John Eisenhower, son of President Dwight Eisenhower, to vote for Senator Kerry

Noticed at Eschaton: John Kerry gets another endorsement (from the Union Leader)--Why I will vote for John Kerry for President by John Eisenhower:

Responsibility used to be observed in foreign affairs. That has meant respect for others. America, though recognized as the leader of the community of nations, has always acted as a part of it, not as a maverick separate from that community and at times insulting towards it. Leadership involves setting a direction and building consensus, not viewing other countries as practically devoid of significance. Recent developments indicate that the current Republican Party leadership has confused confident leadership with hubris and arrogance.

More on the black box voting in Florida, 2004 and Polls with GOP bias and the SCLM

Pregnant chads, vanishing voters... the election fiasco of 2000 made the Sunshine State a laughing stock. More importantly, it put George Bush in the White House. You'd think they'd want to get it right this time. But no, as Andrew Gumbel discovers, the democratic process is more flawed than ever.

Read Andrew Gumbel's report from today's Independent here: Something rotten in the state of Florida.
Mr. Gumbel revisits some of the problems of the 2000 election, and the millions spent on flawed technology that doesn't even fix the problems.

The best thing about this story: people are fighting back:

Some people believe the best strategy is to keep fighting. There are high hopes of introducing a voter-verified paper trail before the 2008 presidential election, and there are signs that a grassroots movement to restore ex-felons' voting rights is finding support beyond Florida's boundaries.

"We're trying not to get bogged down in negatives," said Monica Russo, a state co-ordinator for the service workers' union. "If you do that, everyone will slit their wrists. We're union workers - we're used to having the deck stacked against us. It's about helping people to get through the process."

Well, having the deck stacked against us is normal. A good example of this are all the recent polls supposedly showing President Bush in the lead against Senator Kerry. Let's be logical:

1. There are more Democrats than Republicans in the electorate.
2. It is highly unlikely that voters for Mr. Gore in 2000 will be switching in large numbers to vote for Mr. Bush.
3. It is highly likely that at least some voters for Mr. Bush in 2000 have been disappointed by his performance in office--the failure in Iraq, the sluggish economy, and the fiscal irresponsibility of massive deficits--and will vote for Senator Kerry.

Therefore, something is wrong with the polls, in particular, the Gallup poll, which is probably the most publicized and yet the most obviously wrong:

It is pathetic and unacceptable for a "non-partisan" polling firm to be produce the outlying poll in favor of Bush in fourteen of its last sixteen polls. The odds of this happening at random are around one in 14,000. Considering those odds, the far more likely explanation for all these outliers is that Gallup's polling methodology is inherently structured in favor of Bush. Whether or not it is intentional, I do not know. However, I do know that Gallup's polls are connected to the largest news outlets in America of any poll, both in terms of print (USA Today is the largest circulation newspaper in the country) and cable news (CNN has more viewers than Fox, they just watch for shorter periods of time). I also know that sensational headlines sell. I further know that Gallup's chairman is a Republican donor.

Dear reader, perhaps you need more evidence of Gallup's faulty methodology? Check out this: Gallup Is At It Again - Yesterday's National Poll Had 12% GOP Bias by Steve Soto at the Left Coaster:

Here is the text from the email I got from Gallup this morning outlining the party ID breakdown in their likely voter samples from their two most recent national polls:

Likely Voter Sample Party IDs – Poll of September 13-15
Reflected Bush Winning by 55%-42%

Total Sample: 767
GOP: 305 (40%)
Dem: 253 (33%)
Ind: 208 (28%)

Likely Voter Sample Party IDs – Poll of September 24-26
Reflected Bush Winning by 52%-44%

Total Sample: 758
GOP: 328 (43%)
Dem: 236 (31%)
Ind: 189 (25%)

Looking at this, again I have a simple question: how can anyone, especially USA Today and CNN, let alone the rest of the media take a Gallup national poll seriously when Gallup knowingly puts a poll out there for consumption with a 12% GOP bias in its likely voter sample that everyone knows does not exist in the country today or at any time in the last three presidential elections?

Yet this flawed poll showed a narrowing Bush lead from their similarly flawed poll of two weeks ago. So if a poll with an unsupportable GOP bias of 12% in its likely voter sample, shows an 8% Bush lead amongst likely voters when a poll they used two weeks ago with a 7% GOP bias showed a 13% Bush lead with likely voters, then how can anyone not conclude that Kerry is doing much better than Gallup would have you believe?

