From an AP report via WSJ.com:
Both New Jersey and Virginia saw races for governor marked by nasty personal attacks. One ad in Virginia charged that one candidate would not have supported the death penalty for Adolf Hitler; another in New Jersey quoted a candidate’s ex-wife as saying he would betray the state.
From Jesus’ General
It was a year ago today that Byron sparked NewMexiKen’s most excellent exchange of comments.
Functional Ambivalent exhumes an entry from a couple of years ago that argues that we (collectively) vote for the presidential candidate we perceive would be the most fun to party with.
It’s an interesting assessment, worth your time. For NewMexiKen’s part I am trying to see how it correlates with the evangelical vote going primarily to Bush. We know from studies that many evangelicals are hypocrites (higher divorce rates, higher alcoholism rates, etc., than the population at large), but it would seem they would vote against the party-boy even so. (Hypocrites being in fact hypocrites). Or am I overlooking the “saved” aspect? Does F/A need to update his theory so that a “born-again” (i.e., found the lord) party-boy is the even more popular choice?
Not for me, I hasten to add. Not expecting to party with the president, I prefer competence.
… a year ago today.
Sigh!
“But if this is the end for a lame duck president, then perhaps it’s time to look at Bush: The Next Generation. After all, we are already into the second generation of Bush presidencies, and bad news does come in threes.”
“The sole difference between Republicans and traditional Democrats is now taxes. Democrats want to tax people who are alive now, even when they die, and Republicans — in a somewhat ironic extension of their pro-life beliefs — want to tax only people who aren’t born yet.”
“Last night, the president sampled so many Democratic riffs he ought to send a royalty check to Ted Kennedy.”
In his speech from the French Quarter, Bush decided not to mention that his party wants to make cuts to Medicaid, or that he has championed and enacted tax cuts that benefit the richest Americans. He didn’t mention that he has committed the nation to a long and costly overseas war with no end in sight. He didn’t, in fact, say anything that would identify himself as a conservative Republican. He didn’t even look like the President of the United States! He might have been a basketball coach, or a dentist. Let’s just say it directly: He was in disguise. He might as well have worn a dashiki.
You can blame politicians for New Orleans all you like. I know I certainly will, starting right up at the top. But we just had a nationwide election and it turned on issues that were as inconsequential as they were passionately argued. President Bush is in office today because a bunch of voters in Ohio don’t like homosexuals very much. Members of Congress are enjoying another few years of decent salaries and preferred parking because they brought home the bacon to fill potholes and build sports stadiums.
And we, the people, keep putting them back in office because its easier to do that than it is to pay attention. I know people who can’t name their own Senators but can expound at insane length and in appalling detail about UFOs. There are tens of millions of American’s who’ve never set foot in a polling place. Our media, which exist entirely to give us what we want, spend more energy on Paris Hilton than they do on the very real possibility that New Orleans might disappear one day.
And here we are.
“[D]o you realize that three of the six Democratic presidential candidates as of the New Hampshire primary in 2004 were from states that border New Hampshire? This ridiculous institutional bias in favor of New England has got to go ….”
Colorado Luis in an excellent discussion on “Democrats and the West.”
We also ought to recognize that we made mistakes. The way you fix mistakes is you recognize them and you fix them. We’ve made them. Every war, including the battle for reunification—the war of reunification of our nation, mistakes were made.
Senator John McCain on the June 28 edition of Hardball
Which war was the “war of reunification”? The Civil War one supposes. McCain must see southern votes between here and 2008.
Pointer via The Daily Howler.
The Secretary of the Senate and the Chief Administrative Officer of the House of Representatives (upon certification by the Clerk of the House of Representatives), respectively, shall deduct from the monthly payments (or other periodic payments authorized by law) of each Member or Delegate the amount of his salary for each day that he has been absent from the Senate or House, respectively, unless such Member or Delegate assigns as the reason for such absence the sickness of himself or of some member of his family.
Is this done?
Jun Choi, a political newcomer who tapped into Edison’s burgeoning Asian population, wrestled the Democratic nomination from Mayor George Spadoro yesterday in a stunning upset.
Choi, the first Asian-American to run for mayor in the sprawling township, credited his victory to an army of Election Day volunteers who placed thousands of calls, knocked on doors, hung signs, and brought voters to the polls. …
Choi, who made his first bid for public office, was virtually unknown until two radio hosts on NJ 101.5 FM poked fun at his Korean heritage, asking who would vote for someone with that name and insisting Americans should vote for Americans.
The comments from the “Jersey Guys” brought a deluge of criticism from Asian groups, and gave Choi weeks of free publicity. He was invited on the show two weeks ago for about two hours during which Craig Carton and Ray Rossi apologized for their remarks.
What exactly is “my” side? In previous eras there were more clear-cut definitions of what “left” and “right were. Today there are dozens of variations. On economic issues I’m a typical liberal. Having run my own business and having worked for big corporations, I have a basic belief in capitalism, but I think that government, representing the collective will of the citizens, has a special obligation to balance out the excesses of the marketplace. I wouldn’t mind paying higher taxes to have national health care, better paid school teachers, smaller class sizes in public schools, and more jobs programs to help get people out of poverty and help average-income people deal with their lives more easily. It seems to me that many Western European countries have been better at supporting people on the low end of economic spectrum than Americans have, and the extent of poverty in America seems immoral to me given our country’s wealth. Although I’ve never been a member of a labor union, I believe they should be stronger. Corporations have so much power that it seems healthier to me for there to be a strong counterweight on behalf of workers. I also think our country should be more generous with foreign aid given the immense poverty around the world.
