Saturday 3/12 Election Fraud, Reform, & Updates Thread

[MelissaB]

In order to organize and document I thought it would be a good idea to have a daily thread to place items related to reform, fraud, protests, and other items. This also make it easier to "catch up" when we are away from the computer for a while.

Please help us. If you see something that isn't here post it with a link to the thread and a thanks to the author. Thanks to everyone who is helping with this project.

Link to the thread from yesterday: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x342087

[MelissaB]

1. Redondo Beach: a new tabulation is planned

Bisignano makes runoff by 1 vote, at least for now

With razor-thin margin separating him from Allan in Redondo Beach mayor's race, a new tabulation is planned.
By Kristin S. Agostoni
Daily Breeze

Redondo Beach mayoral hopeful Gerard Bisignano started off his weekend with the reassuring news that one lonely vote earned him a spot in a May 17 runoff against former City Councilman Mike Gin.

But the city clerk's tally of three leftover ballots Friday also left Bisignano with the unsettling feeling that his luck could easily take a downturn.

Though Bisignano managed to stay ahead of community activist Ellen Allan, City Clerk Sandy Forrest has announced plans to conduct a complete recount of the votes with two new tabulation machines. Bisignano and Allan have been seesawing for second place since the polls closed Tuesday night

>>snip

Forrest said she hopes the tally next week will put an end to the questions about the race and those pointed toward her office. As long as the two voting machines produce identical results, she said, "then that's it."

Outgoing mayor asks questions

But outgoing Mayor Greg Hill, who has criticized the clerk for failing to post signs at some old polling precincts directing voters to current ones, said he'll likely call for a review of the city's election procedures. The computer glitches are concerns as well, he said.

More: http://www.dailybreeze.com/news/articles/1359362.html

[MelissaB]

2. Diebold Election Systems Inc. files a suit

Spurned bidder sues state over procedures

Voting machine deal challenged in court
Saturday, March 12, 2005
By Ed Anderson
Capital bureau

BATON ROUGE -- A national voting machine company that lost out on the right to bid on $47 million in state voting machine contracts went to court Friday, charging that Secretary of State Fox McKeithen's office used flawed procedures to choose the three companies allowed to bid on the state contracts.

Diebold Election Systems Inc. of McKinney, Texas, which has more than 75,000 voting machines in operation in the nation, filed suit against McKeithen's office in 19th Judicial District Court in East Baton Rouge Parish late Friday. A hearing on the lawsuit has not been set.

>>>snip

In the suit, Diebold attorney John Landis of New Orleans asks the court to prohibit McKeithen's office from enforcing the guidelines used in selecting three companies as prospective bidders while rejecting five others, including Diebold. Landis also asks the court to prohibit the office from seeking bids for at least 5,000 new machines.

The lawsuit also asks the court to declare invalid the standards and process McKeithen's office used in qualifying the three firms; to overturn the denial of Diebold's certification; to order McKeithen's office to reissue the standards used in selecting prospective bidders; and to declare Diebold's product as certified under the state administrative code.

The three firms approved are Advanced Voting Solutions of Frisco, Texas; Elections Systems and Software of Omaha, Neb.; and Sequoia Voting System of Oakland, Calif.

More: http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/capital/index.ssf?/base/news-2/1110612343194440.xml

[MelissaB]

3. State sued over voting machine picks

State sued over voting machine picks

BY WILLIAM TAYLOR
[e-mail]
Advocate staff writer

A voting machine company filed suit Friday challenging its exclusion from the competition for a $49 million state contract.
The lawsuit against the Secretary of State's Office is the latest move by Diebold Election Systems Inc. of McKinney in an effort to get its machines reconsidered.

State Purchasing Director Denise Lea ruled last week that her office had no authority to intervene.

"It's not unexpected," First Assistant Secretary of State Al Ater said of the lawsuit.

"Everyone here pretty much felt it was a business decision, a business action they might take," he said. "They are trying to make sure their rights are preserved."

Diebold, one of the nation's leading voting machine suppliers, contends the state wrongly found the company's machines didn't meet state standards while certifying other machines that didn't meet the standards. The lawsuit also claims state rules weren't followed in the adoption of new standards for 2005.

