Shots Across the Bow

Some on the left aren't going to take this defeat sitting down. They have a plan.
From Talk Left:

Statistics from the Department of Justice show that 3.9 million felons are currently or permanently disenfranchised. That's a lot of potential votes--enough to affect the outcome of an election.

So what if he committed murder-rape? He is still entitled to a say in our government, right?

Wrong! Any society functions according to a social contract. We agree to be bound by certain rules of conduct in order to enjoy the benefits of association. We codify these rules of conduct into laws, and grant part of the society the right to enforce those laws. Those who fail to keep their end of the compact, ie obey the laws, forfeit their right to participate in the shaping of that society.

McAuliffe, Carville, Gore, Ms. Rodham-Clinton and the big man himself are all done. Hillary! may hang on to her Senate seat, but her national aspirations are history. Al Gore is now just a footnote to history, as are all Veeps who don't go on to win the Presidency.
The Democratic Party is reeling from the rejection they faced at the polls. The election that was supposed to erase the 2000 race instead confirmed it. Getting rid of Jeb Bush was "priority one," according to Terry McAuliffe; Jeb won easily. Taking back the House was target two; the Republicans picked up seats. Defending the Senate was considered a foregone conclusion; now it's just gone. I went back to the Democratic Underground website to see how they were taking it. Apparently not too well. This was what I found:

Due to the massive influx of people this morning, we are experiencing serious problems with server overload.
The forums were shut down at 11:00AM ET. Feel free to check back every half hour or so. But please don't hit the
"refresh" button on your Web browser every 5 seconds, or we'll never come back online.
Sorry for the inconvenience.

Use the free time to do something constructive. It's not healty to sit inside stewing over last night's loss.
Go for a walk outside. Or call an old friend. It will make you feel better.

For only the 3rd time since the War Between the States, the party of the sitting president has picked up seats in both the House and the Senate during a mid term election. For the first time in 50 years, Republicans hold both the Executive and Legislative branches of our government. While Democrats are screaming bloody murder, this is actually the best thing for the country. Bush finally gets the chance to put his agenda before Congress, which is basically split 50-50. This means that nothing too extreme will pass, as there are plenty of moderate Republicans who will vote across party lines if they see fit. The chief advantage is that Democrats can no longer keep things bottled up in committee. Judicial nominations should come through fast and furious, allowing the full Senate to vote. Extreme candidates will still face an uphill battle, but moderate choices should get approval.

VNS declared that their exit polling data was unreliable. Tell me something I didn't already know.

James Carville put a trash can on his head during CNN's Crossfire. He said that Democrats needed to run on the issues. Oddly enough, Rush Limbaugh on NBC said virtually the same thing, that the Democrats failed to offer the people a reason to vote for them.

In a related story, hell froze over.

New Jersey Democrats have announced that from now on, they will not name a candidate until 3 weeks before the election, in keeping with the New Jersey Supreme Court's ruling that voter choice should be maximized.

Jim Jeffords held a press conference today, announcing that he is rejoining the Republican Party. The RNC held a follow up conference, announcing that Jim Jeffords can go soak his head. Jeffords held a second conference, announcing that he would join the Democratic Party, and that would show those mean Republicans. The DNC held a final press conference, thanking Jeffords for his help, but "Don't call us; we'll call you."

In Florida, Jeb Bush won a second term as governor, despite heavy campaigning by Bill Clinton and Al Gore. Or maybe because of it.

In Tenneseee, Phil Bredesen defeated Don Sundquist for governor. Van Hilleary also ran.

Also in Tennessee, a constitutional amendment allowing a lottery passed, despite energetic opposition by several religous groups. The amendment also allows non-profit groups to hold raffles for fundraising purposes. The coalition of lottery opponents immediately announced a fund raising raffle designed to raise funds to defeat any pro-lottery legislation.

A collection of stories about glitches in the electoral process:
From Drudge:

Systematic problem statewide in Georgia confirmed: When placing vote, and touching the screen for a Republican candidate, the box is incorrectly checked for the Democrat candidate. Another similar situation is occurring when the review screen comes up and previously marked Republican votes are showing as Democrat votes... is happening in lots of different races, to both parties. Officials fixing problems as they arise when made aware of them... Developing...

and this:

FLORIDA TALKSHOW CALLERS CLAIM MACHINES 'BROKEN', VOTED FOR MCBRIDE, MARKED IT AS BUSH

"I voted for McBride, but the machine counted it as Bush. It did this three times. The polling worker finally said, 'We have to reprogram this machine. Another person was having the same trouble while I was there.'"

