Can You Tell The Difference?
by digby
…between McCain and Bush?
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"what digby sez..."
Month: May 2008
Counterpunch
by dday
This is the best way to deal with that awful Supreme Court decision on voter ID.
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senators Russ Feingold (D-WI) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Representative Keith Ellison (D-MN) are introducing legislation to help more Americans register to vote by allowing Election Day registration at polling places for all federal elections. The Election Day Registration Act addresses chronic problems with the American electoral process – low voter turnout and archaic voter registration laws. Election Day registration is also seen as preferable to advance registration since voters are actually present when they register, reducing opportunities for fraud. The bill’s introduction comes days after the Supreme Court upheld an Indiana voter ID law that seriously impedes the ability of elderly and low-income Americans to vote. Senators Tom Harkin (D-IA) and Jon Tester (D-MT), who represent states that recently enacted Election Day registration, are also cosponsors of the bill.
Same-day registration ought to be a core election rights value. It raises turnout in every state where it’s tried, it encourages new voters to get involved, and as the Minnesota Secretary of State notes it’s far more secure:
Allowing Election Day registration can also address concerns about potential voter fraud. Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie has called Election Day registration a “no brainer” and has said it is more secure than advance registration because “you have the person right in front of you – not a postcard in the mail.”
Minnesota and Wisconsin have been running their elections this way for over 30 years. Same-day registration states beat their counterparts in turnout by 16 points (70-54) in the 2004 election.
Now, this wouldn’t cure everything enshrined in that SCOTUS ruling – you’d still need some form of ID to present at the polls under Indiana’s law, for example – but it eliminates all of the barriers to entry associated with registration, and it allows voter registration and mobilization activists to focus in the states on free ID programs and expanding access to photo IDs in underserved communities. The end result would be positive for our democracy, increasing participation and giving voice to everyone who wants it.
I think this should be a legislative goal as soon as possible.
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Those Were The Days
by digby
This is the funniest thing I’ve seen all week:
It’s real — and they were serious. Silent patriot over at C&L quips:
Something tells me Frederick would have had a tough time winning a Senate seat back then. Just a thought.
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Coordinated Effort
by dday
Digby is right, the news we’re hearing about a possible deal on immunity definitely suggests that the Administration knows they’re legally liable for spying on American citizens and they’re desperate to squash any knowledge of it.
Now we learn today that the Bushies and the telcos have formed a partnership to try and get immunity nailed down.
The Bush administration is refusing to disclose internal e-mails, letters and notes showing contacts with major telecommunications companies over how to persuade Congress to back a controversial surveillance bill, according to recently disclosed court documents.
The existence of these documents surfaced only in recent days as a result of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by a privacy group called the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The foundation (alerted to the issue in part by a NEWSWEEK story last fall) is seeking information about communications among administration officials, Congress and a battery of politically well-connected lawyers and lobbyists hired by such big telecom carriers as AT&T and Verizon. Court papers recently filed by government lawyers in the case confirm for the first time that since last fall unnamed representatives of the telecoms phoned and e-mailed administration officials to talk about ways to block more than 40 civil suits accusing the companies of privacy violations because of their participation in a secret post-9/11 surveillance program ordered by the White House.
At the time, the White House was proposing a surveillance bill—strongly backed by the telecoms—that included a sweeping provision that would grant them retroactive immunity from any lawsuits accusing the companies of wrongdoing related to the surveillance program […]
One court declaration, for example, confirms the existence of notes showing that a telecom representative called an Office of Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) lawyer last fall to talk about “various options” to block the lawsuits, including “such options as court orders and legislation.”
Another declaration refers to a letter and “four fax cover sheets” exchanged between the telecoms and ODNI over the surveillance matter. Yet another discloses e-mails in which lawyers for the telecoms and the Justice Department “seek or discuss recommendations on legislative strategy.”
Everybody has been in on this game. The White House, the telco lobbyists, their allies in Congress, and the outside GOP front groups. This has been a full-court press and the entire conservative machine is being brought to bear on Democratic holdouts to force them to give the Administration and their corporate buddies amnesty for breaking the law. This is the real legacy project for the Bush Administration – evading responsibility and accountability.
The Democrats have thus far resisted this wave of efforts; maybe not for long. But they should understand that Republicans would have no problem losing the next round of elections as long as they get their immunity.
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A Prayer For National Day Of Prayer
by tristero
Guess what?
It’s (cue seraphim to blast their trumpets) National Day of Prayer. And Shirley Dobson , wife of James, is the chairman of the “National Day of Prayer Task Force.” Now hold on to your hats, folks: The “national event” down in Washington for this holy shebang will feature a keynote by none other than Oliver North! Gotta hand it to those christianists, they believe in redemption for convicted criminals. I’m guessing they were going to invite Wayne Dumond, the serial rapist whose cause was championed by Michael Huckabee, but he had a prior date with his Destiny. Still, the choice of North as keynote speaker makes a similar point.