More: http://www.2theadvocate.com/stories/031205/pol_machine001.shtml

[dzika]

4. WA Republicans flex muscle to delay election reform bills

From kgw.com:
03/12/2005

WA Republicans flex muscle to delay election reform bills

By RACHEL LA CORTE / Associated Press

Republicans in the Democrat-controlled Senate used their limited power to hold up a vote on two election reform bills Friday in hopes of adding several amendments to at least one of the measures.

...
"We want to give the other side the opportunity to negotiate in good faith," said Senate elections chairman Jim Kastama, D-Puyallup. "We've crossed all those roads, and now it's time to bring it to an end."

...
Republicans have introduced a flurry of amendments on a series of election reform bills that started to hit the floor last week. Monday was the first day the GOP had any success, winning approval of four amendments to a bill intended to enhance voter registration record-keeping.

...
Kastama said that although he agrees with some of the amendments the Republicans have brought forth, some go too far, such as requiring photo identification at the polls or requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote.

"We don't want to damn the whole system," he said. "We want to correct it. That's what I'm trying to do. I think some people are doing more than correcting the system. They could disenfranchise voters."

more here

[dzika]

5. New Mexico House passes two election reform bills

March 10, 2005

New Mexico House passes two election reform bills

By HEATHER CLARK | Associated Press

SANTA FE - County clerks would be allowed to start processing absentee ballots five days before Election Day under a House-passed bill intended to speed up vote tallies.

The House also passed a bill Thursday that would place a moratorium on the purchase of certain voting machines until March 1, 2006. Both bills are headed to the Senate.

But House Republicans accused Democrats of delaying voter identification legislation, which they say is needed for meaningful electoral reform in the state.

"Voter ID is probably not going to make it through the system because the Democrats are stalling it one more time," House GOP Leader Ted Hobbs of Albuquerque said.

more here

[dzika]

6. UB Viewpoint - The impact of election reform in Maryland

March 11, 2005

UB Viewpoint - The impact of election reform in Maryland

By JOHN T. WILLIS

Where’s the fuss? Where’s the furor? In contrast to the highly controversial and disputed 2000 presidential election, the re-election of President George W. Bush this past November has not sparked the same kind of intense public reaction, scrutiny and concern over the mechanics and accuracy of voting in America.

source

[dzika]

7. Italy puts pressure on Bush

March 12, 2005

Italy puts pressure on Bush

By Natasha Bita in Florence

ITALIAN prosecutors want US troops in Baghdad to hand over the car and satellite phones used by the secret agent killed by US soldiers while escorting a freed hostage to safety this week.


As Italy and the US launched inquiries into the attack on the hostage rescue mission, Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi wrote to his US counterpart, George W. Bush, insisting on "transparency" by US military officials investigating the attack.

...
Rome and Washington have blamed each other for the death of Italian intelligence agent Nicola Calipari, who was shot dead by US forces in a hail of gunfire while shielding freed hostage Giuliana Sgrena as he escorted her to Baghdad airport last Saturday.

...
Fearful the Italian anger over the killing might jeopardise Italy's commitment to keeping its 3000 troops in Iraq, Washington made an unprecedented offer on Wednesday to let an Italian diplomat and military officer take part in its military investigation of the affair in Baghdad.

...
The Italian investigators have asked the US military to hand over the car used by Calipari, as well as the mobile phones and satellite phones they believe were taken by the US soldiers after the shooting.

The grey Toyota Corolla was due to be flown to Italy yesterday, L'Unita newspaper reported, but the Italian military plane sent to pick up the car returned empty.

Italy's public broadcaster, RAI, showed photographs of the car after the attack and reported that the US gunshots had been aimed at "passenger level". A US military spokesman had claimed the troops shot at the engine block.

more here

[MelissaB]

8. Crooks and Liars: BUSH STOLE THE ELECTION --IN IRAQ!

BUSH STOLE THE ELECTION --IN IRAQ!

by Mark Groubert

As reported today on the nationally broadcast Ed Shultz Show part of the Jones Radio Network, former U.S. Weapons Inspector, Scott Ritter declared that the Bush administration helped subvert and manipulate the recent heralded election in Iraq. According to Ritter, who made the original charges in a joint appearence with journalist Dahr Jamil in Washington state, the Bush administration was determined to control the outcome of the Iraq vote at all costs. "The U.S.cooked the election in Iraq," claimed Ritter. Ritter went on to explain how the victory of the Shia was a forgone conclusion to Administration members.What wasn't a foregone conclusion was the percentage of victory. A majority victory of the Shia would give them control of the Parliament and under current Iraqi law allow the Iranian-influenced Mullahs to draw up the new Constitution. read on

The Raw Story interviewed Ritter and has more.