So claimed a caller to Southern Florida's WQAM-AM and the highly-rated radio talkmatch, NEIL ROGERS SHOW.

"I pushed the screen for McBride and it marked Bush. They called over a technician, he reset it," claimed a second caller.

"I'll tell you right now, this election is fixed!" roared Rogers, who has been in the Miami-Ft. Lauderdale market for more than 25 years. "Based on a few early calls, it is going to be a wild, wild time."

"You have not seen anything yet," warned Rogers. "It's not even 10:30 in the morning. This is going to be one of the great disasters of all-time."

From the Washington Post:

As residents of Maryland, Virginia and the District cast their votes in several closely watched races, technical problems plagued some precincts in Montgomery County, Md.

Montgomery residents using the new electronic touch-screen voting machines at all 30 precincts in legislative District 19 saw the word "Democratic" in the header of the ballots, according to Sara Harris, deputy director of the Montgomery County Board of Elections.
....
Another elections official, Marjorie Roher, said the step was taken "to preserve the integrity of the votes and to inform voters about what happened."

The notices state: "The ballot is correct and your vote will count. This ballot contains all candidates and questions. However, the heading on the instruction page contains the word "Democratic." This word should not have appeared on the instruction page and this line should have been blank."

from WOKV:

Among those precincts affected was the Mary Singleton Senior Center, the precinct that had the most trouble on Primary Day. Corrine Brown, congressional candidate, was outraged at the problems at the polls and told WOKV NEWS that she was aware of a similar problem at precinct 10J. Both of those polls are in heavily African-American precincts, and she wondered why those precints seem to have the most problems.

Reports from around the city suggest the problem is more widespread than just those precincts, we received similar reports from at least four other polling sites, including one in Clay county, though we understand all machines are now online and processing ballots.

From Boston.com:

Republican Mitt Romney's campaign filed a complaint several hours after polls opened Tuesday, saying union workers were improperly influencing voters in the city's Jamaica Plain section.

Romney campaign adviser Rob Gray said officials with the Service Employees International Union were seen entering voting booths with some voters in Ward 11, Precinct 4 of Jamaica Plain.

from Fox:

Three central Florida counties reported problems with optical scanners. Machines malfunctioned at a South Miami precinct. An electrician was called to a Broward County precinct running on battery power, where voters were reportedly putting their ballots in a box to be hand-counted.

Some who showed up to vote drove off before a precinct in the Orlando suburb of Winter Park, Fla., finally opened 20 minutes late.

Once the poll opened, some voters said they had trouble feeding the optical scan ballots through the machines -- and some English-speaking voters said they were given Spanish-language ballots.

In Cherry Hill, N.J., a computer glitch caused voting machines to malfunction in about three-quarters of the township's 46 voting districts. Some voters had to use paper ballots while repairs got under way

And the beat goes on....

You know, the dudes at the Democratic Underground want us to go pack to paper and pencil ballots, as if voter error and fraud were invented with the voting machine. By that logic, the way to reduce traffic fatalities is to go back to the horse and buggy.

I was curious. I wanted to know what the hard line democrats would have to say about the killing of Al Qaeda members in Yemen, so I went to the Democratic Underground forums, the habitat of choice for the fringe left. Not too surprisingly, I hit the mother load.

Here's a sampling:

• Is this now our MO to use unmanned drones to bomb anywhere at anytime? What kind of international law does this violate? Are we proud of this? What a sterile way to have a war. That way we don't even have to see the innocent people we kill.
  
• We should've arrested these people and sent them to the UN High Court if they were truly terrorists.
  
  It is time we get in line and stop pretending that we can decide what is right and wrong. The rest of the World is doing it...why cant we meet them.
  
  Because of some document written two hundred F*ckin years ago? Please. This is either a planet of progressive laws that we all submit to and support or it is chaos. I choose the former.
  
  I am ashamed to be called an American today.

(I'm also ashamed that you're called an American.)

