yo

why must our elections be such a big sad joke?

Too bad my Granny retired from the election board, she would have kicked their asses, even at 85 ,almost ten years ago, she had forty years of experience and she kept abreast of what was happening in the political world.

No one could have ever imagined they would fly planes into buildings either. . .oh, except

THE MAN WHO PREDICTED 9/11 tells the extraordinary story of Rick Rescorla – from his English childhood, to his heroics in Vietnam, to his work as Security Chief at the World Trade Center where he became convinced that an attack was imminent. His foresight and actions saved more than 2,700 lives on 9/11.

Geez, Dershowitz thinks Spitzer should NOT resign. That’s all the more reason why he should.

the republicans have to be quaking on their boots with this kind of dem turnout

I wonder what “surprise” they have planned to turn the tables this time

Because “there are many here among us, that fell that life is but a joke”!

Good morning Blue Texan!

Perhaps Texas is simply trying to average out the state of Ohio in 2004, which “some say” had the votes tallied before the polls were closed.

ecahn, epu’d from last thread, I didn’t want you to miss it;

I heard a wonderful putdown for neocons yesterday or today: “former commies.”

I believe scalia’s father or grandfather was a documented fascist

and so are all his decisions

THE MAN WHO PREDICTED 9/11 tells the extraordinary story of Rick Rescorla – from his English childhood, to his heroics in Vietnam, to his work as Security Chief at the World Trade Center where he became convinced that an attack was imminent. His foresight and actions saved more than 2,700 lives on 9/11.

everyone knew we were about to be attacked, everyone, there was absolutely no inteligence failure, none

the president took vacation when armed with the knowledge and attack was sure to come, he stood down

and as spitzer makes clear, pelosi is having sex with a donkey to take impeachment off the table,

It doesn’t matter. The caucuses are undemocratic anyway. Gov. Rendell told me so.

we knew when, within months, we knew how, by highjacking, we knew the weapons, commercial airliners, we knew where, washington and new york, we knew the targets, financial and political structures

it is impossible to have more precise intel

i said down under (last thread)…they can track Spitzs…4300$ but not the 9,000,000,000,000.00 missing in EYERAK…funny they can never trak REPUKLICAN monaie…no?

ok hold your ears
THERE WERE 40 presidential breifings stating such(per new docs from 9/11 commission) 40 PDBs not just ONE

and the next day they produced atm video tapes of the hijackers….right

About those Rules everyone is so hot to enforce. It seems the DNC has been pretty lax about enforcing them. They are being very choosy about exactly which Rules matter. This is from BTD at Talkleft. I can’t link to it from this computer, but you can find it at Talkleft.com (all emphasis is mine):

This is where the “rules are rules” crowd really bothers me, they actually are not for the rules. The DNC delegate selection rules (PDF) called for a number of things (Rule 21 provided Florida a safe harbor for its delegates; Rule 20C.1.a. provided for a 50% penalty, not complete stripping of the delegates; Rule 20.C.7 called for the DNC to perform an investigation of the Florida situation, it did not; and Rule 20.C.5 provides the DNC the opportunity to approve a new process for Florida and Michigan to devise alternative means of selecting their delegates). None of these ex ante rules have been followed to date. One is being worked on, the revote primaries. But in Hilzoy’s mind, seating the Florida and Michigan delegations, even after a revote, violates ex ante fairness. Please. Not to mention the fact that the ex ante rules allows for “raiding pledged delegates.” Yes, rules are rules, except when they are not. More . . .

the republicans have to be quaking on their boots with this kind of dem turnout

“These totals don’t mean anything”

Republic County Chair here even though more Dems voted in this once scarlet red county than Dems/Republics combined in 04 General – oh yeah, I wrote an LTE to local rag

let’s not forget their current difficulties fielding Senate candidates in Ark and SD, getting their $1.3M asses kicked in IL-14 . . .

So was the TX caucus run by volunteers, some of whom may have missed the training, etc, etc?

I say we should be happy there is such great turn out, take time to count it right, and hope that the results will help get us to the candidate who will inspire the same, or even better turn out in November.

