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Minneapolis loves John Kerry!
"[Colin Powell] was less firm in expectations for elections by the end of January than he had been in the past, while in New York, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said elections were only ''technically possible'' by that target date.
Annan said the United Nations may not have enough staff in Iraq to help prepare for voting. In Baghdad, Iraqi authorities expressed concern that the lengthening unrest would discourage international monitors from going to Iraq.
But Powell was confident Iraqis would vote for democracy."
Reporter Anna Clark of the Herald Palladium reports:Also reported at:
"George Tenet called the war on Iraq "wrong" in a speech Wednesday night to 2,000 members of The Economic Club of Southwestern Michigan at Lake Michigan College's Mendel Center. He did not elaborate."
"Tenet said a developing nation's low per capita income, high unemployment among young men and high infant mortality rate strongly increase its likelihood of becoming a "terrorist safe haven."
"In 2010, 100 million people outside of Africa will be infected with HIV," Tenet said. "The secondary implications of this are staggering."
He said the work of public health officers, missionaries and literacy teachers in third world nations are crucial to the war on terrorism, because terrorists build supporters by spinning poverty as a form of humiliation caused by wealthy nations like the United States."
-- TRIUMPH: A lot of people think [Bush] should appeal more to women because he's a douche. [laughter] I finally stopped you. You know what Bush won me over with? When he indicated that Kerry changed his mind. I think the 83rd time was finally a charm for me.
REPUBLICAN WOMAN: I think the most important time he changed his mind was when he refused to fund the troops in iraq, a critical situation for our country to be successful there. it's good to see you tonight.
TRIUMPH: Thank you for your time. Have a safe trip back to Stepford. [laughter]--
"There’s a problem when our troops are in harm’s way, fighting for a secure Iraq, and our national security adviser is out on the stump campaigning instead of working."
-Senator John Edwards
"I have been, and will continue to be, a Republican. But when we as a party send the wrong person to the White House, then it is our responsibility to send him home if our nation suffers as a result of his actions....I hope you all have noticed the Bush administration's style in the campaign so far. All negative, trashing Sen. John Kerry, Sen. John Edwards and Democrats in general. Not once have they said what they have done right, what they have done wrong or what they have not done at all...If we are indeed the party of Lincoln (I paraphrase his words), a president who deems to have the right to declare war at will without the consent of the Congress is a president who far exceeds his power under our Constitution.
I will take John Kerry for four years to put our country on the right path."
"In the battle of Fallen Timbers, it took but 40 minutes for "Mad Anthony" Wayne’s disciplined troops to bring to an end 20 years of border warfare. My hope is that Democrats will bring, in but one day, an end to four years of miserable failure in American leadership and partisan warfare."--Iddybud
It's easy to vote absentee in Illinois if you meet certain qualifications, like being out of your home county on Election Day. It's also easy if you don't meet those qualifications: You just lie. In fact, greasy machine pols have been known to exploit the present system to cast "votes" for their entire block. Juliet Alejandre is one person who didn't qualify, and who wasn't prepared to lie. Going to school full-time and working nights, the single mother says that the last time she tried to vote she left much of the ballot incomplete because she was terrified her unminded toddler would fall off the stage upon which the booths sat. So with three other working moms, Alejandre sued in federal court to order the state legislature to revisit its horse-and-buggy absentee statute to make reasonable provisions—whether by extending voting hours, changing absentee requirements, or instituting a universal vote-by-mail system like the one that's worked well in Oregon.
This past Friday, Judge Richard Posner of the Seventh Circuit, a prominent conservative intellectual and vocal Bush supporter, handed down a capricious, flippant dismissal of the complaint, ignoring key portions of its argument and simply inventing others. (The plaintiffs wanted the court to "decree weekend voting," he fantasized, wondering whether a federal court would soon "have to buy everyone a laptop, or a Palm Pilot or Blackberry?")
Bad enough if it only affected Illinoisans. Here's the scary part: Posner worded his ruling in such a way to make it difficult for anyone to challenge any voting statute passed by any state legislature anywhere.
The decision is diabolical—a perfect counterpart to this season's Republican strategy of drowning voting-rights complaints in a sea of moral relativism. One example: A goal of the plaintiff's case was to stop existing fraud by making Illinois's vague and antiquated absentee regulations more uniform and fair. Instead, Posner argued that the plaintiff's commonsense request for a second look at the statutes opened the door to fraud.
The bottom line: Posner's precedent gives much more discretion to states like Ohio and Florida to take action to restrict voting opportunities, especially for working people. And it was handed down, conveniently, two weeks before Election Day.
—R.P/Village Voice