2006 Mid-Term Elections

[kmc]

So true.

[shin]

I agree. Only the most mentally deranged and criminally insane of Republicans can possibly advance to be noimated for President here in the 21st century.

[sisyphus]

shin said:

There are 4 political signs on my block. Two are for Jim Matheson, the current Democrat representative for Utah's second district, one for Pete Ashdown, a democrat running against Orrin Hatch, and LaVar Christensen, a Republican running for Matheson's seat. Yes, it's only my block and it's only 4 houses that are broadcasting their views, but I wasn't expecting 75% visible support for Democrats anywhere in suburban Utah. Something to consider.

with the exception of a few small arty outpost towns in utah, salt lake is the only city with a democratic majority and a democrat for a mayor: rocky anderson. if he ran for president, i'd vote for him... he's done a great job.

[phil]

Republicans are damaging the republic

Questionable tactics in the midterms weaken the foundations of US democracy, writes Philip James

Friday October 20, 2006
Guardian Unlimited


Racked with scandal, cowed by voter dissatisfaction and bereft of fresh ideas, Republicans are resorting to the only measure left to a party in power and desperate to cling to it: cheating, or what's more politely referred to as voter suppression.

Republican interest groups have been furiously defending strict new voter ID laws from legal challenges in states where their candidates are at risk of losing their seats in congressional elections.

The laws, requiring voters to show an official photo ID, might be sensible in an ideal world where every citizen is provided with one, but in the real world the only photo ID commonly available is a driving licence.

Those without, otherwise known as the poor and the old, make up a sizeable chunk of the Democratic base, and Republicans are determined to place as many obstacles as they can between them and a polling booth this November.

Republican-led legislatures in Arizona, Georgia, Missouri, Florida and Indiana pushed through photo ID laws in time for what the party knew would be a close election. In the first three cases the law has been put on hold by eleventh-hour legal challenges, but not before inflicting significant damage on the principle of universal suffrage.

In Arizona an appeals court placed a temporary injunction on the new ID law this month, one day before the deadline to register for the vote, but only after tens of thousands of applications to register had been turned down while the law was in effect.

Missouri's ID law was stopped by the state supreme court last Monday, one week after the deadline to register, and long after many thousands of non-car-owning Missourians had been deterred from their right to vote.

Georgia's Supreme Court ruled the state's version of the ID law unconstitutional after hearing that well over half a million of the state's previously eligible voters didn't have a driving licence.

Even after this decision Republican state election officials mistakenly or maliciously sent out more than 200,000 letters informing voters that they would in fact need a driving licence to vote. This week a mass mailing reversing the previous missive arrived on people's doorsteps, only adding to voter confusion.

Indiana's Republican Secretary of State has successfully beaten back legal challenges to his new voter photo ID law, the absurdity of which was recently illustrated by Congresswoman Julia Carson as she tried to vote. The five-term Democrat was initially prevented from casting her ballot in May's primary election in which she was a candidate, because her Congressional photo ID lacked the expiration date needed to make it an acceptable proof of identity under the new law.

Florida, the patron state of disenfranchisement in recent history, is the only other state where a photo ID is mandatory to vote. An additional measure imposing exorbitant fines on voter registration groups who miss filing deadlines was recently overturned in court, but not before Florida's League of Women suspended their drive to register voters for fear of bankruptcy.

In California, Republicans are resorting to even more questionable means to deter likely Democratic voters. Orange County Republican Tan Nguyen is under investigation for financing a mass mailing in Spanish to Latino US citizens which stated mendaciously: "You are advised that if ... you are an immigrant, voting in a federal election is a crime that could result in jail time." US citizens, wherever they are born, are indeed entitled to vote.

The desperate lengths to which Republicans are prepared to go are a measure of their fear this election cycle. They've even stooped to exploiting natural disasters. Hurricane Katrina displaced half a million low-income residents of New Orleans, and most moved out of Louisiana into Texas.

Both states, where Republicans run the electoral machines, have been slow as molasses in ensuring this massive transient population the right to vote either in their new abode or back home by absentee ballot.

The Republicans' manoeuvres, legal or otherwise, will probably not be enough to stem the tide sweeping the House of Representatives back to Democratic control in November. The best they can hope for is to minimise the damage. They've spent the last decade obsessively remapping congressional districts to filter out Democrats, and their efforts are the reason only 50 seats are in play this year instead of 150.

Under the grand design of now-indicted Tom Delay, the former Republican leader in the House, redistricting was intended to create an impregnable fortress guaranteeing a permanent Republican majority in the House. But like any building, a fortress is only as strong as its base, which this year appears to be disintegrating.

