Town halls in Washington and Kuwait (Keith Olbermann)

If, in Ohio, or in the calculations of the academics, or in subsequent developments, they conclude there is reasonable evidence that the vote there was rotten - merely accidentally so - one of them in the House and one of them in the Senate should stand up and produce that written challenge to the Ohio electors’ credibility.

As Jonathan Turley suggested - and logic confirms - for the formal challenge to get anything but token support in the Senate and the House, there would have to be overpowering, dramatic, conclusive, evidence to suggest not merely a sour vote but one so screwed up that it could produce a different outcome. And the likelihood of such evidence turning up in the next month is infinitesimally small.

But the challenge itself, even if it garnered exactly one vote each from the Senate and House, would be a powerful protest, and an earnest signal that a full investigation of what happened in Ohio should take place, even after the inauguration. It could even be relevant, legally, in terms of the impounding of voting machines and records, to serve as the basis for some later examination to determine what, if anything, failed - and how it could be prevented from failing again.

There is no question it would be a short-term political liability - even a fatality - to the Representative and Senator who signed it. But, especially with that realization, it would not be an act of partisanship, but of patriotism.

- rob 5:37 PM - [PermaLink] -

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The Anti-Defamation League gets it wrong

"Go to Israel" O'Reilly Tells Jewish Caller

We were deeply offended, as were many of your listeners who have contacted us, at your remark to a Jewish caller on the December 3 Radio Factor that, "if you are really offended" about attempts to convert Jews to Christianity, then "you gotta go to Israel then."

American Jews are Americans. Jews and other religious minorities are part of America's great tradition of religious freedom. The discomfort with proselytizing, or the intrusion of Christian teachings in public schools, is a very legitimate concern.

More dangerously, your remark plays into one of the oldest anti-Semitic canards about Jews, that they are not full citizens of a country and are not entitled to all of the rights afforded to the majority. The notion that religious minorities have no place in a Christian America and should leave may be acceptable for extremists, but it is unacceptable coming from a popular and respected media commentator.

I can't believe ADL got that SOOOO wrong. O'Reilly is not respected. Otherwise they're right on the mark.

- rob 5:34 PM - [PermaLink] -

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We want our war... don't be such a party pooper

Officer Alleges CIA Retaliation

A senior CIA operative who handled sensitive informants in Iraq asserts that CIA managers asked him to falsify his reporting on weapons of mass destruction and retaliated against him after he refused.

The operative, who remains under cover, asserts in a lawsuit made public yesterday that a co-worker warned him in 2001 "that CIA management planned to 'get him' for his role in reporting intelligence contrary to official CIA dogma."

- rob 5:32 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Seen references to this Editorial on both Atrio's site and The Daily Kos. Thought I'd share a bit that gets back at what the soldiers were asking Rumsfeld yesterday.

Honoring a Guardsman's request

"I hope you don't forget about us because your writing can help people realize the reality of the situation," he wrote in his first paragraph. Then he went on to explain that he had a dream of going to college and was enticed to join the Guard because of its promise to help finance his education.

When he enlisted, he explained, the major emphasis of the recruiter was on the college education. Nothing was said about the possibility of war, let alone deployment in an optional pre-emptive action halfway around the world.

He was assigned to traveling up and down the highways to locate roadside bombs. It was a dangerous mission and the equipment was inadequate. Instead of an armored vehicle, he was assigned a heavy gravel truck insulated with boxes of sand. Not only was he in constant danger of running over bombs but he was a ready target for snipers along the road.

"I told my family and friends nothing about what I do," he wrote. "I don't want to worry them because to me that is the worst part - having loved ones worried about us."

Yesterday in attempt to channel Rummy I wrote "hey at least you don't have to pad you shirts with newspapers like civilians in Bosnia had too." No... our soldiers have to insulate thier trucks with boxes of sand. Bush supports our troops? Okay Bush, prove it, as comander in chief get every asshole involved in this disgrace fired.

Hmm... who to start with first?

Well yesterday with Rummy?

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said yesterday the Army was working as fast as it can and supply is dictated by ``a matter of physics, not a matter of money.''

That quote is brought to your attention by the fine Bloomberg article: Armor Holdings Could Boost Humvee Armor Output 22%

Dec. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Armor Holdings Inc., the sole supplier of protective plates for the Humvee military vehicles used in Iraq, said it could increase output by as much as 22 percent per month with no investment and is awaiting an order from the Army.

