HEALING ELECTION WOUNDS

A prescription for grieving Democrats:

As painful as it may seem, you need to face the reality that Bush won this election fair and square (not that the "square" part was ever in doubt). You need to let go of the conspiracy theories swirling in your head, even the one that makes you wonder if Bush got some of his votes from the election in Afghanistan. You´ve been suspicious ever since you heard an opponent of President Hamid Karzai saying, "A vote for Karzai is a vote for Bush."

You need to forget about those exit polls, the ones that showed John Kerry winning comfortably in Florida and Ohio on election morning, only to fall behind by the end of the day, as though Democratic ballots were being put through the voting machine and Republican ballots through the Xerox machine.

You need to suppress your suspicion that Bush invaded Iraq knowing full well that no wartime president had ever lost an election, suppress your bitterness about his misleading the nation into a war that killed tens of thousands. After all, it was his "moral values" that helped him win 51 percent of the vote, that gave him what he´s calling a "mandate," a curious word for a man who opposes same-sex relationships.

You can take solace in the fact that Bush won only 40 percent of the Hispanic vote, only 10 percent of the black vote and zero percent of the men-in-drag vote.

You can also take comfort in the fact that while Republicans control the White House and Congress, they don´t have full control of the media. A couple of newspapers have totally escaped their influence, namely the Iceland Post and Timbuktu Times.

If you´re still upset, here´s something practical you can do: Take that Kerry-Edwards bumper sticker off your car and replace it with one that says, "I support President Bush: He won´t hurt embryos, only Iraqis." Then find a blue-collar conservative and hand him a T-shirt that reads, "I ain´t got no health insurance, but thanks to President Bush, I´m insured against gay marriage." That should make you feel better.

Are we headed for an opposition press? [Hat tip to Digby.]

Incidentally, has anyone ever seen a man more arrogant, gleeful, boastful and simultaneously subtly threatening as President Bush in his first post-election press conference?

NO SURRENDER, NO RETREAT

As he does so often, Paul Krugman speaks perfectly for me:

Yes, Democrats need to make it clear that they support personal virtue, that they value fidelity, responsibility, honesty and faith. This shouldn't be a hard case to make: Democrats are as likely as Republicans to be faithful spouses and good parents, and Republicans are as likely as Democrats to be adulterers, gamblers or drug abusers. Massachusetts has the lowest divorce rate in the country; blue states, on average, have lower rates of out-of-wedlock births than red states.

But Democrats are not going to get the support of people whose votes are motivated, above all, by their opposition to abortion and gay rights (and, in the background, opposition to minority rights). All they will do if they try to cater to intolerance is alienate their own base.

Does this mean that the Democrats are condemned to permanent minority status? No. The religious right - not to be confused with religious Americans in general - isn't a majority, or even a dominant minority. It's just one bloc of voters, whom the Republican Party has learned to mobilize with wedge issues like this year's polarizing debate over gay marriage.

Rather than catering to voters who will never support them, the Democrats - who are doing pretty well at getting the votes of moderates and independents - need to become equally effective at mobilizing their own base.

In fact, they have made good strides, showing much more unity and intensity than anyone thought possible a year ago. But for the lingering aura of 9/11, they would have won.

What they need to do now is develop a political program aimed at maintaining and increasing the intensity. That means setting some realistic but critical goals for the next year.

Democrats shouldn't cave in to Mr. Bush when he tries to appoint highly partisan judges - even when the effort to block a bad appointment fails, it will show supporters that the party stands for something. They should gear up for a bid to retake the Senate or at least make a major dent in the Republican lead. They should keep the pressure on Mr. Bush when he makes terrible policy decisions, which he will.

It's all right to take a few weeks to think it over. (Heads up to readers: I'll be starting a long-planned break next week, to work on a economics textbook. I'll be back in January.) But Democrats mustn't give up the fight. What's at stake isn't just the fate of their party, but the fate of America as we know it.

Democracy For America and Howard Dean

------------------------------------------------------------------------

What You Won't Hear on TV Today

Governor Howard Dean sent this message to Democracy for America supporters today:


Montana, one of the reddest states, has a new Democratic governor.

First-time candidates for state legislatures from Hawaii to Connecticut beat incumbent Republicans.

And a record number of us voted to change course—more Americans voted against George Bush than any sitting president in history.

Today is not an ending.

Regardless of the outcome yesterday, we have begun to revive our democracy. While we did not get the result we wanted in the presidential race, we laid the groundwork for a new generation of Democratic leaders.

Democracy for America trained thousands of organizers and brought new leadership into the political process. And down the ballot, in state after state, we elected Dean Dozen candidates who will be the rising stars of the Democratic Party in years ahead.

Tens of millions of us are disappointed today because we put so much of ourselves into this election. We donated money, we talked to friends, we knocked on doors. We invested ourselves in the political process.

That process does not end today. These are not short-term investments. We will only create lasting change if that sense of obligation and responsibility becomes a permanent part of our lives.

Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."

We will not be silent.

Thank you for everything you did for our cause in this election. But we are not stopping here.

Governor Howard Dean, M.D.

I HAVE NOT YET BEGUN TO FIGHT!

There is an entire nation of Democrats wondering, "WTF DO WE DO NOW?"

For my part I am disappointed in myself. I blogged my heart out believing it was making a difference. I was very foolish.

What I will do now is something I guess I never would have ever even considered before. This loss has changed me. I am going to make the cause of country my life's mission. I'm a damn community college student. I can't serve my country by joining the military because the military is in the hands of a madman. I can't get a job doing much of value to our cause ATM, having only two yrs of higher education. AND I CAN'T STAND ASIDE AND LOOK AS MY COUNTRY IS TORN APART and I'm off getting an education to teach fucking English literature! So, as many others are doing I'm asking myself WTF DO I DO NOW? Next year I am going to move to Vermont or wherever I must to help DEMOCRACY FOR AMERICA. The universities in Vermont are probably as great as those in Texas. The Democratic Party, as we know it is dead. If not then it should be. In order to rise from the ashes the phoenix first must die. Dean is trying to change the party from within. He wants to run citizens as candidates for office. And the way I see it the Democratic Party can only be changed in the way it must be by ordinary citizens. If we don't formulate our platform from the grassroots up it will always be inadequate. It will never speak to the majority of Americans. The Republicans have control of every branch of government and will retain it for the foreseeable future. The Democratic Party is a failure. We Democrats are failures. Right now we have nothing to lose. And just see how hard a man will fight when he has nothing to lose. I guess if the majority of Democrats don't agree with each other that the party is a complete failure. That the party has to undergo fundamental change. That there has to be a revolution within the party dogma/bureaucracy. Then nothing will change. How can you fix a problem if you won't admit there is one? Sound familiar? This loss has forced me to a place where I will do more to protect my country and improve its future than I would ever have done. I am so scared for my country and so aware of my love of America that I can no longer just remain quasi-involved. I have to make my country my cause in life.

