Blog Round-Up January 24, 2006

From Steve Gilliard, BushCo proposing its own federal police: This is how dictatorships start

From Art Pottery, Politics & Food, two good ones: Egghead = Gen. Michael V. Hayden (head of illegal wiretapping program)

Mystery Meet (Tim Russert's asking Barack Obama to comment on Harry Belafonte)

Brilliant at Breakfast on Florida exposing Diebold's easily-hacked voting machines: More on the Florida Diebold hack test

Digby can't take it anymore: Killing Me Softly (I love the use of the phrase "American sheeple")

Update: One more, from a new blog I've been loving, Glenn Greenwald on how Republicans can say anything, but Democrats are out of line: Rules for Political Discourse

Democrats Must Fight Rigged Elections

From thesmirkingchimp:

'Dear Howard Dean: Why bother?'

Dear Dr. Dean,

Every week I get dozens of solicitations from the Democratic National Committee, from the Democratic Senate and Congressional Campaign Committees, or from various Democratic candidates and office-holders, each of them asking for contributions. "You can help us achieve victory next November," I am told.

If by "victory" is meant a majority vote cast at the polls, then the Democrats achieved "victory" in 2000, 2002 and 2004. And yet, the Republicans remain in control of the Congress and the White House.

Small wonder! Republicans build the voting machines, Republicans write the secret software, Republicans count and compile the totals. The Republican machines allow no auditing of the vote totals they report. So Republicans have the ability to "win" elections, regardless of the will of the voters. There is compelling evidence that they have done just that.

And so, if nothing is done to end the privatization of our elections and to introduce reliable verification, the Republicans will "win" again in November 2006 and then in 2008. Today, eleven months before the mid-term election, the outcome is fore-ordained - as certain as Soviet elections under Stalin, and Iraqi elections under Saddam. For, as Stalin said, "Those who cast the votes decide nothing, those who count the votes decide everything."

He's absolutely right. And if the Democrats don't fight back we will continue to be marginalized.

The #1 voting machine rigger in the country is Diebold. Their CEO just resigned:

Wally O'Dell, Diebold CEO, resigns!

But not because they got nailed for vote rigging. No, Wally committed securities fraud, and some other dyed-in-the-wool Re-thug lover, Thomas Swidarski, has taken the reins at Diebold.

North Carolina required a little bit of transparency and accountability in the electronic voting machines, so Diebold pulled out the state entirely. Tells you that they are crookeder than a barrel of fishhooks.

Elections in Ohio

Someone posted a comment on this blog about questioning election results in Ohio (I believe I questioned Diebold). Just so the poster knows I'm not the only one:

Matt Taibbi: 'Highly irregular: The Ohio 2004 election story is going to come back'

The facts Taibbi outlines:

* As was the case in Florida, the secretary of state (Kenneth Blackwell, in Ohio), who is in charge of elections, was also the co-chair of the state's Bush-Cheney campaign.

* In a technique reminiscent of the semantic gymnastics of pre-Civil Rights Act election officials, Blackwell replaced the word "jurisdiction" with "precinct" in an electoral directive that would ultimately result in perhaps tens of thousands of provisional ballots--votes cast mainly by low-income residents--being disallowed.

* Blackwell initially rejected thousands of voter registrations because they were printed on paper that was, according to him, the wrong weight.

* In conservative, Bush-friendly Miami County, voter turnout was an Uzbekistan-esque 98.55 percent.

* In Warren county, election officials locked down the administration building and prevented reporters from observing the ballot counting, citing a "terrorist threat" (described as being a "10" on a scale of 1 to 10) that had been reported to them by the FBI. The FBI made no such report. Recounts conducted during this lockdown resulted in increased votes for Bush.

* In Franklin County, 4,258 votes were cast for Bush in a precinct where there were only 800 registered voters.

That 98.55% county really gets to me. So the total of number of voters in the hospital, drunk in a bar, high on meth, too lazy to go out, unaware of the political process, totalled less than 1.5% of the county? In America? Something happened.

Paul Hackett

Today Ohio is holding a special election to fill the congressional seat of Rob Portman, Republican who was named U.S. trade representative by President Bush. Hackett, the Democrat, is an Iraq war veteran who is against the war and has criticized President Bush. Schmidt, the Republican, is president of Right to Life of Greater Cincinnati and while she reputedly has a steel trap memory for names and faces, can't seem to remember testifying before Tom Noe, the guy at the center of Ohio's Coingate scandal.

Swing State Project has been organizing the netroots. This is a heavily Republican district (Portman won his last election with 70% of the vote) so a win by Hackett would be big.

The race will be close, so hope that Diebold doesn't throw it to Schmidt.

We Need Spokesmen, Not Statesmen

This guy is exactly right. We need to be running candidates who can talk the talk.

Will Towle: 'We have to evolve or perish'

This one really smarts. At least in 2000 we understood what happened. Ultimately, that was an election decided by good old electoral fraud. We could get our head around that. Maybe Al Gore hadn't put together the best campaign, but millions more voted for Al and Ralph than "W." We may had lost courtesy of a crooked Supreme Court, but it was the type of loss that left you enraged and energized. Just like the Olde Towne Team, you thought "just wait 'til next time."

