End of the year

Last year at this time I was busily preparing a list of top stories for the year 2003. This year I'll let Project Censored do the heavy lifting.

The year 2004 will be remembered for the earthquake and tsunami in the Indian Ocean. Everything else seems trivial.

My sons and I have been preparing a quilt commemorating the years 2003 and 2004. We are adding buttons or beads marking large earthquakes and active volcanoes to a cloth map of the world. [We use larger beads for earthquakes over 7 on the Richter scale--I don't know what we will use for 9. Tim has an idea for marking concentric circles around the Sumatra epicenter to show the tsunami.] I will embroider major hurricane and cyclone paths on their proper places. I am not sure how we will mark wars and incidents of terrorism. We also need a special marker for the space shuttle that fell from the sky early in 2003. I need special markers for 'velvet revolutions' in Georgia and the Ukraine, too. I thought the election in the United States was going to be a big event worthy of a marker--instead, I found out how much work we have to do still. Politics in this country has been so 'dumbed down' that I fear fascism is just around the corner--a red, white, and blue pseudo-fascism [links to David Niewert's 7 part series 'The Rise of Pseudo Fascism,' my nominee for the best blog series for 2004]

When I received a phone call from the Kerry campaign before the primary in Oklahoma, I was impressed by how competent it was. I couldn't have been more wrong. By stressing the Vietnam War 'heroics' and then not successfully countering the Swift Boat Liars, Kerry doomed his campaign. Kerry's strengths--his role uncovering the Iran-contra drug connection and the shady BCCI terror financing network--were ignored in favor of a tepid 'anybody but Bush' message that didn't convince anybody in the undecided, apathetic middle. After I signed up with the Kerry campaign, all I received from them were solicitations for donations. Admittedly, Oklahoma was not a battleground state, but was there nothing to do locally? One 'progressive' Democratic group in Oklahoma that I flirted with focused on homosexual rights and Michael Moore's movie Fahrenheit 911. Boy, that's the way to win votes here! For more on the incompetence of the Kerry campaign, read 'It's the incompetence, stupid' by James Verini at Salon.com [subscribe or watch an ad] Here is an excerpt:

Most of the Kerry supporters I met on the campaign trail, meanwhile, were really just Bush-haters. The lack of knowledge or even curiosity about Kerry, his career and his proposals, was astonishing. Almost no one working alongside me had the slightest inkling of Kerry's policy initiatives (clearly laid out on his Web site). No one knew what he'd done in the Senate. Many volunteers, even some paid staffers, didn't know how long he'd been a senator. In the Bush offices I visited, posters of the president and vice president were plastered all over the walls, as were posters of Ronald Reagan (strangely, or maybe not so strangely, in one office the Reagan posters outnumbered the Bush posters). But in the four Kerry-Edwards offices there was not so much as a snapshot of either man on public display.

[snip]

The precinct captains, whose job it was to decide which precincts to target, and to divvy those precincts up and shuttle canvassers to them, were for the most part poorly paid kids in their early 20s, just out of high school or still in college. They, too, seemed to have only the vaguest idea of who Kerry was or why they working for him, outside of a nameless dread of the future. They were committed but left largely unguided and, it appeared to me, uninspired by their superiors, and they had none of the unshakable confidence I saw among the Bush team. The result was that they goofed off a lot. And who could blame them? After spending half the night putting together address lists, they were met the next morning by bands of mostly untrained, uninformed canvassers.

No one bothered to brief the ground troops on how to be persuasive or to even get sufficient fact-sheets into their hands. And they didn't take it upon themselves to get educated. I routinely toured neighborhoods with canvassers who were struck dumb when a door opened and an undecided voter asked for specifics.

"But what does Kerry want to do about unemployment, exactly?"

"Um, ah, um..."

"How many people have lost their jobs in the last four years?"

"Ah, um, oh..."

Of course, there were answers to those questions. Kerry proposed tax credits for new jobs created by manufacturers. He wanted to introduce Buy American guidelines in the defense industry and penalize American companies outsourcing jobs overseas. Bush oversaw the loss of about 1.2 million private-sector jobs and allowed 4 million Americans to descend below the poverty line. These facts, which took about two minutes to find out, had the power to sway undecided voters -- I know, because I swayed many with them.

Perplexed, I approached a volunteer coordinator and expressed my concern. The party doesn't have the time or money to train callers or canvassers, is what I was told. But this clearly wasn't true. This particular office was awash in paid staffers who seemed to have nothing to do.