It isn't just about you and me. It's about a dream we had. America. And the people we love. All of them. Who would want to wake from that dream? I cannot. Who would want to desert their loved ones? Not I. So I, unlike those with which we all so vehemently disagree, will change course when I am proven wrong. When what I have done has not achieved what I believed. When my small efforts are shown to be too small. The die is most definitely cast. And I am there at the bow, face to the horizon with the ocean spray in air;

what's next

a few words fromScott


what's next.
so i really didn't think it was possible. america's voted, and it'll get what it has coming. congratulations.

so here are maybe the few points of consolation that i've managed to scrape together.

4 more years. Well there you go guys, 4 more big ones. Super. The Bush Administration is finally going to have to answer for what it's done. If Kerry had won, we'd still have had a crappy four years ahead of us, and Kerry would have had nothing in particular to differentiate himself from Bush. Kerry would have gone down with Bush's ship - this way, there's no dodging the responsibility. It's a loser's consolation, i know we're losing the supreme court, i know we're losing a lot, but at least we'll have something to keep fighting. And I don't know, I guess I didn't really expect to see Daschle go. Even with the losses in the Congress, I'm holding out hope that the moderate Republicans are going to start breaking with the administration when they see that the all around (and particularly fiscal) policy irresponsibility is not sustainable. Support for all of this is going to fall out soon, and I don't know where it will start. Probably not the nascar dads. But no matter who won the election, there's no getting around the fact that the first four years of Bush were bad ones. Not everyone knows it yet, but it won't take history to vindicate us. I guess more than anything, what's keeping me going is knowing that the Bush administration is going to be on the defensive. They'll have to be. There will be banter of a mandate or whatever for a few weeks, and then what? Triuphantly and stubornly soldiering on?

So that's all that's left. Challenge the vote in Ohio, i guess. It doesn't look real promising. We've got another four years, and if we fight tooth and nail like we fought for the election, we'll get through them somehow. I guess i'm just really bitter, and my friends are waiting to take me out and show me moscow. I'm not going to proofread or regularize my capitalization. Or look for coherency or even relevance. not even going to speel check. I'm going to go get really disengaged from everything around me about a week, and then think about what's next. Good luck to the rest of you.

Via Billmon:

Four More Fears

This may be the year when we finally come face to face with ourselves; finally just lay back and say it -- that we are really just a nation of 220 million used car salesmen with all the money we need to buy guns, and no qualms at all about killing anybody else in the world who tries to make us uncomfortable.

Hunter S. Thompson
Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail
November 1972

ABOUT THE SUPREMES...

David Savage, the L.A. Times Supreme Court correspondent, was just on NPR offering me a little comfort. He's very skeptical of anyone other than Rehnquist and possibly John Paul Stevens leaving the Court in Bush's second term and providing FuGee with the opportunity to appoint SC justices. He doesn't believe that Sandra Day O'Connor or Ruth Bader Ginsberg has any intention of retiring in the next four years. So, he says, Roe v. Wade is probably safe--since Rehnquist was on the opposite side anyway, any appointment Bush makes to his seat will be a wash and still leave the Court 5-4 (currently 6-3) in favor of retaining abortion rights.

Here's where he sees a difference: separation of church and state issues. These are already mostly 5-4, so a conservative justice could swing it the other way.

Our problems are just beginning...

EDWARDS '08?

Will Saletan thinks the Democrats should clear the field for John Edwards.

THE REAL WINNER

Osama bin Laden must be laughing his head off about now.

IN PRAISE OF JOHN KERRY

I just want to say a few words about our candidate, John Kerry. I'm proud of him. He fought valiantly, he didn't cheat or sink to the BC level, he absolutely killed Bush in the debates, and he retained the respect and admiration of many prominent, and powerful, Republican politicians, including some who are probably having heart failure today, having expected Kerry to win and rid them of a intransigent and incompetent president of their own party without them having to renounce Bush themselves and thus troubling their own political waters. He stood tall, SO tall, all during the campaign and completely won this Deaniac over. He would have made a great president.

So don't blame the candidate. He's still a United States Senator, and I believe that having bid for and lost the presidency, he will become an even more aggressive advocate in the upper chamber for all those to whom he told, "I've got your back." He deserves our highest regard, our gratitude, and our prayers.

BLAME IT ON THE PRESS

After huddling with several Democratic co-workers today post-election, I'm as confused as ever. One insisted that the Dems have to drop the partial-birth abortion hot potato quickly, oppose gay marriage outright (civil unions are OK) and emphatically, start talking faith more, and in general get off the unpopular side of the culture war. A second asserted that until a generation (particularly those oldsters who long for a 1950s America that never existed and those of the Vietnam War era who will never accept anyone with the "liberal" brand) or so dies off, we can't improve our numbers at the polls. A third was all for dumping any semblance of moderation and pushing the party to the left.

Frankly, I don't know what we should "do" other than to stand up for what is right, expose the wrongs in our society and government, and offer alternatives that advance the interests of our nation and our people. Anyway, I don't believe that this election is a result of "conservative vs. liberal." I'm convinced that the past four years, and the promise of four more of the same or worse, have been delivered to us by that old boogeyman, the media. Presented with the most secretive, deceptive and partisan presidential administration in recent history (or maybe EVER), the SCLM have gushed, hedged, acted as mouthpieces for Bush-Cheney, and generally abdicated their responsibility as a check to power. Consolidation and corporate media ownership and the end of the Fairness Doctrine have clearly spoiled what was once one of the great beacons of democracy, a free and independent press. Now we have 24/7 right-wing conservative talk radio and Fox News, countered only superficially and ineffectively by broadcast news (which is only an hour or two per day) and Fox's cable competitors, who are so busy frantically trying to imitate that success that they have a tendency at critical times to try to out-Fox Fox. In addition, there are Christian broadcasting networks and a nation filled with pastors using their pulpits to advance the Republican agenda. If you're subject to any of those myriad influences, how on earth are you supposed to get a complete and unbiased Big Picture?

The Republicans love to bash Michael Moore and other documentarians as well as the authors of Bush exposes, but they are practically the only voices for truth and progressivism left to the people. Frankly, as hard as they try, they can't come close to exposing the American people to the amounts of information we're fed by television and radio.

