Fraud

I'm sure this is an isolated incident:

COLUMBUS, Ohio - An error with an electronic voting system gave President Bush (news - web sites) 3,893 extra votes in suburban Columbus, elections officials said.

Franklin County's unofficial results had Bush receiving 4,258 votes to Democrat John Kerry (news - web sites)'s 260 votes in a precinct in Gahanna. Records show only 638 voters cast ballots in that precinct. Bush's total should have been recorded as 365.

Bush won the state by more than 136,000 votes, according to unofficial results, and Kerry conceded the election on Wednesday after saying that 155,000 provisional ballots yet to be counted in Ohio would not change the result.

This is THE issue for the next year, in my opinion. We cannot let this go down the memory hole. I'm mulling over possibilities, but setting up a "Citizens for Fair Elections" PAC is vital. Before we strategize how to win elections, we have to make sure there are elections we can trust.

"We'll Take Care Of The Counting"

An eerie prediction.

It's impossible to talk about this election unless you talk about the wide, strange discrepancy between exit polling and actual results, particularly in Ohio and Florida. This chart shows some interesting results, like counties with 88% identified Democrats voting overwhelmingly for Bush.

Black Box Voting is an extremely important beginning to uncovering the truth about this election. Diebold's electronic voting machine servers could be hacked by an MSWord file. The CEO of Diebold is on record as promising the President to deliver Ohio's electoral votes to him. Open source is the only way to go for the future; it's the only way everyone can be assured of an election's veracity.

This is the beginning of the movement we're going to build. It starts with the fundamental principle of "one person, one vote." There should be a massive push to federalize Presidential elections, give everyone a federal voting ID card, maintain a national database, and bring some standards and some sanity to the voting process. According to Geg Palast here and here, Kerry won. A reasonable person has to open themselves to the idea that this election was stolen (again), and that radical election reform is needed for the good of the democracy.

Still Mulling This Over

I have quite a lot to say about this election, and where progressives might go from here. For now, I'm choosing to remain silent. Thanks for all the comments and everything. When I have a more overarching statement, I'll make it.

For now, let me just say that America is a great place, and I'm not about to give up on it. Nor should anyone. The choice is simple; run away, or stay and advance change. Liberals over the last 20 years are all too content to run away. The fight won't end tomorrow, or even 10 years from now. But it can start with innovation. A friend told me that "the future will be great now, just like the underground movements in those sci-fi movies, where people have to go into the sewers to rebel against the monolithic totalitarian state." If you can believe this, he was kidding, but I think metaphorically this is so. It's time to build on the progressive movement that's clearly alive in this country, and begin the 40-year process of "movement" liberalism, culminating in an expansive mandate. Don't mourn, organize.

The basis of social organization right now in America is the church. It doesn't have to stay that way. There will be more on this to come.

Conciliatory my ass

Listening to Cheney's smug little speech. Conciliation and healing my ass. They're gonna govern from strength. This is 2 million times the mandate they had four years ago, and they governed then as deep red.

My ass.

Good God

I must admit to some surprise at yesterday's results. But in the end, I think I believed a little too much in reason, a little too much in thinking, a little too much in the power of argument. It's what I've always believed in.

But the truth is, this was a theocratic takeover. Initially, I was going to write that God + fear won this election. But after thinking about it, I had to drop the fear thing. Sure, fear of terrorism was a factor, but the states that are likely targets of terror (CA, NY, IL) went for Kerry. Really this election wasn't Kerry v. Bush; it was Kerry v. God. By all means, I'm not saying that Bush is God, but that to a significant portion of the electorate, God is more important than politics.

I'll write some more on this later, but that's the sentiment.

Parlez-vous francais?

Oui, je parle francais.

Four More Hours!

I gotts to say, those early exit polls over at MyDD look pretty darn good...

Time to Concede

Here's the text of George W. Bush's 2004 concession speech, to be delivered later tonight in Washington (I received a copy via email from Karl Rove):

(It begins with George stumbles out to the podium, holding a bottle of tequila)

Woo-hoo! I forgot how this tasted! I’m George W. Bush, and I approved this drink! Ha ha ha… (George is interrupted by a loud beeping sound effect) Wha? Hmm. The large rectangular-shaped bulge on my back is telling me to get on with it.

My fellow United Statesians… It has been my great honor to serve as your President for the last four years. And I would like to personally thank all of those citizens that wanted me to try it again – people from great states like Utah, Montana, and Puerto Rico. However, today the American people have spoken, even though I sat in the corner and pretended not to listen for most of the night. Now, I may not have won enough electorial votes to be sent back to the Oval Office. However, I ask my supporters not to give up hope. Because thanks to a little-known provision of the Patriot Act, I may still be President. I don’t know, somebody’s supposed to read it to me tonight.

I would like to congratulate Senator John Kerry, his foreigner wife, his running mate with the hair, and his gay daughter Mary, heh heh heh… no wait, that’s someone else. President-Elect Kerry ran a great campaign, and even though I disagree with him that I’m a reckless, incompetent, arrogant cowboy who makes decisions based only on faith, I can see where he’d get that opinion.

I leave the office of the Presidency knowing that we’ve done a great deal of good for this country, particularly for the oil services industry. We worked hard for the last four years, real hard, sometimes straight through lunch. We created literally dozens of jobs for members of the Cabinet and their sons. We have made the world safer for terrorism. And when I look at places around the world like Iraq and Afghanistan, places I didn’t know existed until about three years ago… And when I look at them and see freedom on the march, along with marauding hordes of insurgents, I know that I did my job to the best of my ability… for 60 to 65 days a year.