I admit that I was a lot like the campaign staffers described in the article:

No one could imagine a Bush win. The prospect was unthinkable. How could America reelect him? It couldn't. So it would elect Kerry. It must.

For a slightly different perspective, Howard Zinn asks liberals/progressives to 'Harness That Anger:'

What to do now? Harness those fierce emotions reacting to the election. In that anger, disappointment, grieving frustration there is enormous combustible energy, which, if mobilized, could reinvigorate an anti-war movement that had been slowed by the all-consuming election campaign.

It is in the nature of election campaigns to siphon off the vitality of people imbued with a heartfelt cause, dilute that cause, and pour it into the dubious endeavor to propel one somewhat better candidate into office. But with the election over, there is no more need to hold back, to do as too many well-meaning people did, which was to follow uncritically in the footsteps of a candidate who dodged and squirmed on almost every major issue.

Freed from the sordid confines of our undemocratic political process, we can now turn all our energies to do what is discouraged by the voting system--to speak boldly and clearly about what must be done to turn our country around.

And let's not worry about offending that 22 percent of the country (we don't know the exact number but it is certainly a minority) who are religious and political fundamentalists, who invoke God in the service of mass murder and imperial conquest, who ignore the Biblical injunctions to love one's neighbor, to beat swords into plowshares, to care for the poor and downtrodden.

Most Americans do not want war.

Most want the wealth of this country to be used for human needs-health, work, schools, children, decent housing, a clean environment--rather than for billion dollar nuclear submarines and four billion dollar aircraft carriers.

They can be deflected from their most human beliefs by a barrage of government propaganda, dutifully repeated by television and talk radio and the major newspapers. But this is a temporary phenomenon, and as people begin to sense what is happening, their natural instinct for empathy with other human beings emerges.

My resolution for 2005: I resolve to not let cobwebs accumulate at Ghost Town Orange in 2005. I must speak boldly and clearly about what needs to be done to turn our nation around. I am not as cheerful as Mr. Zinn about the 'natural instinct' of people for others, but we still must do what we can.

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 wasn't running in this election

--a progressive and prophetic vision of faith and politics.

Read Progressive faith did not lose this election by Jim Wallis (Sojourners). Here is an excerpt:

So in this election, one side talked about the number of unborn lives lost each year, while the other pointed to the 100,000 civilian casualties in Iraq. But both are life issues - according to the Pope, for example, who opposes both John Kerry's views on abortion and George Bush's war policy. Some church leaders challenged both candidates on whether just killing terrorists would really end terrorism and called for a deeper approach. And 200 theologians, many from leading evangelical institutions, warned that a "theology of war emanating from the highest circles of government is also seeping into our churches."

[snip]

It is now key to remember that our vision - a progressive and prophetic vision of faith and politics - was not running in this election. John Kerry was, and he lost. Kerry did not strongly champion the poor as a religious issue and "moral value," or make the war in Iraq a clearly religious matter. In his debates with George Bush, Kerry should have challenged the war in Iraq as an unjust war, as many religious leaders did - including Evangelicals and Catholics. And John Kerry certainly did not advocate a consistent ethic of human life as we do - opposing all the ways that life is threatened in our violent world.

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 about 'spoiled' votes?

Journalist Greg Palast claims that Kerry Won if all the votes had been counted:

I know you don't want to hear it. You can't face one more hung chad. But I don't have a choice. As a journalist examining that messy sausage called American democracy, it's my job to tell you who got the most votes in the deciding states. Tuesday, in Ohio and New Mexico, it was John Kerry.

Most voters in Ohio thought they were voting for Kerry. CNN's exit poll showed Kerry beating Bush among Ohio women by 53 percent to 47 percent. Kerry also defeated Bush among Ohio's male voters 51 percent to 49 percent. Unless a third gender voted in Ohio, Kerry took the state.

So what's going on here? Answer: the exit polls are accurate. Pollsters ask, "Who did you vote for?" Unfortunately, they don't ask the crucial, question, "Was your vote counted?" The voters don't know.

Particularily if they are voting with black boxes in Ohio [Machine Error Gives Bush Thousands of Extra Ohio Votes] More on Ohio's problems here.

