Democratic candidate for U.S. Congress District FL-14, Larry Byrnes is challenging an unfair and undemocratic ruling that has kept him off the ballot for this August.  

The Republican-controlled Florida Division of Elections (which you may remember from its recent appearance in the movie Recount) has determined that Byrnes will be a write-in candidate in August, defying the will of the people and the intent of the law.  Laws like the one used to keep Byrnes off the ballot are meant to prevent voter fraud and to help ensure that the will of the people is reflected at election time.  

Back in January of 2007, I posted "Language Pollution" at Conceptual Guerilla's Strategy & Tactics site in which I attempted to get at the ways and means by which the radical right laid its foundations for the hysterical hatred and fear-mongering now the hallmark of our current, blighted administration.  I would urge you to look it over.  In the upcoming presidential campaign, we're going to be inundated with specious rhetoric duly polluted by Republican politicians and their tame media pundits.  Believe it.  At the same time, keeping a fine, firm grip on the truth has probably never been more important in the history of this country.  Over the last eight years, we have frittered away our best chances of coping with the big issues facing the survival of modern civilization and irrevocably diminished our possibility of containing them painlessly, distracted  by deliberate rightwing lies and misdirection.  

shouldn't invoke Kristallnacht.

Bush's insane arugment by analogy has ripped the mask off any pretense of Republican civility in this campaign.  Fortunately, the spell cast by these nutjobs is losing its hold and folks in the media are starting to come out of their trances.

Here's what James Rubin is saying about McCain's flip flop on Hamas after he jumped into this mess:

McCain is the last politician who should be attacking Obama. Two years ago, just after Hamas won the Palestinian parliamentary elections, I interviewed McCain for the British network Sky News's "World News Tonight" program. Here is the crucial part of our exchange:

I asked: "Do you think that American diplomats should be operating the way they have in the past, working with the Palestinian government if Hamas is now in charge?"

McCain answered: "They're the government; sooner or later we are going to have to deal with them . . . it's a new reality in the Middle East."

After cracking McCain across the face with that brickbat, Rubin in the WaPo pulls out a crow bar and really lays into him ...

Another election, another dirty trick by the Repugnant aka Republican Party.

Last night, State Rep. Don Cazayoux of New Roads polled 49,702 votes to defeat the right wing loon Republican Woody Jenkins of Baton Rouge, who got 46,741 votes, for the District 6 seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. This after Cazayoux defeated State Rep. Michael Jackson, an African-American, in the Democratic primary runoff last month.

Today we learn that yesterday, on election day, a number of homes in Baton Rouge’s predominantly black neighborhoods were phoned with a tape-recorded message asking black voters to teach white Democrats a lesson by staying home and not casting ballots. The ad signed off as "Friends of Michael Jackson."

I know, I know... what an ass Jackson is! But not so fast my friends!

Faye is a loyal kossack and a progressive Democrat running for Congress down in Florida.  She’s being messed with by the Repubs down that way who refuse to give this fine woman a fair shake.  They’re playing their usual dirty tricks to keep Faye from running.

Faye can explain better than I, so let me share the email I received from her recently.

Now that John McCain has won the GOP nomination, Republicans are voting in the Democratic primary in increasing numbers, hoping to pick their opponent for the November election, or at least cause more turmoil in our already divisive nomination battle.

Their choice? Hillary Clinton.

Yesterday, in the Mississippi primary, 24% of Hillary Clinton's support came from Republicans. Unlike the Republican support generated by Barack Obama, according to exit polling data, Clinton's Republican support appears to be part of the explicit plan promoted by radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh to wreak havoc upon the Democratic Party by voting for Hillary Clinton.

This diary is going to be short but straight to the point...

Charlie Crist isn't looking out for the good of the people, he's looking to keep the Democrats divided and spending money while McCain tries continues to take shots at the canidates and raise money for his Presidential bid....

Crist Says He'd Support a Repeat of Florida Democratic Primary

Just got back from the Fairfield County (Ohio) Republican headquarters.  I was there because someone had called me on the phone representing the Obama campaign and had sent me to that address for phone banking.  What is really wild is that when I got back a few minutes ago, I checked the address on the Obama web page and that is the address that is listed on their web page.  More after the break...

Should we be concerned or is a vote just a vote?
I'm concerned that Democrats are being set-up for a major fall.

Attention All Texas Republicans and Independents!!  

On March 4th, Texas Republicans and Independents will have an opportunity to end Hillary Clinton's (and Bill's) presidential ambitions once and for all!

Over at TPMCafe, Allen Raymond, the former GOP operative who was convicted for the phone jamming operation during the 2002 New Hampshire elections, lays bare his soul in his post, entitled Morality vs. Politics and My Job as a GOP Operative.

