American Conservative Magazine ‘Endorses' Kerry
Are you sitting down? American Conservative magazine just 'endorsed' John Kerry:"Bush has behaved like a caricature of what a right-wing president is supposed to be, and his continuation in office will discredit any sort of conservatism for generations. The launching of an invasion against a country that posed no threat to the U.S., the doling out of war profits and concessions to politically favored corporations, the financing of the war by ballooning the deficit to be passed on to the nation's children, the ceaseless drive to cut taxes for those outside the middle class and working poor: it is as if Bush sought to resurrect every false 1960s-era left-wing cliché about predatory imperialism and turn it into administration policy. Add to this his nation-breaking immigration proposal—Bush has laid out a mad scheme to import immigrants to fill any job where the wage is so low that an American can't be found to do it—and you have a presidency that combines imperialist Right and open-borders Left in a uniquely noxious cocktail." [...]
Factcheck.org needs your help
[verbatim] We are looking for examples of false or misleading political mail regarding the presidential campaign. If you receive any, please send them to us. We promise not to use your name without your permission, but we won't be able to return the material you send. Please do include your name and a telephone number or email address where we might contact you in case we have questions.
Factcheck.org: $8 Million Worth Of Distortions
Two Bush ads full of misleading and false statements ran more than 9,000 times in 45 cities last week.
Is the White House ‘Scrubbing' Its Web site?
The blogosphere is presenting evidence, or at least arguments, that the White House is throwing potentially damning transcripts, audio and video down the memory hole. Read more here.
Factcheck.org: An Avalanche of Misinformation
With election day approaching the tempo of ads is increasing, but not the level of factual accuracy. Both sides are making false or misleading claims in their ads.
Two More Factchecks re: Kerry
How Liberal is John Kerry?
A new RNC ad claims Kerry is "the most liberal man in the Senate." Actually, his lifetime rating is 11th or lower, depending.
GOP-Funded Firm Accused of Destroying Dem Ballots, More
Salon today has a piece about Sproul, the RNC-funded firm under fire for doing all sorts of things to squelch the Democratic vote:
Kerry Has Wide Support Among Blacks
AP is reporting:
Blacks prefer Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry over President Bush by a nearly 4-to-1 margin, though their support for the Democrat is down slightly from the backing Al Gore received in 2000, according to a poll released Tuesday.
Factcheck.org: Just How Many Bills Has Kerry "Passed?"
Bush said Kerry passed five bills. Kerry said he's passed 56. Who's right? That depends on the definition of "passed" and "bills."
Factcheck.org: Kerry's Tax Ad: Literally Accurate, But Misleading
[Verbatim alert] [Kerry's] ad says "the middle class is paying a bigger share of America's tax burden." True. But it's a smaller burden all around. And the richest still pay the most.
[Just In] Florida Sued to Prevent Disenfranchisement
[Joint Press Statement by Advancement Project, AFL-CIO, American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, People For the American Way Foundation, and Service Employee International Union/vertatim]
New GOP Ads to Target ‘Lawsuit Abuse,' Edwards
Time is reporting: "A new wave of Republican attack ads is coming this week, but this time their target is the No. 2 man on the Democratic ticket, John Edwards. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the November Fund, a new 527 group dedicated to attacking Edwards, a former plaintiffs' lawyer, and 'lawsuit abuse,' will this week launch an ad campaign that portrays him as a cause of the crisis in the medical system. [...] The November Fund, started in August by former GOP Senator Bill Brock and former Ronald Reagan White House aide Craig Fuller, begins running TV ads (which can't, by law, mention Edwards' name) and newspaper and direct-mail pieces (which can) in four states this week. [...] The Fund won't have to disclose its funding sources or how much it has raised until Friday, but Brock said the group had more than $5 million "last time I looked," starting with $500,000 from the Chamber.
Cell Phone Users Under-polling?
I have to gloat for a minute. I've been saying this exact thing for the last month to anyone who would listen. I truly believe the polls aren't reflective this year, partly due to this cell phone issue. I know this because Todd and I don't have a home phone and use our cell phones. There are lot more out there like us these days in the tech generation. The political game is changing. AP today:
Factcheck.org: ‘Pro-Bush Puffery on Economy, Medicare'
New ad claims Bush inherited an economy "already in recession" and that 41 million seniors "now have access to lower cost prescriptions." Wrong on both counts.
