Depressed? Disheartened? Buying into the Korporate Media's Bullshit meme that the whole country just
Looooooooves Bush™? Well, here's a little piece of information that they may not have been feeding you-- particularly in light of the fact that the blow-by-blow up to the minute poll results stopped coming as soon as the "Bush Bounce" was proven to be an overhyped lie... In Florida and Ohio, Democrats have been out-registering new voters 10-to-1. That's right, Ten to One. And those "new voters" are all people who not only aren't likely to be polled by one of the "reputable" polling organizations that keep assuring us that Bush has this deal in the bag (so ya might as well just stay home, hippy) but they certainly aren't going to show up in any "likely voter" analysis- because according to conventional polling wisdom, if you haven't voted in the last two or three elections, you're certainly not "likely" to vote this time. After all, we can't imagine any reason why people, particularly on the left, might be more motivated than usual to get to the polls this year.
Well, anyway, it appears that the crack Democracy squads of the GOP have not let this little "situation" in Ohio go unnoticed (one can be fairly certain that Katherine Harris and Jeb Bush have their own little representation squashing plans well underway down in Florida) ..So, in another proud moment for American Democracy, Ohio Secretary of State Ken Blackwell has ordered
thousands of new voter registration forms invalidated, because of an antiquated state law on the books
requiring all voter registration cards to be printed on 80lb card stock. There is absolutely no reason why modern voter registration applications, which are electronically scanned, need to be on this weight paper; furthermore, there is an online registration form from the federal government that, by law, the State of Ohio must accept- so there is no legitimate logistical reason that they cannot process these other voter registration forms, as well. No reason, perhaps, except the 10-to-1 difference between new Democrat and Republican Registrations.
act4victory.org, while quite possibly taking a little too much credit for the increase in voter registration in Ohio, nevertheless has started an
online petition to send to Mr. Blackwell urging him to cut the proverbial shit. Please sign it and send to as many friends as possible.
Daily Kos and others brought this story to our attention early this week, and he has kindly given
this list of Ohio Media contact info:
Dayton Daily News (where the article ThisTime noted appeared): edletter@daytondailynews.com
Athens Messenger: mnieporte@athensmessenger.com
Athens News: news@athensnews.com
Ottawa Couny Beacon: john@thebeacon.net
Cincinnati Post: postedits@cincypost.com
Cleveland Plain Dealer: letters@plaind.com
Columbus Dispatch: letters@dispatch.com
Lima News: letters@limanews.com
Medina Gazette: opinion@ohio.net
Ohio State Lantern: lantern@osu.edu
Sandusky Register: regforum@sanduskyregister.com
Springfield News Sun: newssuneditor@coxohio.com
Toledo Blade: letters@theblade.com
Meanwhile, you were probably standing in stark awe, like we were, at the Gallup Poll released a couple weeks ago that had George W. Bush up by something like 12 points over Kerry. I mean, in a country with so few undecideds and a polarized electorate, how could that pathetic convention and a spittle-filled rant by Zell Miller really move the numbers that significantly? Well, several people have done some good, in-depth
analyses of just how bad the Gallup methodology was on that poll, particularly with regards to their statistically boneheaded sample of
40% Republicans and 33% Democrats. Moveon.org
ran a full-page ad slamming the Gallup organization(pdf) ... Here's an excerpt (emphasis added):
Two media outlets, CNN and USA Today, bear special responsibility for this problem. They pay for many of Gallup’s surveys, in exchange for the right to add their names to the polls and trumpet the results first. They wind up acting as unquestioning promotional partners, rather than as critical journalists.
The public would be better served if journalists asked some tough questions, beginning with the Gallup Organization, which has been asked to select the audience for the Bush-Kerry “town meeting” debate on October 8.
George Gallup Jr., son of the poll’s founder, was the longtime head of the companyand now directs its non-profit research center.Why hasn’t he pushed for an update of the company’s likely voter modeling, which his own father pioneered in the 1950s?
