If this past week had been a movie, you would have had Tommy Lee Jones leading a caravan of people and supplies into New Orleans.  And when they tried to stop him from entering the city, he would have said "So, shoot me" and then just walked past the armed guards leading the caravan to save the day.

But this past week has not been a movie.  It is all too real and horrifying, and no real hero has stepped up to save the day.  We have certainly had heroic moments.  Mayor Nagin.  Aaron Broussard.  Al Gore.  The Congressional Black Caucus.  

Yesterday we witnessed yet another horrific act of dictatorship as James Sensenbrenner cut off witnesses and abruptly ended the House Judiciary Committee hearing on the Patriot Act.

We have just spent the past week defending Howard Dean against other Democrats who feel that Dean's remarks about Republicans are inappropriate, divisive, yada, yada, yada....  These Dems are living in their own world.  Do they really think Republicans are interested in comity and bipartisanship?

This has to stop and we need bold action.  I think that the Democrats in the House and Senate should pick a day, and show up to all hearings and floor votes wearing duct tape over their mouths as a day of protest.  Then they should hold a joint press conference on the Capital steps explaining their action and asking all citizens to call the Republican leaders and demand fairness.  This might just generate some embarrassing publicity.

After watching the Bush/Blair press conference, it is evident that this daring duo has no tangible response to the Downing Street Minutes.   Their weak, transparent response can be boiled down into three points:

1. The DSM was written before they went to the UN, and since they went to the UN, they obviously had not decided to go to war.

2. Saddam Hussein brought it all on himself.  They did not want war, and would not have invaded if only Hussein had complied with UN resolution 1441.

3. The world is better off without Saddam in power.
   

We had a great victory in WA state today when the Judge dismissed Rossi's election challenge.

And when I say "we" I mean more than the people of WA state, more than Democrats... I mean the internet community that made it happen by raising money to pay for the hand recount that made this victory possible.

But we cannot rest on our laurels.  We have a unique opportunity here. By virtue of their lawsuit, the Republicans in WA state are calling for election reform. And the judge agreed, reform is in order. Elections must be open, fair and auditable.

The story goes like this:

After the Constitutional Convention, Benjamin Franklin was asked what type of government had been formed, and he replied "a Republic, if you can keep it".

Well, this coming Tuesday, Ben is likely to get his answer.  These are strange days indeed, as we wait to see if the final descent into one party rule is completed, or postponed (for now).  

In the words of John Lennon:

all i want is the truth
just give me some truth

On May 17, 2005, the world stood in amazement at the power of the truth.  While opinions of George Galloway vary, no one can deny the power of his statement to the Senate Subcommittee. I watched in awe and gratitude as Galloway had his say, my eyes wide open and my throat dry.  Finally, the truth - in simple, declarative sentences.

Now we stand on the brink of the so-called nuclear option in the Senate.  And, all we want is the truth, just give us some truth.

Help Wanted (Needed):  A political party willing to represent the 49% (see note below) of the American people who believe in the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, economic justice, freedom of religion, fair elections, equality, equal opportunity, due process, privacy, civil rights, civil liberties, environmental protection, freedom of the press, international law, and personal freedom (the real kind, not the "on the march" kind).

Qualifications:

The opposition political party must share these beliefs and stand up for them at all costs.  This party must be willing to use all available political, procedural and communication tactics  to support these beliefs and oppose any acts taken to destroy or damage said beliefs.

Today, the House passed a bill authorizing increased fines for "indecent" broadcasting.

From a Yahoo News Story:

Chafing over a "wardrobe malfunction" and racy radio shock-jock programs, the House overwhelmingly passed a bill Wednesday authorizing unprecedented fines for indecency.

The bill would increase the maximum fine from $32,500 to $500,000 for a company and from $11,000 to $500,000 for an individual entertainer.

"With passage of this legislation, I am confident that broadcasters will think twice about pushing the envelope," said Rep. Fred Upton (news, bio, voting record), R-Mich., chairman of the House telecommunications panel and author of the bill. "Our kids will be better off for it."

You've got to give the Republicans credit for one thing --- they fight, no matter how hypocritical and inconsistent their position may be:

From the Seattle Times:

"The Republican court challenge to Christine Gregoire's election as governor, expected to be filed today, will center on mishandled provisional ballots in King County and lingering questions about why the county shows more votes counted than people voting on Nov. 2.

That's Republican candidate Dino Rossi's best bet for getting a judge to overturn Gregoire's 129-vote victory, said former U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton. Gorton, an attorney who lost his Senate seat in a close 2000 race, is not part of Rossi's legal team but is a close adviser to the candidate and has been consulted about the imminent legal challenge.

"That will be the primary ground of any election contest," Gorton said yesterday. "And I've got to say I think it's not only a valid argument, but a compelling argument."

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002144016_gopsuit06m.html

The Jesse Jackson "Count the Votes" rally in Ohio is being broadcast via RadioLeft if anyone wants to listen in...

The link is here:

http://blog.radioleft.com/

The rally is going on until 3PM EST.  From the rally site:

Thousands of Ohio citizens had difficulty voting on November 2nd.  Despite thousands of complaints, a planned recount, statewide public hearings, several lawsuits, a Congressional  investigation and the outcry of voters rights groups, this fact has been dismissed or underreported by the mainstream media. Even Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell claimed the Ohio election was a huge success, saying, "We came through with flying colors." Washington Times, 11/04/04

We need thousands of people to attend the FIGHT FOR DEMOCRACY RALLY to draw attention to voter issues AND to support the Congressional probe of allegations of irregularities in the November 2nd presidential vote.

