Nuisance Industry

OBAMA'S STUMP SPEECH

2005-06-06T11:02:00.000-07:00

Well, it's a commencement address (given at Knox College), not a campaign speech. But don't you think this would play well with the nation's voters in 2008?

What if we prepared every child in America with the education and skills they need to compete in this new economy? If we made sure college was affordable for everyone who wanted to go? If we walked up to those Maytag workers and told them that there old job wasn’t coming back, but that the new jobs will be there because of the serious job re-training and lifelong education that is waiting for them – the sorts of opportunities Knox has created with the strong future scholarship program?

What if no matter where you worked or how many times you switched jobs, you had health care and a pension that stayed with you always, so that each of us had the flexibility to move to a better job or start a new business?
And what if instead of cutting budgets for research and development and science, we fueled the genius and the innovation that will lead to the new jobs and new industries of the future?

THE TOLL

2005-06-06T04:39:00.000-07:00

Just after I mentioned here that the coin scandal is a problem for the Republican gubenatorial hopefuls, the Toledo Blade adds to their dozens of stories on the issue with a detailed article about how it affects the individual candidates. It concludes with something I would love to see:

David Mark, the editor-in-chief of Washington-based Campaigns & Elections Magazine, said if voters have lost trust in Republican candidates because of the coin scandal, it will create serious obstacles for whoever gains the GOP nomination for governor.

"It's not really a hint of corruption, it appears to be outright evidence of corruption for the controlling party," he said. "There's really nobody else to blame when you're in charge."

Except, perhaps, political opponents in the primary.

"It's almost mutually assured destruction," he said. "As soon as one levels a charge at the others, there's plenty of fodder they can use against each other."

The Blade's handling of the coin scandal may be the best investigative series I've read in a newspaper since the Chicago Tribune's death penalty series.

DOUBLE NICKELS ON THE DIME

2005-06-03T13:14:00.000-07:00

A crush of work has silenced this blog (and will do so again shortly as I am soon to move out of state for the rest of the year), but I would be remiss if I did not mention that the ever-venal Ohio GOP has finally caused people to pay attention. The Toldeo Blade has been the best media outlet over the past several weeks documenting the mounting scandal, the gist of which is Tom and Bernadette Noe, master fundraisers for Bob Taft, George W. Bush and a whole lot of politicos (including most of the Ohio Supreme Court justices) lost a couple dozen million dollars from Ohio's Bureau of Workers' Compensation funds. Where did the money go? Housing "loans", presidential campaign "donations", and....well, we're not sure yet. Federal and state prosecutors are investigating, and the issue is sure to come up in the GOP Republican primary, where all of the leading contenders have not only gotten money from the Noes, but have had supervisory powers to look into why workers' comp funds were allowed to be "invested in coins" in the first place.

Ohio's Republican Party should have been called out on so many issues (just scroll back through the archives here for a few recent examples), but stealing from disabled workers to fund private houses and the Bush campaign may just be the chicanery that gets people to pay attention. Whether the voters in this state have sense enough to vote them out of any of the monopoly of statewide offices they hold is another question, but at least the media here is paying attention.

MY FAVORITE REPUBLICAN SCANDAL OF THE WEEK

2005-04-26T10:06:00.000-07:00

Not Tom DeLay, no. Good old-fashioned California fun.

THE LAST FRONTIER....MARYLAND

2005-04-26T10:04:00.000-07:00

The dangers of living in the wild Mid-Atlantic region.

PIKESVILLE, Md. (AP) -- A herd of buffalo somehow got loose and wandered around an upscale neighborhood Tuesday, disrupting traffic and alarming homeowners before officers managed to corral them in a tennis court.

More than a dozen police cars and a police helicopter were used to herd the roughly 10 beasts, authorities said.

''Somehow they figured it out; I've got to give a lot of credit to the creativity of our officers,'' police spokesman Shawn Vinson said.

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Authorities have identified the owner of the buffalo but did not release the person's name immediately.

Residents in the Baltimore suburb first reported that buffalo were meandering along the road about 7 a.m.

Police shut down several major traffic arteries, including a section of the Baltimore Beltway, while they tried to anticipate which way the buffalo would roam.

Officers eventually managed to maneuver the buffalo onto the tennis court about a mile from where they first were spotted.

THE NEW PLAGUE

2005-04-26T10:01:00.000-07:00

Apparently snow has been added to the list of plagues.

I get the message. Posts shall resume, now that the book has been sent to the press. Now let the snow melt!

TELL ME AGAIN WHY THIS STATE VOTES REPUBLICAN?

2005-02-09T07:01:00.000-08:00

God knows it's not due to good fiscal management, or caring about the state's children.

BUSH'S REWARD TO OHIO

2005-02-09T06:58:00.000-08:00

...is a kick in the teeth. Hey, what did you expect? He probably targeted the northeastern part of the state because so many people in Cuyahoga and Lorain counties had the gall to vote for Kerry.

O DEATH

2005-02-04T13:45:00.000-08:00

Reasonable fears, though the ultimate result of course is the same. (And is grist for some very interesting ways of thinking about history.)

COLEMAN IN GOVERNOR'S RACE

2005-02-02T05:26:00.000-08:00

He made it official yesterday, and even if Strickland, Brown, and, yes, Jerry Springer enter the race I think he's the likely Democratic nominee. I want to know who's going to wind up running for the Senate seat that's up in 2006.

PAPERWORK

2005-01-28T17:51:00.000-08:00

This is one of the more amusing advertisements I've seen for a baseball team in years.

OHIO IDIOT FILE

2005-01-28T16:55:00.000-08:00

No, I'm not talking about drivers or the BMV -- not this time. The state's elected officials from Gov. Taft (who even Republican field marshall Grover Norquist called an idiot) on down make the crazed weavers on 77 look like MENSA members. Today's example is State Sen. Larry A. Mumpher, who seeks to ban intellectual freedom in the state.

Marion Sen. Larry A. Mumper’s "academic bill of rights for higher education" would prohibit instructors at public or private universities from "persistently" discussing controversial issues in class or from using their classes to push political, ideological, religious or anti-religious views.

Senate Bill 24 also would prohibit professors from discriminating against students based on their beliefs and keep universities from hiring, firing, promoting or giving tenure to instructors based on their beliefs.

Mumper, a Republican, said many professors undermine the values of their students because "80 percent or so of them (professors) are Democrats, liberals or socialists or card-carrying Communists" who attempt to indoctrinate students.

"These are young minds that haven’t had a chance to form their own opinions," Mumper said. "Our colleges and universities are still filled with some of the ’60s and ’70s profs that were the anti-American group. They’ve gotten control of how to give people tenure and so the colleges continue to move in this direction."

Sadly, Mumpher is not alone in his quest.

The language of Mumper’s bill comes from a 2003 booklet by conservative commentator David Horowitz that lays out how students can persuade universities to adopt the "bill of rights." The booklet says it is "dedicated to restoring academic freedom and educational values to America’s institutions of higher learning."

