Harpers’ Magazine contributing editor Greg Palast and Salon business and technology writer Farhad Manjoo continue the debate – discussed in posts here and here – regarding the possibility that John Kerry actually won Ohio
2 comments on “Palast and Manjoo Debate whether Kerry Really Won Ohio”
cloudy on
A discussion group at Yahoo devoted to the issue of election fraud. Amazing number of messages per member, and likely to grow in membership VERY fast
Interested in others with good web referrals on this issue. Interesting how Eschaton and others are steering so much clear of issue, as is spinsanity. I suppose the idea is that anyone who wants to be able to stick around had better avoid this HOT POTATO! Now THERE’s democracy for you! http://groups.yahoo.com/group/People-v-Ohio-n-Florida/message/3393
Although Manjoo’s argument that, even if the provisionals and the valid discarded ballots are all counted, they alone will probably not be enough to tip Ohio to Kerry, there are other issues in Ohio that this and other election oriented websites ought to be paying closer attention to.
First, there are reports in one county where the Courts insisted the polls remain open after 7:30 and Blackwell had them closed at midnite, people were still left at midnite that had not cast ballots and were given provisionals TO TAKE HOME, which is a totally incorrect procedure. Another situation on a campus with more than 10,000 registered students had ONLY TWO VOTING MACHINES, and waits of up to NINE HOURS. This was also quite planned. There are other instances of issues and of grassroots organizing going on in Ohio now.
THIS DESERVES SERIOUS ATTENTION ESPECIALLY NOW THAT THE GREENS AND LIBERTARIANS ARE DEMANDING A RECOUNT. Do you have expert friends who have kept in touch with the issues OTHER THAN the provisionals and spoiled ballots (totalling 250,000) in Ohio? These issues could be determinative is those 250,000 bring the gap between the two candidates closer to about 20,000. Any recount will have to be presented with these issues before it is completed, so TIMELY INVESTIGATION IS OF THE ESSENCE.
This year’s big media narrative has been the confirmation saga of Neera Tanden, Biden’s nominee for director of the Office of Management and Budget. At New York I wrote about how over-heated the talk surrounding Tanden has become.
Okay, folks, this is getting ridiculous. When a vote in the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on the nomination of Neera Tanden was postponed earlier this week, you would have thought it presented an existential threat to the Biden presidency. “Scrutiny over Tanden’s selection has continued to build as the story over her uneven reception on Capitol Hill stretched through the week,” said one Washington Post story. Politico Playbook suggested that if Tanden didn’t recover, the brouhaha “has the potential to be what Biden might call a BFD.” There’sbeen all sorts of unintentionally funny speculation about whether the White House is playing some sort of “three-dimensional chess” in its handling of the confirmation, disguising a nefarious plan B or C.
Perhaps it reflects the law of supply and demand, which requires the inflation of any bit of trouble for Biden into a crisis. After all, his Cabinet nominees have been approved by the Senate with a minimum of 56 votes; the second-lowest level of support was 64 votes. One nominee who was the subject of all sorts of initial shrieking, Tom Vilsack, was confirmed with 92 Senate votes. Meanwhile, Congress is on track to approve the largest package of legislation moved by any president since at least the Reagan budget of 1981, with a lot of the work on it being conducted quietly in both chambers. Maybe if the bill hits some sort of roadblock, or if Republican fury at HHS nominee Xavier Becerra (whose confirmation has predictably become the big fundraising and mobilization vehicle for the GOP’s very loud anti-abortion constituency) reaches a certain decibel level, Tanden can get out of the spotlight for a bit.
But what’s really unfair — and beyond that, surreal — is the extent to which this confirmation is being treated as more important than all the others combined, or indeed, as a make-or-break moment for a presidency that has barely begun. It’s not. If Tanden cannot get confirmed, the Biden administration won’t miss a beat, and I am reasonably sure she will still have a distinguished future in public affairs (though perhaps one without much of a social-media presence). And if she is confirmed, we’ll all forget about the brouhaha and begin focusing on how she does the job, which she is, by all accounts, qualified to perform.
A discussion group at Yahoo devoted to the issue of election fraud. Amazing number of messages per member, and likely to grow in membership VERY fast
Interested in others with good web referrals on this issue. Interesting how Eschaton and others are steering so much clear of issue, as is spinsanity. I suppose the idea is that anyone who wants to be able to stick around had better avoid this HOT POTATO! Now THERE’s democracy for you!
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/People-v-Ohio-n-Florida/message/3393
Although Manjoo’s argument that, even if the provisionals and the valid discarded ballots are all counted, they alone will probably not be enough to tip Ohio to Kerry, there are other issues in Ohio that this and other election oriented websites ought to be paying closer attention to.
First, there are reports in one county where the Courts insisted the polls remain open after 7:30 and Blackwell had them closed at midnite, people were still left at midnite that had not cast ballots and were given provisionals TO TAKE HOME, which is a totally incorrect procedure. Another situation on a campus with more than 10,000 registered students had ONLY TWO VOTING MACHINES, and waits of up to NINE HOURS. This was also quite planned. There are other instances of issues and of grassroots organizing going on in Ohio now.
THIS DESERVES SERIOUS ATTENTION ESPECIALLY NOW THAT THE GREENS AND LIBERTARIANS ARE DEMANDING A RECOUNT. Do you have expert friends who have kept in touch with the issues OTHER THAN the provisionals and spoiled ballots (totalling 250,000) in Ohio? These issues could be determinative is those 250,000 bring the gap between the two candidates closer to about 20,000. Any recount will have to be presented with these issues before it is completed, so TIMELY INVESTIGATION IS OF THE ESSENCE.