Bottom Line: The security of our troops in Iraq is not a priority for Donald Rumsfeld or Bush. Instead it seems Rumsfeld's job security is the priority for Bush.

- rob 5:30 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Feeling good about our military commanders and their responses to allegations of torture?

Whitewashing torture?
A veteran sergeant who told his commanding officers that he witnessed his colleagues torturing Iraqi detainees was strapped to a gurney and flown out of Iraq -- even though there was nothing wrong with him.

Dec. 8, 2004 | On June 15, 2002, Sgt. Frank "Greg" Ford, a counterintelligence agent in the California National Guard's 223rd Military Intelligence (M.I.) Battalion stationed in Samarra, Iraq, told his commanding officer, Capt. Victor Artiga, that he had witnessed five incidents of torture and abuse of Iraqi detainees at his base, and requested a formal investigation. Thirty-six hours later, Ford, a 49-year-old with over 30 years of military service in the Coast Guard, Army and Navy, was ordered by U.S. Army medical personnel to lie down on a gurney, was then strapped down, loaded onto a military plane and medevac'd to a military medical center outside the country.

Although no "medevac" order appears to have been written, in violation of Army policy, Ford was clearly shipped out because of a diagnosis that he was suffering from combat stress. After Ford raised the torture allegations, Artiga immediately said Ford was "delusional" and ordered a psychiatric examination, according to Ford. But that examination, carried out by an Army psychiatrist, diagnosed him as "completely normal."

A witness, Sgt. 1st Class Michael Marciello, claims that Artiga became enraged when he read the initial medical report finding nothing wrong with Ford and intimidated the psychiatrist into changing it. According to Marciello, Artiga angrily told the psychiatrist that it was a "C.I. [counterintelligence] or M.I. matter" and insisted that she had to change her report and get Ford out of Iraq.

Documents show that all subsequent examinations of Ford by Army mental-health professionals, over many months, confirmed his initial diagnosis as normal.
...
Col. C. Tsai, a military doctor who examined Ford in Germany and found nothing wrong with him, told a film crew for Spiegel Television that he was "not surprised" at Ford's diagnosis. Tsai told Spiegel that he had treated "three or four" other U.S. soldiers from Iraq that were also sent to Landstuhl for psychological evaluations or "combat stress counseling" after they reported incidents of detainee abuse or other wrongdoing by American soldiers.

- rob 5:05 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Don't you feel the huge outpouring of disgust and indignation that the fast majority of America has towards today's television?

Well, probably because you don't hangout with the Parents Television Council. A little group that is in effect controlling what you see every day on television. And as far as I can tell they're cool with dead bodies and random shootings, but freaked out by the hint of a breast... wow, is Ashcroft a member?

Activists Dominate Content Complaints

In an appearance before Congress in February, when the controversy over Janet Jackson’s Super Bowl moment was at its height, Federal Communications Commission chairman Michael Powell laid some startling statistics on U.S. senators.

The number of indecency complaints had soared dramatically to more than 240,000 in the previous year, Powell said. The figure was up from roughly 14,000 in 2002, and from fewer than 350 in each of the two previous years. There was, Powell said, “a dramatic rise in public concern and outrage about what is being broadcast into their homes.”

What Powell did not reveal—apparently because he was unaware—was the source of the complaints. According to a new FCC estimate obtained by Mediaweek, nearly all indecency complaints in 2003—99.8 percent—were filed by the Parents Television Council, an activist group.

This year, the trend has continued, and perhaps intensified.

Through early October, 99.9 percent of indecency complaints—aside from those concerning the Janet Jackson “wardrobe malfunction” during the Super Bowl halftime show broadcast on CBS— were brought by the PTC, according to the FCC analysis dated Oct. 1.

- rob 4:06 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Because George needs another crisis to exacerbate

Krugman: Inventing a Crisis

Privatizing Social Security - replacing the current system, in whole or in part, with personal investment accounts - won't do anything to strengthen the system's finances. If anything, it will make things worse. Nonetheless, the politics of privatization depend crucially on convincing the public that the system is in imminent danger of collapse, that we must destroy Social Security in order to save it.