I know many here will disagree, and find this harsh, but I sent the following email to John Kerry today.  

"I read in the NY Times that Joe Lockhart and others want John Kerry to assume a leadership position in the Democratic Party, and he could use his e-mail list to build an organization like DFA.  Well, as Tony Soprano would say "forget about it".

Senator Kerry let us down.  He said he had our back, he said he would fight for us, he said he would make sure every vote counted.  He formed the GELAC fund and collected money for recounts and challenges.  He formed an army of lawyers, and had an army of volunteers who stood ready to fight for their country wherever needed. And then he walked away.

It is my understanding that Kerry has $51 million dollars in his GELAC (recount fund).  What happens to this money?  How will it be used politically?

It seems to me that anyone who gave money for the specific purpose of a recount should now question how this fund will be used?  At the very least, the money should be dedicated to any and all activities related to election reform.

Take at look at the DNC web site (democrats.org).  There is a single page with the John Kerry farewell letter.  No links, no positions, no rally the troops, nada.

The metaphor is clear, the DNC is no longer there for us.  No one is out there to dispel the "mandate myth".  No one is speaking out about the voting problems.

We need to fill this void and fast.  We have a clear issue to rally around - fair elections.  No matter how you feel about the Nov. 2 results, it is clear that there are problems with these black box machines, and youth voters and minorities were clearly victimized through challenges, registration fraud, long voting lines, and so on....

There are those who say "get over it", and there are those who say "how could Kerry concede"?  But one fact remains, our elections process is clearly broken.

Today, Greg Palast writes the following on TomPaine.com:

"Bush won Ohio by 136,483 votes. Typically in the United States, about 3 percent of votes cast are voided--known as "spoilage" in election jargon--because the ballots cast are inconclusive. Palast's investigation suggests that if Ohio's discarded ballots were counted, Kerry would have won the state. Today,  the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports  there are a total of 247,672 votes not counted in Ohio, if you add the 92,672 discarded votes plus the 155,000 provisional ballots."

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/kerry_won.php
Update [2004-11-4 17:6:43 by landrew]: Just a bit of levity for a serious situation. My husband just came up with this (ala the original Dragnet show): Dum De Dum Dum. The election you have just seen was stolen. The votes have been changed to protect the Administration.

How will we (the Democrats) ever ask minorities to vote again?

Greg Palast is on Air America now talking about "vote spoilage" in Ohio and New Mexico, where "Florida 2000" may have happened again.  Palast says that there may be hundreds of thousands of punchcards in Ohio in African American areas that have not been counted, let alone provisional ballots and absentees.  Similar problems exist in New Mexico.

Kerry said he would not let this happen again.  And then he concedes.  Why?  What harm could have come from a (10) day cooling off period?  The nation would not be at risk, the government will continue to operate, life will go on.  Ten days would give us some time to get organized and let issues rise to the surface.

Paul Krugman has an excellent piece in the NY Times today (as usual), laying out all the recent events showing that Republicans are trying to steal the election. Krugman writes:

"The important point to realize is that these abuses aren't aberrations. They're the inevitable result of a Republican Party culture in which dirty tricks that distort the vote are rewarded, not punished. It's a culture that will persist until voters - whose will still does count, if expressed strongly enough - hold that party accountable."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/15/opinion/15krugman.html?hp

Aside from all the potential voter registration and vote counting problems in Florida, the ballot itself could be a problem.

The Florida optical scan ballot is (2) pages long, both sides (translating into multiple screens on the electronic voting machine).  The Orange County ballot covers:

President
US Senator
US Representative
Public Defender
State Representative
Clerk of the Court
Sherrif
Tax Collector
Supervisor
(7) Justices of the Supreme Court
Soil & Water Conservation Supervisors (5 Groups)
(8) Constitutional Amendments
(6) County Charter Amendments

This is a very long and complicated ballot, and we need to consider the following:

1.  It will take a long time to vote, and there will be long lines on Nov. 2.  We have to worry about people leaving out of frustration and the need to extend polling hours.

2.  Long ballots lead to undervotes as people just get tired and bypass the down ballot issues and candidates.  This could lead to confusion as the electronic machines are supposed to ask the voter to confirm undervotes, and the optical scan machines are supposed to reject "undervote ballots" so the poll worker can confirm with the voter.  We don't want Jeb Bush to be able to use undervotes as an excuse to not recount ballots.  If you recall, undervotes were a big issue in 2000, and if all undervotes has been reviewed and counted, Gore would have won Florida.

All of this means one thing, if you live in Florida, vote early (starting on Oct. 18) or by mail.  This will give you the time to cover the ballot in entirety, and it will help keep the crowds down on Nov. 2.

In addition, it is probably a good idea to look at the ballots in all states to be prepared for Nov. 2 so you can vote quickly and keep the lines moving.

Perhaps we should take our fight with Sinclair to CBS.

As we all know, CBS (60 Minutes) was supposed to run a story on the Niger documents, and the related misuse of Iraq intelligence, but after the TANG documents debacle, they pulled that story.  Their excuse was that they did not want to run this type of story so close to the election.

Well, considering Sinclair's action, CBS can now run this story without fear of criticism.  After all, if Sinclair can run a smear and call it news, then CBS can actually run "news" and call it news.

I suggest we all contact CBS and demand that they reconsider their position and run the story as planned.