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Politics : The Donkey's Inn -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Mephisto who wrote (8868)	8/2/2004 10:24:25 PM
From: Mephisto	Respond to of 15516

If it's trivial, you'll know all about it seattlepi.nwsource.com Sunday, August 1, 2004 By PAUL KRUGMAN SYNDICATED COLUMNIST Under the headline "Voters Want Specifics From Kerry," The Washington Post recently quoted a voter demanding that John Kerry and John Edwards talk about "what they plan on doing about health care for middle-income or lower-income people. I have to face the fact that I will never be able to have health insurance, the way things are now. And these millionaires don't seem to address that." Kerry proposes spending $650 billion extending health insurance to lower- and middle-income families. Whether you approve or not, you can't say he hasn't addressed the issue. Why hasn't this voter heard about it? Well, I've been reading 60 days' worth of transcripts from the places four out of five Americans cite as where they usually get their news: the major cable and broadcast TV networks. Never mind the details -- I couldn't even find a clear statement that Kerry wants to roll back recent high-income tax cuts and use the money to cover most of the uninsured. When reports mentioned the Kerry plan at all, it was usually horse race analysis -- how it's playing, not what's in it. On the other hand, everyone knows that Teresa Heinz Kerry told someone to "shove it," though even there, the context was missing. Except for a brief reference on MSNBC, none of the transcripts I've read mention that the target of her ire works for Richard Mellon Scaife, a billionaire who financed smear campaigns against the Clintons -- including accusations of murder. (CNN did mention Scaife on its Web site, but described him only as a donor to "conservative causes.") And viewers learned nothing about Scaife's long vendetta against Heinz Kerry herself. There are two issues here, trivialization and bias, but they're related. Somewhere along the line, TV news stopped reporting on candidates' policies, and turned instead to trivia that supposedly reveal their personalities. We hear about Kerry's haircuts, not his health care proposals. We hear about George Bush's brush-cutting, not his environmental policies. Even on its own terms, such reporting often gets it wrong, because journalists aren't especially good at judging character. ("He is, above all, a moralist," wrote George Will about Jack Ryan, the Illinois Senate candidate who dropped out after embarrassing sex-club questions.) And the character issues that dominate today's reporting have historically had no bearing on leadership qualities. While planning D-Day, Dwight Eisenhower had a close, though possibly platonic, relationship with his female driver. Should that have barred him from the White House? And since campaign coverage as celebrity profiling has no rules, it offers ample scope for biased reporting. Notice the voter's reference to "these millionaires." A Columbia Journalism Review Web site called campaigndesk.org, says its analysis "reveals a press prone to needlessly introduce Senators Kerry and Edwards and Kerry's wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, as millionaires or billionaires, without similar labels for President Bush or Vice President Cheney." As the site points out, the Bush campaign has been "hammering away with talking points casting Kerry as out of the mainstream because of his wealth, hoping to influence press coverage." The campaign isn't claiming that Kerry's policies favor the rich -- they manifestly don't, while Bush's manifestly do. Instead, we're supposed to dislike Kerry simply because he's wealthy (and not notice that his opponent is, too). Republicans, of all people, are practicing the politics of envy, and the media obediently go along. In short, the triumph of the trivial is not a trivial matter. The failure of TV news to inform the public about the policy proposals of this year's presidential candidates is, in its own way, as serious a journalistic betrayal as the failure to raise questions about the rush to invade Iraq. P.S.: Another story you may not see on TV: Jeb Bush insists that electronic voting machines are perfectly reliable, but The St. Petersburg Times says the Republican Party of Florida has sent out a flier urging supporters to use absentee ballots because the machines lack a paper trail and cannot "verify your vote." P.P.S.: Three weeks ago, The New Republic reported that the Bush administration was pressuring Pakistan to announce a major terrorist capture during the Democratic convention. Hours before Kerry's acceptance speech, Pakistan announced, several days after the fact, that it had apprehended an important al-Qaida operative. Paul Krugman is a columnist for The New York Times. Copyright 2004 New York Times News Service. E-mail: krugman@nytimes.com