The issue has gone national.

Horowitz created Students for Academic Freedom, a group based in Washington that has chapters on 135 campuses, to promote his views.

I cannot imagine why people who think and read for a living might be opposed to the conservative agenda in the United States, especially once that agenda begins restricting freedom and liberty. Stalin would be proud of Mr. Mumpher and his totalitarian ilk.

MIGHT THINGS GET BETTER IN KANSAS?

2005-01-28T16:39:00.000-08:00

They might, if the rumor that Bush will appoint Sam Brownback to head the World Bank is true. Americans unfamiliar with Sen. Brownback would do well to read Thomas Frank's What's the Matter With Kansas? (or read his speechs in the Congressional Record) to get an idea of his repugnant combination of religious fundamentalism and corporate gladhanding (both on a par that would make many Republicans blush). He'd make a terrible World Bank president, but whether he'd be worse there than in the Senate is an open question. If the governor of Kansas has the power to appoint a midterm replacement, Brownback's replacement would be a massive improvement.

PROHIBITING PUNDIT PAYOLA

2005-01-27T16:35:00.000-08:00

Frank Lautenberg has been great since his return to the Senate in 2002. He and Ted Kennedy are reacting to the Bush payoffs of pundits with the "Stop Government Propaganda Act." Even if they don't get enough Republicans to pass it (and I can't say how effective an act it would be in practice), they are putting the GOP in the position of defending deceit (instead of simply committing it).

PAY TO PLAY

2005-01-26T07:25:00.000-08:00

You may be familiar with conservative radio host Armstrong Williams's admission that he took money from the administration to promote its policies. As Howard Kurtz reports in today's Washington Post, he was not alone.

encouraging marriage as a way of strengthening families.

"The Bush marriage initiative would emphasize the importance of marriage to poor couples" and "educate teens on the value of delaying childbearing until marriage," she wrote in National Review Online, for example, adding that this could "carry big payoffs down the road for taxpayers and children."

But Gallagher failed to mention that she had a $21,500 contract with the Department of Health and Human Services to help promote the president's proposal. Her work under the contract, which ran from January through October 2002, included drafting a magazine article for the HHS official overseeing the initiative, writing brochures for the program and conducting a briefing for department officials.

Now we know why the media parrots so much of the administration's propaganda without criticism -- it's not "frames" or slick appeals to patriotism. They're being paid off!

GET YOUR PUBLIC ART FUNDED IN CUYAHOGA COUNTY

2005-01-26T07:12:00.000-08:00

Schedule of workshops, application guidelines, and other details are available on the county's department of development site.

MR. ZERO + 1

2005-01-25T13:43:00.000-08:00

Good news from Comiskey. (Yes, it happens.) Apparently reliever Shingo Takatsu (a.k.a. Mr. Zero) enjoyed playing with the White Sox so much last season that his experience convinced fellow Japanese veteran Tadahito Iguchi to fire his agent, reduce his contract demands by over $14 million, shun the Red Sox and Yankees, and sign a two-year deal to become the Sox' second baseman. As a transplant in Indians country, I am thrilled, because I no longer have to endure Willie Harris's anemic at-bats. The outfield still looks toothless, but Iguchi and A.J. Pierzynski help get back some of the offense lost when Ordonez and Lee left.

While I'm on the subject of happy Chicago sports stories (they're rare, so indulge me!), the Bulls are over .500 after thrashing Atlanta. If they keep this up, you'll see more mentions of them in this space.

I'VE WAITED A LONG TIME TO SAY THIS

2005-01-22T18:49:00.000-08:00

...but this Bulls team is fun to watch. Am seeing the kids finish beating up the NBA champs in Auburn Hills.

ZORN IS RIGHT

2005-01-20T11:37:00.000-08:00

He thinks Obama will run for president in '08 and I do as well (for reasons I have mentioned earlier).

UPDATE: Summing up the points I made earlier, Obama's first two books in his new deal are geared to bring him massive pop-culture exposure in 2006 (when interest in the presidential race -- especially among big donors and campaign workers -- will rise). The timing and structure of the contract leads me to believe the third book will be one of those "my vision for the nation" campaign tomes Clinton and Bush put out during their races. We also should not forget that Obama took time out of his schedule last fall to raise money for Iowa state legislature candidates. Of all the many places Obama could have gone last October -- when he was in great demand -- why did he go to Iowa for state lege races? Those folks will be important come caucus time.

SHIT COMES BACK TO HAUNT YOU

2005-01-20T06:18:00.000-08:00

Following up on the Dave Matthews fecal dumping scandal from last summer, Illinois prosecutors have filed charges against the tour bus driver.

The driver, Stefan Wohl, is charged with misdemeanor counts of reckless conduct and discharging contaminates to cause water pollution, Cook County State's Attorney Dick Devine said. The charges carry a maximum penalty of one year in jail and up to $10,000 fine if convicted.[...]
Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan has also filed a civil lawsuit seeking $70,000 in damages against the band and driver alleging they violated state environmental laws.

JOHNSTOWN PREFERS A RUSH OF AIR TO WATER

2005-01-19T06:45:00.000-08:00

Cambria County is getting a new wind turbine generator plant.

Gamesa Corp., of Vitoria, Spain, will construct a plant that makes wind turbine generator blades in the South Park Industrial Complex in Ebensburg, about 70 miles east of Pittsburgh.

The project will create jobs, including temporary construction positions and permanent manufacturing positions, Rendell's office said in a statement.

"Not only is this one of the most significant economic development announcements in decades for the Johnstown area, but it also represents a significant turnaround with Pennsylvania luring high-paying manufacturing jobs from overseas," Rendell said at the announcement in Ebensburg.

Gamesa has received a financial package worth $9.31 million through the state's Department of Community and Economic Development, which includes loans, grants and tax credits.

The wind energy manufacturer in September announced it would put its U.S. headquarters and East Coast development offices in Philadelphia and that it would build a manufacturing plant somewhere in the state. The site of the plant wasn't known until Friday.

SOLD AMERICAN

2005-01-19T06:44:00.000-08:00

Mystery writer, friend of Willie Nelson, Texas Jewboy, and general troublemaker Kinky Friedman has announced that he is running for governor of Texas as an independent.

"I have achieved a lot of my dreams in life and I want to see that young Texans achieve some of theirs,' Friedman said in a telephone interview. He added, "I want to be governor because I need the closet space."

Friedman said the main priorities in his campaign will be reforming the Texas education system, adding safeguards in the judicial process where Texas ranks as the nation's leader in capital punishment and establishing a peace corps for the state.

Plus, he wants "to fight the wussification of Texas."

"I am determined to get back to a time when the cowboys all sang and their horses were smart," Friedman said.

I wouldn't be surprised if he comes in second to whichever Republican gets the nomination in that one-party state.