According to Mr. Palast, on average about 3% of ballots in American elections are not counted due to 'spoilage'. Most of the 'spoiled' ballots just happen to be from areas with higher numbers of Democrats. How convenient for the Republican Party. In New Mexico, it appears that much of the pro-Kerry Hispanic vote was diverted into uncounted 'provisional ballots':

Already, the election-bending effects of spoilage are popping up in the election stats, exactly where we'd expect them: in heavily Hispanic areas controlled by Republican elections officials. Chaves County, in the "Little Texas" area of New Mexico, has a 44 percent Hispanic population, plus African Americans and Native Americans, yet George Bush "won" there 68 percent to 31 percent.

I spoke with Chaves' Republican county clerk before the election, and he told me that this huge spoilage rate among Hispanics simply indicated that such people simply can't make up their minds on the choice of candidate for president. Oddly, these brown people drive across the desert to register their indecision in a voting booth.

Now, let's add in the effect on the New Mexico tally of provisional ballots.

"They were handing them out like candy," Albuquerque journalist Renee Blake reported of provisional ballots. About 20,000 were given out. Who got them?

Santiago Juarez who ran the "Faithful Citizenship" program for the Catholic Archdiocese in New Mexico, told me that "his" voters, poor Hispanics, whom he identified as solid Kerry supporters, were handed the iffy provisional ballots. Hispanics were given provisional ballots, rather than the countable kind "almost religiously," he said, at polling stations when there was the least question about a voter's identification. Some voters, Santiago said, were simply turned away.

Of course, it would be difficult for the leaders of the Democratic Party to demand that all votes be counted before conceding. That would be too confrontational. They'd rather surrender; how typical.

Of course, if the Democrats had gone to the courts they would have been crucified by the SCLM and the Republican Party. We can only win if we have an overwhelming advantage in both the popular vote and the electoral college. Let's adapt the populist politics of William Jennings Bryan: economic populism with a healthy dose of respect for conservative Christian values. (Not a phony marketing campaign to simulate 'values' but an expansion of the discussion of ethics and morality to all aspects of politics and public policy.) If we don't change we will become a permanently out-of-power coalition of minorities (ethnic and social), and the Republican party will dominate American politics as its libertarian and theocratic wings battle each other for ultimate control.

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.)

Annihilationist Rhetoric, George W. Bush Re-election Style

Adam Yoshida translates George W. Bush's victory speech--To make this nation stronger and better, I will need your support and I will work to earn it. I will do all I can do to deserve your trust.:

They [people that voted for John Kerry] mean nothing. They are worth nothing. There's no point in trying to reach out to them because they won't be reached out to. We've got their teeth clutching the sidewalk and our boot above their head. Now's the time to curb-stomp the bastards.

Living Poor, Voting Rich

This time Nicholas Kristof has it right: Living Poor, Voting Rich (NYT)

In the aftermath of this civil war that our nation has just fought, one result is clear: the Democratic Party's first priority should be to reconnect with the American heartland.

I'm writing this on tenterhooks on Tuesday, without knowing the election results. But whether John Kerry's supporters are now celebrating or seeking asylum abroad, they should be feeling wretched about the millions of farmers, factory workers and waitresses who ended up voting - utterly against their own interests - for Republican candidates.

One of the Republican Party's major successes over the last few decades has been to persuade many of the working poor to vote for tax breaks for billionaires. Democrats are still effective on bread-and-butter issues like health care, but they come across in much of America as arrogant and out of touch the moment the discussion shifts to values.

What we need to understand is that most Americans are not going to vote on pocketbook issues--even in self-interest. We cannot run campaigns knowing we're going to lose the entire South, Mountain West, and the Plains States. The majority of voters in these states perceive that the Democratic Party disdains their values and their faith.

Sometimes I think it would be enough for Democrats to expose the Republican Party's clay-feet regarding faith: the hypocritical acceptance of pro-death policys while claiming to be pro-life. Republicans mostly support the death penalty and have been consistently pro-war: not as a last resort but as the first choice in international relations. But criticizing these Republican policies does no good if Democrats are promoting the 'inviolable' right to abortion in almost all circumstances. No one believes politicians really value human life if they think abortion is acceptable.

The other issue that kills Democrats' chances: gay rights. At my sons' schools (I'm talking elementary and middle school-age kids here) President Bush was the overwhelming favorite. The common perception is that Senator Kerry supports gay marriage and might even be gay himself. It doesn't matter that this isn't true: if the perception is that widespread, we will lose every time. The question that needs to be asked: how does this perception get that widespread? The so-called liberal media aren't spreading lies about Kerry's sexuality; dastardly Republican party flyers are not circulating hinting that Kerry is 'light in his loafers'--so where does the perception come from? I leave it to you, dear reader, to jump to the only proper conclusion.

