Dean for DNC chair?

Duncan (aka Atrios) is talking on his site about the possibility of Howard Dean being the new Democratic National Committee chair (i.e., the head of the Democratic party). He's asking folks their thoughts on this possibility - good thing, bad thing?

Curious what you guys think?

Also, do you think Dean could have won if he had been our nominee instead of Kerry? Read the rest of this post...

Early evening open thread

Laugh. Talk. Scream. Praise the Lord. Read the rest of this post...

Key county in Ohio refused to let media watch final vote tally

Cincinnati Enquirer:

Citing concerns about potential terrorism, Warren County officials locked down the county administration building on election night and blocked anyone from observing the vote count as the nation awaited Ohio's returns.

County officials say they took the action Tuesday night for homeland security, although state elections officials said they didn't know of any other Ohio county that closed off its elections board. Media organizations protested, saying it violated the law and the public's rights. The Warren results, delayed for hours because of long lines that extended voting past the scheduled close of polls, were part of the last tallies that helped clinch President Bush's re-election....

WCPO-TV (Channel 9) News Director Bob Morford said he's "never seen anything like it." When he first heard about Warren County's building restrictions, he said he understood concerns that too many people could make the counting process "a circus." But he said it's never been a problem in the past, and that the county could have set up a security checkpoint and had people show identification.

"Frankly, we consider that a red herring," Morford said of the county's "homeland security" reason. "That's something that's put up when you don't know what else to put up to keep us out."

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Why not just give the kids a lobotomy and a Bible and get it over with?

I'm sick of these people. I swear they haven't evolved one lick since the civil war. Read the rest of this post...

How do you cast more ballots in a county than voters registered?

Some folks have done an analysis of just one Ohio county's votes. What they found was that in numerous precincts the number of ballots cast was MORE THAN the number of voters registered. Which raises an obvious question. I've heard that In MN you can just walk in and register on the spot on election day. Anyone know how it works in Ohio? Allegedly, there were some 97,489 MORE votes cast in one county alone than those who were registered.

Anyone have the answer to whether this can occur legally? Read the rest of this post...

Jesse Helms Deep

I needed some comic relief, and someone had suggested the pic below, so I created it. And I'm a Christian, so I'm allowed to poke fun at my own. :-)

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Graveyard Fallujah

About Fallujah.

1. As you may know, we're attacking.

2. Rumsfeld said today that large numbers of civilians will not be killed by US forces. Really? How so? There are still, by some counts, 100,000 civilians left in the town of 200,000. How exactly are we going to avoid them this time when in every other engagement we've killed quite a lot of them?

3. We've apparently forced over 100,000 people to flee the town. 100,000 people. That's nice. Sure, it's a bit Israeli, if not downright Slobodan, but hey, as long as we keep saying we're the good guys, I'm sure those 100,000 people who had to flee their homes are singing the praises of red states right about now.

The only saving grace is that this is now George Bush's quagmire to deal with, and not John Kerry's. Bush may get to serve in "Vietnam" yet. Read the rest of this post...

[Insert caption here]

I liked Rob's photo so much, I'm posting it again. Please insert your own caption. I'll start:


I died on the cross for this? Read the rest of this post...

Ballot issues?

With so many of us disturbed at the rumors of problems with the voting machines and the ties to the GOP, maybe it's time we think about formulating some ballot issues that would help us pull the crowds and also pull in new votes. After 2000 any reasonable person would have seen the need to overhaul a damaged system but we are not dealing with reasonable people. We're dealing with people who saw this as an opportunity to make more money for their donors. The GOP does not want to give up any power and we shouldn't expect them to do anything to help us out besides make jokes about us all needing tin foil hats. Why not make the voting machines, the lack of paper trails, the irregularities, etc. an issue for 2006 to ignite our faithful?

One of the bright spots last week was the stem-cell research ballot issue out in California and I would not mind seeing that pop up elsewhere. What other issues should we be looking at that will draw the masses and work against GOP candidates?
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Mood of the nation

I've seen a lot in the media for the last couple of days about how Blue States demean Red States. Well, this might be why:

This is an image from the Baltimore Sun's article on Sunday about faith in America. This image is from a Church in Ohio. Might one think that there were poor, unemployed or underemployed, who might have taken more benefit from the money spent on this statue? Money spent instead to feed children? Money instead spent on training unemployed workers? Would that not have been the Christian thing to do AND the rational action to take?

Here's a quote from the article. Rational thought not really in the mood of the nation right now:

"But when it comes down to it, millions upon millions have died from abortion and only thousands have died in Iraq, as horrific as that's been," he said. "There's been beheadings in Iraq, yet there are beheadings taking place right inside a mother's womb."

I want to stay and fight, but if you don't have a rational basis for a discussion, i.e. you're a believer or a non-believer, what am I fighting for?

Don't misunderstand, I'm not critical of individually held beliefs. What I believe is at work right now is not individual beliefs, but rather a belief that a single interpretation of biblical teachings trumps all. Rational thought, gone. Logic, gone.

What am I fighting for? Read the rest of this post...

I have a question

And I'm serious. I want an honest answer, not just hyperbole. If you had the power to join all the blue states together and secede from the Union, would you? Read the rest of this post...

Staying out of red states

All of a sudden San Franciscans aren't sounding out of the mainstream.

Peace and tolerance have long been the words to live by in San Francisco, known for its large gay community, broad ethnic mix and frequent anti-war protests. But days after the election, many residents said they were so worried about an erosion of civil rights, environmental standards and the escalating violence in the Middle East, that they did not know how they could tolerate the Bush administration, or Americans who voted to re-elect him.

"I have family in Idaho, but I told my wife we're not going to visit them now. It's all Republicans there," said Ron Schmidt, a public relations executive. "We have family in Indiana and I don't want to go there either."

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Halliburton "may have" bribed Nigerian officials to the tune of $180M

So now we are going from complete denial to a possible bribe. Interesting how $180M could just go missing without anyone recognizing it had disappeared. Employees of Kellogg Brown & Root, both current and former, will be sent subpoenas. If this case was only being followed in the US we would have watched this one get swept under the carpet much like the case against W years ago. In this instance though, French and UK courts are on the case so it is tougher to ignore. No wonder Bush has been so close to Obasanjo at world summits. If Halliburton loses, remember that bribery is a federal offense and it could involve jail time.
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Consumer confidence down, lower than 1 year ago

Optimism with the Bush election? Hardly. The numbers still tell a tale of decline and the outlook looks bad. It's going to keep coming back to the basics of increasing costs for regular Americans, more jobs cuts, growing deficit, and a black hole of spending in Iraq.
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Dollar hits a new all time low, gold reaches 16 year high

Whatever "political capital" Bush thinks he has, it sure isn't going to pay the bills not is it impressing financial markets. Uh oh, reality based folks are striking back. The war (combined with tax cuts and expensive programs) will be a major drag on economic recovery so our friends in the Democratic Party better figure out soon how to quit wringing their hands and sucking up to Bush because the party can only last for so long before the troublesome realities of being a war president kick in.
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