Everything about the UN Oil For Food/Oil For Fraud program is dirty - including its own investigation into the program.

Former Fed Chairman Paul Volcker has such significant financial conflicts of interest that - were he even the most activist judge asked to take a court case - he would recuse himself to take away any semblance of partiality.

Mr.Volcker has had a long term advisory relationship with the UNA USA Business Council - a pro UN organization funded by BNP Parabas - the bank that administered all of the OFF transactions.

He also has had a long standing relationship with the Power Corporation of Canada also associated with BNP and the French oil giant Total which did almost $2 billion in OFF transactions.

Contrary to UN regulations, Kofi Annan did not require the necessary financial disclosure by Mr. Volcker when the UN brought him aboard to 'investigate' the OFF program. The UN maintains that this is just a matter of trust. We're out of trust Mr. Annan. Having someone that has a fiduciary relationship with parties to the crimes just doesn't work.

Click on the picture above for a video of an excerpt of a FOX investigative report on Volcker by the tenacious Jonathan Hunt - who is on the hunt at FOX News.

UPDATE: A Western Heart has additional details.

The byline says Gov. Bush Loses Appeal in Fla. Right-To-Die Case. The story is about the Florida Supreme Court refusing to hear an appeal from Jeb Bush and Terri Schiavo's family against those who want to kill Terri.

Hey Reuters, isn't this a Right-To-Live case? Take a look at this video (requires Real Media player). Does this look like someone who wants to die?

Terri's fight.

Yesterday afternoon during his Special Report show, Brit Hume interviewed Stefan Sharkansky, of Sound Politics, about the Washington gubernatorial, er, situation.

For all of us - who have labored long to see that the voice of freedom deserves a hearing - there was great elation to hear a clear and cogent exposure of the damage that has been done to democracy in our fair state.

It didn't hurt that Brit Hume was a felicitous questioner, but Stefan was able to make the case that we need a new election to right what went wrong here. For me, it was especially poignant that Stefan - who is not an attorney or a professional politician - was the de facto spokesman for all of us.

I know Shark himself would never say this - he is far too humble. So let me step up: Stefan Sharkansky is imbued with the spirit of our founding fathers. He cherishes freedom so much that he is willing to risk everything for it. I know that all of his colleagues are proud of him - and, though, to this point, he and I know each other only through the exchange of emails and blog comments - I am proud to call him friend.

I wish you continued Godspeed, my friend. The fight has just begun.

I have video of the interview here (requires MS media player - suitable for DSL, cable, T1). And also on my additional mirror site here. (Be prepared for a little Fraudoire shock at the beginning...)

Ace chips in: Shark not likely an MSM guest. Number of TV interviews with Shark and MSM: 0 (correct me if I'm wrong.) This despite our local alternative tree consumer The Stranger suggesting that the MSM is in lock-step with the bloggers and Shark in particular.

UPDATE: With Sound Politics linking in, we are getting a pretty good storm in terms of video access. The media servers report that they are keeping up ok, but direct testing shows that the main data server is a little overwhelmed. I suggest flipping a coin to try the main or mirror - it doesn't work for an election, but will spread out the use on the data servers :) Thanks!

UPDATE: Powerline has details on Shark's Seattle Times Op/Ed piece today. Maybe MSM lock-step after all? (You know I'm kidding.) H/T Ninme.

Stephanie 'Tubbs' Jones (Ed. apostrophe added for emphasis) will forever be known - at least by me as just 'Tubbs'. Now, you may be thinking that I'm making some negative suggestion about her body or her weight. I assure you that I am not thinking in that way.

My appellation, rather, is assigned on the basis of what she dumped yesterday on the floor at the Congressional joint session at which the electoral ballots were being certified. She dumped tubs and tubs right there - in front of the whole world - tubs.

The House and the Senate retired to individual chambers and took up two hours of debate on the basis of Tubbs' objection. What we heard from the House debate primarily is some round about 'count every vote' mantra - and those joining the objectors stated repeatedly that this objection was not challenging the election - not really - it was just to get attention on the need to assure universal enfranchisement.

When the clerk reported the objection, he read in part: "...on the grounds that they were not under all of the known circumstances regularly given..." which directly contradicts and challenges the formal submission which was read as "... the electoral votes of Ohio seems to be regular in form and authentic..." Click on the picture to the left to see the video (requires MS Media Player).

Despite what was said in chambers after retiring to debate, this was nothing other than an assault on our Democracy.

Whenever you see Tubbs again, just remember - there's Tubbs and she dumped tubs and tubs on the floor on January 6, 2004.

I'm getting an email or two every day about what different investigations are determining about fraud occuring in Washington state during our recent 'election'. For the most part, I am being asked not to report on what they are finding so all I can say is that it is all juicy and, if correct, will rock our state and likely the nation.

