Category: Politics & Elections

Texas GOP Platform

From The Houston Chronicle:

The new platform not only condemns homosexuality — “the practice of sodomy tears at the fabric of society” — it also advocates felony penalties for anyone issuing a marriage license or performing a marriage ceremony for a same-sex couple.

*****

Delegates adopted a plank that strongly supports the war in Iraq. Another plank re-emphasizes long-standing conservative antipathy toward the United Nations by calling for the United States to rescind its membership in the U.N. and physically evict the U.N., which is headquartered in New York, from U.S. soil.

An anti-big-government attitude pervades the document with various planks calling for reduced spending, tax cuts and abolition of the Internal Revenue Service. The platform proposes replacing the federal income tax with a national retail sales tax.

The document also includes a plank calling for new restrictions on lawsuits brought over exposure to asbestos.

The platform also calls for repeal of the hate crimes law, repeal of the minimum wage, opposes the provision of reproductive health services, including condoms, in public schools and proposes the death penalty as a punishment option for rape.

A surprise new purge

The Oregonian is concerned about Florida:

We confidently predict that the outcome of the 2004 presidential election will not hang on paper ballots’ “hanging chads” in Florida. We are immensely troubled, though, that the Nov. 2 Election Day winner could be determined by denying the vote to thousands of Floridians, predominantly African Americans, who will be purged wrongly — and in our view illegally — from the voter rolls.

Read more from The Oregonian editorial.

Thanks to Lee for the pointer.

It never stops II

From Al Kamen’s In the Loop at The Washington Post:

Everyone talks about how crucial the Latino vote is going to be in November. Both parties are putting out literature and Web pages in Spanish in an effort to communicate better with this huge constituency.

The Republicans have a sign-up page — called “Abriendo Caminos” or opening paths — that promises Spanish-speaking folks that President Bush and the GOP will “send you weekly news about the topics that most interest you.”

The sign-up page asks the usual stuff — name, address, telephone number and e-mail address. You are to check which of many listed topics — immigration, health, Social Security, corporate responsibility, crime prevention and so on — are of most interest.

Then it asks what you are. There are four options: war veteran or retired military; teacher or educator; senior citizen; or farmer or rancher. That’s it. Nothing for lawyers, doctors, engineers or corporate executives to check.

Not even a box for “otro?”

Here’s the GOP page.

Link via Atrios.

Unity the theme

From the Albuquerque Journal:

Together, state Sen. Richard Romero and the man he defeated walked into an Albuquerque hotel ballroom arm and arm to the cheers of fellow Democrats.

Unity was the theme of the victory party Tuesday night after Romero handily beat Dr. Miles Nelson to grab the Democratic primary election nomination for the 1st Congressional District.

NewMexiKen can’t remember another instance where the winner and loser in an election, even a primary, appeared together on election night. Nice idea.

Catty remarks

George W. Bush is out jogging one morning, and notices a little boy on the corner with a box. Curious, he runs over to the child and says, “What’s in the box kid?”

The little boy says, “Kittens, they’re brand new kittens.”

George W. laughs and says, “What kind of kittens are they?”

“Republicans,” the child says.

“Oh that’s cute,” George W. says and he runs off.

A couple of days later George is running with his buddy Dick Cheney and he spies the same boy with his box just ahead. George W. says to Dick, “You gotta check this out” and they both jog over to the boy with the box. George W. says, “Look in the box, Dick, isn’t that cute? Look at those little kittens. Hey kid tell my friend Dick what kind of kittens they are.”

The boy replies, “They’re Democrats.”

“Whoa!”, George W. says, “I came by here the other day and you said they were Republicans. What’s up?”

“Well,” the kid says, “Their eyes are open now”

————

Thanks to South Knox Bubba.

Too stupid to vote

That would be me.

NewMexiKen went to vote this afternoon in the New Mexico primary. The precinct officials and I were troubled when my name did not appear on the roster of eligible voters. I voted last election; what could be wrong? The precinct captain called the country clerk’s office. It seems I had declined to state my party so, of course, I don’t get to vote in the primary. D’oh.

[It is perhaps a reflection of the very light turnout that all this was resolved in about two minutes.]

Negative

As he so often does, Dave Pell at Electablog has a different kind of take, this time on negative ads:

I always find it interesting that politicians focus their efforts on negative ads when the rest of world’s top marketers stay positive. Can you imagine a Coke commercial that criticizes Pepsi for flip-flopping on the saccharine vs nutrasweet issue, or a series [of] Harry Potter ads that imply that Shrek was once in favor of a 50 cent gas tax hike?

Of course, Budweiser and Miller are doing exactly that these days, which is yet another reason for prefering micro-brews.

But are they our Idols?

Virginia Heffernan in The New York Times has a great idea:

November’s general elections need a “results show” like the big bash “American Idol” staged on Fox last night. Instead of distracted anchormen calling tallies from boring desks, the hyperhappy host, Ryan Seacrest, could crow in a tieless tux about how fabulous voter turnout was. Past failed candidates – Carol Moseley Braun, Bob Dole and Howard Dean, certainly – could reprise old stump speeches, all smiles now. Finally, following a sax rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” by a former idol, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and John Kerry could stand up, holding hands, trembling but beaming encouragement to each other, as Ryan announced our next American president.

Heffernan’s brief article on the final of American Idol is worth reading.

Thanks to Veronica for the tip.

No No No

MoveOn.org, which has done some good stuff, apparently is set to run an ad showing an Abu Ghraib-esque hood over the head of the Statue of Liberty as a way of drawing attention to the prison scandal.

Electablog* thinks this is a very bad idea. NewMexiKen agrees. John Kerry and the Democrats, including groups like MoveOn, should be raising the level of the campaign, not dragging it down.

Kerry 320, Bush 218

The Wall Street Journal Online has the latest Zogby poll in interactive form. It shows Kerry ahead in all but four of the 17 battleground states.

In New Mexico Kerry leads 48.4% to 43.3%, with Nader at 2.9%.

Link via Kos.

Update: According to CBS it’s Kerry 49%, Bush 41% nationwide.

The election

With his approval rating sinking and more than $100 million in ads seemingly ineffective, it’s a good thing for Bush he’s got the Diebold vote locked up.

MIA

NewMexiKen did not attend his own college graduation ceremonies, so this is not entirely fair, but then this is love and war. From TBogg (news story from CNN):

President Bush wasn’t the only one who skipped the pomp and circumstance of his daughter’s graduation from the University of Texas on Saturday. Jenna Bush did not participate either.

Despite her name being listed on the commencement program, Bush was not among the more than 150 English majors receiving degrees Saturday afternoon at the Austin campus. Attendance at the event is not required to graduate from the university.

[…]

A White House spokeswoman said she did not know why Jenna Bush did not attend the commencement but added that the administation declines to comment on matters related to the president’s daughters.

Jenna claims that she instead attended graduation ceremonies at the University of Alabama…but no one remembers seeing her there.

The Political Compass

The Political Compass uses six pages of questions (3-5 minutes) to evaluate your political/economic attitudes and place you on a four-dimensional chart. It’s interesting, and more thoughtful and thorough than most of these things. As the authors point out: “The old one-dimensional categories of ‘right’ and ‘left’, established for the seating arrangement of the French National Assembly of 1789, are overly simplistic for today’s complex political landscape.”

NewMexiKen is proud to report that I was positioned somewhere in the territory of Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama.

Also take a look at their Iconochasms. Your heroes may surprise you, as mine did me somewhat.

Thanks to Byron and Jill for the pointer.