folkbum's rambles and rants

Oh, My Word! Volume 2

My second column is up at LSF. I may have something later today for you here; I may not. You'll just have to come back and check now, won't you?

Some day this week I'll clean out my template, getting rid of election 04 crap. Anyone got any ideas for what I should replace it with?

Post-Election Neglection

In between grading exams and frantically trying to improvise something to teach next week, I'm busily preparing for the really big show next weekend. I haven't played live in front of people since May, and I need both to practice and finish up a couple of half-done songs.

So talk amongst yourselves. You can do that here, or at any of the fine blogs linked down and to the right.

LSF

I wanted to get to this earlier, but, well. Life and other plans and all. Liberal Street Fight has officially launched. That link will take you there, but eventually liberalstreetfight.com will be the preferred address. liberalstreetfight.org and liberalstreetfighter.com are the current pathways while the folks in charge resolve issues with ISPs and whatnot.


This post lays out the philosophy and posting calendar. Anyone who followed the launch of Open Source Politics knows that a calendar is for squat when it comes to group blogs, but I, for one, plan to stick to the target, since what I'm writing about--writing--is not current-events dependent. The first installment of "Oh, My Word!" is here.

I'll ask you guys, too, since you may not carry over and since I know you all are full of piss and vinegar: I'm looking for reader questions and reader suggestions for the column. I have my own ideas--and I've even got most of next week's column done already--but the only way "Oh, My Word!" will be successful is if I have audience participation. Drop a comment here, there, or to my email, please. And, since grammar is non-partisan (although eventually I will do some media criticism and "frames" work a la Lakoff), anyone can play. Don't be shy, Big Dan.

I'm not dead

I'm just really busy. It's the end of the quarter and all.

I had a chance to see Ira Glass from "This American Life" last night, and I want to review it, as well as catch up on some of the news around here, but I can't. Sorry.

The Silver Linings

Some cribbed from around the blogosphere, and some not.

Let's remember how poor a victory this was for the Whopper™:

• This is the largest number of people who have ever voted AGAINST a president
• 1% more than 50% is not a mandate but a bare, thin, majority.
• Assuming Bush gets New Mexico and Iowa, he will have gotten the lowest percentage of electoral votes (54%) of any incumbent running for reelection since Wilson. If those two states should swing Kerry's way (NM might), it'll be even lower.
• He will have won with the lowest percentage of the popular vote (51%) of any incumbent running for reelection since Truman (who ran in a 4-way race that included Strom Thurmond)
• He will have won by the lowest margin of the popular vote (3.5M) of any  incumbent running for reelection since Truman (2.1M, and back then only 50M voted).
• He will have won the three states that put him over 270 (OH, NM and IA--assuming the last two go his way) by only 161,989 (not counting the provisional ballots, absentee, etc.).

I think some of those are wrong--didn't Clinton get less than 50% in 96?--but still, you have to admit, this election has not been an overwhelming victory for the man.

Also, what's pretty sweet about this term is that Republicans will have no one but themselves to blame for all of the things that go wrong--and they will go wrong. See my post below for how I think we ought to really handle it. This is also prime time for scandal, and there are five or eight of them ready to go, from the Plame thing to the recent supressed CIA report on 9/11. I think that by 2008, the moderates--who voted for Kerry, by the way--will see what they bought.

More than that, there's no one in the bullpen for the Republicans right now. Arnold can't run. Jeb won't run. Rudy is waaaaaay too moderate. Colin Powell has the stench of this administration on him. McCain is too old. There's nobody waiting to jump into the foray on their side.

Patience, my friends. This, too, will pass. And then we will have our cake.

Mmmmm. Cake.

[UPDATE: Ms. Lauren has a nice collection of stuff]

Next Four Years

If we were an organized party, here's what I'd suggest: We give Republicans everything they want. In spades.

First, the Democrats in Congress should not mount opposition to anything beyond their "nay" votes. Skip debates. Skip press conferences. Skip public shows of outrage or indignation. Just let it happen.

