Month: August 2008

Still At It

by digby

Following up on dday’s post below, check out what a reader just forwarded to me:

Back with a Bang: Election Law Issues in 2008

Worried about more ACORN voter fraud in 2008? Concerned about the likelihood of non-citizen voting? Want to get the scoop on those Byzantine campaign finance laws? Then, this is the forum for you.

Join the St. Louis Federalist Society on August 7, 2008 for an all-star panel on contemporary election law issues. Featuring Randy Evans, Asheesh Agarwal, and Hans van Spakovsky, this panel is moderated by Carol Wilson, Chair of the St. Louis Board of Election Commissioners.

Please come to Cardwell’s in Clayton, located at 8100 Maryland Ave. in Clayton from 5:45 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Dinner will be served promptly at 6:00 p.m. and the panel discussion will last from 6:30 p.m. until 7:30 p.m. As always, this event is open to everyone–not just Federalist Society members and regulars. Our panel discussion is a must-see for anyone with an interest in free and fair elections.

********************

Randy Evans served as the outside counsel to the Speakers of the 104th through the 109th Congresses of the United States – Speakers Newt Gingrich and Dennis Hastert. He chairs the companies of Newt Gingrich and former House Republican Conference Chairman J. C. Watts. He is a member of the five-person Georgia State Election Board and is the General Counsel of the Georgia Republican Party. He represents a host of well-known public officials including Senators, Members, Governors, and state elected officials. Evans is a partner at McKenna, Long & Aldridge where he chairs the Financial Institutions practice. He has been recognized in various publications as one of the “Best Lawyers In America” and one of Georgia’s “most influential people.” Randy has authored two books and writes a weekly newspaper column that appears in newspapers around Georgia.

Asheesh Agarwal served as a Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice from 2006 – July, 2008, where he works on a range of civil rights and election law issues issues. Prior to that, Asheesh served as a Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General in the Civil Division, and as Assistant Director of the Federal Trade Commission’s Office of Policy Planning. Outside of Washington, Asheesh has served as a Special Assistant to the Illinois Attorney General, and clerked for the Hon. Eugene Siler of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. Asheesh received his law degree from the University of Chicago and his undergraduate degree from Northwestern University.

Hans von Spakovsky is currently a visiting scholar at the Heritage Foundation. Prior to his work at Heritage, Mr. von Spakovsky was the 2006 and 2007 Commissioner at the Federal Election Commission, which is responsible for enforcing federal campaign finance laws for all congressional and presidential elections. Mr. von Spakovsky served as Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights from 2002 to 2005, where he provided expertise on voting and election issues, including enforcement of the Voting Rights Act and the Help America Vote Act of 2002. Hans von Spakovsky is a prolific and well-received author, having published articles in the Wall Street Journal, the Weekly Standard, the National Review, and Human Events.

I think it’s just great that the Department of Justice has trained all these people to learn how to suppress the vote. Makes you proud to be an American.

With an expected huge turnout consisting of many first time voters and many people of color, these evil people are working overtime to get the mechanisms in place to cause chaos at the voting booth, intimidate many of these voters into not voting and cast enough doubt on the legality of the election so an Obama win will be tainted as illegitimate. The fact that they are in the battleground state of Missouri is no accident.

They never quit.

The event is open to anyone so if someone would like to attend this meeting and report back I’m sure it would be interesting …

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Could This Be The End For The Schloz?

by dday

It takes a lot for Bush’s Justice Department to investigate one of its own. But that’s exactly what’s happening in Washington, as the politicization of the Civil Rights Division is coming to a head, with Bradley J. Schlozman, perhaps the worst of the worst, right at the front as the target.

In a report for the Huffington Post, Murray Waas reveals that a grand jury is issuing subpoenas for multiple Justice Department lawyers in the case.

The extraordinary step by the Justice Department of subpoenaing attorneys once from within its own ranks was taken because several of them refused to voluntarily give interviews to the Department Inspector General, which has been conducting its own probe of the politicization of the Civil Rights Division, the same sources said.