So some advice for the Democratic Party: in 2008, don't give us a Hilary or a Dean or a Kucinich. Give us someone consistently pro-life, an active church member that can openly talk about his or her faith--not just the 'do good works' stuff, but how Jesus changes lives, or be prepared to lose again.

And just think, I was planning on getting my American flag out and flying it on Inauguration Day...

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.)

I Voted for Kerry

and my son Tim helped me.

A song for today: Democracy by Leonard Cohen

Sail on, sail on
O mighty Ship of State!
To the Shores of Need
Past the Reefs of Greed
Through the Squalls of Hate
Sail on, sail on, sail on, sail on.

It's coming to America first,
the cradle of the best and of the worst.
It's here they got the range
and the machinery for change
and it's here they got the spiritual thirst.
It's here the family's broken
and it's here the lonely say
that the heart has got to open
in a fundamental way:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

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.)

Envy

For the first time in my life, I am envious of rock stars.
I ran across Elizabeth D's Daily Kos diary about the rally at Madison, Wisconsin on October 28, 2004. Bruce Springsteen and the Foo Fighters were there! [actually, just Dave Grohl and Chris Shiflett were performing, more below]

Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters, Kerry Rally, Madison, WI October 28, 2004
According to Barbara D, Dave Grohl said "that the Bush/Cheney campaign had played their music at rallies, and finding they had no good legal way to stop them doing so, they decided to play at Kerry rallies to make their allegiance very clear."
Here is a photo (apparently by Sharon Farmer) I found at the John Kerry Photo Gallery:
John Kerry with the Foo Fighters after 3rd debate in Arizona
My cousin Chris is a member of the band. I haven't seen him for close to 20 years; he was too shy to play his guitar for me back then! [I'll let you in on a secret: The oldest Shiflett brother, Mike, is probably the best musician in the family. A little more info here.] I asked my sons to identify which member of the band was related to us; of course they picked the 2 guys with beards. Wrong answers! Chris is the good-looking guy just to the right of Senator Kerry.

Elizabeth D has posted quite a few good pictures in her diary. Here's one I like:

Get Out The Vote!

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.)

Guilty Pleasures

Ah, I'm not alone: The Rude Pundit also sees the real heroism of Senator Kerry. [Caution: the Rude Pundit has a potty-mouth.]

And I also enjoy the frequently profane "My New Filing Technique is Unstoppable -- Get Your War On" series...

Click cartoons for larger, more readable versions 

UPDATE

10:18 pm CDT
Alas, the readable cartoons are too wide for Ghost Town Orange...

UPDATE 2

10:49 pm CDT [Blogger is running like iced molasses tonight...]
While I'm posting links to obscenities, how about this one?

October 14, 2004: Three Medford-area schoolteachers Janet Voorhees, Candice Julian, and Tania Tong were ejected from a Bush rally in Central Point, Oregon for wearing these shirts, which Bush event staff called "obscene." 
More from Oregon:

When Vice President Dick Cheney visited Eugene, Oregon on Sept. 17, a 54-Year old woman named Perry Patterson was charged with criminal trespass for blurting the word "No" when Cheney said that George W. Bush has made the world safer.

One day before, Sue Niederer, 55, the mother of a slain American soldier in Iraq was cuffed and arrested for criminal trespass when she interrupted a Laura Bush speech in New Jersey. Both women had tickets to the event.

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.)

Senator Kerry's long history against terrorists

Senator Kerry has always been my first choice for President this election. I remember his efforts in the 1980s exposing the Nicaraguan contra/US government/cocaine connection, and his efforts to expose the terrorist dealings of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI). Senator Kerry has already had more success fighting terrorists than President Bush ever will.

[Note the failure of Mr. Bush to dispatch enough troops in Iraq to secure the known weapon's caches but placing a higher priority on protecting Iraq's oil fields--Scott McClellan confesses at the White House Press gaggle, October 25, 2004:

At the end of Operation Iraqi Freedom there were a number of priorities. It was a priority to make sure that the oil fields were secure, so that there wasn't massive destruction of the oil fields, which we thought would occur.