Gallup, who is a devout evangelical Christian, has been quoted as calling his polling “a kind of ministry.” And a few months ago, he said “the most profound purpose of polls is to see how people are responding to God.”
We thought the purpose is to faithfully and factually report public opinion.
Yeah. And another thing the media might answer is why, after a month or two of completely ignoring poll results consistently showing a slight but solid Kerry lead, suddenly one statistically anomalous- and dubious- poll showing a solid Bush margin suddenly became front page, global news-- for a full week. Shit, no wonder Michael Moore had to write 3 letters in a row to dejected democrats, full of cheer and consolation! We couldn't believe what was happening.. because, surprise! It wasn't.
Gallup's defenders didn't waste any time responding to this ad, and on unbiased sites like smartmoney.com, Gallup's current editor in chief, Frank Newport,
reacted indignantly, saying that Gallup's results have been "exceedingly accurate election after election when we look at who actually wins the popular vote." ...
Well, the research team here at Impeach Dubya, while really, really wanting to take Mr. Newport and the Gallup organization at their word (Hey- they look honest!) decided to check that little statement out. So take a look at these poll results from Gallup, released almost immediately before the 2000 election. This is what qualifies as "exceedingly accurate", apparently, over at God's own Gallup Polling Organization:
Tracking Poll: Bush Holds On To Advantage- October 27, 2000
"While not a prediction of the voters' choice in November, Friday's results show Bush garnering 52 percent of the vote and Gore drawing 39 percent. The survey of 851 likely voters was conducted October 24-26 and has a 3.5 percentage point margin of error.
A CNN/Time poll also released today gives Bush a 49 percent to 43 percent edge over Gore, which is statistically in agreement with today's CNN/USA Today/Gallup tracking poll, given the polls' margin of sampling error."
Now, lets hear that quote from Mr. Ass-Hat Gallup man, again:
Newport said the polling has been "exceedingly accurate election after election when we look at who actually wins the popular vote."
Notwithstanding the fact that George W. Bush had to steal the election via the Supreme Court, Al Gore BEAT George Bush by some half a million in the popular vote. So how, pray tell, does a prediction of 52 percent for Bush to 39 Percent for Gore --
on October 27, 2000-- translate to "exceeding accuracy" with regards to the popular vote?
Answer: It doesn't. And the Gallup folks are thoroughly full of shit, even if they think they're full of shit in the name of the lord. Just FYI.
Okay folks, let's look at the record. The impeach dubya blog takes a few, well deserved weeks off. And what happens in the meantime? The polls, at least according to the
we-have-no-vested-interest-whatsoever corporate media, go
straight to shit. Dan Rather finally gets someone to talk about the rampant hypocrisy of George Bush's goons crucifying John Kerry over just how bad his wounds were that led to his three purple hearts, when Bush has come up with no evidence to say he
wasn't busy snorting blow off of the asses of Tijuana Hookers while he was supposed to be doing his National Guard duty... and who ends up getting hanged? Yep, Dan Rather. I'll tell you what the fucking
frequency is, it's fucking frequent that anyone who criticizes the Bush Junta in public gets hung out to dry in some similar ugly fashion. All I can say is, I'm not taking any more vacations, ever.
Were the memos a right-wing setup? Oh, come on. What do you think? This story has Karl Rove's shit-stained pawprints all over it. He knew a backlash from the Swift Boat Crap was coming, specifically that a group called "Texans for Truth" was going to slam Bush on the TANG story... What better way to 'innoculate' Dubya from any criticism, whatsoever, of his AWOL activities than to float these phony memos and turn the entire thing into a referendum on the "liberal media"? I'll give the guy one piece of credit, it's a fucking brilliant play. No wonder these ass-shits run the world.. There's no one with any shred of decency or integrity on our side that could ever play ball on that level.