So what are we to do? As a marketing/communications professional, I'd first take a look at this issue -- figuring out how to get our message out and/or counter the misinformation bombarding our countrymen -- before changing the nature of the party itself. Especially when you consider that this whole thing just MIGHT be due to the fact that they (the other side) outnumber us, and that our real challenge is to turn more of Them into Us.

my images are often links

...that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.-John F. Kennedy



I'm tired as all hell. Of blogging, of watching tv, of fighting the fight. Fact is though, that the hard work has only just begun. If Kerry wins, and I don't think he will, we face an uphill legislative battle the likes of which can only be surmised.

If Kerry loses than we've got to give all we've got just to protect our country, such as we can.

We have to. All I want to do is give up because I feel so terribly, but this victory for AWOL, as I perceive it will be, fucking furiously demands that much more effort. I don't have the luxury of feeling sorry for myself and falling paralyzed. Our nation needs us most when it is weakest. And I think we can all agree with AWOL in office America is at its weakest. America will deteriorate in more ways than we can anticipate. Furious George's malice is only limited by the imaginations of the corrupted fucks around him.

I'm not going to devolve into locker room pep-talk. I am going to do more than I would have ever before committed to so that Bush cannot take the whole of our country apart. Fuck him. My country. We got a saying in Texas. To the end I'll add a word.

COME AND TAKE IT MOTHERFUCKER!

Via TBogg

Four more years of American soldiers being used as cannon fodder.

Four more years of scientific decisions being made by people who believe in a ghost in the clouds.

Four more years of debt that our children and grandchildren will have to pay off.

Four more years of racists and lunatics for judicial appointments

Four more years of looting the treasury and squandering it on corporate cronies.

Four more years of making enemies faster than we can kill them.

Four more years of fear and darkness and racism and hatred and stupidity and guns and bad country music.

I look at the big map and all of the red in flyover country and I feel like I've been locked in a room with the slow learners. We have become the country that pulls a dry cleaning bag over its head to play astronaut.

James Wolcott nails it with a sledgehammer:

"Good, Go Ahead, America, Choke on Your Own Vomit, You Deserve to Die."

Updates: Rational Depression and Pathological Hope

They say in hard times we grow closer to God. I know this is true by experience. God and I may be fixin to get reeeeeal tight. Crossed fingers is not nearly a sufficient enough of a metaphor to describe it. Try folded steel. Hope everyone is as cheery as me! hehe.

Kos is as good a guide as can be found at the moment. I think most everyone knows how things are going. Bush is at 249 electoral votes and Kerry is at 195. It all comes down to Ohio in my opinion and to hear Carville report what his contacts in Ohio are saying Bush will win. He said a lot of people on the ground right now would love to give him good news right now, but none of them are. He sounds completely defeated. Keep in mind there are still around seven hundred thousand votes to be counted in Ohio and most are in Democratic areas. Still, Kerry does not seem to be performing well enough to offset his losses elsewhere. There are also said to be around two-hundred thousand absentee ballots cast in Ohio that may not be counted for days. Absentee ballots are supposed to favor Kerry. How much? Who can tell? My cousin on the Kerry campaign is still cautious so I will be also since he's a smart guy and relatively immune to emotional or premature judgements. Anyway here ya go....here we all go:

Daily Kos :: 269-269

269-269
by kos
Wed Nov 3rd, 2004 at 04:05:18 GMT
So far, no big surprises. Like I wrote below, we need surprises to win the presidency.

Ohio is not out of contention, not as long as the urban areas (like Cuyahoga county) fail to report in. My brother, who has been crunching numbers all night (he likes math), makes a persuassive case that Bush will have a 20K lead in Ohio without absentees after all urban precincts report. The absentees would decide the race.

Florida won't be called tonight, not without so many absentee ballots outstanding (1 million). I don't feel good about Florida, but those absentees are mostly from Dem areas according to MSNBC. It's not over.

NH looks ready to go to Kerry. And early Nevada results look good. Same with the rest of the Gore states except for New Mexico.

If we hold the Gore states, which is quite a reasonable assumption, and flip Nevada and New Hampshire, then we have the dreaded 269-269 results.

But Ohio would be the big prize.

Update: Nevermind Florida. It's been called for Bush. Let's hope it's been called prematurely.
General 2004 :: Link & Discuss (229 comments)

Youth did not vote
by kos
Wed Nov 3rd, 2004 at 02:57:19 GMT
MSNBC exit poll indicates that the youth did not vote. The 18-29  bracket voted the same this year as in 2000, while 30-44 group was down.

That's what's killing us.

GEE, THAT WAS EASY (NOT)

Weeks ago our entire family located on the Internet and printed out our voter registration information so voting would go smoothly. We confirmed our voting places, our registration status, and everything looked copasetik. The kids all either voted early or were in line at 6:30 a.m. this morning, and all reported no problems.

Well, I also voted today. Almost didn't. You wouldn't think that here in Texas there would be the kind of concern about voter eligibility that the swing states are experiencing, but NO! The Sage and I walked into our strongly Democratic, high-minority population district about 3:30 p.m. CST and went straight to the table, no line. In the first five minutes we heard four black men challenged, told they weren't registered, their names weren't on the polls, despite their insistence that they WERE registered, and in this precinct. I never heard anyone offer them a provisional ballot, so I said to the last one, "Be sure and ask for a provisional ballot if they won't let you vote." Then I got involved in our own troubles, so I never found out if he indeed got one.

First, The Sage was told by a male pollworker that he couldn't vote because his driver's license had a different address on it than his voter registration record. He explained that we had recently moved but had not changed our voter registration (I explained to the lady pollworker next to him that it was because we had wanted to vote one last time for Martin Frost). Meanwhile, The Sage asked me to show them my driver's license (I never changed my address). He quickly pocketed his own as we explained our situation, and after a little more arguing they were persuaded and off he went to vote.

I thought since we'd already taken care of that challenge, I would move pretty quickly. But NO! I was told that I couldn't vote because I'd been "challenged." Challenged by whom? I asked. I was told that I'd been sent mail that had been returned, so the county assumed I didn't live there anymore. Excuse me, I said, who exactly sent me mail? You didn't challenge my husband on this basis, and he's co-owner of our former residence, which, by the way, we still own. No one ever told me who, exactly, mailed me anything. They "assumed" it was something from the county. Well, let me see. That would be a utility bill, water bill, or something comparable, and all of our billing is in The Sage's name, not mine. So I'm still standing there mystified and not a little disgruntled. I turned to the lady pollworker (incidentally, she was the only black in the entire group, a little unusual in such a high-minority precinct) and said, "I've now seen five challenges in the last five minutes, and you don't even have a waiting line. Has this been happening all day?" She nodded and said almost under her breath, "Yes it has."

