the 941

Because we often find ourselves desperately searching for role models, we’re introducing a new feature this afternoon. Daily Hero doesn’t need much of an explanation — we’re simply looking for people to inspire us, to lead us, and perhaps to wear their drawers outside their pants. As the name so subtly implies, we’ll be scouring the world, or more likely the Internets, every day for our hero. But as always, if you’ve got a suggestion, let us know in the comments or dash a missive to max at creativeloafing dot com.

Our inaugural Daily Hero is well known around these parts. The last year for Sarasota County Supervisor of Elections Kathy Dent has been — how do we put this? — craptastic. She presided over one of the least credible elections in modern U.S. history and was hounded by “pesky activists” — then news broke that she’d known about the problems with the voting machines two months before Vern’s “victory.”

We tend to go into a funk when our root beer goes flat. But when faced with Michael Brown-esque adversity, did Kathy Dent slink away? Hell no. Because Kathy Dent has pluck, people. She’s got more pluck in her pinky than you do in your whole —

Okay. We can’t anymore. According to Jeremy Wallace, Kathy Dent is thinking about running again for Supervisor of Elections again in ’08, and really, we can’t think of anything more ridiculous than the idea of her being reelected. It seems so bullheaded. So stubborn.

So … heroic.

Kathy Dent, we salute you.

Tragedy in Minneapolis.

+ Just this weekend we were talking about Edwards — a progressive friend loves Edwards’ talking points, we’re not sure how sincere he is. James Ridgeway tries to settle the debate. [mother jones]
+ The Jennings tax problem could haunt her in ‘08. [ht]
+ Interim no more! Van Weez director is gone for “personal and career plans” — we are currently unaware of any other plans that would force someone to leave his job. Oh, right, “they were going to fire me” plans. [ht]
+ Alec Baldwin taking a break from berating his daughter to save the Manatees. Man, some image consultant got creative. “Listen, Al, I know it sounds stupid. But what’s cuter than a manatee? That’s right. Nothing. DO IT.” [huffpo]
+ What?!? iPhone getting whupped in a gadget-of-the-century contest? Wow! Alright! Oh. Crud. [wired]
+ We don’t know how this is news, but it caught our eye, so maybe it’ll catch yours. Stewart doesn’t like the gift baskets they hand out to Daily Show guests. That is all. [romenesko]
+ Hey all you teachers: Heard of Schoopy? We hadn’t ’till about five minutes ago. Could this be a help in the classroom? [schoopy]

Happy berfday, MTV …

+ District 13 Tax Trouble #1: Christine didn’t pay hers. [ht]
+ District 13 Tax Trouble #2: Vern’s raising them, after promising not to. [ht]
+ Elijah Dukes = done. [rays index]
+ We’re officialy convinced that, at some point, Florida cut a deal with the rest of the country where we promised to take in all of America’s horrible parents. What’d we get in return? [bh]
+ Look out for aimless skateboarders downtown. [sarasotagov]
+ The first rave we’ve ever seen in Rants & Raves. [craigslist]
+ Jack Shafer on Rupert. [press box]
+ Great story about the rise of TV in Afganistan. [nyt]
+ Why’s everything going wrong in sports? We knew it! Beckham! [esquire]

We’re still having nightmares…

+ Vern’s on a fundraising tear — guess that’s what you need after “winning” by 362 votes. [bh]
+ McCain? No tear. But there are tears! [huffpo]
+ Nightclubs go green! AP makes grand generalizations in the second graf! Neither all that surprising! [ht]
+ What’s really inside a Red Bull. [wired]
+ Should the budget for the upcoming Census be cut to fund illegal immigrant policing? Well, it was. [nyt]
+ Here’s your Happy Monday Quote of the Day: “They had food; they just chose not to give it to their kids because they were too busy playing video games.” Just so we’re clear, that was the parents who were too busy playing video games. The kids ended up malnourished and in the hospital. [my way]
+ We admit it: We’d watch. [free darko]

+ Listen to the woman. [radar]
+ Good news! If the bad guy hits your car when the cops are chasing, you’re covered. (We can’t believe they fought him on this.) [ht]
+ The next step for Jennings. [bh]
+ The real Friday Night Lights. [nyt]
+ We’re only linking to this because Apple is clearly trying to capitalize on the astounding popularity of The 941 with that screen. [slate]
+ Apparently we shouldn’t be surprised that network news shows pay for celeb interviews — we still are, of course — but $1 million for Paris? How does the market get set on these things? [huffpo]
+ Finally, a great day for New York Boobs. [cnn]