2008 pre-Presidential voting chaos. It’s the new blue.

If you haven;t see the video of Rick sitting on his desk at the WTC explaining how they were gonna do it it’s worth a gander

Voice

Everyone read the Rolling Stone article about how the Obama campaign is organizing?

no one anticipated the breech of the levis, either!

1,783 DAYZ AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND…

Citizen Blue Texan and the firepup Freedom Fighters:

Looks like the deadwood of the old Democratic Party aparachiks is gunna fuel quite a fire in the next few months. I wonder if the old dinosaurs in the party are not kickin’ themselves for not lettin’ Howard Dean win the nomination in 2004…and it doesn’t matter how progressive Obama really is or what his original ties have been to corporate power, the grassroots restoration of Democratic Party participation is unstoppable now. Howard Dean is gunna get ‘em all, in the end (so ta speak)!

KEEP THE FAITH AND PASS THE AMMUNITION…THE BASTARDS DON’T GET A PENSION EITHER!!

This is good, how he built on Dean’s approach

The Machinery of Hope
Inside the grass-roots field operation of Barack Obama, who is transforming the way political campaigns are run

last OT

National Security Adviser Rice later testifies to the 9/11 Commission that in the first eight months of Bush’s presidency before 9/11, “the president receive[s] at these [Presidential Daily Briefings] more than 40 briefing items on al-Qaeda, and 13 of those [are] in response to questions he or his top advisers posed.”

no one anticipated the breech of the levis, either!

I think Larry Craig was anticipating a breech of levis when he was rudely busted.

Topic, there’s a topic? Oh yea, “no one would have predicted”!

well i say ….make it happen now

…cleaning coffee off the monitor…

oh i still in slow mode,DST hasnt kicked in yet

“I think Larry Craig was anticipating a breech of levis when he was rudely busted.”

Hmmmmm… and tapping occurred right before that bust too… coincidence?

I think Larry Craig was anticipating a breech of levis when he was rudely busted.

Nothing like a little levity

Texas sounds a lot like Alabama. Republicans masquerading as Democrats own the party. One of the things Howard Dean’s 50-State Strategy is doing is wresting control of local parties from the hands of do-nothing “leadership”, and in some cases having to go to court to do it. All sorts of shennanigans go on here, electorally speaking. I’ll be sorry to see him leave. Per Left in Alabama, this is probably Gov. Dean’s last year in this leadership position. I’ll be SORRY to see him go.

heh…

off to work

my sense aligns with Norske – just anecdotal surfing late last week revealed – folks (like the Travis County Chair) saying ‘no one could have anticip . . . all seem to be old school ‘establishment’ Dems, the kind of folks who’d give us Dukakis and ask us to like it :)

It brings back a popular rhyme of my youth:

I was wise to the size of the rise in my levis.

God knows, but I wish it would end.

OT:
On E Spitzer I think one item largely uncommented on is that they guy is currently working with banks (US and US FED) about what is going on with the econ. There are literly TRILLIONS of dollars at stake not to mention who is going to get the cash, how they can operate, who will be under investigation, etc, etc. Yeah, US econ dollar printing and loaning machine is run in NYC and there is a little bit of a mess they are trying to either fix or hide.

my sense aligns with Norske – just anecdotal surfing late last week revealed – folks (like the Travis County Chair) saying ‘no one could have anticip . . . all seem to be old school ‘establishment’ Dems, the kind of folks who’d give us Dukakis and ask us to like it :)

Given that, is it possible that Hillary supporters (mostly old school types) are trying to delay of obfuscate the results given Obama’s likely win?

Boxturtle (I know: never blame on malice what can adequately be explained by stupidity)

A week after Texas Democrats trooped to nighttime caucuses to choose between Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, Texans don’t know which presidential candidate won the town-hallish events — and might not for about 18 days.

I spent some time with my wife last evening trying to make sense of the Texas count/delegates/etc. We were laughing at our total inability to understand the convoluted delegate allocation. How in the heck could such a system have been devised and why in heavens name do they need two, parallel systems anyway.