They finally directed me to the judge, who tried to read the law to me. "I don't need to know the law, I KNOW the law," I responded. "I want to know the origin of the challenge, I want a phone number that can help me to find that out, and I want to vote." We went back and forth for a few minutes, him repeatedly trying to read the law to me, and finally he told me I'd have to fill out some card in order to vote. I did so (it was an affirmation that I'm lawfully registered in the precinct and listing my new address), and before you know it (it doesn't take long to vote straight ticket) I was finished voting.

The Sage and I finally walked out to our car, but I had a second thought. I re-entered the polling place and asked the judge, "If I hadn't been so insistent and demanding, would I have walked out of here without your ever having told me there was a simple, immediate remedy?" His response? "Take off that Kerry button in here."

I'd forgotten that when we went back out to the car, I'd reapplied my Kerry-Edwards collar button.

Latino's in Florida

Florida Latinos
by kos
Tue Nov 2nd, 2004 at 21:02:05 GMT
More good news from Florida. From exit polling:

Hispanics

        2000  2004

Bush     65    53
Gore     35    
Kerry          46

Cuban-Americans

        2000  2004

Bush     82    68
Gore     17    
Kerry          32

Exit polls: 4pm

4 p.m. exit polls
by kos
Tue Nov 2nd, 2004 at 20:41:53 GMT
Grain of salt, yadda, yadda...

These numbers come from Slate. I've taken out a couple numbers that are clearly from the first round:

          NV  CO  NC  PA  OH  FL  MI  NM  WI
Kerry     48  46  49  54  50  50  51  50  51
Bush      50  53  51  45  49  49  47  48  46

Early exit poll results

Via AMERICAblog

by John in DC - 11/2/2004 02:45:36 PM
Voter News Service 1pm exit polls
Format:
State/Kerry %/Bush%
AZ 45-55
CO 48-51
LA 42-57
PA 60-40 key state
OH 52-48 key state
FL 51-48 key state
MI 51-47
NM 50-48
MN 58-40
WI 52-43
IA 49-49
NH 57-41

Texas redistricting fight

Here's one Texas Congressman that didn't go down without a fight. He's hanging tough. He's got strong arms but they probably won't be strong enough.

For more in depth information about the Congressional Texas Democrats that are vulnerable because of Tom Delay's gerrymandering check this out.

Documenting the atrocities

I'm gonna make these short and sweet. There is very little on the internet in way of verification so we are relying on the tele-media. Of course this means we'll have to wait for the truth to emerge.

The memory card in a Florida voting machine died and fifteen-thousand votes were lost. It was reported that the votes are being recovered. We'll see.

More updates as they become available. Happy voting!

remember Nixon

Dirty tricks in Columbus Ohio

National Review: Scared little girls

Check out what the National Review people are saying.

Highlights:

CRIMINEY! [Jonah Goldberg]
I went out for a brief lunch with missus and I come back to discover things are going south? What the...? From what I'm hearing, Florida's an uphill climb right now and New Hampshire's a lost cause. Trying to nail things down.
Posted at 02:34 PM

REMINDER [KJL]
I'm told you can help make phone calls for Tom Coburn nationwide by emailing electcoburn@gmail.com ...
Posted at 02:34 PM

RUMOR [NRO Staff]
bush down 4 in ohio, down 4 in fla, downm 1 in NM, down 1 in mich, down 2 iowa
As Kathryn said, these early reports are unreliable, but these are numbers we just got from a major newsroom. Take with a grain of salt.
Posted at 02:33 PM

Kerry up in Ohio

The National Review has Kerry up by 4 points in exit polling!

Bettin on the man

Brits bet record sum on US election

10 minutes ago



LONDON (AFP) - British punters have bet eight million pounds (12 million euros/15 million dollars) on the outcome of the US presidential election, an absolute record surpassing all predictions, bookmakers said.

 

"There will be up to eight million pounds gambled on the outcome with British bookmakers, which is double what was bet at the last US election," said a spokesman for one of the biggest companies, William Hill: "This has been the biggest betting foreign election we have ever known".


Last week the bookies estimated that the total bets placed would surpass the five million mark, but the number of bets placed as the campaign drew to a close exceeded expectations.


A Chicago supporter of President George W. Bush (news - web sites) flew into London to place a 25,000 dollar bet on his choice for President in a William Hill betting shop.


Bush was still favourite Tuesday, but last-minute betting shifted in favour of his challenger John Kerry (news - web sites).


"A late surge of hefty bets for John Kerry to win the US Presidential Election could see him become clear favourite for the first time during the entire campaign," said Graham Sharpe of William Hill.


Some punters were betting on a dead heat with 269 each of the 538 members of the US electoral college, while 270 is needed for victory for one or other candidate.


British punters have also been betting heavily on the outcome in undecided individual US states such as Ohio, Wisconsin and Florida.


"We're down to the last four states which is basically Ohio, Florida, Iowa, Wisconsin," said David Buik, marketing director with Cantor Index, one of the biggest British betting firms: "Now Wisconsin basically goes to Kerry unless the calculation goes wrong."


"He might get Iowa, but we don't think he'll get Ohio or Florida."

Pennsylvania...doh!

A Pennsylvania judge had ruled that Republican lawyers challenging voters could not use a list they had obtained by mailings sent to voters that were marked, "returned to sender". At 4pm EST that ruling was overturned. Damn.

Federal Judge in Ohio grants request for provisional ballots

A federal judge has just ruled in Ohio that anyone who requested an absentee ballot in Ohio and did not receive one must be given one at the polls. Hell Yeah! That's one for the people baby!.

Judge rules for news organizations over poll access in Ohio

Associated Press


COLUMBUS, Ohio - Exit polling can be conducted within 100 feet of a polling place on Election Day, a federal judge ruled.

U.S. District Judge Michael H. Watson's ruling on Monday night overturned an October directive by Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell to prohibit exit polling within 100 feet of precincts.

Five television networks - ABC, CNN, CBS, Fox News and NBC - and The Associated Press had sued on Monday, seeking a temporary order to block Blackwell's directive that limited the exit-poll surveys, even though there had been no prior problems.

"Polling activities such as these have been conducted in this manner for over two decades," Watson wrote in his nine-page ruling. "There is no evidence before the court that these activities have ever impinged on a citizen's right to vote."