Friend 'Shark' Sharkansky over at Sound Politics has been doing yeoman's work with King County data - discovering certain precincts with large numbers of voters whose addresses are at the elections office (our state law requires registration at a residence), apparent multiple voters, apparent dead voters, and at minimum: gross incompetence on King County's part in getting precincts, voters, and ballots all mixed up. Shark originally broke the story about the 3,539 less voters than there are ballots currently reported by King County (they are working on an 'update').

The Democrats will likely argue that all this fuss about irregularities is just sour grapes - and that 'mistakes' are all that have been discovered - that King County has some work to do to overcome some incompetence in some areas and that they'll do something about it. They certainly were not aware of any problems with King County, certainly there's no fraud, right?

Well, the latest bombshell is that yesterday friend Dinocrat Josef commented on this site about his deja vu - he had remembered seeing some video on a site (that would be Will Baker's) about vote fraud in King County. (Sound Politics posted on Josef's deja vu here.)

I spent some time since then capturing the video over the internet and converting it from Real media to Windows media, editing it down a little and combining two clips into one file and attempting to improve it a bit. The video is of very poor quality (very low frame rate) - but the audio is pretty good. I'm attempting to get original source material both from Will and King 5 - if I can get them to answer my emails. Click on the picture at left to see the video (requires MS media player).

The Fair Elections Group - as of 1998 had found voting fraud in 12 states - that was every state that it had worked in through that point in time - was hired by King 5 to analyze the King County voter list - that's the same one in the current version that Shark is working with.

The Fair Elections Group immediately reported: There are thousands of voters illegally registered and voting in King County!

In the video, King County officials promise they will correct the problems. Later the King County Council met about reform and noted that there were thousands of cases of illegal voting in King County and that the King 5 investigation and videos were significant and instrumental in pointing out the problems.

The Fair Elections Group also determined that about 5,200 voters in King County were registered twice.

Election officials stated that these reports were really just clerical errors and would be corrected. The King County Council representative said that reforms were established - and they ordered King County elections to enact proposed changes in voting registration and procedures.

An exhaustive crawl of the King County web site doesn't find any effort of any kind of reforming voting procedure or registration reform any time between 1998 and the present.

At minimum this means that King County election officials cannot hide behind incompetence or not knowing there were any problems - at worst it means that King County officials are a nest of vipers who have usurped the will of the people and that every close election in Washington state - not just this Governor's race - a Senate seat and several bond issues recently come to mind - are suspect.

It is also telling that the public has allowed this infestation of corruption to remain. No more, I say, no more!

UPDATE: Thankfully, Michelle Malkin is continuing to update on our plight.

I'm taking the Christmas decorations down - and the New Year has begun!

I put up a new 'about' pic with a snapshot of the Space Needle during the fireworks display at the turning of the year.

There are times when we are reminded of why Seattle is called the Emerald City - New Year's eve was one of those times.

I captured King 5's broadcast of the fireworks display and have posted it to my file site (requires MS media player - about 9 minutes long) in case you missed it or are not in the Northwest market and would like to see the Space Needle beautifully and literally lit up to coordinated music.

(Technical note: The encoding from video capture to streaming file media was very difficult for this video segment since there is so much 'near black' background. It streams at about 280k per second and is far from perfect - though I am pleased that the video artifacts aren't too bad even with the fairly low bandwidth. I have this video upconverted to 720p HD and it looks pretty fabulous - at about 5 mb per second bit rate and 296 megabytes it ought to.)

There are so many stories of peril, of horror, of escape, of loss, of reunion - it is overwhelming.

This past weekend, whatever Anderson Cooper was expecting when he interviewed Dayalan Sanders about how he and all of the children living at the Samaritan Chidren's Home in Sri Lanka managed to escape the tsunami - it wasn't this (or click the picture to the left - requires MS media player). Sanders is the founder and Director of the orphanage.

It does demonstrate that fervent, faithful Christians can be found everywhere in service to humankind. Who but a Christian or a descendant of Moses would stand before the terrible seas and command them to be still? A Detroit News story on Dayalan's and his charges' experience is here. The orphanage has been completely destroyed. I have been able to locate Dayalan's US address at which to send donations. This is one place where a few gifts would create a huge impact.:

Samaritan Home Relief
P.O Box 83608
Gaithersburg, MD 20883

UPDATE: You can now donate via PayPal at this site.

UPDATE: If you haven't heard yet, Jordan Golson's site - Cheese and Crackers has vaulted to the top of the blog ecosystem with incredible tsunami video coverage. While there are many voices on the many videos that he's serving up from various mirrors - none of them can be heard commanding the seas to be still. Michelle Malkin discussed 'Video Blogging' as the emerging 'TV Show' of the internet but somehow doesn't use my work as an example of "adding content and commentary to news footage". In at least a couple of cases, I have made considerable use of video editing software.

I recently wrote a piece about the Heroes of India Company reviewing a FOX News documentary - about brave Marines who fought in the battle of Fallujah, Iraq. Thousands of people around the world read that piece and watched the accompanying video - many have written to stand with pride for these incredible patriots and to share in the grief for those who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom.

