Thanks to fellow Slogger Rayne Today for these three remarkable links:
Florida has now delayed the case against Jeb Bush for arbitrarily deleting 60,000 past felons (and a lot of people with names similar to past felons) from the voters list in 2000, until after this year’s election. So those people will again be denied the right to vote in that state. And several states, despite the warnings and dangers, have approved electronic voting machines with no audit trail for this year’s elections, almost guaranteeing the too-close-to-call election will be another shambles, and the result could well be another fraud. Between defective voters lists, defective voting machines, the Electoral College and gerrymandering, is it any wonder most Americans don’t bother to vote? And that incumbents nearly always win? And that so many laugh at the idea of America as a model democracy? |
Sorry, Dave, I really can’t take credit for the first and third links — damn, they are great links, too. The second link I’ve posted in comments to the former Dean for America site, Democracy for America. The good Doctor Dean deserves to have supporting documentation for his bravery in speaking truth to power.Still wonder about the chance that other issues may also map well to certain points on the graph — like bad employment numbers or changes in prime rate. Hmm.
I gave you credit because the second link, which you pointed me to, pointed me to the first and third. I’m in the process of an intensive reading of The Wisdom of Crowds and it has a lot to say about Groupthink and the tendency of shifts in thinking to be infectious, swinging ‘popular’ opinion wildly in a short period. I remember in the 60’s/70’s when public opionion finally swung against the war and it was amazing — there’d be the most right-wing rednecks imaginable out there on the protest lines with us long-haired hippie freaks. Alas, it didn’t last. But it would nice to see such an over-swing, to shock all the pundits and put the neocons in their place — Bush being trounced and the Dems getting Congress back.
Credit to the artist of the Bush mosaicgoes to Joe at American Leftisthttp://amleft.blogspot.com/I see a slight over-swing now. Several staunch republicans I know are voting for Kerry. The radical right-wing focus, the lies, and his seeming illiteracy are huge factors. I hope it grows!