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Containment Out of Control

News in the Wacky World of U.S. Politics

So the guy who won the special election in a Pennsylvania congressional district is right-to-life and pro-gun. He accused his opponent of wanting heavier taxes. He said he would have voted against ObamaCare and promised to vote against cap-and-trade legislation.

This candidate, Mark Critz, is a Democrat. Heh, wut?

But that's the good news for the Democrats. Their favorite to win the Chris Dodd's ass grooved Senate seat in Connecticut -- the state's attorney general, Richard Blumenthal -- chose to hold a news conference at a Veterans of Foreign Wars hall to discuss why he had falsely said he fought in a foreign war. The DNC may try to find a less damaged candidate for Connecticut, but I might suggest they visit Illinois to save some important vetting time. (Get it? Vet? Richard said he was in 'Nam... never mind)

The exposure of Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal as a hoaxster boasting of a nonexistent record of service in the Vietnam War is an example of what is known as the Taranto Principle.

Wall Street Journal editorialist James Taranto formulated the principle, which postulates that when the press gives a politician a pass or fails to hold the politician accountable for his misbehavior, (perhaps if they agree with the letter next to his/her name?) it encourages the politician to ascend to a higher level of misbehavior.

Perhaps they'll teach that in journalism school someday -- that is, if the profession makes it past the opening salvo of the iPad and cut'n'paste blogs such as yours truly.

UnCivil War

We have the leading Democrat presidential primary contender Barack Obama campaigning on Hope.

And Change.

And that we can all unify.

Isn't it a little disingenuous since the Democrats have no hope, can't change, and certainly can't unify their party! So, how exactly are they going to unify the country?

Practice saying "the McCain Administration..." "President McCain...."

MI - Wah, I Wanna Matter!

BREAKING BLASPHEMES NEWS: Do-Over Michigan Caucus Likely, Says DNC Rules Committee Member [who wants to be on television.] (Linko, pink-o)

A member of the DNC's Rules And Bylaws Committee--the committee that stripped Florida and Michigan of its delegates for moving their primaries before February 5th--told us that Michigan plans to get out of its uncounted delegate problem by announcing a new caucus in the next few days.

"They want to play. They know how to do caucuses," the DNC source said. "That was their plan all along, before they got cute with the primary."

Michigan Democrats had originally planned on caucuses after the legally permissible Feb. 5 date, but then went along with top elected Democrats, including Gov. Jennifer Granholm, who pushed for an early primary.

Reminder : Hillary Clinton won that Jan. 15 primary, but was the only major candidate on the ballot. Barack Obama and John Edwards had removed their names, although Obama supporters in the state urged voters to choose “uncommitted” over Clinton.

Hang on a minute! Didn't Howard Dean say this is breaking the agreed rules this morning? Unless Dean has back tracked that, there's disarray over there at the DNC??

I'm shocked, shocked... and OneF and I have been explaining to you that this was going to happen for the last - what, two months now?

Sorry about last night...

HillDog has won Texas and Ohio - but it's not winner take all, so we're right back in it. Obama has a slight delegate lead, but still not the superdelegates (if you can believe those number counts). Nothing was settled, only that The Hill isn't going anywhere, anytime soon.

McCain has the delegates to be in the history books. Just like Bob Dole before him, he is now the GOP candidate. Mike Huckabee formally resigned his campaign, but worded it in a way that didn't sound like he was really out. He's out.

Florida Voters: The Revenge

Florida might just give Hill Dog a new reason to live through the March 4th Primary! My Source (pops out a new window)

Florida Governor Charlie Crist said he'd support a repeat of the Democratic presidential primary so the state's delegates can be counted at the party's national convention.

DNC Chairman Howard Dean said he's open to the possibility. Primary elections are paid for by a state's taxpayers, so the offer from Crist, a Republican, [my emphisas] is "very helpful'' because money is an issue, Dean said.

If you can't read between the lines here, this is a master stroke on the part of the Republicans, and specifically Gov. Crist. Here's my take on this:

HillDog will take Florida because of the ex-old-New Yonkers crowd, and the pure fact that since she has the old ladies over 65 wrapped up nationally, and there are more old ladies in Florida - she'll take the state, or by DNC terms, enough to keep fighting into the Convention.

And in the classic case of Vizzini logic, they have to fall into the trap...

You're trying to trick me into giving away something. It won't work.

Vizzini:IT HAS WORKED! YOU'VE GIVEN EVERYTHING AWAY!
I KNOW WHERE THE POISON IS!
What in the world is that?!

The DNC can't refuse the offer or it will disenfranchise the very same voters that they vociferously demanded every vote be counted in 2000!

