] Florida Gov. Jeb Bush ignored advice to throw out a
] flawed felon voter list before it went out to county
] election offices despite warnings from state officials

Screwing up who can and can't vote once is probably an error. Do it twice, and you're probably trying to screw someone. They have had time to fix this. Failure in this regard is unacceptable.

Yahoo! News - Report: Jeb Bush Ignored Felon List Advice

One-third of the Arab population is under the age of 15.

'Oops. I Told the Truth.'

] At the final presidential debate, Bush said Kerry had
] passed only five bills during his career, and Kerry said
] he had passed 56. Actually, we found eleven measures
] authored by Kerry have been signed into law, including a
] save-the-dolphins law, a law naming a federal building,
] a law giving a posthumous award to Jackie Robinson last
] year, and laws declaring "world population awareness
] weeks" in 1989 and 1991.

Just How Many Bills Has Kerry Passed?

] Internet Censorship - As part of a major overhaul of the
] nation's telecommunications industries, both the House
] and Senate approved major new censorship schemes for the
] Internet. The Senate adopted its version, the so-called
] Communications Decency Act, by a vote of 84 to 16.

Kerry voted for the CDA. Now, Bush would have voted for proposals that were much, much worse. But I thought it worth underlining again. We're not going to get someone who "gets" the internet or who is particularly a friend of civil liberties regardless of who we vote for.

Whoever...

`(1) knowingly within the United States or in foreign communications with the United States by means of telecommunications device makes or makes available any indecent communication in any form including any comment, request, suggestion, proposal, image, to any person under 18 years of age regardless of whether the maker of such communication placed the call or initiated the communication; or

`(2) knowingly permits any telecommunications facility under such person's control to be used for an activity prohibited by paragraph (l) with the intent that it be used for such activity,
shall be fined not more than $100,000 or imprisoned not more than two years or both.

Senate Vote on amendment 1362 to S. 652 - Internet Censorship (1995)

I'll drop my hat in but I'll bet people are afraid to tackle this. Its tough. Bush did much better this time. I basically just have disjointed comments:

1. The thirty second response format was annoying this time. Kerry in particular seemed sound bitey during those quick responses.
2. Bush seemed more personable. Kerry seemed smarter.
3. In my mind Kerry won the joust over partial birth abortions, but the thing is that most people aren't interested in the complexity of the situation and Kerry didn't underline it on an emotional level. Stupid people like stupid black and white choices. They are blinded by their convictions. You have to ask them how they would feel if their wife was going to die and the doctor had the power to save her but it was illegal. You have to reach for the throat to cut through the propaganda of the fundies.
4. They both seem to be buying my vote. The debate over middle class taxes was a little annoying. Am I supposed to eat the rich, Kerry? At least be subtle about it.
5. Bush did seem to spend too much time talking about Kerry and not enough time talking about what he plans to do.
6. I wonder if the fundies realize that Bush's religious references are calculated. I think no, and I think Kerry lost points there.
7. The debate, in general, made me feel more confident about the idea of Kerry as president. Kerry seems like someone who understands what is involved and has a clear plan to meet the challenges. Bush seems defensive and given to oversimplification.

I never commented on the VP debate so I'll do it now. It was very close, but I agree with Elonka. Edwards seemed like a salesman. Cheney seemed more intelligent and genuine. Cheney is the kind of conservative I wish I could actually vote for... Someone who would build a free market and a tough foreign policy without putting the fundamentalists in power over my personal life at the same time..

If there was a Kerry Cheney ticket I'd be sold. Unfortunately, I'm not voting for the Vice President...

(And unfortunate it is. Doesn't everybody realize that flipping a red/blue switch every four years is an insult to the idea of democracy? We should have a more granular ability to control our government. How democratic IS your country compared with others? Spare the patriotic bullshit and really think about it. How do you compare how democratic countries are?

The website Cheney thought he was recommending in the debate. Its a little slow but finally viewable now.

FactCheck.org - Annenberg Political Fact Check

] The House of Representatives on Tuesday crushed a bill
] to reinstitute the draft as Republicans accused
] Democrats of raising the specter of compulsory military
] service to turn voters against President Bush's
] reelection bid.

