My Blue State...

...Screwed Again:

The state's failure to pay back the federal government fully for nearly $1 billion the state borrowed to cover the costs of post-Sept. 11 unemployment benefits will result in the imposition of a temporary tax on employers for most jobs in New York.

The levy, coming as statewide unemployment is dipping, is another lingering effect of the terrorist attack in New York City and shows how it continues to ripple through the state's overall economy more than three years later.

By the end of January, more than 440,000 employers in the state will face an increase, on average, of $21 per employee in federal unemployment taxes to help pay off the debt the state incurred in 2002. As of late last month, the amount owed totaled more than $587 million, according to federal Department of Labor statistics. The fee could grow to $42 per employee if the debt is not completely erased by next November. (source: NY Times)

There is, of course, a solution: We'll just stop paying all of the Red States' bills:

Some states feast at the expense of others, according to the Tax Foundation’s latest annual analysis of federal taxing and spending patterns...“During fiscal 2003, taxpayers in New Mexico benefited the most from the give-and-take with Uncle Sam,” said (Tax Foundation Senior Economist Scott) Moody. New Mexico received $1.99 in federal outlays for every $1.00 the state’s taxpayers sent to Uncle Sam. Other big winners were Alaska ($1.89), Mississippi ($1.83), and West Virginia ($1.82)...Though not comparable as a state, the District of Columbia is by far the biggest beneficiary of federal spending: In 2003 it received $6.59 in federal outlays for every dollar its taxpayers sent to the U.S. Treasury.

“The District’s share of federal largesse amounted to $60,109 for every man, woman and child,” said Moody. “That’s more than ten times the national average.”...If some states are beneficiaries, then naturally some must be benefactors—those states where so much is collected in federal taxes that any federal spending they receive is overwhelmed.

New York has often been the biggest payer in the Tax Foundation’s annual comparison of taxes to spending...

How 'bout we start with any state that refuses to remove segregation-era language from their state constitution...

Memo to Senate Democrats:

If you had any balls, you'd offer an amendment to every piece of legislation that gives out federal dollars to the states (the highway bill, Medicare, etc.) and link that money to each state NOT having segregationist laws on the books. I.e., you have racist laws on the books, you don't get a dime of federal money for that program.

Oh how I'd love to watch the GOP try to defend segregationist laws, or in the alternative, how fun would it be making the GOP slap the red states that remain racist? That's what a REAL party would do.

And let's face it folks, we're not getting a lot of electoral votes from Alabama anytime soon. Might as well force the Republicans' hand with the rest of the country, and in the end, force them to alienate their racist base.

UPDATE: And speaking of Alabama:

Call Dr. Mary McIntyre, Medical Director of Alabama Medicaid, and ask her why she wants Lauren Rainey to die: (334) 353-8473

...you may also email mmcintyre@medicaid.state.al.us (from atrios)

By the way, I'm thinking of throwing a little party. Meet me at Chelsea Piers in NYC. Make sure you bring a bunch of tea to throw into the Hudson River.

World O'Crap Presents:

Deep Thoughts, by Peggy Noonan

Can you guess which deep thought is by SNL's Jack Handy and which is by Peggy Noonan? (hint, courtesy of WO'C: "Jack IS a professional humorist, while Peggy is regular columnist for the Wall Street Journal's editorial page")

a) Well, I just can't stop being happy.

b) I think my new thing will be to try to be a real happy guy. I'll just walk around being real happy until some jerk says something stupid to me.

Too tough? Here's another:

a) He loves sports and business and politics, and speaks their language. Normal. [...] He thinks if bad guys attack New York City and the Pentagon, we go after them and kill them--normal.

b) If life deals you lemons, why not go kill someone with the lemons (maybe by shoving them down his throat).

World O'Crap's got all the answers and more Deep Thoughts. Simply click here.

Our World Needs Fixing

And Sarah McLachlan has a few ideas...

Henry Louis Mencken: Newspaperman, Book Reviewer, Political Commentator and Giver of Good Quote:

"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day, the plain folks of the land will reach their hearts' desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."

~H.L. Mencken (1880-1956)

More From Our New Hero, Keith Olbermann

Keith has some good stuff about Nader's recount efforts in New Hampshire and the Green Party candidate's recount efforts in Ohio:

That Cobb and Nader between them could lead to a resolution of both Democrats’ doubts about the legitimacy of the election, and Republicans’ resentment that there are doubts, contains a delicious irony. To call them “fringe” candidates is to demean their efforts, but they’re hardly favorites at any spot on the political spectrum. Nader, in particular, was trashed on a daily basis by the Democrats who feared he could negatively impact Kerry’s vote totals in swing states, as he clearly did to Al Gore in Florida in 2000. For the rancor, Nader has nobody to blame but himself. Not until late in the campaign did he successfully articulate his reasons for ‘running anyway’— namely, his conviction that breaking the two-party duopoly at lower echelons of government (particularly in the House) will take decades, and had to start at the top and work down.

Plus, Keith's got an update on the Warren County lockdown:

The rationale for the bizarre “lockdown” of the vote-counting venue in Warren County on election night suddenly broke down when it was contradicted by spokespersons from the FBI and Ohio’s primary homeland security official.

County Emergency Services Director Frank Young said last week that in a face-to-face meeting with an FBI agent, he was warned that Warren County, outside Cincinnati, faced a “terrorist threat.” County Commissioners President Pat South amplified, insisting to us at Countdown that her jurisdiction had received a series of memos from Homeland Security about the threat. “These memos were sent out statewide, not just to Warren County, and they included a lot of planning tools and resources to use for election day security.

“In a face to face meeting between the FBI and our director of Emergency Services,” Ms. South continued, “we were informed that on a scale from 1 to 10, the tri-state area of Southwest Ohio was ranked at a high 8 to a low 9 in terms of security risk. Warren County in particular, was rated at 10.”

But the Bureau says it issued no such warning.

So the media was kept two floors away from the vote counting at the Warren County Administration on election night on the basis of a “10” FBI terror threat that the FBI says was never issued.

And, finally, Keith takes fellow Cornell alumni Ann Coulter to task for misquoting him:

Ms. Coulter, living up to her usual standards which many of us in the Alumni Association nightly pray she didn’t learn at the university, took a quote from a transcript of the November 8th show completely out of context, and entirely twisted its meaning...It’s a neat trick — the journalistic equivalent of the dog who learns to balance the biscuit on her nose and then flip it into her mouth on voice command.

Nice shot Keith...

Elizabeth Edwards...

...is a very brave, strong, cool woman. It's a shame we won't (might not?) have her as Second Lady (if that's what you call them) for the next 8 years:

Dear ____,

First, I want to thank each of you for the support you have given to John Kerry and John Edwards. You gave it in a thousand ways: coming to our events, volunteering to set up and clean up, working the phone banks, knocking on doors, contributing, blogging, standing on corners with signs, whatever it took. Your strength carried us through.

You may have heard that I have been diagnosed with breast cancer. Your strength is carrying my family through too in this latest struggle, and this is a fight we will win. We have (and I say we because John has been with me every minute) started chemotherapy with tremendous confidence, confidence in our doctors, in our ability to face obstacles, and in our friends far and near who we know give us their thoughts and prayers and support today and will continue to do so in the months ahead.

So many of you have tried to reach me recently with your support, and I know that the Senate office and the Wade Edwards Learning Lab have been flooded with calls and e-mails. No complaints there, but in order to take a little pressure off of them, I have resurrected my old e-mail address at elizabeth@oneamericacommittee.com, where you can reach me. I will e-mail periodic updates to you about my progress from there, if you would be interested in getting those. Treatment should last until about next June with follow-ups every three months or so.

I hope you understand how much your support has meant to us. This thank you is to our new and expanded family.

Elizabeth Edwards

Q: Why Did We Lose The Election?

A: Republicans, Lesbians and Gays from Wyoming are thinskinned. Seriously. Just ask Alan Simpson...

TV or Not TV

TV: Tonight at 9p (est) on HBO: Last Letters Home: Voices of American Troops from the Battlefields of Iraq. Here's Salon's preview:

Who is dying in Iraq? How many new bodies get shipped home every week? Where are the grieving faces of mothers and fathers on our TV screens? Where are the body bags, the funerals, the folded flags?

Maybe it was the daily body counts of Vietnam that made denial seem like the best choice, or maybe the Bush administration has successfully convinced us that averting our eyes from the human cost of war isn't just preferable, it's more patriotic. Whatever the reason, our awareness of just who's dying over there, and our familiarity with the unbearable pain those deaths bring to thousands of Americans here, is unconscionably low. Outside of the occasional special report on the evening news, outside of "Fahrenheit 9/11," we read the headlines about Fallujah and Baghdad with pained resistance. We cringe and skim over the details and try to refocus on the sports or the business page, or the blueberry muffins Sandra brought into the office this morning.

Now it's time for a little atonement. Chances are you won't be in the mood to tune in Thursday night (9 p.m. ET) for HBO's documentary "Last Letters Home: Voices of American Troops From the Battlefields of Iraq." Chances are you'll have other plans, or maybe you'll watch a few minutes of mothers and girlfriends and sisters and fathers reading the last words they received from their loved ones, and you'll feel sick and want to switch over to "The Apprentice." But chances are, you don't know much about who's dying over there, or how it feels for their families. Is it possible to make a responsible statement about your position on Iraq without having some concrete notion of the human toll we're paying overseas, every single day?

