The logical fallacies of conservatives

Previously we brought you the quiz "Which Breed of Liberal Are You?" Today this excerpt, via Bill in Portland Maine:

In the "Advanced Battle Tactics" chapter of his new book, How to Win a Fight with a Conservative, Dan Kurtzman shows how Republicans lean heavily on "logical fallacies" to try and win arguments. He defines logical fallacies as "the three-legged stools of faulty reasoning that conservatives use to prop up many of their ridiculous ideas." See if these sound familiar...

False Choice: Offering only two options for consideration when there are clearly other valid choices.

Example: "If we give up the fight in the streets of Baghdad, we will face the terrorists in the streets of our own cities." ---George W. Bush

Strawman: Oversimplifying, exaggerating, caricaturing or otherwise misrepresenting your position without regard to fact. In doing this, your opponent sets up a figurative straw man that he can easily knock down to prove his point.

Example: "Conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 in the attacks and prepared for war; liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers." ---Karl Rove

Shifting The Burden of Proof: Presenting an argument as commonly accepted truth, failing to support it with any evidence, and then forcing you to prove otherwise. This tactic is employed out of laziness or to mask the reality that the facts are not on your side.

Example: "I think the burden is on those people who think he didn’t have weapons of mass destruction to tell the world where they are." ---[Former White House press secretary] Ari Fleischer, on Saddam Hussein's alleged WMDs

Slippery Slope: Leaping to wild, sometimes inexplicable conclusions---going, say, from Step One to Step Two and then all the way to Step Ten without establishing any discernible connection. By using this kind of leapfrog logic, a person can come to any conclusion he damn well pleases.

Example: "All of a sudden, we see riots, we see protests, we see people clashing. The next thing we know, there is injured or there is dead people. We don’t want to get to that extent." ---Arnold Schwarzenegger, on the dangers posed by gay marriage

e-voting woes: Hart InterCivic's e-Slates

Kristen Mack, from earlier this month:

A recent study of the electronic voting machine used in Harris County found that attacks on the system could compromise the accuracy, secrecy and availability of the machine.

The California secretary of state's office conducted a "top-to-bottom review" of the voting machines certified for use in California, including the Hart InterCivic system used here.

The tests, administered by the University of California at Davis, found that absent tighter procedures, hackers could alter vote totals, violate the privacy of individual voters and delete audit trails.

Debra Bowen, the CA SOS, decertified the Hart machines (.pdf) for use in her state. She tentatively will re-approve them if they use an updated, more secure version of their (still-proprietary) software.

The Harris County Democratic Party's Elections Integrity Working Group, an offshoot of the Progressive Populist Caucus' efforts to thwart the assortment of voter suppression tactics throughout the largest county in Texas, will meet today with Houston mayor Bill White, Harris County clerk Beverley Kaufman and others to discuss the issues swirling around Hart's e-Slates.

Kaufman's office doesn't think the California hackfest is anything to worry about:

"The laboratory experiment, as conducted by the UC-Davis researchers, seems almost impossible to replicate outside that laboratory environment. Thus, voters in Harris County should be aware, but not be concerned by the results," said Hector DeLeon, a spokesman for Harris County Clerk Beverly Kaufman, whose office administers elections.

DeLeon called the test unrealistic because it is "premised on providing unfettered access to the voting equipment to a malicious individual with the technological savvy and ingenuity to violate the system."

Excuse me, Hector?

"Relying on security through obscurity is a terrible thing to do," UC-Davis computer science professor Matt) Bishop said. "(Hackers) can get the info, the only question is how hard do they have to work to get it. Any defense that relies on ignorance underestimates how ingenious attackers can be and overestimates how fallible people are."

The county, under contract, conducts all of the city of Houston's municipal elections. Harris County officials from top to bottom are Republicans; Houston's mayor and a predominant majority of city council members are Democratic.

The possibility of having paper trails -- much less a paper ballot -- in time for the November 2008 election is slim and none, and Slim just rode out of town. The city is disinclined from a cost aspect to add printers to the e-Slates; the county genuinely unconcerned by the risk assessment to do so. Today's meeting likely won't move those positions much.

Still, the recommendations of the task force will include following the guidelines set forth in the Texas Secretary of State's Election Advisory #2006-16, along with the 'best practices' suggestions of Travis County clerk Dana DeBeauvoir in her "Method for Developing Security Procedures in a DRE Environment" (.pdf) which include logic and accuracy tests, parallel and hash code testing and post-election and audit protocols to prevent -- or failing that, detect -- electronic vote tampering.

That's not too much to ask, is it?

The media guide cover

of the 2007 University of Arkansas women's volleyball squad:


That's Jessica Dorrell, senior, on the left.

She's nearly six feet tall and blonde; I am not. We're still related, trust me.

400 (and $20,000)

After Christy at firedoglake and Kuffner independently came up with the same idea -- welcoming Bush's Brain back to Texas by Changing the Equation -- the netroots pushed Rick Noriega over a couple of important thresholds today: 400 individual contributions and $20,000.

Here's Rick's latest video:



Have you boarded the Noriega Express yet? No time like the present...

Still can't believe they killed 'Deadwood' for it

The wave has crashed for "John From Cincinnati." A day after its first-season finale, HBO on Monday canceled the dark surfing drama.

Labeled by critics as "strange," "weird" and "unlikable," "John" never clicked with viewers despite a strong marketing campaign and such well-known leads as Rebecca De Mornay and Bruce Greenwood.

You can say that again. I found it completely unwatchable. Coming on the heels of the Sopranos finale, in the wake of Entourage and, with bonafides like the creator of Deadwood, I never expected that something from HBO could be so bad.

But it was.

I'm not a big fan of Big Love or Flight of the Conchords either so what used to be a pretty enjoyable Sunday evening in front of the TV has turned into a wasteland (yes, I hear you saying it's all a wasteland). I don't watch much beyond the sport of the season and the Daily/Colbert anyway, so it's disappointing when something good goes away.

Bush's Brain Drain

Do you know why they didn't try to sneak this announcement through last Friday afternoon?

Because they didn't want it to be in the Sunday Funnies.

Don't let the door hit ya,Turd Blossom

Truth to tell, I've always loved Karl Rove. I understand his plans include writing a book. Dubya will have a difficult transition without Karl guiding him, but I expect to see The Architect give the assist to Senator Box Turtle once more in 2008.

It's just a shame Rover won't be leaving the White House with some assistance himself. I had an idea for the perfect roommate for him.