In other words: A discussion of The Bush Administration
Dade, There's My Vote!- Friday, July 30, 2004 -
And it was hiding in a little folder all the time! So why did a citizens group have to sue the state to find them? Somehow I find this so uncompletely reassuring:
The [citizens] group was hoping the audit trail might shed light on complaints of unrecorded votes in primarily black precincts.
The electronic voting records on touch-screen machines are a back-up measure listing everything that happens from boot-up to shutdown, documenting in an "event log" when every ballot was cast.
The records also include "vote image reports" that show for whom each ballot was cast. But the state recently prohibited the use of this data for recounts, saying that touch-screen machines do not allow for human error.
"This was an internal-office, human-error problem," Ms. Kaplan told members of the Miami-Dade County Commission at an afternoon meeting.
So we're all in agreement: touchscreen machines do not allow for human error, yet the failure to account for Florida's disappeared votes was "a human-error problem" -- so Florida immediately enacted a law that prohibits the use of touchscreen voting data for recounts, because the machines do not allow for human error. How's that for flawless legal logic? All you Republican loyalist brains, please weigh in on this one. I'd love to hear from you. This is Democracy at work, Bush style.
The reappearance of the records seemed to provide little comfort to the county commissioners.
One commissioner, Betty Ferguson, asked why the elections office publicly acknowledged problems only after citizens groups or reporters discovered them. The Miami-Dade Election Reform Coalition, the same group that uncovered the loss of the 2002 records, also discovered through a public-records request this spring that the audit log functions in Miami-Dade's touch-screen machines were flawed.
Lida Rodriguez-Taseff, chairwoman of the election reform coalition, questioned why the office had not used the audit data to investigate complaints of lost votes in 2002. A study by the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida found that 8 percent of votes, or 1,544, appeared to have been lost on touch-screen machines in 31 precincts in Miami-Dade County.
"It's like a little child lost in the woods, and nobody calls the police, and you wonder why that child isn't being looked for," Ms. Rodriguez-Taseff said. "Not only have we not looked at our audit data, we can't even find it. And then we locate it in a conference room after they've been asked for it for a month."
Only in the next election, it won't be a little child lost in the woods, it'll be John Kerry. Show 'em which way is Florida, boys.
- Michael 5:32 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Kerry's Speech
The stuff I've been reading on other blogs are definitely not encouraging. The middle-class tax cuts and spending initiatives are particularly troubling. He came out swinging, which is good, but then he got on this jag about trees and started talking about Vietnam and all kinds of pointless, irrelevant things that seemed specifically designed to thwart Republican attacks, so already he sounds defensive. The Democrats have got to get off the ropes. Once you fall into the trap of responding to accusations, you let the Republican hate machine frame the argument. Why the hell are we discussing Vietnam? Why does Kerry have to prove dick about the military? He needs to grab Bush's fearmongering by the throat and STRANGLE IT in front of 30 million people. He needs to tell Americans flat out that religion has no place in government, that we are free to believe and worship whatever we want, but to keep it OUT of public policy. He needs to tell Congress and the Court to stay out of a woman's womb and cease and desist trying to amend the Constitution to discriminate against groups. He needs to tell the White House and Justice Dept. that they are not above the rule of law and the Geneva Conventions, and hold their feet to the flame: That if we continue to let them get away with it, we might as well just cancel our democracy and get rid of elections altogether. He needs to talk about the outing of Valerie Plame as an act of treason. Most of all, he needs to talk about Florida and computerized voting and demand a federal criminal investigation of its governor, secretary of state, and Florida election officials before November, or just quit the race now. Otherwise, what's the point?
But if John Kerry did any of these things, people would call him paranoid.
- Michael 6:54 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Oh, and for fun before the weekend starts quickly read Whiskey Bar's three laws: I, Republican
Here's an example:1. A Republican may not injure a corporation, or, through inaction, allow a corporation to come to harm.
If you're familiar with Asimov's Three laws of Robotics it is extremely funny.
- rob 5:46 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Krugman Rocks: Triumph of the Trivial
Somewhere along the line, TV news stopped reporting on candidates' policies, and turned instead to trivia that supposedly reveal their personalities. We hear about Mr. Kerry's haircuts, not his health care proposals. We hear about George Bush's brush-cutting, not his environmental policies.