I'll have a lot to say about all this when I return to my regular schedule in January. But right now it seems important to take a break from my break, and debunk the hype about a Social Security crisis.
...
Right now the revenues from the payroll tax exceed the amount paid out in benefits. This is deliberate, the result of a payroll tax increase - recommended by none other than Alan Greenspan - two decades ago. His justification at the time for raising a tax that falls mainly on lower- and middle-income families, even though Ronald Reagan had just cut the taxes that fall mainly on the very well-off, was that the extra revenue was needed to build up a trust fund. This could be drawn on to pay benefits once the baby boomers began to retire.

The grain of truth in claims of a Social Security crisis is that this tax increase wasn't quite big enough. Projections in a recent report by the Congressional Budget Office (which are probably more realistic than the very cautious projections of the Social Security Administration) say that the trust fund will run out in 2052. The system won't become "bankrupt" at that point; even after the trust fund is gone, Social Security revenues will cover 81 percent of the promised benefits. Still, there is a long-run financing problem.

But it's a problem of modest size. The report finds that extending the life of the trust fund into the 22nd century, with no change in benefits, would require additional revenues equal to only 0.54 percent of G.D.P. That's less than 3 percent of federal spending - less than we're currently spending in Iraq. And it's only about one-quarter of the revenue lost each year because of President Bush's tax cuts - roughly equal to the fraction of those cuts that goes to people with incomes over $500,000 a year.

Given these numbers, it's not at all hard to come up with fiscal packages that would secure the retirement program, with no major changes, for generations to come.

- rob 2:37 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Supporting our Troops - Bush Administration Style

Homeless Iraq vets showing up at shelters

WASHINGTON, Dec. 7 (UPI) -- U.S. veterans from the war in Iraq are beginning to show up at homeless shelters around the country, and advocates fear they are the leading edge of a new generation of homeless vets not seen since the Vietnam era.

"When we already have people from Iraq on the streets, my God," said Linda Boone, executive director of the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans. "I have talked to enough (shelters) to know we are getting them. It is happening and this nation is not prepared for that."

Disgruntled Troops Complain to Rumsfeld

Army Spc. Thomas Wilson, for example, of the 278th Regimental Combat Team that is comprised mainly of citizen soldiers of the Tennessee Army National Guard, asked Rumsfeld in a question-and-answer session why vehicle armor is still in short supply, nearly two years after the start of the war that ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

"Why do we soldiers have to dig through local landfills for pieces of scrap metal and compromised ballistic glass to uparmor our vehicles?" Wilson asked. A big cheer arose from the approximately 2,300 soldiers in the cavernous hangar who assembled to see and hear the secretary of defense.

Rumsfeld hesitated and asked Wilson to repeat his question.

"We do not have proper armored vehicles to carry with us north," Wilson said after asking again.

Rummy angered by that girly man question answered with...

"You go to war with the Army you have,"

But to reassure the troops he helpfully added...

"You can have all the armor in the world on a tank and it can (still) be blown up," Rumsfeld said.

Whew, I bet those troops feel better now.

Besides, at least they aren't like the Bosnian civilians who had to stuff their shirts and pants with comics and newspapers as "armor" to lesson the impact of shrapnel when they went outside their apartments. So why they complaining? Oh because money that could be spent on armor for them needs to go line the pockets of Halliburton execs? Look buddy you go to war with the corrupt, arrogant, incompetent department of defense you have, not one you wish you had.

- rob 1:53 PM - [PermaLink] -

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I don't know about you, but this Generalissimo Arbusto crap scares the hell out of me:





Okay putting aside the fact that he's playing military dress up again, who thought the combo Star Trek jumpsuit , Member's Only, and Sgt. Pepper design was a good idea?

- rob 11:44 AM - [PermaLink] -

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To add more to the economics discussion in Michael's post below

The disappearing dollar
How long can it remain the world's most important reserve currency?

THE dollar has been the leading international currency for as long as most people can remember. But its dominant role can no longer be taken for granted. If America keeps on spending and borrowing at its present pace, the dollar will eventually lose its mighty status in international finance. And that would hurt: the privilege of being able to print the world's reserve currency, a privilege which is now at risk, allows America to borrow cheaply, and thus to spend much more than it earns, on far better terms than are available to others. Imagine you could write cheques that were accepted as payment but never cashed. That is what it amounts to. If you had been granted that ability, you might take care to hang on to it. America is taking no such care, and may come to regret it.