Dear Mother,

Today is a blissful day. Mother, you are the most important person in my life, and today is the first time I've realized you, only, have tried your hardest to bring the bestowed, hidden, optimistic and spontaneous qualities out of me. Well, Mother, my feet have been placed on the firm ground. Without your teaching me what you have, it would not have been possible. As I sit here in tears, I thank you.

Time goes by like a continuous Ground Hog Day over here. In the beginning, there was a lot of bloodshed, but now it's all over, though there are still terrorists that don't want us here. The good news is, I will be home to see you in September or October at the latest.

Love,

Raheen

After reading her son's letter out loud, Cathy Heighter explains, "The minute that I opened this letter and read it, my heart sank from the very first line. Because I had never heard my son write this way, speak this way. He had never expressed himself in this manner, so I knew that there was something terribly wrong, something going on inside of him that he felt the need to let me know that he was thinking of me in this moment and how much he loved me ... Two days later, they came to tell me that my son had been killed in Iraq. Which just ... I went crazy. [Starts crying.] I'm sorry."

Tough to take, huh? Not surprisingly, every single one of these letters is tough to take, as are the tears and the long pauses between sentences, as each mourner reads the same repeated promise that the deceased will be home soon. But far from an exercise in extreme rubbernecking, Bill Couturié's film is about taking a long, unflinching look at the people who are really paying for this war.

From Josh Byers, 29, who wrote, "I really look up to you, Dad," to Jesse Givens, 34, who had such a bad feeling right before his death, he wrote a final letter to his wife and sons, which they received weeks later, these aren't just strange men in uniforms. They look and sound just like people you know.

And while there aren't any overt ideological overtones to the film, it's impossible not to experience it as both intensely personal and intensely political. For those who feel they were flatly and consciously deceived into thinking that Saddam Hussein posed an immediate threat to the safety of Americans, these deaths will feel unbearably senseless.

When it became clear that there wouldn't be just a handful of casualties to romanticize, the personal stories of the real victims precipitously dropped off in most of the media. Unlike during the Vietnam War, there is no coalescing medium -- in that case, Walter Cronkite -- reminding us en masse of the ongoing tragedies. But without acknowledging the emotional fallout of this war, from the deaths of possibly a hundred thousand Iraqi citizens to the deaths of our sons and daughters, we're destined to blithely continue on the same clumsily ill-considered, denial-fueled path.

Not TV:

Several ABC affiliates have announced that they won't take part in the network's Veterans Day airing of "Saving Private Ryan," saying the acclaimed film's violence and language could draw sanctions from the Federal Communications Commission.

Stations replacing the movie with other programming Thursday include Cox Television-owned stations in Atlanta and Charlotte, N.C., three Midwest stations owned by Citadel Communications...(Ray Cole, president of Citadel) cited recent FCC actions and last week's re-election of President Bush as reasons for replacing "Saving Private Ryan" on Thursday with a music program and the TV movie "Return to Mayberry." (source: Cincinnati.com)

Feel free to insert your own "Mayberry" joke...I'm too numb.

Dear Red States:

I just received this anonymous e-mail. I agree with every single word except for "Red States" and "Blue States" -- personally , I'd like to swap them with "Bush Voters" and "Kerry Voters":

Dear Red States,

I am writing this letter to the people in the middle of the country -- the people who voted for George W. Bush. I am writing this letter because I don't think we know each other.

So I'll make an introduction. I am a New Yorker who voted for John Kerry. I used to live in California, and if I still lived there, I would vote for Kerry. I used to live in Washington, DC, and if I still lived there, I would vote for Kerry. Kerry won in all three of those regions.

Maybe you want to know more about me. Or maybe not; maybe you think you know me already. You think I am some anti-American anarchist because I dislike George W. Bush. You think that I am immoral and anti-family, because I support women's reproductive freedom and gay rights. You think that I am dangerous, and even evil, because I do not abide by your
religious beliefs.

Maybe you are content to think that, to write me off as a "liberal" -- the dreaded "L" word -- and rejoice that your candidate has triumphed over evil, immoral, anti-American, anti-family people like me. But maybe you are still curious. So here goes: this is who I am.

I am a New Yorker. I was here, in my apartment downtown, on September 11th. I watched the Towers burn from the roof of my building. I went Inside so that I couldn't see them when they fell. I had friends who were inside . I have a friend who still has nightmares about watching people jump and fall from the Towers. He will never be the same. How many people like him do you know? People that can't sit in a restaurant without plotting an escape route, in case it blows up?

I am a worker. I work across the street from the Citigroup Center, which the government told us is a "target" of terrorism. Later, we found out they were relaying very old information, but it was already too late. They had given me bad dreams again. The subway stop near my office was crowded with bomb-sniffing dogs, policemen in heavy protective gear, soldiers.

Now, every time I enter or exit my office, all of my possessions are X-rayed to make sure I don't have any weapons. How often are you stopped by a soldier with a bomb-sniffing dog outside your office?

I am a neighbor. I have a neighbor who is a 9/11 widow. She has two children. My husband does odd jobs for her now, like building bookshelves. Things her husband should do. He uses her husband's tools, and the two little girls tell him, "Those are our daddy's tools." How many 9/11 widows and orphans do you know? How often do you fill in for their dead loved ones?

I am a taxpayer. I worked my butt off to get where I did, and so did my parents. My parents saved and borrowed and sent me to college. I worked my way through graduate school. I won a full tuition scholarship to law school. All for the privilege of working 2,600 hours last year. That works out to a 50 hour week, every week, without any vacation days at all. I get to work by 9 am and rarely leave before 9 pm. I eat dinner at my office much more of! ten than I eat dinner at home. My husband and I paid over $70,000 in federal income tax last year. At some point in the future, we will have to pay much more -- once this country faces its deficit and the impossible burden of Social Security. In fact, the areas of the country that supported Kerry -- New York, California, Illinois, Massachusetts -- they are the financial centers of the nation. They pay. Kansas, how much did you contribute to this government you support? Alabama, how much of this war in Iraq did you pay for?

I am a liberal. The funny part is, liberals have this reputation for living in Never-Neverland, being idealists, not being sensible. But let me tell you how I see the world: I see America as one nation in a world of nations. Therefore, I think we should try to get along with other nations. I see that gay people exist. Therefore, I think they should be allowed to exist, and be treated the same as other people. I see ways in which women are not allowed to control their own bodies. Therefore, I think we should give women more control over their bodies. I see that people have awful diseases. Therefore, I think we should enable scientists to try to cure them. I see that we have a Constitution. Therefore, I think it should be upheld. I see that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Therefore, I think that Iraq was not an imminent danger to me. It seems so pragmatic to me. How do you see the world? Do you really think voting against gay marriage will keep people from being gay? Would you really prefer that people continue to die from Parkinson's disease? Do you really not care about the Constitutional rights of political detainees? Would you really have supported the war if you knew the truth, or would you have wanted to spend more of our money on health care, job training, terrorism preparedness?

I am an American. I have an American flag flying outside my home. I love my home more than anything. I love that I grew up right outside New York City. I first went to the Statue of Liberty with my 5th grade class, and my mom and dad took me to the Empire State Building when I was 8. I love taking the subway to Yankee Stadium. I loved living in Washington DC and going on dates to the Lincoln Memorial. It is because I love this country so much that I argue with my political opponents as much I do.

I am not safe. I never feel safe. My in-laws live in a small town in Ohio, and that town has received more federal funding, per capita, for terrorism preparedness than New York City has. I take subways and buses every day. I work in a skyscraper across the street from a "target." I have emergency supplies and a spare pair of sneakers in my desk, in case somethng happens while I'm at work. Do you? How many times a month do you worry that your subway is going to blow up? When you hear sirens on the street, do you run to the window to make sure everything is okay? When you hear an airplane, do you flinch? Do you dread beautiful, blue-skied September days? I don't know a single New Yorker who doesn't spend the month of September on tip-toes, superstitiously praying for rain so we don't have to relive that beautiful, blue-skied day.

I am lonely. I feel that we, as a nation, have alienated all our friends and further provoked our enemies. I feel unprotected. Most of all I feel alienated from my fellow citizens, because I don't understand what you are thinking. You voted for a man who started a war in Iraq for no reason,against the wishes of the entire world. You voted for a man whose lack of foresight and inability to plan has led to massive insurgencies in Iraq, where weapons are disappearing into the hands of terrorists.

You voted for a man who let Osama Bin Laden escape into the hills of Afghanistan so that he could start that war in Iraq. You voted for a man who doesn't want to let people love who they want to love; doesn't want to let doctors cure their patients; doesn't want to let women rule their destinies. I don't understand why you voted for this man. For me, it is not enough that he is personable; it is not enough that he seems like one of the guys. Wh y did you vote for him? Why did you elect a man that lied to us in order to convince us to go to war? (Ten years ago you were incensed when our president lied about his sex life; you thought it was an impeachable offense.) Why did you elect a leader who thinks that strength cannot include diplomacy or international cooperaton? Why did you elect a man who did nothing except run away and hide on September 11?