Even on its own terms, such reporting often gets it wrong, because journalists aren't especially good at judging character. ("He is, above all, a moralist," wrote George Will about Jack Ryan, the Illinois Senate candidate who dropped out after embarrassing sex-club questions.) And the character issues that dominate today's reporting have historically had no bearing on leadership qualities. While planning D-Day, Dwight Eisenhower had a close, though possibly platonic, relationship with his female driver. Should that have barred him from the White House?
...
In short, the triumph of the trivial is not a trivial matter. The failure of TV news to inform the public about the policy proposals of this year's presidential candidates is, in its own way, as serious a journalistic betrayal as the failure to raise questions about the rush to invade Iraq.
P.S.: Another story you may not see on TV: Jeb Bush insists that electronic voting machines are perfectly reliable, but The St. Petersburg Times says the Republican Party of Florida has sent out a flier urging supporters to use absentee ballots because the machines lack a paper trail and cannot "verify your vote."
P.P.S.: Three weeks ago, The New Republic reported that the Bush administration was pressuring Pakistan to announce a major terrorist capture during the Democratic convention. Hours before Mr. Kerry's acceptance speech, Pakistan announced, several days after the fact, that it had apprehended an important Al Qaeda operative.
Did that last part grab you? It should... America's war on terrorism is just a political campaign to George, not a issue of American Security.
For more detail on that lets go to Talking Points Memo: Just-in-time-production?See CNN's Breaking News Alert: "Security forces have captured a high-level al Qaeda operative in a raid in central Pakistan, Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat said."
Then, after you see that, remember that we noted in May and then The New Republic reported out extensively early this month, that this White House has been telling the Pakistanis for months that they wanted to see a big-time al Qaida leader -- hopefully bin Laden -- produced during the Democratic convention.
It goes without saying CNN, MSGOP, and Faux News won't report that interesting bit of news... because did you hear: "Kerry's speech was rushed!"
- rob 5:41 PM - [PermaLink] -
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9/11 Claims another Building
WTC air quality stirs angstThe public comment period also delved into the recent headline-grabbing story of the demolition of the Deutsche Bank building next to Ground Zero. The building was severely damaged when the WTC towers collapsed, and has remained vacant ever since. Recently the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation (LMDC) announced it was purchasing the structure and would demolish it. That prompted outcry from local residents and businesses concerned that remaining contaminants would be blown around the area again when the building is taken down.
I spend a year working in the Deutsche Bank building (back when it was called Banker's Trust), and when I went to ground zero this winter it was chilling to see that tall black building still standing shrouded in black cloth with windows and walls missing.
The effect of 9/11 is not a Bush marketing tool, it is a national tradgedy and scar on the heart of New York.
- rob 5:33 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Bush says: BOOOO!!!
(now ya going to vote for him?)
Study: Fear shapes voters's viewsWASHINGTON (Reuters) -- President George W. Bush may be tapping into solid human psychology when he invokes the September 11 attacks while campaigning for the next election, U.S. researchers said on Thursday.
Talking about death can raise people's need for psychological security, the researchers report in studies to be published in the December issue of the journal Psychological Science and the September issue of the Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin.
"There are people all over who are claiming every time Bush is in trouble he generates fear by declaring an imminent threat," said Sheldon Solomon of Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, New York, who worked on the study.
"We are saying this is psychologically useful," said Solomon.
Besides Bush just loves talking about death anyway. Remember the first depates, the only time he showed passion, the only time his eyes even lit up with interest was when he defended killing inmates in Texas... he missed those days so much he decided to have a war.
- rob 5:27 PM - [PermaLink] -
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No surprise.
New Yorkers victims again in the days following 9/11
9/11 MEMO REVEALS ASBESTOS 'COVER-UP'
(it's a New York Post headline (thus the CAPS)).
- rob 5:22 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Why it must be Friday!
White House Sees Record Budget Deficit
But don't worry, the White House isn't releasing this news on Friday (after the democratic convention...hmmm) because it was bad news... no no, this is good news:The White House said the more modest deficit forecast was a sign Bush's tax-cutting policies were spurring economic growth. But Democrats seized on the rise in red ink over last year to accuse Bush of fiscal recklessness.
