I am in the 9PM show tonight at Stand Up New York on a bill with people who I can’t name because this club hasn’t gotten its shit together and put its schedule on its website.
Still, I’ve got 10 minutes and the show will rock.
Friday, November 05, 2004
See This! Just When You Thought It Was OverSo now comes word that a computer malfunction (no reason to call it anything else ... yet) wildly overstated Bush’s vote total in one Columbus precinct.
Please tell me that this happened all over Ohio. Pretty please? I think we only need, like, 40 more of these to take the state. On a more serious note, this shows that we should all support Black Box Voting’s effort to review the internal logs from the electronic voting machines across the country.
Fun With Maps
No Time For PussiesJeff Goldstein over at Protein Wisdom (an arch-conservative, but often hysterically funny blog) has been rightly mocking the bipartisan calls for “healing" because he knows that the Republicans whipped our asses.
We don’t need “healing,” we need sane policy. If the Democrats aren’t willing to fight for what they know is right—war requires justification, economic justice requires progressive taxation, homosexual relationships deserve recognition, women’s rights and the rest of what the party holds as central to its mission of protecting the weak from the powerful—they will have earned the electoral rejection that they will certainly face in 2006, 2008 and thereafter.
Cass Sunstein sounds the alarm for the party, and you should watch the commercial (or, more accurately, click on the commercial and then surf in another browser for a while) to read his essay in Salon.
Thursday, November 04, 2004
Maybe I Need To Check My GlassesAm I nuts or did Theresa wink at John Edwards after the concession speech? First John Heinz, then John Kerry - I think this woman really wants to be the First Lady.
Judy Nathan, watch your back. Theresa already got to Elizabeth Edwards.
Nutcase ISO NutcaseI’m upset about the election, and I wish I could change the results. But I’m not sure that, even if he gets a response, this guy is going to get the catharsis he is seeking. Particularly if the guy who responds to his ad is, say, him.
So, Ace? Ken? Jheka? Is anyone up for the challenge?
If anyone takes this guy on, I’d love to read his blog the next day.
UPDATE: Craigslist took the post down. And since I’ve read that very few bloggers actually click through anyway, much less read the comments, I figure you wouldn’t see this otherwise. The post said:
Straight male seeks Bush supporter for fair, physical fight.
I would like to fight a Bush supporter to vent my anger. If you are one, have a fiery streek, please contact me so we can meet and physically fight. I would like to beat the shit out of you.
The Rainbow CoalitionIn the wake of Bush’s victory at the polls, Rick’s received some interesting mail from conservatives. Here are two from opposite ends of the spectrum. Sadly, I feel there are more Bills than Jameses out there.
A Gentle ReminderAs Karol gloats and words like “mandate” are bandied about, and people talk of Red and Blue states and increasing polarity and blah blah blah, it is worth remembering that New York is much closer to Texas than people think.
Hat tip to Encyclopedia Hanasiana.
An AfterthoughtWhy isn’t Election Day a national holiday?
Sunshine MattersI don’t expect it to actually change anything. I don’t think that the election was stolen. As far as I can tell, all of the individual voting problems—Kerry votes showing up as “Bush” and vice versa—were resolved on site and had no effect on the election. I do, however, support Black Box Voting’s effort to get the computer logs for all of the election results.
The most important feature of a democratic election is transparency. It is therefore undemocratic to use machines that can not be checked after the fact for accuracy, particularly when the voting machine software vulnerability is widely known.
This election was almost certainly not one in which that vulnerability was exploited, but some future election may hinge on how well we know what is inside the computers. I wish Black Box Voting’s effort was a less partisan one, but what they are doing has to be done.
Wednesday, November 03, 2004
I knewI sort of knew that it was over in Florida before Wednesday. Some Floridians I know, Republicans that despised the way Bush has conducted the war in Iraq and had previously sworn that they wouldn’t vote for him, couldn’t wrap their minds around the idea of a John Kerry as President of the United States. They had voted for Bush before I arrived and had a chance to try and talk them out of it. Another friend, a gay early-twenty-something also said that he was going to vote for Bush. I may have talked him out of it—I’ll never ask, so I’ll never know—but I was obviously trying to drain the ocean with a teaspoon. These people were like a bellwether of Bush’s victory; they didn’t like Bush but they really didn’t like Kerry. And they voted. With that news, I took everything I heard thereafter—the final Monday polls and the afternoon exit polling—with a grain of salt.
I was disappointed but not surprised at the final result. All of the Floridians I am talking about were bright folks; they fall into a separate category from the people I bemoaned in Karol’s comments. They are people who would have fired Bush if the Democrats had a better candidate. They wanted to vote FOR somebody, not AGAINST somebody and Kerry didn’t inspire them at all. I can only shrug my shoulders and wonder what might have been if Howard Dean had won. The voters uncomfortable with the President’s performance clearly didn’t want Bush-lite; not when they could just keep Extra Strength Bush. But I think they would have given much more consideration to an anti-Bush.
Anyway, here are some random notes on my Florida experience.
A Victory . . . But For Whom?Certainly for Bush. We now have 4 more years of this guy, except now the gloves are off. He’s no longer beholden to the people for re-election, but with a return to the private sector looming large on the horizon, he is as much as ever a slave to the special interests who put him where he is today.
Here are my predictions for the next 4 years, and I hope to God I am wrong about every one:
The People Have SpokenI’m not happy about it, and I can’t say I understand it, but it is a fact: a clear majority of American voters want Bush re-elected. I didn’t want Gore to concede in 2000, but I do think Kerry should concede now. Like it or not, the people have spoken.
SighI was too tired to blog when I came back from poll-watching yesterday and I am too depressed to blog today. Unless all of the Ohio provisional ballots were the result of racist Republican challenges, this is over.
Watch your ass, Iran.
UPDATE: It seems like all of the voter challenge-talk was pre-election bluster. Even if it worked a little, I doubt it worked 100,000 votes’ worth.
I don’t get it. The only politician with more evidence indicating that he should walk away than President Bush was Senator Geary. And Bush is reponsible for his crimes. Yet a clear majority of the country loves this guy. I’m going back to bed.
Tuesday, November 02, 2004
Before the DelugePretty soon, the results are going to start coming in from the East Coast. Right now, however, the New York Times has only Indiana (3.2%) and Kentucky (20%) reporting.
In 2000, Kentucky voted 56.6% Bush 41% Gore. So far, with 20% of the vote in, Kentucky is 53% Bush, 46.2% Kerry.
In 2000, Indiana voted 56.4% Bush, 41.3% Gore. So far, with only 3.2% reporting, Indiana is 58.2% Bush, 41% Kerry.
In both states, as more votes have been coming in, Bush’s lead has been deteriorating in both states. While this is hardly predictive of anything, I am comforted to see what appears to be a trend of solidly red states showing less Bush support than they did in 2000.
UPDATE: With 27% in for Kentucky, Bush is back up, 54.9 vs. 44.3. Indiana also got worse for Kerry: with 5.3% reporting, Bush has 59.8% of the vote, Kerry only 39.5%.