We should outsource elections for chrysake

We should outsource elections for chrysake

haliburton would be perfect

From the counties I’m aware of, here in Texas, the party leadership and total membership amounted to eight or ten aging loyalists, who persisted in meeting and trying to hold out with no appreciable support or funds. The fact that there was going to be a huge influx of voters didn’t mean that there was a huge influx of helpers prior to the primary.

We should outsource elections for chrysake

The thugs already did…diebold. :-(

yes, I think her campaign is doing that, although they’ve suddenly quit mentioning Tx specifically

But, no I’m not ascribing that to the aforementioned County Chairs – they’re just out of touch – and would all probably make good Blue Dogs ;)

haliburton would be perfect

With Blackwater “guarding” the voting booths?

Did they ask for volunteers? After Katrina, the word went out in all the media (including grocery store bulletin boards and telephone poles) for volunteers, and the response was good.

OT, but high-status blogger Glenn Greenwald, often approvingly linked to by frontpagers at FDL, has this to say in an excellent post today:

Democrats are never going to change their behavior if there continues to be no price for what they’re doing. If even the most pro-Bush Democrats continue to receive reflexive support from other Democrats, regardless of how fundamentally they reject the political values of those Democrats, they will continue on the same course. Why wouldn’t they? And if Democrats whose political values are violated by these office holders refrain from ever working against them, solely because they have a (D) after their name, then this process will continue unabated.

much more at http://www.salon.com/opinion/g…..index.html

The mainstream media coverage was HORRIBLE, and remains so.

Did Hillary really “win” Texas?

Jeepers, even professors of journalism with real life experience in mainstream media are questioning the awfulness of the coverage.

Same here in the piney woods, the scorched earth policy of total
republican dominance at every local level left a remnant democratic
party badly understaffed for the tsunami of voters… it is after all
a voluntary job, even the republicans have trouble getting enough to
help out.

OT
Here’s a guest editorial by William Polk.(Read his credentials) Its the best I have read!Thanks to Juan Cole for publishing.
http://www.juancole.com/2008/0…..r-and.html

In the county I’m in (Denton), they always ask for support, attendance. They never get any. My brother works as a Democratic election official in Kerr County and it’s the same thing.

When I took part in the caucus, all of the talk was about how shocked we were to see so many Democrats in our precincts. The other talk was about how you are likely get your car vandalized if you have a Democratic sticker, your sign thrown away if you have one in the yard, or crank phone calls if you write a letter to the editor. So I really think it’s unrealistic and unfair to blame the few staunch party members in this state of Tom Delay and Carl Rove.

The delay in Texas contrasts with Iowa, where results typically settle out the night of its caucuses, said Peverill Squire, a University of Missouri political scientist who worked until recently at the University of Iowa.

In all fairness, this is not a good comparison. Besides having had more experience running caucuses then Texas, there is also the fact that the entire population of Iowa could probably fit into one county in Texas. The high turnout that swamped the Texas caucuses and primaries is bigger by orders of magnitude than what high turnout in Iowa would be.

Gracious we have a conspiracy with clinton2 theoretically doing dirty deeds in Texas. We have Elliot the Clean found doing the dirty and found how? Popular conspiracy theory holds by illegal wire taps. What a fun spring this is and to top it all bushy is sending the shooter to Israel to talk peace, UFR. My conspiracy meter is already running over. What if something happens to the old boy in the ME, who could we blame, where could we start a war?

My question is, “Did Hillary really win Ohio?” According to The Raw Story, over 16,000 Republicans in just one county of Ohio voted as Democrats to help nominate Hillary as McCain’s opponent. If that holds true in other counties, then Rush actually did influence the outcome in Ohio and Texas and the news media, as well as Obama, should shout it to the high heavens that Hillary’s win was not actually a win, but a verification that the Republicans fear Obama and want Hillary!

The local Obama headquarters was defaced with spraypaint on the building
and cars in the parking lot, the word “racist” was sprayed over and over.
It is tough in reddest red Texas.