"Because the president's economic policies are working, we are ahead of pace to meet the goal of cutting the deficit in half within five years," said White House budget director Joshua Bolten.
This goes along with the line of thinking that made the administration say that terrorists killing more americans in Iraq meant we were winning there.
- rob 5:17 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Oh For GOD's sake!- Thursday, July 29, 2004 -
Three Tampa city council members walk out during atheist's invocation
Respect for all beliefs (even non-beliefs) "is sending us in the wrong direction."Even before Harvey spoke, White was pushing to cancel the invocation. These are sacred moments that refer to a supreme being, White said, and this speaker doesn't believe in God.
``We have never had people of an atheist group represent Americans,'' White said. ``And I don't think it is appropriate in this setting.''
Atheists represent Americans? Good God NO!
"The Bible is not my book nor Christianity my profession. I could never give assent to the long, complicated statements of Christian dogma."
- Abraham Lincoln, American president (1809-1865).
"Lighthouses are more helpful then churches."
- Benjamin Franklin
"Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind and unfits it for every noble enterprise."
- James Madison
"This would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it."
- John Adams
"I was born a heretic. I always distrust people who know so much about what God wants them to do to their fellows."
- Susan B. Anthony
"The Christian god can easily be pictured as virtually the same god as the many ancient gods of past civilizations. The Christian god is a three headed monster; cruel, vengeful and capricious. If one wishes to know more of this raging, three headed beast-like god, one only needs to look at the caliber of people who say they serve him. They are always of two classes: fools and hypocrites."
- Thomas Jefferson (yes, I know, he was a Deist)
"I do not believe in the divinity of Christ, and there are many other of the postulates of the orthodox creed to which I cannot subscribe."
- William Howard Taft
"All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit. "
-Thomas Paine (yes, probably another Deist)
Yes many of those quotes are from agnostics, Deists, and folks unhappy with organized religion, but let's face it, all of these people, founding fathers and Presidents included would find their beliefs unwelcome in Tampa. In fact in much of America.
Why did these people fear religion being used as an excuse and motiviation for war and laws? Because they were intelligent.
- rob 5:15 PM - [PermaLink] -
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I don't know why Michael is so cynical (see his posts below).
Its not like Bush's presidency has basically been about pillaging the treasury of the government and creating a climate of greed for his wealthy oligarchy.
ummm......
CEOs have banner year for salary increases
The median pay for a chief executive officer in the United States rose 15 percent in 2003 and was up 22 percent among top executives at larger companies, according to a survey released Wednesday.I know, I know: "a rising tide lifts all ships"
...
Despite some calls for restraint in pay, it was a better year for the executives than 2002, when the median total compensation rose 9.5 percent.
I.R.S. Says Americans' Income Shrank for 2 Consecutive Years
The total adjusted gross income on tax returns fell 5.1 percent, to just over $6 trillion in 2002, the most recent year for which data is available, from $6.35 trillion in 2000. Because of population growth, average incomes declined even more, by 5.7 percent.
Adjusted for inflation, the income of all Americans fell 9.2 percent from 2000 to 2002, according to the new I.R.S. data.
It's not as if The White House is spending money like it was going out of style knowing they'll be dead when the bill comes due.
ummm....
White House set to predict deficit
WASHINGTON (AP) - The White House will project soon that this year?s federal deficit will exceed $420 billion, congressional aides said yesterday, a record figure certain to ignite partisan warfare over President George W. Bush?s handling of the economy.
It's not like the Bush White House is hiding legally required data that would be embarrassing until after the democratic convention.
ummm....
The annual summertime analysis is expected out Friday, said several congressional aides speaking on condition of anonymity. That would be well after the frequently ignored legal deadline of July 15.Note the Friday release, another example of Bush's first law of governing: Bad news comes out on Friday.
It's not as if Bush would try to fudge election results via his brother again.
ummm....
Florida Again Faces Disputes Over Elections
Recounts, Missing Records DebatedVoting rights lawyers are in Tallahassee, one of the epicenters of the 2000 presidential election convulsions, arguing about recounts. Florida civil rights advocates are seething about restoring the voting rights of felons. And, in Miami, elections officials now find themselves in the uncomfortable position of having to explain why they've lost much of their audit records from the last big statewide election.The only way in Florida you can believe your vote matters is if you "trust" Jeb Bush. That is reassuring.