Betty Hull, spokeswoman for the secretary of state, said Tuesday that Blackwell would abide by the ruling.

The news organizations have formed a consortium to collect exit-polling data in Ohio and other states. The organizations said Blackwell's prohibition would have hindered their ability to gather information about the political process and would violate constitutional guarantees of free speech.

*starship troopers voice* "Would you like to know more?"

Up-to-the-minute reports

Earlier it was reported on CNN that a judge had greed with an Ohio woman that sued when she was denied a provisional ballot at the polls, because she had requested an absentee ballot. It was just reported on MSNBC that we are actually still waiting on that decision. Perhaps someone on the inside leaked the way the judge is leaning. More likely CNN just flubbed the reporting a bit. The big question now is whether federal law will supercede Ohio state law, so they say. I don't see any conflict. Ohio state law was written prior to the advent of provisional ballots so provisional ballots, not being addressed by the old state law, are clearly outside it's control and regulation. I assume the wording of the law will be relevant as the "doctors of the law" or "lawyers" as they are commonly called, bloodsucking vacumes of humanity as we like to call them, will be weighing in on the issue. I hope the wording specifically refers to casting normal ballots. This will make it easier to prove the old state law does not apply to provisional ballots. Also, the election reform laws passed as a result of the 2000 election apply to all states without exception. Period. I give this one to the Democrats by a length.

Election-Day updates.

In Pennsylvania:

Republican lawyers are claiming there were votes present on the voting machines before the voting began this morning. They claim this occured on four machines. They claim six hundred were on one and fifteen hundred on another. The D.A. is involved. It was said by reporters on CNN that the problem may just be that the Republicans did not understand the machines. It was also said that the votes could have come from a previous mid-term election that had no effect on votes in this election. Who knows?

In Colorado:

A lawsuit was filed by a woman who had not recieved her absentee ballot and wished to vote at the polls.
She was not allowed to cast a vote, under state law, but was denied a provisional ballot guaranteed under a law passed by Congress in 2002. This law was passed in response to the voting fiasco of 2000.
A judge has agreed with her so I assume this means that she will be given an absentee ballot and that others denied the right to vote in this fashion may also be able to vote. There are a ton of higher courts that could over-rule the decision, if indeed a decision was made. All that was said was a judge agreed with the woman. That could mean many things however. The Republican effort to suppress the vote this year is the most sickening subversion of democracy in the United States in more than a hundred years. Remember this: YOU REAP WHAT YOU SOW

Here's a great live action report on the elctions.

THE SOLUTION TO ALL PROBLEMS

According to Molly Ivins (who was terrific this weekend on C-Span, by the way) tells us that voting cures all ills.

Voting improves your children's manners, renders your dog more obedient and prompts your spouse to take on more household chores. Also, voting is the only way to make political ads go away.

And it cures acne.

Politics is not about those people in Washington or those people at the state capitol. Politics is about us -- you, me and the guy next to us. We run this country, we own this country, and we have a responsibility to hire the right people to drive our bus for a while.

The three great excuses are: "Sorry, I'm just not interested in politics." "Oh, they're all crooks." "Well, there's nothing I can do about it."

Politics is not a picture on a wall or a television program you can decide you just don't care for. Our entire lives are set into and written by the warp and woof of politics. Political decisions affect your life every day in thousands of way -- whether the food you eat is safe, what books your children read in school, how deep you will be buried when you die, if the lady who dyes your hair is competent, how safe your money is in stocks or banks, whether you have a job, whether your kid has to go fight in a war, who is qualified to prescribe your eyeglasses -- that's all politics.

worth a thousand words

Democratic Presidential Nominee John Kerry shares a moment with his wife Teresa Heinz Kerry (L) and daughter Vanessa (R) after they cast their votes at the state house in Boston, Massachusetts, November 2, 2004. Ending an 'amazing' journey, Democratic challenger John Kerry cast his own vote on Tuesday, urged Americans to go to the polls and said he was very confident he had made the case for new U.S. leadership. REUTERS/Brian Snyder US ELECTIONS


U.S. Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry (R) greets supporters after voting at State House in Boston, November 2, 2004. Kerry ended his election campaigning and returned to vote in the 2004 presidential election against President George W. Bush. REUTERS/Jim Young US ELECTION


Things are looking up.
John Kerry walks out of the Massachusetts State House with his daughters Vanessa (far L), Alexandra (L) and his wife Teresa Heinz Kerry in Boston, Massachusetts November 2, 2004.

THE ROACHES ARE COMING OUT OF THE WALLS

I love it. The Repugs are getting desperate. One of our senior executives walked into my office right before lunch and said, "I forgot to mention something yesterday when we were talking about the election. I think what would be best for the country would be if the Democrats won control of the Senate and George W. Bush got re-elected. What do you think?" The poor man seemed woefully disappointed when he found out I wasn't buying. He voted last week, and I think he's needing reassurance that he did the right thing in voting for GWB.

Well, just now he re-entered my office, this time with another sr. exec in tow, and wanted to know if I'd thought any more about it. What is this, I wondered, a negotiation? If I'll give him the presidency, he'll give me the Senate? I pointed out patiently that it is clear many Republicans don't understand the level of our antipathy towards Furious George, who has advanced the most radical social agenda in recent memory, redistributed the wealth to skew even more towards the super-rich through a series of ridiculous tax cuts, sent our young people to war without the proper equipment, protection, training, and exit plan, begun an assault on our civil liberties, and just generally had one huge FUBAR first term. I reminded him that a flat tax, sales tax, or other "tax reform" initiatives floated by Bush that would eliminate the mortgage interest tax credit could seriously jeopardize our business. The three of us kicked this around for a few minutes (when I said flatly that putting the entire tax burden upon current income and not taxing accumulated wealth in any way was immoral, the higher-ranked of the two agreed with me), then got into a discussion of how much better the markets perform under Democratic presidents as opposed to Republican CiCs. My chum left looking very depressed -- he expected more support from the other guy.

I generally try to be gracious about politics, but I'm still recovering from the flu and don't have the patience today of all days to make someone feel better about their simply terrible choice.

Class Act Kerry

Do the pictures go with the article? Nah, but who cares? They're cool.


Kerry in Cleveland
by kos
Tue Nov 2nd, 2004 at 02:51:45 GMT
So I'm watching the rally on C-Span. As Kerry walks the line after  the rally, shaking hands and signing autographs, a young guy starts telling him all the things he's done for Kerry -- raising money, etc. Kerry hears the kid out, then takes off his tie and gives it to him.  

