Election 2004

Felon Disenfranchisement

This entry was posted in Constitution Democracy Election 2004 Libertarianism on by

The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals takes a step in the right direction:

“We conclude that an original discriminatory purpose behind Florida’s felon disenfranchisement provision establishes an equal protection violation that persists with the provision unless it is subsequently reenacted on the basis of an independent, nondiscriminatory purpose,” Judge Rosemary Barkett wrote for the majority.

This likely will not be resolved soon enough to make things right in Florida in November 2004.
I am still looking for good reasons why someone, once they have completed their sentence, should be barred from voting or, for that matter, from any other activity.
Via Law.com.

Transparency

This entry was posted in bush Constitution Democracy Election 2004 Federal Government Patriot Act War on Terrorism on by

The bush administration could go a long ways in blunting its opposition by at minimum maintaining even the woefully poor previous levels of transparency. They, as the champions of freedom, would do even better if they broadened public access to government records and activities.
According to the Washington Post this does not appear to be the direction they have chosen:

…the Bush administration seems to be going in the other direction. The administration has been unusually successful keeping its policy deliberations out of public view, and millions of government documents — including many historical records previously available — have been removed from the public domain.

That the bush administration appears to feel an increasing need to hide the details of its activities from the public, even after the fact, seems to confirm that there is indeed something to hide.
Via Secrecy News.

Libya

This entry was posted in bush Election 2004 US Foreign Policy World Affairs on by

Libya has been off my radar for years and for those of us who haven’t been paying any attention to Libya for a long time Qadhafi’s recent fold on WMD’s appear to naturally follow from Bush policy. We are wrong.
Josh Marshall points out that:

The Libya deal looks like an especially good example of the Bush Doctrine in action if you haven’t been paying any attention to Libya for the last dozen years.

Read his short article and the references.
And Juan Cole argues that

… the real reason Qadhafi just folded is economic. And the lesson to be drawn here is that under certain circumstances, economic pressure can work, and remove the need for war.

Lesson: do your homework before locking in your evaluation of a current event.

Voting Machines

This entry was posted in Constitution Democracy Election 2004 Technology on by

Please do not forget that there are issues with electronic voting machines that must be resolved before these machines can be trusted.
John Williams of Thudfactor has posts here and at OSPolitics (which includes a neat simulator) that discuss some of the issues.
Ask for audited open source software and clear paper trails now.
Via Notes on the Atrocities.
Update: Talkleft notes that Florida will not require paper trails (surely no one is surprized by this) and Jeralyn provides several links to good reference material.

w’s Focus

This entry was posted in bush Democracy Election 2004 on by

w, at a press conference today, speaks on the presidential campaign and his focus:

�We’re arming, raising money to wage a campaign. And there will be an appropriate time for me to engage politically; that is, in the public forum.�
�To me, there’s a difference between that and actually engaging potential opponents in a public discourse in a debate. And there will be ample time for that. There will be ample time to differentiate views and to defend records in the face of political criticism. And I know that the campaign has started for some, in terms of the public debate from a political perspective. It just hadn’t for me yet.�
�I’m focused on the security of the American people, working with Congress to get a Medicare bill and an energy bill.�

Which is why it must not have been him out doing this:

If you had the time and money to trot around the country to attend all of President Bush’s recent fundraising speeches, you’d find him both scaring and reassuring his listeners about terrorists.

Yes, I know this isn’t unique to w. clinton, bush sr, etc., all abused their position as president to engage in fundraising efforts. I just wish they wouldn’t lie about what they are focused on and wouldn’t rip off the tax payers to fund these jaunts.