• If you make of notice that document
  of which you make speaking of makes not such an authorization. We have in fact of such no war declaration in Yemen. This is of such meaning then that it is of rogue actions by Bush from outside of such the Constitution. If indeed these dead are of to be suspect then capture and trial is of course proper. But making for discard of Constitution is not of such that it is right because our own within American Constitution makes for not this act. Evil makes for this act. It is such of like Bush and evil in that there are making no trials for these men. Please make for no blaming of Constitution.

What?

• My guess is that this was a blown mass murder. With no evidense of military or political position, we have slaughtered undefended civilians. Credible witnesses must have blown the hit. If there was no attempt to detain, there should be murder charges.
  This reflects a high degree of racism on our part. Aribic people are human.
  Those of you giving approval to this must not be thinking of attending an "illigal" anti war rally. Well, you're probably okay if you're white.
  
• So you think...
  ...that the timing of this is just coincidental? The night before an election?
  These guys didnt jump in a car until now?
  
  Bullsh*t! If they were criminals they should've been arrested. Not blown away with a damned missile.
  

I was wondering how long it would take for this charge to appear. Shades of Clinton's cruise missile attack.

• Who gives a f*&@, eh? After all, they were suspects! No evidence is needed nowadays. Besides, they were brown skinned. Everyone knows that brown skinned people are savages. If they weren't guilty, they would surely someday be! Now stop ypur liberal whining! We have a master race to create! Plus, history has proven that the CIA are above suspicion! They are clean cut, All American patriots! They would never do anything so insidious as eliminating loose strings that could come back to unravel their web of lies. Never!
  Oh say does that star spangled hit man yet inform on his neighbors?
  
  O'er the land of the enslaved, and the home of the cowardly state police apologists.
  

This from the Washington Times

Mr. McBride's 36-hour weekend sweep of southeast Florida with former President Bill Clinton over the weekend drew lower-than-expected crowds.
Still, Mr. McBride yesterday promised his supporters a victory if turnout is sufficient.
"If we get the vote out, we'll win this election," he said at an Opa-locka rally alongside former Vice President Al Gore.

Tell that to Mr Gore....

SKBubba has the latest polling data on the Tennessee races.
He always gets the best info....

Jesse Ventura appointed an Independant to fill Sen. Wellstone's seat in the Senate until the elections are over, which brings the Senate back to a tie; 49-49-2.
Of course, the Democrats still control all the committees, so I don't expect anything to get done, particularly in the area of judicial appointments, which is too bad.

Jesse Ventura may nominate an Independant to fill Paul Wellstones seat until after the elections.

Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura was so offended by the political rally that evolved out of a memorial service to honor Wellstone that he said he will try to appoint an independent instead of a Democrat to fill out Wellstone's term until a replacement is certified.

"I feel used. I feel violated and duped over the fact that that turned into nothing more than a political rally ... I think the Democrats should hang their heads in shame," Ventura told Fox News on Wednesday.

Of course, the organizers claim it was an accident that the memorial turned into a political rally, but the state Republican party is now asking for equal time.
Here's a nice bit of p[olitical hypocrisy to add to the mix:

Polls appearing in Wednesday's Minneapolis Star Tribune showed Mondale leading Coleman 47 percent to 39 percent, a wider margin than separated Wellstone and Mondale. The poll of 639 adults conducted on Monday, the same day Republicans conducted an internal poll that was criticized by Democrats as callous, found that 98 percent of Minnesotans recognized Mondale's name and 66 percent had a favorable image of him, including several Republicans surveyed. [Emphasis mine]

Of course, it goes without saying that the legal wrangling over absentee ballots will carry on long past election day.

I don't know how the race will turn out. It depends on how long the sympathy bounce lasts.

No comment needed:

Futurama returns November 10, with former Vice President Al Gore appearing in cartoon form as a preserved head in a jar.

According to this story, the economy grew at 3.1% in the third quarter, pushed by strong consumer spending. This is good news, right?
Not according to this story. The bulk of the column continues to ptell how bad things are, and that they are going to get worse. Let's see, unemployment is around 6%, and the economy is growing at about 2%. Yep, times sure are tough!
The article also brings up this piece of garbage:

Democrats, however, point to the tax cut as a key reason why the federal government posted a $159 billion deficit in the 2002 fiscal year, ending four straight years of surpluses.

