Enthusiastically Ambiverted Hopepunk
Politically, I’m very liberal — about as far left as one can go without sliding into Libertarianism.
Almost time for tonight’s Presidential debate, the last of this election season’s round. Will Bush actually look like a President? Or, more likely, will we get to see him stumble and fall yet again?
As before, I’ll be watching on C-SPAN, and will update this post with my usual random babbling after the debate’s done with.
Y’know what I’d like to see in tonight’s debate? I’d love it if the moderator had a “kill switch” for the candidate’s microphones, so if Bush tried to railroad a statement through (as he did in the last debate), the moderator could just turn him off.
Considering how he flew off the handle last time when the moderator was already planning on letting him have rebuttal time, can you imagine how furious he’d get if he was actually penalized for breaking the rules of the debate? I’d bet we’d see a real Presidential-quality tempertantrum if that happened. Heck, I’d pay good money to see that happen.
You might want to double-check your voter registration if you live in the Las Vegas area (and possibly somewhere in Oregon, also), as one RNC-funded organization has been destroying Democratic voter registration applications.
Employees of a private voter registration company allege that hundreds, perhaps thousands of voters who may think they are registered will be rudely surprised on election day. The company claims hundreds of registration forms were thrown in the trash.
Anyone who has recently registered or re-registered to vote outside a mall or grocery store or even government building may be affected.
The I-Team has obtained information about an alleged widespread pattern of potential registration fraud aimed at democrats. Thee focus of the story is a private registration company called Voters Outreach of America, AKA America Votes.
[…]
Two former workers say they personally witnessed company supervisors rip up and trash registration forms signed by Democrats.
“We caught her taking Democrats out of my pile, handed them to her assistant and he ripped them up right in front of us. I grabbed some of them out of the garbage and she tells her assisatnt to get those from me,” said Eric Russell, former Voters Outreach employee.
Eric Russell managed to retrieve a pile of shredded paperwork including signed voter registration forms, all from Democrats. We took them to the Clark County Election Department and confirmed that they had not, in fact, been filed with the county as required by law.
[…]
The company has been largely, if not entirely funded, by the Republican National Committee. Similar complaints have been received in Reno where the registrar has asked the FBI to investigate.
(via BOPNews)
Sean Bonner: “Imminent” Terrorist Attack?
I have a friend with a job that makes certain Police Department memos things he needs to take note of. This is the one he got this morning. I’ve known this person for a very long time and I’m vouching for it’s authenticity:
Subject: FW: Terrorist Attack on US Soil is Imminent Importance: High
LAW ENFORCEMENT SENSITIVE
At the meeting of the Southern District of the Anti-Terrorism Advisory Council (ATAC) that was held yesterday in Houston, US Attorney Michael Shelby informed the group that a terrorist attack of 09/11/01 proportions was going to be carried out on US soil within the next 6 weeks.
Mr. Shelby stated that on 09/13/04, US Attorney General John Ashcroft had a conference call with all 93 US Attorneys, an event which is extremely rare. The US Attorneys were informed that without a doubt an attack was going to be perpetrated in the US within the next 6 weeks, prior to the elections. Mr. Shelby urgently requested that all law enforcement be aware of any situation that may be out of the ordinary and report the activity immediately. Mr. Shelby also requested that we get the word out to patrol officers and detectives to talk to their informants and report anything odd or remotely suspicious. Mr. Shelby ended this warning by saying that unless we get a bit of “luck” and the attack can be detected and prevented, that another attack of 9/11 scale will be carried out.
Please disseminate to all of your law enforcement contacts ASAP.
New Mexico Investigative Support Center
Direct Line: 505-541-7000 Fax: 505-541-7006
John E. Vinson, Director
CNN: Sen. Dayton closes Capitol Hill office over terror worries
A Democratic senator said he will close his Capitol Hill office until after the November 2 election, fearing a possible terrorist attack that could harm his staff or visitors.
Sen. Mark Dayton of Minnesota issued a statement Tuesday, citing a “top-secret intelligence report on our national security” provided to congressional members by Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tennessee.
“Based upon that information,” Dayton wrote, “I have decided to close my office in the Russell Senate Office Building until after the upcoming election.
Cheery, no? Reality, or paranoia — who can tell, these days?
(both via Boing Boing)
”May All Your Dreams Be Wonderful“ by Biafra, Jello from the album No More Cocoons (1987, 10:39).
There’s no way that this comment won’t end up getting spun to ridiculous extremes, but as far as I’m concerned, this may be one of the most reasonable statements I’ve heard from Kerry yet.
When I asked Kerry what it would take for Americans to feel safe again, he displayed a much less apocalyptic worldview. “We have to get back to the place we were, where terrorists are not the focus of our lives, but they’re a nuisance,” Kerry said. “As a former law-enforcement person, I know we’re never going to end prostitution. We’re never going to end illegal gambling. But we’re going to reduce it, organized crime, to a level where it isn’t on the rise. It isn’t threatening people’s lives every day, and fundamentally, it’s something that you continue to fight, but it’s not threatening the fabric of your life.”
(via Salon)
Remember when Bush made the odd reference to the Dred Scott case during his answer to what kind of Supreme Court justice he’d appoint in the second debate? It didn’t seem to make a lot of sense, and had a lot of people confused. Looks like one of the diarists on Daily Kos may have stumbled upon the answer — it’s right-wing code for abortion.
The “Dred Scott” reference by Bush sent everyone at Atrios and other blog sites scrambling to historical tomes to figure out what on Earth Mr. Bush could mean, short of saying that he wouldn’t appoint pro-slavery judges.
Really, we should have just done a damn google search on the Internets.
Because it’s all there, plain as day. The Dred Scott reference is code language for abortion rights. Here’s how one anti-choice site describes it:
[…]
In short:
When Bush made reference to “Dred Scott” he was assuring his anti-choice constituents that he would indeed only appoint Supreme Court justices who would remove abortion rights.
It’s unmistakable, once you know the code words. There’s no other reason he said it, that damned fundamentalist fascist.
(via Lane)
“Breakdown on Paradise Boulevard” by Chaykin, Maury/Jarmusch, Jim/Stanton, Harry Dean from the album Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1995, 7:41).
The Presidential debate starts in about ten minutes. As before, I’ll be watching it on C-SPAN’s internet feed. Rambling, incoherent, stream of consciousness commentary to be posted once the debate is over with.
(via Atrios)
(from From Here to Obscurity, via Boing Boing)
Last night during the VP debates, I noted that Dick Cheney mentioned factcheck.com when responding to some of Edwards’ claims about Haliburton. I didn’t actually check out the site immediately post-debate, so I’m just now picking up on this funny little tidbit:
Cheney most likely meant to direct people to factcheck.org, from the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Public Policy Center.
He actually directed people to factcheck.com — which redirects to George Soros‘ website, where visitors are immediately greeted with a banner message proclaiming “Why we must not re-elect President Bush: A personal message from George Soros”, and a headline a little further down the page that says “President Bush is endagering our safety, hurting our vital interests, and undermining American values.”
[Update:]{.underline}
Here’s what FactCheck.org has to say about the flub:
Cheney got our domain name wrong — calling us “FactCheck.com” — and wrongly implied that we had rebutted allegations Edwards was making about what Cheney had done as chief executive officer of Halliburton.
In fact, we did post an article pointing out that Cheney hasn’t profited personally while in office from Halliburton’s Iraq contracts, as falsely implied by a Kerry TV ad. But Edwards was talking about Cheney’s responsibility for earlier Halliburton troubles. And in fact, Edwards was mostly right.
Go, Cheney, go! If only all Republicans could be this helpful.