Hunting The Muse

Week's Observations

Republicans are trying to neutralize the vote fraud argument by implying that Democrats are fraudulent in mysteriously finding so many new Democratic registrations.

Some Republicans are trying to make the argument that Kerry represents worse governmental fiscal health, when Bush has just asked for the government to raise its debt limit for the fourth time in four years.

Kerry will probably regret making his pledge that he will not raise taxes on those making under 200k in his first four years.

Here's a resource on vote fraud allegations and evidence in Oregon. Editable, in case you find more instances that are not included.

Thankfully, the Mary Cheney argument has dropped off the radar - people disapproved of Kerry saying it, but it doesn't seem to correlate to a drop in Kerry support.

The abortion rate is up since Bush took office. It's probably more honest to say that it's because of the rise in poverty than it is because of refusing to fund contraception education, although that certainly doesn't help. And Bush is on the wrong side of both issues.

Regarding Buffy. I've always been somewhat bad at grasping symbology and metaphor in art and music - I'm better at inventing it. So even though I watched the entire seventh season of Buffy, I never grasped its possible intent of critiquing Bush's foreign policy.

A pledge for us to sign, to stop a stolen election. (And a really cool domain name.) Two years ago when all the protests were happening regarding the Iraq War, I felt caught between two friends with vastly different philosophies on protesting - I felt they both had good points and had trouble reconciling how I felt. One felt the societal expression of rage was healthy and needed, another didn't disagree on a personal level but felt that - especially when a protest turned violent - that there were enough people that equated public rage expression with violence, that the protests were more often than not counterproductive to the aims of the protest. (Apologies if I have misrepresented either of you.) I almost felt my way through it but didn't quite get there. That's all going to come up again depending on how the election goes. I did see Archbishop Desmond Tutu praise the protesters on The Daily Show so that sort of counted for something. It is hard to make a distinction between violent protests and nonviolent protests when you are never sure what kind of protest it is until after the fact.

And, regarding Florida. I'm typing it here in case there is need to say "See, I told you so," after the election. Florida had a 2004 felon list. They have since declared it "junked" because of this whole thing with there being too many false names (similar to the 2000 list, which was never corrected). However, it wasn't really junked - the list was still sent to all the counties, and they can use it at their discretion. The press can't just ask the Secretary of State and trust her when she says it was junked. The press needs to contact each of the counties and confirm that they will not be using the list. I would not be surprised if it comes out later that some counties used the list anyway.

Finally, in general, poll "internals" look very good for Kerry, even though the headlines of the polls usually don't. There appears to be a large Bush margin in safe Bush states, which is padding his numbers and is mostly irrelevant. Higher turnout always means good things for Democrats. Higher turnout means more new voters. New voters are not accounted for in polls. So all polls that you see assume that new voters will not disproportionately benefit one party. Now, ask yourself. Which party is more motivated to register and vote in this election? I've had a secret hope of what would symbolize how much latent frustration and rage there is against Bush, and how much support there is for change and Kerry. Its abbreviation is GA.

Posted by Curt at October 18, 2004 01:38 AM