Well at least Bush and Cheney's friends are doing good jobs with our money.
ummm....
Millions in U.S. property lost in Iraq, report says
Halliburton claims figures only 'projections'Halliburton Co. has lost $18.6 million of government property in Iraq, about a third of the items it was given to manage, including trucks, computers and office furniture, government auditors claim.
The auditors couldn't account for 6,975 of 20,531 items on the ledgers of Halliburton's KBR unit, according to a report by Stuart Bowen, auditor for the coalition provisional authority inspector general.
Halliburton is providing services to U.S. troops under a contract that has generated $3.2 billion in revenue so far.
"This occurred because KBR did not effectively manage government property," Bowen wrote. "As a result, we projected that KBR could not account for 6,975 property items from an inventory of 20,531 valued at $61.1 million."
Ahh... never mind.
- rob 1:40 PM - [PermaLink] -
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HAY-OAP
If hope is all they've got, we're in serious trouble. That scene in The Thing where Blair is locked up and drugged in the shed, he looks up at Kurt Russell and says "I don't know who to trust!" Kurt says "I know whatcha mean Blair. Trust's a hard thing to come by these days. Why don't you just trust in the Lord?" and takes a huge swig of vodka and leaves him the rest of the bottle. That's how I feel after seeing the Democrats.
The Johns are unwilling to do what it takes, they're avoiding outrage instead of wielding it as a weapon. They have to pry this election out of the Republicans' cold dead fingers. Bush isn't giving it up. He'll cancel the election if he has to. They don't get it. Kerry's too busy trying not to offend anyone. He should be taking out Bush with every word and gesture, tearing him down, ripping him to shreds, not "uniting America." We are strongly divided. I want someone to say so. To get up on the stage and say, "All you people who voted for Bush? I'm not talking to you. Go away. I don't believe what you believe. Go fuck yourselves."
I'd vote for that guy in a minute. He's nowhere in sight. Instead what we get are imitation Republicans
The Democrats think the way to overthrow the Republicans is to mimic Republicans. Democratic rivalries are tamped down; liberal losers are kept offstage or out of prime time; the positive message - strength, heroism and patriotism - is relentlessly drummed in. ... Democrats on the podium who want to rip the nation's leaders as vile, dangerous deceivers who cried wolf on W.M.D., trampled the Constitution and left Iraq in chaos have to stuff it, if not shove it. Their speeches are scrubbed; Bush and Cheney are barely mentioned. ... Even John Edwards, in the spot usually given to the attack dog, barked oh so softly (matching the stage in his mahogany tie), preferring to hail a new man from hope with the mantra "Hope is on the way."
Hope my ass.
- Michael 11:48 AM - [PermaLink] -
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A Message for Edwards:
HOPE MY ASS.
- Michael 10:36 AM - [PermaLink] -
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Dade, Where's My Vote?- Wednesday, July 28, 2004 -
We are witnessing the end of democracy in America. That this isn't a banner in 96 pt. type on p. A1 instead of a puny editorial in the back of the paper is worse than a national disgrace, it foretells that the United States has fallen into the hands of a tyrant, its fundamental institutions smashed. When you destroy civil liberties and take away the right to vote, you have a dictatorship -- let's not mince words. Eye rollers? Roll your eyes at Florida, then roll them at November. I always said that Bush looks like he knows something that we don't. He is the Cat. You and I are the Canary, and we were swallowed four years ago.
Millions of Florida voters will cast ballots this November on electronic voting machines that do not produce paper records. State election officials have insisted that the machines have safeguards to ensure that votes are accurately recorded and counted, including a computerized audit function. Recently, however, Miami-Dade County officials admitted that almost all of the audit records from a disputed 2002 primary had been accidentally destroyed.
This spring, the audit function malfunctioned in some electronic voting machines.
Voters cannot be expected to trust computerized voting machines with such serious flaws. Nor should they have to tolerate public officials who withhold critical information until they are asked the right question, or forced to tell the truth by a court. Voters are learning of the loss of audit data in Florida only now because a citizens' group fought to get the information. Similarly, Florida election officials fought the release of their list of felons to be purged from voting rolls this year. When a court made the list public, it was found to be so riddled with errors that the state was forced to scrap it.
