The Fight at the Convention
ArchPundit
The fight details appear to be in this thread at the Leader
2004
Testing missile defense before deployment?
The Pentagon plans to deploy national missile defense later this year — just in time for the November elections. Incredibly, 13 Republicans and 1 Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee last week refused to require the Pentagon to thoroughly and realistically test national missile defense Click Here for the votes. The General Accounting Office has said that such testing is required to determine if the system will work. So has the Pentagon’s chief weapons tester. Why have Senators opposed testing? They seem to be afraid that realistic testing will show the deployment to be a sham. The full Senate will have another chance the week of May 17, when Senators Carl Levin (D-MI) and Jack Reed (D-RI) offer an amendment to require thorough testing of national missile defense. (Click on to learn more about missile defense.) (Click here to contact Members of Congress.)
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Great, now we have a faith based military. Dandy.
When you Anger the Press Every Week
It tends to tank your approval ratings….
NOT SO POPULAR (excerpt) When Governor Blagojevich was in Washington, recently, he was reportedly counseled by a couple of congressman to ease up a bit on his harsh rhetoric about the General Assembly. Sources say Blagojevich told the congressmen not to worry – he is briefed twice a week about his polling numbers and he was the most popular governor in the country.
Not so, according to the latest Daily Southtown poll. The survey, conducted last Wednesday, showed the governor’s job approval rating is at 49 percent, down from 55 percent in a Southtown poll taken in March. A mere 10 percent “strongly” approve of his job performance, while 39 percent said they “somewhat” approve, suggesting his numbers are very thin. Even more ominous, 49 percent somewhat (23) or strongly (26) disapprove of his job performance.
The occasional big stand works with the public, but it requires the discipline to stay on message, something Blagorgeous simply doesn’t have. He has three to four big stands a week and people just get tired of hearing about it.
He wanted to help and quietly did his job and made a difference
The last time Spec. Casey Sheehan talked to his parents, he mentioned Kuwait’s sweltering heat and said he was on his way to mass. A deeply religious soldier, Sheehan took his Bible and rosary on his Iraq deployment and hoped to serve as a field minister.
Sheehan, 24, of Vacaville, Calif., died April 4, when his convoy was ambushed outside of Baghdad. The specialist, who was assigned to the Army’s 1st Battalion, 82nd Field Artillery Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division, had been in Iraq fewer than two weeks when he was killed.
Sheehan, the oldest of four children, was shy and quiet. But what he had to say was generally funny or thoughtful, said his father, Pat.
Growing up, Sheehan served as an altar boy, was active in his church youth group and spent weekends maintaining a ranch given to his parish. He enjoyed the camaraderie of the Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts, and he eventually earned the rank of Eagle Scout.
He enlisted in 2000 and served as a Humvee mechanic. After his death, his parents learned he had volunteered to go on the convoy in which he was killed to help rescue a group of soldiers, said his father.
“That’s typical of his whole life,” said his father. “He wanted to help and quietly did his job and made a difference.”
Keep Your Eyes Open
Carl Nyberg not only post on Collective Interest, but also at Kos and From the Roots.
And a new blog Progressive Illinois
Both will eventually get up on the blog roll, but I’m a bit behind with the weekend….
And remember at From the Roots one can post diary entries on the Senate Races–a great place to post for Obama supporters who don’t want to fuss with their own blog.
The Duty of Democrats
Is to ensure that all get a fair chance to vote and have their vote counted. As I’ve often complained this has not been done well and in Illinois, it probably cost the Democrats the 1982 election—
Here are some probably more than fair use sections of an Eric Zorn column on the subject:
The tendency of punch-card balloting to underrepresent votes in low-income communities “could easily swing a close presidential election from a Democratic candidate to a Republican candidate,” said Joanne Alter, former commissioner of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District.
What distinguishes Alter’s prediction from those of other observers of the ongoing election mess in Florida is that she made it nearly 11 years ago.
Punch-card voting “has effectively disenfranchised poor voters by the tens of thousands,” she wrote in a 48-page report titled “Lost Votes.” The “disparities between the number of ballots cast and the number of votes counted for presidential candidates,” she wrote, “are vastly greater in poor and heavily Democratic areas of the county than in wealthy and heavily Republican areas.”
and more
A key finding in her report was that if the lost rate in city precincts had been the same as it was in the suburbs for the 1982 Illinois gubernatorial race, Democrat Adlai Stevenson probably would have beaten Republican James Thompson by 12,000 votes instead of losing to him by 5,000.
But aside from a 600-word story inside the Tribune, Alter’s crusade received little media attention and curiously little support from minority leaders. She finished last in the primary and has not run for office since. The reforms she proposed, including a full-scale study of lost voting, voting mini-courses in high schools and vastly improved signage at polling places, have gone largely ignored.
Because it would be too expensive and we still haven’t fixed the system. Some claim HAVA will fix the problem by 2006, but the reality is that most election officials are looking for the easiest system, not necessarily the most accurate and secure. While caustic in writing, I’m generally a friendly guy in person. Writing is always more direct than speaking, but a few weeks ago I was in a conference with a local election official who was primarily concerned with how hard his job was. Needless to say he didn’t like me and some colleagues were surprised by a guy who in conferences is known to laugh when criticized, actually got angry. The vote isn’t something to think of as a convenience and those officials who think it is need to find a new line of work.
Like Hell I Got What I Wanted
I wanted to comment on McCarron’s piece from a couple weeks ago that suggests Liberals Got What They Wanted.
This liberal (generally) wanted Vallas because he would have dealt with long term structural problems unlike Blagorgeous running the damn state by press conference.
He’s also wrong on this:
Other progressives, perhaps despaired of reform at the state level, have absorbed themselves in the U.S. Senate campaign of Democrat Barack Obama. And why not? He looks like a winner and a highly principled man. Too bad he isn’t running for governor. He’d do more good here than in Washington, where he’ll be a back-bencher in the GOP-run gentlemen’s club that is the U.S. Senate.
All evidence points to a guy who can put together tough compromises like the taping of defendants in capital cases. The Senate is a small club and he’ll make quick headway–so go to the right and help him out!
Schilling for Candidates
Yes, I’m schilling again… Jeff Smith is having a fundraiser in Chicago next Tuesday. Please consider attending if you are able.
Presidential Poll
Daily Southtown:
Kerry 46
Bush 41
Nader 8
Kerry 48
Bush 43
Bush is hovering around 40 and Kerry is lower than in other polls, but given he is currently a non-entity in Illinois, that shouldn’t be surprising. Given Nader may not make the race, its hard to imagine this will even be a race.
The mistake in the article is the discussion of the effect of advertising-very little of it is even in Illinois.