AIRBUS UNVEILS LARGEST PASSENGER PLANE

2005-01-18T10:10:00.000-08:00

I do not know who will buy them (I'm guessing not USAir), or where these giant airplanes will fly. I do know my father will likely be among the first American passengers on one, given his frequent flying tendencies...

CLEVELAND BUSES ABANDON NATURAL GAS

2005-01-18T07:29:00.000-08:00

...in favor of diesel.

RTA says the savings never played out - comparable new natural-gas buses would cost an extra $42,000 each. In addition, the agency said today's clean-diesel technology is environmentally competitive with natural gas.

Rich Kassel, a vehicle pollution expert for the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the days of the "smoking diesel buses" are over.

"Bus engine technology has moved in the last five years as far as car technology did in the last 25 years," Kassel said. "The diesel bus they are going to buy will be cleaner than 12-year-old natural gas buses. . . . But they are not as clean as the new natural gas buses."

BEFORE I FORGET...

2005-01-16T11:24:00.000-08:00

...thanks, Barbara. We here in Ohio appreciate your support.

MICROBREWING AS A CLOSED INDUSTRIAL LOOP

2005-01-16T07:22:00.000-08:00

The Plain Dealer has a profile of the Great Lakes Brewing Company's attempts to develop a zero-waste operation in the Sunday Magazine. (One of the finer brews is the Cuyahoga-inspired Burning River Pale Ale.)

BOOK OF THE WEEKEND

2005-01-16T07:16:00.000-08:00

Stephen B. Oates's Let the Trumpet Sound, still the best biography of Martin Luther King, Jr. (in terms of both the arc of his life and his significance in his times) I've read.

HOW SUCCESSFUL IS CHICAGO'S RECYCLING PROGRAM?

2005-01-16T07:03:00.000-08:00

Not very, according to a study conducted by the city's Streets and Sanitation Department, with a recycling rate lower than the national average from 15 years ago. There is talk about how effective the blue bag program (similar to Pittsburgh's, in which residents put all their recyclables in blue bags and leave them by the curb) is compared to separate pickups for recyclables and garbage.

The city announced plans to spend three-quarters of a million dollars on a PR campaign to encourage recycling. Education is crucial, though it should highlight not simply what to do with your domestic disposables but also show how sustainable recycling can work, and the dangers of programs that do not use sustainable methods. Some problems in the Chicago area include dumping of recyclables in landfills, and contracting out the most dangerous sorting and processing work in African American neighborhoods. (For more on the latter, read David N. Pellow's Garbage Wars.) Chicago's recycling difficulties indicate that despite the progress of the past thirty years, we are still a long way from sustainable waste management strategies in the United States.

HOW ILLINOIS GOP FOLDED

2005-01-16T07:00:00.000-08:00

Sure, the national political trends have been dismaying the past few years, but at least we may take solace in Illinois. The Tribune has a feature up about the Republicans' decline there, tracing it back (incredibly, to those of us who lived through the Thompson era) 37 years. The focus, however, is on George Ryan.

SMOKE-FREE IN OHIO?

2005-01-13T10:32:00.000-08:00

It could happen; Lakewood is mulling a band on smoking in bars. As my voice is currently a mess in part due to choking smoke in Seattle bars, I welcome the trend...

WAKING UP

2005-01-13T09:56:00.000-08:00

Quiet here because I've been travelling away from my home computer, but more shortly...

A WORD FROM THE CLERGY

2004-12-25T14:49:00.000-08:00

Amen, Father Greeley. Amen.

IT IS A DAMNED GOOD LIBRARY

2004-12-23T08:46:00.000-08:00

The Cleveland Public Library (seriously one of the highlights of living in northern Ohio) and the CLEVNET Library Consortium are making over 150 audio books available online via eBooks. I haven't checked to see if it works with iTunes yet, but persue the holdings at the Digital Library Connection.

THE ONLY RELAXING IN THE BUSH ERA IS DONE TO ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATIONS

2004-12-23T08:30:00.000-08:00

The Bush administration's new forest policy relaxes environmental oversight, allowing individual managers leeway to allow drilling, clear-cutting, or whatever the hell else they want to allow. According to the New York Times:

The long-awaited rules relax longstanding provisions on environmental reviews and the protection of wildlife on 191 million acres of national forest and grasslands. They also cut back on requirements for public participation in forest planning decisions.

As could easily be predicted before the election, Bush's policies are resulting in more people being killed and maimed, more people falling into poverty, and more degradation of the environment. Thanks a lot, Republican voters. I hope you're happy with what you've done.

RECYCLING FOR SURVIVAL

2004-12-23T08:22:00.000-08:00

Most of America frowns upon scrap collecting (we like tossing our cans in recycle bins but shun those who actually wallow through and sort refuse for scrap), but what the Pentagon is doing is disgraceful. Kudos to Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) for (however gently) calling them on it.

President Bush should pardon six Army reservists from Ohio who were court-martialed for taking equipment to carry out their mission in Iraq, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) said Tuesday.

In a letter to the president, Durbin said the members of the 656th Transportation Company may have committed a technical violation and an error in judgment but the military should not have treated this mistake as a felony.

"The punishment is completely out of step with the violation," Durbin said. "Soldiers have been scavenging for equipment on battlefields from the time of the Romans to the present day. ... Yes, they made a mistake, but it was not so someone could get rich; these soldiers were trying to protect their unit and accomplish their mission."

Support the troops, Bush.

BARACK OBAMA IS OFFICIALLY A CELEBRITY

2004-12-18T09:39:00.000-08:00

Winning the Senate seat isn't confirmation, a contract to write a children's book is. Obama just signed a three-book, $1.9 million contract with Random House.

The first book, due out in spring 2006, will focus on Obama's political convictions. The children's book, also scheduled for 2006 under the Random House imprint Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers, will rely on his experiences as a self-described ``skinny young kid with big ears and the funny name'' who grew up to be a U.S. senator.

Topic and publication date for the third book have not been determined.

Based on the topics of the first two books, my prediction for the third book is that it will outline Obama's vision of the future of the United States and will be published either in the late winter or middle of the summer of 2008. You may draw your own conclusions.

HELP MAKE CLEVELAND SUSTAINABLE

2004-12-17T05:44:00.000-08:00

The city's looking to hire a City Sustainability Program Officer. Check out the job description at The Tree.

ELIMINATING IMPOVRISHMENT

2004-12-17T05:36:00.000-08:00

From the mailbox:

Innovative Models to Improving Job Placement and Retention is the hot topic for the next Tuesdays at REI with Walter Ginn, Executive Director of Towards Employment and its new national model ACHIEVE. You'll also hear from Yvonne Tufts Jeans, Workforce Manager of ShoreBank Cleveland/Jobs Partnership in Cleveland, and an innovative faith-based model first developed in North Carolina with moderator James Harris, of HL/Communications during the next session Tue 12/21 at 4PM. Call 368-5540. Case/Weatherhead School of Management The Center for Regional Economic Issues, Peter B. Lewis Building, 11119 Bellflower Rd.

ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE: NORTHERN EDITION

2004-12-15T20:59:00.000-08:00

Framing global warming as a rights issue.

Representatives of poor countries and communities - from the Arctic fringes to the atolls of the tropics to the flanks of the Himalayas - say they are imperiled by rising temperatures and seas through no fault of their own. They are casting the issue as no longer simply an environmental problem but as an assault on their basic human rights.

The commission, an investigative arm of the Organization of American States, has no enforcement powers. But a declaration that the United States has violated the Inuit's rights could create the foundation for an eventual lawsuit, either against the United States in an international court or against American companies in federal court, said a number of legal experts, including some aligned with industry.

Such a petition could have decent prospects now that industrial countries, including the United States, have concluded in recent reports and studies that warming linked to heat-trapping smokestack and tailpipe emissions is contributing to big environmental changes in the Arctic, a number of experts said.

E2 UPDATE

2004-12-15T06:29:00.000-08:00

You may recall the two high-profile nightclub tragedies in Rhode Island and Chicago almost two years ago. The trial of the Chicago-based E2 club's owners has been delayed.

THE FUTURE

2004-12-15T06:13:00.000-08:00

Noah Cross would smile at this feature on water rights in California.

CAN YOU DRIVE EMISSION-FREE IN MINNEAPOLIS?

2004-12-14T09:09:00.000-08:00

Testing fuel cell cars in cold weather.

CHOOSE THE BLUE

2004-12-14T05:28:00.000-08:00

If you wish to target your money to the corporations that support Democrats (or boycott those that support Republicans, check out Choose the Blue for a guide to the biggest donors to each party.

If you're a political junkie curious where all the money goes in politics (both for 2004 and previous years), run, don't walk to opensecrets.org for the details.

THE WORLD AT YOUR FINGERTIPS

2004-12-13T20:03:00.000-08:00

I like what Google's doing. I look forward to using their digitized library holdings as reference tools.

WAIT TIL NEXT YEAR

2004-12-13T15:29:00.000-08:00

The White Sox are not going to be good in 2005.

A NOBEL PRIZE CAN HELP WITH THE PRESS

2004-12-10T13:55:00.000-08:00

Wangari Maathai has an op-ed piece about the Green Belt Movement in today's New York Times. Read the whole column, but take her conclusion to heart:

I believe the Nobel Committee recognized the links between the environment, democracy and peace and sought to bring them to worldwide attention with the Peace Prize that I am accepting today. The committee, I believe, is seeking to encourage community efforts to restore the earth at a time when we face the ecological crises of deforestation, desertification, water scarcity and a lack of biological diversity.

Unless we properly manage resources like forests, water, land, minerals and oil, we will not win the fight against poverty. And there will not be peace. Old conflicts will rage on and new resource wars will erupt unless we change the path we are on.

To celebrate this award, and the work it recognizes of those around the world, let me recall the words of Gandhi: My life is my message. Also, plant a tree.

WHAT WILL OBAMA DO?

2004-12-07T14:05:00.000-08:00

Redstate has the Senate Democrats' purported wishlist for committee assignments. Barack Obama's name shows up for foreign relations and the enviornment. The former would be to boost his presidential ambitions, the latter is consistent with his track record in the Illinois senate. Might environmental justice get discussed more in commitee hearings? I'm guessing yes, maybe even by Republicans Obama may be able to reach.

NEW YORK 2006

2004-12-07T13:31:00.000-08:00

Eliot Spitzer has officially announced he is running for governor of New York.

"I believe that the state is at a moment of crisis, where our economy is hemorrhaging jobs, we are increasingly laden with taxes and debt, we have government that is unaccountable and dysfunctional and is failing to address the critical issues, both process and substantive, that a government has an obligation to address."

Spitzer's candidacy will no doubt focus on the public interest (including environmental protection) and accountability of government to the people. Nancy Pelosi voiced these themes when she took over as minority leader, but they sadly have not been at the forefront of national political rhetoric over the past two years. Perhaps Spitzer being on the news regularly in the nation's top media market (not that he's been anonymous in the past) may help, not just in New York, but nationwide.

WANNA BE AN ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES STUDENT?

2004-12-06T08:44:00.000-08:00

...check out this resource for scholarships. If you're a prospective undergrad or grad student, you can find all sorts of scholarships from the government, nonprofits, professional organizations, etc.

SAY MY NAME

2004-12-05T19:39:00.000-08:00

ESPN's Page 2 has Paul Lukas on the history of unconventional jersey names in pro sports. A favorite:

1979: Giants shortstop Johnnie LeMaster, the target of relentless booing from San Francisco fans, takes the field wearing "Boo" on his back. The crowd laughs -- then boos. LeMaster goes back to a regular jersey after one game.

THERE'S AN OIL BARGE WINDING...

2004-12-05T18:47:00.000-08:00

Feature on the oil-stained lower branch of the Delaware River...

BRINGING TO THANKSGIVING

2004-12-05T17:18:00.000-08:00

I'm slow posting this, but Charles C. Mann wrote a fine op-ed piece in the New York Times for Thanksgiving discussing some of the ecological changes wrought by Europeans when they arrived in the Americas. He has a forthcoming book, but readers interested in a more detailed discussion of the transition in New England should find a copy of William Cronon's wonderful Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology in New England.

THE FIRST BUSH CAMPAIGN STAFFER TO BE INDICTED

2004-12-01T21:11:00.000-08:00

...James Tobin, in New Hampshire, for 2002 phone-jamming hijinks.

A federal grand jury on Wednesday indicted James Tobin, President Bush's former New England campaign chairman, on four counts related to the jamming of get-out-the-vote phone lines on Election Day 2002.

State Democrats, who have filed a lawsuit over the jamming, had accused Tobin in October of involvement in the conspiracy.

Tobin, 44, stepped down Oct. 15, but released a statement calling the allegations "without merit."

The 2002 jamming consisted of computer-generated calls to get-out-the-vote phones run by Democrats and the nonpartisan Manchester firefighters' union. More than 800 hang-up calls tied up phones for about 1 1/2 hours.

The indictment charges Tobin with conspiracy to commit telephone harassment and aiding and abetting of telephone harassment. If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison.

The indictment alleges that Tobin and coconspirators sought to disrupt communications to five phone numbers associated with the Democratic Party and one with the firefighters' union.

SMART CAR COMING TO US

2004-12-01T20:57:00.000-08:00

Zap Cars out of California will sell the little fuel-efficient wonders here.

THANKS FOR KILLING OUR KIDS, REPUBLICAN VOTERS

2004-12-01T13:07:00.000-08:00

If you voted for Bush, you have no way of claiming you did not know this was going to happen. More soon.

Calling the Republican party "pro-life" is like calling John Wayne Gacy "pro-children"...