Most of all, I am terrified. I mean daily, I am afraid that I will not survive this. I am afraid that I will lose my husband, that I will never have children, that I will never grow old and watch the sunset in a backyard of my own. I am afraid that my career -- which should end with a triumphant and good-natured roast at a retirement party in 2035 -- will be cut short by an attack on me and my colleagues, as we sit sending emails and making phone calls one ordinary afternoon. Is your life at stake? Are you terrified?

I don't think you are. I don't think you realize what you have done. And if anything happens to me or the people I love, I blame you. I wanted you to know that.

Sincerely, The Blue States

Attention Bush Voters, Pt. II: Operation Phantom Menace II Society

Operation Phantom Fury is not a movie or a videogame. It is real.

Actual flesh is being penetrated, real blood is spurting, actual bones are crushing, real people are dying. 20 coalition soldiers have already been killed as have hundreds of insurgents. We don't know how many civilian casualities there will be and we'll probably never know (Liberty Post: "Pentagon suppresses details of civilian casualties"). But the NY Post thinks this whole war thing is "Smokin'" (actual front page headline, 11.10.04):

SMOKIN' - MARLBORO MEN KICK BUTT IN FALLUJAH

Wish I had screen-grabbed the accompanying picture of what the Post's website described as "Bloodied but unbowed, a leatherneck from Charlie Company of the U.S." The "leatherneck" had a cigarette dangling from his lips.

I am ashamed to be an American. Somebody, please, give me some hope...

(actual battle picture courtesy of/stolen from Daily Kos)

How "Quaint"

So, who is this man "The Great Uniter" has chosen to be our next Attorney General?

President George W. Bush named Alberto Gonzales as his choice for attorney general yesterday, picking a close personal friend who has a compelling personal story but who many say also carries a lot of baggage from his four years as White House counsel.

Both Gonzales' bid to become the first Hispanic attorney general and his role in controversial administration policies on military commissions, enemy combatants and the use of torture will be highlighted during his Senate confirmation hearings, experts said.

Bush yesterday cited Gonzales' story as one of eight children of Mexican migrants who joined the Air Force when he couldn't afford college but made it to Harvard Law School.

(Translation: Bush yesterday pandered to the ever-increasing bloc of Hispanic Voters.)

As Texas governor, Bush tapped Gonzales as a legal counsel, then secretary of state and finally Texas Supreme Court justice. But that story could be overwhelmed by the need to defend his actions as White House counsel.

Among them was a series of memos Gonzales wrote after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in which he argued that the United States needn't be bound by the Geneva Convention on the rights of prisoners in the conflict in Afghanistan, said Deborah Pearlstein of the rights group Human Rights First.

Those memos set a new bar that "no rules apply" in the war on terrorism, she said.

Second was his role in developing the policy of enemy combatants, that resulted in the arrests and the detentions of U.S. citizens without access to the courts or lawyers on the president's determination that they are a terrorist threat, she said, a policy overturned earlier this year in an 8-1 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Finally, questions abound about the role Gonzales had in 2002 memos written by the Justice Department that created a narrow definition of terror and led to the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal, Pearlstein said. (source: NY Newsday)

Wanna read some of the highlights from Gonzales' Jan. 25th, 2002 memo? Of course you do:

• Gonzales says the "new paradigm" of the war on terrorism "renders obsolete Geneva's strict limitations on questioning of enemy prisoners and renders quaint some of its provisions."

• Gonzales outlines the pros and cons of applying the Geneva Conventions to al Qaeda and Taliban detainees. He is prescient in his prediction that a failure to apply the Conventions across the board "could undermine U.S. military culture which emphasizes maintaining the highest standards of conduct in combat, and could introduce an element of uncertainty in the status of adversaries."

• He rejects his own argument, concluding that "our military remains bound to apply the principles of GPW [Geneva Conventions on Prisoners of War] because that is what you have directed them to do."

• Gonzales also notes that "It is difficult to predict the motives of prosecutors and independent counsels who may in the future decide to pursue unwarranted charges based on Section 2441 (of the US code, the War Crimes Act). Your determination [to bypass the Geneva Conventions] would create a reasonable basis in law that Section 2441 does not apply, which would provide a solid defense to any future prosecution." (source: Center for American Progress)

Here was Colin Powell's response the very next day:

"It [declaring Geneva does not apply] will reverse over a century of U.S. policy and practice in supporting the Geneva conventions and undermine the protections of the law of war for our troops, both in this specific conflict and in general." (source: Center for American Progress)

Here's what two retired JAGS had to say:

• "If we – 'we' being the uniformed lawyers – had been listened to, and what we said put into practice, then these abuses would not have occurred,' said Rear Admiral Don Guter (ret.), the Navy Judge Advocate General from 2000 to 2002."

• "'When you say something down the chain of command like, 'The Geneva conventions don't apply,' that sets the stage for the kind of chaos that we've seen,' said Rear Admiral John Hutson (ret.), who was the Navy Judge Advocate General from 1997 to 2000." (source: Center for American Progress)

And here's what Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said yesterday about Gonzales:

"I can tell you already he's a better candidate than John Ashcroft."

Let's review then, shall we?

• Gonzales: Close, personal friend of The Big Turd Sandwich (check)
• Gonzales: Set the stage for chaos, torture and abuse at Abu Ghraib (check)
• Gonzales: Advocated the reversal of over a century of U.S. policy (check)
• Chuck Schumer: Spineless Democratic Asshole (check)

I'm so glad I voted for him...

Update: The Rude Pundit has a quaint suggestion for Gonzales' confirmation hearings:

"How about this - instead of a nice, orderly Congressional hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, the good Senators get to strip Gonzales nude, put a hood on his head, force him to masturbate, and then attach electrodes to his flaccid genitals and put a leash and collar on his neck. Then, with Patrick Leahy on the switch, let the questioning commence."

Our Vanished Values

I strongly encourage all of you (and I do mean all of you) to read this incredible article by Michael Feingold in this week's Village Voice. Here's one of many brilliant paragraphs:

"For make no mistake, this is the election in which American Christianity destroyed itself. Today the church is no longer a religion but a tacky political lobby, with an obsessive concentration on a minuscule number of social topics so irrelevant to questions of governance that they barely constitute political issues at all. These are the points of contention tied into what are blurrily referred to as "moral values," though they have almost nothing to do with the larger moral question of how one lives one's life, and everything to do with the fundamentally un-Christian and un-American idea of forcing others to live the way you believe they should. The displacement of faith involved is eerie, almost psychotic: Here are people willing to vote against their own well-being and their own children's future, just so they can compel someone else's daughter to bear an unwanted child and deprive someone else's son of the right to file a joint income tax return with his male partner."

Can I get an Amen? I didn't think so...

Get Your War On

Eli, Are You Out There?

MoveOn has been conspicously silent about the alleged Voter Fraud issue. Message to Eli Pariser: You may want to move on, but there are (so far) at least 19,038* Americans who are requesting:

"that our elected representatives act in accordance with the Constitution of the United States of America in a legal, impartial and expedient manner for an open hearing before the people of the United States and if such wrongdoing, illegal practices, manipulation of voting records or processes is of such a nature to indicate egregious or extensive tampering, alteration or misappropriation of the voting process that the violators be brought to justice and remedies, potentially including a nationwide audit, recall, recount or new election be imposed by your bodies."

Many of us thought you were our voice, Eli. Please don't prove us wrong...

Contact MoveOn here.
Contact your local representatives at Contacting the Congress.

*(Click on the petition link and watch the number of signatures go up almost every time you reload/refresh the page. Also, click any of the signature links at random - for example 5250 - and notice the diversity of where the signatures are coming from: FL, PA, NJ, GA, OH, MO, CA, VA, LA, MA, AL, IL, OR, MI, CT, IN, KS, WI, NH, TX, MD, TN, RI, etc. Very inspiring.)

We Are Not Alone

Two more "election mess" sites, courtesy of The Randi Rhodes Show:

The League of Pissed Off Voters
Help America Recount Fund

Thanks Randi...

Olbermann Update

Keith is not letting the story of the "election vote mess" die. His excellent blog has a couple of updates plus he'll have more on the story during tonight's edition of Countdown:

"The election vote mess is like one of those inflatable clown dolls. You knock it down with your hardest punch, it goes supine, and then bounces back up, in the meantime having moved an inch or two laterally.

The punch, of course, is the explanation that the 29 more-votes-than-voters precincts in greater Cleveland appear to have been caused by the addition of Absentee Ballots. The total difference between registered voters and votes (93,000) might be explained by that process, but it does little for one’s confidence in the whole result from Ohio.

The problem is, the rubber clown immediately bounces back with the report that officials in Youngstown managed to catch a slight glitch in their voting there: a total drawn from all the precincts that initially showed negative 25,000,000 million votes cast. It evokes a Monty Python sketch (“Mr. Kevin Phillips Bong - Sensible Party - 14,352. Mr. Harquin Fim Tim Lim Bim Bus Stop Fatang Fatang Ole Biscuit Barrel - Silly Party -- minus 25,000,0000).

No reason to worry about the integrity of the outcome in Ohio, is there?