To: Mephisto who wrote (8868)	8/3/2004 6:22:24 PM
From: Mephisto	Respond to of 15516

Kerry Says Bush Has Not Acted Quickly Enough on Terrorism Defenses Message 20375226

To: Mephisto who wrote (8868)	11/4/2004 10:17:05 PM
From: Mephisto	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 15516

JOHN KERRY'S CONCESSION: Transcript of John Kerry's Concession Speech November 3, 2004 Following is a transcript of Senator John Kerry's concession speech yesterday in Boston, as recorded by The New York Times: You just have no idea how warming and how generous that welcome is, your love is, your affection, and I'm gratified by it. I'm sorry that we got here a little bit late and a little bit short. Earlier today, I spoke to President Bush and I offered him and Laura our congratulations on their victory. We had a good conversation. And we talked about the danger of division in our country and the need, the desperate need, for unity for finding the common ground, coming together. Today I hope that we can begin the healing. In America it is vital that every vote count and that every vote be counted. But the outcome should be decided by voters, not a protracted legal process. I would not give up this fight if there was a chance that we would prevail. But it is now clear that even when all the provisional ballots are counted, which they will be, there won't be enough outstanding votes for us to be able to win Ohio. And therefore we cannot win this election. My friends, it was here that we began our campaign for the presidency. And all we had was hope and a vision for a better America. It is a privilege and a gift to spend two years traveling this country, coming to know so many of you. I wish that I could just wrap you up in my arms and embrace each and every one of you individually all across this nation. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I will always be particularly grateful to the colleague that you just heard from who became my partner, my very close friend, an extraordinary leader, John Edwards, and I thank him for everything he did, and John and I would be the first to tell you that we owe so much to our families. They're here with us today. They were with us every single step of the way. They sustained us. They went out on their own and they multiplied our campaign all across this country. No one did this more with grace and with courage and candor, that I love, than my wife, Teresa. And I thank her. Thank you. And our children were there every single step of the way. It was unbelievable. Vanessa, Alex, Chris, Andre and John from my family and Elizabeth Edwards, who is so remarkable and so strong and so smart. And Johnnie and Kate, who went out there on her own, just like my daughters did and also Emma Claire and Jack who were up beyond their bedtime last night like a lot of us. I want to thank my crewmates and my friends from 35 years ago, that great band of brothers, who crisscrossed this country on my behalf for 2004. They had the courage to speak the truth back then and they spoke it again this year. And for that I will forever be grateful. And thanks also, as I look around here, to friends and family of a lifetime, some from college, friends made all across the years and then all across the miles of this campaign. You are so special. You brought the gift of your passion for our country and the possibilities of change. And that will stay with us and with this country forever. Thanks to Democrats and Republicans and independents who stood with us, and everyone who voted, no matter who their candidate was. And thanks to my absolutely unbelievable, dedicated staff led by a wonderful campaign manager, Mary Beth Cahill, who did an extraordinary job. There's so much written about campaigns and there's so much that Americans never get to see. I wish they could all spend a day on a campaign and see how hard these folks work to make America better. It is its own unbelievable contribution to our democracy and it's a gift to everybody, but especially to me. And I'm grateful to each and every one of you. And I thank your families and I thank you for the sacrifices you've made. And to all the volunteers all across this country who gave so much of themselves, you know, thanks to William Field, a 6-year-old who collected $680, a quarter and a dollar at a time, selling bracelets during the summer to help change America. Thanks to Michael Benson from Florida who I spied at a rope line holding a container of money. And it turned out he'd raided his piggybank and wanted to contribute. And thanks to Ilana Wexler, 11 years old, who started Kids for Kerry all across our country. I think of the brigades of students and people, young and old, who took time to travel, time off from work, their own vacation time, to work in states far and wide. They braved the hot days of summer and the cold days of the fall and the winter to knock on doors because they were determined to open the doors of opportunity to all Americans. They worked their hearts out and I wish - you don't know how much - that I could have brought this race home for you, for them. And I say to them now: Don't lose faith; what you did made a difference. And building on itself, we go on to make a difference another day. I promise you: That time will come; the time will come; the election will come when your work and your ballots will change the world. And it's worth fighting for. I want to especially say to the American people: In this journey, you have given me the honor and the gift of listening and learning from you. I have visited your homes. I've visited your churches. I've visited your community halls. I've heard your stories. I know your struggles. I know your hopes. They are part of me now. And I will never forget you and I'll never stop fighting for you. You may not understand completely in what ways, but it is true when I say to you that you have taught me and you've tested me and you've lifted me up and you've made me stronger. I did my best to express my vision and my hopes for America. We worked hard and we fought hard. And I wish that things had turned out a little differently. But in an American election, there are no losers. Because whether or not our candidates are successful, the next morning, we all wake up as Americans. And that - that is the greatest privilege and the most remarkable good fortune that can come to us on earth. With that gift also comes obligation. We are required now to work together for the good of our country. In the days ahead, we must find common cause. We must join in common effort without remorse or recrimination, without anger or rancor. America is in need of unity and longing for a larger measure of compassion. I hope President Bush will advance those values in the coming years. I pledge to do my part to try to bridge the partisan divide. I know this is a difficult time for my supporters. But I ask them - all of you - to join me in doing that. Now, more than ever, with our soldiers in harm's way, we must stand together and succeed in Iraq and win the war on terror. I will also do everything in my power to ensure that my party, a proud Democratic Party, stands true to our best hopes and ideals. I believe that what we started in this campaign will not end here. And I know - our fight goes on to put America back to work and to make our economy a great engine of job growth. Our fight goes on to make affordable health care an accessible right for all Americans, not a privilege. Our fight goes on to protect the environment, to achieve equality, to push the frontiers of science and discovery and to restore America's reputation in the world. I believe that all of this will happen, and sooner than we may think. Because we're America and America always moves forward. I've been honored to represent the citizens of this commonwealth for the - in the United States Senate now for 20 years. And I pledge to them that in the years ahead, I'm going to fight on for the people and for the principles that I've learned and lived with here in Massachusetts. I'm proud of what we stood for in this campaign and of what we accomplished. When we began, no one thought it was possible to even make this a close race. But we stood for real change - change that would make a real difference in the life of our nation and the lives of our families. And we defined that choice to America. I'll never forget the wonderful people who came to our rallies, who stood in our rope lines, who put their hopes in our hands, who invested in each and every one of us. I saw in them the truth that America is not only great, but it is good. So here - so with a grateful heart, I leave this campaign with a prayer that has even greater meaning to me now that I have come to know our vast country so much better thanks to all of you. And what a privilege it has been to do so. And that prayer is very simple: God bless America. Thank you. nytimes.com Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