Please let me introduce you to another Fallujah hero from Washington state. His name is Tyler Farmer. He's also a Marine. He was wounded in the battle of Fallujah - was treated and is now back in action.

Tyler took particular care in doing his part to vote in this year's election. He didn't count on his home county making a mistake in not getting his ballot to him on a timely basis. He was disenfranchised by no fault of his own.

Better, let Tyler's father do the introduction and tell the story. Click on the picture to the left or here to see a video of the Rossi press conference the afternoon of December 30th (requires MS media player - this is about an 11 minute long clip.)

The Democrats in our state just appealed to our State Supreme Court to get a specific set of ballots - that had been rejected by the King County canvassing board (by 'mistake') - counted so as to not disenfranchise those voters. But in response to Tyler's plight - from this brave patriot who lays his body on the altar of freedom every day for you and me - Christine Gregoire, Washington's now Governor Elect, reminds us that the election is not 'golf'.

Let's be blunt: If you Christine Gregoire, Washington Democratic party, Gregoire supporters in the public - if you are not willing to go to the same length - even to the Washington Supreme Court - to see that the hundreds of overseas military voters that were disenfranchised are allowed to be counted - then you do violence to our democracy and you will be held accountable.

We will not allow the blood of patriots to be trampled under foot.

UPDATE: Many thanks to Michelle Malkin for the link. Also see the comment by reader 'Baynative' which concludes with "How do we explain this to those who are risking their lives to help conduct a democratic election in Iraq?".

UPDATE: Many thanks to Kathryn Lopez from the Corner at National Review Online for the link. Thank you for helping us get attention on this! Post after post on King County fraud and MSM calumny at Shark and friends' place.

UPDATE: In addition to Michelle Malkin, and the Corner, Many more blogs are bringing attention to this 'election': Polipundit, Powerline, Little Green Footballs, and Captain's Quarters - among many others I'm sure - all pile in.

UPDATE: 1/3/05: Shark got an email about more disenfranchised soldiers here.

I'm steamed. There are many things that I want to say, but every time I start to write them I hear my dear late mother's voice say "If you can't say it with decorum, try saying it with art."

I can find little decorum in the process we are in. The WA gubernatorial race recount has become a re-doo.

So, without further a-doo, please click on the picture to see a video of what's been happening in our fair state during the last few weeks.

Warning: This video contains repeated depictions of animated animal defecation. If you are offended by depictions of animated animal defecation or you don't want to see a new political definition of the word 'pork' please do not watch the video.

UPDATE: Thanks to Jeff Goldstein (whose conservatism is only exceeded by his ribaldry) at Protein Wisdom for caring.

About 100 Bellevue Washington Rossi supporters were treated to a short but rousing speech by Governor Dino Rossi this evening about 6:45 PM at the Hyatt Regency, Bellevue.

Large placards proclaiming "Don't Change the Rules" were available for all attendees.

State Republican Chair Chris Vance introduced Governor Rossi. Chairman Vance's most memorable line was: "This fight is worth fighting because this is a man that is worth fighting for." This was greeted by deafening applause and a lump in this Rossi supporter's throat.

This is the first time that I have seen Governor Rossi speak - and I was "touch me" close to him. This is a man who has been strengthened by trial. There is no weariness in him. He spoke for a few minutes stressing 1) That the Democrats not be allowed to change the rules, and 2) That he was eager to undertake the transition and that the people of Washington state were being robbed of the best possible transition because of an unnecessary recount and the Democrat lawsuit that attempts to introduce discarded ballots.

He said that he understood that as a Republican in this state he would have to win three times to be declared Governor - to laughter from the attendees - and he added that he was prepared to do just that.

He thanked everyone for the support they had given to his campaign and asked them for their continued support - during a time when they should be Christmas shopping. He said to please volunteer to assist the campaign at 'info-at-dinorossi-dot-com' because they need much assistance over the next few weeks.

Dino Rossi is a man that is more than just a politician that wants the title of Governor - he's a man that passionately cares for the people of this state. Seeing him and hearing him in this setting, during what I sensed is an historic time for him and this state, further convinces me about what is at stake.

We need this man to fulfill the charge set before him as Governor of our fair state. Let us do what is required to insure that happens.

(I wished almost immediately for my camera at this event - and remembered that I left my phone in my truck - it has a simple camera in it - by time I got back I was only able to capture some Rossi supporters talking after the meeting - I took a couple of other shots - and I came back over to the office and bluetooth'ed them over - sorry for the poor quality - I'll take what I can get. Someone video taped the event - I don't know if it was the campaign or the news pool but I hope we'll have the opportunity to see his speech again.)

UPDATE: I guess it was a news pool camera at the rally. Click on the picture to the left for a short video clip of Governor Rossi and Chairman Vance sound bites (Requires MS Media Player).

Nathan of Pajama Jihad provides a stirring roundup of the Tacoma rally Wednesday evening here.