"Hackett led in the earlier voting, and then, this being Ohio of course, Schmidt magically caught up and passed Hackett later on. Hmmm....."
Look, I know the lefty nut jobs see every loss as a conspiracy, but do you yourself have to feed this kind on stupidity? It gets us nothing if you even intimate that our work is being trumped by black helicopters and dirty Diebold machines.
Come to think of it, I'd actually like to know your take on all this. If you really believe elections are being stolen, let alone routinely, I think I as a reader have a right to know. Do you? Or are you just playing to the progressive mob?
Posted by Question at August 2, 2005 10:27 PMAs a Louisianian I'm prone to believe the worst of politicians, including stealing elections; as a reader of Rep. Conyers' report on Ohio, I'm convinced that 2004 was stolen, and we know that FL in 2000 (hence the election) was rigged by excluding tens of thousands of likely dem voters (i.e, African-Americans) from the voters lists.
Posted by Brian Boru at August 2, 2005 10:39 PMJust put this comment on Crooks & liars
Greg Palast has a documentary that explains what happen in Florida 2000. It shows that the punch cards machine were set to accept in certain area double punch that would be reject, while in other they would be refuse and you would receive another card and vote again. Remember there was a dispute on top of the criminal list that discriminates against descent voters. A black man was refused to vote for a crime commit by a white man in another State. How much reject are there in this election?
People have to wake up, stop and think. There are 1806 death American casualties+ 194 of our coalitions + 7089 wounded returned to combat + 6568 disables up to date without the Iraqis numbers. I saw somewhere estimated total men women and children over 130,000 since the invasion. And this does not even add all those that have died in Afghanistan.
Go to free Speech TV, What Democracy looks like .
They are independent from corporation or government. They do have fund raising to help their operations.
They also asked anyone who wants to air a program to contact them. They are looking for real news. If the Schmith video is not picked up on the corporate media, put it there. It will be televised. Not all will see it but both Dish network and Direct TV have it and others and Radios. You do have to look for it as I only discovered it not long ago. Democracy Now is there.
If you do not have access to it, go to their site at http://www.freespeech.org/fsitv/fscm2/genx.php?name=home . Stop watching stupid news. (I am sick of seeing all those commercials).
They have lots of videos to watch on your PC if you have no access to that channel on your cable. From Scott Ritter, veteran speaking out, ecology, global warming to shocking and awful: Baghdad, The media is the military, resistance at home (Iraq)………… and a lot more as Greg Palast and American Journalist and writer in UK. He also researched The Bush dynasty that is a great understanding why this one is so arrogant. Nobody have ever said to bush NO
He never had to lift his elbow. National guard’s records was not the first, 4 companies ran into the ground, “Little Busto” was one. He had never had to account for any mistakes he had done his life. They were always Daddy’s friend to save him ass for political favors and the Bushes are famous for that.
Get mad otherwise we will bring democracy to other country while loosing it at home. We have to demand accountability for all wrong.
I'm not sure I understand why anyone sees this race as a positive. We ran a STELLAR candidate against a reeking pile of dogshit, and the American fuckwad people chose the dogshit AGAIN.
The lesson I derive from this is that Americans simply like dogshit. They like to eat it, they like to roll around in it, and as we found out YET AGAIN tonight, they like to vote for it.
In 2006, they'll vote for dogshit again. Schmidt will handily beat Hackett again, the House will pick up seven to ten more Republican seats, and the Senate will pick up three to four more Repub seats, and then in 2008 will have a filbuster-proof sixty Republican seats.
The most interesting question is this: which piece of pestiferous canine excrement will this most stupid of voting populaces hand the presidency to in 2008?
America: not a Superpower -- a Stupidpower.
Posted by Anne at August 2, 2005 11:18 PMI'm sorta with anne on this one.
I'm not sure I understand why anyone sees this race as a positive. We ran a STELLAR candidate against a reeking pile of dogshit, and the American fuckwad people chose the dogshit AGAIN.
A miss is as good as a mile.
Posted by degustibus at August 2, 2005 11:29 PMI think Anne just may be on to something. And, yes, I think that GOP vote totals may be gooped up on gop. It is not a conspiracy if there is proof. The vote totals statewide in Ohio did produce irregularities. Before we get too dismissive it is important to remember their is still an active case against Ohio GOP member Kenneth Blackwell.
But listen, as Hank Stamper once said, "Never give an inch"
Posted by obelus at August 2, 2005 11:32 PMSo once again we find that Howard Dean was right and the Beltway Democrats were wrong.
Tell me again, why don't the Beltway Democrats embrace and celebrate Howard Dean and all of us who think like he does?
HEY! ARE YOU PEOPLE INSANE?!
Look, there's a crazy movie out there called Full Metal Jacket, and in it a crazy drill sergeant says, (and I apologize for this), "Inside every gook there's an American trying to get out!"
Now, unless you progressives are as crazy as that sergeant, and you honest to betsy believe that inside every bible-thumping red-state neanderthal there's a loony lefty trying to get out, why is it so hard for you to understand that Hackett had a tremendous showing? Even more importantly, why is it so hard for you to understand that Hackett exposed the soft underbelly of the Republican Party, which is proving to be national security?
Oh, that's right - I forgot that progressives don't want to talk about national security because they have no fucking policy on national security and in the end they believe the fucking peace fairies are going to take care of our god damn country if some bad people out there want to kill us!
Posted by Even Keel at August 2, 2005 11:45 PM"Hackett has proven that Howard Dean's 50-state strategy can work."
Oy.