Atrios, among others, speculates that
alleged Kinky Swinger (and reputed organizer of the Angry Mob of Docker-Wearing GOP Brownshirts that shut down the recount in Florida, 2000) Roger Stone may have been behind the phony memos. While this "story" saw the additional rise of the blogging class in the estimation of the so-called traditional media (amazing how quickly they're willing to pick up on internet-reported information outside the mainstream coverage window- so long as it involves, say, a Democratic President getting a blow job, or "questions" about the validity of some 30 year old memos that could harm Herr Bush.
If the stories involve videos and other documents at the pentagon showing the sodomization of 14 year old boys at Abu Ghraib, for some reason the mainstream media can't be bothered to sully themselves) I have to admit that it's hard for me to believe that
certain sexually retarded limp-dicked white guys over at freerepublic.com, while they do have an awful lot of time on their "hands", as it were, would be able to so quickly pick out the alleged inconsistencies in the memos --within less than 24 hours-- without someone, somewhere feeding them the story and telling them exactly where to look. With the state of things today, we'll probably never know, and like all the other stories in this campaign designed to prevent John Kerry from getting near the White House, the plan with this one is to hit, do the damage, and then change the subject before anyone can look too deeply. Which is what is happening.
And, to top it all off, it appears that "60 Minutes" was supposed to run a story about the justifications for the Iraq war, particularly WMDs and possibly including potentially explosive revelations about forged Uranium Yellowcake documents, but decided to run the TANG story instead.. Conveniently enough, now
CBS is saying it "can't" run any Iraq war piece, because now we are "too close to a major election". This whole deal stinks to high heaven, to me, as a set-up of the first degree. I truly believe we are watching a corporate cabal steal attempt the wholesale theft of democracy from us. Like the song says,
"You better Wake Up... It's Late"
But, we're not giving up over here- far from it. A small bit of good news- the alleged bounce is ending and Kerry is picking up enough momentum that we can probably expect another terror alert any day now, particularly if Dubya's performance in the debates is anywhere near as frighteningly pathetic as his
incoherent, stumbling pseudo-responses at his Press conference with Iraqi "Prime Minister" Ayad Allawi the other day. (This was the same day he allowed his administration to assert that elections in "part of" Iraq were somehow a democratically valid idea...) Bush obviously had no idea what he was saying while he stood there, he looked pasty and knock-kneed-- like he was having some kind of cocaine flashback-- and as he struggled to answer reporters' questions, I swear I saw Karl Rove lurking in the background with a hook to pull him back onto the short bus.
Everywhere we go, foreigners, college professors, sentient beings and multi-celled life forms ask us the same, exact question: "How can George Bush be so popular? We don't know anyone who is voting for him." Well, neither do we, with the possible exception of that guy with the very small head we keep locked in the utility closet for his own safety. But we decided to investigate just who these strange, alien creatures known as "Bush Voters" that we share this lovely nation with are. So, today we start a new segment, as the date of the election draws closer, whereby we profile some average Bush voters and hear what they have to say on the matter.
Our first lucky Bush Voter is a housewife from Kenner, Louisiana, who felt patriotic enough to call CSPAN's Washington Journal and wait on hold for many long minutes, just so she could regail the voting public with the following bit of Bush Voter Wisdom: (to
hear the caller, click on the 9-23 program and forward to 1:56:43)
PETER SLEN, HOST: Kenner, Louisiana, good morning.
CALLER (in a very airy voice): Good morning. I’m going to vote for President Bush because, after all, you know, God made us there, you know, in His image, free from any black color and all [Host looks up, surprised]. The only church that Kerry can go to is where they say the Black Mass, and that is in the Merriam-Webster Pocket Book dictionary, where it says that that is the devil worshippers. [Host looks uncomfortably off-camera, at producer?] So, definitely, I would never vote for, you know, Senator Kerry.