Next, saturate the country with civil disobedience among the faithful. For example, when they start mandating prayer in schools, all the good Democratic teachers should obey the law as it is now, not as it will be then. When they outlaw abortion, all the good Democratic OB/GYNs and surgeons should rush to clinics to perform them. As media ownership rules slacken, the Soros-Turner-Robbins-Sarandon-Reiner-Springsteen conglomerate should buy as many TV and radio stations as they can and air Dem-slanted news and gay-friendly entertainment. My personal favorite: Good Democratic-owned corporations should announce that they are moving their headquarters to tax haven islands in the Bahamas or someplace (not workers!) and, as they do it, hold press conferences and make a big to-do about how they so love the Republicans' tax loopholes, since it saves them billions.

It won't take long for the people to wake up. (I hope.) It won't take long before parents are asking how little Johnny's school can be closed with all the teachers fired. It won't take long before the women at the office demand to know why all of the OBs in the practice are in jail.

The possibilities are endless--like women wondering why all the good hairdressers at the shop moved to Massachusetts or why someone can't get an electrician in the middle of the night when they need one.

After a very short while, it will become obvious the the Republican agenda has absolutely nothing to do with making anyone's life any better. Best of all, the Democrats can say--rightly--that they had no part in it and tried to stop this agenda in Congress. But, you know, the will of the people seemed to be so . . . clear . . .

A Debut

Check out Liberal Street Fight. I will be doing a weekly column over there about grammar and writing, plus the occasional political rant, like the one below, which I cross-posted.

The IP address is still getting worked out--someday soon it should be liberalstreetfight.com. But for now, follow the link.

I guess I was wrong

I never would have thought this to be the case. I've been wrong before, of course, but I was trying to give Americans the benefit of the doubt.

I guess Americans really do want a a phony cowboy president with a strained relationship to the truth. Americans must want unprecedented secrecy in governmental operations, an administration that lies to Congress and companies that stand to profit setting governmental policy. Americans apparently don't mind rampant cronyism in government, either, or the insane culture of fear the Bush administration fosters among us.

The American worker must not be concerned about record budget deficits or spiraling national debt. I guess they like double-digit health care cost increases, steadily decreasing real wages, seeing their stock portfolios plummet, the dollar in freefall, the way oil prices to keep climbing, and the chances of inflation. The middle class sure seems keen on losing overtime rights, and watching 18,000 preventable deaths every year of their uninsured friends--that's one 9/11 every two months. The jobless, though, also apparently are okay with being dropped from the health-care plans, new job creation lagging behind historical trends and not keeping up with growth in the working-age population, in part because Bush's trade agreements hurt American workers.

Baby Boomers with children must be really keyed into the idea of all schools being "in need of improvement" and how the costs of post-secondary education keeps going up. And for their aging parents, Boomers must be glad to see that there will be a trillion-dollar shortfall in Social Security from privatization as senior citizens get locked into drug plans that can jack up prices at will.

It's suprising, but it turns out the American people really do want to stifle stem-cell research and see policies to undermine and judges who don't believe in medical privacy put in place. They must not mind the idea of ratcheting up discrimination against gays and lesbians and writing bigotry in to the US Constitution.

People here sure don't seem to care about asthma-inducing air, mercury in the water, people who hate the environment overseeing the environment, or how we'll have to drive energy-inefficient cars.

Even though the states most likely to be hit by terrorists voted to keep themselves safe, the vast majority of Americans must kind of like constant war with no clear exit strategy, and how the Commander in Chief to ignore recommendations from his top military planners before going to war while giving billions in juicy reconstruction contracts to go to wasteful contractors. These Americans must be all right with allowing al Qaeda to grow, letting terror attacks to keep accelerating in frequency and intensity, letting terrorists escape if it's good for PR, all while fighting a War on Terror producing diminishing returns. Americans are apparently really into an anachronistic state-based War on Terror and a president whose namesake "Doctrine" is a failure. It's okay for Russian nuclear material to go unsecured, North Korea to go nuclear, Iran to go nuclear, and Taliban warloads to gain power in Afghanistan. It's no big deal that we have a Pentagon whose intelligence team trusts convicted con men and listens to partisans instead of the International Atomic Energy Agency. And so what if we have a strained and fading partnership with NATO and Europe

In the end, it's probably for the best that this other America--an America I didn't even realize existed--got to decide who should be president, since I want no part of any of this. No part at all.

