Rowhouse Logic - Breathtaking Inanity

Since everyone else is doing it, I’ll throw my dirty old shoes in the ring and make a prediction. My guess is that Kerry will win with slightly over 300 electoral votes in an election, that will be inexplicably close in terms of the popular vote. I have some fears for our country if he doesn’t win by that margin or greater. I fear that a very close election result will bring out the worst in all of us. And don’t get me wrong, that awful nature will be the product of some very legitimate issues. As the president likes to say, “Make no mistake” we are a nation divided and in deep turmoil.

Anything closer than a near electoral landslide, is a sure prescription for turmoil and a brutality of mind, if not body and action. I know that sounds dramatic and it is, but for the good of the country and our democracy, we need a huge win. The national psyche is still woefully unsettled, to say the least and is in desperate need of a legitimate leader who is guided by knowledge, experience and insight as well as by true compassion.

That said, I think we’ll get the win, regardless of the margins. I’ve never seen enthusiasm so high in my life, and that includes the scene in parking lots of rock shows when I was a kid. Their is some serious Kerry support out their that, sadly, will never be depicted by the media as anything other than Bush hatred. It really is so much more. People genuinely like this guy and genuinely believe that the course he has laid out is best for them as individuals and for their nation as a whole.

And so it goes.

Do you really want this man picking the next Supreme Court Justice?

Here’s one reason to suspect the GOP suppression efforts won’t be entirely competent. Well we can hope that’s the case anyway. Don’t count on it.

I’m no fan of Lynne Abraham, but from the looks of this, she’s planning to handle voter intimidation in Philadelphia aggressively.

Philadelphia’s District Attorney this morning warned anyone engaging in election-day intimidation that they faced prosecution. But Lynne Abraham also said the best way for people to ensure a trouble-free election day was to wait patiently in line and ignore unsolicited polling-place directions from anyone other than official election observers.

The law allows any official election observer to challenge a person’s right to vote if the observer suspects the voter is not on the rolls. In that case, the voter must fill out an affidavit and find another resident of the district to fill out another affidavit attesting to his or her identity. Typically, each campaign has one observer at a polling place.

That last paragraph spells out, I think, where the big glaring trouble spot is. Forced into running around your neighborhood, looking for someone to fill out an affidavit is a really bad scenario, and the whole provision looks as though it’s just way too easy to abuse. If it is pursued aggressively, that’s the road map straight to Election Day chaos.

Let’s hope Lynne can pull this off. It’s never to late to get one right, after all.

On second though, if Lynne Abraham is asigned the job of protecting your rights, you may well want to lawyer up.

For those of you whose inboxes are not burried in piles of election email, I thought I’d stick Kerry’s final email before the election up on the site. It’s a pretty good one:

Dear Christopher,

During this campaign I have asked you for so much — your time, your energy, and your financial support. Today, I ask you for one final thing — your vote.

Tomorrow, Americans will face a choice.

How will we find our way forward? How will we keep America safe, and keep the American dream alive?

I believe we begin by giving this country we love a fresh start. This morning, I would like to give you as a plainly as I can the summary of my case on how — together — we can change America.

I believe we begin by moving our economy, our government, and our society back in line with our best values.

I believe we do whatever it takes to lead our troops to success and bring them home safe. And when they do come home, I believe we begin by rebuilding an America with a strong middle class where everyone has the chance to work and the opportunity to get ahead.

Tomorrow, you can choose a fresh start. You can choose a president who will defend America and fight for the middle-class.

You can choose between four more years of George Bush’s policy to ship jobs overseas and give tax breaks to the companies that do it — or a president who will reward the companies that create and keep good jobs here in the United States of America.

Tomorrow you will face a choice between four more years of George Bush’s giveaways to the big drug companies and the big HMOs — or a president who will finally make health care a right, and not a privilege, for every American.

This election is a choice between four more years of tax giveaways for millionaires along with a higher tax burden for you — or a president who will cut middle-class taxes, raise the minimum wage, and make sure we guarantee women an equal day’s pay for an equal day’s work.

Tomorrow, America faces a choice between four more years of an energy policy for big oil, of big oil, and by big oil — or a president who finally makes America independent of Mideast oil in ten years. A choice between George Bush’s policy that just yesterday showed record profits for oil companies and record gas prices for American consumers. I believe that America should rely on our own ingenuity and innovation, not the Saudi Royal family.

Tomorrow this campaign will end. The election will be in your hands. If you believe we need a fresh start in Iraq; if you believe we can create and keep good jobs here in America; if you believe we need to get health care costs under control; if you believe in the promise of stem cell research; if you believe our deficits are too high and we’re too dependent on Mideast oil then I ask you to join me and together we’ll change America.

I ask for your vote and I ask for your help. When you go to the polls bring your friends, your family, your neighbors. No one can afford to stand on the sidelines or sit this one out.

And in return for your hard work, you have my commitment to always fight for you, to always be on your side. In the words of Bruce Springsteen that have become the theme of this campaign. “We’ve made a promise we swore we’d always remember…no retreat and no surrender.”

