In trademark style, Lawrence Lessig today announced the creation of a congressional exploratory committee. If in the next few days he decides to officially enter the race, he'll be running in the special election on April 8th to fill the CA-12 seat recently vacated by the death of Tom Lantos. A run by Lessig would likely be seen as a new front the the technocratic, post-partisan movement Barack Obama is attempting to catalyze; Lessig was a colleague of Obama at the University of Chicago law school, helped to draft Obama's technology plan, and is describing his potential run (his first attempt at public office), and the larger Change Congress project he also announced today, as an attempt to save Congress as an institution from the corrupting influence of money. [more inside]
posted by gsteff on Feb 19, 2008 - 50 comments

In Violation of Federal Law, Ohio's 2004 Presidential Election Records Are Destroyed or Missing. "The extent of the destruction of records is consistent with the covering up of the fraud that we believe occurred in the presidential election."
posted by chunking express on Jul 31, 2007 - 220 comments

Stop me if you've heard this one before - Republican congressman blames democrats for legal troubles. The house ethics committee didn't see anything wrong with Weldon's activities, but one can't help but wonder how Weldon is helping his constituency by traveling to Belgrade on behalf of one of Slobodan Milosevic's pals, who is, incidentally, a client of Weldon's daughter's consulting firm. At least no one is accusing Weldon of trying to choke his mistress.
posted by Mister_A on Oct 20, 2006 - 30 comments

The Worst Congress Ever. How our national legislature has become a stable of thieves and perverts -- in five easy steps. By Matt Taibbi. [Via TalkLeft.]
posted by homunculus on Oct 18, 2006 - 80 comments

Berlusconi going down? another leftist leader elected - another victim of bush policies or of his own hubris? (via war and piece)
posted by specialk420 on Apr 10, 2006 - 62 comments

Whooops! While making a required filing to the state ethics commission, Ohio Secretary of State and gubernatorial candidate Kenneth Blackwell finds Diebold shares in his stock portfolio that he now claims to have bought "accidentally." Yes, that Diebold -- the e-voting company whose chairman promised to "deliver the vote" to George Bush. And yes, that Blackwell, whose state helped deliver the White House to the GOP. Blackwell insists that the humble amount of Diebold stock was in one of those "blind trust" type of arrangements that worked out so rewardingly for Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. [newsfilter via RawStory.]
posted by digaman on Apr 4, 2006 - 108 comments

I mean, programming's a bitch, but... I'll bet there's something else to it.
posted by postmodernmillie on Mar 12, 2005 - 32 comments

20 Amazing Facts About Read this and cry. Or move to another country.
posted by Postroad on Dec 31, 2004 - 76 comments

Guess the Poll, Win $5000.00 FJ
Fijilive.com (with the Fiji Post) is hosting a contest to guess who will be the next prime minister. Voting for parlimentary elections began on Saturday in Fiji, with few observed problems. Charges of intimidation, illegality, et cetera fly back and forth. Someone circulated some pamphlets that said paraphrasedly "a vote for Chaudry is a vote for bloodshed." Mahendra Chaudry was the Labor prime minister deposed while being held hostage in May last year. Several of those involved in that abortive, yet destructive coup are also running under their own banners. They seem to have split the ethnic Fijian vote (approx 51% of the population) more than anything.
posted by rschram on Aug 27, 2001 - 2 comments

The Election Story Never Told On it’s face, this article is about corruption in Florida before the election. It is still basically an known story in the US, but it is very popular in Britain. Also of note is the continued record of a lazy corporate media refusing to do any sort of journalistic legwork.
posted by capt.crackpipe on Feb 28, 2001 - 8 comments