Florida's secretary of state, Glenda Hood, has insisted that the voting technology is thoroughly reliable and that the critics are simply stirring up trouble.
Why aren't federal officers arresting these people? Florida election officials, its secretary of state, and its governor are breaking the law. They have disenfranchised tens of thousands of voters and have so far successfully sabotaged two elections, and are fully prepared to do it again -- and will. Why aren't they in prison? Why isn't the entire country demanding that they be removed from office and prosecuted, right this minute? Why is Florida getting away with this? Who gave Bush the right to disappear my vote? Make that your vote.
Have a nice "election."
- Michael 8:50 AM - [PermaLink] -
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The death of a Republican oil man
Watergate figure LaRue dies
LaRue was present at a 1972 meeting with Mitchell and Nixon aide Jeb Stuart Magruder at Nixon's vacation home in Key Biscayne, Florida, where the plan to break into the Watergate complex in Washington allegedly was hatched. The building housed Democratic Party headquarters and LaRue said he advised against the burglary.
After his political career ended in scandal, LaRue returned to his home state of Mississippi to work in his family's oil company and with its real estate holdings.
Emphasis mine.
Seriously, is there anyone decent in american politics whose come from an oil company? I mean, there's got to be one... somewhere?
- rob 6:39 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Obamania!- rob 6:33 PM - [PermaLink] -I stand here today, grateful for the diversity of my heritage, aware that my parents’ dreams live on in my precious daughters. I stand here knowing that my story is part of the larger American story, that I owe a debt to all of those who came before me, and that, in no other country on earth, is my story even possible. Tonight, we gather to affirm the greatness of our nation, not because of the height of our skyscrapers, or the power of our military, or the size of our economy. Our pride is based on a very simple premise, summed up in a declaration made over two hundred years ago, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. That they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights. That among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
That is the true genius of America, a faith in the simple dreams of its people, the insistence on small miracles. That we can tuck in our children at night and know they are fed and clothed and safe from harm. That we can say what we think, write what we think, without hearing a sudden knock on the door. That we can have an idea and start our own business without paying a bribe or hiring somebody’s son. That we can participate in the political process without fear of retribution, and that our votes will be counted—or at least, most of the time.
...
Go into the collar counties around Chicago, and people will tell you they don’t want their tax money wasted by a welfare agency or the Pentagon. Go into any inner city neighborhood, and folks will tell you that government alone can’t teach kids to learn. They know that parents have to parent, that children can’t achieve unless we raise their expectations and turn off the television sets and eradicate the slander that says a black youth with a book is acting white. No, people don’t expect government to solve all their problems. But they sense, deep in their bones, that with just a change in priorities, we can make sure that every child in America has a decent shot at life, and that the doors of opportunity remain open to all. They know we can do better. And they want that choice.
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CEO pay hikes double
Corporate Library survey finds median raise for S&P 500 CEO was 22.18% in 2003.
And don't get me started on how much more the people who work for the S&P 500 companies are making. Seriously don't get me started. You don't want me to get started.
Okay, I will: they aren't getting more... at best they're getting cost of living raises. Let the parties begin!!!
- rob 6:29 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Cassini spacecraft takes rare photo of Dick Cheney's 'undisclosed location'
Nasa's now trying to cover it up with all sorts of lies about the "fully operational" space station being a "little moon."
- rob 6:27 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Castro responds to Bush's prostitution charges
Says "sorry Bush no hookers here, change your vacation plans."- rob 6:14 PM - [PermaLink] -HAVANA - An indignant Fidel Castro used a live television appearance Monday night to respond to White House charges that his government encourages child prostitution.And this next part is so insane and should be the lead of the article rather than 7 paragraphs down:
...
“The dictator welcomes sex tourism. Here’s how he bragged about the industry,” said Bush. “This is his quote — ‘Cuba has the cleanest and most educated prostitutes in the world’ and ‘sex tourism is a vital source of hard currency.’”