The most pleasing thing of the last three days of blogs and newscasts is the reassurance from political professionals that all of you (all of us) who have wondered about what went on a week ago yesterday are not necessarily nuts. We might not necessarily be right, but there are some very stodgy, very by-the-book folks who think we’re damned right to be asking."

And here I thought I was just one step away from becoming one of those New Yorkers who yell at invisible demons as they walk down the street. Thanks Keith.

My First Guest Post!

Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome, the one and only, Ninja Bob:

My apologies to the bloggers out there who may have covered this already, but as I was saying to my good friend Tony (whose name may or may not have been changed for privacy reasons) over the weekend, I don't care if a recount brou-ha-ha lasts two days, two weeks, or two years, we have to get to a place in this country where if you vote, your vote gets tallied correctly.  I've been reading about Ohio voter counts being higher than the number of registered voters.  Florida voting machines that counted backwards after reaching a certain number.  Heavily Democratic precincts voting inexplicably for Bush.  Machines where votes aren't being counted, or adding thousands of extra votes.  And yet, with these, and other, irregularities in swing states, there is a deafening silence in the "liberal" media about it. Keith Olbermann is just about the only nationally broadcast news person even mentioning it...WHY?

This is exactly the kind of thing that leads to revolutions.  When America was formed, it was a truly unique system to peacefully transfer power between rival political factions.  Have we now become so complacent and comfortable that, as a country, we can't be bothered to ensure the system works correctly?  Worse, why is the prospect of examining the process so distasteful to the general public? It drifts quite a ways from Thomas Jefferson's ideal of a government by an informed electorate.  In fact, his exact words were,

". . . whenever the people are well-informed, they can be trusted with their own government; that, whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them right."

So hey, things are wrong, they're attracting notice, and it's our responsibility to set them right.  If we don't, we are not being governed, we're being farmed.  That's right, I wrote "farmed".  Just sedated sheep, content to let the government do what it wants so long as it doesn't bother us with pesky details.

For my part, when I saw a chart on some website claiming voter chicanery in Florida, I decided to go to the source.  The state of Florida posts not only it's election results, but also totals for voter registrations and percent of voter turnout, county by county.  It has some interesting data.  Things like, huge turnout for Bush in heavily Democratic counties.  So much so, it looks like the numbers got accidentally reversed.  Don't believe me, check it out here.

So, I come across this website, TruthOut, with a pretty well researched article by William Rivers Pitt about the current goings on. Here's a sample to whet your appetite, but you should probably read it for yourself:

(A poster named "TruthIsAll" on the Democratic Underground forum laid out the questionable results of Tuesday's election in succinct fashion): "To believe that Bush won the election, you must also believe:  That the exit polls were wrong; that Zogby's 5pm election day calls for Kerry winning Ohio and Florida were wrong (he was exactly right in his 2000 final poll); that Harris' last-minute polling for Kerry was wrong (he was exactly right in his 2000 final poll); that incumbent rule #1 - undecideds break for the challenger - was wrong; That the 50% rule - an incumbent doesn't do better than his final polling - was wrong; That the approval rating rule - an incumbent with less than 50% approval will most likely lose the election - was wrong;  that it was just a coincidence that the exit polls were correct where there was a paper trail and incorrect (+5% for Bush) where there was no paper trail; that the surge in new young voters had no positive effect for Kerry; that Kerry did worse than Gore against an opponent who lost the support of scores of Republican newspapers who were for Bush in 2000; that voting machines made by Republicans with no paper trail and with no software publication, which have been proven by thousands of computer scientists to be vulnerable in scores of ways, were not tampered with in this election."

And, because you probably don't have anything better to do on a Wednesday, here are some other links about the subject:

msnbc.msn.com
cosortiumnews.com
commondreams.org
buzzflash.com
commondreams.org

Thanks Ninja. Well done.

Let The Eagle Soar!

John Ashcroft has resigned. My nipples are hard.


According to Ashcroft,

"the demands of justice are both rewarding and depleting" and that the Justice Department would be well served "by new leadership and fresh inspiration."

Amazing. This might be the first time he's ever told the truth* on record. No, I don't mean this record. Feel free to sing-a-long:

Let the eagle soar,
Like she's never soared before.
From rocky coast to golden shore,
Let the mighty eagle soar.
Soar with healing in her wings,
As the land beneath her sings:
"Only god, no other kings."
This country's far too young to die.
We've still got a lot of climbing to do,
And we can make it if we try.
Built by toils and struggles
God has led us through.

Let the eagle soar,
Soar with freedom in her breast
So long as she's appropriately dressed
And not exposing her chest.
As the lands beneath her say
"Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away."
But we shall overcome.
We won't let the First Amendment
stand in our way.
O, let the eagle soar,
but the Bill of Rights ignore
'cause we're in a state of war
Yes, let the mighty eagle soar

(additional lyrics courtesy of Toad a la Moad)

*Of course, he couldn't resist lying once more for old time's sake:

In a five-page, handwritten letter, Ashcroft told Bush, "The objective of securing the safety of Americans from crime and terror has been achieved."

Uh, right...

"You're Stupid." "No, You're Stupid."

(Updated Version)

Some of us "elitists" have been getting flack for saying that people who voted for The Big Turd Sandwich are stupid.

Of course I realize that not everyone who voted for The War President is stupid...some of them are selfish.

The Six Corporations (a.k.a. "The Media") have carefully avoided the stupid issue, choosing instead to focus on social issues. In other words, instead of offending SmirkBoy's supporters by calling them dummies, The Media has decided instead to blame The Gays. What a crock.

Yesterday, however, the always excellent Bob Herbert decided he's had enough of blaming the victim and declared "Stupid is as Stupid does" (whatever the hell that means Forrest). Take it away Bob:

I think a case could be made that ignorance played at least as big a role in the election's outcome as values. A recent survey by the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland found that nearly 70 percent of President Bush's supporters believe the U.S. has come up with "clear evidence" that Saddam Hussein was working closely with Al Qaeda. A third of the president's supporters believe weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq. And more than a third believe that a substantial majority of world opinion supported the U.S.-led invasion.

This is scary. How do you make a rational political pitch to people who have put that part of their brain on hold? No wonder Bush won.

Bob, since he writes for a sometimes respectable newspaper (does Judith Miller still work there?), avoids actually using the word "stupid" but he does go on to use the word "cluelessness". Bravo Bob. However, since I'm a lowly blogger, I can say, unequivocally (except for the selfish people), that if you voted for The Big Turd Sandwich you are STUPID. You are an IDIOT. You are a MORON. Thanks for nothing, you stupid, idiot morons...
(map courtesy of/stolen from The Washington Monthly)*

But wait, there's more: If you think I'm being too harsh, wait'll you read this post. Even I blushed (so, if you don't like big swear words, don't click on the link).

Also, be sure to check out this post, courtesy of The Daily Howler, entitled "Eastern Elites Give Free Dough to the Poor." How's your blood pressure holding up?

And, finally, just in case you didn't see this interview with Tom Wolfe from The Guardian:

"I think support for Bush is about not wanting to be led by East-coast pretensions. It is about not wanting to be led by people who are forever trying to force their twisted sense of morality onto us, which is a non-morality. That is constantly done, and there is real resentment. Support for Bush is about resentment in the so-called 'red states' — a confusing term to Guardian readers, I agree — which here means, literally, middle America."

Take one guess where Tom grew up...

*(Apparently this map contains one inaccuracy: Kansas was not open to slavery in 1860, the year this map represents. Sue me...)

Not Bad For an Ex-Sportscaster

Keith Olbermann is at least paying attention to and reporting the Voter Fraud story and, as a result, he's receiving a lot of e-mails:

"...we received 1,570 e-mails (none of them duplicates or forms, as near as I can tell). 1,508 were positive, 62 negative.

Well the volume is startling to begin with. I know some of the overtly liberal sites encouraged readers to write, but that’s still a hunk of mail, and a decisive margin (hell, 150 to 62 is considered a decisive margin). Writing this, I know I’m inviting negative comment, but so be it. I read a large number of the missives, skimmed all others, appreciate all— and all since— deeply.

Even the negative ones, because in between the repeated “you lost” nonsense and one baffling reference to my toupee (seriously, if I wore a rug, wouldn’t I get one that was all the same color?), there was a solid point raised about some of the incongruous voting noted on the website of Florida’s Secretary of State.

There, 52 counties tallied their votes using paper ballots that were then optically scanned by machines produced by Diebold, Sequoia, or Election Systems and Software. 29 of those Florida counties had large Democratic majorities among registered voters (as high a ratio as Liberty County— Bristol, Florida and environs— where it’s 88 percent Democrats, 8 percent Republicans) but produced landslides for President Bush. On Countdown, we cited the five biggest surprises (Liberty ended Bush: 1,927; Kerry: 1,070), but did not mention the other 24.

Those protesting e-mailers pointed out that four of the five counties we mentioned also went for Bush in 2000, and were in Florida’s panhandle or near the Georgia border. Many of them have long “Dixiecrat” histories and the swing to Bush, while remarkably large, isn’t of itself suggestive of voting fraud.

That the other 24 counties were scattered across the state, and that they had nothing in common except the optical scanning method, I didn’t mention. My bad. I used the most eye-popping numbers, and should have used a better regional mix instead.

