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Thursday, November 04, 2004 |
Palast: Kerry won, here's the facts.
Palast: Kerry won, here's the facts.: "Xeni Jardin:
Harper's Magazine contributing editor Greg Palast argues that election management in Ohio was hopelessly b0rked, and that the state was unfairly and inaccurately declared a win for Bush. Snip from editor's intro to his latest feature, on Tompaine.com:
Bush won Ohio by 136,483 votes. Typically in the United States, about 3 percent of votes cast are voided -- known as “spoilage” in election jargon -- because the ballots cast are inconclusive. Drawing on what happened in Florida and studies of elections past, Palast argues that if Ohio’s discarded ballots were counted, Kerry would have won the state. Today, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports there are a total of 247,672 votes not counted in Ohio, if you add the 92,672 discarded votes plus the 155,000 provisional ballots. So far there's no indication that Palast's hypothesis will be tested because only the provisional ballots are being counted.
And snip from Palast's story:
Most voters in Ohio thought they were voting for Kerry. CNN's exit poll showed Kerry beating Bush among Ohio women by 53 percent to 47 percent. Kerry also defeated Bush among Ohio's male voters 51 percent to 49 percent. Unless a third gender voted in Ohio, Kerry took the state.
So what's going on here? Answer: the exit polls are accurate. Pollsters ask, "Who did you vote for?" Unfortunately, they don't ask the crucial, question, "Was your vote counted?" The voters don't know Here's why. Although the exit polls show that most voters in Ohio punched cards for Kerry-Edwards, thousands of these votes were simply not recorded. This was predictable and it was predicted. Once again, at the heart of the Ohio uncounted vote game are, I'm sorry to report, hanging chads and pregnant chads, plus some other ballot tricks old and new.
Link"
(Via Boing Boing.)
2:46:45 PM Permalink
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LATINO LESBIAN WINS IN DALLAS
LATINO LESBIAN WINS IN DALLAS: "
REUTERS - Dallas County, the home to some of the biggest conservative supporters of President Bush made history Tuesday night by electing an openly gay Hispanic woman as its sheriff. Democrat Lupe Valdez, 57, pulled off one of the biggest surprises in the Texas races by defeating Republican Danny Chandler. "Dallas is an international county," Valdez told reporters. That is what I want to represent." She will be the first Democrat to serve as Dallas County sheriff in about 30 years. . . Valdez was an accomplished officer with U.S. Customs and other federal agencies who also served as a captain in the U.S. Army Reserves. She was endorsed by the main local daily the Dallas Morning News, which saw her as the best person to clean up a scandal-tainted sheriff's department.
"
(Via UNDERNEWS.)
2:38:42 PM Permalink
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RED STATES ON THE FEDERAL DOLE MORE THAN BLUE
RED STATES ON THE FEDERAL DOLE MORE THAN BLUE: "
TAX PROF - The Tax Foundation has released a fascinating report showing which states benefit from federal tax and spending policies, and which states foot the bill. The report shows that of the 32 states (and the District of Columbia) that are "winners" -- receiving more in federal spending than they pay in federal taxes -- 76% are red states that voted for George Bush in 2000. Indeed, 17 of the 20 (85%) states receiving the most federal spending per dollar of federal taxes paid are red states.
In contrast, of the 16 states that are "losers" -- receiving less in federal spending than they pay in federal taxes -- 69% are Blue States that voted for Al Gore in 2000. Indeed, 11 of the 14 (79%) of the states receiving the least federal spending per dollar of federal taxes paid are Blue States.
Two states -- Florida and Oregon (coincidentally, the two closest states in the 2000 Presidential election) -- received $1.00 in federal spending for each $1.00 in federal taxes paid.
"
(Via UNDERNEWS.)
2:37:25 PM Permalink
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Triple Eclipse on Jupiter
Triple Eclipse on Jupiter: "The Hubble Space Telescope took this rare picture of a triple eclipse on Jupiter, an event that only happens once or twice a decade. Io is near the middle, Ganymede on the planet's left edge, and Callisto is near the right edge. Astronomers tested a new technique with Hubble when taking this picture. They sped up Hubble's tracking system so that Jupiter passed through its field of view more quickly than normal. This allowed them to take rapid-fire snapshots of the planet and its moons to build into a single image that shows more detail than one single image."
(Via Universe Today.)
2:33:02 PM Permalink
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OT: Garry Wills on This Election
OT: Garry Wills on This Election: " The Day the Enlightenment Went Out
Which raises the question: Can a people that believes more fervently in the Virgin Birth than in evolution still be called an Enlightened nation?