Democrats, NAACP Challenge Fla. Voting Policy
AP is reporting: "The state Democratic Party filed a federal lawsuit accusing Florida's secretary of state of violating federal law when she told elections supervisors to reject incomplete voter-registration forms. The party asked a judge to order Glenda Hood to reverse her instructions to the state's 67 counties. Hood's office told counties they should disqualify voters who failed to check a box confirming they are U.S. citizens, even if they signed an oath on the same form swearing they are. She and other state officials maintain that state and federal laws require the box to be checked.
‘Weak' Jobs Report Precedes Bush-Kerry Debate
Reuters reports more bad news for the Bush administration: "U.S. businesses added 96,000 jobs to payrolls in September, the government reported on Friday, a weaker-than-expected total that was expected to sharpen a presidential debate later in the day over the economy's direction. [...] The September job-creation total came in below Wall Street economists' forecasts for 148,000 new jobs. The department also revised down its estimate of August new jobs to 128,000 from 144,000 it reported a month ago. Most jobs in September came in the services sector, while manufacturers shed 18,000 jobs last month after increased hiring in the two prior months."
Mississippi Voter Forum, Debates On Way
From the Mississippi League of Women Voters: A Political Forum on Saturday will
Election Day. Secretary of State Eric Clark will lead the introductory Political Forum, then U.S. Representative Benny Thompson and Mississippi Supreme Court justices will be featured in four televised debates sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Mississippi and WLBT-TV (Channel 3) this month. A panel of journalists and League members will question the candidates in each debate.
Kerry to Address Black America Thursday Night
BET News is reporting: "Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry will take his case directly to Black America tonight, hoping to convince African Americans that he is more suited to be president than his predecessor. The 30-minute interview, to air at 8 p.m. tonight on BET, comes on the heels of Tuesday's heated debate between vice presidential rivals Dick Cheney and Sen. John Edwards and on the eve of a second debate between Kerry and President Bush.
Bush & Kerry's 'Southern Strategy': Ignore South
AP reports:
Chip Pickering Votes to Protect Pledge, Tax Cuts
[Verbatim statement, Sept. 23, 2004]
Pickering on votes: 'protects the values and finances of Mississippians'
The Next ‘Greatest Generation'
The 2004 JFP/Collective Youth Voter Rally started with a bang. In case anyone thought the JFP-sponsored rally was going to be some "pinko" event, Ayana had scheduled Jim Giles as our first speaker. You know, Jim Giles, the whites-first dude who is running against Rep. Chip Pickering for Congress and who makes Chip look a bit rosy around the edges. Some folks were shocked when Giles headed to the stage, his big-ass Confederate flag-emblazoned pick-up truck parked out front. But, as Ayana and I and host Kamikaze explained to the crowd, the JFP rally was a free-speech zone. We'd asked people to not engage in personal attacks and to stick to the issues. Of course, for Mr. Giles, the issues are how much special treatment "the negroes" (his word) get.
2004 PoliticsBlog Live!
Thanks to the hard work of reporter Ayana Taylor, our 2004 PoliticsBlog is live now. We are featuring information on candidates, as well as the issues discussions that are running in the paper between now and the election. We welcome your comments and links to further information you think would benefit voters—either under the candidate's blog or under the Issues links. We're still working out a few design kinks, so bear with us on those. But let us know any technical kinds that indicate that something isn't working right. Write: [e-mail missing] to report problems. Cheers, again, to Ayana.
YOU Can Help Protect 2004 Election Integrity
Election Protection Volunteer Training Schedule
The Mississippi Center for Justice announces the following training sessions for folks interesting in helping to protect this year's elections. Note that Jackson's program is THURSDAY, Oct. 7, so hurry!
Report: Saddam Not In Pursuit of Weapons
AP is reporting: "Undercutting the Bush's administration's rationale for invading Iraq, the final report of the chief U.S. arms inspector concludes that Saddam Hussein did not vigorously pursue a program to develop weapons of mass destruction when international inspectors left Baghdad in 1998, an administration official said Wednesday. In drafts, weapons hunter Charles Duelfer concluded that Saddam's Iraq had no stockpiles of the banned weapons but said he found signs of idle programs that Saddam could have revived once international attention waned. 'It appears that he did not vigorously pursue those programs after the inspectors left, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity in advance of the report's release. Duelfer, head of the Iraq Survey Group, was providing his findings Wednesday to the Senate Armed Services Committee. His team has compiled a 1,500-page report. Duelfer's predecessor, David Kay, who quit last December, also found no evidence of weapons stockpiles."