The cost of neglect

The dollar is not what it used to be. Over the past three years it has fallen by 35% against the euro and by 24% against the yen. But its latest slide is merely a symptom of a worse malaise: the global financial system is under great strain. America has habits that are inappropriate, to say the least, for the guardian of the world's main reserve currency: rampant government borrowing, furious consumer spending and a current-account deficit big enough to have bankrupted any other country some time ago. This makes a dollar devaluation inevitable, not least because it becomes a seemingly attractive option for the leaders of a heavily indebted America. Policymakers now seem to be talking the dollar down. Yet this is a dangerous game. Why would anybody want to invest in a currency that will almost certainly depreciate?

The editorial continues, it is a good read.

- rob 10:49 AM - [PermaLink] -

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Ignoromics, Part 2: Acme Bush Co. Evaporated Dollars (just add oil)

Great for Roadrunners! (void where prohibited)

A falling dollar is unlikely to curtail imports as much as hoped. It is more likely instead to act as a consumption tax. About one-quarter of the United States import bill arises from oil purchases, which are priced in dollars. A rapidly depreciating dollar thus means lower earnings for OPEC producers. In response, the cartel might well raise prices. . . .

Nor will a cheaper dollar encourage domestic production that can replace imports, as some argue. Auto parts, for instance, are increasingly produced in Mexico and other developing nations. These plants, part of a highly specialized global supply line, are not likely to be replaced by suppliers in the United States just because of temporary currency movements.

Because currencies' values are relative to one another, the lower the dollar gets, the higher the euro and yen rise. As the currencies of Europe and Japan strengthen, the exports of these nations will become more expensive. That could easily translate into slower growth in those already slow-growing regions - and less money to buy our exports.

While big American companies still export billions of dollars' worth of goods across the Atlantic, they sell three to five times as much from their European-based operations - to countries in Europe. A lower dollar won't have much effect on those sales.

Our need to borrow so much from abroad is caused by our enormous consumption and our anemic savings. Today, Americans save just 0.2 percent of their disposable income, practically the lowest level in 45 years. . . . Our government, too, needs foreign creditors to invest in Treasury securities, to finance its escalating budget deficits.

This is a one-way bet for speculators. Already, rumors are rampant that several central banks with significant dollar holdings may diversify into other currencies. . . . If momentum to sell dollars gathers steam, it could lead to a dollar plunge, a global financial crisis and deep worldwide recession.

The author, who held economic and foreign policy posts in the Nixon, Ford, Carter and Clinton administrations, then goes on to prescribe sensible remedies -- none of which the commander in thief intends to pursue. A letter writer in today's Times, on an unrelated matter, feels the same way -- although nothing about this criminal regime can be considered for one minute unrelated: it's all related -- to stealing everything we have, and all we'll ever have.

To the Editor:

I admire Thomas L. Friedman's boundless optimism, but he's wasting his time whenever he appeals to President Bush's sense of history.

Mr. Friedman is right that the best thing Mr. Bush could do - to make us more secure, create a new sense of purpose and a whole new economic sector - is to start a crash program to find a clean alternative to oil. But the president and his allies have proved over and over that they are more interested in the political and economic profits to be made now than they are in the future. People who've held their breath waiting for him to change have run out of air.

Kurt Strahm
Brooklyn, Dec. 5, 2004

Does anybody really think that this president is interested in solving a problem? Big, overreaching government is bad, remember? He said so himself, to a room of schoolchildren at 9 a.m. one day in September a few years ago, while our cities were on fire and our mayor was talking about canceling elections; yeah, he had the right idea, it just wasn't the right time. Right idea, wrong time. I think I'll use that, but first I have to dress up in a military costume with braids.

Then I can crash the country into the ground, like an echo of those planes on that glorious day, and scram with the loot, which luckily I converted when it was still worth the paper it was printed on -- relatively speaking, heh (wink).

Don't forget, it's still your money, and you're stuck with it.

See you in Disneyland.

- Michael 6:57 PM - [PermaLink] -

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We're Red States and we're Pro-Life and we Love making babies!

The New Red-Diaper Babies

So there are significant fertility inequalities across regions. People on the Great Plains and in the Southwest are much more fertile than people in New England or on the Pacific coast.