America, the first real democracy in history, was a product of Enlightenment values - critical intelligence, tolerance, respect for evidence, a regard for the secular sciences. Though the founders differed on many things, they shared these values of what was then modernity. They addressed “a candid world,” as they wrote in the Declaration of Independence, out of “a decent respect for the opinions of mankind.” Respect for evidence seems not to pertain any more, when a poll taken just before the elections showed that 75 percent of Mr. Bush’s supporters believe Iraq either worked closely with Al Qaeda or was directly involved in the attacks of 9/11.
The secular states of modern Europe do not understand the fundamentalism of the American electorate. It is not what they had experienced from this country in the past. In fact, we now resemble those nations less than we do our putative enemies.
(Via Furdlog.)
11:11:07 AM Permalink
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The Saturn V
There was a time, back in the 8th or 9th grade, when I could name every major component of this tall beast. I surely regret never seeing one take off; I wonder if we'll ever see its like again.
10:48:32 AM Permalink
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WCC: Shame
WCC: Shame: "The World Council of Churches, a body representing 342 Christian groups around the world (of all traditions save Catholicism), released a letter Wednesday, chiding U.S. member churches for depicting a partisan God and for using their churches to influence the..."
(Via The Revealer.)
8:45:31 AM Permalink
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Cathedral revives beer tradition
Cathedral revives beer tradition: "From the BBC: Cathedral revives beer tradition. Canterbury Cathedral is reviving the ancient monastic tradition of making beer available within its precincts. The Kent cathedral is selling a bottled bitter which is made by local brewer Shepherd Neame according to a 300-year-old Kentish recipe. Canon Richard Marsh said beer was made on site by the monastic community in Canterbury between 1100 and 1538. [continue]..."
(Via Mirabilis.ca.)
8:34:56 AM Permalink
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The Coalition of The Bigoted
The Coalition of The Bigoted: "Andrew Sullivan got word from America's majority.
"I wonder if you noticed that yesterday all eleven states that considered the question of gay marriage voted to ban it. ALL ELEVEN. I think this sends a very clear message -- true Americans do not like your kind of homosexual deviants in our country, and we will not tolerate your radical pro-gay agenda trying to force our children to adopt your homosexual lifestyle. You should be EXTREMELY GRATEFUL that we even let you write a very public and influential blog, instead of suppressing your treasonous views (as I would prefer). But I'm sure someone like yourself would consider me just an "extremist" that you don't need to worry about. Well you are wrong -- I'm not just an extremist, I am a real American, and you should be worried because eleven states yesterday proved that there are millions more just like me who will not let you impose your radical agenda on our country."
The Republicans held hands with these people, and have started to break our nation."
(Via Oliver Willis - Like Kryptonite To Stupid.)
Of course, Bush kept his personal hands clean in this matter, while providing succor to the bigoted. How many Matthew Shepherds has this election created?
8:31:13 AM Permalink
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Tinfoil or For Real?
Tinfoil or For Real?: " A scary item (is it true?) submitted to Dave Farber’s Interesting People mailing list by one Ken Deifik:
It occurs to me that one of the questions that could be answered without too much trouble, at least for someone with lots of access to data and a knowlege of statistics, would be: is there any difference in the Bush - Kerry percentages in precincts that used eVoting, especially Diebold but all eVoting machines, as opposed to those that used paper ballots or some other method of voting. If this question has any meaning for you, I’d ask you to pose to the list, to see anyone with the proper skills and access could carry out such a study.
I hope in the next few days statisticians examine the issue of the exit polls. Since the early 70’s the exit polls have always been spot on. I feel ashamed for any journalist who says the exit polls got it wrong in FLA in 2000, because it is clear they got it right.
I have to wonder how John Zogby, who predicted 312 electoral votes for Kerry at 5PM EST 11/2, could have gotten the exit polls so wrong. Or really if he did.
One reason may be who votes at what time of day?
I just found this posting in the Democratic Underground site
…on several swing states, and EVERY STATE that has EVoting but no paper trails has an unexplained advantage for Bush of around +5% when comparing exit polls to actual results.
In EVERY STATE that has paper audit trails on their EVoting, the exit poll results match the actual results reported within the margin of error.
So we have MATCHING RESULTS for exit polls vs. voting with audits
vs.
A 5% unexplained advantage for Bush without audits.
Say it ain’t so… "
(Via Discourse.net.)
8:21:47 AM Permalink
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© Copyright 2004 Steve Michel.
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