Monday’s Mini-Report

Even better than a YouTube clip, the whole HBO documentary on Diebold up on Google Video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7236791207107726851&sourceid=docidfeed&hl=en-CA

The Pat Buchanan link does not appear to work. Can you fix it? I’d like to see what he’s right about.

In the same vein as YouTube clip #3, I was watching CNBC the other night, and there was a feature on Evangelicals, specifically their voting and buying power.

The background music playing during the segment was George Michael’s “Faith.” You can’t make this stuff up.

Rothenberg has six Senate seats Likely or Lean takeover for Dems:

http://rothenbergpoliticalreport.blogspot.com/2006/11/2006-senate-ratings_06.html

… as of today, Monday, at 4:00 EST.

(the seventh is Tenn., rated Toss-Up)

I pulled this comment from Slashdot, which elaborates on what Im sure we’ve all been thinking but, for whatever reason, simply unable to come out and really say: we are more ethical than these guys.

I really don’t want to be part of a flame war (I like my karma where it is right now), but it really seems to me that republicans pull this crap off a lot more than democrats. Thinks like the “democrats vote on wednesdays” campaigns, or “[legal] immigrants will be arrested if they come to the polls”, or men dressed as leather lingerie-clad homosexuals with signs saying “Vote Democrat so I can adopt” seem to be everywhere. Does anyone have any examples of this happening against republicans? I’ll gladly retract my statement if I can see a couple Democrat-sanctioned examples somewhere. I’m aware that I’m a democrat and therefore have selective exposure, but I’m trying to keep an open mind.

You are correct, this typically is something done by the Republicans and not the Democrats. Sure, if you dig deep enough, you can find the story about a couple of Democratic supporters slashing the tires on the Republican parties “get out the vote” mobiles the night before the election, but such incidents are extremely few and far between, and I have yet to see one that was orchestrated on the party rather than individual level.

On the other hand, the Republican party thinks systematically, and when they find something that works they try to milk it in all of their campaigns. Hence the multiple sightings of lether-clad men in lingerie, the robo-calls, the fliers, the push polls, the recent NAMBLA-related smears showing up in close races all across the country (always raised, of course, by the Republicans). In the 2004 election is was church ministers talking about how Kerry (a Catholic) wanted to ban the bible, or mysterious robo-calls claiming to be from the Kerry campaign reminding people that “A vote for John Kerry is a vote for gay marriage,” (even though Kerry had never taken a pro-gay marriage stance in his career).

I think, what it comes down to (I’m about to open myself for being flamed senseless), is that the party leadership in the Republican and Democratic parties have very different philosophies of what it means to run an election. Now, I’m speaking in generalities here, as there are some Republicans who I am rather fond of, and some Democrats that I intensely dislike. But in general, it seems that the Democrats have a philosophy more true to what has been enshrined in the constitution, and an overall sense of fairness. They seem to believe that all citizens have the right to vote, and have their vote counted, and have their voice heard no matter what their opinion is. They seem to want (generally) to allow the truth to speak for itself, and to get elected on the issues.

No doubt that there are many Republicans who feel the same way, but the party leadership (the Ken Mehlman and the Karl Rove types) either don’t see or don’t care about the importance of voting. They don’t see it as a sacred right or responsibility. They see it as a means to an end, and that end is the Republicans getting and holding onto power. They (and again I’m referring to the party leadership and those that enable them, not necessarily the rank and file) believe that they are at war with the Democrats, and that any action that they can take that will result in their accruing more power is justified. They don’t care how immoral or unethical it is, or even how illegal it is. They simply do whatever they can to win and then (if they get caught) pay the fines/do the time, though the punishment hardly matters if they had already achieved their goal. What’s $5 million dollars in fines to the richest political party in the country, if it means that they can keep control of Congress or the White House? They can make that money back in a heartbeat by awarding no-bid contracts to the companies that are their staunchest supporters. The Republican leadership has come to terms with the notion of “acceptable losses” and “collateral damage” during the campaign, and unfortunately those losses include ethics and morals.