But it didn't occur to the Bush Administration to secure explosives [Salon.com: subscribe now or get a free day pass!] which terrorists would love to get their evil hands on?]
Iraq's letter to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) about the missing explosives: 'theft and looting of governmental installations due to lack of security'
Image from the New York Times, click for a larger view.

Here is a recent article by Robert Parry about Mr. Kerry's courageous role in the Contra/Cocaine investigation [Salon.com: subscribe now or get a free day pass!] including the craven attempts by the SCLM and the Republican Party to sweep the scandal under the carpet.

Read the links!

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.)

Inside Mr. Bush's Brain, January Surprise Version

Mark A. R. Kleiman noticed something in the Ron Suskind article in NYT Magazine that I missed:

Meanwhile, the Kerry campaign has decided that none of the truly horrifying quotes in the Susskind article have the political potency of Bush's promise to a group of his rich supporters to privatize Social Security in a second term.

I love the phrase "January surprise." The Bush spokesman who pointed out that Bush never says "privatization" in public leaves himself open to the riposte that Bush did use the word when talking his fundraisers.

Here is the relevant piece of the Suskind piece--notice that Mr. Bush does not use this in his stump speeches, just when raising fund from his true base, the ultra-rich:

''I'm going to come out strong after my swearing in,'' Bush said, ''with fundamental tax reform, tort reform, privatizing of Social Security.'' The victories he expects in November, he said, will give us ''two years, at least, until the next midterm. We have to move quickly, because after that I'll be quacking like a duck.''

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.)

Kerry supporter threatened with snipers

From the Des Moines Register: "Campaign event security spurs arrests, removals"

One of the latest incidents came when John Sachs, 18, a Johnston High School senior and Democrat, went to see Bush in Clive last week. Sachs got a ticket to the event from school and wanted to ask the president about whether there would be a draft, about the war in Iraq, Social Security and Medicare.

But when he got there, a campaign staffer pulled him aside and made him remove his button that said, "Bush-Cheney '04: Leave No Billionaire Behind." The staffer quizzed him about whether he was a Bush supporter, asked him why he was there and what questions he would be asking the president.

"Then he came back and said, 'If you protest, it won't be me taking you out. It will be a sniper,' " Sachs said. "He said it in such a serious tone it scared the crap out of me."

Perhaps the Hippie Chick Pie Wagon has volunteered her services to the Bush campaign.  

Sachs stayed at the event, but he was escorted to a section of the 7 Flags Events Center where he was surrounded by Secret Service and told he couldn't ask questions. "I was just in a state of fear," he said. "I was looking at the ceiling and I didn't know what to expect, I was so scared."

Ronayne said he wasn't aware of what happened to Sachs and declined to comment further. "To the best of my knowledge, no one's lives have been threatened at an event," he said.

Sachs' situation is the latest in a string of stories in which Iowans attending Bush campaign events said they've been made to feel unwelcome.

Other incidents include five protesters arrested outside an event in Cedar Rapids; black and Hispanic students frisked in Davenport; and two people denied admission in Dubuque because they either didn't support Bush or were affiliated with someone who didn't.

Iowa's stories are similar to those being told around the country. According to media reports, Missouri students were in tears after they were removed from a Bush rally because they were wearing Kerry buttons. Others in Minnesota and Wisconsin were asked to leave Bush rallies because they had Kerry T-shirts or stickers.

Thursday night, police wearing riot gear fired pepperballs at protesters gathered at a hotel in Jacksonville, Ore., where Bush was scheduled to eat and sleep after a campaign speech. No one was injured, but two were arrested on charges of failure to disperse. Participants questioned the police intervention because they said they weren't violent or disrupting traffic.

Seriously, the Secret Service needs to be investigated for co-operating with the Bush/Cheney campaign's methods of stifling dissent. Senator Kerry will have some house-cleaning to do when he gets into the White House.

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.)

Osama been forgotten

"Gosh, I just don't think I ever said I'm not worried about Osama bin Laden. It's kind of one of those exaggerations."
-- George W. Bush, 10/13/04

"I don't know where he is and I really don't care. It's not that important. It's not our priority."
-- George W. Bush, 5/13/02

UPDATE 7:35 PM CDT

And to think, this is a man that accuses Senator Kerry of flip-flopping.

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.)

Hippie Chick Pie Wagon Watch

When I first saw this, I thought this interview with Ann Coulter was a joke:

Amazon.com: How important is this presidential election in the larger context of the Republic and its history?

