manufactured spintent

VOTE
* heres another vfraud report by people who are apparently academics - they argue that there is a significant difference between paper and evoting where there were parallel systems operating http://www.votersunite.org/info/SnohomishElectionFraudInvestigation.pdf

* content-packed AP article on iraq - including news of a recount... as u know, im curious of wandering articles, cos i wonder what they are trying to hide... this one has everything from deadmarines to saddams trial to recounts...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4788835,00.html

* " Members of a new federal voting commission meeting Wednesday to review problems with the 2004 election denounced the secretaries of state from Ohio and Florida, two states at the epicenter of complaints, for failing to show up." sweet. shorter blackwell: 'we're not playing'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4788954,00.html

* " Green Party presidential candidate David Cobb's pending request to have the flawed recount of Ohio's presidential vote be done again, this time in conformance with state and federal law, moved a step closer to judicial resolution with the filing last week of the final necessary documents before the matter can be heard by a federal judge." http://www.commondreams.org/news2005/0209-06.htm

* "The Federal Bureau of Investigation is interviewing members of the Clermont County Board of Elections because of a Democratic Congressman's claim of vote-tampering during the presidential election.
The allegations stem from white oval-shaped stickers, about the size of an M&M, placed on fewer than 100 ballots - 'used to correct ballots for the voters' intent'" thnku again mrconyers. http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050209/NEWS01/502090415/1056

* "Christopher Hitchens thinks the OHIO VOTE WAS STOLEN" http://nashuaadvocate.blogspot.com/2005/02/breaking-news-vanity-fairs-christopher.html (not the full article) and here http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/2/9/1712/26186 . curiouser and curiouser



WAR
* the iran drumbeat is heating up - cnni is doing the keyhole thing... expect more exciting graphics.

* chomsky speech 50 mins or so. gold, as always. http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/02/09/1458256



AMDOM
* pandagon picks up this sweet bit about the budget "It assumes that all discretionary spending outside of military and domestic security - everything from paperclips to space shuttles - will be frozen for the next five years" http://www.pandagon.net/mtarchives/004592.html

* theres a big debate going on still/again about what the dems need to tweak - heres a recent consensus-ish example -
Democracy Corps found the following to be the leading negative Dem attributes:
(1) Support for Gay Marriage - 32%
(2) No Strong Direction - 30%
(3) Support for Legalized Abortion - 28%
(4) Big Spending and Gov't Programs - 25%
(5) High Taxes - 24%
(6) Don't Back a Strong Military - 21%
(7) Too Dependent on Minorities - 20%
(8) Weak on Terror - 16%
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/2/6/154319/7203 - let me scream this loud&clear - none of it matters. i dont have a clue how to overcome the repug media, but trying to respond to these perceived weaknesses simply will never work (not withstanding the voting machine thingy, or the errors that we've seen with *even* exitpolling). the dems absoultely *can not* work within this framework - for a bunch of reasons. firstly, polling is broken - therefore responding to polls is stupid. the repugs put a deserter up against a war hero, (and an antiwar hero) and still won. secondly, the repugs have demonstrated they can shift the goalposts - mixing analogies, its the whole squeezing a balloon thingy. wherever 'we' push, they'll craft the opposite argument, or carve out a piece of it. if jonk was demonstrably 'more religious' than blinky, does anyone doubt that the krove machine could still win? does anyone seriously think that (krove+media+jonk) could beat blinky without those things? surely not. does anyone really believe that krove+media couldnt build an un-losable position with the dem platform of freedom - (equality & justice & choice) as being 'american'? its so easy to knock down each of the points mentioned above - abortion might be the only sticky one. dems dont support gay marriage - they just support the freedom to marry whoever u want. flipfloppery is a pure media construction. bigspending & high taxes is a construction. 'too weak' is a construction. and if the dems ever happen to solve any of these 'problems', then the balloon will pop out somewhere else, by repetition if nothing else. chasing these shadows is a complete fallacy, at *best* - and even if they eventually happen to win somewhere, itll be a faux win. hdean seems to understand this as well as anybody, thank goodness. hopefully he has better ideas than i do about how to solve the problem. but the one thing that is crystal clear to me is that dems shouldnt try to chase purported 'issues' cos, at best, theyll lose, even if they 'win'. i said back in sep or oct that i never purport to know certainties - except that jonk wouldnt be president in feb (cant find the link). and now i can add another - the dems will never win by trying to chase the aforementioned shadows. never. the idea that smart people are wasting energy like this drives me batty. so frustrating.


* "Rove, who was Bush's top political strategist during his 2000 and 2004 presidential campaigns, will become a deputy White House chief of staff in charge of coordinating policy between the White House Domestic Policy Council, National Economic Council, National Security Council and Homeland Security Council." digby: "Funny, I thought that's what the president did." lukery: actually, its just formalizing rove's role.
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2005_02_06_digbysblog_archive.html#110789109045318124

* "-Michael Gerson, Bush's top speechwriter, has been given a new title as assistant to the president for policy and strategic planning. He will oversee most major addresses, but will focus on the president's compassionate agenda, human rights and advancing freedom and democracy." - this is an interesting one under the radar of the rove promotion. look at the language - they seem to be intimating that it is a new 'title', not a new job. evangelical speechwriter to policy and strat planning??? great. and i have to requote this in full he "will focus on the president's compassionate agenda, human rights and advancing freedom and democracy." how bout that? i wonder if theres sposed to be a colon after 'compassionate agenda'. and i guess he is working with walk riminal elliotabrams.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4788868,00.html

* this story is another that just keeps on giving. "The Bush administration offered a new estimate of the cost of the Medicare drug benefit on Tuesday, saying it would cost $720 billion in the next 10 years. That is much more than the $400 billion Congress assumed when it passed legislation creating the benefit in late 2003." http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/09/national/09medicare.html?hp&ex=1108011600&en=1a75c77fde14828c&ei=5094&partner=homepage

* apparently ny gays are in fact equal under the law. and can marry. for the mo, anyways. tick tock...

* "In an RNC press release intended to discredit Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, Mehlman's RNC made clear that the simple fact that a gay civil rights group endorsed Reid for re-election means that Reid is not fit for national service." http://americablog.blogspot.com/2005/02/gop-head-ken-mehlman-again-uses-gays.html

MEDIA
* http://www.americablog.org/ is all oevr the jeffgannon thing. quite a hornets nest. more here http://wolverinetom.dailykos.com/user/SusanG - what a lovely fucking story. plamegate. aug6pdb. and on and on.

* oh - and joe wilson calls the Repugs 'fascists' "I did not like fascists when I fought them as a diplomat for 23 years and I don't like them now in my own country." http://wolverinetom.dailykos.com/story/2005/2/9/94615/61143

* jeffgannon has gone into hiding. who will ari2 throw to?

* jeffgannon involved in the plame thingy? 16 words, so much story. http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2005_02_06.php#004756

* "Hmmm. Judith Miller assigned to cover the UN corruption beat for the Times. Need we say the obvious?" http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2005_02_06.php#004751

* gwen stefani is so annoying
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