Symbolic house vote kills draft proposal 402-2

] What did Dem presidential contender John Kerry take out
] of his jacket as he approached the stage [with his back
] to the auditorium's audience]?
]
] What did Kerry place on the podium?

From the people who brought you the CBS news document forgery scandal, here's Jacketgate. Kerry won the debate because he seemed more on message. He didn't flounder around much and he made points his opponent couldn't rebut. Having a cheat sheet when your opponent doesn't could easily produce this effect.

Neither Rathergate nor Swiftboatgate seemed very serious to me, but I must confess to their effect. If it turns out that Kerry did bring a cheat sheet, his campaign is toast.

The mainstream press hasn't picked this up, yet.... The NY Post is claiming that if you look at it from another camera angle its a pen. I never believe anything I read in the NY Post. So, where are the other camera angles? Lets have 'em out on the net!

U Turns out it WAS just a pen.

DRUDGE REPORT 2004: Did Kerry Cheat?

John Kerry is this country's intellect. George Bush is our heart.

Kerry clearly won the debate. He made strong points that Bush couldn't counter. Bush had his moments too, but they were fewer. Bush did not build the coalition that he said he was going to build. Bush did not use war as a last resort. With we did win concessions from Lybia, and possibly Syria, through the invasion of Iraq, Iran is moving forward with their nuke plan.

Bush was defensive, and in a sense you have to identify with his position. I don't like a number of his policies. I don't want to see him win. But he is a sitting President, and he may have been goofing off before 9/11, but he hasn't since. He kept repeating that its a hard job. It is a hard job. Most countries leaders are either corrupt enough to have opulent wealth and pleasure as a result of their position, or lucky enough to be running some place like Canada that basically just needs maintenance and isn't at the center of World affairs. Bush has worked his ass off and he has fought hard, and all he gets in return is jeers from his political enemies. At the end of the day you want the American people to show you that they appreciate it. Its impossible to simultaneously honor someone's service to his country while you're firing him, and that is a shame on some level.

Kerry is right, in a moral sense, that we need more people in Iraq to secure the country. If we really care about Iraq, we need to secure it. At the same time, the costs and risks that this entails are staggering. Are we really prepared for this commitment? This is the draft.

John Edwards sounds like a fucking redneck. In a sense he is the Dem's dark horse. All of the Democrats who've won elections in the past half century have been Southerners. The South's Democratic block is the thing that has kept this country from completely turning into an Urban vs. Rural culture war. Southerners like to vote for Southerners, even if they are Democrats, because Southern is still a cultural identity that is stronger then urban or rural. Furthermore, in the South the local Republicans have traditionally been the guys with holes in their sheets. No one wants to vote for a racist.

If the Republicans can pull the South, they win. Thats why they support the fundamentalists. Christian is a more important cultural identity then Southern or Republican. If they can connect with it over the next few cycles they'll control the country, and it will become a very uncomfortable place for multiculturalist intellectuals from the big city.

Some have argued that because Kerry is a Northerner, and Bush is from Texas, that Kerry really doesn't have a prayer. The visibility of Edwards during these debates might change that. Thats really Kerry's best hope.

K is right that the Dems need to think more strategically. To put a point on it, the Dems will loose the South over the next few years as the Republicans work to extend their concept of Christian to associate the GOP with Southern. People with pickup trucks vote for Bush. The Dems need to figure out what core cultural identities they are going to connect with. The intellectual elite is not large enough to win elections on its own. They need to tie themselves to core American identities.

All in all, it was a really good debate. It felt like a much more substantive discussion then the crazy hate fest that this election season has been, with Michael Moore on the one hand and Swift Boat Veterans on the other, its been really difficult to keep the important stuff in the crosshairs.

] The disturbing fact is that a repetition of the problems
] of 2000 now seems likely, even as many other nations are
] conducting elections that are internationally certified
] to be transparent, honest and fair.

Carter's Essay

Still Seeking a Fair Florida Vote (washingtonpost.com)