Link: http://www.crooksandliars.com/

[MelissaB]

9. Exit Poll Madness - Analyses Offers False Choice

Exit Poll Madness - Analyses Offers False Choice

Wednesday, 9 March 2005, 12:41 pm
Opinion: www.ecotalk.org - Lynn Landes
Exit Poll Madness - Analyst Steve Freeman & Company Offer False Choice

By Lynn Landes
3/3/05

Beware of exit polls and the analysts who study them. These folks would have us believe that exit polls tell the gospel truth. They even quote the duplicitous toe-sucking Dick Morris to make their case. "Exit polls are almost never wrong," Morris writes. The man is a known creep.

Exit polls are completely non-transparent and unverifiable. They're as bad as voting by machine, absentee, or early. There's no meaningful oversight to either enterprise. Worse yet, a belief in exit polls is a trap that's had tragic consequences for elections around the world.

There's growing evidence that exit polls sponsored by the Bush Administration and the International Republican Institute were used to support rigged elections in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Palestine. Scott Ritter, the former U.N. weapons inspector, recently said that his information is that the Iraq election was fixed. Even the situation in the Ukraine is cause for concern as the Western governments used their own poll to discredit the first election and support the second one. It seems that the West's favorite candidate, winner Viktor Yushchenko, promised to privatize lots of government industries and services.

Although the elections in these countries were conducted using paper ballots and (mostly) hand counts, the counting took place behind closed doors and the results took weeks to announce. What did our corporate news media report to the world on the Election Night for these countries? Not the actual vote tallies, but instead the corporate news media jubilantly announced exit polls results. Most people didn't seem to notice the difference. And that's thanks to people like University of Pennsylvania professor Steve F. Freeman.

More: http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0503/S00062.htm

[dzika]

10. Russert to Be First Broadcast Journalist Admitted to Gridiron?

Media and Washington D.C. elites will rub elbows "off the record" tonight. No independent journalists or bloggers allowed.

---

Russert to Be First Broadcast Journalist Admitted to Gridiron?

Saturday night’s Gridiron Club dinner will be, as usual, off the record. But your reporter talked his way into a rehearsal this afternoon at the Capital Hilton, a few blocks up from the White House.

Here’s what you will see at the white-tie affair: Senator Barack Obama and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Washington’s new “it” guests.

Here’s what you will not see: Any bloggers, young journalists, or TV reporters.

Check that: The Gridiron group is allowing NBC star Tim Russert to take part this year; the members are granting him a special exemption. Sources say he will be inducted into the Gridiron on Saturday night. If so, he will be the first broadcast journalist allowed into the club.

The Gridiron is officially initiating six print journalists: Dan Balz of the Washington Post, Chris Casteel of The Oklahoman, Carol Stevens of USA Today, Robert Timberg of the Baltimore Sun, Vicki Walton-James of the Chicago Tribune, and David Westphal of McClatchy Newspapers. It’s also initiating Captain Jason Fettig, assistant director the US Marine Band.

Every president since Benjamin Harrison has attended the Gridiron’s satiric review, except for Grover Cleveland. But last year President George Bush, who had attended previous dinners, dissed the show. Word is he refused to sit next to Al Hunt, last year’s club president.

Bush is scheduled to show tomorrow night and sit next to club president Richard Ryan of the Detroit News.

...
The finale, after 22 song-filled skits, is about Karl Rove, delivered by the Providence Journal’s John Mulligan, to the tune of “Doo Wah Diddy Diddy.”

“He looked smug, he looked dim/How we gonna win with him?”

And the answer:

“We signed up some cutthroat/Veterans of the Swift boat.”

more here

[Land Shark]

11. When computers fill out your ballot FOR you and voters "verify" it...

Post on Saturday by Land Shark:

<http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x342939>

[dzika]

12. Kerry Loves the Mainstream Media - (negative article)

This article is negative but has some interesting quotes from Kerry about corporate media's relationship to the election.