The grand jury has been investigating allegations that a former senior Bush administration appointee in the Civil Rights Division, Bradley Schlozman, gave false or misleading testimony on a variety of topics to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Sources close to the investigation say that the grand jury is also more broadly examining whether Schlozman and other Department officials violated civil service laws by screening Civil Rights attorneys for political affiliation while hiring them.

As far as lying to the Senate Judiciary, that’s industry standard for these Bush hacks. And we know that Monica Goodling was found by the IG to exhibit the same prejudicial hiring practices, so it would be no surprise to see Schlozman take the same role in the Civil Rights Division. There clearly was a systematic effort to weed out Democrats and liberals from the career civil service and set landmines for future Democratic Presidents inside the DoJ. And as with Goodling, I’m sure this information will be readily available to the IG.

But this part intrigues me even more:

Investigators for the Inspector General have also asked whether Schlozman, while an interim U.S. attorney in Missouri, brought certain actions and even a voting fraud indictment for political ends, according to witnesses questioned by the investigators. But it is unclear whether the grand jury is going to hear testimony on that issue as well.

This is the infamous ACORN case, where Schlozman pushed bogus voter fraud claims and brought prosecutions right before a hotly contested election in Missouri in 2006, in all probability to cast doubt on the election and reflect poorly on the Democratic candidates. Here are but a few of the charges from that election:

•Schlozman, while he was acting civil rights chief, authorized a suit accusing the state of failing to eliminate legions of ineligible people from lists of registered voters. A federal judge tossed out the suit this April 13, saying Democratic Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan couldn’t police local registration rolls and noting that the government had produced no evidence of fraud.

•The Missouri General Assembly – with the White House’s help – narrowly passed a law requiring voters to show photo identification cards, which Carnahan estimated would disenfranchise 200,000 voters. The state Supreme Court voided the law as unconstitutional before the election.

•Two weeks before the election, the St. Louis Board of Elections sent letters threatening to disqualify 5,000 newly registered minority voters if they failed to verify their identities promptly, a move – instigated by a Republican appointee – that may have violated federal law. After an outcry, the board rescinded the threat.

•Five days before the election, Schlozman, then interim U.S. attorney in Kansas City, announced indictments of four voter-registration workers for a Democratic-leaning group on charges of submitting phony applications, despite a Justice Department policy discouraging such action close to an election.

•In an interview with conservative talk-show host Hugh Hewitt a couple of days before the election, Rove said he’d just visited Missouri and had met with Republican strategists who “are well aware of” the threat of voter fraud. He said the party had “a large number of lawyers that are standing by, trained and ready to intervene” to keep the election clean.

According to Waas, one of the lawyers subpoenaed was none other than Hans von Spakovsky, a former Commissioner on the Federal Election Commission who ought to have his own legal problems to deal with – regarding his lies to the Senate Judiciary Committee and obstructing an investigation into Republican voter suppression in Minnesota. Von Spakovsky may have aided in the effort to hire and fire Civil Rights Division attorneys based on ideological factors.

It’s very important that this grand jury investigation goes forward. We all know that voter suppression and intimidation is part of core Republican electoral strategy. Those responsible for this politicization need to be prosecuted and convicted in the name of accountability, but also to discredit what is truly part of the Republican plan for electoral dominance.

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Covering All His Bases

by digby

Gak:

John McCain’s favorite television commander in chief plays the first black U.S. president.Just the role Democrat Barack Obama is looking to fill.”You know, I hope that I and all Americans can be colorblind about any president,” the Republican contender said when asked about the similarities between Obama and President Palmer of Fox’s “24.”The Arizona senator said he likes Palmer because he “makes tough decisions, he takes charge, he’s ready to sacrifice his interest on behalf of the interest of the country.”

This guy is the Uriah Heep of American politics.

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Where’s Vicki?

by digby

On a day when thoroughly depressing tabloid drivel hits the stands, it’s probably a good time to once again ask the question Kathy G has been asking for months: why are the tabloids obsessed with Obama and write almost nothing about McCain? (She even goes so far as to make regular trips to the news stands to peruse them for McCain dirt — a duty for which she deserves some kind of special hazard pay.)