The war on terror and Sept 11 had absolutely nothing to do with that, right?
Another quick question: If we had four years of surpluses, how come the National debt kept going up? Does Arthur Andersen do the government's accounting?

The US drafted resolkution on Iraq is running into a stone wall in the UN Security Council.

The three veto-holding Security Council members want to ensure that Iraq is given a chance to cooperate with U.N. weapons inspectors before any military action is authorized — and they're now waiting to see what the United States and Britain are going to do to address their concerns.


After a third meeting council session Wednesday on the U.S. proposal, Russia's deputy U.N. ambassador Gennady Gatilov said Moscow still has "quite a number of problems" with the U.S. draft, centered on the automatic authorization to use force.

I keep hearing people ask us to justify going to war with Iraq. When we point out that Iraq is in violation of the cease fire accords, these people dismiss that as irrelevant, and ask for further justification. In thier minds, since Iraq has ignored the resolutions for so long, they must be null and void. In fact, some members of the coucil object to the fact that the US brings up the old resolutionsin the text of the new. I guess they don't like being reminded of their own spinelessness.
The UN, by their own actions, are proving their irrelevance. What good is a resolution when you've demonstrated repeatedly that you don't have the will to back it up?

From the mail bag (she hates it when I call her that):
Teaching Math in 1950: A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price. What is his profit?

Teaching Math in 1960: A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price, or $80. What is his profit?

Teaching Math in 1970: A logger exchanges a set "L" of lumber for a set "M" of money. The cardinality of set "M" is 100. Each element is worth one dollar. Make 100 dots representing the elements of the set "M." The set "C", the cost of production contains 20 fewer points than set "M." Represent the set "C" as a subset of set "M" and answer the following question: What is the cardinality of the set "P" of profits?

Teaching Math in 1980: A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is $80 and his profit is $20. Your assignment:
Underline the number 20.

Teaching Math in 1990: By cutting down beautiful forest trees, the logger makes $20. What do you think of this way of making a living?
Topic for class participation after answering the question: How did the forest birds and squirrels feel as the logger cut down the trees?
There are no wrong answers.

Teaching Math in 2000: A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is $120. How does Arthur Andersen determine
that his profit margin is $60?

Teaching Math in 2010: El hachero vende un camion carga por $100. La cuesta de production es...

The early voting period is a great convenience for me. Between my wrok schedule (doubles every Tuesday) and my commute (from Sevierville to Johnson City) the chances of my being able to vote on election day are roughly the same as John J Hooker's chances of being elected governor. Or Senator.

Yep, he's on the ballot twice.

Anyway, even though I already voted, I'm still following the elections, particularly the commercials. Last night I saw a couple of Phil Bredesen's latest ads, and I have to wonder: Is he running against Van Hilleary or Don Sundquist? The tag line on his latest ads goes something like "After 8 years of Don Sundquist, we can't afford Van Hilleary."
Now, if Hilleary had been Sundquist's right hand man over the last eight years, then I could see the comparison. Or if Hilleary had been a vocal supported of Sundquist, then too, the comparison would be apt. But Hilleary has been an extremely vocal opponent of the centerpiece of the last four years of the Sundquist administration: the income tax. In fact, it would be difficult to find a person in the legislature more adamantly opposed to the governor's agenda.

Ah well, all's fair in love and war, and even more so in politics.

Check out this story in the WSJ Opinion Journal:

The progressive citizens of Wisconsin have reason to worry that Chicago-style vote-buying is creeping north from Illinois. The NBC affiliate in Milwaukee has just filmed Democratic campaign workers handing out small amounts of money and free food to residents at a home for the mentally ill in Kenosha after which the patients were shepherded into a separate room and given absentee ballots. One of the Democratic Party workers fled when she saw the NBC camera. The local district attorney is investigating.

Continuing:

Robert Jambois, the Kenosha County District Attorney, says the case is a headache for him because he has endorsed Jim Doyle, the Democratic candidate for governor, and because the Democratic worker who fled the scene was an intern in his own office. He will decide later if he needs to recuse himself.

That should be a pretty easy decision.

Bribing developmentally disabled folks to vote democratic.
Buying cigarettes for the homeless to get them to vote democratic.
Scamming votes in the old folks home.

Are the Democrats that desperate? Shouldn't they be able to win elections based on the merits of their platform?

I guess I'm just too naive.