It’s not long, but it fully reveals what most of us here already know, and the rest suspect: your typical high-level Republican is a morally incapacitated prick whose only real problem with the law is getting caught. The money quotes are below the skip.

This is the third in a series of diaries about Republican post election "ballot security" measures in my hometown, Muncie, IN.  You can see the first and second by clicking on the links.

First, a little background.

In this year's mayoral election, the margin of victory was razor thin.  9 votes of more than 12,000 cast. Less than 1/10th of 1% divided the winner, Democratic candidate Jim Mansfield, from the loser, Republican candidate Sharon McShurley.  After absentee and provisional ballots where counted, Mansfield's margin of victory rose to 11 votes.

In challenging the election, the primary target of the Republican's wrath has been precinct 18, a predominantly black precinct on the city's northeast side.  Today, the GOP is arguing that the results from that precinct need to be thrown out, shredding 361 votes and giving the mayor's office to the GOP.

At first blush, when I saw a report suggesting that Al Gore's potential entry into the presidential election would help Hillary Clinton, I laughed.

Then, when I saw the numbers and analysis (43% for Hillary and 15% for Gore, who was in second place) and learned that in the poll most of Gore's support came from undecided voters or those not supporting Hillary, I was sad.

Finally, when I did a little bit of research and found out the poll was sponsored, conducted, and paid for by a Republican hack -- Newt Gingrich's former campaign chairman -- I got angry.

It was such an incredible relief to find out that this initiative crashed and burned, and this news should help make sure that it doesn't rise like a phoenix from the ashes.

From the Los Angeles Times:

BREAKING NEWS: Giuliani fundraiser was mystery initiative backer

A close friend and major fundraiser of former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani has identified himself as the mystery financer of the proposed California initiative to apportion the state's 55 electoral votes by congressional district instead of winner-take-all.

He is New York hedge fund billionaire Paul Singer. He said he provided the $175,000 to initially finance the petition drive to get the measure on the June 2008 ballot. But as The Times' Dan Morain revealed in an exclusive story on this website last night, the drive has foundered on internal disputes and lack of further financing.

Via MAL Contends - Old habits die hard for Republicans.

Unfortunately, for the GOP many African-Americans remain clueless as to their proper place in American society. A hint: It's not at the ballot box.

So the Republican Party believes.

MAL Contends

Here in Florida, there is a citizen initiative to get an amendment on next year's ballot called Hometown Democracy.  The Sierra Club is a big supporter of the amendment which gives local citizens a bigger voice in limiting out-of-control development.  The biggest opponent of this initiative is the Chamber of Commerce.  At a local C of C meeting in May, I heard a lobbyist say the Chamber was going to fight this amendment by trying to get petitioners to revoke their signatures.

Read below for more...

Using the test of who benefits most in determining the identiy of the author of a text or the planner of an act, it seems evident that Republicans, in the case of generic elections, and the Bush Administration, in the case of its agenda, clearly benefit more than bin Laden himself every time the mass media reports an alleged utterance from bin Laden. Furthermore, given the proven willingness of Bush & Co. to lie, Swiftboat, and to be ruthlessly unethical in manipulating public opinion to achieve their desired goals, coupled with the dubious authenticity of the recent bin Laden videotapes, one would think the who benefits most test would have pundits pointing fingers at them.

I invite your comments since the MSM has ignored this thesis entirely and perhaps its curiosity can be peaked.

It appears a number of 'suspicious' voter registration applications have trickled into the (Houston) Harris County Tax Office since February.  Over 50 applications were mailed from El Paso, listing a non-existent Houston address.  Local station KPRC did a story on it.  Watch that smokin' gun video expose the fiendish plot!  Better yet, let me show you the key frame:

 
 

The newsclip hovered over this "fraudulent" voter registration form for quite a while.  They called it a "plot to steal votes." Uh, first of all, Texas voter forms don't require Race or Party affiliation ...

A Tax Office spokesman told me the news crew was there for something else entirely, but they saw the voter fraud memo on a desk and the reporter said "hey, there’s a story!"  So they did one.  The 'Black' 'Democrat' plot has been exposed.  

Ten days after the Democrats' national landslide victory, Bush-appointed US Attorneys in both NH and Idaho pledged not to question Shaun Hansen any further about his role in jamming NH phones on Election Day 2002.

I was there (and "real reporters" were not) in NH Federal District Court on November 16, when 34 year-old Shaun Hansen pled guilty to two felony counts arising from the 2002 NH phone-jamming scandal.

Hansen's deal with the feds, and his vague and evasive "factual plea" warrant scrutiny which the press has not given it, so ....