Misc Election related links

Government Accountability Office to Conduct Investigation of 2004 Election Irregularities

A Voters Bill of Rights? Good idea.

Jesse Jackson on election reform.

Are We Winning, Yet?

Yes, I know I said I was going to talk about a variety of things here, but I'm current obsessed with politics and the war, so indulge me a bit longer. I tried to put this cost of war counter in here, but Blogger didn't seem to like the javascript very much. Then when I just embedded an itty bitty counter it turned out to not be so itty bitty. So click the link, baby.

Also, Kevin Sites is the NBC journalist that is "embedded" with the troops that are currently in Falluja and he has a blog. He's the reporter than happened to be there, with cameras rolling, during the shooting in the Mosque over the weekend.

Isn't it interesting how the Republican party is switching the focus of DeLay's ethics investigation to the DA who is investigating the alledged violations by turning their propaganda machine...I mean Fox News.... against Ronnie Earle, the Texas DA investigating the case? Fox spit out their story and everyone else picks it up as fact. I guess if it's good enough for Fox, it's good enough for the rest of them. Sheesh.

Earle has prosecuted 15 politicians throughout his career. Eleven of them happened to be Democrats. I don't know about you, but that doesn't sound like a witch hunt to me.

I really didn't intend to come here to talk about the governor. It just happened somehow.

I was going to share this little Talk of the Town column about Social Security by James Surowiecki of the New Yorker.

By advocating greater freedom and independence, while failing to explain or account for the greater risk, Bush is setting Americans up for an unpleasant surprise. If his plans are implemented, a lot of people are going to end up a lot poorer in their old age than they otherwise would have been. (A lot of people will end up a lot richer, too.) The result would be Social Security without the security part. Freedom of choice is a beautiful thing. But the Bush plan is asking you to swap an insurance policy for a lottery ticket.

...Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose.

I see I'm not alone in my assessment that Arnold ain't no moderate. I love it when I find people who agree with me. I writing, no less.

Plus I can't believe we paid $84,000 for his Sacramento hotel bill. Fercryinoutloud.

Alterman on the media.

I was glad to see Maureen Dowd talked about the congratulatory letter letter sent to Bush by Bob Jones III. Nice Christian friends ya got there, George. Personally, Bono is more my type.

Thus endeth today's sermon. Go in peace.

I posted those maps because they reminded me once again how the media seems to be hell bent on making the United States a stupider place. Red states and blue states. Us and Them. It's so polarizing, divisive, and fundementally wrong. They're being intellectually dishonest and feeding people complete garbage. Most of the U.S. is actually purple, but to hear the news you'd think the red and the blue are two different countries.

The news media would rather spoon feed the masses something simple, then to delve three inches deeper and actually tell the truth. I'm just sick of how everything is dumbed down to the lowest common denominator. Frankly, the more I think about it the angrier I get about the role of the media in today's poltics. I am certain there have always been dirty, ugly politics but now we have this 24 hour, entertainment driven news media. It's about ratings and money and being first. They lend legitimacy to obviously ludicrous campaign nonesense and people buy it. They should be ashamed. Let Fox News be ridiculous alone.

It just shocks me to see a nothing story like the discredited Swift Boaters turned into a major issue. And in the tradition of my dear departed grandma, people seem to think "if the news gives it space, it must be true." WEll, that's being slightly generous....grandma really said, "they wouldn't say it if it weren't true!"

I wonder when the media will start asking the obvious questions again. About a year ago, I was wondering why they accept a banana republic dictator style photo op wtihout questioning why the civilian leader of this country was dressed up as if he were some kind of war hero...and what did that cost and who paid for it? Those seemed like obvious questions to me, but it was treated as if he was honestly announcing the end of the war. I didn't see anything media related get much better over the course of the year.

Anyway, the more I mull over the situation, the more I blame the media for distracting people from the truth and not fulfilling the obligations required of a truly free press. The consolidation of media sources under these huge corporate umbrellas has critically wounded the whole concept behind freedom of the press. I hope there are still journalists of integrity who are ashamed at the path the news media has taken. Quit talking to people like they're stupid, and maybe they'll end up less ignorant.

I'm just going to stick this set of maps here for now. I'll be back later.

On the same note as the Harpers article, there's a story on the same subject at Yahoo today. This whole subject just frosts my cookies. It's enough to make you think that someone isn't telling the whole truth about the motivation for going into Iraq!

I think this is an interesting map at the NY Times. No wonder those of us in The Big City were so shocked as it because increasingly obvious that GWB was going to win that election. He was hugely popular in a number of large cities. We were surrounded by his popularity. Speaking of the NY Times, read Krugman...the man has a lot of foresight, and he's not afraid to use it. And ok, fine...If I'm going to continue in this poltical vein, I think everyone should read this Harpers article entitled Baghdad Year Zero by Naomi Klein. I think it explains, in part, how we destroyed our credibility there.

A friend said:

I keep reminding myself that our government has survived other profound mediocrities who were president.

He's not mediocre. He's not that good. And the world is more complicated and more dangerous than it was during any previous mediocre (or less) administration. I am very worried about many things. Iraq is a debacle. The "War on Terror" and Afghanistan are a disgrace. America has made many new enemies. The economy is going to tank. He cranking up the debt and the deficit to crowd out social programs. He's going to attempt to "privatize" Social Security (iow, destroy) which would further destabilize the economy. He's going to continue his assault on the progressive tax structure. He's said he's working toward the idea that the only thing taxed is income. Just tax the wage slaves. I'll be at least mildly surprised if if the draft isn't reinstated to support the "Bush Doctrine". He's going to continue to violate human rights and civil rights. He will continue to blur the lines between church and state.

Anyone who thinks Bush is just a moron fumbling through his terms in office is underestimating this administration. He has a plan, and the plan is the problem. His plan is unyielding and will not adapt to any changing circumstances because it is ideologically driven. As for Iraq, we trashed their economy in order to rebuild some kind of neo conservative economic laboratory. The experiment is a failure. We destroyed the opportunity to minimize the damage in that misguided, immoral war.

The Democratic party does not need to cater to religious extremists, but they DO need to more clearly acknowledge the importance of religion in this country while respecting the Bill of Rights and the basic foundations and freedom of this nation. Hello? Why don't they understand that? They need to SAY it. They leave so much unsaid. There are spiritual and religious people of all stripes that are moral and good and patriotic AND liberal. They COULD try to speak to them. They also need to stand up proudly as liberals and redefine liberalism. They've let the Republicans define us. For the term of this administration the Democrats need to stand up to Bush's policies that they all ran against all throughout this election. Keep telling the truth. Force the truth out into the public. Ram it down the throat of the media. Remind people of the patriotism that can be found in dissent. Stop rolling over for every moronic policy in order to get along or appear patriotic or because you're scared of losing an election. Do the right thing. Be a viable alternative.

David Corn at the Nation said, "The only good news is that the final tally--51 to 48 percent--demonstrates that there remains a great split in America. Praise that divide and prepare for the worst." That's my plan. Praise the divide, prepare for the worst, be part of the solution.

I just wanted to say my piece because I don't think Democrats, progressives and liberals should throw in the towel in disappointment on this. This wasn't just any old election. I moved through shock, disbelief, disillusionment, anger, acceptance and then landed right into knowing that I am not going to sit idlely by while people are hurt and my country is being upended by radicals who don't respect the foundations and the institutions of this country. MY sense of ethics and morals and spirituality is offended by this administration. My sense of what's good and right is just fine thank you. The right does NOT have a lock on morality. They've gotten pretty good at sanctimony, but they don't have a lock on morality.