Three days after Bush’s remarks, the Los Angeles Times reported that the White House found the comments in a Dartmouth undergraduate paper posted on the Internet and lifted them out of context. “It shows they didn’t read much of the article,” commented Charlie Trumbull, the author.
Speaking in 1992 to the Cuban parliament, Castro actually said, “There are prostitutes, but prostitution is not allowed in our country. There are no women forced to sell themselves to a man, to a foreigner, to a tourist.”
And people wonder if Bush is getting bad advice from his people. Good God, is his next speech going to be about fighting a new war to save America, this time against the Lizard Aliens?
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Voteless in Miami- Tuesday, July 27, 2004 -
I'm not in a New York state of mind, but rather in that national disgrace otherwise known as the banana republic of Florida:
The group [Miami-Dade Election Reform Coalition] is concerned about the machines' effectiveness, following revelations about other problems with the system. Last month, state officials said the touchscreen systems used by 11 counties had a bug that would make a manual recount impossible. Earlier this month, a newspaper study indicated touchscreen machines did not perform as well as those that scanned paper ballots.
Also Tuesday, election reform groups asked a judge to strike down a state rule preventing counties that use the machines from conducting manual recounts from them.
The Division of Elections then ruled that state law only requires a recount to determine voters' intent, and that it is impossible to question voter intent with touchscreen ballots.
Let me get this right: By Florida law, you can only recount a vote to determine a voter's intent, so the way to avoid what happened in 2000 is to install touchscreen voting machines, on which it is impossible to question voter intent. Makes sense to me. The Florida Division of Elections thus has ensured that in 11 counties recounting votes is both impossible and illegal. That's not what we meant by "fixing the system." But let's try continuing to vote:
The records disappeared after two computer system crashes last year, county elections officials said, leaving no audit trail for the 2002 gubernatorial primary. A citizens group uncovered the loss this month after requesting all audit data from that election.
The news of the lost data comes two months after Miami-Dade elections officials acknowledged a malfunction in the audit logs of touch-screen machines. The elections office first noticed the problem in spring 2003, but did not publicly discuss it until this past May.
The company that makes Miami-Dade's machines, Election Systems and Software of Omaha, Neb., has provided corrective software to all nine Florida counties that use its machines. One flaw occurred when the machines' batteries ran low and an error in the program that reported the problem caused corruption in the machine's event log, said Douglas W. Jones, a computer science professor at the University of Iowa whom Miami-Dade County hired to help solve the problem.
So in other words, Miami-Dade County -- a name that will live in infamy -- had to hire a university science professor to find out that the fucking batteries were running out, and that as much as 8 percent of the vote had vanished into thin air as a result, in a gubernatorial election where the Republican won by only 4,794 votes. But wait, there's more:
And because a new state rule prohibits manual recounts in counties that use touch-screen voting machines except in the event of a natural disaster, there would likely be no use for the data anyway.
State officials have said that they created the rule because under state law, the only reason for a manual recount is to determine "voter intent" in close races when, for example, a voter appears to choose two presidential candidates or none.
Touch-screen machines, officials say, are programmed not to record two votes, and if no vote is recorded, they say, it means the voter did not cast one.
But The Sun-Sentinel of Fort Lauderdale, in a recent analysis of the March presidential primary, reported that voters in counties using touch-screen machines were six times as likely to record no vote as were voters in counties using optical-scan machines, which read markings on paper ballots.
Got that? Six times as likely to record no vote. Somebody doesn't want somebody in Miami-Dade and Broward Counties' votes to register. Could it be all those Jews who voted for Pat Buchanan in 2000?
Is it me, or does the State of Florida suck?
- Michael 10:07 AM - [PermaLink] -
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Sorry not many posts going on today, but I heard their was a convention going on, and I've just been all misty eyed with nostalgia... Spock, Kirk, watching Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, ahhhh, the conventions of my youth.
Anyway it seems yesterday that three presidents (one of whom never actually got to serve because of a coup) and said some pretty neato things.
In order of their Presidency:
Carter:
Ultimately, the issue is whether America will provide global leadership that springs from the unity and integrity of the American people or whether extremist doctrines and the manipulation of truth will define America’s role in the world.
