Thanks 2007 elections!

Surely should elections in those two states go to Republicans it means Glenn Beck can fire up his awesome time-travel enabled magic underwear to transport himself back to November 2008 and invalidate the last Presidential election.

For bending reality is the specialty of FoxNews, even candidates endorsing a Democrat get manufactured into endorsements of the extra-right-wing right-winger. Whatever happens, I’m sure it will be construed as good news for Republicans in 2010.

After all, just look at the 2007 elections which saw the Republicans take back the Louisiana Governor’s mansion, right Chris Cillizza?

Louisiana: Is Jindal’s Win a Sign of GOP Turnaround Nationally?

Rep. Bobby Jindal’s outright victory in yesterday’s Louisiana gubernatorial primary was the first piece of good electoral news for the Republican Party in months, prompting talk that the GOP is rebounding from the 2006 debacle.

And it all ended up working out so well for President McCain, Speaker Boehner and Majority Leader McConnell in 2008.

(photo from here)

Headline from New York’s election results last night:

“New York Democrats Say License Issue Had Little Effect“

And in Virginia, here’s the headline:

“In the Ballot Booths, No Fixation on Immigration“

Okay, so, in Virginia, immigration demagoguing did not help Republicans, and in NY, despite the quotes from party insiders justifying their abandonment of Spitzer as saving the day and a voter quote cherry picked by the NYT editors to suggest Democratic voter “concern,” there’s really no evidence that immigration demagoguing moved votes to the GOP. At all.

The NYT article reminds me of how Rahm Emanuel took credit for 2006 after his original DCCC short list did lousy, the people on his late changing list did better after he added some of our Blue America candidates to shore up his stats, after he spent the major part of the cycle telling everyone to STFU about Iraq. Then after the election, he took credit for the “thumpin’,” when it all happened in spite of him, not because of him.

You’re a fucking genius, there, Rahm.

Sorry, but until I see real data that says voters in NY were actually moved to vote based on immigration or opposition to Spitzer’s plan, I’ll remain of the opinion, confirmed by results all over and from the past, that the scary brown people code language moves votes among the racist fringe and not among Democrats, nor among liberal/progressives. These are not votes we’re ever going to get and trying to pretend we should want them is political malpractice and moral suicide.

So, New York Democrats, what was all the “Spitzer is KILLING us!” stuff really about, if not Joe Bruno’s successful attempt to get the longs knives out within the state party against Spitzer, with love from Andrew Cuomo?

I’m with Jane: I’m not getting it either, or rather, maybe I do get it, and I don’t really like the obvious answer.

[photo by rauchdickson]

Like Hansel and Gretel hoping to follow their bread crumbs out of the forest, the FBI sifted through customer data collected by San Francisco-area grocery stores in 2005 and 2006, hoping that sales records of Middle Eastern food would lead to Iranian terrorists.

The idea was that a spike in, say, falafel sales, combined with other data, would lead to Iranian secret agents in the south San Francisco-San Jose area.

The brainchild of top FBI counterterrorism officials Phil Mudd and Willie T. Hulon, according to well-informed sources, the project didn’t last long. It was torpedoed by the head of the FBI’s criminal investigations division, Michael A. Mason, who argued that putting somebody on a terrorist list for what they ate was ridiculous — and possibly illegal.

A check of federal court records in California did not reveal any prosecutions developed from falafel trails….

“Domain management has been portrayed by the bureau as a broad analytic approach, not specific data mining activities,” says Amy Zegart, author of the much-praised recent book, “Spying Blind: The CIA, the FBI and the Origins of 9/11.” “It is a methodology to determine what is known about a problem, develop indices to measure it, and take steps to close knowledge gaps.”

Zegart said her recent interviews with FBI officials “suggest that domain management has been implemented in a spotty fashion; L.A. and New York appear to be ahead of the curve, but some other field offices are not using it and at least one had never heard of it.”

As ridiculous as it sounds, the groceries counting scheme is a measure of how desperate the FBI is to disrupt domestic terrorism plots….

So, listen up you San Francisco/San Jose area potential scary Iranian terrorists (or vegans or ethnic food lovers or foreign students or health food aficionados, or followers of low fat or low carb diets or people who shop at Whole Foods or Trader Joes or buy in bulk at Costco or…well, you know what I mean, you falafel lovers): They know who you are.

And that you are buying organic yogurt and cucumbers and perky tomatoes (YouTube) to make a nice accompanying sauce with your whole-grain pitas.   Good lord, I wish I were making this up…

(H/T to Laura Rozen.)

PS — Egregious reminds me that it is election day in VA today, so please go and vote if you live there!  Also, dakine says it’s election day in KY, so get yerself to the polls there, too!  And in NY and IN.  And TX and MI (bring your photo ID).

Hope you all saved all the daylight you wanted, ’cause it’s over. Extra hour for late nite partying tonight! So turn those clocks back and let’s celebrate!

With this free gift of time I would like to share what is making me so happy tonight. Virginia Democrats are in the midst of unrolling an unprecedented get out the vote effort for this Tuesday, when we elect our new legislature. There are not so many elections in ’07, so our gains will be seen as symbolic progress for the national party.

Yes, I know, Blue Dog Dems, traitor Dems, et al, but we are talking about a conservative state that is moving in a good direction at a fairly rapid clip. Two consecutive Dem governors, for the Senate we are on track to replace the Repub Warner with the Dem Mark Warner, and the outcome of the presidential election in Virginia is now uncertain—our electoral votes do not automatically go to Thug-in-Chief Giuliani (R-Terra/Be afraid!) or other subpar candidate. From WaPo:

“A win in Virginia will send a powerful message around the nation about next year and the outcome of the 2008 elections,” Sen. James Webb (D-Va.) said while soliciting Democratic volunteers to help get out the vote.

Did I mention how much I adore Webb, who is front and center in the Senate efforts to delegitimize an attack on Iran, establish a new Truman Commission on war contracting scandals, and spare our military from being sent back to the hellhole that is Iraq before they have had adequate rest? Talk about supporting the troops, this is it.

A particularly splendid victory would be in my own district where incumbent Jeannemarie Devolites Davis, wife of Congressman Tom Davis [who unlike Waxman, found nothing worth investigating] is pitted against the seasoned and reasonable Chap Peterson for State Senate. The Davis campaign has been predictably nasty and a victory would be very sweet. It’s all about get out the vote, and we are so working on it.

And, at least in Virginia, we are finally beginning to get the winning coalition together:

Labor unions, who view Virginia’s elections as a test run for next year’s presidential race, are also flooding the state. The AFL-CIO is mobilizing 150 union volunteers in Hampton Roads, Northern Virginia and Roanoke…also getting help from the Human Rights Campaign…and the Sierra Club.

In a week where we have experienced many setbacks and disappointments—and as one who works in Russia I bow to no one in my capacity to be depressed about how the world is going—I do see signs of hope. If states like Alaska and Virginia can turn blue so quickly, we might just make it after all.