---

From the March 21, 2005 issue:

Kerry Loves the Mainstream Media
. . . And has contempt for the American people.

by P.J. O'Rourke

...
Addressing the audience of tame Democrats, Kerry explained his defeat. "There has been," he said, "a profound and negative change in the relationship of America's media with the American people. . . . If 77 percent of the people who voted for George Bush on Election Day believed weapons of mass destruction had been found in Iraq--as they did--and 77 percent of the people who voted for him believed that Saddam Hussein was responsible for 9/11--as they did--then something has happened in the way in which we are talking to each other and who is arbitrating the truth in American politics. . . . When fear is dominating the discussion and when there are false choices presented and there is no arbitrator, we have a problem."

...
"We learned," Kerry continued, "that the mainstream media, over the course of the last year, did a pretty good job of discerning. But there's a subculture and a sub-media that talks and keeps things going for entertainment purposes rather than for the flow of information. And that has a profound impact and undermines what we call the mainstream media of the country. And so the decision-making ability of the American electorate has been profoundly impacted as a consequence of that. The question is, what are we going to do about it?"

...
Kerry looked sympathetically at Oliphant--a representative of the mainstream media--and answered as if Oliphant himself had asked the question. "Tom, I swear I don't have the answer to that. And I'm looking for it just like everybody else is. . . . I think part of what we have to do is have an impact on the economics. The corporatization of the media in America has taken away some of the willingness of the media to do the great muckraking they used to do and to be the accountability folks they used to be. And so you have so many different media outlets that are just bottom-line, and they go where the ratings tell them to go. And there's a top-down hierarchical administration of what they'll go after and what they'll do, and it's driven by the economics more than anything. I think if we were to change the economics a little bit through grassroots effort, then you might begin to see a shift." Kerry did not elaborate on the nature of this grassroots effort. Do we smash the windows of Rupert Murdoch's headquarters? Do we nationalize the Drudge Report? "Now, beyond that," Kerry said, shrugging and pausing, "an epiphany of some kind?" Or do we just get in touch with our inner mainstream?

Kerry smirked at Oliphant. Oliphant smirked back. Kerry went on: "A lot of the mainstream media were very responsible during the campaign. They tried to put out a balanced view, and they did show what they thought to be the truth in certain situations of attack. . . . But it never penetrated. And when you look at the statistics and understand that about 80 percent of America gets 100 percent of its news from television, and a great deal of that news comes from either MTV, Jon Stewart, Bill Maher, Jay Leno, David Letterman, you begin to see the size of the challenge." (Those were all Kerry supporters or, at any rate, Bush opponents, but this thought--if any thinking occurred--didn't slow Kerry.) "And so I don't have the total answer. I just know it's something that we've really got to grapple with."

...
"That's something," Kerry said, "that a president with a veto pen and with the right of proposal can achieve. But in this particular dynamic don't hold your breath. There ain't going to be no effort to change that or restore the Fairness Doctrine. This all began, incidentally, when the Fairness Doctrine ended. You would have had a dramatic change in the discussion in this country had we still had a Fairness Doctrine in the course of the last campaign. But the absence of a Fairness Doctrine and the corporatization of the media has changed dramatically the ability of and the filter through which certain kinds of information get to the American people . . . "

more here (but it is VERY negative on Kerry)

[Joe Chi Minh]

17. P J O'Rourke? Nuff said.

No not quite. He's so thick, he thinks Dems won't see how he twisted Kerry's identification of the perceptive but unforthcoming MSM, into an attack on the intelligence of the people. Nice try, Dumbo. Not.

I told you the neocons were sh*t-scared of Kerry. Expect a lot more attacks on him.

[dzika]

13. Statement From Buddy Dyer (Orlando Mayor indicted in election probe)

March 11, 2005

Statement From Olando Mayor Buddy Dyer

One year ago the Orlando Police Department was contacted by Brian Mulvaney, the brother of my political opponent and asked to investigate allegations of voter fraud in the 2004 election. Rather than have a law enforcement department that reports directly to me investigate charges against my campaign I asked Chief McCoy to turn this matter over to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for further investigation.

I can report that after a year of investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and a Grand Jury investigation they have found what I knew to be the case one year ago­ there was no voter fraud in the 2003 and 2004 election. Let me repeat there was no voter fraud. No manipulation of votes. No finding of anything other than each ballot cast was properly done so by an elector of the City of Orlando and those votes were counted on election night last year.