Ann Coulter: Insofar as the survival of the Republic is threatened by the election of John Kerry, I'd say 2004 is as big as it gets.

Amazon.com: Is there one standout issue, and why does it make a difference? What are the most crucial issues?

Coulter: I repeat: The survival of the Republic is threatened by the election of John Kerry. I'd say that's the big one.

[snip--read the Bible and my books]

Amazon.com: What's the closest parallel from American history to this year's race?

Coulter: 1864. Bush is Lincoln and Kerry is General McClellan--who, I note, was a great military leader.

Amazon.com: What is the most important lesson from President Bush's term so far?

Coulter: Peace through strength is an idea that never goes out of style. Also, some people can’t be negotiated with but have to be crushed; e.g., the Taliban, al Qaeda, possibly North Korea and Iran, Pat Leahy, Carl Levin, Richard Ben-Veniste...

Amazon.com: What would a Kerry administration mean?

Coulter: Quite possibly the destruction of the Republic.

Here is the Hippie Chick Pie Wagon preparing to vote from the rooftops, crush the enemies of the Republic and turn them into Christians. 

Ann Coulter is possibly the only person on the planet that thinks George W. Bush is like Abraham Lincoln.

And notice the eliminationist rhetoric that conservatives aim at liberals: Democratic senators and Richard Ben-Veniste should be crushed, not even talked to.

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.)

Another take on the debate

A commentary by Ciro Scotti in BusinessWeek on the first presidential debate:

But in Coral Gables, Fla., last night, Bush looked -- at least for the first half of the debate -- like Elmer Befuddled, a commander-in-chief not in command.

Perhaps what was so unnerving was that Bush found himself in a foreign-policy debate with a seasoned politician who was espousing the same sort of measured, internationalist approach to a dangerous world that was the hallmark of his father's Presidency. Debating the security and future of the nation on live national television isn't easy -- but debating your Dad is downright scary.

Another piece:

The poignancy of a man ill-prepared for and overwhelmed by his job was never more apparent than when Bush said, "I never wanted to commit troops. When we were debating in 2000, I never dreamed I'd have to do that."

The message that Kerry hammered home was that, in fact, Bush did not have to "do that," did not have to send our soldiers -- at least not to Iraq.

He never dreamed he'd have to do the job of the President? Let's get him out of the job he's not prepared for.

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.)

Post-debate Post

The presidential John Kerry won the debate on foreign policy. The unpresidential Bush smirked through his misleading talking points.

I note that the newspaper in Crawford Texas (Bush's hometown) has endorsed John Kerry:

Kerry has a positive vision for America, plus the proven intelligence, good sense, and guts to make it happen.

I pulled the plug on cable TV just a week ago. I regret not seeing the debate on split-screen on C-SPAN.

Here are the two faces of Bush:

No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude without finally getting bewildered as to which one is true.
--Nathaniel Hawthorne

It was painful listening to Mr. Bush trying to remember the lines he was trying to parrot. Bewilderment is the essence of Mr. Bush. At least he didn't claim that God told him to attack Iraq.

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.)

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.)

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.)

What does the Republican Party of Florida know that we don't?

I noticed a post-script in a recent Paul Krugman column:

P.S.: Another story you may not see on TV: Jeb Bush insists that electronic voting machines are perfectly reliable, but The St. Petersburg Times says the Republican Party of Florida has sent out a flier urging supporters to use absentee ballots because the machines lack a paper trail and cannot "verify your vote."

Here are the opening paragraphs of an AP story by Brent Kallestad--"GOP tells some Florida voters to skip touchscreens, vote absentee":

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Gov. Jeb Bush has tried for months to persuade Florida voters that the computerized touchscreen voting machines are perfectly reliable, but his own political party apparently hasn't got the message.

The state Republican Party paid for a flier dissing the new technology and sent it to some voters in South Florida. It features a smiling, thumbs-up picture of Bush's older brother, President George W. Bush.

"The new electronic voting machines do not have a paper ballot to verify your vote in case of a recount," the message read. "Make sure your vote counts. Order your absentee ballot today."

That's what Democrats and a coalition of civil rights groups have been saying in legal challenges, trying to force the state to provide a paper trail in case the touchscreen machines malfunction.

Ghost Town Orange agrees with the Florida Republican Party: if you live in an area with touch-screen voting, vote with an absentee ballot. Senator Kerry will win if all the votes are counted.

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.)