“Are the police being used for political purposes?” . . . “They arrest people and hold them in custody, even though the courts order them released. Meanwhile, the police rarely detain anyone who belongs to a Shiite religious party.”
OK, it’s Iraq. Had the article said “The Party” instead of “Shiite religious party” it would have been the United States. Same difference at this point – Republicans and their contributors can get away with anything.
If anybody expects an honest vote count in Ohio’s special election on Tuesday, they should visit Resident Bush and Voting Machine Link Roundup.
Ohio’s special election will be a dry run for how effective Republican efforts to steal votes in 2006 will be. The 2004 vote mis-count in Ohio proved that the Republican party can steal any election that is within a 5% margin of error. The sad part is that neither the Democratic Party nor the M$M cares.
… at least in the last century or so, unquestionably.
Jimmy Carter: Guantanamo Detentions Disgraceful
In Tuesday’s special Ohio Congressional election there is some breaking news. Republican Jean Schmidt claimed on TV that she had never met Tom Noe – the perpetrator of Ohio’s “Coingate” scandal in which Republicans handed over state funds to a campaign contributor who “invested” the funds in coins (and stole much of the money.)
Turns out Schmidt was lying, and got caught.
Read about it at Swing State Project: OH-02: Come Clean Jean!
Billmon, on Hackett’s district:
The ability of the Rovians to pull fresh GOP votes out of those two counties certainly challenged plausibility, and, in Clermont’s case, almost defied mathematics. Consider the fact that according to the Census Bureau, Clermont’s population rose only 4.4% (about 7,800 souls) between 2000 and 2003, while reported GOP turnout increased by roughly 31% (about 14,600 votes) from 2000 to 2004. This in a county that only had about 122,000 registered voters last year, according to the Cincinatti Enquirer. Mr. Diebold must be very proud.
Hackett is running for Congress in a special election this Tuesday. Billmon is referring here to questions about Diebold voting machines.
Henry Blodget has a column on Slate, entitled How To Invest Like a Supreme Court Justice: What John Roberts’ portfolio reveals about his character.
While Blodget’s analysis is somewhat interesting, if highly speculative, what I think is more important to draw attention to is the fact that Roberts is not just well off… he appears to be extremely well off… as in being worth between $3 and $7 million in 2003, according to his financial disclosure records. Blodget suggests that the top end of that figure could exceed $10 million, given the how the stock market has performed since then.
This may even be a low estimate, since according to his 2003 financial disclosure records, he owned “a chunk of XM Satellite Radio worth between $100,000 and $250,000″ and the stock has increased in value ten fold since then… making that one investment now worth between $1 million and $2.5 million (assuming he hasn’t sold, which reading Blodget’s analysis would appear to be probable).
Why is this relevant? Simple: class interests, and life experience. Roberts, by virtue of his wealth, is among the elite of the American elite, and that is bound to affect:
a) how he thinks, who he associates with, how he lives… virtually every aspect of his life is going to be colored by his wealth
b) his ability to empathize with the plight of the average American…no matter how “objective” he attempts to be, it is going to be flat out impossible for Roberts to really grasp, at a gut level, what the average middle, working class, or poor/destitute/homeless American encounters every day in their struggle to get buy, or just plain survive the night
All of the end of session legislation on Bush’s wish list would not be getting so many Democratic votes without Harry Reid’s blessing.
With Democrat Support, Bush Agenda Moves Forward
Tom Vilsack has declared war on the Democratic party.
Democrats don’t get this. Sure, at a cognitive level they recognize the task, but they don’t “get it.” (If you want to see just how much they don’t get it, watch Charlie Rose’s interview
with the new head of the DLC Vilsack. The war against Dean and liberals is now official.)
Blueprint Magazine has declared war on the Democratic party.
Will Marshall has declared war on the Democratic Party.
Harry Reid Is A Bush Sockpuppet.
By now you’ve heard that the words “War On Terror” are no longer operative. Now it is a “global struggle against violent extremism”:
Throughout July, administration officials have substituted new words for the old. Instead of trumpeting the “global war on terrorism,” … have sounded the call to “a global struggle against violent extremism.”
Struggle Against Violent Extremism. Struggle (Kampf) to SAVE. As in Christianity will SAVE you.
Mr. Rumsfeld described America’s efforts as it “wages the global struggle against the enemies of freedom, the enemies of civilization.”
And who are we to be SAVEd from? Non-Christians, specifically Muslims:
Leaks yesterday said the new policy redefined the terrorist threat as “Islamist extremism“, not just al-Qa’eda, and was aimed at some two dozen groups.
Timothy McVeigh? Never.
Update – at corrente
GSAVE = Je[sus] Saves
I came across an article I have written about before, and I’m posting this to recommend it again. This is an absolute must-read for understanding what is happening to us, how things got to be the way they are, and how the Right operates. Read The Apparat.
State rejects e-voting system: Counties scramble to replace Diebold machines.
Let’s hope this is the start of a nationwide trend:
After possibly the most extensive testing ever on a voting system, California has rejected Diebold’s flagship electronic voting machine because of printer jams and screen freezes, sending local elections officials scrambling for other means of voting.
“There was a failure rate of about 10 percent, and that’s not good enough for the voters of California and not good enough for me,” said Secretary of State Bruce McPherson.
Picky, picky, picky.
I forgot to mention. Yesterday on the Rush Limbaugh show the host (I forget his name…) stated to a caller that “We are in Iraq because we were attacked.”
At this late date they are still trying to trick the public.
Discuss.