...
The bad news is that during the course of their investigation the FDLE switched their focus to a vague Florida statute that has never been applied in this state. They contend that the work of one political consultant and citizen of our city, Ezzie Thomas, constituted a violation of State Statue. Mr. Thomas has worked in this community as a political activist and consultant for years and his clients have included the Chief Elections Officer of this state, former Mayor Glenda Hood, our newest United States Senator Mel Martinez, City Council members, County Commissioner members, the Change for Kids Campaign and the Mobility 20/20 campaign and members of the State Legislature.

Yet this investigation was apparently focused on only my campaign and the campaign of one judge. And what does Ezzie Thomas do? He simply helps older African Americans participate in the voting process.

Yesterday I was notified that I was the subject of an indictment charging me with "providing pecuniary gain for absentee ballot possession or collection." In other words my campaign employed a campaign consultant who allegedly violated the law by encouraging older African American voters to participate in the elective process by absentee ballot and I am being held to account for that.

No charge of vote buying. No charge of vote brokering. No charge of vote manipulation.

I do not believe any employee of my campaigns intentionally violated any campaign laws while conducting the business of the campaign. At no time was I made aware of or condoned any activity that constituted a violation of any law and I believe the charges leveled against my campaigns and me are without merit and are politically motivated.

As a result I intend to fight these charges with every ounce of strength that I have and I am heartened by the fact that there has never been a prosecution of this statute since it was passed in 1998.

continued here

[dzika]

14. Vermont plans to look at same-day voter registration

Saturday, March 12, 2005

Vermont plans to look at same-day voter registration

By ZACH CHURCH
Staff Writer

BENNINGTON -- The state legislature will likely consider a bill that would allow residents to register at the polls on election day.

The Senate Government Operations Committee will look at the bill next week, according to Secretary of State Deborah Markowitz. If passed there, the bill will go to the House Government Operations Committee.

Markowitz is a strong proponent of the idea, saying that it will reduce the risk of voter fraud and increase voter turnout. Vermont's turnout is already high - about 68 percent of the eligible population voted in November 2004, Markowitz said - but she thinks the number could push to the high seventies.

"I think we could be up there with Minnesota," Markowitz said. That state had the highest turnout in November, pulling about 78 percent of the electorate into the polls. Minnesota is one of six states that offers same-day registration. One state, North Dakota, has no registration mechanism at all.

more here

[dzika]

15. Review of King County records in governor race resolves little

Saturday, March 12, 2005

More jumbled WA election numbers
Review of King County records in governor race resolves little

By GREGORY ROBERTS
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

A close accounting of King County polling-place records failed to resolve hundreds of discrepancies between the number of ballots cast and the number of voters who signed up to vote Nov. 2, elections officials acknowledged yesterday.

The report is the latest information released in the months-long squabble Democrats and Republicans are having over the governor's race. Democrat Christine Gregoire defeated Republican Dino Rossi in a hand recount by 129 votes out of more than 2.8 million statewide.

The Republicans are suing in Chelan County Superior Court to set aside that result. The GOP and Democrats seized on different aspects of the King County report released yesterday to bolster their positions in the dispute.

"The fact that they are admitting that they made errors larger than the margin of victory makes our case," GOP state Chairman Chris Vance said. "If it's impossible to know who won the election, you have to hold a new election."

But the judge in the case, John Bridges, has rejected that argument in pretrial hearings. Citing state law and previous court cases, Bridges has said the GOP needs to show that Gregoire apparently received enough improper votes to make the difference in the election.

more here

[ewagner]

16. And in Wisconsin......ES&S strikes again

<http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=342985&mesg_id=342985>

[dzika]

18. The Toothpaste Election - Both Parties Try to Exclude People from Voting

From CounterPunch:
March 12 / 13, 2005

Both Parties Try to Exclude People from Voting
The Toothpaste Election

By NOAM CHOMSKY

The party managers know where the public stands on a whole list of issues. Their funders just don't support them; the interests they represent don't support them. So they project a different kind of image.

If you listen to the presidential debates, you can't figure out what they're saying, and that's on purpose. The last debate was supposed to be about domestic issues. The New York Times commented that Kerry didn't make any hint about possible government involvement in health care programs because that position has, in their words, "no political support." Well, according to the most recent polls, 80% of the population thinks that the government ought to guarantee health care for everyone, and furthermore regard it as a moral obligation. That tells you something about people's values. But there's "no political support."

