Tropical Depression 19 has formed off the coast of Africa. It’s expected to become Tropical Storm Stan in the next 24 hours or so, but it should stay out to sea.

Meanwhile, the NHC is still continuing to watch the disorganized blob (I initially typed “blog” by accident, heh) of clouds over the western Caribbean. No organization there yet.

In the past, when I need to cut down on my Internet procrastination time and focus on schoolwork for a few days, I have sometimes declared “blog moratoriums,” wherein I pledge not to post — with certain very limited exceptions, such as “breaking news” and “very brief ‘quote of the day’ type posts” — for a certain specified period of time. With a few exceptions, these moratoriums have usually been spectacularly unsuccessful, as my blog addiction rebels against the chains that bind it and — like a good lawyer — I find the loopholes in my self-imposed rules and exploit them for all they’re worth. :)

So this weekend, I’m going to try something a bit less ambitious, in hopes it will therefore be more successful. I’m not going to swear off blogging for the next 60 hours. (That would be crazy, with USC and Notre Dame football and a Red Sox-Yankees pennant race to blog about, not to mention Tropical Drepression 19.) Instead, I’m simply going to swear off commenting and reading the comments on my blog. That, after all, is what has been taking up a great deal of my time (and in some cases, emotional energy) in recent days.

If something really egregious happens in the comment section that requires webmaster action, please bring it to my attention via e-mail. Otherwise, I would ask everyone to please be civil, remember the bar analogy, and if anyone starts exhibiting trollish behavior, for heaven’s sake don’t feed them.

OK, OK, so guestblogger & retired CT state Elections Officer Joe Loy’s crafty headline Lured yez in by deceitfully implying Politics when it’s really about the much more important matter of Election Procedures. :) So Sue me. (Nono, not you, Phoenix Hotshot LawBoy; against You I have Sovereign Immunity. :)

LA state law sets the NOLA (and also Orleans Parish) municipal Primary elections for Feb. 4, 2006, with the General elections to follow on March 4. City offices up include Mayor and City Council.

As paraphrased in the 2nd article linked below, a spokewoman for Alliteratively-named LASOS Al Ater says that ‘There are 299,298 registered voters in [sic] the city of New Orleans’. / Well. 299,298 Names of same on its Voting List, she means, I’m sure. :) [Always assuming said list, in whatever Digital and/or Hardcopy form, has survived the Floods.] Where the actual warmbody Voters are At ~ and more to the point, where they Will be & in what Numbers on Primary day little more than 4 months from now ~ is another matter entirely.

Which brings us to the current Kerfuffle. :)

On Monday SearchCIO.com rather breathlessly reported that NOLA Chief Information Officer [I presume that’s what “CIO” means; I know it ain’t the Congress of Industrial Organizations :] Greg Meffert had the situation Singlehandedly well in Hand, gearing up ~ All by Himself, apparently ~ for the breakthrough revolutionary historymaking Internet Primary Election on February 4.

NEW ORLEANS CIO: KATRINA SPURS INTERNET ELECTION
By Ellen O’Brien and Charlie Russo, News Writers

09.26.2005 | SearchCIO.com

The city of New Orleans is preparing for a February mayoral election with an ambitious plan to provide Internet-based voting to its residents, now displaced and dispersed throughout the U.S., according to the city’s chief technology officer.

Greg Meffert, the New Orleans CIO recognized in recent years for designing an award-winning, interactive Web site and a citywide surveillance system rivaled only outside the U.S., said today that one of his priorities is to provide a secure Internet voting system. Meffert said the IT plan calls for kiosks similar to those used by e-ticketed passengers at airports.

“If I told you, ‘Hey, we’re going to do Internet voting for real, in a real election, and you’re going to vote and use kiosks,’ you’d think I was smoking something,” said Meffert in a telephone interview with SearchCIO.com today. “But I have to do that now“…

Just as Hurricane Katrina will necessitate rebuilding the historic city, it has forced the New Orleans technology team to rewrite their technology timetable and remake themselves as providers of essential city services…

…There is an opportunity in New Orleans now, Meffert said, to do “true government reorganization initiatives” through IT projects.

Meffert plans to model the New Orleans Internet voting system on the controversial model the Department of Defense had proposed using for overseas military. The Pentagon scrapped the idea in February of last year after critics questioned the ability of the system to detect fraud and protect against malicious computer attacks.

It’s not traditional hackers that worry people like Bruce Schneier, CTO of Counterpane Internet Security Inc…”It’s not the kids who write viruses,” Schneier said. “I’m worried about people who want to steal elections. It’s not hackers. It’s actual criminals. I think it would be a huge mistake,” for New Orleans to attempt Internet voting now, Schneier said.

Meffert said the Internet voting proposal has already been approved by New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and the city’s registrar of voters…

Asked whether the project was already under way, Meffert said: “Yeah, because it’s necessary. It’s not a gee-whiz plaything… It’s a real issue of how we get democracy to continue here.”

Well. :) Surely nobody really thinks Greg is Smoking Something but it now develops that LASOS thinks Better he should cool his Pipe before he goes One toke over the line, here… :)

LOUISIANA TO STUDY PLAN FOR INTERNET VOTING POST-KATRINA

09.29.2005 | SearchCIO.com

…With one set of elections already postponed and the next vote scheduled for Feb. 4, including the mayoral election, New Orleans CIO Greg Meffert earlier this week proposed online kiosk voting as a way to make ballots available to city residents dispersed by Katrina.

Jennifer Marusak, spokeswoman for the office of Louisiana Secretary of State Al Ater, said the task force being formed by her office will consider all options for conducting the February elections. But she said the office remains skeptical of any form of online voting, including Internet kiosks.

“Orleans can’t go on their own and decide they want to do Internet voting,” Marusak said yesterday. “The mayor and the parish have no say-so in how, when and where this election is conducted. We are asking for their input on the task force for reaching these displaced voters.”

The questionable security of such a system and the short period of time in which to plan for it mean online voting kiosks are unlikely, Marusak said.

“The technology is just not proven, not secure enough yet to stop you from voting in Houston and turning around and voting in Dallas and then voting in Lake Charles,” Marusak said…

Whatever the merits of Meffert’s plan, New Orleans officials cannot decide whether to move forward with it on their own. New Orleans’ voting procedures are governed by Louisiana state law, Marusak said, which means changes to New Orleans voting laws require approval by the Louisiana Legislature and the federal Department of Justice…

Louisiana state law requires elections to be held if at all physically possible, she said. In other words, an election must take place unless a mandatory evacuation is in effect.

Strategies being considered to proceed with February’s elections include reaching out to voters to encourage mail-in absentee ballots and setting up voting booths in places where large numbers of evacuated New Orleans residents are now living, such as the Houston Astrodome…

The February ballot will include precinct-specific races, so each person’s ballot must be precinct-specific, Marusak said…

I don’t wanna Say anything :> but I think maybe Somebody grabbed the Ball and Ran with it before it had been Hiked. :) Read the Whole Things.

Apparently Notre Dame’s recent fall from grace is Karl Rove’s fault. Heh. (Hat tip: Coach Leahy.)

Chief Justice Roberts is already at work at the Supreme Court.

As for the next nomination, Scott McClellan says there will be no announcement today. Who will it be? Rumors are flying, but it’s impossible to say at this point. Stay tuned.