So, Steve, is that Howard's '04 50-state guys with confederate flag stickers on their pickups strategy, wherein Dems would have had to face an incumbent president during war time, who was willing to lie to the American people who were holding out hope that things would get better? Or are you refering to his new '05 50-state DNC strategy, wherein the Iraqi elections came and went and our boys and girls are still coming home in bags?
If there's one thing about you that disappoints me more than any other, it's your routine omission of the relevant contexts for your arguments. Yes, we should fight in all 50 states, but not about education and abortion and gay rights. We should fight about national security and defense, and we should do that NOW because the Republican Party has shown, NOW, that they can't be trusted to lead on that issue. That's a 50-state fight we can win.
Posted by Molly at August 2, 2005 11:54 PMFirst of all, both Republicans and Democrats are guilty of Vote fraud and intimidation in 2004 and, believe it or not, Democrats had more documented incidents.
But it doesn't matter that the Dems are guilty of more abuse, because any effort at voter fraud is wrong. Dead wrong. And it's very bad for the republic.
Second, Even Keel, keep an even keel. Hackett focussed on National Security issues. It was one of the lynch pins of his campaign. You can read it on his site here. Now, I happen to disagree with the man (especially on tax policy) but facts are facts.
Posted by Mike at August 3, 2005 12:03 AMMike, old buddy!
You're as dense as you've always been. Yes, Hackett focused on national security and lost, but narrowly in an almost degenerately red district. Imagine candidates taking similar issues into races where Bush didn't win by thirty points.
The mind reels. Or rather, your mind should reel.
Posted by Penelope at August 3, 2005 12:10 AMClose enough for a recount.
Posted by Judith at August 3, 2005 04:31 AMThat was suppose to be a question.
Posted by Judith at August 3, 2005 05:13 AMBillmon has an interesting post and some insights about the voting history in last night elections. Cleremont County has an interesting history of vote counting, last night's certainly adds to it once again.
Posted by emal at August 3, 2005 06:50 AMOne lesson for Democrats in OH-2: get candidates with strong military credentials to run in red areas--and it helps to have candidates who publicly appear to put their combat experience into evidence by not backing away from their views and values.
Posted by Danton at August 3, 2005 06:58 AM"Bush carried the Second District with 64 percent last year and Republican Rep. Rob Portman, who stepped down this year after being named U.S. trade representative by Bush, consistently won re-election with more than 70 percent of the vote." ChannelCincinnati.com.
Schmidt got 52% of the vote. A miss is as good as a mile, but I wonder what this portends for the less red districts coming up this next year? Place it within the context of Hackett running on the claim that the President is "the biggest threat facing the United States", and we have the makings of a really fun 2006.
Posted by phidipides at August 3, 2005 07:27 AMGreat post by anne, but we must limit the condemnation just to a MAJORITY of Americans being dogshit. A substantial minority are still able to spot that a certain substance is shit.
The fate of the country is in the hands of the group that calls itself "independent", who could theoretically conceive of casting a ballot for a Democratic candidate. That group includes a large number of actual Republicans, who for a variety of odd reasons don't want to admit their true leanings. But I think there are some real "independents" in this group---they are the ones who have to stop wanting to sniff then and roll in the dogshit.
Can they be gotten to? I doubt it at this point in our political history, but they are our only hope.
Posted by euzoius at August 3, 2005 07:31 AMcheer Hackett if you want, but yet another rightwingnut is going to Congress. Questions of voting fraud will always be around as long as the GOP is. If it works, it works. All this election shows is that given the choice, there are still plenty of idiots that vote for Bush, 42% approval or not.
Posted by T2 at August 3, 2005 07:49 AMSo Hackett lost by only 4 points, "but goodness gracious, Beaver, we'll get 'em next time". Or will we? Dems lost only by a small margin, in 2004, a smaller margin in 2002, and in the presidential race of 2000, got over 500K more "officially counted" votes. Please read this
over at Rigorous Intuition then tell me what we will be saying in 2006 when the R's get 61 senate seats & keep their majority in the house. Yeah, tell me what we/you will be saying, goddamn it. The revolution is here, guys, & the liberals have lost. Yeah, the amerikan public lost too, at least the little guys who have to work for a living, the folks like me, but we/"they" are too fucking stupid/brainwashed to realize what has happened and how this democratic republic that was the Untied States is now no more. IMHO I see three realistic choices these days - 1)if you can't beat them, join 'em, 2)find a new place to call home or 3)armed revolution. That's it, all else is just fantasy. Yeah, as long as I'm here, I'll vote and try to persuade, but as my pacifism precludes option 3 & my conscience precludes option 1, looks like it will be #2 after the coming debacle of 2006. You don't really believe the Wilson/Rove/treason item will have any repurcussions on the bushies, do you? Every day the Susskind quote about the reality-based community seems to be more & more profound - it really explains a lot.
darms,
Good luck to you in your new home. Thank you for not shooting me for not voting for your candidate of preference.
Posted by Tex at August 3, 2005 10:29 AMTex, is your problem with reading, comprehending what you read, or were you homeschooled or something? Obviously you didn't follow the link in my comment but it doesn't look like you read my comment, either, just picked up a couple of words then spat back the usual...
Ain't it funny, whenever an election is close these days the r seems to win, and for the last 6 the gop seems to be making sure that all elections are close ones. Understand that? The longest word in there is only three syllables and they're all in you 6th grade dictionary, too. My point is that it's nice that Mr. Hackett lost by only 4 percentage points, but mainly he lost. To the usual gop dirty tricks and to last-minute election totals that disagree with previous totals. And what will we on the left be saying when the gop hands us our asses in 2006 again? Again. "We'll get 'em in 2008!"? (BTW I contributed to Hackett's campaign)