Why? Because the pharmaceutical industry is opposed, the financial institutions are opposed, the insurance industry is opposed, so there's "no political support." It doesn't matter if 80% of the population regard it as a moral obligation: That doesn't count as political support. It tells you something about the elite conception. You're supposed to vote for the image they're projecting. That's not surprising really. Just ask yourself, "Who runs the elections?"

...
For many years, election campaigns here have been run by the public relations industry and each time it's with increasing sophistication. Quite naturally, the industry uses the same technique to sell candidates that it uses to sell toothpaste or lifestyle drugs. The point is to undermine markets by projecting imagery to delude and suppressing information­and similarly, to undermine democracy by the same method.

In the year 2000, there was a huge fuss afterwards about the stolen election, with the Florida chads and the Supreme Court. But ask yourself who was exorcised about it? It was all among a small group of intellectuals. They were the ones who were upset about it. There was never any public resonance for this. In the current election it's being reiterated. There's a big fuss among intellectuals about the vote in Ohio, how the voting machines didn't work, and other things. But the interesting thing is that nobody cares.

continued here

[gmoses]

19. the other election reform: dangers of statewide registration systems

FIRST some snips:

Yet the power of software to politically manage votes and voters is not simply the power to produce vote totals, it also lies in the power of information technology to "discipline and punish" voting populations with increasing speed and efficiency.

Thanks to the recent addition of VOTEC Election Management And Compliance System or VEMACS (the same software package used in Cuyahoga County and ten other states) the Voter Registrar of Harris County was able to deliver with unprecedented speed and precision a list of 167 suspected illegal voters shortly after Republican attorneys charged that Democratic voters had illegally stolen the election.

In the end, hyped-up Republican charges against Democratic voters were not supported by the evidence. But the report produced by the Registrar’s election software did enable an unprecedented invasion of voter privacy. Within a month following the release of the Registrar's report, about 150 voters had been served with subpoenas that demanded them to reveal their votes in the election contest. And about 110 voters eventually saw their votes deducted from the race. Was the interrogation of Houston voters in January the largest voter sweep in history? We hope so. Because the Harris County precedent warns us that where powerful software is available, there will be more voter sweeps to come.

http://texascivilrightsreview.org/phpnuke/modules.php?n ...

CounterPunch picked this up today:

http://www.counterpunch.org/moses03122005.html

NEXT WEEK, I'd like to look at the new contract between the Texas Secty of State and IBM to do voter registration statewide. The Help America Vote Act (HAVA) will require statewide voting registration systems everywhere by Jan. 1. I think we've learned enough from the Vo election contest to ask some critical questions about the power and use of "voter management technology" that will soon be deployed in these new, state-of-the-art voter registration systems.

See Editorial in Progress:

http://texascivilrightsreview.org/phpnuke/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=183

QUESTION: any orgs already on this game that would make good sources?

re-posted from Texas & Gen Discussion--gm

[dzika]

20. High School Confidential

From Hullabaloo:
Friday, March 11, 2005

High School Confidential

Hudson over at Daily Kos has posted a provocative piece about a Republican tactic he calls "fencing." He accurately describes this process of ritual humiliation that's become a standard part of the Republican playbook over the last few years, the purpose of which is to "fence off" voters from feeling comfortable identifying with the Democrats and candidates who are widely seen as socially marginalized objects of derision --- effeminate geeks. I suspect this tactic works particularly well with certain sub-sets of white males whose identity is wrapped up in machismo and high school jock style social hierarchies ---- and the women who buy into those simple heuristic methods of determining leadership capability.(Old Mudcat pretty much came right out and said it. "It's a macho thing.")

Clearly, this tactic has been used to great effect in the last two presidential elections and I think it plays particularly well into the existing stereotypes of the two parties with respect to national security. Of course, one of the reasons this works so well is that it is partially designed to appeal to the media's puerile sense of bitchy good fun, as well. It would not be nearly as effective if the MSM could resist the immature temptation to side with those they perceive as "real guys" and help them deride Democrats as weirdos and sissies.

