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I hate conspiracy theories....
but sometimes
they just bother me a little bit too much for comfort.
In Dixie County, with 4,988 registered voters, 77.5% of them Democrats and a mere 15% registered as Republicans, only 1,959 people voted for Kerry, but 4,433 voted for Bush.
The pattern repeats over and over again - but only in the counties where optical scanners were used. Franklin County, 77.3% registered Democrats, went 58.5% for Bush. Holmes County, 72.7% registered Democrats, went 77.25% for Bush.
Yet in the touch-screen counties, where investigators may have been more vigorously looking for such anomalies, high percentages of registered Democrats generally equaled high percentages of votes for Kerry
I do not subscribe the theories espoused in the article, but I hope to God that somebody at least looks into them.
UPDATE: What does
this mean?
To my Bush-voting acquaintances
I got an email from a retired pilot friend who just doesn't get it:
Concession time.
Sound familiar?
And the beat goes on.
Bob xxxx
We may not be friends any longer as a result of my response:
Concessions.
Yes, it's all sounding very familiar.
We've already done one round of concessions. When cabotage comes in, we'll do another round. When the GOP administration and GOP congress give the green light for companies to terminate their DB plans without consequences, we'll do yet another round--and lose our pension, too.
But don't worry; since you voted for him, Bush will be sure
your pension is OK. Because he's just a regular guy who cares about people like you.
I mean, would you have voted for him if he was going to trash what you've worked for all these years? Would you have voted for him if he was incompetent and had led the country into a bloody, unnecessary quagmire in the Middle East?
Of course not.
We won't have to worry about strikes any more. And we'll be able to make up a small fraction of our lost income and benefits by working until 65--if we can pass all the additional cognitive tests on our physicals.
We'll have distractions and entertainment: The daily death toll of our troops and Iraqi civilians will become non-news; like an additional weather report that will continue for years. The semi-annual requests for another $70 billion will become routine.
Ashcroft and Powell will resign in order to spend more time with their families. Rehnquist will expire and O'Conner will retire. Gonzalez and Hatch will be nominated to the bench, opening the way for suspension of the Bill of Rights--only if you're a terrorist, of course (trust us, we know what we're doing).
Oh-and a big increase in "sterile" coat hanger sales.
The next terrorist attack on US soil will occur sometime over the next several years; but it won't be the Bush administration's fault--nothing ever is. It will probably be Clinton's fault.
Or maybe Gore's.
Or Kerry's.
Limbaugh, Hannity and Coulter will be sure to tell us who to blame.
As the Middle East becomes more unstable, oil prices will continue to rise and the economy will try to tank--but we'll find employment for lots of young people as we prepare for war against Iran.
Or Syria. The administration will determine that it will only cost $14 billion and the Iranians/Syrians will pay us back out of gratitude; maybe with flowers and candy, or a grand square named after Bush.
So of course, it will be time for another upper-bracket tax cut.
North Korea will continue to build nukes, and we will continue to ignore them. As long as they don't actually launch at us, we'll never need confront the fact that our $180 billion missile defense system doesn't actually work.
In the presidential campaign of 2008, the candidate running against Jeb Bush will be the "most liberal elitist" ever to run for the office. He/she will no doubt also be discovered to be a traitor and a weakling.
And maybe a Socialist.
Or French.
The press will breathlessly debate the virtue of the charges, as the Federal Debt passes $10 trillion and the US death toll in Iraq/Iran/Syria passes some thousand-milestone.
Actual issues facing the country will be ignored as these important things are endlessly rehashed by the shamelessly liberal media, and the shamelessly liberal giant corporations that own them.
George Bush will hold his 15th and last press conference of his 8 year term. After answering the scripted questions, he will announce that good times are just around the corner.
Unless of course, the democratic candidate is elected, in which case the country will be immediately attacked by the terrorists that Bush has kept at bay for all this time.
Except for the attacks which were the fault of his opponent.
Or Clinton.
Or which would have been much worse under Gore.
Or Kerry.
Enjoy the next four years--and the consequences for much longer--of the Government that you deserve.