The cynic in me wonders whether the So-Called Liberal Media lets the pollsters get away with this so they can legitimate the stealing of the election this time.

[conspiratorial whisper] Maybe if we keep drumming up the lie that Kerry doesn't have a chance, enough Democrats will sit on their hands and won't bother going to the polls?[/conspiratorial whisper]

Don't count on it. Any methodology that assumes Democrats are not as likely to vote as Republicans this time is baloney. The pollsters are going to goof up like they did in 1948 when they predicted President Truman's loss.

In researching this post, I noticed that the Left Coaster has even more on Gallup's bias and the SCLM's collusion with the pollsters.

Father, let me dedicate All this year to you
In whatever earthly state You will have me be
Not from sorrow, pain, or care Freedom dare I claim;
This alone shall be my prayer: Glorify Your name.
--from New Year's Hymn by Lawrence Tuttiett, 1864 (alt.)

What can be more liberating than chaos?

Found at Fafblog [winner of Ghost Town Orange's Laugh Out Loud Award], a post by the Medium Lobster (that wondrous being 'who transcends the limitations of what you refer to as "space" and "time," sees not merely what has occured, but what will occur, what might occur, and what might have occured, had only the flow of history gone differently.') It starts--

Despite the malicious and obviously wrongheaded criticisms of partisan hacks like John Kerry, John McCain, Chuck Hagel, and the National Intelligence Estimate, George Bush remains "pleased with the progress" in Iraq. And so he should be - for that country's bright, steady march towards civil war and impending anarchy offers hope to the rest of the world.

It is here that we see the administration's plan for Iraq coming together. As George Bush himself has always pointed out, the United States invaded Iraq in order to liberate it - to give it freedom. And indeed, freedom is spreading like wildfire throughout the Mesopotamian countryside.

That Iraq has been freed from the tyranny of an evil dictator is obvious. But it has been freed from basic utilities such as electricity and clean water; freed from stability by growing clusters of Iraqi insurgents; and one day, when American troops leave - or are forced to leave - Iraq, America will have freed Iraq from liberation itself.

Some point to indicators like the latest National Intelligence Estimate and claim that George Bush is behaving like a deluded fool, that Iraq is not headed for a democracy, that instead it is barreling towards a civil war. But the Bush Administration has always had a much loftier goal in Iraq than the building of a "democracy"; it is, in fact, spreading Freedom. And what, the Medium Lobster asks, can be more liberating than chaos?

But the Medium Lobster desires more:

Yes, Iraq is becoming Free, and Afghanistan, caught between rival warlords and Taliban guerillas, has been free for years. But when will the Bush administration bring this level of Freedom to the rest of the world? China, Russia, Norway, Australia, England - none of these countries have been liberated from the constraints of stable government. Indeed, even the level of Freedom within the United States of America seems to pale before the bright future of warring Shiite, Sunni, and Kurdish factions that seems to welcome Iraq. The promotion of Freedom must begin at home, after all. The Medium Lobster expects the establishment of a federally-funded American Mahdi Army to be George Bush's top priority in his second term. Freedom, after all, is spreading like a sunrise.

Now that the 'assault weapons ban' has lapsed in this election year, the American Freedom Fighters can arm themselves properly for 'hunting' and 'target practice.'

When all else fails...VOTE from the rooftops

Father, let me dedicate All this year to you
In whatever earthly state You will have me be
Not from sorrow, pain, or care Freedom dare I claim;
This alone shall be my prayer: Glorify Your name.
--from New Year's Hymn by Lawrence Tuttiett, 1864 (alt.)

Church Folks for a Better America

Church Folks for a Better America:

We grieve that our nation is not standing for 'liberty and justice for all,' nor treating Iraqis as we would be treated. We believe that accountability begins at home, that wise leaders know their mistakes, and that honest leaders admit them. Fear and resentment will never guide us to a just and lasting peace. Any nation that hopes to be 'under God' must live for a positive vision of world community, not a blind response to terrorism that tragically makes others see us as if we were terrorists ourselves.

Amen.

Mountain Boomer

An Eastern Collared Lizard (Crotaphytus collaris collaris), photographed on Elk Mountain trail at Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge on Saturday September 18, 2004.
[Click image to enlarge] 

For more about fringed lizards, see these websites:

• Acclaim Images
• McMartinville
• a German website by Robert Schumacher
• a Dutch website by P.J. Bloemberg

These colorful lizards are often found on lichen-covered rocks. I thought some joker left a toy plastic lizard by the side of the trail, but it was alive!