I had to rewind on TiVo to catch the exchange. It's the little, unheralded details that truly matter. Classy.

it wasn't me

If Furious George LOSES the election then the world will blame HIM for all the wrong that he has done. If George Bush WINS the election then the world will blame THE AMERICAN PEOPLE for everything he's done.









Veil not fair liberty's flame with wicked king George Bush's shame.

Via atrios

Election Protection Hotline:
1-866-MYVOTE1 to report problems
1-866-OUR-VOTE (1-866-687-8683) for immediate legal assistance

Tuesday, November 02, 2004

Dean zinger of the day.

Howard Dean just said, "John Kerry has given us a reason to choose a new president. Of course George Bush has given us a lot of reasons to choose a new president."


This from Democracy for America:


The Work Doesn't Stop on Election Day

By Gov. Howard Dean, M.D.
This is one in a series of weekly syndicated columns written by Governor Howard Dean.

By the time most readers see this column, unless we have a repeat of the 2000 election, we will know who the president will be for the next four years.

But it is not over. Over the last forty years, ordinary Americans have become less and less involved in politics. Voter turnout consistently declined between 1960 and 2000; and in non-presidential years, less than thirty percent of eligible adults across America vote, much less volunteer to work on or donate money to campaigns.

This year has been different. There has been enormous intensity on both sides, and a real conviction that individuals can make a difference, even in national elections. Both campaigns, but particularly the Democrats, have rediscovered that hundreds of thousands of small donors giving $25 or $50 at a time can actually raise more money collectively than the so-called "fat cats" and special interests do.

There is more to politics than elections. Thousands of young people have discovered, as generations have before them, their efforts matter. Their actions matter because by getting in the game instead of straying on the sidelines, they are empowered, whether or not their candidate wins.

Historically, whether through the campaign of Gene McCarthy in 1968 or John McCain in 2000, the enthusiasm and hard work waned after the election.

This time we cannot let that happen. Democracy is the most highly evolved system of government ever created by human beings. And like everything else we create, it will wither and die unless we nurture it.

When I was Governor of Vermont, I used to go to schools and colleges and tell the students how important it was to vote. I don't think that any more. On an A - F scale, voting gets a "D". It is the bare minimum required to keep our democracy alive. To grow and thrive, ordinary Americans need to run for office. Democracy for America, the political action committee which is an offshoot of my campaign for president, sponsored nearly a thousand candidates, many of whom had never run for office before. A few ran for Congress, but most ran for school board, county commissioner, road commissioner or state legislature. And they ran everywhere, in both traditionally conservative and liberal states. Some have already won, some didn't. Many of those who did not win will try again.

Politics is too important to be left to professional politicians. It matters who is in office, from the school board to the presidency. The next election cycle is in a few months for local office, and in two years for federal office. If you love America, it's not enough just to vote. Run for office. If you cannot do that, volunteer or work on a campaign for three hours a week. Donate to a candidats campaign. It does not have to be a lot it can be $5, $10, $20 every bit helps. That is how you stop politicians from responding only to special interests.

We can change this country. It will take time and hard work, but if we start today ordinary Americans can take this country back.


I hate George Bush. I like John Kerry. I love Howard Dean.

Grrrrr in Ohio: double Grrrrr

This sucks
The sixth circuit court of appeals in Ohio ruled the GOP can have thousands of lawyers present at polling places to challenge voters. If they challenged my right to vote things would get physical. Take away my right to vote and put me under dictatorship will you? I don't THINK Soooo.

Rehnquist gets a note from the doctor

Strom, you supported segregation too? High five! Come on man, Up top!


Rehnquist may not be around to decide this election.

JIMMY BRESLIN SAYS IT WON'T EVEN BE CLOSE

Jimmy Breslin cites the reasons he's always known that Kerry would win:

And I leave today as the only one in America who from the start was sure John Kerry would win by a wide margin. Let me tell you why.

This began when I noted that it was obvious, but overlooked that George Bush had lost the last election by 500,000 votes. He was close enough in Florida for it to be stolen in court.

The reason he was close was that Ralph Nader had 125,000 votes in Florida, most of whom would have voted for Gore.

Anybody who had voted for Gore four years ago would never vote for Bush.

So Bush started this campaign behind 500,000 votes.

Nor is there Nader. He has reduced himself to being the village idiot.

When I figured in the people shocked by the dead bodies of young Americans in Iraq, and brutalized here by unemployment, there was no way to make the election seem close. I said this in this newspaper several times.

Each time as I was typing, the words of the late great Harry (Champ) Segal kept shouting in my ear:

"Go naked on this one!"

When published reports showed a million new voter registrations in Florida and about 800,000 in Ohio, I made the election a lock. They were not rushing out for George Bush. And these poll takers were ignoring them. Any part of a million votes in Florida, most of them of color, would sweep the state.

The reporters said the nation was divided. They were afraid to say anything that might upset this view. You've been had by the news industry. Not once, even after the first debate when Kerry scored a technical knockout, did they take a step and call it as it happened. "War of Words" was the closest they could come.

Finally, one thing kept clawing at you. Cell phones. Long I have wondered how many there were. Everybody I know, smart people, politicians, news directors, thought that there were, oh, 40 million or so. I call the cell phone institute in Washington last Sept. 12. They told me that there were 165 million cell phones in use in the United States, That is 165,000,000. One month later, I asked again. It was up to 170 million -- 170,000,000. Yes, a great number also had land lines. But of this 170 million cell phone users there were 40 million between the ages of 18 and 29, and these people usually have no other phones.

That had to be Kerry.

Not one cell phone in the United States had been reached by a political poll. These old-line poll takers don't know who cell phone users were or where they lived.

So you were getting CBS/New York Times polls proclaimed as most important and real. One hundred seventy million cell phones and you don't poll one of them. The polls they are pushing at you in the news magazines, on the networks, in the big papers, are such cheap, meaningless blatant lies, that some of these television stations should have their licenses challenged.

They have a poll number for every one of the "battleground states." I'm awaiting the casualty list from Gettysburg.

Then a night or so ago, somebody finally tried a poll of cell phone users between the ages of 18 and 29. John Zogby conducted the survey in conjunction with Rock the Vote and the results showed Kerry at 55 percent and Bush at 40.

Then the Kerry people ran their own poll, which took a lot of work. It was the first time they had reached any cell phone users. The result was Kerry 59 and Bush 39.

Then I saw on television yesterday, and I hate to single him out, but he singled himself out, this fellow Bill Schneider on CNN and he is their election expert and he said that cell phones didn't mean anything. He's right. They didn't mean anything in 1950.