Well, it's morning.
It looks like it comes down to Ohio, and depending on whether you believe the OH Sec of State (He is a partisan hack), there are not enough ballots to put Kerry over the top.
I'll wait to the end of the day to give up hope.
The popular vote is really surprising to me.
It's 12:30 on election night....
and I'm getting ready to go to bed. When I wake up, this question might be moot, but I'll ask regardless:
Right now, if projections hold up, the Electoral College will be split 269 - 269 and theoretically the vote will go to the House of Representatives. However, it really looks like Kerry might win the popular vote after California is counted.
What are the chances of a knock down, drag out electoral fight with traitorous electors, etc...? This could get really and truly ugly.
A Cook's Silly Wild Assed Guess
Today’s the day! If you are reading this and have not yet voted, put down this darn paper and get thee to the polls! Do not pass Go! Hurry!
There is an old maxim in the restaurant business that basically goes as follows: Since everybody eats, everybody thinks they are qualified to be a food critic. It is maddening when a guest complains that a beautiful Mornay Sauce “doesn’t taste right” because they are used to eating a melted lump of Velveeta on top of mushy, overcooked broccoli. However, our business is making people happy, so sometimes melted cheese-food must suffice.
The same thing holds for politics in my mind. We are not all political wizards and master policy analysts, let alone politicians, but the fact is most of us can vote. Hence, when I hear those who make politics their business condescend that “we” do not know what we are talking about, I must feel a little like my father who caught grief from me for years for putting salt and pepper on his watermelon. My gut reaction is to say, “Shut the heck up!”
It is Election Day and while I may slice, dice and sauté for a living, today we, the common folk, are in charge of the political realm. Tim Russert and Rush Limbaugh can go stick it in their ears. It is our voices that are heard, if only for a day. If you think about it, though, the reverberations can last for a generation.
That said, at the risk of ending up like those who bet on the Yankees, I will play prognosticator. Since I am a rank amateur at the crafts of writing and punditry, hopefully my predictions will not be held over my head. (Although I fully expect a co-worker or two to give me a little grief if I am too far off.)
In my humble opinion, for either Presidential Candidate to win decisively, they must win by a margin larger than the largest battle ground state, Florida and its 27 electoral votes. Most of the polls indicate that neither John Kerry nor President Bush will accumulate 297 electors (270 to win, plus 27 from Florida). I disagree.
My evidence? The 2000 election and this year’s Democratic Primaries. The weekend before election Tuesday 2000, polls showed Governor Bush with a very solid lead in most of the tightest states. Almost all the pundits who dared voice an opinion were predicting that Bush would win the popular vote handily. Hah. We all know what actually happened.
The discrepancies between the polls and the ballots cast seemed to be easily explained by the under sampling of Democrats. People did not change their minds in the last few days. Their likelihood of voting was simply miscalculated..
So, did the pollsters increase the percentage of Democrats that they consider “likely voters”? Not by much. Gallup’s methodology seems to predict that Democratic ballot casters will vote in smaller proportions than four years ago. That is ludicrous on its face.
This year, the Democratic primaries turned out more motivated and mobilized voters than any previous Primary battle the party’s history. These voters are the core of Kerry’s support. They are not staying home today.
If you combine these facts with the incredibly close polls in the key states of Florida, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Iowa, I have a sneaking suspicion that Kerry will win every last one of them. Call me naïve, but a Federal Court just ruled the GOP voter challenge plan in Ohio’s minority dominated precincts to be unconstitutional. This will likely carry over to Wisconsin as well. The breaks are going the Democrat’s way.
If Kerry sweeps the Midwest and Florida, he will end up with 302 Electoral College votes. That would require the Bush Campaign to challenge the results and win in at least two states.
Regardless of which candidate wins, I hope and pray that the margin of victory is decisive and clear. The prospect that the Supreme Court or Tom Delay and the House of Representatives could choose our next President is possibly the strongest argument I can think of to eliminate the Electoral College altogether. ….well, that and my predictions.
For publication in the NAT on 11/02/04