And that isn’t the only reason. Also, in the Bible, God said … God … that, uh, also, like (unintelligible) and faggots, that he says, anybody that lays down with another man and has sex with his own sex, and any woman that lays down with another woman and has sex should be put to death and their (unintelligible) upon them. It also says that about interracial marriages and everything. So that’s the reason why I’m voting for my president, Bush.
SLEN: What do you do in, uh …
CALLER: And that isn’t the only reason. They also have other reasons also. The other reason is political, because like the political terrorists, they’ve been out there for eight months, and they’ve been out on the road, and they’ve been talking about … they’ve talked against our president. They put him down in every way. And God knows that that is wrong. He’s out there doing God’s work. He’s taking care of all our children.
Like when Clinton was in, he made – he tried to make whores and faggots out of our little girls – whores out of our little girls. He put the pornography in the schools. And God’s gonna condemn him for that.
SLEN: What do you do in Kenner?
CALLER (talking over question): And that’s the reason why … he even went to the hospital and everything.
SLEN: Caller, what do you do in Kenner, Louisiana?
CALLER: Pardon me?
SLEN: What do you do in Kenner? Do you have a job?
CALLER: I’m a housewife.
SLEN: A housewife? Where do you go to church?
CALLER: I go to different churches. I go to, sometimes, in New Orleans, I go to the Cathedral. And I believe in my God, and I know that God is here to protect everybody. And if Kerry comes in … God helped the whole world, because God loved … Kerry … oh, that’s another thing …
SLEN (cutting her off): Thanks, caller. I’m afraid – I’m afraid we’re out of time. I wish I could let you go on, but I’m afraid we’re out of time.
Convention, Convention, Convention, blah, blah blah. Yeah, we know.. George W. Bush got up there and
said a bunch of bullshit. "Big Tent" Republicans will
note the subtle shaft they got, about 2/3 of the way through yon big speech, wherein his Dubyaness declared that "we must make a place for the unborn child."... Now, folks, he's not talking about a place at the dinner table... He's talking about a place where Roe v. Wade is overturned. He's talking about a place where women go to back alleys for illegal abortions, like they did 40 years ago.
He's talking about a place where the birth control pill, because of its abortifacent properties, is criminalized. Now contrast this with the message of two nights ago-- a message of supposed moderation, wherein different opinions are supposedly 'welcomed' in the Republican party... Different opinions are welcome, sure-
welcome to be fucking disregarded. But the argument put forth by the so-called "moderate" wing of the GOP seems to be, well, we need to put aside our differences- because this president is all about protecting us from Terror. The challenges we face are bigger than the ideological differences we have- right? Okay, then- but if "Bushie" (ick.) Really wanted to "unite" the country in this global battle to fight terror and carry the metaphorical torch of liberty unto the teeming global masses, wouldn't it make sense to
lay aside the hard-right ideological agenda for the time being? Couldn't Bush have said- yes, we disagree on issues like Abortion. But since we, as a nation, have bigger fuckin' fish to fry right now, rather than delve into this deeply divisive arena during my second term, I will appoint judges who will
maintain the status quo of Roe v. Wade-- and the debate may continue.. and after a unified USA has defeated the menace of terror which threatens our shores, we can go back to having this debate; after all, Roe v. Wade has been the law of the land for three decades; surely it would make sense to alter it under the
auspices of a genuine desire of the majority of the American People, as opposed to shoehorning it in while the populace is distracted with matters of war and global significance...
Sure, Bush
could say that. He could say that it wouldn't destroy the nation to have four more years of Roe v. Wade, at least until we get this other hash settled-- But he didn't. Because what you saw this week was not only the GOP's inherent schizophrenia, but also them trying to have it both ways- they know that they need to win the moderates, and the way they're going to do that is by hoping that the threat of Terror and vague insinuations that 'John Kerry Kant Keep U Safe' will be scarier, to the average moderate, than the hard right reactionary agenda of the fundamentalist loonies who write the Republican Platform. And they know they need to keep those people on the right happy-- after all, they're still smarting from 1992; when they believe that the Christian Fundies abandoned Poppy in droves, and as such led to the Usurping rampage of the Clenis, with all it wrought on DC. What they don't remember, apparently, is that their convention in '92
scared the shit out of a lot of people. Marilyn Quayle's embalmed corpse bitching about sex and drugs and the 60s.. Pat Buchanan's endless fiery rants about Democratic "Cross-Dressers".