Oh, but these young people never vote, the tales read. They will this time, and because of a one-word issue.

Draft.

Every time Bush, or one of these generals he has, stands up and says there will be no military draft, everybody young figures this means there probably will be one by January, which will put them in the real battlegrounds. They rush to register, and then today they go to the polls to vote.

Thanks for the use of the hall.

REFLECTIONS ON ELECTION EVE: 1:40 PM CST

When I've read recently about handicapped, elderly, and other people waiting in line for 4-6 hours to vote, I've been reminded of the tales of Afghani women doing the same and wondered, how are we, the marvelous sophisticated, privileged USA, so different from a third-world country? Surely, during a Kerry administration, our election system will be refined and brought into the 21st century.

I'm watching John Kerry now in Milwaukee. Alexandra and Vanessa are standing behind him clutching each other for warmth in the obviously freezing rain, their faces visibly lighting up in reaction to various phrases of their dad's rhetoric. How, you would think, could they be inspired by their dad, having heard him speak hundreds of times? The aforementioned dad is speaking passionately, wearing his now-familiar hunting jacket (buttoned up to the collar) and a Red Sox ballcap. The daughters are hatless, their hair hanging in drenched tresses. They are so REAL and achievement-oriented (a medical student and a filmmaker), so unaffected (by this I mean that they seem so unappreciative of the privileges of their position -- can you imagine Jenna and Barbara letting themselves appear so bedraggled just because the rest of the crowd was in the same boat?), and their respect for and pride in their dad is so viscerally felt by an observer, that it is testimony to the character of the father and the man.

Just saw Begala and Carlson on some CNN brief. The big deal for Tucker was Kerry supposedly conducting a poll to see how he should react to the OBL tape. Begala laughed, said the Republicans have some of the best polling people in the business and run polls on every little thing, and then (he buried the lead!) reminded the audience that Kerry responded within minutes of being informed of the tape and could not possibly have had time to conduct a poll. It's obvious to me that the poll was conducted more to assess the IMPACT on the electorate of Kerry's statement so as to judge whether or not more needed to be said.

FILL KERRY'S CABINET

Like others, we've started playing the "fill Kerry's Cabinet" game. With the disclaimer that I hesitate to name currently serving Democratic Senators because we will so desperately need them in a Kerry administration, here's my Dream Team (Silmarill, The Sage and Aguamire may dissent):

Secretary of State: Richard Holbrooke (I'd pick Joe Biden, but I think we need him in the Senate as Majority or Minority Leader, replacing Tom Daschle even if he gets re-elected)
Secretary of Defense: Gary Hart, William Perry or Merrill McPeak
National Security Adviser: Rand Beers or Susan Rice
Ambassador to the U.N.: Wesley Clark
Homeland Security Secretary: Max Cleland or Jane Harman
Director of National Intelligence: Gary Hart (if he's not picked for SecDef)
CIA Director: Lee Hamilton
FBI Director: Jamie Gorelick (I'd just love to see John Ashcroft's face if she succeeded him, but I think she might have confirmation problems)
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs: Eric Shinseki
Treasury Secretary: Laura Tyson, currently head of the London Business School
OMB Director: Gene Sperling
Attorney General: Eliot Spitzer or Jennifer Granholm
Labor Secretary: Dick Gephardt
Education Secretary: Jim Hunt or Roy Romer
Transportation Secretary: Jane Garvey
Commerce Secretary: Robert Johnson
Agriculture Secretary: A lot of Texans would like to see Charlie Stenholm rewarded for not switching to the Republican Party, but I really have no opinion
HUD Secretary: Atlanta mayor Shirley Franklin
Health & Human Services Secretary: Howard Dean (I don't think Dean would accept because his family likes living in Vermont)
EPA Administrator: Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Interior Secretary: Bill Richardson or Mark Udall
Energy Secretary: Virginia Governor Mark Warner

Time for predictions: 53% Kerry, 46% Bush, 1% other. I think Kerry will take Florida, Arkansas, New Mexico, Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Iowa, New Hampshire and Wisconsin, winning a comfortable margin in the electoral college.

THE LAST CONVULSIONS OF ANGRY (WHITE) MEN

Richard Reeves:

My gripe with President Bush, who has risen above his Yale, Harvard and oil resume to become a man of the people, is that he is an incompetent man of the people. He's smart enough for an elite job, but he has lousy judgment, no sense of history and the dogmatic ways of the insecure. He is a fool, quoting Webster's first definition: "A person lacking judgment and prudence."
...
A lot of Americans, mostly white males of a certain age, look to this George Bush (news - web sites) and see themselves. This campaign, I would argue, is one of the last convulsions of angry, real American men, who fear losing the country they know (or imagine), fighting to hold back the time and tide of the new, the un-white and un-Christian, and those girlie men, too, who sooner or later will make a different America. Bush has the "Father Knows Best" vote, from men who have lost their personal power and hate what they see happening all around them. Kerry, often blowing in the wind, is "the times they are a-changin'" candidate.

A NATIONAL OUTRAGE: REASON ALONE TO DEFEAT BUSH

The Republicans can talk all they want about "supporting our troops," but we know it's just a huge hypocritical sham. If they really meant it, we wouldn't still be, after 18 months of war, in a position where our GIs STILL lack armor, radios, and bullets:

But the 343rd isn't the first outfit to be put in harm's way without proper equipment, and commanders in Iraq acknowledged that the unit's concerns were legitimate, even if their mutiny was not.

With a $400 billion defense budget you might think U.S. troops have everything they need to fight the war, but that's not always the case.
...
There have been more than 9,000 U.S. casualties in Iraq so far – more than 8,100 wounded and 1,100 killed. Nearly half of those casualties are the result of roadside bombs, known as improvised explosive devices or IEDs in military jargon. Yet the U.S. military still lacks thousands of fully armored vehicles that could save American lives.
...
Winslow Wheeler, a long time Capitol Hill staffer who spent years writing and reviewing defense appropriations bills, thinks he knows one reason why those shortages exist, after looking at the current Defense budget. Army accounts that pay for training, maintenance and repairs are being raided by Congress to pay for pork-barrel spending.

Wheeler says $2.8 billion that was earmarked for operations and maintenance to support U.S. troops has been used to "pay the pork bill."

Wheeler, who has written a book called "The Wastrels of Defense," says congressmen routinely hide billions of dollars in pet projects in the defense bill.