BUSH V. SALMON

2004-12-01T11:57:00.000-08:00

In a surprise to nobody who has been awake the past four years, the Bush administration has officially moved away from the ledge the Clinton administration ever so timidly crept near when it considered removal of dams from the Columbia and Snake rivers in attempts to bolster the salmon populations of those systems. That ain't gonna happen now, not that it was ever likely.

Readers interested in reading more about the changes to the Columbia ought to check out Richard White's book The Organic Machine. For more about how dams in the west have reshaped American ecology and society (not just in the west but throughout the nation), Donald Worster's Rivers of Empire and the late Marc Reisner's Cadillac Desert are must-reads (Reisner's book being particularly appropriate for those seeking lively page-turners for holiday reading).

A WALLAROO AND A GOAT?

2004-11-22T14:01:00.000-08:00

Just read it. No explanation necessary, or possible.

OHIO RECOUNT WITNESSES NEEDED

2004-11-18T09:32:00.000-08:00

The Green and Libertarian parties have raised enough money for the Ohio recount. Now they need volunteers to observe the process. If you can volunteer, do so.

THE ENVIRONMENT AND WESTERN POLITICS

2004-11-15T13:55:00.000-08:00

Kos discusses how Democrats have become governors in such Republican bastions as Montana and Wyoming by raising issues that join environmentalists and ranchers (groups often at each others' throats out west) together where they have common ground. Here, again, historians may be able to provide opportunities for future bridge-building. Patrica Nelson Limerick's Center for the American West at the University of Colorado at Boulder often invites such non-Boulderite speakers as James Watt and manufactuered gas company officials in discussing problems concerning consumption and the environment. Limerick's activities jibe with political trends in these ostensibly Red states, and an enterprising political party -- be it Democratic or Green -- would do well to pay attention to how Limerick frames issues and speaks to people who might not be caught dead in the same room as an environmental historian from Boulder.

FREE AT LAST

2004-11-15T13:34:00.000-08:00

The manuscript is in the mail, so what do I need to catch up on? The Green Party's demand for a recount in Ohio is here, and people who voted for Bush have the blood of 38 US soldiers, six Iraqi troops and more than 1,200 insurgents and counting on their hands now. (Sleep soundly, Responsible Voters, as you know this is what you voted for.) Nebraska football coach Bill Callahan called Oklahoma fans "fucking hillbillies" after a skirmish in the NU-OU game. Before OU fans protest, they should recall that they voted to put this guy in the Senate. On second thought, the people who should be outraged are the hillbillies. Ah, ain't it a grand nation?

INTERESTING

2004-11-11T18:24:00.000-08:00

The Kerry and Cobb campaigns are pushing to recount Ohio's votes.

MICROSOFT WORD

2004-11-10T07:14:00.000-08:00

...is the work of the devil.

NOT GONE

2004-11-09T08:59:00.000-08:00

Just wrestling with my manuscript. Ought to be done by the end of the week.

EVERYONE AROUND THE WORLD, PLEASE READ THIS

2004-11-05T10:22:00.000-08:00

We mean it.

THE MESSAGE, FAR AS I CAN SEE

2004-11-05T07:39:00.000-08:00

If the Democratic National Committee appointed me chair, these two phrases would be hammered into the national discourse in every white paper, press conference, and interview any member of the party gave in the next couple of years.

1) Stop stealing from the people.

Advocate economic responsibility and hold the Republican party responsible for redistribiting wealth upwards.

2) Stop killing our children.

This message will sadly resonate with more people over the coming months as Iraq claims the lives of more troops. Again, holding the Republican party responsible for the war is crucial, and this rhetoric may be expanded to include anti-violence initiatives (such as reinstating the assault weapon ban) and environmental initiatives at home. We need to re-frame what Pro-Life means in American political discourse and use it to attack the other side.

For too long the Democrats have played defense on the culture wars, and it has killed the party in the south, the plains, and the interior west. Instead of defending mealy-mouthed responses to "abortion is murder!" and "homosexuals destroy marriage!" the proper response is to reframe the morals issue as an attack on Republican values. Who can argue that killing our children is wrong? That's the brilliance of the "Pro-Life" rhetoric -- any dissent is inherently defensive. Who can argue that stealing from the people is wrong? Republicans may scream "class war," but they will be put on the defensive -- in moral terms -- for their economic policies in a much more visceral way than has been attempted since the 1930s. Keep it simple, strong, and paint the people of this country as victims of the Republican agenda. Americans love seeing themselves as victims. That's how the Republicans amassed so much power over the past forty years. As more people slide into poverty, die in the war, and get sickened by environmental ills, there's ample reason to accuse the right of victimizing the nation.

Fight fire with fire. There's plenty of fuel.

MORE ON THE FUTURE

2004-11-05T07:13:00.000-08:00

I guarantee that if, say, a centerist such as Evan Bayh is the Democratic nominee in '08, he will be called a liberal and a flip-flopper, tarred with the same brush Kerry was. Whether that dog will hunt in West Virginia and Missouri, I don't know, but I am not optimistic. We need a counterattack, some sort of "they're so right they're wrong" rhetoric to paint the entire party as wild-eyed radicals bent on enriching their buddies and killing our kids in a way that will cause the old guard fiscal conservatives, small-government advocates, and a lot of the jus' folks to worry about the fate of the nation in this party's hands the way almost half the country does. Things will get worse for most people in this nation, but if they don't hold the Republican party accountable, nothing will change.

I didn't vote for Dean this year, but I love the idea of him as DNC chair, where he can use his invective to keep the Republicans on the defensive...and build grassroots efforts the way his Democracy For America organization has tried in the months since he left the presidential race. He's taking plays out of the playbook the Republicans developed fifteen years ago, and that helped them take the House and a lot of state legislatures...we're overdue to get the pendulum swinging back.

WHAT THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY CAN DO

2004-11-03T13:21:00.000-08:00

I cannot put the loss of the Presidency on Kerry, on his senate record, or on his northeastern liberal image. Nor can I put it on the Democratic party, which unified in ways I have not seen in my lifetime. Turnout for the Democrats was fantastic; as I mentioned yesterday, I had never seen so many people so energized for an election as I did in northern Ohio, and I thought that that kind of force was unstoppable.

What stopped it was there are simply more people on the other side. Bush calculated that would be the case and made no attempt to move to the middle because he knew his base would come out in sufficient numbers to protect a strong, moral leader. Ridicule that rhetoric or the hypocrisy of the policies he uses that rhetoric to enact, but it is very effective.

It did not matter who the Democrats picked as the nominee, the nominee would have lost. So few of the attacks on Kerry rose beyond the generic attacks Republicans have made on Democrats for the past thirty years. (Anyone watching the Saturday Night Live presidential special surely was struck by the reference to Gerald Ford calling Jimmy Carter a flip-flopper in 1976.) Had Bob Graham, Wesley Clark, Tom Vilsack, John Edwards, Evan Bayh, or any candidate from a more rural or southern or western state run, they would have been subject to the same kind of attacks. The attacks would have stuck, for the Republican party has done a stupendous job of identifying Democrats as Others. That was borne out in the senate races, where moderates like Tom Daschle and Brad Carson met the same fate as lefties like Joe Hoeffel. Too many people identify Democrats as not sharing their values.