Interestingly, none of the complaining emailers took issue with the remarkable results out of Cuyahoga County, Ohio. In 29 precincts there, the County’s website shows, we had the most unexpected results in years: more votes than voters.

I’ll repeat that: more votes than voters. 93,000 more votes than voters.

Oops.

Talk about successful get-out-the-vote campaigns! What a triumph for democracy in Fairview Park, twelve miles west of downtown Cleveland. Only 13,342 registered voters there, but they cast 18,472 votes.

Vote early! Vote often!

(snip)

Back to those emails, especially the 1,508 positive ones. Apart from the supportive words (my favorites: “Although I did not vote for Kerry, as a former government teacher, I am encouraged by your ‘covering’ the voting issue which is the basis of our government. Thank you.”), the main topics were questions about why ours was apparently the first television or mainstream print coverage of any of the issues in Florida or Ohio. I have a couple of theories.

Firstly, John Kerry conceded. As I pointed out here Sunday, no candidate’s statement is legally binding— what matters is the state election commissions’ reports, and the Electoral College vote next month. But in terms of reportorial momentum, the concession took the wind out of a lot of journalists’ aggressiveness towards the entire issue. Many were prepared for Election Night premature jocularity, and a post-vote stampede to the courts— especially after John Edwards’ late night proclamation from Boston. When Kerry brought that to a halt, a lot of the media saw something of which they had not dared dream: a long weekend off.

Don’t discount this. This has been our longest presidential campaign ever, to say nothing of the one in which the truth was most artfully hidden or manufactured. To consider this mess over was enough to get 54 percent of the respondents to an Associated Press poll released yesterday to say that the “conclusiveness” of last week’s vote had given them renewed confidence in our electoral system (of course, 39 percent said it had given them less confidence). Up for the battle for truth or not, a lot of fulltime political reporters were ready for a rest. Not me— I get to do “Oddball” and “Newsmakers” every night and they always serve to refresh my spirit, and my conviction that man is the silliest of the creator’s creations.

There’s a third element to the reluctance to address all this, I think. It comes from the mainstream’s love-hate relationship with this very thing you’re reading now: The Blog. This medium is so new that print, radio, and television don’t know what to do with it, especially given that a system of internet checks and balances has yet to develop. A good reporter may encounter a tip, or two, or five, in a day’s time. He has to check them all out before publishing or reporting.

What happens when you get 1,000 tips, all at once?

If you're part of a Nielsen Family household, make sure you tune in to Keith's MSNBC show early and often (8pm est).

Personal aside: I'll never forget taking the 7 train to Shea a couple of seasons ago and seeing Keith riding all alone. Could it be that Keith is a die-hard Mets fan in addition to being a funny, intelligent infotainer? (insert "and Champion of Lost Causes" joke here)

Why Wait?

The New York Times has proposed 12 "New Standards for Elections":

1. A holiday for voting.
2. Early voting.
3. Improved electronic voting.
4. Shorter lines at the polls.
5. Impartial election administrators.
6. Uniform and inclusive voter registration standards.
7. Accurate and transparent voting roll purges.
8. Uniform and voter-friendly standards for counting provisional ballots.
9. Upgraded voting machines and improved ballot design.
10. Fair and uniform voter ID rules.
11. An end to minority vote suppression.
12. Improved absentee ballot procedures.

All of these proposals make a great deal of sense. But then The Times goes on to say:

"This year's election, thankfully, did not end in the kind of breakdown we witnessed in 2000. But that was because of luck. There were many places in the country where, if the vote had been closer, scrutiny of the election process would have produced the same sort of consternation. In a closely divided political world, we cannot depend on a margin for error when it comes to counting votes. We have four years now to make things right."

Um, no. Luck had nothing to to with it. Reluctancy to deal with possibilities other than the "America-Needs-To-Heal" scenario, perhaps. But not luck. How much closer does the vote need to be for The Times to experience consternation? The Big Turd Sandwich "won" Ohio by (at last count) 136,483 votes. According to many sources, the voting situation in Ohio was a freakin' mess. Yet, that slim margin of 136,483 votes negated millions of other votes across the country.

We had four years "to make things right" after the 2000 debacle, but guess who was in charge? Do you think the Republicants will push these or any of the 12 suggestions forward in time for the next presidential (s)election? Why wait to find out? We need to do something now. This election ain't over till it's over.

Attention Bush Voters:

Just thought I'd update you on what The Big Turd Sandwich has "accomplished" since you pulled the lever for him on November 2nd:

Iraq is under 60-day martial law. Allawi is calling the shots for our military. 14 U.S. soldiers have been killed in just the past two days alone (plus nine others since November 3rd): (link)

The fighting in the city and elsewhere in Iraq has cost the United States at least 14 lives over the past two days, according to Pentagon figures. Eleven died on Monday, most in attacks outside Fallujah, marking the highest one-day U.S. toll in more than six months. Outside Fallujah, meanwhile, insurgents kept up attacks on Tuesday. Raids on police stations in and around the city of Baqouba reportedly killed 45 people, most of them police. The attack was claimed by the terror group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, according to an Islamic Web site.

Iraqi authorities later imposed the first nighttime curfew in more than a year on Baghdad and surrounding areas under powers granted by an emergency decree announced last weekend.

It is of course reassuring that many of you are praying for the families that our soldiers have left behind. If you have it in your hearts (and of course if you can spare the time), remember to say a little something for any of the innocent brownskinned people who might accidentally get in our way.

I Know What You're Thinking

So, you're probably saying to yourself, "Why should I invest time and energy into this whole voter fraud issue? Didn't we go down this same path in 2000? Remember when we all were filled with hope when the Florida State Supreme Court rightly decided that the votes should be recounted only to feel like we were being kicked in the stomach when James Baker took the case to his friends in the United States Supreme Court? Or how about how we all felt when the nation and the world had a real chance to become united after 9/11 only to have The Big Turd Sandwich once again kick us in the stomach by arrogantly squandering all of that goodwill? Then there was the elation we felt when we marched (or in the case of New York, huddled in penned-off areas) in solidarity with millions of people across the globe to protest an unjust war. Didn't it seem that, together, people could accomplish anything? And didn't it feel like a huge, swift kick in the stomach when The War President decided to get on TV and tell Saddam that his time was up? Why on earth should I go through all of this emotional turmoil again for what seems at best a long shot? I don't think my stomach could take anymore."

Well, here's why: Our world is all about long shots. From David beating Goliath to the Colonies defeating the Brits to The Big Turd Sandwich with the C-average becoming P-resident, not once but twice. Hell, didn't any of you people see "Seabiscuit"?!?!?

I don't think fighting voter fraud is a petty waste of time. I do agree with Atrios that

"...irregularities and questionable results are not necessarily "proof" of "fraud" and "proof" that the "election was stolen. " If people want this issue to be taken seriously they need to stop thinking that any of the information floating around right now - and yes, I've seen it all multiple times - provides proof of any such thing. Yes, legitimate questions have been raised, but I fear people on "our side" have started to confuse the legitimate questions with the answers to those questions they've imagined. I'm fully ready to believe that everything was corrupt in Florida, Ohio, and elsewhere, but thinking and knowing are different things entirely."

But Atrios and others seem to be throwing in the towel because, to quote This Modern World:

"The 'stolen election' argument was a loser in 2000 when the election pretty clearly was stolen. Without a smoking gun, preferably with Karl Rove's fingerprints on it, I just don't think it's going anywhere this year."

Well then, shouldn't we be putting all of our resources and efforts into finding that smoking gun? We only need one (and I suspect that there's more than one out there).

Fighting this election is about the future of our democracy. If we let the Roves and the Diebolds and the Peter Kings ("It's already over. The election's over. We won...It's all over but the counting. And we'll take care of the counting") manipulate the fate of this country then The Dream Is Over.

Don't give up the fight...

Why Does The Average Person Not Give a Crap?

While the whole country seems to be on pins and needles regarding the outcome of the Scott Peterson trial, very few people seem to care that, right this second, all out war is being waged in Falluja while every single day there's more and more evidence that last week's election was a total joke. I just saw this courtesy of Americans for America:

(in Cuyahoga County, Ohio there were)
97,489 EXTRA votes beyond 100% in those precincts! This is just for ONE county!:

And, courtesy of AMERICAblog, there's this little gem:

Citing concerns about potential terrorism, Warren County officials locked down the county administration building on election night and blocked anyone from observing the vote count as the nation awaited Ohio's returns. County officials say they took the action Tuesday night for homeland security, although state elections officials said they didn't know of any other Ohio county that closed off its elections board. Media organizations protested, saying it violated the law and the public's rights. The Warren results, delayed for hours because of long lines that extended voting past the scheduled close of polls, were part of the last tallies that helped clinch President Bush's re-election....

WCPO-TV (Channel 9) News Director Bob Morford said he's "never seen anything like it." When he first heard about Warren County's building restrictions, he said he understood concerns that too many people could make the counting process "a circus." But he said it's never been a problem in the past, and that the county could have set up a security checkpoint and had people show identification.

"Frankly, we consider that a red herring," Morford said of the county's "homeland security" reason. "That's something that's put up when you don't know what else to put up to keep us out."

Red Herring...Smoking Gun. No matter what you call, it stinks. Re-VOTE!

"Operation Phantom Fury"

Really...is there anything I could possibly add to this?

