OverseasVote.com – Absentee Vote in 2004 U.S. Presidential Elections

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Telling an American Living Overseas to Vote!
Use this site to send voting instructions to your U.S. friends living overseas.

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Democratic Underground

FBI Petitions for Broad Wiretapping Rights By Sebastian Rupley

The Bush Administration has asked the Federal Communications Commission to require broadband service providers to introduce new architecture in their networks that would facilitate eavesdropping by law enforcement officials. The 85-page proposal was filed March 12 by the Department of Justice, the FBI, and the Drug Enforcement Administration. Experts are saying that if it is approved, it could dramatically hinder both emerging and existing technologies. [mjh: not to mention its impact on our freedom and privacy] …

The proposal specifically calls for giving police easy access to all forms of “switched” Internet communications, including communications conducted over Voice-over-IP (VoIP) systems, instant messaging systems, and communications taking place over cable modem and DSL networks. The language of the proposal, which is posted online, implies that backdoors should be integrated in networked systems to allow law enforcement officials eavesdropping rights.

You may recall ”Carnivore”, a Big Brother snooper from the Clinton administration. Though it was renamed to something less honest, it was a system that would be put in place on a specific ISP to spy on specific suspects (so they said) under a wiretap warrant. Now the Feds want to read every single byte you and I exchange. Every single byte — no warrants; just trolling for whatever they want. I’m not at all sure that getting rid of Asskraft (sic) or Bush will stop this, but keeping them means much worse intrusion in the future. mjh

Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall: March 07, 2004 – March 13, 2004 Archives

How soon we forget…
Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.), said Kerry should apologize for a comment ”outside the bounds of where people who want to hold the highest office in this country should be making.”

Washington Post
March 11th, 2004

Bush, standing on a stage outside of Naperville North High School, pointed reporter Adam Clymer out to his running mate, former Defense Secretary Dick Cheney. Then Bush described Clymer using a common obscenity.

”There’s Adam Clymer, major-league asshole from the New York Times,” Bush said.

”Oh, yeah, he is, big-time,” Cheney responded.

Houston Chronicle
September 5th, 2000

A major-league Santorum …
— Josh Marshall

Nebraska Democrat Bob Kerrey:
”Santorum? Is that Latin for asshole?”

USATODAY.com – National and International News

USA Today’s Politics page changes daily with new headlines about the campaign.

Below are links to recent USA Today polls, which show changes in responses over time. mjh

USATODAY.com – Poll finds pessimism about U.S. direction By Susan Page and Richard Benedetto, USA TODAY

Americans are increasingly gloomy about the state of the economy and the direction of the country, a Gallup Poll has found. That state of mind is a warning flag for President Bush as his re-election campaign begins in earnest.

In the poll, 60% said they were dissatisfied with ”the way things are going in the United States at this time.” Except for a survey two weeks before the invasion of Iraq a year ago, that is the most negative reading since 1996.

Gallup Poll results

Right now, do you think that economic conditions in the country as a whole are getting better or getting worse?

                     better worse Same N/A 
2004 Mar 8-11   44    47    7    2 
2004 Feb 9-12   53    40    6    1 

USATODAY.com

USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll results

Bush Seeks to Stem Damage From Spain

White House Spars With Kerry Over Foreign Support

Richard C. Holbrooke, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in the Clinton administration, came to Kerry’s defense last night. ”The Republicans are just having fun with this,” he said. ”They know it’s correct. . . . The overwhelming majority of foreign leaders and leadership want a change in American leadership.”

Holbrooke said Kerry ”committed candor” and Republicans were jumping him because of it.

Spousal Benefits for Gays at U.N. Challenged By Colum Lynch, Washington Post

A bloc of more than 50 Islamic states, backed by the Vatican, sought today to halt U.N. efforts to extend spousal benefits to partners of some gay employees.

The initiative came less than two months after U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan moved to award benefits to partners of gay employees who come from countries where such benefits are provided, such as Belgium and the Netherlands.

The same group is also preparing to oppose a resolution, sponsored by Brazil and supported by the European Union, at the U.N. Commission on Human Rights in Geneva that calls for nondiscrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, diplomats said. The Vatican and other conservatives maintain that the Brazilian resolution and Annan’s new benefits policy would provide gay people with protections never envisioned in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

This struggle is an international one. Please notice who is with Bush and who is against him. Bin Laden and Bush probably agree on more than one issue. mjh

Candidates Narrow Focus to 18 States
Battle Has Begun In Most-Contested Areas of Nation
By Dan Balz and Jim VandeHei
Washington Post Staff Writers

The election-night mapmakers created an indelible image of political America in 2000: red states for Republicans, blue states for Democrats, and a handful of states, crowned by disputed Florida, that remained competitive until the very end. Campaign 2004 begins where 2000 left off. …

Four years ago, red and blue states were so finely balanced that Bush was declared the winner with 271 electoral votes, one more than required. Five of the 50 states, led by Florida’s dead-heat 537-vote outcome, were decided by less than a single percentage point.

In 18 states, the winner’s margin was 6 percentage points or less, and at the start of the 2004 general election, at least 17 are seen as competitive battlegrounds, as the campaigns’ initial advertising strategists suggest. …

Judging from interviews with strategists on both sides and with outside analysts, 10 of the closest states from four years ago are seen as the most competitive as the campaign begins. Bush and Gore split them five-five. The Bush states that may be most vulnerable to Democratic takeover are Florida, Ohio, Missouri, New Hampshire and Nevada, while the five Gore states eyed by the GOP are Pennsylvania, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin and New Mexico.

The results of 2000 underscore the electoral parity between the parties in both the competitive and noncompetitive states. In the 32 states and the District that were decided by more than 6 percentage points, Republicans won 21 while Democrats captured 12. But when measured in electoral votes, the two parties’ bases are more even: The GOP states account for 179 electoral votes while the Democratic states, including California and New York, total 168.

The same equilibrium holds for the 18 closest states: The nine Republican states now account for 99 electoral votes, and the nine Democratic states add up to 92. …

Four years ago, the loss of one more state of any size would have cost Bush the election. That is no longer the case because of reapportionment after the 2000 Census. If Bush were to win all the states he won and Kerry won all of Gore’s states, the electoral count would be 278 to 260, an advantage of 18 electoral votes for Bush rather than four. …

with the exception of Florida, where a recent poll showed Kerry ahead of Bush, the South looks more forbidding to the Democrats in 2004 than it was in any of the past three elections, when southerners Clinton or Gore or both were on the ticket.

This is a more thorough, thoughtful analysis than the one I quoted a few days ago (see link below). In particular, note that if Bush wins exactly what he won (or was given) in 2000, he gets MORE electoral votes than 4 years ago, thanks to the census. mjh

mjh’s Dump Bush weBlog: How Kerry Wins