BoBblog
Monday, November 15, 2004
Just a few links for good measure:
- While the mainstream press has settled on religious fundamentalism as the force that swept Bush into four more years at the helm, Greg Palast thinks, and wants to convince you, that the 2004 election was every bit as stolen as its predecessor, if not moreso. It's a fun argument for those of us with a mindset predisposed toward it, but I still don't find myself convinced. Palast asserts multiple times, for instance, that undervotes are much more common in areas where the residents are poorer or minorities. He doesn't connect the dots by explaining why. Is it that the punchcard machines are only used in certain areas? Is it that the election workers in these areas are more likely to undercount votes? The argument isn't compelling.
- What is interesting to me is just how little attention this has gotten as an issue, especially after 2000, and how it isn't terribly surprising when you think about it. The right in America has become quite expert at media manipulation, what has been called working the refs, and the anchors were jumping at their own shadows faced with the prospect of another embarrassment like Florida. So they didn't even mention the exit polls that suggested Kerry would win Ohio and New Mexico. Even with all the prepwork done by both sides, with battalions of lawyers cocked and at the ready, we never thought that the Bush team had four years to think about how they lost legitimacy in Florida, and how the media's apparent gunjumping was to blame. Do I have a coherent argument here? Alas no, but the charliefoxtrot that is voting in Ohio will almost certainly never get the attention it severely deserves outside of far-lefty circles... nothing short of tragic.
- Meanwhile, Naomi Klein has her own theory on what went wrong in postwar Iraq: neoconservative economics. It's a bracing read. To tease:
...I was also reminded of the most common explanation for what has gone wrong in Iraq, a complaint echoed by everyone from John Kerry to Pat Buchanan: Iraq is mired in blood and deprivation because George W. Bush didn’t have “a postwar plan.” The only problem with this theory is that it isn’t true...
- The dog has decided that my basement is where she pees and that the stairs to the basement where she craps when she can't get out. Tonight I sleep with dogpeestank.
- OK, now I fold my laundry!
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