The problem is morality. Exit polls indicated that Bush voters found morality to be a crucial element in their decision. It does not matter that millions of Americans find Bush’s economic and foreign policies to be immoral; what matters is Bush can convey a sense that he shares and protects the moral sensibilities of millions of Americans living between the two coasts. Same is true of the senate candidates who won yesterday, so it is not simply a matter of Bush’s good old boy personality. The Republicans have found an effective conduit to allow many people – many generally good, honest, sincere people – to trust their words despite the calamitous consequences of their deeds. (And, as the PIPA studies indicate, to trust Bush despite having ideas about security, the environment, and the economy that drastically differ from theirs.) A losing war, a stumbling economy, and polls that show a majority of the nation thinks we’re headed in the wrong direction is invariably electoral death. The Republicans preside over all those conditions yet consolidated power in both the White House and Congress.

Why is this so? That issue of trust. One could write a book about the seeds and results of the cultural campaigns Republicans have developed over the second half of the twentieth century, and so I won’t be redundant, I’ll recommend Thomas Frank’s What’s the Matter With Kansas? as a spectacularly informative argument over how these appeals can separate millions from voting their specific interests. Republicans have been particularly successful at securing support from devout Christians to the point where they can rack up large majorities of the faithful against Democrats who are practicing Christians (including a Catholic in this election and a Baptist Sunday school teacher in 1980). Wedge issues from gay marriage in 2004 to Robert Novak’s tarring of McGovern’s Democrats as the party of abortion, acid, and amnesty in 1972, Republicans have done a superb job of pitting a large chunk of the nation against dozens of moderate and thoughtful candidates. The personal backgrounds of the Democrats don’t matter; if not for Ross Perot, who knows if Clinton could have succeeded against the Republican machine?

The major problem is how can Democrats articulate that they are moral beings and share many of the moral concerns of the electorate? Millions of Americans genuinely believe the Democratic party is radical and amoral. Many are fundamentalists who have grown frightened of secular society over the past forty years, many have understandably grown frightened of the outside world after 9/11. Promises of resolute, moral leadership and security resonate for these people, especially since they have come to trust the Republicans to fight for these ideas over the years.

I don’t know what will change this dynamic, but the Democratic party needs to find a way to express the strong moral fibre that is evident in the platform and sincere beliefs of the bulk of the party. Leaving a healthy environment to our children is moral. Providing ways of making sure families have the health care and economic support to keep them together and thriving is moral. Developing a foreign policy where the USA works with the rest of the developed world against seething fundamentalists who view themselves as victims of us is moral. Reducing poverty and social injustice is moral. Many of Bush’s voters, if pressed, would honestly agree with these statements; many believe Bush and his party is fighting for those ideas despite graphic evidence to the contrary.

Perhaps the evidence needs to be starker. Forty years ago, an incumbent won re-election and majorities in both houses of Congress, pursuing a mandate to re-shape the government. Lyndon Johnson did that, forming the Great Society. After his election, Johnson also intensified American commitment to the Vietnam war, a commitment that destroyed his presidency. Many more bodybags carrying the loved ones of people in Ohio, Kansas, New York, California, Alabama, and Texas will come home over the coming months; whether that will break the trust those people have in this president, I cannot say. There is precedent. Sad, terrible precedent.

There is also hope. Watch Barack Obama’s keynote address at the convention in Boston. He gets it. His name may be unusual and his skin may be darker than what we assume Americans are willing to vote for, but his ideas and rhetoric are a start at engaging Kansans and perhaps starting the process of leaving blind faith behind and walking towards hope. Regardless of what Democrats do in the political arena, fighting this front on the culture wars is vital for the health of the nation.

IT'S OVER

2004-11-03T09:14:00.000-08:00

This will be a very dark ride.

THE DAILY SHOW HAD IT RIGHT

2004-11-03T07:03:00.000-08:00

...when they called their election special Prelude to a Recount. Ohio is the new Florida, Bush's campaign chair is the secretary of state, and there's considerable discrepancy as to how many absentee and provisional ballots are out there. It looks like turnout across the state for both parties was very high. We will wait for the provisional and absentee ballots and hope.

Ohio is not the only state to focus on on The Day After. From the NY Times article on Florida:

In a lawsuit filed late Tuesday, the American Civil Liberties Union asked that voters who received absentee ballots at the last minute get more time to mail them back.

Officials in Broward County, one of the state's most populous and heavily Democratic, mailed thousands of replacement ballots as late as Saturday after the originals never reached their destination. Palm Beach County also mailed several thousand ballots Saturday, and postal officials warned it was dangerously late.

"These are people who applied for absentee ballots weeks ago and got them today," said Howard Simon, executive director of the A.C.L.U. of Florida. "If they were denied an opportunity to vote through no fault of their own but more through the negligence of election officials, that's a pretty serious problem."

A preliminary hearing in the suit, filed in federal court in Miami, was scheduled for Wednesday morning.

Absentee ballots have traditionally benefited Republican candidates in Florida, where late-arriving ballots from overseas helped seal Mr. Bush's victory in 2000. But many Democrats, still wary of voting machinery after the electoral chaos of 2000, chose absentee ballots over voting in person this year. One high-ranking Democratic official said the party was confident that absentee ballots would help Mr. Kerry more than Mr. Bush, though Republicans were putting stock in them, too.

Republican Party officials warned that due to the large number of absentee ballots this year, some counties would probably not finish counting them on Election Night. More than 250,000 absentee ballots were mailed out in Miami-Dade and Broward counties alone.

"If these are not counted tonight, we will seem far behind," Mindy Tucker Fletcher, a senior adviser to the Republican Party in Florida, wrote in an e-mail message to reporters. She said that Miami-Dade County, one of the state's most populous, might not finish counting tens of thousands of absentee ballots until Thursday, leaving the winner here in question if the race was tight.

So, sit and wait. The presidential race is not settled. Sadly, the senate lurched to the right yesterday and a couple of gains in the house were offset by the Texas redistricting, so we have to hope that the absentee and provisional ballots in one of these two states brings some checks and balances to a troubling government.

IF YOU HAVEN'T VOTED....

2004-11-02T07:45:00.000-08:00

..vote! And if you're in Ohio, bring an umbrella and be prepared to chat with hundreds of other, very excited voters.

THIS MORNING

2004-11-02T07:44:00.000-08:00

An impatient phone call from us jumpy prospective voters revealed that long lines greeted the opening of polls in Oberlin at 6:30 this morning. We got to our polling place at about quarter to eight, in a church with about a mile of hallways. The hallways were completely full of a snaking line, with students on their cellphones calling friends, family, and acquaintances saying "I'm voting! Have you voted yet? After I'm done here I'm going into Cleveland to help out." I heard at least a dozen such conversations.