To: Mephisto who wrote (8868)	1/8/2005 9:57:22 AM
From: Mephisto	Respond to of 15516

THE ELECTION'S LAST GASP January 7, 2005 EDITORIAL The New York Times Congressional Democrats staged an unusual protest yesterday when Senator Barbara Boxer of California and Representative Stephanie Tubbs Jones of Ohio objected to certifying the results of the 2004 election. Supporters of the defeated (and absent) John Kerry then spent two hours making speeches, most of which began with the declaration that George W. Bush had definitely won. It could not have been a totally satisfactory afternoon for the president's angry supporters or for the conspiracy theorists who still believe that Bush operatives managed to steal Ohio's electoral votes. The final count showed that Mr. Bush had won the state by more than 100,000 votes, and the Democrats who rose to complain about the process prefaced their remarks by saying things like "the irregularities in Ohio would not have overturned the results." But the Democrats were right to call attention to the defects in the system. Our elections need to do more than produce a legitimate winner. They need to do it through a process that seems fair to all reasonable citizens. On that count, the United States has a way to go. Electronic voting machines that do not produce a paper trail that can be rechecked in contested elections create worries that a contest could be stolen by computer hacking or by tampering with the machine software. Those concerns seem to have been unfounded in the last election, but it did not require paranoia to think that such things might happen. It is not illegal to require voters to stand in lines so long that they wind up being forced to give up or to skip work, but it is unfair - particularly when such delays happen mainly in poor and minority neighborhoods. It is not illegal to leave election operations in the hands of a partisan elected official, but such a situation will make the system seem biased to voters from the other side of the political divide. That is what happened in Ohio, where the secretary of state was also a co-chairman of the Bush campaign in that state. Democrats were obviously most vocal about the sloppy and highhanded way the election was run in many places, but the Republicans should also object. Mr. Bush won the most votes, but he has been deprived of universal confidence in the way they were counted. nytimes.com Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