You can see surprising political correlations. As Steve Sailer pointed out in The American Conservative, George Bush carried the 19 states with the highest white fertility rates, and 25 of the top 26. John Kerry won the 16 states with the lowest rates.

In The New Republic Online, Joel Kotkin and William Frey observe, "Democrats swept the largely childless cities - true blue locales like San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Boston and Manhattan have the lowest percentages of children in the nation - but generally had poor showings in those places where families are settling down, notably the Sun Belt cities, exurbs and outer suburbs of older metropolitan areas."

We're Blue States and We're Pro-Choice and we love keeping babies alive!

(from Infant Mortality has me seeing Red)


News flash: Out of control government growth and bureaucracy is bad, but poor government services are bad too. Gee those blue states pay higher local and state taxes, but its resident's children don't die and get far better educations.

More and more it doesn't seem like Red States are basking in their "Christian" glory, but wallowing in servitude to arrogant and ignorant policies and beliefs about society.

Red states stop doing for the rest of America what you did to yourselves (via Bush).

Or else we'll yet again need to have a man ride his horse through the streets of north east America shouting: The red states are coming! The red states are coming!

Health and Education are moral needs as well you know.


Update: Holy crap, I just reread this quote from the NY Times Brooks piece that I posted: "...George Bush carried the 19 states with the highest white fertility rates..." Emphasis mine. I just seemed to overlook that litte white word. I mean why would it be there? It makes no sense, unless somehow the NY Times has no problem printing prominently the writings of a proponent of eugenics? Are red states better because (though actually failing in areas like family values, education, health, etc.) they are increasing the population of the "Superior" white race while blue states are not doing there part?

WTF!

- rob 3:39 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Yesterday was Monday: The Top Ten Conservative Idiots, No. 179 - Democratic Underground

4. Hearts and Minds
The UK's Sunday Herald reported last week that "The Pentagon has admitted that the war on terror and the invasion and occupation of Iraq have increased support for al-Qaeda, made ordinary Muslims hate the US and caused a global backlash against America because of the 'self-serving hypocrisy' of George W Bush’s administration over the Middle East."

Want more? "Referring to the repeated mantra from the White House that those who oppose the US in the Middle East 'hate our freedoms,' the report says: 'Muslims do not 'hate our freedoms', but rather, they hate our policies. The overwhelming majority voice their objections to what they see as one-sided support in favour of Israel and against Palestinian rights, and the long-standing, even increasing support, for what Muslims collectively see as tyrannies, most notably Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Pakistan and the Gulf states.'"

Should I continue? "'Muslims see Americans as strangely narcissistic,' the report goes on, adding that to the Arab world the war is 'no more than an extension of American domestic politics'. The US has zero credibility among Muslims which means that 'whatever Americans do and say only serves ... the enemy'. The report says that the US is now engaged in a 'global and generational struggle of ideas' which it is rapidly losing."

Still not enough for ya? "There is no yearning-to-be-liberated-by-the-US groundswell among Muslim societies ... The perception of intimate US support of tyrannies in the Muslim world is perhaps the critical vulnerability in American strategy. It strongly undercuts our message, while strongly promoting that of the enemy."

Hey, these aren't my words - this report came from the Pentagon. I'm just sayin'...


5. Dig Your Own Hole
Moral Values Watch: The far-right fringe is on the march! Flushed with success after being told repeatedly by the media that they were responsible for George W. Bush's recent election victory, the "moral majority" is already starting to over-reach.

Take Alabama's Rep. Gerald Allen, (R-Cottondale), for example. First he tried to ban gay marriage - but that wasn't enough. Now he's filed a bill to ban public libraries from stocking novels featuring gay characters. "Our culture, how we know it today, is under attack from every angle," he said last week during a press conference to promote his bill - and obviously banning books is the answer. You know, that kinda rings a bell...



Anyway, the good news is that Rep. Allen doesn't actually want to burn the books. When asked what he planned to do with them, he said, "I guess we dig a big hole and dump them in and bury them." Good thinking, Gerald - that ought to put an end to the sin of homosexuality once and for all!

- rob 9:49 AM - [PermaLink] -

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Not saying this isn't necessary, I have no idea what to do with the situation we are in (and the Iraqi's are in) in Iraq. Kind of a lesson that if anyone tells you war is easy, quick, cakewalk, anything they are either lying or an idiot.