Give

Now. And a lot.

This isn't over.

The nice thing about cake

Is that you can call it victory cake or eat it in commiseration. It really works either way.

WI Results of Interest

1. Feingold is projected; also by NBC & AP.
2. By the link above, all the congressional incumbents will win. They haven't called Tammy Baldwin or Gwen Moore yet, but they will. Give it time.
3. I can't stand it! Turns out there's a reporting glich (NOT a counting glich) in Milwaukee County computers, so the state results we see do not include mui-Dem 4th CD votes.

Amateurs

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is blogging the election.

Where to find results?

Once polls close here, I'll be doing some LiveBlogging over to the OSP. I'll be posting results updates here and over there for the things I care about. Full Wisconsin results can be found here.

I'd also like to second (or third or however many times you've heard it) the Media Matters state-call site.

This is wrong

This is:

Chris Lato, a spokesman for the Republican Party of Wisconsin, said Tuesday the tires of 30 vans the party had rented to help get out the vote were slashed in Milwaukee. But he said it was not clear who was responsible.

Vandals had spray painted the words "Illegitimate Democracy" overnight Tuesday on the outside of the state GOP headquarters at Madison, Lato said.

Democrats should know better.

We voted, numbers 881 and 882 in our polling place. As I said, I can't compare with 2000, but I can compare that to when I was #732 in the Dem primary last February, more than three hours later than we voted today. There was no line, and voters were outnumbered by observers, I think. But it was early, yet--before the after-work rush.

I gotta go bake something. I can't stand it.

You can cut it with a spork

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

Jerome has exit polls. I'm still feeling cautiously optimistic. I'm reminded of primary season when the exit polls all came out and my guy was losing in them, and I was sure they were wrong. They weren't. Let us have some faith here, then, eh?

And go take this quiz. I got 33 of 40. I thought for sure I could do better.

It's looking good

Several turnout observations to report, with the polls only open a half hour or so. Here at school (which is a polling location), they were lining up before 6:30, and by 7:00, there must have been 40 people in line. All were African American, many older, at least one in a wheelchair. Many had Kerry-Edwards buttons on. The wards that vote here are reliably Democratic (as attested to by the yard signs I see), but I don't remember this kind of scene in 2000.

Two other teachers who voted on their way to school told me that lines were long before polls opened, again in reliably Dem areas of town. People are anxious to vote this idiot out of office. I'm cautiously optimistic right now.

I can't vote until after school, and it will be my first presidential vote in my ward, so I won't be able to compare with 2000. But anecdotally, at least, turnout is looking very good here in Milwaukee.

UPDATE: 8:15--the line continues here at school, and I've heard a couple of more stories of long lines at the polls when they opened. I may start smiling. At least until my third block--they'll kill any buzz. :(

There are at least two NAACP vols here, and one Election Protection (1 866 OUR VOTE) guy here, too. Good for them!

Where do I sign?

The Declaration of Bush Independence.

1 866 OUR VOTE

Know that number. Call it if you have any trouble. Because the GOP, afraid of what will happen if the people get to vote, will be causing trouble. For example:

Citing a new list of more than 37,000 questionable addresses, the state Republican Party demanded Saturday that Milwaukee city officials require identification from all of those voters Tuesday.

If the city doesn't, the party says it is prepared to have volunteers challenge each individual--including thousands who might be missing an apartment number on their registration--at the polls. [. . .]

City officials, who already were trying to establish safeguards in response to the party's claim of 5,619 bad addresses, were surprised by the 37,180 number, nearly seven times larger.