At stake is nothing less than our nation’s soul. In a few months, I will, God willing, enter my 81st year of my life, and in many ways the last few months have been some of the most disturbing of all. But I am not discouraged. I do not despair for our country. I believe tonight, as I always have, that the essential decency, compassion and common sense of the American people will prevail.
ClintonEveryone had to sacrifice except the wealthiest Americans, who wanted to do their part but were asked only to expend the energy necessary to open the envelopes containing our tax cuts. If you agree with these choices, you should vote to return them to the White House and Congress. If not, take a look at John Kerry, John Edwards and the Democrats.
In this year’s budget, the White House wants to cut off federal funding for 88,000 uniformed police, including more than 700 on the New York City police force who put their lives on the line on 9/11. As gang violence is rising and we look for terrorists in our midst, Congress and the President are also about to allow the ten-year-old ban on assault weapons to expire. Our crime policy was to put more police on the streets and take assault weapons off the streets. It brought eight years of declining crime and violence. Their policy is the reverse, they’re taking police off the streets and putting assault weapons back on the streets. If you agree with their choices, vote to continue them. If not, join John Kerry, John Edwards and the Democrats in making America safer, smarter, and stronger.
GoreBut you know the old saying: you win some, you lose some. And then there's that little-known third category. I didn't come here tonight to talk about the past. After all, I don't want you to think I lie awake at night counting and recounting sheep. I prefer to focus on the future because I know from my own experience that America is a land of opportunity, where every little boy and girl has a chance to grow up and win the popular vote.
...
To those of you who felt disappointed or angry with the outcome in 2000, I want you to remember all of those feelings. But then I want you to do with them what I have done: focus them fully and completely on putting John Kerry and John Edwards in the White House.
- rob 5:37 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Florida- Monday, July 26, 2004 -
I've written about this before. Paul Krugman thinks the same. We, as a nation, have to deal with Florida, and right now. This is worse than Mississippi during civil rights. Florida cannot be allowed to happen again, or this country will riot.
Let's not be coy. Jeb Bush says he won't allow an independent examination of voting machines because he has "every confidence" in his handpicked election officials. Yet those officials have a history of slipshod performance on other matters related to voting and somehow their errors always end up favoring Republicans. Why should anyone trust their verdict on the integrity of voting machines, when another convenient mistake could deliver a Republican victory in a high-stakes national election?
Texas and Florida are not the United States of America.
- Michael 9:04 AM - [PermaLink] -
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Retail Democrats vs. Retail Republicans
Costco - the home of unionized workers and 5 gallon size jars of Mayonaise. Costco supports Kerry.
Walmart - the destroyer of towns that forces its wage slaves to go to the state to get health insurance and makes money when they die. Walmart supports Bush.
Rivalry between Wal-Mart, Costco also extends to national politics
Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer and owner of Sam's Club warehouse stores, gives more money to Republican candidates than any other company. Its top three managers, including chief executive H. Lee Scott, donated the individual maximum $2,000 to President George W. Bush, and Jay Allen, vice president for corporate affairs, raised at least $100,000 to reelect the president, earning him the Bush campaign's designation of ''Pioneer."
Wal-Mart -- two-thirds of whose 3,580 stores are in the ''red states" that voted for Bush in 2000 -- is backing White House policies on everything from trade to limiting overtime pay.
Costco chief executive Jim Sinegal, 68, is a Democrat who says Bush's $1.7 trillion in tax cuts unfairly benefit the wealthy. He opposed the Iraq war and supports Democratic Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts for president. And he's the only chief executive of a company in the Standard & Poor's 500 index to donate money to independent political groups formed to oust Bush, Internal Revenue Service records show.
- rob 5:47 PM - [PermaLink] -
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New Bumpersticker Monday
...supporting our troops...
Available at the TCS store (the actual bumpersticker doesn't look this nice [not that it looks that nice to start with], it looks a little crowded and will have a little bit of white on both sides. You can see it at the store).
Available for just the week... who know what we'll have next week.
UPDATE: Now with correct grammer! (and it looks a lot better now too, though off center a bit). As it should be obvious by now grammer and spelling are not my strong points, thanks go out to Michael for the editing note.
- rob 5:40 PM - [PermaLink] -
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McSweeney's Internet Tendency: Reasons to Dispatch Bush
Now up to 81.
