When a Florida GOP flyer (shown right) first made the news a few days ago, I thought to myself, "no way are these guys this brazen and stupid". It had to be a photoshop web plant from some giggling teenager over on fark.com. Had to be. With all of the ramzamatazz and hoohawing about electronic voting in Florida (hey, they conveniently "lost" the results of the last statewide electronic vote) you'd think the Florida GOP would be a bit more, well, cautious. I overly misunderestimated this gang of election stealing thugs.
From the South Florida Sun-Sentinal:
Miami - An embarrassed state Republican Party apologized Thursday for a GOP campaign brochure that urged voters to use absentee ballots, undermining efforts by Gov. Jeb Bush and Secretary of State Glenda Hood to inspire confidence in new touch-screen voting machines.
Democratic Party officials and several civil rights groups eagerly pounced on the flier as either a laughable foul-up or a sign that maybe Republican leaders also question the reliability of the ATM-like equipment.
..."Have no doubt that we are confident of Florida's elections system, and that means the entire electoral system is accurate and secure," said Joseph Agostini, spokesman for the Florida Republican Party. "We regret any misunderstanding over this issue."
[rant]For jeebus' sake, can we just get this thing over in Florida? Give the frickin' electoral college votes to Bush now. Just do it. I can not believe that in 2004, particularly with the overt voter disenfranchisement that's been going on in Florida since, well, forever (and right out in the open since 2000), that the national media isn't screaming about this situation. If ever there were a legitimate case for UN oversight of an election, this is the case.[/rant]
Ominously, Michael Moore is already talking about setting up cameras in around 3000 voting precincts in FLA come this November. I don't know if that's such a good idea, Mike. My overriding concern about the whole voting situation in Florida is that because of, not in spite of, the spotlight being trained on The Sunshine Republic, more voters will be intimidated into not participating come November 2nd.
More Work for the Supremes
Nope, I'm not talking about a Diana Ross comeback here.
From electoral-vote.com comes this story, via Rocky Mountain News:
A group of Colorado citizens have proposed a change to the state's constitution specifying that Colorado's nine electors be apportioned strictly in proportion to the popular vote. Currently Bush is ahead 48% to 43% there, so under the proposed system, Bush would get five electoral votes and Kerry four electoral votes, instead of nine to zero. The group has turned in petitions containing 130,000 signatures. If about 68,000 of these prove to be valid, the question will be a ballot referendum in November. If it passes, the change takes effect for this year's election. If it makes the ballot, on the evening of Nov. 2, the TV news anchors will probably be saying: "President Bush won Colorado with 55% of the vote, but we don't know how many votes he will get in the electoral college until they finish recounting the closely fought referendum on changing the Colorado state constitution." Whoever loses will appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, which once again may have to rule on the sensitive issue of state's rights.The election in 2000 set a dangerous modern day precedent. Supreme Court Justices decided the election, for all intents and purposes. Even though Al Gore won the popular vote by a significant margin, the antiquity that is the Electoral College system eventually tossed the election to Bush.
This is a case of the "devil we know being better than the one we don't know". What Colorado voters are proposing, by initiative, threatens to further disembowel an already broken system. While I don't want to comment on the veracity of the proposal right now, what I find ludicrous is that if the initiative is approved, the results will apply to this year's presidential election.
Alright, alright. Initiative is initiative, which is the voting public's right in Colorado (as it should be). But it seems to me that the initiative should be applied to future elections, rather than the one currently underway. That way, any court challenges (which there will surely be) can work their way through the system over the next four years.
And here's a thought for a real constitutional amendment (as opposed to the fake gay marriage and flag burning proposals) - fix the Electoral College problem constitutionally.
The situation in Iraq right now is not as bad as the news media are portraying it to be. It's worse.
Those are the words of Ken Dilanian, a reporter for the Philadelphia Inquirer. And Mr. Dilanian should know. Back in March, he went looking for "good news" in Iraq, came back, and bylined a piece for the Inquirer that was obviously ghost-written by Jerry Bremer and Dan Senor (remember that Green Zone dynamic duo?).
Today, Dilanian offers up a big mea culpa in the Sunday Inquirer editorial section lead story. Here's a snippet:
I learned this summer that the insurgency has been far more successful than I would have imagined at sowing instability and halting progress. Most Iraqis aren't seeing the improvements they had hoped for, and they're not blaming the guerillas - they're blaming the Americans. Sovereignty seems to have had zero effect on this equation.You really need to read this whole column. Here's your second opportunity to "click through". Mr. Dilanian, I'm shocked that you're shocked. And I haven't even been to Baghdad.
In March, as I was writing, the $18.4 billion reconstruction effort was just getting off the ground. I had sat in on a briefing in which a senior U.S. official confidently predicted that, by June, thanks to American rebuilding efforts, Iraq would have electricity 18 hours a day throughout the country.
I called that promise "credible," and argued that, once Iraqis could see that kind of progress from the rebuilding program, perhaps the insurgency would abate.
I just couldn't conceive, given how severely the lack of electricity undermines everything they are trying to achieve, that the Americans would publicly set a goal and then fail to meet it.
But that's just what they did.
It's now August, and that goal still hasn't been reached. Throughout much of the country, the power goes off for half the day or more. That has meant another summer of babies sweltering in 120-degree apartments, of factories that can't run, of despair turning to hatred.
What will we tell the children?
Lastly, for this Sunday, a heavyweight crime wave strikes in South Africa:
A GANG of oversized women shoplifters has been terrorising shopkeepers and supermarkets in the South African port city of Durban over the past two months, police said.And still large, no doubt. On this weighty topic, thus ends another PRSMD for another weekly news cycle. 'Til next Sunday!
The gang targeted stores in the city's crime-prone business district and diverted security staff with "commotion" while others packed their bags with goodies, Inspector Michael Read told AFP from Durban.
"Size is a factor in that they use it to intimidate the staff," he said, adding that the women operated in gangs of between four and 10.
"The modus operandi is that some of them pick up a mock fight or cause commotion while the others fill oversized bags with clothes. They usually target clothes shops and cosmetic outlets and then sell them to streetside vendors at cheap prices."
Read said "several arrests have been made but some of these women are still at large."