No such excuses this time. And assuming the whispers about Diebold rigging the election to not come to fruition, this one has left us demoralized and in despair.

Why is this one so hard? As leftists and specifically as Democrats, we believe the country shares our values. More people are registered as Democrats than Republicans. Poll after poll show that people share our values and issues far more than with the Republicans.

Here's his key argument:

We Must Start Running Spokesmen Not Statesmen.

What do Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush and Arnold Schwarzenegger all have in common? They are all successful Republican candidates who came to power despite having no discernable legislative or executive accomplishments. Each had a resume that was either thin (Reagan, Bush) or non-existent (Schwarzenegger). However, each one of them successfully portrayed an image of the values that he hoped to promote. Significantly, two of the three are professional actors. All were personally well received by your "average American" (the important which candidate would you like to have a beer with quotient). Each used this resonance with the voters to portray simplistic themes. Each dodged difficult answers to complex problems. Each became an executive controlled in large part by his handlers. But all achieved electoral success.

To call this a victory of style over substance is to under-estimate what the Republicans are doing. The foray into Iraq is part of a well thought out plan to annex the oil fields of the Middle East and to use the might of the US military to influence the world. Although all of this is explained in detail in the position papers of right wing think tanks, not a word of that analysis is expressed by their candidate to the press. Instead we got "this is the guy who tried to kill my dad" and "he has connections with terrorists." Again, vague statements by a popular spokesman that displayed the essence of the agenda without any of the details.

As Democrats, we adopt the polar opposite approach. We run candidates with long resumes. We explain our reasoning with detailed bullet points. We think facts demonstrate the policies we promote. John Kerry had a twenty year in the US Senate and a decorated combat career. These facts were supposed to project the image of well reasoned domestic and international policy tempered by the personal experience of combat.

It didn't. Instead, W pranced around in a military flight suit and projected the image of someone who supported the military during this time of war. The fact that W went AWOL and then deserted from his military unit during the Vietnam war went largely ignored. The fact of John Kerry's lifetime support of the military got lost in the shuffle of his statements on the Iraq war and the Swift Boat for Truth attacks. Arguably, Kerry blew the best visual of his campaign when he appeared with his Swift Boat comrades at the DNC convention looking out of place in his Senatorial blue suit. He should have donned combat fatigues and his old naval hat.

John Kerry's nuanced and thoughtful comments (which we Democrats loved so much) became so much background white noise to the important parts of the electorate that we needed to support us.

As Democrats we need to recognize the Presidency is a position that is more symbolic than substantive. The electorate does not want substantive candidates. They want candidates who demonstrate the imagery and symbolism that gives them comfort. In 2004, Kerry failed to demonstrate a strong image of being strong on defense. Bush, who factually does not support the troops, convinced most Americans that he symbolically embraced the troops. He therefore won this important part of the vote.

Republicans rely on the candidate's handlers to deliver on the substance of the image that candidate has promoted. In large part, even Reagan and Bush supporters admit to this. Did Reagan or does Bush understand the details of the policies he promotes? No, he doesn't. But he can recite the "talking points" and get the sound bite on the nightly news. Karl Rove then does the rest.

Does this mean we need to run Martin Sheen? Maybe it does. The fact that this seems crazy to you means that you, as a Democrat, have not absorbed what Reagan and Schwarzenegger have done. There are many image friendly Democrats who have the intelligence and fortitude to be good candidates. Many are already in politics but some will not be. I will leave that to the media savvy to tell me who projects the image we need. How about the Springsteen/Sheen ticket? Or the Obama/Oprah ticket? Let you imagination run wild here! To everyone who says I am crazy, I say one thing: AHN-ALD! AHN-ALD! A dopey Austrian born body builder turned action hero is governor of California. And you said it would never happen.

Random Thoughts about Politics

Here it is my first day blogging & I haven't figured out yet how to link to the Kerry contribution page. Any help out there?

Kerry must win November 4th. Even with Diebold and the Supremes and Karl (Revenge of Atwater) Rove and all that money lined up against us, I believe Kerry's going to win in a landslide. There's just no upside in Iraq that can be achieved by then. Bush got the war he wanted. Unfortunately for him, as his father knew, it's a quagmire. Guess he should have consulted the father downstairs.

June 30th, June Shmirtieth, ain't gonna make one bit of a difference. People take 30 days to close on a house, and that's a small transaction governed by rules and customs that have been refined for decades. And we're going to have an "entity" to "hand over" an entire, messed up country to on June 30th? You've got to be kidding me.

I take it back about Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI) for Attorney General. Not unless we have seats to spare in the Senate.

Another landslide prediction: Next Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting goes to Sy Hersh.

I burst into tears tonight watching the news. Film of children in Gaza, bloodied and limp, being carried to ambulances by frantic men. What is this going to solve?

If the media had not accepted their muzzling by the Bush Administration, public opinion would have turned against this war long ago. Film at 11 would change perceptions in weeks.

The slogans of the 60s keep running through my head. All we are saying, is give peace a chance. War is not healthy for children and other living things. What are we fighting for? I don't give a damn.

Signing off, maybe I'll be in a more optimistic mood tomorrow.