Factcheck.org: Cheney & Edwards Mangle Facts
A few factcheck.org report just in: "Getting it wrong about combat pay, Halliburton, and FactCheck.org Cheney wrongly implied that FactCheck had defended his tenure as CEO of Halliburton Co., and the vice president even got our name wrong. He overstated matters when he said Edwards voted "for the war" and "to commit the troops, to send them to war." He exaggerated the number of times Kerry has voted to raise taxes, and puffed up the number of small business owners who would see a tax increase under Kerry's proposals.
Republican Women Defecting to Kerry
Leigh Flayton writes in Salon about Republican women planning to vote for John Kerry this year due to George W. Bush's extremism: "Judith Allen, longtime Arizonan and lifelong Republican, says her choice is clear. She is voting for John Kerry on Nov. 2 and says there's plenty more where she came from. Allen is not a lone voice, crying in the wilderness. She currently serves as a volunteer coordinator for the group, Republicans for Kerry, which believes in 'putting aside partisan politics to do what is right for America.' In spite of recent polls to the contrary, Allen says her fellow Republicans, turned off by the Bush administration's sharp turn to the right, are defecting in droves to the other side. If what these Arizonans want is any indication, Bush may well be in trouble. Since Arizona earned statehood in 1912, no Republican has been elected president without carrying the state." [...]
Wife Says Edgar Ray Killen Not Attending Fair
Associated Press is reporting: "A reputed Ku Klux Klansman under investigation for the 1964 slayings of three civil rights workers in Mississippi has no intention of joining a white supremacist group at next week's state fair, his wife said Friday. Betty Jo Killen, in a telephone interview with The Associated Press from her home in Union, said her 79-year-old husband never told Nationalist Movement leader Richard Barrett that he would attend the fair. 'He has nothing to do with the booth,' she told The AP. 'That is Richard Barrett's doing. Richard Barrett wanted publicity and he got plenty.'"
Did Kerry Win the Debate?
A New York Times editorial today called Bush's performance "downright petulant": "George W. Bush is famous for fierce discipline when it comes to sticking to a carefully honed, simple message. Last night he reiterated this campaign message once again - that "the world is safer without Saddam Hussein" and that things are, on the whole, going well in Iraq. [...] But last night Mr. Bush sounded less convincing when he had to make his case in the face of Mr. Kerry's withering criticism, particularly his repeated insistence that the invasion had diverted attention from the true center of the war on terror in Afghanistan."
Poll: Americans Uninformed About Bush, Kerry
AP reports: "If matching presidential candidates to their positions on basic issues were like a 'Jeopardy!' category, most Americans wouldn't earn a single dollar. More than half of those polled by the National Annenberg Election Survey didn't know President Bush alone favors allowing private investments of some Social Security money. Nearly as many didn't know that only Democratic candidate John Kerry proposes getting rid of tax breaks for the overseas profits of U.S. companies. Importing drugs from Canada? That's a Kerry issue, but nearly half either didn't know or thought Bush also supported changing federal law to allow for drug imports from Canada."
To Live and Die in Dixie
Sometimes the light comes from unexpected places. Last week, I sat down in front of my monitor and my e-mail blooped in. There was one from Jill Conner Browne, the Sweet Potato Queen author. I figured it was about her brand-new funny book, out next week. It wasn't.
Admission o' the Year
The Indianapolis Star reports: Norman Ornstein, a congressional analyst at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, said the issue (gay marriage ban) is being pushed by Republicans to energize their conservative base. "The upside potential in convincing the Christian conservative community that Armageddon will come if John Kerry and Democrats are elected is greater than losing Log Cabin Republicans and some socially moderate Republicans," Ornstein said.
Jackson First Stop on AntiFolk the Vote Tour
[Press releease] MUGSY Records, the ARTIST WORKER ACTION LEAGUE and SOFTSKULL PRESS join the League of Indy Voters to launch the 2004 ANTIFOLK THE VOTE Swing State Tour.
Sleeping With the Giant
So, we're 2. Our determined little rag has defied the odds—at least the mythical barriers that some folks thought were absolute reality. I remember the skepticism from a handful of folks around town well: "Mississippians don't read!" "How are you going to reach out to the black community?" "You need to decide what you're going to be: a paper for North Jackson or for West Jackson. They already have their own paper, anyway." "Young people don't care about Jackson; they're just biding time until they can bolt." "What artistic community?" "This city will never support a progressive newspaper."