· Philip James is a former Democratic party strategist

[maarts]

Seems like whatever party is in charge they tend to get obsessive, desperate and in permanent damage control, losing their support base over time and secceeding power to the other mob. Like the tide as predictable.
Have fun though choosing between Mr. Nobody and Mr. Completely Nobody!

[phil]

[phil]

[phil]

First one ...

[rockysigman]

Kevin Tillman wants you to vote Democrat...

After Pat’s Birthday
By Kevin Tillman

{Editor’s note: Kevin Tillman joined the Army with his brother Pat in 2002, and they served together in Iraq and Afghanistan. Pat was killed in Afghanistan on April 22, 2004. Kevin, who was discharged in 2005, has written a powerful, must-read document.}

It is Pat’s birthday on November 6, and elections are the day after. It gets me thinking about a conversation I had with Pat before we joined the military. He spoke about the risks with signing the papers. How once we committed, we were at the mercy of the American leadership and the American people. How we could be thrown in a direction not of our volition. How fighting as a soldier would leave us without a voice… until we get out.

Much has happened since we handed over our voice:

Somehow we were sent to invade a nation because it was a direct threat to the American people, or to the world, or harbored terrorists, or was involved in the September 11 attacks, or received weapons-grade uranium from Niger, or had mobile weapons labs, or WMD, or had a need to be liberated, or we needed to establish a democracy, or stop an insurgency, or stop a civil war we created that can’t be called a civil war even though it is. Something like that.

Somehow our elected leaders were subverting international law and humanity by setting up secret prisons around the world, secretly kidnapping people, secretly holding them indefinitely, secretly not charging them with anything, secretly torturing them. Somehow that overt policy of torture became the fault of a few “bad apples” in the military.

Somehow back at home, support for the soldiers meant having a five-year-old kindergartener scribble a picture with crayons and send it overseas, or slapping stickers on cars, or lobbying Congress for an extra pad in a helmet. It’s interesting that a soldier on his third or fourth tour should care about a drawing from a five-year-old; or a faded sticker on a car as his friends die around him; or an extra pad in a helmet, as if it will protect him when an IED throws his vehicle 50 feet into the air as his body comes apart and his skin melts to the seat.

Somehow the more soldiers that die, the more legitimate the illegal invasion becomes.

Somehow American leadership, whose only credit is lying to its people and illegally invading a nation, has been allowed to steal the courage, virtue and honor of its soldiers on the ground.

Somehow those afraid to fight an illegal invasion decades ago are allowed to send soldiers to die for an illegal invasion they started.

Somehow faking character, virtue and strength is tolerated.

Somehow profiting from tragedy and horror is tolerated.

Somehow the death of tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people is tolerated.

Somehow subversion of the Bill of Rights and The Constitution is tolerated.

Somehow suspension of Habeas Corpus is supposed to keep this country safe.

Somehow torture is tolerated.

Somehow lying is tolerated.

Somehow reason is being discarded for faith, dogma, and nonsense.

Somehow American leadership managed to create a more dangerous world.

Somehow a narrative is more important than reality.

Somehow America has become a country that projects everything that it is not and condemns everything that it is.

Somehow the most reasonable, trusted and respected country in the world has become one of the most irrational, belligerent, feared, and distrusted countries in the world.

Somehow being politically informed, diligent, and skeptical has been replaced by apathy through active ignorance.

Somehow the same incompetent, narcissistic, virtueless, vacuous, malicious criminals are still in charge of this country.

Somehow this is tolerated.

Somehow nobody is accountable for this.

In a democracy, the policy of the leaders is the policy of the people. So don’t be shocked when our grandkids bury much of this generation as traitors to the nation, to the world and to humanity. Most likely, they will come to know that “somehow” was nurtured by fear, insecurity and indifference, leaving the country vulnerable to unchecked, unchallenged parasites.

Luckily this country is still a democracy. People still have a voice. People still can take action. It can start after Pat’s birthday.





Brother and Friend of Pat Tillman,

Kevin Tillman

[kmc]

That is a pretty straight forward breakdown of the current situation there, by Kevin Tillman.

[shin]

WOULD YOU DUMOCRATS RATHER HAVE SADDAM HUSSEIN IN POWER?

[rockysigman]

kmc said:

That is a pretty straight forward breakdown of the current situation there, by Kevin Tillman.

It is, although I'm a bit surprised that he didn't even mention the fact that he and his family were lied to about the circumstances of his brother's death.

[Galactus]

Isn't it just alittle too convenient that he wrote that right before the election? Come on.

[kmc]

DUMOCRATS...heh.

[phil]

There's a B missing somewhere ... !