Returning Fallujans will face clampdown

FALLUJAH, Iraq -- The US military is drawing up plans to keep insurgents from regaining control of this battle-scarred city, but returning residents may find that the measures make Fallujah look more like a police state than the democracy they have been promised.

Under the plans, troops would funnel Fallujans to so-called citizen processing centers on the outskirts of the city to compile a database of their identities through DNA testing and retina scans. Residents would receive badges displaying their home addresses that they must wear at all times.

Okay lets see what excuses for the war that haven't really banned out:

• WMDs? Nope
• Prevent Terrorism? Nope
• Iraqis will be better off? Nope - not yet - and not for years to come.
• The world will be better off? Nope
• Iraq will be free? Doesn't look like that to me
• Iraq will become a beacon of freedom for all the middle east? Freaking pipe dream.

Speaking of freaking idiots smoking something, here's a very funny bit about Rummy and the rest of the idiots (you know, all thus President's Men (and Women)) from Bull Moose: More Moose, Less Bull

On his way out the door, HHS Secretary Thompson departed with a comforting thought,

"I, for the life of me, cannot understand why the terrorists have not, you know, attacked our food supply, because it is so easy to do," Thompson said. "And we are importing a lot of food from the Middle East, and it would be easy to tamper with that."

So thanks alot Mr. Secretary. Now you tell us. (Note to self - avoid the hummus dip at the office Christmas party).

Despite the mass exodus, the incompetent one remains -Rummy. All that happened on his watch was an abysmal post-war plan and a prison scandal. This confirms that the only ones held accountable in this Administration are welfare mothers and struggling third grade students. For them, standards and accountability apply. For Rumsfeld, he is just passed along to the next grade (or term) regardless of his performance.

Holy Molly, even in Texas high school football, they have no pass, no play! Goodness gracious, Mr. President, you should know that if a kid had Rummy's record he would not be allowed to quarterback for the Crawford High School Pirates much less run the biggest defense establishment in the world!

- rob 9:33 AM - [PermaLink] -

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Hmmm.... what could possibly make the situation in Iraq worse?

Maybe headlines like this: Sistani poll official in 'US custody'

The man in charge of drawing up an Iraqi electoral list backed by Grand Ayat Allah Ali al-Sistani, the influential Shia Muslim leader, has been arrested by the US military, an aide says.

"American forces on Saturday arrested Muhammad Hashim al-Yahya, coordinator of the six-person committee set up by the Marjaiya (Iraq's highest Shia authority) to supervise the drawing up of an electoral list with the backing of the ayat Allah," an al-Sistani representative in Najaf said.

"If he is not released, there will be serious consequences," the source added, giving no reason for al-Yahya's arrest in Baghdad.

The US military said it had heard reports of the arrest but was unable to give any further information.

- rob 9:24 AM - [PermaLink] -

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Rather than have another roundup I'll just point you to two Olbermann posts, but if you want the real poop why Bush is President read Michael's post below:

Votes, Steroids, and Shoes (Keith Olbermann)

NEW YORK - It’s not exactly Zola’s “J’Accuse.” In fact it seems to have been written entirely in Congressionalese.

But anybody seeking the proverbial laundry list of all the complaints, questions, and oddities of Election Night in Ohio is referred to the fifteen-page letter sent Thursday to Ohio’s Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, over the signatures of twelve of the fifteen Democratic members of the House Judiciary Committee.

The document is so calm as to almost neuter the implications of the 34 specific questions John Conyers and his associates pose.
...
Blackwell needs to answer these questions. He needs to answer them even if his answers aren’t very convincing.
...
But posterity is a stern taskmaster. At the time, the election disaster of 1876 was wrapped up nicely, with Rutherford Hayes taking the oath early in 1877, and Samuel Tilden slipping into the backwaters of history. But ask any American of any political stripe about 1876, and if they paid attention in one Social Studies class in High School, they’re likely to tell you that was the year the presidency was stolen. A comprehensive study of the machinations that permitted the seating of a man who won neither the popular nor the electoral vote - and the awful consequences for the South of the resulting enabling compromise - was published as recently as last year (Roy Morris’s Fraud of the Century").

It is neither wild speculation nor partisan sour grapes to suggest that unless Blackwell promptly answers the 34 questions raised in the Democrats’ letter, the 2004 election will meet a similar historical fate.