I think it is only fitting to offer up a prayer for this special occasion. Here it is:
Dear God and/or the Unnameable and/or Allah and/or Flying Spaghetti Monster and/or Vaguely Defined Divine Force and/or Completely Secular Processes And Events That Contrive A Better Future, Dear All Of You, be you natural, subnatural, or supernatural:
I fervently pray/hope/promise to work to ensure that the sleazy scumbags, felons, and anti-American theocrats involved in this National Day of Prayer are nowhere near the seats of power in the United States one year hence. And I also pray/hope/promise to work for the elimination of the National Day of Prayer, an egregiously awful violation of the Constitution that has been, as anyone familiar with American politics could have predicted, increasingly coopted by a fanatical group of nuts to establish their own religion.
love,
tristero
h/t Dr. Myers, who outrageously exclaims, “Fuck the National Day of Prayer.” How could PZ be so irresponsible?!!??!!!
Well, I say Fuck the National Day of Prayer but use a condom. These people are diseased degenerates so be careful, ok?
******
Special note to Republicans, christianists, and others suffering from severe cognitive distortions:
I deeply respect religious expression and practice and have a long public history demonstrating that respect. Therefore I hate christianist garbage and dangerous nonsense like the National Day of Prayer.
Those holding truly sincere religious beliefs (or sincerely holding none) are, or should be, furious at the cynicism and the exclusionary, intolerant agendas behind the National Day of Prayer.
MAyday!
by digby
Yes, it’s that time of year again. HAPPY CODPIECE DAY EVERYONE!!!
Sadly,he isn’t having as much fun these days:
The White House said Wednesday that President Bush has paid a price for the “Mission Accomplished” banner that was flown in triumph five years ago but later became a symbol of U.S. misjudgments and mistakes in the long and costly war in Iraq.
Thursday is the fifth anniversary of Bush’s dramatic landing in a Navy jet on an aircraft carrier homebound from the war. The USS Abraham Lincoln had launched thousands of airstrikes on Iraq.
[…]
After shifting explanations, the White House eventually said the “Mission Accomplished” phrase referred to the carrier’s crew completing its 10-month mission, not the military completing its mission in Iraq. Bush, in October 2003, disavowed any connection with the “Mission Accomplished” message. He said the White House had nothing to do with the banner; a spokesman later said the ship’s crew asked for the sign and the White House staff had it made by a private vendor.
It’s probably not a good idea for Dana Perino to be so snotty about it:
“President Bush is well aware that the banner should have been much more specific and said `mission accomplished’ for these sailors who are on this ship on their mission,” White House press secretary Dana Perino said Wednesday. “And we have certainly paid a price for not being more specific on that banner. And I recognize that the media is going to play this up again tomorrow, as they do every single year.”
She forgets that the jackass unnecessarily “flew” onto the ship for the photo op and pranced across the deck like a Chippendale’s dancer before announcing “in the Battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed.” Far be it for anyone to “play it up.” After all only hundreds of thousands of people are dead.
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This Happens Every Day
by dday
Either John McCain has the worst advance people in the world, or his policies – and Republican policies in general – are so decidedly aristocratic that they can’t help tripping all over themselves.
At his health care policy event yesterday at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute in Florida, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) was introduced by the institute’s chairman, former Republican senator Connie Mack. But, as Hotline reports, Mack is more than just a chairman. He’s also a registered state lobbyist “advocating for health insurance companies“.
(By the way, Mack just married Rep Mary Bono (CA-45). Surely that will come up in her re-election campaign. UPDATE: I got my Mack’s wrong. Bono married Mack’s son, also Connie Mack. Making her Miss Mary Mack.)
This has happened at virtually every McCain appearance recently. Last week he rode on and praised a ferry which was created with an earmark. He went to Youngstown, Ohio and praised NAFTA at a factory that was closed after NAFTA was enacted. Reality keeps getting in the way of McCain’s Presidential hopes.
The funny part here is that the McCain camp tried to deep-six the story:
According to Hotline’s Jennifer Skalka, “the McCain campaign lobbied On Call feverishly to tank” its reporting on Mack’s role as a lobbyist, calling the story “ludicrous, absurd and ridiculous.”
I guess Ms. Skalka didn’t get any of that yummy BBQ, or she would have known her place.
Later in the day, McCain blamed the Minnesota bridge collapse on runaway spending and earmarks – not that Republicans have gutted infrastructure spending at all – then was presented with an earmark that, gosh, saved lives.