Kerry Goes After Cheney, Haliburton and ‘Mess in Iraq'
AP reports: "Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry said Friday that the Bush administration ignored overcharging in defense contracts awarded to Halliburton, the company once headed by Vice President Dick Cheney, calling it evidence of the president's mismanagement of the war in Iraq.
For Whom the Zell Tolls
Admittedly, we have a rough history of treating each other badly sometimes, and we stubbornly act against our best interests too often and—perhaps worst—we are notorious for sending up the wrong people to speak on our behalf. And we might possibly have the lowest self-esteem, especially here in Mississippi, than on any patch of geography on the planet.
‘A Real Buzz': Young People Expected to Vote in Record Numbers
New York Times today: "After dismal turnout by young voters in 2000, surveys this year show that interest in the election among the young is near the highest level it has reached at any time since 18- to 20-year-olds were given the vote in 1972. And state election officials say registration of new young voters is coming in at levels they have not seen in years. Polls in the spring and summer from the Harvard Institute of Politics, the Pew Research Center and MTV all found that young people say they plan to vote at a rate that will far eclipse the low-water mark of four years ago. The pool of potential young voters is substantial - about 40.6 million Americans ages 18 to 29, or one in five eligible voters, according to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, or Circle, a nonprofit research group that has concentrated on the youth vote.
Bush Calls Kerry Campaign ‘Pathetic'
AP reports: "President Bush chided Sen. John Kerry and fellow Democrats on Monday for asserting that Republicans will undermine Social Security, calling the strategy 'the most tired, pathetic way to campaign for the presidency.' Traveling by bus through the southwest corner of this battleground state, Bush tried to improve voters' perceptions of his domestic policies by condemning Democrats for going negative—even as he held Kerry's plans up to the harshest possible light. "'I'm running against a fellow who has got a massive, complicated blueprint to have our government take over the decision making in health care,' the president said. 'Not only is his plan going to increase the power of bureaucrats in your life, but he can't pay for it unless he raises your taxes. What would you expect from a senator from Massachusetts?" Bush said, as a partisan crowd cheered the reference to Kerry's home state and its liberal leanings.
Will the GOP Try to ‘Suppress' Non-White Vote?
Columnist Bob Herbert writes in The New York Times: "More than 80 percent of the population of Detroit is black. This is very well understood by John Pappageorge, who is white and a Republican state legislator in Michigan. 'If we do not suppress the Detroit vote,' said Mr. Pappageorge, 'we're going to have a tough time in this election.' Oops! Republicans aren't supposed to actually say they want to suppress black votes. That's so retro. It's so Jim Crow. This is the 21st century, and the thing now is to do the dastardly deed, but never ever acknowledge it. That's where our friend Pappageorge went wrong. After his startling quote was published several weeks ago in The Detroit Free Press, Mr. Pappageorge, who is 73, apologized and said he certainly never meant to suggest that anything racist or illegal take place. But he reiterated to me in a phone conversation last Friday that he did indeed mean that the vote in Detroit needed to be kept down."
Fox News Poll: Bush Lead ‘Razor Thin'
A Fox News poll released yesterday finds that Bush's convention bump in the polls has smoothed out, and the two men are nearly in a dead heat in nationwide polling: "Thoughts of the Republican National Convention (search) appear to have faded as quickly as memories of Labor Day at the beach, as less than a week after the GOP gathering in New York City the latest FOX News/Opinion Dynamics poll shows the presidential race in a dead heat. Clearly President George W. Bush made gains in critical areas such as leadership and trustworthiness, but just days after his convention ended, Bush's edge over Democrat John Kerry(search) is razor thin." ...
Did Cheney Go Too Far with Attack?
New York Times today: "Vice President Dick Cheney's assertion that the nation was more likely to 'get hit again' by terrorists if John Kerry was elected was one of the toughest attacks launched in a presidential election in 40 years. But Mr. Cheney's latest assault on Mr. Kerry, which startled Democrats and Republicans alike, raised a central question even in this notably ferocious presidential campaign: Is it possible for a candidate to go too far, and alienate the very voters he is trying to court?
Left Behind: The Reality Bites
First, the good news. Jackson Public Schools announced last week that three schools—George Elementary, Murrah High School and Power APAC Elementary—all reached Level 5 for the 2003-04 school year, which is the Mississippi Department of Education's highest rating. George Elementary showed the greatest improvement, going from a Level 3 to a Level 5 school in one year.
You See the Blue Lights: What Next?
To some, the question of police harassment is simple: If you're doing something wrong, the police should be able to stop you, no matter what. And if you're not drunk, why not just take the Breathalyzer test rather than "act guilty" by refusing?