I wrote a post about the way the tabloids were portraying Obama a while back. I think this one is especially nice:

Wondering why Obama is appearing in all the “celebrity tabloids” while McCain is completely absent, Kathy G referenced the unusual case of the womanizing Austrian movie cyborg who ran for office — and the tabloids ignored it all. The story behind that odd circumstance was revealed by the LA Times:

Days after Arnold Schwarzenegger jumped into the race for governor and girded for questions about his past, a tabloid publisher wooing him for a business deal promised to pay a woman $20,000 to sign a confidentiality agreement about an alleged affair with the candidate.

American Media Inc., which publishes the National Enquirer, signed a friend of the woman to a similar contract about the alleged relationship for $1,000.

American Media’s contract with Gigi Goyette of Malibu is dated Aug. 8, 2003, two days after Schwarzenegger announced his candidacy on a late-night talk show. Under the agreement, Goyette must disclose to no one but American Media any information about her “interactions” with Schwarzenegger.

American Media never solicited further information from Goyette or her friend, Judy Mora, also of Malibu, both women said. The Enquirer had published a cover story two years earlier describing an alleged seven-year sexual relationship between Goyette and Schwarzenegger during his marriage to Maria Shriver, California’s first lady.

On Aug. 14, 2003, as candidate Schwarzenegger was negotiating a consulting deal with American Media, the company signed its contract with Mora, who said she received $1,000 cash in return. Goyette declined to say whether she received the $20,000 promised in her contract.

Rob Stutzman, the governor’s communications director, said he believed Schwarzenegger did not know of American Media’s deals with the women. Schwarzenegger is on vacation and not available for comment, Stutzman said.

Stutzman denied any link between AMI’s deal with Schwarzenegger and the company’s agreements with the two women.

“There is no connection with his business with AMI or AMI’s business of purchasing the rights to stories,” Stutzman said. “That’s what they do. Obviously, part of their business is the tabloid business.”
[…]

But American Media was effectively protecting Schwarzenegger’s political interests, said a person who worked at the company when the contracts were signed. At the same time, American Media was crafting a deal to make Schwarzenegger executive editor of Flex and Muscle and Fitness magazines, helping to lure readers and advertisers.

If American Media was buying exclusive rights to the women’s stories, said the person, who has a confidentiality agreement with the company and spoke on condition of anonymity, “why didn’t the stories run? That’s the obvious question.”

“AMI systematically bought the silence” of the women, said the person. Schwarzenegger “was a de facto employee and he was important to their bottom line.”

That was evidently a business deal rather than a strictly political one (although I have to say even that explanation is a stretch) , but it does make clear that whatever reputation for “getting the story” the tabs have attained over the past few years (as the gasbags keep insisting) is highly overstated. Considering the Schwarzenneger deal, it is more than fair to ask if somebody with money and business to dangle in their faces might be pulling strings to perpetuate an “Obama the celebrity” campaign and disseminate some of the myths that a lot of people who don’t pay attention to politics but check out the tabloids in the grocery store line might absorb without even knowing it.

There must be some explanation as to why there have been no stories about Vicki Iseman, no drug stories about Cindy, no stories about McCain’s legendary temper tantrums. Why?

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Hair On Fire

by digby

Harriet Miers, at the time staff secretary, is seen on Aug. 6, 2001, briefing President Bush at his ranch in Crawford, Texas.

Seven years ago today:

An unnamed CIA briefer … flew to Bush’s Texas ranch during the scary summer of 2001, amid a flurry of reports of a pending al-Qaeda attack, to call the president’s attention personally to the now-famous Aug. 6, 2001, memo titled “Bin Ladin Determined to Strike in US.” Bush reportedly heard the briefer out and replied: “All right. You’ve covered your ass, now.”