No One could’ve predicted…

No One could’ve anticipated…

When is No One gunna stfu and leave.

me likey

one more time, they did not get Spitzer on an illegal wiretap, they had a warrant

suspect profiling, hell yeah, but they had a warrant for the taps

as a former Manhattan Prosecutor and States AG, he of all people knew about Suspicious Activity reporting (SARs) from banks and other financial institutions – these reporting requirements had informed some of his prosecutions in the past and yet put extra money in the nookie account

Ugly stuff all around.

But nothing about his banking activity, that has become public so far, should ever have triggered a SAR.

My question is, “Did Hillary really win Ohio?” According to The Raw Story, over 16,000 Republicans in just one county of Ohio voted as Democrats to help nominate Hillary as McCain’s opponent. If that holds true in other counties, then Rush actually did influence the outcome in Ohio and Texas and the news media, as well as Obama, should shout it to the high heavens that Hillary’s win was not actually a win, but a verification that the Republicans fear Obama and want Hillary!

I think Hillary would have won Ohio without any GOP help, though it would have been closer. While the Obama supporters were ENERGIZED, the 3am phone call ad and her massive support across the Dem establishment turned the tide. Obama simply MUST counter that ad.

I agree it shows that the GOP fears Obama. They’ve been digging dirt on Hillary for 16 years and I bet they’ve got a lot of it. It wouldn’t shock me a bit if she’s indicted the day after she becomes the nominee. Politics dirties everybody involved eventually, but Obama is such a fresh face that they’ve likely got nothing worhtwhile on him.

Boxturtle (Though the GOP will have no problem running with “Black man with Islamic sounding name”)

How could Spitzer have possibly thought that something like this–assuming it’s true, which all indications point to–would not be revealed? That’s some serious delusional thinking right there.

Let me figure this out, with politics, the Corporatist Party of K-street influence peddlers, and The War, or Wars, maintained by K-street. Hillary Clinton “won” Texas and Ohio with at least some help from Bushie crossover votes.

But Hillary’s campaign strategirist, Mark Penn owns BKSH. BKSH is run by Charlie Black, McCain’s strategirist. BKSH got secret government contracts to promote Chalabi and The WMD Legend.

It is outrageous that Hillary’s campaign manager, Penn, has Crazy John McCain and AhMad Chalabi as clients. Mark Penn also helped catapult the propaganda for this criminal Iraq Occupation. Hillary should immediately fire Mark Penn (instead of paying him millions of dollars).

No one is unhappy with turnout. That’s a separate issue from making sure the election is run with some degree of competence.

Regarding FL and MI primaries, Chuck Todd(on MSNBC)said that Clinton wants either as-is count or new primary, not for the delegates voted on, but for the superdelegates. He said both states superdelegates almost unanimously are Clinton supporters but won’t be recognized unless the DNC allows the two states primaries to count for seating delegates.

if you are going by the Form 8300/$10k no – but those days and regs are gone
further, he was moving it around in a way which is now a trigger per tighter anti money laundering statutes in the Banking Secrecy Act

again, I don’t doubt the political nature, just sayin’ he was well aware of the current disclosure environment

FWIW, the caucus I attended had four precincts caucusing at the same location. The number of delegates to the Senate district varied in each from 14 to 20 (my precinct was the 20 delegate). As best I could tell, the split by candidates seemed fairly even. This was in north central San Antonio. My precinct did NOT have anyone voting uncommitted which is another wrinkle that may be slowing things done a bit.

Eliot Spitzer’s potential future:
Someone on wnyc just said (and don’t hold me to the truth of it) that Jerry Springer might have become governor of Ohio if he hadn’t once bounced a check to a hooker.

Former bank manager called wnyc this morning & said that neither the bank nor the IRS would have paid any attention to the kind of banking activity that has been publicly reported.

once bounced a check to a hooker.

I just can not read FDL without learning something. Hookers take cheques?

Unless he had a bank account under the name John Smith, or something, I would say the checks doomed Springer’s political future, regardless of whether or not he had sufficeint funds.