To: Mephisto who wrote (8868)	1/10/2005 9:58:02 PM
From: Mephisto	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 15516

WHAT HAPPENED IN OHIO By William Raspberry Monday, January 10, 2005; Page A17 I don't usually let other people do my thinking for me, but I confess I'd been waiting for Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) to tell me what to think about the voting irregularities that marred the November elections in Ohio. Bloggers have been burning up the Internet with tales of manipulation and fraud. A representative of the company that supplied some of the voting machines (and whose corporate chief had promised to deliver the state for President Bush) supposedly was caught fiddling with some of the machines. Heavily Democratic -- but not heavily Republican -- precincts were plagued by a shortage of voting machines. Votes cast for challenger John Kerry showed up on the screen as votes for Bush. Black and poor voters -- likely Democratic voters -- were harassed and otherwise discouraged. And there were scores of similar allegations. Stories in the mainstream media weren't much help. They pretty much agreed that, while there were irregularities in Ohio and elsewhere, there always are irregularities. Nothing particularly unusual -- or outcome-changing -- happened in Ohio. Political reporters, mainstream editors and most of Congress seemed utterly unalarmed. Were they asleep at the switch? Were they afraid of discovering a truth that the country couldn't handle? Or was there simply not much of a story? But then I learned that Conyers, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, was holding hearings on the matter. And if there were an alarm that needed to be sounded, Conyers would sound it. Well, he sounded it Wednesday, in a 100-page report, "Preserving Democracy: What Went Wrong in Ohio" -- and I still don't know whether to run for the hills or just be a bit more careful next time. "I've had hearings with all sorts of witnesses, many of whom were convinced of fraud and conspiracy," Conyers told me the day before his report was made public. Yes, but did he believe what the witnesses told him? "I'm not seeking to match my opinion with theirs," he said. "My objective is to uncover out of this mass of complaints, sworn affidavits and eyewitness accounts whether or not there were significant irregularities. It does seem that there were more in Ohio than elsewhere." So the Republicans stole the election? "Please understand, this is not an attempt to change the outcome. Many of the complaints were from people who couldn't be sure what they saw, or who were able to vote anyway, despite the difficulty. And there's no way we could count the number of people who left those cold, rainy lines after the second or third hour of waiting. "So, no, we're not trying to overturn this election. But if, as it appears, a significant number of people believe they were disenfranchised -- and this is the second straight presidential election there has been that feeling -- then it's incumbent on Congress to try to do something so that it won't happen yet again." So what am I to think about all the allegations I've been reading in the noncertified press since November? That the left-wing bloggers are blowing things out of proportion? That the mainstream press is being properly circumspect? That nothing much happened in Ohio? But "Preserving Democracy" belies such a benign conclusion. Listen: "We have found numerous, serious election irregularities . . . which resulted in a significant disenfranchisement of voters. . . . "In many cases these irregularities were caused by intentional misconduct and illegal behavior, much of it involving Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, the co-chair of the Bush-Cheney campaign in Ohio." Presumably Conyers is being careful not to draw conclusions because he wants Congress to have a look. But we're talking about a Congress whose members often pass important legislation without bothering to read it. What makes him think anyone is going to read his report unless he waves it about like a smoking gun? Instead, he and a few other Democrats offered a formal challenge to Thursday's ceremonial counting of the electoral votes from November, forcing a brief delay in the official certification of President Bush. The point, he said, was to "maximize the seriousness of the issue," not to overturn the election results. Well, I don't want to overturn the election, either. But I would like to know if public officials and private citizens engaged in a significant and concerted effort to steal the election in the event the wrong person seemed to be winning it. And if so, I'd like to know who the miscreants were, what they did and what heads are going to roll. Because if all we get are a few hearings and empty promises, it's a safe bet it'll happen again. willrasp@washpost.com washingtonpost.com