The mood was festive despite (or maybe because of) the lines. Lots of laughing and giddy anticipation, and volunteers came through regularly offering water, pastries, and instructions. If there was anyone trying to bog down the process, they weren't doing a good job, as the lines moved rapidly and I could see no signs of interference. Some people read, but most of the line that I saw we were all social and just talking about how amazing the turnout was.

As it turned out, the poll had two precincts voting, and those of us in the less populated precinct got to go in a much shorter line and avoid the big wait. The woman in front of me exclaimed, "damn, it's good to live on the wrong side of the tracks!" Us and most of the African Americans in line got to save a lot of time (though our line was still substantial -- I was the 82nd voter in the comparatively tiny precinct at about 8am...the other precinct had at least ten times the line, and I'm being conservative), so the opposite of interference was at play in our area.

Got in the booth with my old-fashioned ballot and punched it through to make sure the holes were clean and unambiguous. Looked at it for probably a minute afterwards, not so much to check that it was right, but just to appreciate my ability to make that little card count. Then I dropped it in the box and before leaving exchanged comments of awe to the kindly senior citizens who were running the table. None of them had ever seen turnout like this before -- not in '92, not in '60, never.

We wandered around town for a bit to look at the other polling places. Every single one of them had the same long lines snaking around buildings, with the public library's line coiling in on itself around the block. I am hearing similar stories in Cleveland, as people in line on their cell phones communicated with friends and volunteers up there. All this in drizzling to moderate November rain.

I cannot express how wonderful it is to see so many people engaged in the process this year. Several of my students, for whom this is their first election, have been a combination of jittery and giddy anticipating their vote. A few voiced worries about being challenged at the polls, but it is comforting to know just how many people are volunteering to help voters get through any interference...if the poll watchers are aggressive at all. (We had no signs of interference in our location.) The people from my block, which is largely African American, looked so happy to be there and see the turnout...well, I was the same, grinning from ear to ear the entire time.

I voted in Chicago in '92, in a Hyde Park line that was one big Clinton-lovin' party of exuberance and until today that election stood out as the greatest outpouring of civic participation I'd ever seen. It pales compared to what I saw today.

VOTE!

2004-11-02T04:29:00.000-08:00

Go out there! Bring a book, bring (if you're in northern Ohio) an umbrella, bring friends and loved ones. Wait as long as it takes, we can make a difference.

MICHIGAN & OHIO ON THE FINAL WEEKEND

2004-11-01T07:01:00.000-08:00

Been offline working in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where Bush held a rally Saturday. Grand Rapids is in the heart of his base in that state, and judging by the lawn signs, Bush is not really as close as a couple of polls indicate. Kerry signs are just about as common as Bush signs (though Bush has plenty of billboards), and if that's the case in Grand Rapids, I can only imagine what Wayne and Oakland counties look like.

Back in Ohio now, where more good news greeted me. The last Dispatch poll was a dead heat, and it's now up to the ground game. Up in the northeast part of the state, the Kerry machine is fired up and I cannot remember the last time I was so eager to get to the polls. Maybe not even 1992.

Go vote!

GOOD NEWS FROM OHIO

2004-10-29T09:40:00.000-07:00

Republican efforts to suppress the vote dealt a blow in court.

A CATHOLIC'S CASE AGAINST BUSH

2004-10-29T08:39:00.000-07:00

...from Father Andrew Greeley. My favorite line:

The pope is infallible only in certain limited circumstances and on specific matters. Unlike the pope, Mr. Bush apparently sets no limits on the policy decisions that will be made by conversations with God. We want four more years of those decisions?

BLOW UP

2004-10-28T07:32:00.000-07:00

As the Bush administration tries to deny responsibility for the missing explosives, more evidence from the reality-based world that the looting was a direct result of US policies.

Looters stormed the weapons site at Al Qaqaa in the days after American troops swept through the area in early April 2003 on their way to Baghdad, gutting office buildings, carrying off munitions and even dismantling heavy machinery, three Iraqi witnesses and a regional security chief said Wednesday.

The Iraqis described an orgy of theft so extensive that enterprising residents rented their trucks to looters. But some looting was clearly indiscriminate, with people grabbing anything they could find and later heaving unwanted items off the trucks.

We don't just need to vote these idiots out of office. We need to throw them in jail for how they've compromised the security of our troops and the nation.

NOT LOCKSTEP

2004-10-27T08:33:00.000-07:00

Great LA Times article about evangelical Christians' concerns with Bush. The secular are not the only members of the reality-based community.

RIP JOHN PEEL

2004-10-26T18:12:00.000-07:00

Sad. In a more just world, we'd have a Clear Channel obituary and thousands of stations emulating Peel's ear-opening approach to introducing listeners to hundreds of new musicians.

PLAIN DEALER SCOOP

2004-10-26T17:59:00.000-07:00

Goldberg and Guthrie give some insight into the Plain Dealer's decision not to endorse a candidate for president.

Here's what really happened, according to G&G sources very close to the editorial board process: The endorsement process (if not for all candidates, at least for president this time around) involves the board sitting around with the paper's president and publisher, Alex Machaskee. The board tells Machaskee all of their thoughts and opinions on the matter. Now, I'm not sure if the normal process is that the board tells Machaskee this and then he makes the endorsement decision, or if he usually goes along with the board, or what. But, in this case, had a vote been taken, it would have been 5-2 for Kerry, and it is true that Machaskee did want to overrule them and endorse Bush. But, this leaked out over the weekend, rumors started flying about the editorial board being overruled, and Machaskee must have had second thoughts and decided that the paper would make no endorsement this time around.

THE OCTOBER SURPRISE

2004-10-25T06:07:00.000-07:00

...is Bush's stunning incompetence. Hundreds of tons of explosives in Iraq guarded by the International Atomic Energy Agency before the war were left unattended when the US invaded in 2003 -- despite explicit warnings by the IAEA to the US that they existed and were crucial to secure. The administration has kept this quiet until now, but these are the explosives used against American troops...and who knows where else they are going?

If Bush's final argument is that Kerry cannot be depended upon to keep us safe and this happens on Bush's watch, how the hell can he claim Kerry will be anything other than an improvement?

SELLING NATURAL HISTORY

2004-10-25T03:07:00.000-07:00

The Field Museum is planning to sell several George Catlin paintings.

CLEANING UP

2004-10-23T14:58:00.000-07:00

The Dave Matthews sewage scandal has not been resolved, but Matthews has donated $50,000 each to Friends of the River and the Chicago Park District to "begin the healing process."

THIS AD NEEDS TO BE SEEN

2004-10-23T11:13:00.000-07:00

See it, courtesy of Wesley Clark's Win Back Respect. If you have any money to donate, getting this on the air is as useful as any financial activity you can do now. (If you have time to donate, volunteer with ACT or your local party to get people to the polls and help ensure they are allowed to vote without harassment.)

WHY IS THE REPUBLICAN PARTY RACIST?