Short, sweet and about two hours late — just the way you like em…

+ PoHo weighs in on the latest with District 13. [cl]
+ Is David Stern evil? If you’re lucky, we might get into this ourselves later on. [slate]
+ Wolfowitz and W — even more alike than you think. [nyt]
+ Dang am I excited for this movie. [alternet]
+ The Gangs of Iraq aren’t who you think. [radar]
+ The more you know, the more you realize how little you know. [huffpo]

 

Saw this bumper sticker on the way into work, my half-asleep brain is still in a knot.

 

 

+ Faces and stories of the VT fallen. [npr]
+ Trying to understand Cho Seung-Hui, an utterly impossible, yet impossible-to-resist task. [nyt]
+ Here’s one way to deal with tradgedy — scoop up domain names! Gotta move quick though, somebody already took vatechbloodbath.com. [wired]
+ Sarasota: The seventh best place for young retirees. Is that a good thing? Shouldn’t we have loftier goals? [ht]
+ OK, so we’re officially no smarter than monkeys. [nyt]
+ Let’s All Hate Toronto. That sounds like fun. [mr. toronto]
+ You know what else sounds like fun? Watching cheese age. (Sorry.) [cheddarvision via metafilter]
+ John Edwards, the working person’s candidate, expenses a $400 haircut. [huffpo]
+ Sitting down? Sounds like a resolution on District 13 is still a ways away. [ht]

The Jennings camp has been excited for weeks following the announcement that a bi-partisan task force would look into the infamous District 13 race. Well, they’re gonna have to keep waiting.

Republican Vernon Ehlers (yes, his name is Vern) is not going to appoint a republican “until he gets more ‘clarity’ on why the task force was formed.” Of course, until he does that, the task force can’t start looking into its task. And every day Buchanan is in office, the chances of a revote diminish.

Here’s why the task force was formed, Vern Jr.: 18,000 people got screwed. Dent ignored warnings that the machines were going to fail. There is no paper record of what happened, and this district deserves an answer.

Or, at the very least, it deserves the pretense that D.C. gives a crap.

According to this, Vern Buchanan wants to raise the penalty for kidnapping. Wait, my mistake. Buchanan wants to raise the penalty for kindapping — only if the kidnapper is an illegal immigrant. If you’re here legally, the sentence stays at 20 years. If you’re not, Vern wants you to do 30.
The impetus for all this is Clay Moore, an incredible kid with an incredible story. Should we do everything we can to save children from going through what he did? Of course. But that does not mean it’s time for xenophobia — or for creating laws that punish people differently based on their heritage. Kidnapping is wrong. And being an illegal immigrant is illegal. But kidnapping isn’t extra wrong becuase an illegal immigrant commits it.
Buchanan says it’s a trend thing:

Such a law would send a message to illegal immigrants that kidnapping, now prevalent in Latin America, is unacceptable here, Buchanan said.

“We cannot let it get started in America,” he said. “I want to cut it off now.”

Maybe he’s just worried about being too liberal.

According to this story by Melinda Henneberger on Huffington Post, the manufacturer of the electronic voting machines used in the infamous District 13 race told Dent and others in Florida before the election that there may be a malfunction:

WASHINGTON - Last August, Election Systems & Software sent Florida election officials a letter informing them of a glitch in their electronic voting equipment — a problem that should be fixed before Election Day in November “to avoid any potential issues at the polls.”

Instead, the problem was ignored, said Sam Hirsch, a lawyer for Democratic congressional candidate Christine Jennings, who has petitioned the court and the Congress for a new election in Katherine Harris’s old district in Sarasota.

Kathy Dent, Sarasota Supervisor of Elections, confirmed in a phone interview today that the manufacturer’s recommendation was disregarded, and no action taken: “No one in the State of Florida updated” the equipment after receiving the letter, she said, “and that’s because it was too close to the election. It was a state decision that it was too late to make changes.”

Dent says the glitch had no bearing on those pesky 18,000 undervotes. Hirsch disagrees. He told Henneberger that the problem “matches the reports we got from voters.”

I spoke to Jennings a few weeks back — she’s still fighting and is convinced she’ll get a recount. If this story keeps refusing to die, she might just be right.