Letters to the Editor

• Coming Soon to a State Near You?

  [Read the article: Times columnist: Democracy was "left for dead" in Ohio]
  [Read more letters about this article: Here]

  As an Ohio resident, I'd love to read the entire editorial but I just can't bring myself to go through the hassle of signing up for the NYT's "TimesSelect" service ... guess I'll just have be content to say IT'S ABOUT TIME some MSM attention was paid to what went on here in an2004. (And Herbert's use of the word "shocking" sounds just about right to me.)

  I'm sure I'm not the only Democrat in Ohio who was gratified to read RFK Jr's well-researched and thoroughly documented article in June 1's Rolling Stone magazine but still craves the kind of attention that only the MSM can bring to the tactics that were used here to suppress the Democratic vote. Do I think the 2004 election will be magically overturned and George Bush will run screaming from the White House? No, no such luck. But I'm guessing Ohio isn't the only state with a Republican governor, attorney general and secretary of state AND a Republican-controlled house and senate. Ken Blackwell used his position as Ohio's secretary of state and chief election officer to suppress perhaps hundreds of thousands of Democratic votes. His activities are thoroughly documented in RFK Jr's Rolling Stone article and I suspect they're also at least alluded to in today's NYT editorial. (Wikipedia lists SIXTEEN election-related lawsuits in 2004 and 2005 where Blackwell was the defendant and it's only a partial list.) Unfortunately, by the time the Ohio courts resolved these suits the damage had already been done.

  So I have to ask ... If it can happen here, how many other states can it happen in? The more people know about what went wrong here in Ohio the better. It won't overturn the 2004 election but maybe the whole electoral process in America, with it's partisan boards of election and gerrymandered districts, will finally get overhauled, finally be taken out of the hands and control of politicians.

  Permalink Monday, June 12, 2006 07:57 AM

• But Money Matters More

  [Read the article: Karl Rove: "Character matters"]
  [Read more letters about this article: Here]

  That loud noise I heard yesterday must have been the sound of 400 jaws hitting the floor when Karl Rove stood there and declared that the Democrats were for higher spending and the Republicans were for lower spending. Surely telling a whopper like that is no way to get people at a fundraiser to open their wallets and contribute. Why not just stand there and state the obvious -- we got caught pulling one of our many and varied dirty campaign tricks and it's cost us a small fortune in legal expenses. If you want to wrest control away from the Democrats here in New Hampshire you need to give 'til it hurts -- with your help we'll build a swift boat big enough to sink every Democratic candidate in the whole damn state.

  Permalink Tuesday, June 13, 2006 07:48 AM

• Scared Shitless

  [Read the article: Can a chicken hawk fly?]
  [Read more letters about this article: Here]

  I bet they're both wearing diapers.

  Permalink Wednesday, June 14, 2006 07:33 AM