Log Cabin GOP Votes Down Bush Endorsement
AP reports: "The Republican Party's largest gay and lesbian organization, which endorsed President Bush in 2000, is withholding its endorsement of the president for re-election because of his support for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. The national board of Log Cabin Republicans voted 22-2 Tuesday night to hold back the endorsement and called Bush 'disloyal' to the 1 million gay men and lesbian women who it said supported his candidacy four years ago.
Former Gov. Kirk Fordice Dead at 70
Here is a statement from his family, following by a statement from Gov. Haley Barbour: "It is with a sad heart that our family announces the death of Daniel Kirkwood Fordice. Our beloved father lost his battle with leukemia earlier today at University Medical Center in Jackson. Over the last several weeks as news of his illness spread, our father was buoyed by the supportive calls, letters, visits and prayers he received from Mississippians across the state. The people he served while in office served to lift his spirits during his final days. We would like to express our gratitude to all of those who have been so kind to our father and to our entire family over the years. "
Denying the Troops a Secret Ballot
A New York Times editorial: "Members of the military will be allowed to vote this year by faxing or e-mailing their ballots - after waiving their right to a secret ballot. Beyond this fundamentally undemocratic requirement, the Electronic Transmission Service, as it's known, has far too many problems to make it reliable, starting with the political partisanship of the contractor running it. The Defense Department is making matters worse by withholding basic information about the service, and should suspend it immediately."
The South Will Rise Again
Alternet is featuring a provocative piece by Nina Burleigh, who argues that the "Old South" is "crumbling away." More: "The change has not been sudden, but more of an erosion. Slowly, slowly – as slowly as the hundred long years of Strom Thurmond's life – the reign of white and black men who came of age in an era of separate drinking fountains and burning crosses is ending. Republicans – as they are wont to remind black voters – freed the slaves under Abraham Lincoln. The South was dominated, though, by white male Democrats throughout the first half of the twentieth century, until LBJ signed the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Southern majority turned to the Republican Party, which has been quadrennially tossing racist red meat to poor whites ever since. LBJ predicted that was ahead, remarking, when he signed the law, 'I have signed away the South for a generation.' It turned out to be two. But forty years later, with Thurmond's death, the retirements of North Carolina's Jesse Helms and now, Sen. Fritz Hollings of South Carolina, and Sen. Zell Miller of Georgia in 2004, the old conservative bulls in the Senate who have retarded the South's social progress for decades are finally letting go."
‘Dixiecrat' Zell Miller Wows Republicans
Conservative columnist/blogger Andrew Sullivan had this to say about Georgia "Democrat" Zell Miller's performance at the convention last night: "Zell Miller's address will, I think, go down as a critical moment in this campaign, and maybe in the history of the Republican party. I kept thinking of the contrast with the Democrats' keynote speaker, Barack Obama, a post-racial, smiling, expansive young American, speaking about national unity and uplift. Then you see Zell Miller, his face rigid with anger, his eyes blazing with years of frustration as his Dixiecrat vision became slowly eclipsed among the Democrats. Remember who this man is: once a proud supporter of racial segregation, a man who lambasted LBJ for selling his soul to the negroes. His speech tonight was in this vein, a classic Dixiecrat speech, jammed with bald lies, straw men, and hateful rhetoric. As an immigrant to this country and as someone who has been to many Southern states and enjoyed astonishing hospitality and warmth and sophistication, I long dismissed some of the Northern stereotypes about the South. But Miller did his best to revive them. The man's speech was not merely crude; it added whole universes to the word crude."
The Death of Conservatism (As We Know It)?
Conservative columnist David Brooks rethinks today's Republican Party in the cover story of this week's New York Times Magazine: "Democrats may imagine that the G.O.P. is an amalgam of fat cats and conservative ideologues, but things feel different inside Republican circles. Inside there are, beneath the cheering and the resolve, waves of anxiety, uncertainty and disagreement. You hang around Republicans, and you begin to hear all sorts of discordant things. Jesse Helms recently remarked he wouldn't have voted for the tax cut if he'd known how bad the deficit would become. Three of the senior right-wing columnists -- George F. Will, Robert Novak and William F. Buckley Jr. -- have come out, in their different ways, against the war in Iraq. I had lunch recently with a senior Republican official who said his party had succumbed; it was ''defeatist'' about reducing the size of government. As Will himself has observed, under President Bush, American conservatism is undergoing an identity crisis."