However, this ritual humiliation goes all the way back to Dukakis, at least, with the tank picture. Clinton was a little more difficult to paint with this stuff because he was a known womanizer and they weren't able to turn him into a sexless geek or a cartoon pansy, even with the allegedly ballbusting wife. In the end they were reduced to calling him a pervert for liking blow jobs which didn't work all that well, for obvious reasons. Kerry, however, was the subject of constant derision along this line. As Hudson points out:

...
In the Bush-Kerry campaign, "fencing" mostly took the form of playground insults and other humiliations:

Kerry looks French. Kerry spends a fortune on haircuts. Kerry is vain and pompous. Kerry has funny hair. Kerry's voice is funny. Kerry reminds people of Lerch on The Munsters. Kerry wears Lycra--fluorescent-striped Lycra. Kerry rides a fancy European bike. Kerry looks fruity when he windsurfs. Kerry wears expensive suits, ties, sunglasses, shoes and belts. Kerry asks for French mustard when he orders a hot dog...

They didn't exactly make a secret of it.

Karl Rove telegraphs a punch: "the GOP convention will portray Kerry as "an object of humor and calculated derision." Meanwhile, Senator Trent Lott throws a haymaker at a 'French-speaking socialist'

And all people refuse vote for someone whom they think of as weak. It goes to the very essence of what leadership is. Half the country is obviously able to see past this little high school game and evaluate the strength of a candidates on the basis of something other than image and macho rhetoric. The other half is clearly in thrall to the manufactured Hollywood image of manly leadership.

more here

[dzika]

21. Bush to Black People: Drop Dead

From 3martini:
March 11, 2005

Bush to Black People: Drop Dead

Since the November election, the American media has essentially run with one meme on the topic of race: the Bush administration's new outreach to blacks, who voted for John Kerry over Bush by an 8-to-1 margin.

Black communities are to the Party of Lincoln what, say, rural Idaho is to Barney Frank. While both parties have their demagogues, the GOP is still deeply and fundamentally associated with racism and discrimination, especially in the south and heartland, from where some of the more unreconstructed racists in the US Congress have held office in recent years. Nitwits like Sean Hannity like to remind us that the Civil Rights Act was opposed primarily by southern Dems, failing to mention that most switched parties after they wound up on the wrong side of history. And Condi Rice won't change many minds.

The Rove plan for making some headway in black communities has been cultural conservatism, a.k.a. "abortion and gay marriage." This makes a lot of sense for the GOP. But since Bush has already annoyed his evangelical supporters by saying "Psych!" on gay marriage post-election, he's pushing in another sad direction, trying to get black people on board with his failing domestic project, Social Security private accounts. This is where it gets weird.

In his bizarre, friendly-audience Social Security road shows, Bush has frequently mentioned the racial disparity inherent in the Social Security program. Since black people die younger, he contends, they don't get to collect as many Social Security checks as white people. Thus, if they can get their private accounts under the President's secret, no-details plan, they can pass the balances on to their kids when they die (young).

Got that? Bush is addressing the differences among black and white life expectancy and opportunities -– the most electrifying and unacceptable truth in American society –- not by, say, promoting a policy to shrink these gaps, but by exploiting them for his private accounts push.

more here

[MelissaB]

22. Broadcast Journalists Fire Back

Broadcast Journalists Fire Back

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 3/11/2005 10:10:00 AM

The White House, the courts and the Federal Communications Commission all took hits from broadcast journalists Thursday night, who said they were feeling under fire from a manipulative and even malicious government.


NBC News President Neal Shapiro set the tone, telling a roomful of top journalists gathered for the Radio-Television News Directors Foundation awards dinner in D.C. that the press is under attack as never before from the executive and judicial branches, which he says are pursuing journalists with "actual malice" just for doing their jobs.

>>>snip


Shapiro attributed some of the repressive climate to frustrated governmnent officials who, having failed to please their superiors, take it out on journalists. But he also cited "a handful of scandals" that have tarred the broadcast industry and a post-9/11 climate that contributed to the crackdown. He advised journalists to do a better job of showing themselves as reporters, rather than entertainers.

ABC's Sam Donaldson, master of ceremonies, said he had never seen such "vitriolic animus" toward journalists, save for the waning days of the Nixon administration. Donaldson said he hears commentators from the right and left trying to convince the public that the mainstream press cannot be trusted. It's time to "fire back," he said.