Two Americas

There's the one I live in and then there's the one this woman from Jackson, Mississippi lives in:

"When I learned more about Kerry, he didn't seem to be consistent,'' she said. ''Sometimes he sounded like he was trying to say anything to make Bush look bad. Bush didn't have a choice really but to retaliate. Ultimately, it would be best if God could run our country in person.''

''When the 9/11 incident happened, I had hoped since then that the tragedy would bring America back to God and back to what America was founded on,'' she said softly. ''But if you look how far we have come from the original Constitution, which was founded on the Bible and Christian principles, the nation has divided.''

No snarky comment is necessary...

Voters Unite!

VotersUnite has compiled 63 (and counting) "problems reported in the media about the 2004 general election."

And Randi Rhodes wants you to fax Ralph (Nader, I assume): Demand A Recount Now. Send a Fax to: 202-265-0092. Text should read:

RALPH -- Challenge the election results in New Hampshire, Now.

Your Name,
Black Box Voting Activist

Time to Talk to Terry

Terry McAuliffe, the Chairman of the Democratic Party, wants/needs our help in developing a strategy for 2005:

Dear Krup,

I want to thank you for everything you've done over the course of this campaign. Time and time again we asked for your help, and you were always there for us.

Even though we didn't win back the White House, you created something historic. Our grassroots campaign of hope and optimism was unprecedented in American politics. More than 1 million volunteers made 11 million person-to-person, door-to-door contacts, and made 38 million phone calls to voter in battleground states.

If you were involved in these grassroots activities, we want to hear from you about your experience. What did you do? Did you feel the action you took was effective? Was it a good experience for you? How would you make it better?

Tell us your thoughts.

www.democrats.org/feedback/

We plan to use your feedback to help develop our strategy in 2005. As always, you will continue to play a critical role in the future of the Democratic Party. What we created together will be the backbone for Democratic victories in the future.

You and I know that this fight is not over. We will never waver when it comes to defending our values and fighting for what we know is right.

Again, thank you for helping create something special.

Sincerely,

Terry McAuliffe
Chairman

2005? We're not finished with 2004 yet. Go: Click on the above link and let Terry know that before we can move on, we must thoroughly investigate this fraud of a presidential election. And please pass this on to your friends. (for the complete Voter Fraud story so far, go to The Brad Blog as well as my post below)

Two Words: VOTER FRAUD

Okay folks, I believe it's time to roll up our sleeves and really get to work. Stories of voter fraud are actually making it into the mainstream press and I don't think we should let this one get away. To paraphrase Sam Seder from last night's Majority Report, it doesn't matter if Kerry conceded, this is about the very core of our democracy.

I'll have more information next week (I'm on dial-up all weekend and it's giving me hives) but in the meantime there's lots of places you can go:

01) My pal Brad Friedman has been all over this story from day one. His excellent blog contains a treasure trove of information including these "noteworthy items about the vote count":

+ RAW STORY reports Exit Polling varied from "Final Results" almost
exclusively in swing states with E-voting (without paper audit trails). Whereas Exit Polling matching "Final Results" (as close as .5% to .1%) where paper ballots or audit trails existed. (Archive)

+ AP reports that election officials in a North Carolina precinct admit 4500
(out of 7000) votes not counted on E-voting machine in North Carolina precinct due to memory cards smaller than manufacturer UniLect had told them. ALSO: Many problems reporting with E-voting machines in Ohio,
including UniLect machines. Problems did NOT get resolved on Election Day. (Archive)

+ Final Florida tallies show wild discordance between "Expected Votes" (based on party registration) and "Actual Votes", but only in counties that used Optical Scan balloting. Electronic Touch-Screen county numbers are consistent with "Expected". (Archive)

+ NOV 1, 2004: BlackBoxVoting.org announced on Nov. 1 that they had reason to believe modem accessable voting machines were being hacked and advised all precincts to disconnect modems from machines. They also revealed that they discovered 3 hours of data DELETED while examing an audit log from an E-Voting machine in a Washington state primary just six weeks ago.

+ NOV 4, 2004: BlackBoxVoting.org announces that it's their position that "fraud took place in the 2004 election through electronic voting machines." Not based on Exit Polling or other red flags, but actual hard evidence. They
are filing a huge "Freedom of Information Act" petition to examine audit logs and other material, and are seeking lawyers, computer specialists and donations for the cause. (Archive)

+ 11, 238 more Presidential E-votes that Actually cast recorded in N.C. precinct.
+ 70,000 votes "discovered" in Broward County, FL
+ 638 Votes cast in OH Precinct - 4258 of them for Bush!

02) BlackBoxVoting.org (see above) From reader Sal:

Randi Rhodes of Air America just spoke with a representative from Black Box Voting. This organization is demanding an audit of the Florida, Ohio and possibly New Mexico computer voting machines. This group audited the voting machines for the Georgia 2002 Senate race. They discovered the "patch" in the software to switch votes from Max Cleland to the Republican challenger, who defeated Cleland. Funny how we never really heard about this. Anyway...

The General Accounting Office is backing up the request for this audit. You can find the letter and more info on Randi Rhodes' site. These guys need money, $5.00 or whatever you want to give. The address is,

BLACK BOX VOTING
PO BOX 25552
SEATLE WASHINTON 98165-1052

They prefer sending money to the PO Box as this effort has ramped up so fast, they don't have enough technology in place to handle the load.

03) Pay a visit to the Grand Poobah of Voter Fraud Investigation, Greg Palast.

04) What else can you do? Well, you know all of those organizations that have e-mailed you every single day for the past year, hitting you up for money (MoveOn, Human Rights Watch, various Dem organizations, Cheap CIALIS.com, etc.)? Contact them and tell them to put our money where their mouths are. Every single person and organization who worked so hard to try and get John Kerry elected should be contributing their resources to this cause. Also: Write, e-mail and/or call your local senators and representatives and tell them that unless, at the very least, they support the three House Democrats who have requested an investigation into vote count "irregularities", you will vote for Green Party candidates across the board in the next mid-term elections.

I truly believe this is not a waste of time and energy. On the contrary, I think it's an extremely positive, democratic way to confront all of the conflicting emotions we're dealing with right now. Got your sleeves rolled up yet?

P.S.: If people try to tell you, "NOOOOOOO! We cannot afford to do this...the nation needs to heal", tell them, "No, you're wrong. Our nation will never heal as long as there are doubts about the fairness and honesty of our elections." And, if that doesn't work, politely tell them to Go Cheney Themselves.

Ah...What a Difference a Day Makes

Click on SmirkBoy and watch The Big Turd Sandwich go from Humble Uniter to Arrogant Divider in less than 24 hours

Coastopia

(by Ian Williams c/o XTCIAN. He's even got Coastopia T-Shirts)

American Coastopia!

Ladies and gentlemen, you needn't fret anymore. We have decided that we can't live in the United States anymore, because so many of you in the "heartland" are so full of shit. We were all going to move to various other countries, but then we thought - why should WE move?

We are tired of rednecks in Oklahoma picking the leader who will determine if it is safe for us to cross the Brooklyn Bridge. We are sick of homophobic knuckle-draggers in Wyoming contributing to the national debate on our gay marriages. So we have done the only thing we could.

We seceded.

May I present to you: AMERICAN COASTOPIA.

That's right, American Coastopia. The states of Washington, Oregon and California are joining us on one coast, and we will provide all of New England. In the middle of the country, we have taken Iowa and Illinois, mostly because we need the fine produce of Iowa's soil, and the museums in Chicago are fabulous.

The other dot is New Orleans, which you don't deserve. American Coastopia needs a place to gamble, and the locals want nothing to do with you.

Sure, you can visit, but it isn't part of your country anymore.

I can sense your worry. Who will get all the banks? You can fucking have most of them, because we're taking downtown and midtown Manhattan back, turning the whole thing into a giant artist colony replete with movie studios and progressive think tanks. Wall Street and other financial institutions will be relocated to Charlotte, which we believe will suit your needs better. Frankly, the good folks in Manhattan are sick of being a terrorist target for your benefit.

A word about our politics. Abortions will be safe and legal in American Coastopia, and homosexual men and women will be free to marry at their discretion. We will have our own currency, and trade with any countries we want. Everyone will have health care. Everyone will have an identity card. Homelessness and unemployment will be virtually unknown. We believe in a meritocracy and a huge chasm between church and state. 100% of our cars will be hybrid by 2006.

Yes, we're taking all the people that ever created everything beautiful. Yes, we're taking all the funny people too. All the sculptors, architects, surgeons, philosophers, violinists and fishermen. You should have treated them better when you had them.

We have no pledge of allegiance, but I can say this: I am no longer from your United States of America. I belong to American Coastopia, the United States of My Friends, the Nation of Two: my wife and I. We hold our noses as we fly over you. We are sickened by the way you treat people that are different from you. The rest of the world despises America, and we don't want to be lumped in with you anymore.

Please, all of you who went to bed last night sick with worry, come to us. In American Coastopia, the light is always on, the hazelnut lattés are always hot, and we have a trundle bed for each and every one of you.

And to prove we're kinda, sorta Fair & Balanced, click the link to read Neal ("The Greatest Living American Writer") Pollack's response (glad to see Neal's blogging again and is as cranky/funny/wise as ever).