And buried in the back of this one, Wheeler found a biathlon jogging track in Alaska, a brown tree snake eradication program in Hawaii, a parade ground maintenance contract for a military base that closed years ago, and money for the Lewis and Clark Bicentennial celebration.

By law, these projects can't be cut, so Pentagon bookkeepers will have to dip into operations and maintenance accounts to pay for them.

"They do all kinds of things that adds up to: 'We're basically eating our own young to support the war,'" he says.

"WE CRIED WHEN WE SAW THE TAPE..."

Via Atrios:

Statement From 'Jersey Girls' on Bin Laden Video

We cried when we saw the tape on Friday of Osama Bin Laden. He's tanned and healthy. He does not look desperate or scared. He does not look like a man on the run.

Three years ago, President Bush promised us he would capture Osama Bin Laden--Dead or Alive. He didn't do that.
The man that murdered our husbands, is back terrorizing our country again. The videotape of him has brought us back to 9/11. We feel threatened. We feel vulnerable. We are scared.

Our question to President Bush is: Why didn't you catch him when you promised us you would? Why is this mass murderer--this madman-- still out there making videotapes and terrorizing our country three years after you promised our country that you would make us safe from him? President Bush, why cant you keep us safe from this madmen?

Kristen Breitweiser and Monica Gabrielle

ELECTION SURPRISE: ASSAULT ON FALLUJA

Get ready for a pre-election campaign stunt: we're going to attack Falluja before voting is over, mark my words. See here, here and here. It's obvious we're being softened up for the news.

This would be a cynical, immoral ploy by Bush/Cheney/Rove et al, and I wouldn't put it past them for a minute to use our military and innocent Iraqis as pawns in their power games.

REDSKINS DELIVER!!!!

As a Dallasite (we have no love AT ALL for the Washington Redskins), this may be the first time in history that I've wanted to honk horns and hang streamers in celebration of a Skins win! Redskins 28 - Packers 14. John Kerry wins.

ABC News: Late Surprises Spice Up Races for Congress

Ra ra for Kentucky. They might not elect the Mad Hatter

Kentucky remains solidly in the Bush camp so Kentuckians still can't be accused of being all that bright. What's worse: The fool or the fool who follows him?

KERRY LEADS AMONG YOUTHFUL CELL-PHONE USERS

Craig Crawford of Congressional Quarterly just reported on MSNBC that Zogby did a poll of 18- to 29-year-old cell phone users, which found a 15% margin for Kerry.

FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH DEPARTMENT

Indian astrologers call the race for Kerry.

WHO GIVES YOU MORE CONFIDENCE, THE SUPER-HERO OR HIS ACTION-FIGURE DOLL?

Frank Rich thinks Americans may be tired of entertainment and ready for substance:

No president has worked harder than George W. Bush to tell his story as a spectacle, much of it fictional, to rivet his constituents while casting himself in an unfailingly heroic light. Yet this particular movie may have gone on too long and have too many plot holes. It may have been too clever by half. It may have given Mr. Kerry just the opening he needs to win.
...
To Mr. Bush and his cronies, who see the world as an arena in which performance is all and circumspection is antithetical to manly decisiveness, Mr. Kerry is a farcical weakling. That's why they were so obsessed with smearing the senator's Vietnam record, the main refutation of that argument. What they didn't count on is that their man's "Top Gun" stagecraft carries its own baggage. When a real war goes wrong, a considered plan, as Mr. Kerry pedantically refers to his every policy prescription, can start to look preferable to a slam-dunk Jerry Bruckheimer stunt. While the mantra of this election season has it that Kerry voters are voting against Bush, not for Kerry, it's equally possible that some of them see their choice as a vote for mundane, nuances-and-all reality over a hyperbolic fantasy whose budget in blood and money has spiraled out of control. After three years of nonstop thrills, Americans will just have to decide on Nov. 2 whether there could be fates even worse than spending the next four years being bored.

George Will again demonstrates what an idiot he is: "So this column's conclusion is: 'GEORGE! with all thy faults.'"

For the first time since 1978, all three major Florida college football teams -- Florida State, U. of Miami, and U. of Florida -- all lost on the same day. Between the most devastating hurricane season ever and one of the worst-in-recent-memory seasons for Florida college football, my home state needs some good news: a decisive victory for John Kerry that nullifies the need for post-election brouhaha would work.

FRIEDMAN ENDORSES BUSH 41

Tom Friedman makes a presidential endorsement.

So as we approach this critical election of 2004, my advice, dear readers, is this: Vote for the candidate who embodies the ethos of George H. W. Bush - the old guy. Vote for the man who you think would have the same gut feel for nurturing allies and restoring bipartisanship to foreign policy as him. Vote for the man you think understands the importance of facing up to our fiscal responsibilities for the sake of our children. And vote for the man who has the best instincts for balancing realism and idealism and the man who understands the necessity of using energetic U.S. diplomacy to make Israel more secure - by helping to bring it peace with its Arab neighbors, not just more tours from American Christian fundamentalists.

Yes, next Tuesday, vote for the real political heir to George H. W. Bush. I'm sure you know who that is.

TREMBLING, THE WORLD WAITS FOR TUESDAY

There is much speculation, concern, and anxiety about Tuesday’s polls that extend far beyond the borders of the United States.

From The Guardian: "Since at least 1945, when the United States played the decisive role in creating the United Nations, an American presidential election has always been the single most influential event in the global political cycle. No such election, though, has mattered as overwhelmingly and urgently as this one."

Iran brews nukes, president stuck in Iraq quagmire

TEHRAN, Iran Shouting "Death to America!" Iran's parliament unanimously approved the outlines of a bill that requires the government to resume uranium enrichment.
The country has come under increased scrutiny and criticism for continuing its nuclear program. The U-S says it believes Iran is trying to build a nuclear weapon. Tehran denies the accusation.

Lawmakers say the vote is a clear message "that the parliament won't give in to coercion."

A date for discussing details of the bill will be discussed later.

Iran repeatedly has rejected a long-term suspension of all uranium enrichment-related activities being sought by the international community. Iranian nuclear negotiators have been meeting with officials from Britain, France and Germany, but a second round of talks ended last week without agreement.

Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved.

doesn't speak well

Innocent women, children, and men died perhaps the most painful death possible, but hey, at least their
names were cleared...a few hundred years later. Alls well that ends....oh wait.

The flame tuik fast upon her cheik
Tuik fast upon her chin;
Tuik fast upon her faire bodye -
She burn'd like hollins green.

-- Traditional Ballad, Earl Richard

*starship troopers voice* Would you like to know more?

Voting Machines

You're gonna love this.

Uggabugga

Happy Halloween