2004-10-23T11:00:00.000-07:00

If you're worried about the way African Americans are voting, perhaps you should attempt to appeal to them with policies that will help them. Hiring people to harass voters in inner city polls and calling them "ringers" rather than voters is a Jim Crow attack on democracy. That's what the Republicans are doing in Ohio.

Tell anyone you know who votes Republican to read these stories and try to justify the party's actions. Then ask them why they hate black people.

MUSIC & CURRENT EVENTS

2004-10-22T07:22:00.000-07:00

Help Carmaig de Forest retire his song "George Bush Lies" by electing John Kerry.

BECAUSE I CAN'T AVERT MY EYES

2004-10-22T06:16:00.000-07:00

I had to watch the Obama-Keyes debate on CSPAN2 last night before flipping over to the Astros-Cardinals game. If you missed it, the Daily Northwestern has some choice quotes, but there's nothing like trying to decide between a condesending lunatic and one of the more sensible, progressive minds in national politics. Keyes kept trying to attack Obama and wound up making him look even more reasonable...to conservative voters who might otherwise not support a man with his positions. Obama could well crack 80% of the vote if enough voters saw the debate.

I wish the segment where the candidates asked each other questions was longer, as Obama's points on both sex education and democracy showed the contrast between a reasonable, fair man and a raving loon. (Obama probably had to resist stating that Keyes's desire to repeal the 17th amendment was the "slaveholder's position" -- though I suppose by bringing up the eventual enfranchisement of African Americans and women, he implicitly made that point.)

Enjoyed seeing Keyes completely avoid Laura Washington's question about homosexual children...followed by Obama's statement that he would love and understand such a child. Even viewers who knew nothing about the Maya Keyes controversy would find Keyes's answer off-putting (and Obama's comforting).

Does Andy Shaw think he's asking tough questions? Someone should let him know he's not.

YOU SHOULD BE WORRIED

2004-10-21T11:35:00.000-07:00

...if you're a sitting Republican president depending on conservative Christians and Pat Robertson goes on TV voicing concerns over your handling of the war. Now the White House is, nicely, calling Robertson a liar. Way to keep the base together, George.

BLACKWELL SPANKED BY JUDGE

2004-10-21T07:39:00.000-07:00

U.S. District Court Judge James G. Carr offered up guidelines to handle provisional ballots stating Blackwell "can't be trusted" to fulfill his duties as Secretary of State.

Having the Secretary of State be the state chairman of the Bush campaign just reeks of, well, Harris's Florida.

THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT

2004-10-20T11:56:00.000-07:00

Kerry wins the Nickelodeon poll.

DAMN, THAT'S GOOD

2004-10-20T07:01:00.000-07:00

See Barack Obama's latest TV ad. He will use it again when he runs for president.

PLEASE DON'T LET THEM SING TOGETHER

2004-10-19T11:39:00.000-07:00

John Kerry and Jon Bon Jovi will be at Carnegie Mellon tomorrow afternoon.

ELECTORAL MAP SPECULATION

2004-10-19T10:21:00.000-07:00

We're getting close to election day, and I need something to distract me from my manuscript revisions. The interactive electoral college map at the LA Times is a fine distraction. It reminds me that, regardless of what national polls say, Bush is in deep trouble. Most state polls have him losing in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Minnesota, Oregon, and New Hampshire, and in tight races in Ohio, Florida, New Mexico, Colorado, Nevada, Arkansas, Iowa, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. Factor in large registration gains and anticipated heavy turnout in Ohio and Iowa, and the map favors Kerry decidedly.

My conclusions:
Kerry still has an excellent chance to not only win, but crack 300 electoral votes. If he wins Florida, he may crack 330.

Bush absolutely must hold on to Colorado, Nevada, Florida, and West Virginia, and hope to pick off New Mexico. He is dead if he loses any of those states, unless he can pull off a victory in Wisconsin. Even if he wins Wisconsin, he needs to win at least two of those states.

In the unlikely but possible event that Kerry wins Arkansas, North Carolina, Virgina, or Missouri, it is over. I mention those four states because each has had a poll in the last week that has Kerry within the margin of error.

Bush is playing defense on a lot more territory than Kerry is defending. Pennsylvania trending Democratic is cause for great relief, and Bush's low favorability ratings in Ohio combined with comparatively strong Democratic registration leads me to belive Kerry will win here as well. Kerry's aggressiveness in Nevada, Colorado, and New Mexico gives Bush very little leeway...even if Bush can win Florida, Wisconsin, and West Virginia. Bush's re-elect numbers in all of those states are below 50%. Kerry's position today is far stronger than Gore's was at the same time in 2000, at least in the electoral college. The popular vote might be close, perhaps it may go to Bush, but Bush's margin for error is tiny. Recall he won 271 electoral votes last time and is waging a campaign to mobilize his base rather than appeal to moderates. If everything (and I mean everything) goes right for the Republicans, Bush wins the White House with 290 electoral votes. If everything goes right for the Democrats (I assume there is no chanced they can win Louisiana, Kentucky, or Arizona but have at least slight chances in Virginia, North Carolina, Missouri, Arkansas, and West Virginia, for 50 total electoral votes) Kerry wins the White House with 371 electoral votes. The odds of either extreme are remote, but Kerry's margin for error in the drive to 270 is much greater than is Bush's.

UPDATE: I am not the only one crunching numbers today. Nor am I the only one seeing good news for Kerry.

YOU CAN'T RUN THE WORLD ON FAITH

2004-10-17T09:54:00.000-07:00

Ron Suskind has a profile of Bush that shows just how important it is to elect Kerry. Read it and try not to be scared.

GOOD NEWS FROM WISCONSIN

2004-10-17T09:51:00.000-07:00

No snakeheads there, plus the city of Milwaukee will get all the ballots it needs to ensure alll registered voters may vote.

SNAKEHEAD ALERT IN CHICAGO

2004-10-17T09:47:00.000-07:00

My favorite invasive species has been spotted in Chicago.

15 YEARS AGO TODAY

2004-10-17T06:29:00.000-07:00

Downtown Santa Cruz fell down as I dived under a table while the television set showing the World Series acted like a basketball.

JON STEWART FIRES ON CROSSFIRE

2004-10-17T06:26:00.000-07:00

Read the transcript; see the tension.

BLACKWELL OVERRULED ON PROVISIONAL BALLOTS

2004-10-17T06:21:00.000-07:00

Good news I forgot to mention Friday; a judge has ruled Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell's refusal to issue provisional ballots to voters who show up at the wrong polling place does not conform to federal law.

ROVE TESTIFIES IN PLAME CASE

2004-10-15T13:19:00.000-07:00

Sadly there will be no charges in the next couple of weeks, but this story really should get more publicity than it's received. Unless several pardons occur, it will take some people down.

SEE THE KERRY MOVIE

2004-10-15T06:00:00.000-07:00

Counterprogram Sinclair's smears. Going Upriver is free to download (authorized) here.