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Politics : Stockman Scott's Political Debate Porch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: stockman_scott who wrote (60881)	10/15/2004 12:34:46 PM
From: longnshort	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 89467

Kerri is dropping like a rock because of his bringing up someones child in a debate, CLASSLESS, but he is paying the price. it's the talk of the town

To: stockman_scott who wrote (60881)	10/15/2004 12:39:37 PM
From: T L Comiskey	Respond to of 89467

I watched little of the debates.. yet.. this photo..far more than the slogans enclosed.. makes me chuckle out loud every time I look. topplebush.com If Kerry wins..in some strange way.. I will miss seeing junior He manages to look so..Stupid at times.. Its gotta be a Gift from his god <g>

To: stockman_scott who wrote (60881)	10/15/2004 2:11:47 PM
From: Skywatcher	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 89467

Block the Vote By Paul Krugman The New York Times Friday 15 October 2004 Earlier this week former employees of Sproul & Associates (operating under the name Voters Outreach of America), a firm hired by the Republican National Committee to register voters, told a Nevada TV station that their supervisors systematically tore up Democratic registrations. The accusations are backed by physical evidence and appear credible. Officials have begun a criminal investigation into reports of similar actions by Sproul in Oregon. Republicans claim, of course, that they did nothing wrong - and that besides, Democrats do it, too. But there haven't been any comparably credible accusations against Democratic voter-registration organizations. And there is a pattern of Republican efforts to disenfranchise Democrats, by any means possible. Some of these, like the actions reported in Nevada, involve dirty tricks. For example, in 2002 the Republican Party in New Hampshire hired an Idaho company to paralyze Democratic get-out-the-vote efforts by jamming the party's phone banks. But many efforts involve the abuse of power. For example, Ohio's secretary of state, a Republican, tried to use an archaic rule about paper quality to invalidate thousands of new, heavily Democratic registrations. That attempt failed. But in Wisconsin, a Republican county executive insists that this year, when everyone expects a record turnout, Milwaukee will receive fewer ballots than it got in 2000 or 2002 - a recipe for chaos at polling places serving urban, mainly Democratic voters. And Florida is the site of naked efforts to suppress Democratic votes, and the votes of blacks in particular. Florida's secretary of state recently ruled that voter registrations would be deemed incomplete if those registering failed to check a box affirming their citizenship, even if they had signed an oath saying the same thing elsewhere on the form. Many counties are, sensibly, ignoring this ruling, but it's apparent that some officials have both used this rule and other technicalities to reject applications as incomplete, and delayed notifying would-be voters of problems with their applications until it was too late. Whose applications get rejected? A Washington Post examination of rejected applications in Duval County found three times as many were from Democrats, compared with Republicans. It also found a strong tilt toward rejection of blacks' registrations. The case of Florida's felon list - used by state officials, as in 2000, to try to wrongly disenfranchise thousands of blacks - has been widely reported. Less widely reported has been overwhelming evidence that the errors were deliberate. In an article coming next week in Harper's, Greg Palast, who originally reported the story of the 2000 felon list, reveals that few of those wrongly purged from the voting rolls in 2000 are back on the voter lists. State officials have imposed Kafkaesque hurdles for voters trying to get back on the rolls. Depending on the county, those attempting to get their votes back have been required to seek clemency for crimes committed by others, or to go through quasi-judicial proceedings to prove that they are not felons with similar names. And officials appear to be doing their best to make voting difficult for those blacks who do manage to register. Florida law requires local election officials to provide polling places where voters can cast early ballots. Duval County is providing only one such location, when other counties with similar voting populations are providing multiple sites. And in Duval and other counties the early voting sites are miles away from precincts with black majorities. Next week, I'll address the question of whether the votes of Floridians with the wrong color skin will be fully counted if they are cast. Mr. Palast notes that in the 2000 election, almost 180,000 Florida votes were rejected because they were either blank or contained overvotes. Demographers from the U.S. Civil Rights Commission estimate that 54 percent of the spoiled ballots were cast by blacks. And there's strong evidence that this spoilage didn't reflect voters' incompetence: it was caused mainly by defective voting machines and may also reflect deliberate vote-tampering. 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. -------

To: stockman_scott who wrote (60881)	10/15/2004 3:13:02 PM
From: T L Comiskey	Respond to of 89467

Hmmm I thought the Iraqi Army was Kickin some butt.. US asks Britain to deploy troops in more parts of Iraq: TV LONDON (AFP) - The United States wants Britain to deploy troops in more volatile parts of Iraq (news - web sites), as a new offensive on insurgent-held Fallujah looms, reports from Britain said. "Ministry of Defence sources have told Channel Four News that the US military has lodged a formal request for our troops to cover forces which are to be re-deployed for a renewed offensive against insurgents in the rebel city of Fallujah," Britain's Channel Four television said on its website, www.channel4.com. "Its understood that the commanding officer of the reserve betallion of the Black Watch is looking at a request for some 650 personnel to provide cover for the Americans," it said. Some 8,000 British troops are currently in Iraq but they are all in the relatively quiet, oil-rich south of the country, with their headquarters in Basra city. Channel Four said its sources had "emphatically denied" that British troops go into either Fallujah or Najaf, another insurgent hotbed. They suggested instead that the soldiers might be sent to Baghdad or other sectors. "The implication of this is (that) it would mean British forces operating under US command and in areas that have up until now been policed and supervised by the Americans," it said. Defence sources in London told Britain's domestic Press Association news agency that while coalition partners could ask British forces to extend their areas of operation, such requests were not always agreed to. A Ministry of Defence spokesman said coalition allies in Iraq constantly discussed their operations. "If these discussions lead to a decision, it will be announced in the normal way," he said.