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When the software eats the homework
Submitted by Kevin Richert on Wed, 08/13/2008 - 9:33am.
Rep. Bill Sali's chronic problems with his campaign finance reports have drawn fire from a national open government group.
The nonpartisan Sunlight Foundation isn't buying the Sali company line, which lays the blame on glitches in the Federal Election Commission's software.
"Rep. Sali should take public disclosure more seriously and perhaps figure out a way to train his staff on computer use," Paul Blumenthal wrote on the foundation's blog Tuesday. (Hat tip: The MountainGoat Report.)
He's got a point. FEC reports are a pretty basic component of public disclosure.
Here's where the software complaint wears thin. If the FEC had made unfathomable and faulty software available to all candidates, it seems to me a bunch of candidates would have been struggling with their sunshine reports. Sali was one of only two incumbents who failed to meet the FEC's July 15 deadline. Sounds less like bad software and more like operator error.
The Sali camp is trying to get a lot of mileage out of the software soundbite. According to the Shenanigans blog at Politico.com, the problems with Sali's e-newsletter (relatively minor, compared the FEC problems) stem back to a vendor's software problems.
I guess I could blame crummy software for $4-a-gallon unleaded, ozone pollution, yellowing teeth and graying hair, and the spate of injuries afflicting my fantasy baseball team. I haven't convinced myself. And I'll be curious to see if 1st District voters, like the Sunshine Foundation, react skeptically when they're told the software ate the homework.
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You Just Don't Understand Salian Science And Technology!
Once again, we see Anti-Sali Socialists who don't understand Science and Technology as well as Congressman Bill Sali, Hero of the Owyhees. The reason all those other candidates can get their software to work is that they're just as illogical as the unConstitutional FEC! Bill Sali knows that making software work isn't as easy as getting crude oil from a tree; you need to make improvements to the database. Bill Sali and his crack staff probably just care enough to remove Socialist and sexually-suggestive lines of code from their government-supplied software; this means that they're smarter than all the other "punctual" candidates.
And do you know who else wants you to be punctual? Your Socialist boss. Bill Sali knows that Patriotic Idahoans don't like their Socialist bosses, so he isn't going to be like them!
My Patriotic Pro-Sali Website!
And don't forget the astounding medical link between abortion
and toenail fungus...or is it Muslims in congress that cause that, or is it the law of gravity that affects breasts...oh heck, professor Sali has me all confused...
No,no,no!
It's all tied to spontaneous combution of draft cards and brassieres and wildwood flowers/weeds and some dude named H. R. Haldeman.
Don't the boy have hisself a good dog?
Lawdy, thet's Com-O-Nist
It Looks Like "The Daily Show" Doesn't Agree With You
The Patriots at The Daily Show are singing Bill Sali's praises! Check out this post from The Daily Show's "Indecision 2008" blog that easily refutes Richert's baseless drivel. Here are some excerpts:
"Take Republican Congressman Bill Sali of Idaho, for example. His campaign seems... to master the incredibly difficult... computing device"
and
"... they always... figure out how to... upload FEC report through... office network... on the hard drive".
All the Anti-Sali Socialists out there must be trembling in fear now that Bill Sali is getting the kind of national press attention that will catapult him to an easy victory in November and on towards the White House in 2012!
My Patriotic Pro-Sali Website!
Now that's funny and very
Now that's funny and very appropriate, you quote a mock news program as your source for information. Just awesome man.
Oh yea, what also discredits
Oh yea, what also discredits you is that you obviously associate anyone who does not like Bill Sali as a socialist and unpatriotic. You would have loved Nazi Germany.
Its satire
bub. He's trying to be funny.
What-What-Whaaattt?
Satire? Satire!?!
My Patriotic Pro-Sali Website!
Satire...you know...
that famous writer...William Satire.
I had BBQ'd T-bone and nuked some baked taters, real fresh...
limeade with Equal and buttered bread 4 BREAKFAST after getting 2/3 of my audio video setup together and playing 4 Laserdiscs, includng Roy Orbison-A Black And White Night and XANADU so I celebrated.
Can Bill Sali do that on an all-nighter?
Hell no? Tell him to kick those Russian's Astronauts.
If my software ate MY homework...
I'd have it neutered.
PETWU
People for the Ethical Treatment of Windows Users