Tomorrow we will change America and with your help I will always keep that promise to you.

Thank you,

Tomorrow is going to be nuts. If you live in a swing state, it’s going to be extra special, mixed nuts with a cherry and some medicated goop on top. No way around it. Expect some type of line, especially if you have a day job and will be voting before or after work. Don’t even think about getting out of line. You are entitled to stay until you vote is counted so long as you arrive and are in line before they officially close the polls. Don’t set a time limit on your stay. Don’t look around and get a false sense of well being from the hordes of your fellow voters that you see around you. Your vote is crucial so make sure it’s cast and counted.

Bring a snack, bring a headset, bring something to read, and bring a friend. More importantly, bring as many forms of approved identification as you can carry in your hot little hands. If somebody tries to deprive you of your rights, get out a paper and pen and start taking names. Waiting in line for a while is the very least you can do for your country. Your country needs you. When you start to waver just think about the travesty that would be “Four More Years”.

[Update] Jim has a great voter guide over at the Rittenhouse Review which you should definitely read. While you are there, check out his PA enorsements as they are spot on.

Here are some useful phone numbers to keep with you:
Election Protection Hotline: 1-866-MYVOTE1 to report problems
1-866-OUR-VOTE (1-866-687-8683) for immediate legal assistance

Don’t abuse these lines with minor, or kinda sorta problems, as it is critical to keep them open for those people who will really need them tomorrow.

I considered, a few days ago, creating a user-friendly database that would allow people to upload information about specific attempts by Republican operatives to intimidation voters or undermine voting rights in any way, along with pictures of the offenders. I figured this would be a nice way collect information on the people and groups involved for later use. As so many operatives will be lawyers, any violation of election law, will reflect quite poorly on them, and if reported, will be of some interest to their state Bar Association’s. Their firm’s clients may also wish to avoid the foul stench. One problem though. I get no hits. Not that I’m complaining as I’m not really out their looking for them. Regardless, if I put it up on my own it would be worthless. Probably just a couple of guys uploading pictures of their cats. Anyway, if any big blogger happens upon this and would like to do it, I’ll be more than happy to set something up by morning.

Since I’m incapable of coherent thought, a picture will have to suffice for the time being.

What sort of a person runs out of things to say the day before Election Day? You’re looking at him - sort of. I haven’t been able to get my head around this thing for a day or so. Such is life.

I got home from work pretty late last night and mindlessly playing video games when something startling came on the TV. A 60 second Swiftvets ad. Yikes. Granted, it was a UHF news broadcast, but that’s still must be pretty expensive. We’re not talking some small town in Ohio here. Philadelphia is the country’s fourth largest media market so my uninformed guess is that, even on a Friday night on UHF, somebody is paying out the ass for this.

I would have thought that the complete destruction of the truthfulness of their claims would have made most of that group’s members really question whether or not they wanted to continue. Guess not. I don’t think it matters, they are such a known quantity and so dirty that, at this point, nobody with even a quarter of a brain is going be swayed.

By the way, it was the ad going after his Senate testimony in 1971. Since everything he said is taken out of context, I’ve put the entire transcript in the extended entry. If you have never read it before, it’s really quite potent, and I recommend you read it in full. His statement follows many threads and makes many arguments, the most relevent of which is that that, out of the tragidy of a misguided and poorly planned war, America could turn the corner towards a more moral and rational course where. His very obvious desire was that none of the soldier’s sacrifices would be in vain.

Here’s his closing statement, for those too lazy to go to the extended entry and read the whole thing:

We wish that a merciful God could wipe away our own memories of that service as easily as this administration has wiped their memories of us. But all that they have done and all that they can do by this denial is to make more clear than ever our own determination to undertake one last mission, to search out and destroy the last vestige of this barbarous war, to pacify our own hearts, to conquer the hate and the fear that have driven this country these last 10 years and more and so when, in 30 years from now, our brothers go down the street without a leg, without an arm or a face, and small boys ask why, we will be able to say “Vietnam” and not mean a desert, not a filthy obscene memory but mean instead the place where America finally turned and where soldiers like us helped it in the turning.
Read the rest of this entry »

Sometimes you see a sentence so perfect that you just have to steal it.

“And yet, how fitting is it that Bush ended his Quixotic quest for Pa.’s 21 electoral votes in a pumpkin patch in Bucks County, waiting for a victory about as likely the Great Pumpkin’s arrival Sunday night.” - Will Bunch

I wonder if John Kerry has any support in Wisconsin? (Via Counterspin Central)

This could be going through your head every night as you go to sleep until 2009. Don’t let that happen. (Takes a bit to load)

That’s George W. Bush’s take on the Al Qaqaa scandal. Holy shit is about the only logical reply to that. I haven’t written a thing on this, as I just can’t get my head wrapped around it.