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Overexposure

by digby

Pew has a poll out today saying that nearly half the country has “Obama fatigue”

As he has since January, this week, Barack Obama enjoyed much more visibility as far as the public was concerned than did John McCain. By a margin of 76% to 11% respondents in Pew’s weekly News Interest Index survey named Obama over McCain as the candidate they have heard the most about in recent days. But the same poll also shows that the Democratic candidate’s media dominance may not be working in his favor. Close to half (48%) of Pew’s interviewees went on to say that they have been hearing too much about Obama lately. And by a slight, but statistically significant margin – 22% to 16% – people say that recently they have a less rather than more favorable view of the putative Democratic nominee.

In contrast, if anything, Pew’s respondents said they want to hear more, not less about the Republican candidate. Just 26% in the poll said they had heard too much about McCain, while a larger number (38%) reported that they had heard too little about the putative Republican candidate. However, as for Obama, a slight plurality reports that recently they have come to have a less favorable view of McCain rather than a more favorable view of him – (23% to 18%).

Not surprisingly, a very large number of Republicans say they have heard too much about Obama lately. But 51% of independents shared this opinion, and as many as a third of Democrats thought so too.

[…]

For the first time this year, John McCain attracted nearly as much media attention as his Democratic rival, Barack Obama. For the week of July 28-Aug. 3, Barack Obama was a featured candidate in 81% of all campaign stories and John McCain was a featured candidate in a comparable 78% of all campaign reporting, according to the Project for Excellence in Journalism’s Campaign Coverage Index.

While John McCain may have closed the gap in campaign news coverage, equaling the attention garnered by his opponent, Barack Obama remains the far more visible candidate in the eyes of the public. When asked which presidential candidate they have heard the most about in the news over the last week or so, 76% of the public names Barack Obama while just one-in-ten (11%) recalls John McCain. As many Republicans (76%) as Democrats (80%) cite Obama as the candidate they have heard most about in the news recently.

That tracks with what I mentioned the other day: at this moment the campaign is a referendum on whether Obama is an acceptable candidate rather than a referendum on the epic Republican failure. The Obama campaign has obviously felt it was necessary to reintroduce the candidate to the public for the last month or so and reassure them that he isn’t a scary, young radical, while McCain has used the same political window to slam him as a lightweight egomaniacal “star.” So it’s been all Obama all the time. And now half the people say they are sick of hearing about him.

This may even be one of the desired results of the “celebrity” campaign — an attempt to turn him into a Hootie and the Blowfish, “one hit wonder” phenomenon in people’s minds, making it cool to loathe him as last year’s embarrassing fad. (I don’t think it’s actually that bad, but you could see how it might be one effect of overexposure.)

Judging from the new pugnacity of the Obama campaign of the last few days,however, it would appear that they agree that it’s time to give the people what they say they want: lots and lots more information about John McCain. Let’s see how he likes being in the spotlight for a while.

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The Very Best Hires

by dday

I was very pleased to see this yesterday.

Obama for America
Dear —

Help Protect the Vote Real change only happens when new people enter the political process and make their voices heard.

That’s why this campaign is launching an unprecedented Voter Protection Program that will fight to promote and defend the voting rights of every American.

Attorneys, law students, and those with legal expertise will be essential in making sure every eligible citizen who wants to vote can vote — and that their vote is counted.

Find out how you can lend your skills to make sure every voice is heard in this election:

http://my.barackobama.com/VoterProtection

It looks like a 50-state effort that is starting earlier than for any other previous Presidential campaign.

They’d better be ready. It’s very clear that voter suppression and intimidation is baked into the cake of Republican electoral strategy. Sen. Obama is in Indiana today and considers that a swing state, yet this is the state with the restrictive voter ID law that the Supreme Court rubber-stamped this year, leading to nuns in their 90s being turned away from the polls. Yesterday there were a series of primary elections around the country, and in Missouri a man was arrested for trying to vote. They don’t require a state-issued ID like a driver’s license to vote, but the election judges apparently haven’t gotten the memo.