More: http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA510012.html?display=Breaking%20News&referral=SUPP

[dzika]

23. Condi, Abortion, and 2008

From Another Gay Republican:
Saturday, March 12, 2005

Condi, Abortion, and 2008

In an interview with the Washington Times, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice admits that she's mildly pro-choice and doesn't have her sights set on the White House in 2008:

Times: Are you pro-life? Are you pro-choice? What is your thought on abortion?

Rice: I believe if you go back to 2000, when I helped the president in the campaign, I said that I was, in effect, kind of Libertarian on this issue, and meaning by that that I have been concerned about a government role in this issue. I'm a strong proponent of parental choice, of parental notification. I'm a strong proponent of a ban on late-term abortion. These are all things that I think unite people and I think that that's where we should be. I've called myself at times mildly pro-choice.

Times: That was the phrase that kept coming up.

Rice: Yeah, mildly pro-choice. That's what that means. I think that there are a lot of things that we can unite around, and that's where I would tend to be. I'm very comfortable with the president's view that we have to respect and need to have a culture that respects life. This should be an issue pretty infrequently because we ought to have a culture that says that, "Who wants to have an abortion? Who wants to see a daughter or a friend or, you know, a sibling go through something like that?" And so I believe the president has been in exactly the right place about this, which is, we have to respect the culture of life and we have to try and bring people to have respect for it and make this as rare a circumstance as possible.

Times: The only reason I even brought it up was because there is a school of thought that says that no conservative Republican can be elected president if they are not firmly pro-life. I know you haven't ruled anything in or out but . . .

Rice: I'm not trying to be elected.

The consensus on the right seems to be that the abortion issue would doom her in the Republican primaries. From Ankle Biting Pundits:

. . . one wonders from which party she thinks she'd get a nomination. It surely won't be the GOP. You can tell she's not a politician. It's a horrid answer, one that won't satisfy either side. And I think on this issue you can't be "mildly" anything. You're either against abortion or you're for allowing it. No gray area here Condi, no matter how hard you try.

and from a diary over at Red State:

. . . Condoleezza Rice's position on abortion is practically indistinguishable from Hillary Clinton's. In fact, it's worse, because she makes the same mistake as John Kerry - acknowledging that she realizes the deep moral and religious consequences of abortion, and then proceeding to make the wrong decision in spite of it.

The bigger story in the interview is that Rice pointedly declined to rule out running for president in 2008 - but frankly, I think it's a moot point now. No one who writes off a third of the party can win a national nomination, let alone a national election.

Actually, I think her position on abortion may sound muddled, but it's probably where most of the country is -- not really supportive of abortion yet not wanting it outlawed either. If you look at polls on the subject, the numbers are all over the place, but they do seem to suggest a majority wants abortion legal to a point.

Whether or not she's thinking about 2008, I don't think the abortion issue will matter at all, because Rice has a bigger problem. She has never held elective office and doesn't have the kind of organized support developed through running for state or national office that seems necessary to run for and win the presidency.

However, what about another Republican presidential candidate who is pro-choice. Could such a candidate win the nomination in 2008? And if that candidate did win the nomination, would pro-life Republicans stay home for the general election. I ask because, according to polls by USA Today and the Marist Poll, the early favorite is pro-choice and pro-gay rights.

source

[gordianot]

24. I have one problem with Condi.

She totaly failed her job as National Security Advisor and did not deserve a promotion to Secretary of State. She needs to find another line of work that does not involve other peoples lives.

[Wilms]

25. New Mexico House passes two election reform bills

New Mexico House passes two election reform bills

Santa Fe Free New Mexican

By HEATHER CLARK | Associated Press
March 10, 2005

SANTA FE - County clerks would be allowed to start processing absentee ballots five days before Election Day under a House-passed bill intended to speed up vote tallies.

The House also passed a bill Thursday that would place a moratorium on the purchase of certain voting machines until March 1, 2006. Both bills are headed to the Senate.

-snip-

The moratorium on purchasing voting machines that do not provide a paper trail that can be audited and verified by voters would give the state time to determine standards for such machines, said House Majority Leader Ken Martinez, D-Grants.

However, the measure will allow counties planning to buy machines that already comply with the federal Help America Vote Act to move ahead with those purchases.

-snip/more-

http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/11426.html