"It's not a leap at all to say the potential for voter fraud is high in the city, and the integrity of the entire election, frankly, is at stake," said Rick Graber, state GOP chairman. "The city's records are in horrible shape."
Any inaccurate address, he said, is an opening for someone to cast a fraudulent vote. However, many of the new addresses now cited might be eligible voters who have voted for years without problems.

City Attorney Grant Langley labeled the GOP request "outrageous." [. . .]

The initial GOP challenge, which was dismissed 3-0 by the city Election Commission last week, cited thousands of cases where no voter address exists, such as vacant lots and, in one case, a gyros stand.

It was the result of using a computer to compare the city's list of 386,526 registered voters to a U.S. Postal Service list of known addresses.

The same list generated about 13,300 cases where incorrect apartment numbers were listed, and some 18,200 more cases where no apartment number was listed for an existing building. However, the party didn't include any of those in its original challenge, filed three minutes before the 5 p.m. Wednesday deadline. [. . .]

Citing its expanded list, the GOP argues any address deficiency, such as no apartment number listed, constitutes an invalid registration.

Langley said he is not prepared to try to review more than 37,000 addresses by Monday, which would be necessary in order to be confident any "watch" lists given to poll workers do not include any valid addresses.

"Here we are Saturday night at 5 p.m., and they're going to drop 37,000 names on me?" Langley said. "There has got to be a deadline for a reason." [. . .]

"People certainly can come to their own conclusions," said Martha Love, chair of the Milwaukee County Democratic Party, noting a similar review was not done for Republican areas such as Bayside. "But if it's not voter intimidation or suppression, then what's the point?"

Kevin Kennedy, executive director of the state Elections Board, has been working with the city on the 5,619 addresses to put safeguards in place that would flag questionable addresses.

"The concern the board has is the pall it casts over the process," he said Saturday.

That's right: The GOP is planning to challenge and intimidate nearly 10% of Milwaukee's voters. Were there probably some fraudulent addresses submitted by registrars paid per new voter? Undoubtedly. Is this cause to fear widespread (or even localized) voter fraud? Goodness, no. I mean, even the celebrated voter fraud cases from 2000 turned out to be basically nothing:

Four years ago, the Journal Sentinel found at least 361 felons voted while still under state supervision in Milwaukee. Three men were charged, but the charges were dismissed when prosecutors were unable to prove they knew it was illegal for them to vote.

Last time, there were also reports of college students voting multiple times, though one student who bragged he voted four times--writing in himself - recanted, and a review by prosecutors of 400 other voters didn't turn up any double-voting.

Be prepared. Vote Monday, in fact, if you can, so to avoid this attempt at intimidation.

UPDATE: Scott has some thoughts, too.

And (I shudder to write this) go Pack!

When it comes down to it

You're gonna have to give as much for after the election as before. Here's a good place to start.

More MJS Endorsements

Not surprisingly, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has endorsed every incumbent in the congressional races--or, in the cases where there was no incumbent, then the incumbent's party. Of particular interest may be the Feingold endorsment. You can also check out the paper's Q&A with Feingold and Michels, which doesn't help Michels, I don't think. I couldn't get the audio to work, though.

Also, if you're interested in taking on Feingold next time around, or challenging Herb Kohl in 2006, you can buy a Senate Campaign in a Box this week on eBay. Check it out.

A Headline I'd Like to See

As FBI Probes Halliburton, Cheney Flees Continental US

Never happen, though.

Use It

Here's a handy list of Kerry Wisconsin links, including campiagn and rally signs for your consumption.

Thanks to Darci for putting it together!

They did it

And the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel did it surprisingly well:

Endorsement: John Kerry for president

Both presidential candidates are decent men, undeserving of the demonization they’ve endured during this campaign.

That said, there is a clear choice in this election, and that would be John Kerry for president.

Kerry’s record--Vietnam combat vet to anti-war activist to effective U.S. senator--speaks of courage, patriotism and a balanced and thoughtful view of this country, its needs and its role in the world.

It is inescapable, however, that a presidential re-election contest is also a referendum on the incumbent.

