Posts by Alastair Thompson
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James' willingness to maintain his engagement is to be admired. Somewhat.
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Well that's quite sane Craig... and I tend to agree. Evidence is what we all need. That's why the evidence of actual electronic vote fraud in Florida in 2000 led off the Hacking Democracy movie. Its the only actual evidence of fraud that there is.
The Dem victory doesn't change the fact that the US election apparatus remains (unnecessarily} extremely vulnerable to fraud. Dirty tricks abounded in this election.
Google is showing 800+ stories for voting glitches this morning and for all we know fraud took place but failed in MT and VA.
Greg Palast's POV that the GOP went out to actively suppress the vote in every manner possible is not disputed by the facts as I see them. Meanwhile - even if Greg doesn't take the electronic threat very seriously - the machines do remain vulnerable to fraud, they are not properly tested they are built by companies with very clear partisan ties to the republicans.
You say...
the real tensions between the Kossak base who want a sharp lurch to the left and the 'moderates' who think that would see their seats go back to the GOP in '08 if their get their s**t together and start acting like real conservatives as opposed to theo-cratic nuts.
This gets a bit to the nub of the problem of bipartisanship which everybody seems to be is grappling with this morning.
The Kossak's as you call them are not very keen on bipartisanship attempts with torturers, war criminals and people who have pi**ed all over the US Constitution (remember the Nuclear Option for judicial appointments!). The Military Commission Act is as Keith Olbermann said a complete and utter disgrace.
Meanwhile what is left of the republican party is the "Theocratic Nuts" - and as Andrew Sullivan said in an earlier post - even more rabid now than it was before. Moderate republicans in the less redneck parts of the US got their butts kicked by association with an illegal and immoral war and are now gone.
And so what happens next.
The Kossacks will speak softly but immediately start looking for evidence or crimes. And before you can say jimminy cricket they will want to start trials and launch special prosecutors on their merry way. Dick Cheney looks to me to be in trouble sooner than most. But with John Conyers & Henry Waxman as chairs of House Committee can you really expect anything other than probity?
The Theocratic Nuts meanwhile are incapable of compromise. They are already talking in terms of waiting for the big terrorist attack on America to teach the Democratic voters a lesson.
And does anyone really beleive George Bush, Dick Cheney or Karl Rove are capable of reaching out to Nancy Pelosi, Howard Dean & Harry Reid? The DNC is no longer dominated by fans of Hillary Clinton and Joe Leiberman.
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Some links...
Slideshow of US Newspaper Front Pages
Cspan.org where you can watch Bush's press conference.
Interestingly Bush said he spoke to Rumsfeld about replacing him yesterday. He emphasised that the decision was not as a result of the election.... which is curious. Rummy looks like a sacrifice.
And one for Craig...
Before you start dissing the conspiracy theorists I suspect you may find that this election produces quite a few theories from the republican side of the debate.
But assuming that George Allen wants a recount. (And the margin is possibly too big to justify one now. But we need to see absentees counted first. Serving Servicemen may have voted GOP in big numbers. VA has lots of soldiers abroad.)
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Gary
There aint no votes to count in VA anyway. They are computer votes. VA Voting Machine Map
And yes the polls were very good. Including the exit polls with 2 minor exceptions. Not off by much in the five solid win states:
Exit poll Actual
PA 57 - 42 58 - 41
RI 53 - 46 53 - 46
OH 57 - 43 56 (55.9) - 44
NJ 52 - 45 53 - 44
MO 50 - 48 49 - 47Not quite so good in MT and VA but still pretty good.
VA 52 - 47 49 - 49
MT 53 - 46 49 - 48 -
hmmm.....
MONTANA 99% REPORTING
Tester
198,032
Burns
(Incumbent)
194,904Thats 4000 votes that say the Democrats have won the senate.
Phew!
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There is one small proviso...
The biggest county in Montana Yellowstone had a problem with its votes - absentee votes were mixed in with todays - and has called for a complete recount.
At present the Montana Dem lead has fallen to 4000 votes. So all eyes are now on Yellowstone County...
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Couple of "unsual" reactions from freeperland....
So can we say it now? That Bush is the most incompetent Republican ever?
...admittedly these opinions are not being welcomed.
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VA Margin is now 11,000 Votes +
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Ok...
Sorry Jesse James (if you are still here) but the Bush Haters won both houses.
Virginia may have a recount. But it will be fun.
CNN meanwhile is still confused. "We really don't know what has happened in the Senate. It could be anyone's race." - Rick Sanchez CNN Anchor....
And now he is explaining that Jim Webb is really a republican!!!!
A network of geniuses for certain.