To: Mephisto who wrote (8868)	1/25/2005 1:39:40 PM
From: Mephisto	Respond to of 15516

REVOTE? IF FLORIDA AND OHIO GO FIRST PAUL LOEB GUEST COLUMNIST After the most meticulous counting in Washington state history, Republicans are crying fraud. Yet compared with the abuses that happened elsewhere, but not in our state, we should feel proud. We're told that Florida 2000 is old news but a quarter of the African American votes in Jacksonville were tossed without a second look. Gov. Jeb Bush's administration purged more than 80,000 largely poor and minority voters from the rolls for convictions that didn't apply under Florida law -- or never existed. BBC reporter Greg Palast found that 90 percent of those scrubbed were legitimate voters. Even without the purged votes, a study of uncounted ballots commissioned by The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post and The New York Times confirmed that a statewide recount would have given Al Gore the election. Meanwhile, a mob of Republican congressional aides, flown in by the George W. Bush campaign, pounded on doors and windows to permanently stop a manual recount of 600,000 South Florida ballots. We saw nothing comparable here. Florida 2004 had problems; 58,000 absentee ballot forms almost didn't get mailed to largely Democratic Broward County. But in Ohio, Republican Secretary of State and Bush campaign chairman Kenneth Blackwell spearheaded a parade of abuses that have gotten little national press. Blackwell, who has refused to testify under oath, began early. Between 2000 and 2002, his office purged 303,000 voters in key urban areas; even with massive registration drives, fewer people actually ended up eligible in Cleveland than in 2000. Blackwell also tried to reject new Democratic registrations because they weren't on 80-pound paper stock, then backed off when official forms failed that standard. He went to court to reject provisional ballots cast outside of the correct precinct, while closing down largely Democratic voting stations. On Election Day, Democratic precincts were so short of machines that voters waited in lines up to 10 hours in the winter cold; thousands had no choice but to leave. The Ohio abuses continue -- with no parallel here. Many Democrats were forced to use provisional ballots, even with registration cards in hand. (The 90,000 provisional ballots overwhelmingly came from Democratic neighborhoods.) Trumbull County voters received punch-card ballots with holes already punched for Bush. In Franklin County, a computer error tallied 3,000 extra votes for Bush. In Mahoning County, electronic machines kept registering Bush votes even when voters chose Sen. John Kerry; it took repeated attempts to correct them. In Warren County, officials declared an Election Day homeland security emergency, barring reporters and others from watching while ballots were left unguarded and unprotected in a warehouse, then hastily moved after people complained. But the FBI said they gave no such warning and Warren County employees were told to prepare for a lockdown the previous Thursday. In one African American Cleveland precinct, the presidential candidate of the ultra-conservative Constitutional Party received 215 votes, only 65 fewer than Kerry; the local city councilman said this could have resulted only from malfunctioning machines. Some of these examples may have been due to human error, but all favored Bush and none favored Kerry. When minor-party candidates requested a random-sample recount, Blackwell pre-selected precincts in which to conduct it. In contrast, Washington state's bipartisan counters and observers looked at every questionable ballot, trying to validate voter intent. Republican Secretary of State Sam Reed has placed public service over partisanship, already suggesting ways to address the problems that did occur. I'd be delighted to revote Washington's governor's race. But only if we could also rerun Ohio and Florida. Otherwise we should feel grateful that our state really did its best to ensure that every voter could vote and every vote was counted. Paul Loeb is the author of "The Impossible Will Take a Little While: A Citizen's Guide to Hope in a Time of Fear." See www.theimpossible.org. seattlepi.nwsource.com