So this morning I walked into my precinct at about 9:45AM, along with my son. Both of us were carrying Precinct issued voter cards, bank statements and utility statements, all of which are acceptable forms of ID in Missouri. The precinct is in the basement of a church and there are two precincts there: 08A and 08C. As I walked in, there were a total of six persons. Three for each precinct […]

The first judge was named Leroy (he would tell em his last name) and he asked for our IDs and was handed the precinct-issued cards. He left them sitting on the table and said, “You need to show me IDs with your signatures on it!”, in rough, angry tone.

I replied, “No sir, I do not.” and handed him a computer copy of the SoS’s web page, printed from this location. http://www.sos.mo.gov/… / The judge did not even look at it, instead standing straight up from his chair, raising his voice loudly, and said, “If you don’t want to vote, there is the door, and you can leave now!”

My reply was, “Sir, we do want to vote. My son and I have both brought the proper ID, and the Sos”s sheet verifies that. Now, if you are refusing to let us vote, please tell us why.” And the reply was, “I need to see your signature!”

(Now bear in mind, the next step in the voting is to actually sign the Poll Book, at which time judges can look at my signature all they want. But what was being demanded was some ID which was already signed. Then it dawned on me that many people would only have signatures on some government-issued IDs, such as Driver’s Licenses.
Compliance with such demands would result in voters having to show Photo Voter IDs without even the need of the GOP-controlled Missouri Legislature having to pass another Photo Voter ID Act. In effect, causing Missouri voters to comply with conditions which had been declared unconstitutional in 2006!)

With the sudden realization of what was probably happening,I had to make a decision. Glancing around the room, I realized that I had seen all of these election judges at past elections. What was the likelihood of them all being untrained, or them all having forgotten what the rules were in the prior election. I calculated the odds were long.

I turned back to Leroy and replied, “Leroy, my son and I want to vote. We brought what was required of us. I am holding the SoS’s web page n my left hand. If you will not look at it, or read it, please call Charlene Davis at the Eastern Jackson County Election Board, or call the SoS’s office to find out what you are supposed to do. Because we want to vote.”

We were then told, “You can either give me what I told you to, or you can just get out that door and find someplace else to vote!” (as he stood towering above my son and I). I looked him in the eye and said, “Leroy, Nope! We will not leave until you give us our rights. We’ve a right to vote!”

Leroy leaned over the table and shouted, “Not unless you follow our rules here!” To which I replied, “Your rules do not trump the laws of this state! Please read them! This ID card (the precinct-issued card) is all I need. And slapped the card down on the table in front of him. “this is all that is required.”

In the next moment an election judge moved toward me from my left and called to me, causing me to turn ninety degrees to my left to face him. I am fairly certain that it was the same judge who had insisted on my photo ID in February. Regardless, as I turned, the man continued walking up to me until he gave me a “Chest Bump” (like players or managers do to umpires in baseball games), and said “You either do what you’re told to vote, or you get out of here NOW!”

I was beginning to feel like Alice, when she fell through the Looking Glass, but managed to ask, “And you going to evict me? Call the police?”

ASt that point, Leroy pick up the converstaion and said, “You leave right now!”. I replied, “If you won’t call your Election Board, I will.” and pulled my cell phone from my pocket. I turned to my son and asked himn to take his cell phone and call “Election Protection” at the Missouri SoS’s Office.

As we both dialed, Leroy shouted for us to leave the building immediately, and I replied, “Sorry. Can’t do that. What you are asking is neither legal or fair. Let’s settle this thing.” And as my son and I were talking to our respective parties, Leroy also made a call… to the Eastern Jackson County Election Board.

As my son spoke to the SoS’s office, I was asking for the GOP BoE head, Charlene Davis. Oddly enough, she was not available.

But Leroy did manage to get through to the Election Board, as Independence, Missouri, Police Officers entered the precinct doors. One of the last things that Leroy was heard to say to the Election Board was “Then we don’t get the signatures??”

My son and I were grabbed by the arms and escorted outside. The two policemen who escorted us were soon joined by four others with two other squad cars. Surrounded, we were peppered by questions. Basically they were of the type, “Why are you bothering these people?”