Just about everybody with half a brain knew that the planning of the Iraq war was fucked up beyond all belief and reason, long ago. The Al Qaqaa revelations aren’t even all that surprising. Actually that’s the scary part right? That most of us probably didn’t even flinch when we heard it, is pretty indicative of the whole steaming sack of shit, otherwise known as Operation Iraqi Freedom. We’ve known, or suspected, for some time that the administration put a higher priority on securing oil fields than on weapons sites.

Now we get to witness the the President, his surrogates and his media whores, blame everybody and everything, other than Bush and his cabinet and his war planners. We get to see them try to deny plain facts and behave as if some great offense has occurred. The offense? Fucking up Iraq in every way conceivable? No. Pointing out just one of the multitude of mistakes in an ongoing disaster. That’s the problem.

Again. Holy Shit.

John Michael Perzel is going to retain his seat in this election cycle. John Michael Perzel is going to retain his position as Pennsylvania ‘s Speaker of the House. There is nothing we can do about that. Not now. Sadly, it’s too late. According to this article, John Perzel accused his opponent, in this cycle, of being a communist. It’s 2004, not 1959, right? Whatever.

I’ll admit, that when he was elevated to his current position, that I was sort of pleased that the Pennsylvania Speaker of the House was a Philadelphian. I am a very proud Philadelphian after all. Clout or whatever…blah blah blah.

No more. Hell no! I’m disgusted that this man represents any part of my great city, my great commonwealth. That this man has any influence over the lives of the great people of my city is reprehensible. I will work for his defeat and I will do what I can to interest some of the more influential bloggers, both liberal and conservative, to join me in that cause. Let notice be served. John Perzel’s days are numbered.

In order for the United States of America to achieve the greatness that its people so deserve, men like John Perzel should never ever be blessed with their vote. They should never suffer his representation. They should never endure leaders so poor. This man is beneath contempt.

No Philadelphian, no elected official should ever utter these words:

“The Kerry campaign needs to come out with humongous numbers here in Philadelphia. It’s important for me to keep that number down.”

I could give a shit about party affiliation. This has nothing to do with whom I may want to be my next President. Suppressing any voter, any voice, is unforgivable. This man and his sentiments are more than a few notches beneath disgusting.

How many patriots are buried in the streets, cemeteries and parks of our great city? How many died to stop people like John Perzel from achieving power and exercising their foul will on their fellow citizens?

When the elected leaders of a political party begin to publicly discuss artificially deflating voter turnout, where does that leave our democracy? When the administration fails to learn from its recent history of failure and advocates denying detainees Geneva Convention status, where does that leave the moral authority of our nation?

In the toilet I say.

“The Kerry campaign needs to come out with humongous numbers here in Philadelphia. It’s important for me to keep that number down.”

-Pennsylvania House Speaker John Perzel

Go read the whole story at Campaign Extra.

Sorry. I can’t resist. It is my home town after all.



By the way, that building you see in the background is City Hall. It’s the largest municipal government structure on the face of the planet Earth (really). Its size can only be matched by its ugliness. To know it is to love it as they say.

“…if one candidate’s trying to scare you, and the other one is trying to get you to think, if one candidate is appealing to your fears and the other one is appealing to your hopes, you better vote for the person who wants you to think and hope.”

William Jefferson Clinton
Monday, October 25, 2004

John Kerry, from today’s speach in Philadelphia:

After being warned about the danger of major stockpiles of explosives in Iraq, this administration failed to guard those stockpiles where nearly 380 tons of highly explosive materials were being kept. Today, America has learned that those stockpiles are missing, they’re unaccounted for and they could be in the hands of terrorists.

Terrorists can use this material to blow up our airplanes, blow up our buildings, kill American troops.

Now, it’s not bad enough that it’s missing. In May of this year, the administration was warned that terrorists may be helping themselves to, quote — this was the warning — “the greatest explosives bonanza in history.”

And now we know that our country and our troops are less safe because this president failed to do the basics. This is one of the great additional blunders of Iraq.

The unbelievable incompetence of this administration, step after step, has put our troops at greater and greater risk, overextended the American military, isolated the United States, put a greater financial burden on the American people. George W. Bush has failed the test of commander in chief.

And I just ask you — I want you to do exactly what President Clinton just said a moment ago.

He said his presence here may or may not change a mind, but the reasons may be able to change the minds. And I want you to think about that in the context of this administration’s choices.

They have miscalculated again and again and again with the security of our nation. Miscalculated how they chose to go to war. Miscalculated about how many troops they needed. Miscalculated about Osama Bin Laden at Tora Bora and outsourcing the job to Afghan warlords, rather than doing it ourselves and using the best trained troops in the world to go up in those mountains and capture and kill Osama Bin Laden.

And then finally, you all remember how Secretary Rumsfeld just casually dismissed the looting and said, “Well, looting happens.” Now we know the impact.

Make no mistake, our troops are the best-trained, best-led forces in the world and they’ve been doing their job honorably and with courage.

But the commander in chief has failed to do his and the result is if George Bush can’t recognize his mistakes as he goes along, how’s he going to fix them?

We don’t want four more years of the same. We need a new policy, a fresh start, new credibility in order to get the job done in Iraq and get our troops home. That’s what we need to do.