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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
Roman Berry
Published Letters: 198 Editor's Choice: 10
Xufapemu, when you post things like "Al Gore was a lock to beat Bush in 2000", you show that you are not well aware of or in command of the facts. Bush was ahead of Gore in the polling right up until the close of the election. That Al Gore came from behind to win (and he did win even if he was not allowed to assume his rightful place as president) was a miracle.
America is not blind to race. I wish it were otherwise but it isn't. Barack Obama can not win the presidency in this country at this time. He will not win in Ohio, Florida or Pennsylvania. In optimistic looks at the electoral college, the best I can reasonably come up with for Obama is 246 electoral votes. At worst, I see Obama in the 190's. Either way, if Barack Obama is the nominee, John McCain is the next president.
Go play with the vote calculator at NARA (see http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/electoral-college/calculator.html ) yourself. But don't lie to yourself about which states Obama might reasonably carry when you do.
If I am wrong, I will make sure that my apologies are posted after election day. I don't believe that I am wrong or that any such apology will be needed.
Now, go get your facts straight on the Bush and Gore polls from 2000.
Since production of child porn is also a felony, I assume that LE will also charge the girl for snapping photos of...herself?
Seriously though, this is all kinds of screwed up. I hope these charges get dropped.
Mr. Kamiya writes "The Gore team decided not to ask for a statewide manual recount" and in so doing shows that he is not well informed on what happened in Florida in 2000.
Florida law (at least at that time) made no provision for asking for statewide manual recounts. None. The provision of the law required that recount requests be made county by county and that a sampling of ballots be taken to determine whether or not a recount was likely to alter the vote totals significantly. That's why the Gore team chose the counties that it did.
Further, the Gore team did in fact propose that there be a statewide recount of all ballots but given that the state law didn't provide for such a thing, it would have required the Bush campaign's agreement (which was not something that the Bush campaign was about to provide.)
Anyway, other than the fundamental error about asking for statewide recounts that were not available (and hence were not asked for but which the Florida State Supreme Court eventually ordered), the article/review isn't entirely awful. But that glaring error? Come on! There has been plenty of time to get this info right.
Three words change the game on complexity, cost, safety and waste. What are those words? Pebble bed reactors.
See this old article in Wired for more. Link: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.09/china.html
Conason wrote "The destruction wreaked by the Bush administration leaves little room for indulgence in factional fights and identity politics between today and Election Day."
To which I reply that GW Bush is not on the ballot. John McCain may not be a liberal, but he isn't GW Bush. I expect a McCain presidency would be much more moderate, especially if held in check with strong Democratic gains in both houses of congress. I also expect that a divided government would suit our best interests at this point rather than a replay of the last eight years from the opposite side where a congress is in thrall to a chief executive from the same party.
I for one will not vote for Barack Obama. I will not vote for any candidate who inspires a de facto cult following filled with such ugliness. And being a Hillary Clinton fan (because I'm not and never was) has nothing to do with it.
There are times these days when I step back from the cheerleading of the like-minded writers online in which I am encouraged to turn out and vote Democratic yet again but I am truly to the point where I feel as if it's a "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss" situation.
Dems in the house and senate apparently can't wait to find someway to immunize telecoms for breaking the law, just as they have retroactively immunized Bush and Cheney for turning the United States into a nation that tortures. Anything else? Oh yeah...
Universal health care? For years growing up we had a Democratic congress and Democrats (at least occasionally) in the White House. Where's the health care? And this time around, we have Obama with his "Harry and Louise" revival (not to mention the parroting of the GOP's "Social Security is in crisis" meme) and dippy pols like Chuck Schumer already saying that universal health care is DOA.
The military? We spend more than the next twenty nations combined on "defense" with a hyge share going to Cold War era style weapons designed to fight an enemy that no longer excists. The F-22 Raptor? The V-22 Osprey? The B-2 bomber? Star wars missile defense? How many of these expensive boondoggles did Dems step up to the plate to fight against?
The drug war? Another strike. Taxes and trade? The differences seem to be on the margins.
Why is it that I vote Democratic again?
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
219 Democrats and one Republican join in favor of the legislation, which passed by a narrow margin
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Salon headlines in your mailbox