An Important Message from Al Franken

(Note: Al's not my favorite talk-radio host - that distinction goes to Chris T., Friday nights at 6 on WFMU, followed closely by Randi Rhodes, weekdays 3 to 7 on Air America (both shows are streamed on the internets; all times EST). As a matter of fact, I find Al's show to be pretty darn boring. But I still think he can be clever and he's committed to fighting the good fight, so listen up y'all...)

"Anytime you lose like this, there’s a certain amount of Wednesday-morning quarterbacking and woulda-coulda-shoulda. I have no regrets myself, but as I look back at Kerry’s campaign, there are a couple of points where, if he had it all to do over again, I think he should have done it differently.

For example, in the first debate, Kerry announced that he would put our national security decisions in the hands of France. He said very explicitly that we would have to pass a global test before using force. I think a lot of us watching at the time thought that that was a mistake.

Also, of course, the flip-flops, especially those about Iraq. Voting, as you know, for the war, then against it, for it, then against it-having, as Sean Hannity said, literally 80 different positions. I wish he could have chosen one position and stuck with it.

Kerry’s decision to ban the Bible. That was a huge mistake, especially in very Christian areas. That might have gone over fine in atheist communities, but it cost him big everywhere else.

And then proposing a health care system that would impose an enormous federal bureaucracy and give medical decisions to paper-pushers in Washington, and in France.

And going back to Vietnam, the way he lied about what happened, inflicted those wounds on himself to get those medals, and then threw them out-I think that was a mistake. Of course, that was a mistake that he made back then, decades ago. But he could have been more honest about it now.

A lot of people talk about Bush’s record, and what he might do in the next term, but what this really comes down to is character. And ceding your doctor’s authority to France, and the flip-flops, and shooting himself in the leg to win a medal-I guess those things just overcame the awful, failed presidency of George W. Bush.

***

You know I wouldn’t mind losing an election if it were an honest disagreement, based on facts, over values and policy. But that’s not what happened. A large majority of Bush supporters went to the polls believing things that were false. For example, any of the above. They believed lies about Kerry, and they believed lies about Iraq, and they believed lies about Bush.

We’re not going to heal this country as long as we have a president who won’t be accountable, who won’t tell the truth, who is willing to campaign with a vicious dishonesty that is unprecedented.

After Barry Goldwater was crushed by Lyndon Johnson in 1964, the right decided to take a long view. They poured literally billions of dollars into creating the right-wing infrastructure that dominates our politics today. They built up the American Enterprise Institute, the Heritage Foundation, the Media Research Center, and now Fox News Channel-and many other organizations, above and below the radar. Though they won the White House in 1968, it took them thirty years to reach their ascendancy in 1964.

Our side just started. Air America went on the air seven months ago. Normally, incumbent presidents either win by a landslide or lose by a landslide, and a year or two ago, people thought it would be an overwhelming Bush victory. It wasn’t. For an incumbent wartime president, this was a close race. And we’ve created a movement to take this country back. Even though we didn’t do it this time, I believe that we will still do it.

The other side wants us to get demoralized, but we are going to fight. We are going to fight every step of the way.

Round two starts now."

Al Franken

Douche or Turd?

So America chose The Big Turd Sandwich:

over The Giant Douche:

(be sure to click on the "artist's renderings")

Didn't the debates make it clear that The Big Turd Sandwich was just a piece of shit with all the works (lettuce, Top Gun flight suit, tomato, $400 tax rebates, cheese, Operation Iraqi Freedom, olive, The Clear Skies Initiative, bread, No Child Left Behind)? I guess it depends on your IQ:
Somehow this doesn't make me feel any better...

Respected Across The Globe

Doesn't it make you proud?

Repeat After Me:

55,554,114 Americans voted against George W. Bush. Apparently that's more votes ever cast against an incumbent president in the history of our great nation.

So, repeat this to everyone you know, especially Bush supporters: There is NO MANDATE despite what Dick Cheney had to say yesterday:

President Bush ran forthrightly on a clear agenda for this nation's future and the nation responded by giving him a mandate.

Don't you sometimes hate being part of the reality-based community?!?

Read It & Weep

Greg Palast, who did an amazing job investigating the Florida 2000 debacle (and was pretty much ignored by the 6 Corporations, otherwise known as "The Mainstream Media"), has begun an investigation into Ohio. You can read it here.

While many people are (rightly) questioning Ohio's computer voting machines*, Palast is concentrating on...get ready...punch-card ballots:

The election in Ohio was not decided by the voters but by something called "spoilage." Typically in the United States, about 3 percent of the vote is voided, just thrown away, not recorded. When the bobble-head boobs on the tube tell you Ohio or any state was won by 51 percent to 49 percent, don't you believe it ... it has never happened in the United States, because the total never reaches a neat 100 percent. The television totals simply subtract out the spoiled vote. And not all votes spoil equally. Most of those votes, say every official report, come from African American and minority precincts.

*(This is, afterall, the state which Diebold's Warren O'Dell promised to "deliver its electoral votes to the president" in 2004; this is also a state with a Republican Governor and a Republican Secretary of State; and a state which promised to have a paper trail for computerized votes...in 2006.)

Redistricting

(with sincere apologies to all of the true Christians out there)

Anger Management

So I think I'm gonna roll with the anger rather than the depression for a little while -- anger is just so much easier for me to manage (plus anger makes me feel alive; depression just makes me feel like mint jelly and I hate mint jelly). If you're not angry yet, you will be when all of the facts about Ohio come out (and, no, I'm not being a conspiracy monger -- at least I don't think I am. I believe there will be some stunning information surfacing over the next few weeks. This tidbit from AMERICAblog ("Possible Evidence of Voter Fraud in Ohio") should whet your appetite).

In the meantime, here's a healthy dose of anger from the one and only Hunter S. Thompson:

"We have become a Nazi monster in the eyes of the whole world, a nation of bullies and bastards who would rather kill than live peacefully. We are not just Whores for power and oil, but killer whores with hate and fear in our hearts. We are human scum, and that is how history will judge us. No redeeming social value. Just whores. Get out of our way, or we'll kill you.

Who does vote for these dishonest shitheads? Who among us can be happy and proud of having all this innocent blood on our hands? Who are these swine? These flag-sucking half-wits who get fleeced and fooled by stupid little rich kids like George Bush?

They are the same ones who wanted to have Muhammad Ali locked up for refusing to kill gooks. They speak for all that is cruel and stupid and vicious in the American character. They are the racists and hate mongers among us; they are the Ku Klux Klan. I piss down the throats of these Nazis.

And I am too old to worry about whether they like it or not. Fuck them."

We Have Only One Real Ally Left

Literally. His name is Tony Blair. The rest of the country thinks we're twits. Read it all here. Personal highlight:

Are you really so violently thick that you can’t get beyond thinking: “Yup, we’s at war, and the President he’s a good man and he’s gonna whip those commie Arabs…” --- oh whatever --- Christ, there’s no point in trying to peer into your minds, you sack of shit morons. Might as well poke a beached jellyfish with a stick. It is almost impossible, for an outsider, or in fact anyone who isn’t educationally subnormal, to imagine what it must be like to be a Bush voter.

Ouch.

It's Over

Kerry just conceded.* Now it's up to all of us on the left to fight every bad decision Bush makes over the next four years.

Don't give up your hopes and dreams...

*(Oh crap, I owe a friend $50. There's no such thing as a sure bet)

Tired.

I'm too tired (but surprisingly not hungover) to really add anything new or clever to the chatter. Check out This Modern World, AMERICAblog, James Wolcott, etc. if you're looking for something fresh this a.m. (links are on the left -- how appropriate).

But, of course, I can't completely shutup. What I'm trying to figure out is who are those millions of people who voted for Bush and, more importantly, why? I understand the Christian fundamentalists absolutely had to vote for their guy (although I don't know how they're able to reconcile their Christian morals with Bush's bloodthirsty, war-mongering. I guess dead Iraqis and dead American soldiers are less abhorrent to them then dead fetuses). And, I understand if you're a morally-bankrupt CEO why you would just have to pull the lever for President Tax Cut. But, who are all of these other people who happily voted for George W. Bush?

On Monday, I made some last-ditch efforts to try and convert a few of those people, friends and relatives, who were planning to vote on the right. My efforts centered around one simple question: "Can you tell me one reason why George Bush deserves to be re-elected?" Honestly, I didn't get one acceptable answer. Mostly silence. One friend told me "because we're in the middle of a war." I told him that that reason was created by incumbent, wartime presidents. Plus, it doesn't really address the "deserve" part of the question. Then he quipped (I hope) that he'd rather have Laura Bush as first lady than "that nutjob" Teresa.

It's unscientific, I know, but I think those two answers tell us a lot about the mindset of those who voted against John Kerry. Ultimately, I never heard any reason remotely resembling why Bush "deserved" to be president for another 4 years. So, I think they were brainwashed into believing that you can't change horses mid-stream and that somehow George Bush was a better leader (afterall, look who George married versus the other guy). Obviously, the leader issue was burned into their minds not because of spousal issues but because Rove did such a damn good job of portraying Kerry as a flip-flopper (thank you complicit media) and of portraying Bush as the "war President" with a big-ass capital W (once again, thank you media).