- rob 5:30 PM - [PermaLink] -
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A Bush Promise Delivered: Changing the tone in Washington
From Bad to Worse
Session called unproductive
WASHINGTON - Congress, departing for its summer recess, left behind few achievements and a backlog of business to accomplish this fall amid election rancor, political analysts said.
...
And Democrats are rebelling against what they see as strong-arm Republican tactics.
"Inaction and disarray are the orders of the day," said Norman Ornstein, a congressional analyst with the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative Washington think tank. "Some of it is the dynamic of having a closely divided Congress. But they [Republicans] have sown the seeds of their own troubles."
- rob 5:22 PM - [PermaLink] -
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Irony Alert: Ralph Nader is a pawn of the corporate giants
Dems Wary as Republicans Boost Nader
Consumer advocate Ralph Nader's quixotic presidential campaign says it submitted about 5,400 signatures to get on the Michigan ballot, far short of the required number of 30,000. Luckily for him, approximately 43,000 signatures were filed by Michigan Republicans on his behalf, more than meeting the requirement.
- rob 5:18 PM - [PermaLink] -
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The Outcome Is Predetermined
Here's a letter that tells the future. TCS has predicted this disaster from day one. Make that day two thousand and one.
To the Editor:
As I read "Insurance for Electronic Votes," my heart sank. I do not think any of your proposals will be carried out.
I consider it likely that the 2002 election in Georgia was stolen from Senator Max Cleland by Republican manipulation of electronic voting machines. Walden W. O'Dell, the chairman and chief executive of Diebold, one of the manufacturers of the electronic voting machines that will be used in the November election, was until recently an outspoken supporter of George W. Bush.
As has been demonstrated by Representative Tom DeLay's redistricting machinations in Texas, and by the lengths to which Florida Republicans went to ensure the outcome of the 2000 election, we know that the Republicans will do whatever it takes to re-elect George W. Bush.
In my belief, unless the Kerry campaign and Democrats everywhere do everything possible to protect this election from fraud, the outcome, along with the fate of the planet, is predetermined.
Marianne DeKoven
Killington, Vt., July 23, 2004
Did I mention that this century sucks?
- Michael 9:56 AM - [PermaLink] -
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TCS Now offers a News Reader Feed
Subscribe to the TCS Feed
Having trouble with some of the poor English
on this site?
Imagine what it looks like when translated by a machine:
Archive
What is this?
This is a "team" blog. We are a bunch of
Americans, whose rising distress
in our leader's decisions brought us together to make this site.
As Bush said, he's a "uniter." Many of us have never even met.
That's the internet for you.
Buy our cool stuff.
And tell everyone what you feel.
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you can visit.
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see what we have.
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Sites we often like:
Tin Foil Caps
The Free Speech Zone
The office of the independent blogger
Buzzflash
Tom The Dancing Bug
VerifiedVoting.org
Get Your War
On
This Modern World
Eschaton / Atrios
Daily Kos
Contribute to America's Future
It is now more important then ever.
Donate to the Democractic Congressional Campaign Committee
Donate to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee
Some More Site Mottos
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the
president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is
not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the
American people."
- Teddy Roosevelt
"Government has a final responsibility for the well-being of
its citizenship. If private cooperative endeavor fails to provide work
for willing hands and relief for the unfortunate, those suffering
hardship from no fault of their own have a right to call upon the
Government for aid; and a government worthy of its name must make
fitting response."
- Franklin Delano Roosevelt
"I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and Constitutions, but laws must and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors."
- Thomas Jefferson
"The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home."
"All men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain
degree."
- James Madison
"I believe in human dignity as the source of national purpose, in human liberty as the source of national action, in the human heart as the source of national compassion, and in the human mind as the source of our invention and our ideas. It is, I believe, the faith in our fellow citizens as individuals and as people that lies at the heart of the liberal faith. For liberalism is not so much a party creed or set of fixed platform promises as it is an attitude of mind and heart, a faith in man's ability through the experiences of his reason and judgment to increase for himself and his fellow men the amount of justice and freedom and brotherhood which all human life deserves."
- John F. Kennedy
"Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are [a] few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid."
- Dwight D. Eisenhower
More Sites we often
like:
more coming...