Now, I live in Ohio, and I’m sure that you’ve heard a lot about what sort of things happened in Ohio to swing the vote to the Republicans in 2004. Secretary of State Ken Blackwell (who was the head of Bush’s Ohio campaign at the same time as he was responsible to holding the elections) tried all sorts of dirty tricks to swing the vote. There were numerous illegal efforts to purge eligible voters from the rolls in heavily Democratic districts, cases where in heavily Democratic districts there were shortages of voting equipment, etc. He even invoked an obscure law about the weight of the paper required to be used for a voter registration in an effort to invalidate tens of thousands of otherwise valid registrations. He was rebuked repeatedly by the courts for trying to throw the election. And that’s just one man. On the state legislature side the Republican-controlled House and Senate were trying to enact legislation to limit or outlaw campaign contributions by unions of behalf of their membership in a transparent attempt to cut funding from the Democratic party. So once they get into power, they’ll stop at nothing in their attempt to consolidate and hold on to power, and it’s truly frightening. Republican politics are no longer about principles, and trying to represent the Republican constituency. It is solely about power, and how to get more of it.

Breaking News:

An administration spokesman has announced that, Osama bin Laden, escorted by tight security, is being transferred from an undisclosed location in Pakistan to Washington, DC. The long-sought terrorist, under heavy guard, will appear on Tuesday morning wake-up shows and on Fox News throughout the day. Bin Laden will then be incarcerated after appearing on Hannity & Colmes. Along with bin Laden, the administration also announced that it has found Amelia Earhart, Jimmy Hoffa, Judge Crater, and the recipe for cold fusion.

Our tax dollars are paying for a campaign to get a far-right Bush lackey to be the new head of the U.N. World Food Program for the next five years.

According to Josh Holland over at the Gadflyer, the Moonies now control the catching and marketing of fresh fish world-wide, so maybe she can enlist the Messiah is crashing the world’s fisheries even faster than forecast last week, which will obviously bring on the Rapture and then Moonie can officially welcome Jesus H. Christ to the apocalypse. I mean, if you think of it in these terms, the appointment makes perfect sense, right?

Boy, I never thought I would be cheering on Pat Buchanan, but he’s definitely got it right this time. And speaking as someone who has spent the last three months getting used to the colonia that’s been established in the property right next door, the issue of illegal immigration is not going to go away, which is going to make life “interesting” for the Democrats – trust me, your liberal opinions get severely tested when you discover your quiet out-of-the-way existence is no more when the next door property becomes Tijuana Norte. There is going to be a huge fight over this stuff the next two years, and it does not break strictly Dem/Repub.

Rian (#11) They (and again I’m referring to the party leadership and those that enable them, not necessarily the rank and file) believe that they are at war with the Democrats, and that any action that they can take that will result in their accruing more power is justified. They don’t care how immoral or unethical it is, or even how illegal it is. They simply do whatever they can to win and then (if they get caught) pay the fines/do the time, though the punishment hardly matters if they had already achieved their goal.

Sorry, but the fact is that for the “movement conservatives” who make up the overwhelming majority of the Bush League, playing this as a “war” is exactly what they want and believe in. These guys shouldn’t get any more of a pass than any card-carrying member of the NSDAP did in 1946. (There – got around “Godwin’s Law” didn’t I??)

I pulled this comment from Slashdot, which elaborates on what Im sure we’ve all been thinking but, for whatever reason, simply unable to come out and really say: we are more ethical than these guys. — Rian Mueller, @11

Of course we are! Always have been. Why should it be difficult to say out loud? All this “the other side does it too” may be true, but the ratio is about 5:1 — whether it’s corruption, robo-calls, hypocrisy, you name it — makes no diff. I guess the factory that produces “moral compasses” is in the Dem hands (probably why it ain’t listed on Dow — doesn’t make enough money)…

We also have more/more subtle sense of humor, in even bigger proportion (personal guess: 50:1)

I couldn’t get a permalink for the NYTimes article in #20. Now I can it is here.

Assclowns of the Week #51: Justice Tuesday Edition is up. On the spit:

Mark Halperin
Ted Haggard
George Bush
Dick Cheney
Marilyn Musgrave
Oh my.

Don’t forget to bring your camcorders to the polls today.