That’s what worries me. I don’t doubt that Spitzer had enemies (duh) or was a zealot. Or that he couldn’t keep his pants zipped. But gosh all those Republican wall streeters hated it when he stuck his nose into their business activities. Payback? (Even as the economy teeters from their bad decisions…)

I’m just reporting. I have no idea how the “hooker” industry actually works.

I don’t remember the exact situation but that sounds about right. IIRC, he was the “Boy wonder” mayor of Cincinnati at the time although I think the hooker was located in Covington, KY (across the river).

This was a fishing expedition and they came up with Spitz and he was caught having consensual sex outside his marriage for pay. That’s enough to destroy someone’s ability to be a gov. for sure

Last night Andrea Mitchell said something to the effect that Spitzer was involved in working out highly complex economic matters with corporations and that this would be a terrible time for him to bail out. She had a sincerely worried look on her face. I wondered if she was relaying something from her husband. Matthews didn’t follow it up.

1,783 DAYZ AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND…

Firepup Freedom Fighters:

Holy batshit!! I jest read the Rolling Stone article…all firepups, go read it!

The structure of Obama’s campaign, the grassroots base, the number of experienced and dedicated old line progressive organizers, and the willingness of the “executive” of the campaign to let go of local campaign operations looks and awful lot like DEMOCRACY, don’t it??!!

Compare this to the Clinton campaign structure and the attitude of the candidate and her honchos toward her base voters…base supporters are only good for votes, they don’t wanna hear about ‘em beyond the ballot box and they certainly can’t be trusted ta carry message or organize neighborhoods…that’s too dangerous!

KEEP THE FAITH AND PASS THE AMMUNITON…LET’S HELP THE BASTARDS INTO EARLY RETIREMENT!!

wiki knows all:

Springer was elected to the Cincinnati city council in 1971.[3] He was forced to resign in 1974 after admitting to hiring a prostitute.[3] The episode was uncovered when a police raid on a Fort Wright, Kentucky “massage parlor” unearthed a check Jerry Springer had written for its “services”. Jerry Springer came clean at a press conference. His honesty helped him win back his seat in 1975. In 1979, he was chosen to serve one year as mayor by the City Council.

In 1982, Springer sought the Democratic nomination for Governor of Ohio. TV commercials for Springer’s campaign referenced his use of a check to pay a prostitute, saying that he wasn’t afraid of the truth “even if it hurts”.[4] He failed to win the Democratic party’s nomination, and his political career was put on hiatus. Springer considered running for the United States Senate in 2003,[5] but backed down due to negative affiliations with The Jerry Springer Show.[6]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_Springer

Rubbish. He wasn’t moving money in any suspicious way.

Why would the IRS be examining a multi millionaire making large transactions to consulting firms?

His Insurance Commissioner, Eric Dinallo, is up to his eyeballs in trying to work out a solution to the monoline insurance provider crisis. It’s a HUGE issue that is contributing to the economy’s weakness and, if not solved, could kick it into the total pit. That’s a real issue.

The second paragraph was also a quote from wiki. Don’t know why it’s outside the blockquote.

Heard something about this in passing. Don’t have any details, though.

I heard some reporting I think on Air America, Randi Rhodes pre vote I think, that the Clinton campaign had circulated a memo to their people to ask in the Texas caucuses, if Clinton supporters were outnumbered, to be allow to “count the votes’” in order to ‘be fair” about the result. So, did this actually happen and could deliberately slow counting up the Clintonites be responsible for the lack of a final tally?

She didn’t mention anything that specific, but her description of the importance sounded a lot like yours.