Father, let me dedicate All this year to you
In whatever earthly state You will have me be
Not from sorrow, pain, or care Freedom dare I claim;
This alone shall be my prayer: Glorify Your name.
--from New Year's Hymn by Lawrence Tuttiett, 1864 (alt.)

TV Time

1812 on the History Channel...

When through, remember to check this out.

Father, let me dedicate All this year to you
In whatever earthly state You will have me be
Not from sorrow, pain, or care Freedom dare I claim;
This alone shall be my prayer: Glorify Your name.
--from New Year's Hymn by Lawrence Tuttiett, 1864 (alt.)

Tim painted this today. 

Truck sighting

On Friday, September 3, 2004, I saw a truck from Fontana, California in Oklahoma:

It was pulling this trailer (or one just like it.)
Avila's Garden Art is based in Fontana, California; they make fountains, bird baths, and other garden ornaments.

Father, let me dedicate All this year to you
In whatever earthly state You will have me be
Not from sorrow, pain, or care Freedom dare I claim;
This alone shall be my prayer: Glorify Your name.
--from New Year's Hymn by Lawrence Tuttiett, 1864 (alt.)

August doldrums are over

I haven't found anything interesting to write about for over two weeks. How many refutations of the Swift Boat Liars are needed? How many times does Senator Kerry have to get smeared as a flip-flopper? How long will smarmy pundits in the SCLM inject Republican talking points into the pipeline? How long will Zell Miller call himself a Democrat?

Why is this? I could be writing every day about the evils and incompetence of the Bush Administration. I could be writing in support of Senators Kerry and Edwards--truly accomplished and thoughtful men. It is only two months away from the presidential elections, and yet I am tempted to sit the election out in comfort, minding my own business, enjoying my insignificant life. But today I ran across this piece by Rick Bass which echoes my feelings and encourages me to take a more active role--The War of the Senses: The Battle for the Heart of America from Orion magazine (via wood s lot):

Nearly everyone I know, it seems, is angry at our ghost of a government -- at a federal government that we have allowed to go AWOL, leaving only a handful of corporations to run the show. This is the biggest government, the most power-mad, heartless-son-of-a-bitch machine-of-a-government this country has ever known, yet the safeguards of government are nowhere in evidence.

It is not true that everyone is angry at the Bush Administration; about half of Americans are prepared to vote for the most evil and corrupt (or incompetent) administration this country has ever had. How can the obvious truth not be seen by half of Americans? Mr. Bass concludes with a call to action:

The election of 2004 will come down not to federal deficit fears or intelligence betrayals, nor even likeability. I think it will -- and should -- come down to the condition and capacity of the human heart -- and to courage: The courage to demand something better, the courage to rekindle the senses -- our sense of home, sense of place, sense of duty -- the courage to awaken.

This nation's future is not about capturing or not-capturing any one mad-dog terrorist. It's not even entirely about any one Texan in the White House. Instead, it's about what is really in our hearts. Are we a nation ready to cede our power completely, with neither check nor balance, to misleading zealots?

FORTY YEARS FROM NOW, young people will be calling upon us to tell them what it was like, in this crucible-forged time when democracy was attacked not just from abroad, but from within. What was it really like, they will ask. They will want to know how close and intense it was, and how we achieved our victory, their victory.

We sharpened our knives, we will tell them. We were frightened, and we were fearless. We chose courage rather than silence. We turned our backs forever on the myth of pure self, on the myth of utter independence and disconnectedness. That myth, we will tell them, was no longer compatible with the genius of democracy.

We were frightened -- terrified -- of the seeds, the sprouts, of dictatorship arising in our own homeland, we will tell them, but we cut it down, just barely in time, by throwing everything we had at it -- body and soul, intellect and intuition, everything. We rose above our fears, we will tell them, and chose action.

It was terrifying, we will tell them. It was glorious.

My fear is that the opponents of the good are also sharpening their knives--they will do anything to hold on to power. We must stop them.

(Long-time readers of Ghost Town Orange (are there any?) may remember my post about one of Rick Bass's stories.)

Father, let me dedicate All this year to you
In whatever earthly state You will have me be
Not from sorrow, pain, or care Freedom dare I claim;
This alone shall be my prayer: Glorify Your name.
--from New Year's Hymn by Lawrence Tuttiett, 1864 (alt.)