hindered development despite the overall warm sea surface temperatures that I have been documenting since May. Meanwhile, activity in the Pacific Basin has flourished; the eastern part of it is on the “K” name (Kristy). What’s causing this?
Well, the answer appears to be that meteorological boogeyman associated in the public mind with weird weather and general weather-related misfortune: El Niño. Meteorologists are starting to come to agreement that we are entering an El Niño and that it will impact the winter weather this year, as well as the remainder of the hurricane season. What doesn’t it impact?
Hmm…
Well, the weird thing is that Atlantic sea temperatures remain very warm. The Gulf of Mexico is warm enough to support a storm like Hurricane Camille (which had 200 mph winds), and much of the Atlantic can support a major hurricane. Ordinarily, El Niño is accompanied by cooler-than-normal Atlantic temperatures as well as unusual prevailing wind patterns that destroy tropical systems. The winds are there, but not the water temperatures. I wonder if global warming has caused our oceans to remain warmer than normal (whether for El Niño, La Niña, or neutral) for longer than normal. Thus far, this active hurricane cycle, which began in 1995, has had two strong El Niño years: 1997 and 2002. 2004′s hurricane season was cut short by a weak El Niño that developed late in that year, but only 1997 and 2002 experienced a powerful event. In both years, sea temperatures dropped with the onset of the El Niño conditions.
It’s something to think about.