Kerry, though not flawless, mostly measures up based on a reasoned look at his record. Regrettably, we find President Bush, though well-intentioned, severely deficient based on his. [. . .]

In the senator, however, we see a reasoned pragmatist with enough intellectual curiosity to lead him to prudent, decisive and well-thought-out action.

Installing someone during war who has never been commander in chief is too risky, the president’s campaign is trying to scare you into believing. But voters can weigh that against what should now be a firm understanding of what they will get in a second Bush term. No risks there. There’s every danger of it being worse than the first.

The hatred directed against this president is largely undeserved. The caricatures and barbs hurled carelessly his way have been decidedly mean-spirited. Many will disagree, but we don’t believe that he has deliberately misled. He has good instincts on connecting with people and on hopes for elevating students through his No Child Left Behind program (chronically underfunded, unfortunately). We even believe that his faith-based initiative, though it has its faults, indicates a big heart. Faith that guides generously but doesn’t dictate to others can be a good thing.

In 2000, we lauded Bush for his ability as Texas governor to work in bipartisan fashion. We admired what seemed to be a tendency to make moderate judicial appointments. We’ve seen precious little of that in his first term as president.

This time around, there is just so much at stake.

There is an ever-evolving economy that must lift more boats, a health care crisis requiring bold solutions, Iran and North Korea posing global threats, an environment that needs more protection than has been given in this term and Supreme Court nominations that will touch just about every policy issue imaginable.

The president is a decent man, yes. On the whole, however, he has been so wrong about so much in such a short time that accountability must kick in at some point.

We’re at that point. John Kerry for president.

In 2000, they wimped out and ran a non-endorsement pro/con piece on Bush and Gore. And this year they were rumored not to be endorsing, either. They may have been swayed by the fact that Kerry made time to sit down with the editorial board, in spite of the rumor, when Bush did not.

Yes, their news content is still regrettably slanted to the right, but this is a very good endorsement that may well swing some moderate fence-sitters. Hats off to the editorial board.

Did I say it was on? Oh, yeah, it's on.

Call to Battle
The Challenger's Opening
My Opening
The Challenger's First Rebuttal
My First Rebuttal
The Challenger's Second Rebuttal
My Second Rebuttal


Keep checking back for more.

It's On

Oh, you'd better believe it's on.

Oh. My. God.

Question: If you knew where Osama bin Laden was--and I'm not saying you do; I'm just speaking hypothetically here--what would you do? Would you go get him, let him be, what?

Well, if you were the Pentagon, apparently, you would just walk away whistling and looking innocent: Jim Lehman, one of them 9/11 Comission guys and a former underling to Colin Powell, says the US knows where bin Laden is. Apparently, he's hiding out in South Waziristan.

So why can't we go? "If we did, we could have another Vietnam, and the United States cannot afford that right now."

Yeah. God forbid we go after a bad man in a far away country in an action that may tie up our army, marines, reserves, budget, political cycle . . .

Fool me once, shame on--Crap.


You are "Its not my fault" Bush! Never
taking responsibilty for anything!


Which George W. Bush Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Note: If you're doing this, it'll give you the wrong code for the picture. Here's the real code:
<img src="http://live.quizilla.com/user_images/N/Nirvana3240/1098466467_ultbushbmp.jpg" border="0" alt="I didnt do it!">

What does Bush think of the Midwest?



And I always thought New Jersey was the armpit of America . . .

Get the fork ready--Michels is done

Last week, I noted how Republican senate candidate Tim Michels felt that polls showing him far behind Everyone's Favorite Senator™, Russ Feingold, were "communistic," including a poll conducted by the Bush-endorsing Chicago Tribune. Today news is out of a St. Norbert College poll putting Russ up by 23 points, at 56-33. (This is the same poll that shows Kerry up by five (48%-43%) here in Wisconsin.)

Michels, despite his self-financed millions, is in his first race for office ever. It's very hard to pull out a US Senate seat if you've never run for anything before, and even harder against a popular maverick with crossover appeal like Russ. (And against someone with Russ's $10 million war chest!) Republicans, including talk-radio blowhards, are already grumbling about how poorly Michels has campaigned, which may be a factor in the NRSC's withdrawing $1.6 million in planned spending for him.