Of course, Pat may have been the first to use the phrase "culture war"-- the same culture war that is now 12 years old and shows no sign of abating. But judging by certain speeches, Zig-Zag Zell Miller's in particular, the GOP still exists in enough of a bubble that it thinks tossing red meat to the Culture Warriors of the right isn't going to scare the piss out of a lot of soccer moms.
So, screw the Republican Piece of Shit Convention. The only moment of interest, really, aside from watching the Docker-clad whiteys try to dance, was the Twins' Jenna "Beavis" and Barbara "Butthead"
nails-on-a-chalkboard speech-- because it contained such jaw-droppingly bad jokes I suspect it was responsible for my cat pissing on the carpet. Lines like
"Our grandmother thinks 'Sex and the City' is something only married people do, and never talk about" and
"When we tell them we're going to see Outkast, they know it's a band and not a bunch of misfits." (does that even make sense?) Made my fucking fillings hurt. If those jokes (apparently penned by Perennial Hip, Swingin' Party Girl Karen Hughes, which explains a lot) were any more obtuse, they would be
fucking non-Euclidian.
Convention, Shmonvention.. Outside of the convention, however, we've been treated to a few moments of what may have been some of the finest, unscripted television since Philo T. Farnsworth invented the evil box. Zell Miller
Challenged Chris Matthews to a Duel on Wednesday night, as part of his attempt to
completely fucking implode on ALL THREE major cable news networks. (He managed to hit MSNBC and CNN.. like the song says, two out of three- aint bad.)
Why, for a moment it was Daley spewing Spittle at Ribicoff, all over again.
You know things are weird when the
protesters are peaceful and the Senators need to be put in fucking straitjackets.
And, the coup de grace of unscripted, beautiful television.. For those of us who stayed up, we were rewarded for a whole week of being majorly depressed, you know, from listening to Cheney Chene, and Miller Mill, and Dubya just be Dumb-ass fucking Dubya. Because John Kerry, the man, the candidate, the guy who has been idling betwen 3 and 3.4 in the energetic campaigning scale,
came out like a motherfucking champ the minute President Ass-happy had finished his bullshit speech. Thankfully, he indicated that -unlike Al Gore- he isn't going to wait until 3 years after Karl Rove steals the election from him to voice his fucking righteous indignation, much less find his balls. No,
John Kerry is finally up and ready and feisty and prepared to spend the last 60 days of the campaign fighting to win. Watching his powerful, lovely, unscripted yet only slightly incohesive speech, I felt like I was seeing something out of Frank Herbert's DUNE: "The Sleeper Has Awakened!" Yes, Zell Miller, this is how you do anger
right- not ranting and raving, but pointed, intelligent, strong and unapologetic..
Which is what we need- in a candidate and a President.
"We all saw the anger and distortion of the Republican convention," Kerry said in his prepared remarks. "For the past week, they attacked my patriotism and my fitness to serve as commander in chief. Well, here's my answer. I'm not going to have my commitment to defend this country questioned by those who refused to serve when they could have and by those who have misled the nation into Iraq."
Cool. And finally- like the rest of us- he's prepared to say he's
not going down without a major fucking fight. Yes. Yes. Yes.
On that one last, hopeful note--I'm going to
take Kos' advice and log off for a bit-- pour some of my energy into face to face, grass-roots activites not related to the internet or the Blog.
I promise we here at Impeach Dubya will be back on the air, well before the home stretch.
•More Wisdom From Michael Moore