Certified and/or certifiable (Keith Olbermann)

But the protests are not just from the fringes any more. Citing the long lines, shortages of ballots, voting machine meltdowns, and spoiled ballots, Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe announced his party would spend "whatever it takes" to conduct what it calls "a comprehensive investigative study" of the vote in Ohio, one to be completed some time next year.

But just as McAuliffe insisted that the study was not intended "to contest the results of the 2004 election,” a slightly different message was coming from what remains of the Kerry-Edwards campaign in Ohio. Kerry's lead electoral attorney there, Daniel Hoffheimer, echoed the McAuliffe tone, noting "neither the pending Ohio recount nor this investigation is designed to challenge the popular vote in Ohio.”

But in another moment of perplexing tantalization from the Kerry camp, Hoffheimer also said, “while the election of the Bush-Cheney ticket by the Electoral College is all but certain..."

- rob 8:59 AM - [PermaLink] -

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Stealing the Vote, Part 457

All right, I'm completely sick of this too, but you ought to know exactly how they did it. (Thanks to GS-W)

20 Amazing Facts About Voting in the USA
Did you know....

1. 80% of all votes in America are counted by only two companies: Diebold
and ES&S.
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diebold


2. There is no federal agency with regulatory authority or oversight of the
U.S. voting machine industry.
http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0916-04.htm
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html

3. The vice-president of Diebold and the president of ES&S are brothers.
http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/private_company.html
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html


4. The chairman and CEO of Diebold is a major Bush campaign organizer and
donor who wrote in 2003 that he was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its
electoral votes to the president next year."
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/07/28/sunday/main632436.shtml
http://www.wishtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1647886

5. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel used to be chairman of ES&S. He became
Senator based on votes counted by ES&S machines.
http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/columns/2004/03/03_200.html
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/031004Fitrakis/031004fitrakis.html

6. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, long-connected with the Bush family, was
recently caught lying about his ownership of ES&S by the Senate Ethics
Committee.
http://www.blackboxvoting.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=26
http://www.hillnews.com/news/012903/hagel.aspx
http://www.onlisareinsradar.com/archives/000896.php

7. Senator Chuck Hagel was on a short list of George W. Bush's
vice-presidential candidates.
http://www.businessweek.com/2000/00_28/b3689130.htm

http://theindependent.com/stories/052700/new_hagel27.html

8. ES&S is the largest voting machine manufacturer in the U.S. and counts
almost 60% of all U.S. votes.
http://www.essvote.com/HTML/about/about.html
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html

9. Diebold's new touch screen voting machines have no paper trail of any
votes. In other words, there is no way to verify that the data coming out of
the machine is the same as what was legitimately put in by voters.
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0225-05.htm
http://www.itworld.com/Tech/2987/041020evotestates/pfindex.html

10. Diebold also makes ATMs, checkout scanners, and ticket machines, all of
which log each transaction and can generate a paper trail.
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0225-05.htm
http://www.diebold.com/solutions/default.htm

11. Diebold is based in Ohio.
http://www.diebold.com/aboutus/ataglance/default.htm

12. Diebold employed 5 convicted felons as senior managers and developers to
help write the central compiler computer code that counted 50% of the votes
in 30 states.
http://www.wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,61640,00.html
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/10/301469.shtml

13. Jeff Dean, Diebold's Senior Vice-President and senior programmer on
Diebold's central compiler code, was convicted of 23 counts of felony theft
in the first degree.
http://www.chuckherrin.com/HackthevoteFAQ.htm#how
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/bbv_chapter-8.pdf

14. Diebold Senior Vice-President Jeff Dean was convicted of planting back
doors in his software and using a "high degree of sophistication" to evade
detection over a period of 2 years.
http://www.chuckherrin.com/HackthevoteFAQ.htm#how
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/bbv_chapter-8.pdf

15. None of the international election observers were allowed in the polls
in Ohio.
http://www.globalexchange.org/update/press/2638.html
http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/10/26/loc_elexoh.html

16. California banned the use of Diebold machines because the security was
so bad. Despite Diebold's claims that the audit logs could not be hacked, a
chimpanzee was able to do it! (See the movie here
.)
http://wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,63298,00.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4874190

17. 30% of all U.S. votes are carried out on unverifiable touch screen
voting machines with no paper trail.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/07/28/sunday/main632436.shtml