On top of this, Florida is such a critical swing state for the general election that they cannot risk continuing to piss off Florida voters!

The only snag in "perfect game theory" here is that it's not a "here's Hillary's votes." Instead, it's a "well, let's try that again - do-over - kind of situation." The joke can be "there are no do-overs, unless your name is Clinton..."

Can't top that gag - so grab some popcorn, let's see how this pans out!

Updates: Michigan and Diebold

Two update items to share with y'all.

Last time I posted I was encouraging Michiganitesersians to vote for Mr. Kucinich because of his recount efforts in New Hampshire amongst a few other reasons. Well, Dennis could not overcome Hillary. In fact, he got crushed by Uncommited. He even got about 3,000 votes less than Giuliani.

I see Uncommited as the big winner. The exit polls reveal that Uncommitted won the following votes: youth (under 30), intellectual (post-grad), wealthy (over $100,000 / year), independents, African-American, non-whites, and urban. That probably makes someone at the Clinton Camp wince. Luckily for them, it does not much matter as she won the delegates. None-the-less, momentum is moving towards Uncommitted.

Second update item. Many folk think I am crazy for being so 100% convinced that our voting system is flawed and easily manipulated in a time where politicians are at their most immoral and dishonest. I got a bit a wish when Kucinich paid to recount New Hampshire. It was a safe way to go about it and part of the reason I love people like Kucinich in these races. It was safe because if all is on the up and up, we all just laugh at the little sky gazer and he doesn't care because he goes home with a clean conscience and a hot wife. If something is found, it is a primary so the world does not end. And the publicity may get this thing fixed.

Anyway, the recount started yesterday. The first thing we discovered is that memory cards are unaccounted for. Missing. No one keeps track of them after the election. No one. Not even the Secretary of State. The next thing we learn, they do not keep track of the error reports. No one. Etc.

Here is the recount page for you to follow. The disparities are already over the .5% discrepency threshold at around 3.5%, about 7 times over the legal election limit. Don't worry. No one will get pulled over for this. This is only the first check point.

The error logs that were found show that in the town of Stratham alone 550 of the 3000 ballots cast (18%) were not counted. This was remedied for the result but the question is asked what if the results were only off by 55 votes (1.8% - still not legal) would anyone have noticed? \

Kudos to Kucinich. You can follow with the links.

I wanna Vote!

If you are in Michigan today, please vote for Dennis Kucinich. Of the front runners, only Hillary is on the ticket. Explanation here.

I think this is a good idea and wish I had thought of it before now. Here are five reasons (if you are a Michiganian) Dennis deserves some love and your vote.

• Paid for the New Hampshire recount out of his own pocket. He knows that he will still get less than 2% of the vote. But there were discrepancies and he wants to get to the bottom of it. He is for fair elections.
  
  
• He is the man we want at the convention starting some trouble with over 30 delegates. That would be awesome. It would be like the old conventions. Hillary and Barack would have to listen and respond to Dennis and put some items he feels strongly about on the platform. It's old school politics and he is the man that would play this card properly.
  
  
• Chris Matthews head would fucking explode. If Dennis won, I would watch that loud mouth for a whole week.
  
  
• His wife is smoking hot and I could sleep better tonight if I knew he was getting some primary winner nookie. He deserves it for getting UFO questions during the debate when everyone else got health care questions. And the moderator seemed to think that unidentified meant alien. His wife is also twelve feet tall and has a British accent. I am thinking of running for President for the chicks.
  
  
• No matter how much fun it seems to vote for Mitt Romney to mess up the Republican's election, you would have only yourself to blame if Mittmentum carried him to the White House. If Dennis goes all the way to the White House on Kucinentum I can promise you four years of good things getting done. The war would be over, the lobbyist would be kicked out of Washington, there would be fair elections, and a wide variety of other things established politicians do not want done. Maybe their heads would fucking explode. Could happen

Vote well, Michigan; vote Kucinich.

Why Vote?

Cap'n took me a little by surprise with this quote in his last post, Primary Report: New Hampshire:

Now the rumors of not enough ballots were starting to make sense. It's not unexpected turnout from the college kids. It's not more people participating in the process - it's blatant voter fraud! Well, at least the Democrats are consistent. How come they don't yell and scream and finger point when they do it though?

First of all it took me a little by surprise. No where else in the otherwise well-written piece was this mentioned nor was there a link to this fact. Don't get me wrong. I believe it. I just would like further proof that this happened. On second thought, no I don't.

See, the Democratic Primary is over. Yep, finished. Don't bother supporting or helping or endorsing a candidate, it's over. Hillary Clinton has won. Democracy has lost.