I’ve discovered if I’m quoting multiple paragraphs, I need to have a space before the start of the quoted material and after as well. And then I still check preview to make sure…

ecahn–he was mayor, and city council in cincinnati, he wasn’t going to get the nomination, he was small-time……..i didn’t even remember him running for governor, and i was informed, so, couldn’t have been that serious of a run.

and the hooker thing was laughed about all over town…….not that he got a hooker, but that he didn’t use cash. was at the quality inn, covington, northern kentucky. i think he was single at the time.

didn’t hurt him a bit was what we all thought. people made jokes about it, the funny kind…even he did…even the bastion of two-faced willy cunningham-pre-willy–wlw radio, didn’t even spend too much time on it, except to laugh about it. and cincinnati at that time was VERY republican.

at that time, he also did daily commentaries on the local rock show, webn, where he kicked ass daily…..i still remember the one he did about unions……..he was already branching out into other arenas by then.

It’s definitely true. When it happened, they even had a copy of the canceled check on the news.

“She had a sincerely worried look on her face.“

If I was a smart ass, I would ask “How could you tell?”

But I’m not, so, never mind.

This doesn’t surprise me. I lived in Texas for 2 years, and I found it very difficult to vote there. First, I had to have a voter ID card in order to vote. When I moved to a different county and changed my address for my drivers license online I asked to change my voter registration. I got two notices from the county I moved from letting me know that I had been removed from their registration list but never got a new voter ID card from the new county despite repeated requests. By the time I left Texas 8 months later I had yet to receive a voter ID card. This is probably part of the reason why Texas has always averaged 20 something percent turnout in previous elections. I can only imagine how frustrating it must have been. November can only be worse.

Umm, maybe this will explain why those caucus delegate results aren’t being reported/are being held back:

The Dallas Morning News’ blog online reported on Sat. Mar. 1 that Clinton caucus training materials instructed supporters to fight for procedural control.

Why? To control the announcement of the delegates.

The Dallas Morning News reported:

In training materials being handed out by the Clinton campaign, it is clear that they want to control those caucus sessions. The materials say in part, ‘DO NOT allow the supporter of another candidate to serve in leadership roles.’

[SNIP]

The Clinton Campaign Texas Training Materials stated:

“The control of the sign-in sheets and the announcement of the delegates allotted to each candidate are the critical functions of the Chair and Secretary. This is why it is so important that Hillary supporters hold these positions.“

http://trailblazers.beloblog.c…..ategy.html

Awwww, who cares. Just announce obalamadingdong won big whether he did or not. HE will.

OBAMA WINS! Because Team Clinton think caucuses are UNDEMOCRATIC anyway and that those voters don’t count.
AL FRANKEN WINS! His Democratic rival just dropped out.

Say goodby Hillary!
Say goodby Norm!

Obama and Franken -THEY’RE GOOD ENOUGH, THEY’RE SMART ENOUGH AND DOGGONE IT – PEOPLE LIKE ‘EM!

Yeah, who needs that pesky ol vote thingy anyway, let’s just have the most obnoxious, aggressive folks shout down anyone with another opinion and call obamalamadingdong the winner…now THAT’S democracy!!

So did Raw Story interview all of those voters to ask them why they voted? Why is it when Obama attracts Republican voters he’s showing his broad appeal, but when Republican’s vote for Hillary (which we don’t even know if they did) it’s part of a nefarious plot? Funny how Rush is so powerful among Republicans, yet his enemy McCain is the nominee. Just because Rush claims something doesn’t mean it happened.

I’d be interested in some evidence that shows which way all those Republicans voted. They just give their party affiliation, you know, they don’t say how they’re going to vote. So does Obama attract the Republican vote or not?

This is old news. It’s also standard campaign practice. We’ve heard plenty of stories from Texas about people being bullied, people trying to take control of the caucuses, shutting doors on voters, etc. What campaign worth it’s salt would just sit back and let the other campaign control the caucus? There have been stories of Obama workers telling Clinton supporters they can leave the caucus after casting their vote, so when the delegates were actually selected there wouldn’t be enough Clinton supporters on hand.

I have no idea which of these stories are true, but if the potential for this kind of mischief exists, what campaign wouldn’t try and control the process?

The Obama campaign keeps getting talked up for its smarts and organization, particularly at caucuses. Do you really think they didn’t take the exact same approach, and instead sat back and let the Clinton campaign run things?

This is just anothe ginned up outrage of the day for Obama supporters.