On the same day, McCain was confronted with an earmark he did consider worthy. During a forum at Lehigh Valley Hospital, he met a woman with ovarian cancer who was treated in a clinical trial funded with $80 million in congressional earmarks.
The hospital was showing off an electronic medical records system that is virtually paper-free.
McCain insisted he was not trying to have it both ways and said that deserving projects can get money through regular channels.
“It’s the process I object to,” he said. “I’m sure that I can give you a list of projects the Mafia funds, and they would probably be good projects. But I can’t give you a justification for the Mafia. I can’t give you a justification for the corruption that’s been bred which has sent members of Congress to the federal prison,” he said.
I’m sure the Republicans who turned the earmark process into their personal favor factory in the 1990s are going to be so eager to campaign for McCain now. You know, after being compared to the Cosa Nostra and all.
On top of that, McCain has gone from a position against spending to a position against the technical process by which spending is achieved. That’s going to really bowl them over on the stump. McCain wants to make himself the grand poohbah deciding what spending is OK and what spending isn’t. The problem is that when he is put to the wall, he can’t come up with more than a scattered few projects that are verboten. And he doesn’t dare touch that sacred cow, the military budget, which is responsible for about 100 times the wasteful spending as earmarks.
McCain has put himself in a terrible position. Plenty of earmarks provide tangible benefits for people. Every campaign stop, he’s going to be confronted by someone. And he’ll have to say “Well, when I say cut spending, I don’t mean THAT,” and this is why his trillions and trillions of dollars in tax cuts for the wealthy and new spending will never be brought into balance. He is dangerous and fiscally irresponsible.
Also, his health care plan will bankrupt a lot of sick people.
McCain is offering people like (Elizabeth) Edwards what he calls a “Guaranteed Access Plan.” But unlike all those awful big-government entitlements the Democrats are promising–you know, the ones that (supposedly) make you wait in long lines and cut off access to high-technology treatments–McCain says his plan will let the states handle the problem by working hand-in-hand with private insurers to offer insurance for people with pre-existing conditions […]
It all sounds very lovely–unless you know something about health care policy, in which case it sounds absolutely preposterous.
More than 30 states already have programs almost exactly like the one McCain just sketched out. They are called “high risk pools,” and the idea is pretty straightforward: Private insurers agree to sell policies directly to individuals, even those with pre-existing medical conditions, as long as the state helps to subsidize the cost.
But the whole reason conservatives like McCain prefer this approach to liberal schemes for universal coverage is that it involves minimal government regulation. As a result, private insurers have enormous leeway in dictating the terms of coverage. And one place they use that leeway is by setting high prices. A few years ago, a Commonwealth Fund study found that, on average, state high-risk pools offered coverage that was two-thirds more expensive than regularly priced coverage. In some states, the high-risk coverage was actually twice as high as regular coverage.
At those prices, you might think the coverage was spectacular. Not so. While private insurers in high-risk pools are willing to accept people with pre-existing conditions, they’re not generally willing to cover expenses related to those pre-existing conditions–at least not right away. Nearly all the plans surveyed had waiting periods of between six months and a year, during which the insurers would not cover care for prior medical problems.
Between out-of-pocket expenses, deductibles, cost-sharing, and treatment not covered by high risk pool plans, someone like Elizabeth Edwards, with her breast cancer, would probably have to pay around $100,000 under McCain’s plan. She has it; most cancer patients don’t.
Someone’s going to ask him about that on the trail, too. And it’ll be another embarrassment. In fact, the only way McCain’s bankrupt domestic policies will not cause one misstep after another is if he confines himself to whistle-stop tours of gated communities and medieval castles.
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Here We Go Again
by digby
I have to assume that the telcoms have been secretly monitoring members of congress and the Bush administration’s communications and are blackmailing them. There is just no other adequate explanation for this immunity nonsense to keep coming back over and over again.
According to the ACLU, there is rumor of a backroom deal being brokered by Jay Rockefeller on FISA that will include retroactive immunity. I’ve heard from several sources that Steny Hoyer is doing the dirty work on the House side, and some say it will be attached to the new supplemental.
There doesn’t seem to be any greater priority for this administration than to get Dick Cheney and the other criminals in the Bush administration retroactive immunity for themselves and their teleco cohorts on their way out the door. Much fear mongering, ads and robocalls in the districts of freshmen House Democrats, and lookie here — Trent Lott crawls out from under his slimy rock…
They really, really want this to go through. In fact, their insistence is becoming so desperate that there is simply no more reason to doubt they are hiding something. Nobody works this hard if all it would take would be a couple of court cases to publicly clear their names. These corporations must be knee deep in spying on Americans and their corrupt congressional puppets must know it.
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