The answer, as clear as we could make it was, “We aren’t bothering them! We are simply trying to vote, and these people are breaking Missouri State Statutes, preventing us from voting.”

The police responded, “Look, you are breaking their rules. If you don’t get out of here, we are going to arrest you!”

The question I had in response was, “Their rules? What rules? Those are employees of the Election Board, they are under the mandate of the Election Board, and then the SoS. Aren’t you more concerned about the breaking of state laws?” As it turns out, apparently they were not.

This guy was obviously testing the limits of the system, but in the end it merited him an arrest. And he actually knew the rules.

The elections process is extremely fragile and ruled by local boards and pollworkers who aren’t always in possession of the facts. Add on top of that the institutional barriers to voting, with long lines in poor and urban precincts, and the more devious tricks beyond ID laws, like voter caging, etc., and the Obama campaign has a major task ahead of them. This won’t show up on any poll or projection, but getting out in front of election protection is absolutely worth a point or two.

I urge any lawyer reading this to pitch in.

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Paris Drinks McCain’s Milkshake

by dday

I think Chris Bowers is absolutely right – Paris Hilton’s response to John McCain’s celebrity ad has turned the tide of this race to a certain extent. Actually it occurred at a confluence of events: Obama calling McCain and his minions “proud to be ignorant” about car maintenance and fuel efficiency; Obama running a response ad to McCain’s O.M. Origina Maverick (ya hear?) ad:

And then Paris pops up with a piece of video offering an objectively more substantive energy plan than McCain ever has. As Bowers says:

Hilton’s response is now the top story on Google News, and apparently the McCain campaign is receiving so many media requests about it, that they had to post a response on their website. They have gotten into a spat with Paris Hilton, which there is basically no way to win. Hilton has nothing to lose, and the back and forth just highlights the frivolic idiocy of McCain’s recent attacks.

She’s also squeezed him to an extent. Hilton basically endorsed a compromise proposal (I can’t believe I wrote that sentence) of limited drilling as a bridge to a green energy future. That’s not true; the meager take from coastal drilling is not nearly enough to build that bridge. But in the political context, both candidates are actually agreeing with this, as it’s laid out in the bipartisan “Gang of Ten” plan on energy in the Senate. It’s a true compromise, and it includes eliminating tax breaks for oil companies and funneling that money into alternative energy research. That central plank of the Democratic Party agenda (it was part of 6 for ’06) polls extremely well, in the 70% range. But McCain has already gone on the record against the Gang of 10 compromise:

A spokesman for Sen. McCain said that while he “applauds the bipartisan effort,” he wouldn’t support the proposal because “he cannot and will not support legislation that raises taxes.”

Which opens up a huge gap for Obama to exploit, when everybody figures out that making oil companies rich(er) is McCain’s only objective.

What’s more, Obama’s mockery on the tire gauge nonsense has forced McCain up against a wall on that score:

Predictably, Obama hit back calling McCain’s mockery “ignorant,” arguing his plans were being misrepresented and saying that experts backed his call over tire pressure. Equally predictably, McCain’s camp hit back.

The surprise came during a telephone town hall meeting McCain held on Tuesday with voters in Pennsylvania.

“Obama said a couple of days ago says we all should inflate our tires. I don’t disagree with that. The American Automobile Association strongly recommends it,” McCain said.

The dispute now rests on a lie that the tire pressure tip is Obama’s entire energy plan, which has been dismissed as foolishness in just the right way (“it’s like these guys are proud to be ignorant”).

Finally, there’s an extremely damaging A1 story in the Washington Post this morning that is the result of Obama’s recent ads mentioning the $2 million McCain has collected from the oil companies since his change of heart on drilling. There’s a throughline between the focus on lobbyists and oil companies and bundlers and donations and this story:

The bundle of $2,300 and $4,600 checks that poured into Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign on March 12 came from an unlikely group of California donors: a mechanic from D&D Auto Repair in Whittier, the manager of Rite Aid Pharmacy No. 5727, the 30-something owners of the Twilight Hookah Lounge in Fullerton.