Besides this lack of votes in college district that our brave Cap'n has eluded to, there is also some odd things happening in the voting booth by the Democracy destroying Diebold. Elections involve many people and in recent times not all ballots get counted. What occurred in New Hampshire was 20% of the ballots were counted by hand and 80% were "faith based." Meaning counted by machine. Now this system works if you look into discrepancies and hand count any issues either side may have.

Last Tuesday there were discrepancies. The EDA has released it's report on the New Hampshire primary and it seems that the percentages in the Obama-Clinton relationship were exactly reversed when hand counted vs machine counted. Here is the key graph:

Analysts at the Election Defense Alliance (EDA) have confirmed that based on the official results on the New Hampshire Secretary of state web site, there is a remarkable relationship between Obama and Clinton votes, when you look at votes tabulated by op-scan v. votes tabulated by hand:

Clinton Optical scan 91,717 52.95%
Obama Optical scan 81,495 47.05%

Clinton Hand-counted 20,889 47.05%
Obama Hand-counted 23,509 52.95%

The percentages appear to be swapped. That seems highly unusual, to say the least.

To say the least. I take you back to the line from Cap'n's quote above that claims, "How come they don't yell and scream and finger point when they do it though?" No, not the status quo politicians. But Dennis Kucinich is asking for a recount in the name of election integrity. I think one should be performed. It's in our national interest to have fair, honest, and trustworthy elections. I do not think that it is a coincidence that less people vote now than ever.

I know one state in the primaries is no reason to claim that no one but Hillary can win. But there are other factors that have led her to win the Democratic nomination. For example, Michigan and that bastard of a state, Florida.

Both states moved up their primaries. Michigan in an attempt to relevant, Florida because it gives less time for people to fix known election machine errors. In a show of solidarity, Obama and Edwards took their names out of the primaries. Hillary did not.

The DNC will not need to upset Michigan or Florida (can you say "Swing State?") during the convention shortly before the National Presidential Election. The press Democrats do not need is not wanting or caring for these two states. A deal will be struck. It may make for a good convention for a change. But the bottom line is Hillary is the only legal candidate. this would give her an additional 366 delegates.

We also have the issue of Superdelegates in the Democratic Party. In an effort to not let the voters vote the establishment out of office, the Democratic Party decided that 796 of their delegates should consist of former presidents, congressmen, senators, and general "in" folks in the party. Hillary being establishment is said to possess around 80% of these delegates. This gives her (in theory) around 637 more delegates. this gives her 1003 delegates BEFORE the voting starts. The magic number is 2025. She is almost halfway there.

Now we add in these discrepancies and we have ourselves a winner. Here is a handy CNN follow the votes item. Keep in mind that this does not count Florida, Michigan, or unannounced superdelegates like Bill Clinton. I'm just saying maybe start your taxes instead of involving yourself in this process. Unless Hillary does not place in the top three in about half of the remaining primaries (there are five candidates left including Kucinich and Richardson) then she could possibly not win. I think this is a forgone conclusion.

Just saying.

New Hampshire - Same as the Old

I would like to start my little prediction thread thingy here but doing something I never thought I would do, I am going to defend Hillary Clinton. True this.

Yesterday there was a tremendous amount of airplay of Hillary almost crying at some event or other. Now I love a good cry and a political cry is a rare bird indeed. Normally, you would see an athlete-cry or a celebrity-cry but a political-cry? As I said, a rare bird. And, probably, for good reason. You don't need a leader that tears up during Terms of Endearment. It makes it harder negotiate with terrorists. However, Hillary was not crying. Not in this way, anyway.

I thought her little speech that she gave was the most honest, inspirational, and true I have ever heard Hillary sound. Emotions do have a place when you are discussing the condition of the country and where it is heading. And when you discuss emotions with the direction that the country is heading in and sadness is leads in the polls. I see nothing wrong and a lot of things right in what she said. Still hope not to have to vote for her but this was her best moment for me.

Conversely, John Edwards (candidate I prefer) was a clown. He noted that the country needed a "tougher" person in the presidency. The reason I always like Sen. Edwards was that he seemed to at least realize that the country could be better. He seemed to passionately want change. He holds dying babies to show how shitty the health care system is. He tells stories of the infirmed and unfortunate and now I am to believe that he never cried while on the campaign trail. If so, this man is inhuman.

In both cases I am assuming there were mistakes made by all due to long hours on the campaign trail, lack of sleep, and having to use the word "synergy" repeatedly in stump speeches. But I refuse to believe that in 24 hours Hillary became human and John became heartless.

Predictions:

Dem: Obama, Edwards, Clinton
Rep: McCain, Romney, Huckabee