One person I corresponded with accused me of being a typical, elitist Democrat because I told him to stay home Tuesday (he was undecided until the very last). He thought my implication was that he was too dumb to vote. Perhaps he was right. Maybe I am an elitist. And maybe he is too dumb. Because, given all that we know about Bush and Kerry, you have to be pretty darn stupid to think Bush is the better, stronger leader. I'm disappointed in the millions of Americans who bought into the lies, the smoke and mirrors. And I'm sad for this country and the world because we now all have to live with, to quote TBogg, another

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.

Hang on world, it's going to be a bumpy ride...

For Those Of You Trying To Keep Score At Home:

"Green" is the new "Blue" (or "Red"...I'm not sure) and "Provisional Ballot" is the new "Hanging Chad"

From the WTF?!? Department:

Okay, so it's 2:45 and I should obviously stop drinking and go to bed, but I just saw Pat Buchanon on MSNBC agree with John Edwards' statement that every vote should be counted. And I think pigs just flew out of my butt...

And This Is Why America Embarrasses Me

I know, I know: Anger bad. But here goes my angriest post ever:

Thank you, you dumbfuck Red States. And screw you, all of you "my vote doesn't count" non-voters. You all suck and you all get what you deserve. Unless something dramatically shifts between now (1:24 a.m.) and when I wake up (well, I'm drinking, so it could be Thursday or Friday), my wife and I will be figuring out how we can cash in and move to New Zealand.

On a sober note: I hope, someday, we will all heal and live in at least an approximation of harmony. But until then: Peace, Out. And congratulations Barack...

This is Why I Love America...

I went to Virgin on my lunch break to finally pick up this and this The girl at the checkout counter was wearing a Kerry/Edwards sticker. I told her I liked her sticker. She looked at my Kerry/Edwards button and told me she liked my button. And then, unsolicited, she enthusiastically told me that this was her first election. I have never seen a prouder, wider smile. :)

This Is Not What Confidence Looks Like

I can't believe how much Georgie has aged over the last 4 years. Laura, on the other hand (because she's a killer robot from Stepford), looks remarkably well preserved.

"Blood is Thinner Than Oil"

Bush Relatives for Kerry
This is my favorite Bush relative, Samuel Prescott Bush House

Like many of my fellow Bush relatives, I too am voting for John Kerry in this election.  I am ardently and unapologetically progressive in my beliefs, but I hold many of the same views that many of my more conservative relatives also hold.  

I am often disheartened when liberals, conservatives and the media alike look for ways to pigeon hole people according to a perceived set of political beliefs.  If, for example, I am in favor of environmental regulation, I am a “Liberal”.  If I am in favor of welfare reform, I am a “Conservative”.  George W. Bush, my second cousin, labels others in this way, regularly and consistently.  This kind of behavior is both simplistic and offensive to me.  When we hold this kind of perspective, it forces us to to see others in black and white hues and further polarizes us as we consider the “liberal” or “conservative” person across from us.

 

A Good Sign?

As I entered my polling site this morning, Alan Colmes was walking out with a shit-eating grin on his face. Perhaps he was thinking that tomorrow FauxNews would be changing the name of his show to Colmes and Hannity?

Not Just Statistics

Some Final Thoughts from Two Actual E-mails:

Subject: redeployment
On Friday, right before he came home, ____ was notified to be on stand-by for orders to Iraq expected to come down on or about 11/28. He believes he will be leaving for Iraq again between Christmas and the New Year. He just returned from Baghdad late last January. He was told that orders wouldn't come until after the election on Nov.2. I am begging you to please think very, very carefully about casting your vote. As some of you do (like ____ and ____),  I too have a very personal investment in national security. I have a deep and abiding respect for the courage, unselfishness and bravery that our children, cousins, brothers and sisters in the Military demonstrate every day in Iraq and Afghanistan. And, in addition to the fighting they must endure, I know there are good things our troops have done individually and collectively. I am asking you to consider this before you vote - ____, ____ and I are willing to make permanent sacrifices on behalf of our country. I wish I was, but I am not, a pacifist. I believe in just wars. My request to you today is to carefully consider....is this the right war to end terrorism...is this the war that will truly contribute to the end of terrorism, therefore worthy of the great sacrifice in lives and injuries. ...what incites the dramatic increase in successful terrorist recruitment of the last few years...please think these and other critical security issues over very carefully. If I and thousands of other mothers must sacrifice the daily safety of each of our young sons and daughters... please let it  be for the very best reasons, in a very wisely fought, well-prepared war that is truly winnable. What ever your conviction has been so far please look at it one last time on behalf of each young person fighting in Iraq.

RE: redeployment
Hi ____ (and everyone else!), Thank you so much for so eloquently putting into words how most of us feel about the "war" and the people who created it. I am the wife of a soldier.  I sent him off to war while I stayed at home with our 4 month old son.  When ___ left, (our son) wasn't even crawling.  When he returned, (our son) was already walking. (My husband) came back a different person. We are still trying to heal from this and it will take a while.  The part that is hardest to get over is the fact that these brave young men and women were sent to war, not as a last resort, but because of a few powerful people's agenda. People who are used to getting their way.  People who hear only what they want to hear.  People who don't like being told "No" or admitting mistakes.   ____ and I were sent to the 3rd ID in January of 2002.  He was in Iraq with the first wave in January of 2003. From the moment we got there, ____'s only duty was to get his unit ready for an invasion into Iraq. The problem is, they began preparing for this BEFORE the administration started making its "case against Iraq", before Iraq was really in the news...  It takes a long time to get a division that size armed, trained and ready to fight - thus this was planned WAY ahead of time - before Hussein suddenly became this great threat. But as we watched the evening news, we would listen in disbelief as the sound bites and rhetoric started to mount, as officials started pulling things out of thin air, and with a straight face, make their "case" against Iraq.  And as the focus turned quickly away from Bin Laden and 9/11... But the lies started to mount and we could no longer deny what was in front of us. Regardless of what the admin. was saying, we were going into Iraq one way or another.  They weren't going to wait on the weapons inspectors.  They weren't going to listen to anyone else.  They were saying and doing whatever they needed to to bolster support for this farce.   And we lived it every single day.  We lived on post and went to sleep each night to the sound of mortar fire and tank rounds exploding for weeks on end as our troops prepared for the invasion.  As Bush was saying "last resort", the 3rd ID's first and only agenda was to get to Iraq as fast as possible. My husband is a proud professional who has dedicated his life, his career and his family to this great nation.  I thank God there are people who are willing to do this for the rest of us.  They are the sole reason we can even engage in this dialogue.  But what greater insult to those brave people than to willingly and knowingly place them in harms way for a personal agenda based on the flimsiest of evidence,  evidence that has now proven as transparent as it seemed in the first place? I can see why people don't want to acknowledge the truth of the situation this administration has put us in.  People have been bullied into believing that by doing so one would be disrespectful to our troops, unpatriotic and of course the dirtiest of all words, Liberal.  It would mean questioning authority, it would mean thinking for ourselves, it would mean admitting that mistakes were made and that we are indeed fallible. It may even mean that the deaths and injuries of hundreds and thousands of our troops were unnecessary and as a result of irresponsible and selfish personal motives... A hard thing to say out loud because these brave people deserve MUCH better than what has been given them.  But because they are the fine people they are, they go anyway, hoping and desperately needing to believe that it's for the right cause.  And for those of us left behind, we have to believe that too, just to get through the day sometimes... But the truth is there - plain for anyone willing to see - as unfortunate as it is.  I know staunch supporters of the current admin. will find ways to poke holes in what I have said.  I will not debate them.  They are scared too and will do what they have to to keep the fabric of their beliefs strong so they don't have to admit the truth... But I was there. I sent someone to war too. And I saw it with my own eyes every single day. We were lied to from the beginning.  Now we are in a terrible situation that can only be made better with a new administration who is willing to admit mistakes and work very hard to repair the damage that has been done.  Saying "I'm sorry" goes a very long way, but I know that we will NEVER hear that from this admin. because being right is more important than being human. It is easy to send someone you don't know to war.  A faceless kid, raised with the myths that we all take as truth, ready to die for his beloved country... We owe our very way of life to kids like these... But a soldier's truest and fiercest loyalty, his willingness to die, is not to his commander, his government or political affiliation.  It is to his unit and the person standing directly next to him. The other soldier who wonders why he is there and when he can go home... My husband is proud of his service in Iraq - not because he believed what the admin. told him - but because his presence there helped many young soldiers who were scared out of their minds stay calm, stay focused and come home in one piece.   I vote because thousands have died for my right to.  And these thousands probably wondered a lot of the same things the soldiers of today are... that is why I am voting for a change. Thanks ____! xo ____ PS - I didn't reply to everyone on your original list because I don't really know them and don't want to get into a political debate. My mind cannot be changed and I do not seek to change anyone else's... I just needed to tell my truth I guess... thanks for the opportunity. However - you can forward this if you want to. I'm very sorry to hear that ____ has to be deployed yet again... But know that he will be ok - and I know this because soldiers take care of each other!

A Fresh Start

This:



or That:



Click on the pix to watch two of the Kerry and Bush campaigns' final videos. One is all about hope and one is all about fear. Take a wild guess which is which...