Conservative rhetoric that implies that private charities can replace government doesn’t ring true to me. I know that governments tend to be inefficient, but there are some things that only governments can do, such as build highways, protect the environment, and provide police protection, and so on. The environment is an area where it’s particularly important for government to enforce the public interest when it clashes with the economic interest of businesses.
Danny Goldberg, from his book, Dispatches from the Culture Wars: How the Left Lost Teen Spirit, quoted at Altercation.
I am: 14%
Republican. |
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From The Washington Post:
President Bush said the public’s decision to reelect him was a ratification of his approach toward Iraq and that there was no reason to hold any administration officials accountable for mistakes or misjudgments in prewar planning or managing the violent aftermath.
“We had an accountability moment, and that’s called the 2004 elections,” Bush said in an interview with The Washington Post. “The American people listened to different assessments made about what was taking place in Iraq, and they looked at the two candidates, and chose me.”
Last week NewMexiKen read Thomas Frank’s exceeding insightful analysis of why social conservatives vote against their apparent economic best interests — What’s the Matter with Kansas: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America. I recommend it highly for observations such as this:
Although the Cons [Conservative Republicans] vituperate against the high and the mighty, the policies they help exact—deregulating, privatizing—only serve to make the Mods [Moderate Republicans] higher and mightier still…. For decades Americans have experienced a populist uprising that only benefits the people it is supposed to be targeting…. The angry workers, mighty in their numbers, are marching irresistibly against the arrogant. They are shaking their first at the sons of privilege. They are laughing at the dainty affectations of the Leawood toffs. They are massing at the gates of Mission Hills, hoisting the black flag, and while millionaires tremble in their mansions, they are bellowing out their terrifying demands. “We are here,” they scream, “to cut your taxes.”
Elizabeth Bumiller’s lede in this morning’s New York Times —
Tickets to all official inaugural events, including an “elegant” candlelight dinner with a special appearance by President Bush: $100,000.
Tickets to all official inaugural events, two additional tickets to an “exclusive” lunch with Mr. Bush and Vice President Cheney, plus an all-access pass to any inaugural ball: $250,000.
Telling your friends, “As I explained to the president just the other day… .”: priceless.
If each American who voted for John Kerry spends $100 in 2005 on a Blue company instead of a Red company, we can move $5 Billion away from Republican companies and add $5 Billion to the income of companies who donate to Democrats.
The website Choose The Blue provides a complete rundown of money American corporations donated to the political parties during the 2003-2004 election cycle. The data was compiled from information in the public domain, including Federal Election Commission records (FEC.gov) and the Center for Responsible Politics.
Some that might be of interest:
Wal-Mart was 81% Red; Target 78% Red. Costco was 98% Blue.
Shell Oil was the only Blue gasoline company; Toyota the only Blue auto maker.
Microsoft, Cisco, eBay, Yahoo! Oracle, Sun, IBM and Adobe were Blue; Intuit was Red.
Sony was Blue; GE and Kodak were Red.
The Pittsburgh Steelers were Blue, but the Suns, Jets, Saints, Dodgers, Tigers, Red Wings, Rockies, Browns and Arizona Cardinals were Red, as was NASCAR.
Amazon was 61% Red. Barnes & Noble and Powells were 100% Blue.
More than 25 million people who voted for Bush (or nearly 42% of his total) voted in blue states (states won by Kerry).
More than 26 million people who voted for Kerry (or 46% of his total) voted in red states (states won by Bush).
I don’t think we should ignore the existence of these 51 million voters (NewMexiKen is one) with all this leaving the country, secession nonsense, even if it is just nonsense. Why encourage the media in its simplistic thinking?
Lupe Valdez is a woman, a Hispanic, a Democrat and a lesbian — and, come Jan. 1, she’s entering the ranks of Texas good ol’ boys. Valdez is becoming Sheriff Lupe.
Any one description — female, Latina, Democrat and openly gay — would have qualified Valdez’s election as Dallas County sheriff for the local history books. But all four?
…“It has not that much to do with me,” Valdez, 57, a retired federal law enforcement officer, said as she sat in her modest campaign office in Dallas’s largely Hispanic Oak Cliff neighborhood. The former migrant farm worker, who picked green beans and beets as a child and went on to a career in the military and federal government, and who recently earned a master’s degree in criminology, lives in the neighborhood, with its multitude of bungalows, taquerias and Latino-owned auto body shops.
“It speaks very well of Dallas County, for them to be comfortable in looking at my credentials and feeling comfortable that I could do the job,” she said. “What does female, what does Hispanic, what does any of this have to do with this? What is important is your experience, your ability and your willingness to do the job.”
— Story from The Washington Post
Stolen from Wonkette, who points out that vertical stripes make us look thinner.
The three closest states were Wisconsin (Kerry by 0.4%), Iowa (Bush by 0.9%) and New Mexico (Bush by 1.1%). New Hampshire, Nevada, Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota, Oregon and Pennsylvania were also close. That is, about 10 states were about as close or even closer than the nation as a whole.
The three most lopsided were D.C. (Kerry with 90%), Utah (Bush with 71%) and Wyoming (Bush with 69%). Idaho, Nebraska and Oklahoma were nearly as one-sided.
And when you’re thinking red states vs. blue states, keep in mind that 3.6 million Floridians and 2.8 million Texans voted for Kerry. And 4.4 million Californians and 2.8 million New Yorkers voted for Bush.