18. All -- not some -- but all the voting machine errors detected and
reported in Florida went in favor of Bush or Republican candidates.
http://www.wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,65757,00.html
http://www.yuricareport.com/ElectionAftermath04/ThreeResearchStudiesBushIsOu
t.htm
http://www.rise4news.net/extravotes.html
http://www.ilcaonline.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=
950
http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0411/S00227.htm

19. The governor of the state of Florida, Jeb Bush, is the President's
brother.
http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/news/local/7628725.htm
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10544-2004Oct29.html

20. Serious voting anomalies in Florida -- again always favoring Bush --
have been mathematically demonstrated and experts are recommending further
investigation.
http://www.yuricareport.com/ElectionAftermath04/ThreeResearchStudiesBushIsOu
t.htm
http://www.computerworld.com/governmenttopics/government/policy/story/0,1080
1,97614,00.html
http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/tens_of_thousands.html
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1106-30.htm
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2004/110904.html
http://uscountvotes.org/

Ukraine, here we come!

- Michael 1:51 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

Red State hypocrisy.

There are many interesting comparisons between red and blue states that will astound you by clearly demonstrating republican hypocrisy. We already had a posting about how red states on average have higher divorce rates on average then blue states. (Family values anyone?).

Here's a nice graph that show's teen parent figures by state (do you see a lot of red?):



(sex education leads to pregnant teens anyone?)

Red states are against federal taxes, but they sure love federal money.

States Receiving Most in Federal Spending Per Dollar of Federal Taxes Paid
(2004 Red states in bold):

1. D.C. ($6.17) (a special case considering that is where the actual federal government is located)
2. North Dakota ($2.03)
3. New Mexico ($1.89)
4. Mississippi ($1.84)
5. Alaska ($1.82)
6. West Virginia ($1.74)
7. Montana ($1.64)
8. Alabama ($1.61)
9. South Dakota ($1.59)
10. Arkansas ($1.53)

States Receiving Least in Federal Spending Per Dollar of Federal Taxes Paid
(2004 Blue states in bold):

1. New Jersey ($0.62)
2. Connecticut ($0.64)
3. New Hampshire ($0.68)
4. Nevada ($0.73)
5. Illinois ($0.77)
6. Minnesota ($0.77)
7. Colorado ($0.79)
8. Massachusetts ($0.79)
9. California ($0.81)
10. New York ($0.81)

(real welfare states anyone?)

An interesting side note to this is that red states tend to have lower local and state tax burden. Maybe because they always go begging to Uncle Sam with their hand out. Republicans, though the party of self-reliance, not only can't seem to take care of themselves, but want to punish those who do (gee, doesn't that go against their belief that the government should encourage self-reliance?)

Proposal Would Hit Blue State Taxpayers

WASHINGTON - As President Bush lays the groundwork for a possible overhaul of the U.S. tax code, one option under consideration would deal its biggest financial blow to citizens of blue states such as California and New York.

Some conservative activists are urging the Bush administration to scrap the federal deduction for state and local taxes as part of a broader plan to revamp the nation's tax system.

Although the proposal would hurt some taxpayers in nearly every state, it would hit hardest in states with higher-than-average income levels and bigger-than-average state and local tax burdens. High on the list are a number of blue states ? those that were carried by Democrat Sen. John F. Kerry in last month's presidential election.
...
Supporters of the change insist the disproportionate effect on blue states is a coincidence, but they acknowledge that the proposal could hurt most in states that voted against Bush.

"Let me put it like this: It certainly isn't something that's a discouragement," said one prominent conservative. "Yes, we talked about this. The fact that it hits blue states is not something that's been missed among Republicans."

I'm sure it hasn't. Aren't the Republicans supposed to represent true American values... you know, like not being assholes?

UPDATE: Also aren't republicans into an "ownership" society? i.e. people owning their own homes? If home owners can't exclude the amount they pay in property tax from their federal taxes some people will actually have to sell their homes (or at least haven't second thoughts about buying a new home or having an addition). For even working class homes in many areas that change alone in the tax law would mean hundreds or even thousands more the family would have to pay in federal taxes. That's got to hurt.

- rob 11:18 AM - [PermaLink] -

----

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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.
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"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



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- Thomas Jefferson



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"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



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- Dwight D. Eisenhower

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