Fellow Milwaukeean Scott at Brewtown Politico notes a Rasmussen poll in the field about the same time as the SNC poll showing only a ten-point lead for Russ, and points out what we've known all along: Russ has crossover appeal, with only 83% of Feingold voters in that poll planning to vote for Kerry. (That makes Kerry's number seem smaller than in Ras's last Wisconsin poll, though that was from September.) At any rate, a strong turnout for Russ and a poor campaign from Michels can really only help Kerry.

That's crazy talk!

"I know I stood up for the principles of objectivity. In journalism, all we have is credibility and objectivity."

- former Sinclair Broadcasting Washington Bureau Chief Jon Leiberman

Why "former"? Because he spoke out against his network's decision to air an hour or more of "news" based on the slanted "documentary," "Stolen Honor."

"They're using news to drive their political agenda," Leiberman said about his bosses. "I don't think it serves the public trust."

Let's keep the pressure on, 'kay?

No news today

Got Indigo Girls tickets. Third row.





Just had to rub that in.

More Republican Liars and Lawbreakers

The Wisconsin State Journal--the more conservative of Madison's two dailies--has broken the story today of Wisconsin's Republicans for Nader. The nut:

At least 16 Republican Party officers and volunteers from across Wisconsin were involved in a secretive signature drive to get presidential candidate Ralph Nader on the ballot by claiming to be supporters and keeping quiet about their GOP affiliations.

Organizers of the covert drive gathered an estimated 3,228 signatures - far more than the 2,000 required to put Nader, an independent, on the Nov. 2 ballot. [. . .] As required by law, each circulator signed a statement on the petition swearing, "I intend to support these candidates." The form warns that anyone submitting false information on the petition could be guilty of a felony.

Some circulators contacted by the State Journal said they had no plans to vote for Nader, but most said they supported his right to be on the ballot--primarily as a way of benefiting Bush. [. . .]

In addition to [UW College Republican Matt] Holsen, the circulators with links to the GOP included volunteers or Republican Party officials from the state headquarters and from the Milwaukee, Eau Claire, Kenosha, Racine, Sheboygan and Winnebago county parties and College Republican chapters at UW-Madison, Marquette, UW-Oshkosh and UW-Eau Claire, the State Journal found.

Among the 119 circulators was attorney and Racine County Republican Party board member Jay K. Nixon, an unsuccessful candidate for circuit court judge this year. The Republican official refused to say whether he planned to vote for Nader, calling it "a personal thing." Nixon said he doesn't recall where he got the petitions or to whom he turned them in. After answering a few questions, Nixon hung up.

At least two of the circulators were elected officials--village of Brown Deer President Margaret Jaberg and Eau Claire County Board member Benjamin Hack, treasurer of the UW-Eau Claire College Republicans. [. . .]

Another of those circulators, UW-Eau Claire student James Taylor, said he and about a dozen college-aged Republicans were asked by a local Republican Party official - whom he wouldn't name - to circulate the petitions but to keep quiet about their party affiliation.

"We were told, 'Don't say anything unless people ask,'" said Taylor, who gathered 34 signatures for Nader. Hack said he doesn't recall receiving such advice.

Taylor said he never planned to vote for Nader and he collected the signatures "because votes for Nader take votes away from Kerry."

In the end, the Nader campaign wisely rejected the signatures gathered by Republicans, but that does not make the Republicans' criminal activity--or at least their lies--any less shameful. Nader has received help from Republicans not just in Wisconsin, but in at least a half-dozen other states. Republicans here in Wisconsin also gave assistance to Nader when state Democrats challenged his ballot status because his campaign didn't follow the rules. (The state supreme court finally rejected Dems' challenge.)

I'm a cynical man by nature, of course, but when the lawbreakers themselves admit that all they wanted to do was suppress the Kerry vote, then you know your party has problems.