But the man who gathered checks from them is no stranger to McCain — he shuttled the Republican on his private plane and held a fundraising event for the candidate at his house in Delray Beach, Fla.

Harry Sargeant III, a former naval officer and the owner of an oil-trading company that recently inked defense contracts potentially worth more than $1 billion, is the archetype of a modern presidential money man. The law forbids high-level supporters from writing huge checks, but with help from friends in the Middle East and the former chief of the CIA’s bin Laden unit — who now serves as a consultant to his company — Sargeant has raised more than $100,000 for three presidential candidates from a collection of ordinary people, several of whom professed little interest in the outcome of the election […]

Earlier this week, McCain drew questions about more than $60,000 in donations that were made this year to the Republican National Committee and his campaign by an office manager with the Hess oil company and her husband, an Amtrak track foreman. In that case, the couple said they used their own money.

Some of the most prolific givers in Sargeant’s network live in modest homes in Southern California’s Inland Empire. Most had never given a political contribution before being contacted by Sargeant or his associates. Most said they have never voiced much interest in politics. And in several instances, they had never registered to vote. And yet, records show, some families have ponied up as much as $18,400 for various candidates between December and March.

Both Sargeant and the donors were vague when asked to explain how Sargeant persuaded them to give away so much money.

There’s at the very least the impression of straw donations here, an appearance of impropriety. I know that McCain is not in control of his own campaign, but all the connections to Big Oil and shady lobbyists and curious donations ought to take its toll (though I think the media will be consumed with Paris today).

The tenor of this race, aided by events, has changed. McCain is on the defensive.

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Taser Atrocity Of The Day

by digby

Swissvale officers responded to calls for a man acting erratically and trying to enter houses.

One resident on that block said Andre Thomas had knocked on some doors, yelling that someone was trying to shoot him. Police have not confirmed that account.

Swissvale officers encountered Mr. Thomas, 37, in front of a residence in the 2200 block, county investigators said.

James Morton, assistant superintendent of county police, said today that Mr. Thomas refused to comply with the policemen’s orders to submit to them. An officer used a Taser to subdue him.

A neighbor said she saw Mr. Thomas standing with the prongs of the Taser still attached to him when four Swissvale officers forced him to the ground and handcuffed him. “I saw them shove [Mr. Thomas] to the ground, and they handcuffed him,” the neighbor said. “They killed that man. They killed him. They killed him,” she added, her hands trembling. The woman said she saw one officer stomp on Mr. Thomas’s upper back, holding his foot there while the subject lay on the sidewalk with his head hanging over the curb. Another officer “reared back and punched him in the head with all his might,” she said.

Mr. Thomas vomited. Then, for several minutes, he lay motionless, another nearby resident said, before an ambulance was called. The rescue truck stayed on the scene for several minutes more before Mr. Thomas was taken away, the witness said.

The main selling point for tasers is that they can be used instead of deadly force. How’s that working out?

H/t to JR

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Ambition Has A Dangly Bit

by digby

Jaana Goodrich (aka the fabulous Echidne of the Snakes) has a must read article in today’s Alternet about the “inner glass ceiling” that people have recently ben telling us that women have. See, the reason there aren’t more women in politics is because they just don’t have ambition. Goodrich delves in to the studies that were trotted out as evidence of this thesis and reveals they don’t show any such thing.

There are many startling statistics in the piece, but this one really gets to me:

Let’s add another layer of complication to the notion of an “internal glass ceiling” by noting that the United States ranks 68th in the world in the proportion of women in national legislatures. Either 67 countries have women with more ambitious genes or both cultural values and the institutional aspects of political systems matter. It also means that the United States could do a lot better in this particular international competition.

68th?

I urge you to read the whole thing. As should be obvious to anyone, the United States is backward on gender equality and the fact that perfectly normal people interpret scientific data to suggest it’s because women just “don’t want it enough” is insulting. We’ve got a long way to go,baby.

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