This election offered a stark choice for America. There are those of us who stand on the side of life and liberty, and those who stand on the side of tyranny and murder. And I have always stood for life and liberty. And I secured that through tyranny and murder. But the American people should not worry about whether or not John Kerry can keep you safe from the enemies of freedom. That’s because Dick Cheney and I are forming a paramilitary group we like to call “The New A Team,” dedicated to stopping terrorists around the world. And if we can just find 200,000 or so poor people to staff it, I think we can accomplish a lot. Currently we’re looking for a black guy with a Mohawk, if anyone knows someone like that, please e-mail me.

In closing, I would like to speak personally to the millions and millions of voters who didn’t choose me to be their President. Think of the mixed message you’re sending to our troops in the field! I mean, first you voted for me, then you voted against me! And I heard some of you say, “I actually did vote for George W. Bush, before I voted against him.” And I don’t see how you can lead the free world in a time of war by changing your positions all the time. That’s why I am urging you to reconsider your vote. Take the example of your President-Elect and flip-flop back to me. In this one case, I will forgive you for it, because it is an end to a mean… or mean to a mean… or whatever.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I have the bottom of this bottle to get to. Thank you, God bless America, and may God continue to bless the wonderful people that voted for me.

Great morning reading

This is from today's Washington Post, and if you read it closely you'll see something quite amazing, something we haven't seen in four years: surrender.

The president closed the long and contentious campaign with a show of confidence and bravado, even as polls continued to show a dead heat with Democratic nominee John F. Kerry. With critical states still looking as if they could tip either way, some Bush advisers expressed worry about the incumbent's prospects on Tuesday.

They didn't express worry about no WMD in Iraq. They didn't express worry about Abu Ghraib. They, in fact, haven't expressed a bit of worry while running roughshod over the US government and the world since January 2001. But they're expressing it now.

Read on, this is brilliant:

In contrast to the light schedule he kept on election eve in 2000, Bush worked 19 hours this time, promising "strong, confident, optimistic leadership" as he traveled from dawn past midnight, going from Ohio to Pennsylvania to Wisconsin to two cities in Iowa to New Mexico and then home to Texas. Bush even scheduled a stop in Columbus, Ohio, on Tuesday during his return to the White House after he votes near his ranch in Crawford, Tex.

He's campaigning on Tuesday. He'd probably keep campaigning through the rest of the week if he thought it'd help. Trouble is, his advisors seem to think it won't:

Bush's aides predicted victory when talking on the record, pointing to polls showing that the race remained a tossup, both nationally and in key states. But despite the insistence that all was well, the erosion in the moods of Bush's inner circle over the past two weeks was unmistakable. Several of his close advisers said they were concerned because the president had achieved no last-minute momentum, and Democratic turnout was looking as if it might swamp the Bush-Cheney campaign's projections.

A GOP official who is privy to Bush-Cheney strategy and polling said that as the incumbent, Bush should be further ahead of Kerry in polls. "Some of them have been moving in the right direction, but it isn't enough," the official said. "Karl [Rove] is a big believer in the bandwagon effect, but there has been nothing over the past week for the president to use it to turn it around."

Mark McKinnon, Bush's chief ad strategist, flew with him all day and said Bush was "nostalgic" about having so much of his team from 2000 out on the road with him one last time. Asked the mood on the plane, a subdued McKinnon replied, in deadpan voice: "Jubilation."

The WaPo did all but come out and say that it's over. Now it's up to the ground game. Call your cell phone lists and make sure your friends vote. Volunteer if you have the day off. Go to the polls and watch for any shenanigans. Just a few more hours of business, and then on to the pleasure of having a President in which we can be proud.

Later today I will post what will be a frozen moment in time for us on the left: W.'s concession speech.

Good Omens

So the Packers won, which as we know is a perfect predictor that Bush will lose. But there are a few more, shall we say, scientific omens out there.

Today on Good Morning America, ABC's George Stephanopoulos said that both campaigns honestly believe they are going to win, based on their "very different" models of who is going to turn out. "Both of them have an eerie confidence," Stephanopoulos. "Democrats say 110, 115, 120 million are going to vote, and these new voters are going to carry them to victory. Republicans say no way: We know who are base is. They're going to come out." I think all signs point to record turnout. The numbers that have already voted are higher than ever, 1 in 6 registered voters (according to NPR). And the mobilization efforts on both sides is insane. I was at a call center in LA this weekend, calling into Nevada. We made 80,000 calls to (heavily Democratic) Clark County in two days. Almost every Democrat I talked to said they had either already voted, or were definitely getting out to the polls.

Then there's America's favorite conservative junkie, Rush Limbaugh, going ballistic on the air this morning. Apparently, he got wind of the latest Faux News poll, showing Kerry up by 2 among registered voters, which I believe is an 8-point swing to Kerry in the last week. He freaked out. Choicest quotes? "I can't believe how stupid americans are," and "Bush should be leading by 30 points." Now, let's not forget that Rush is an unpaid advisor to the Bush campaign, so he probably knows more of what's really going on than the average man on the street. Although, granted, he probably also has more Oxycontin in him than the average man on the street.

Then, the top story on instapundit is: OSAMA BIN LOSIN'. Which laments that the Osama story didn't have sticking power (presumably for the GOP). Turns out it had no net effect in polling. Apparently the rest of the hard-right sites (NRO's The Corner, the Free Republic) are awash in lamentations as well.

We're gonna win, and they know it.