Yes, “again.” And I don’t feel an ounce of pity or empathy for those who have angst over this “rinse and repeat” problem we keep having. We should have fixed this damn washing machine long ago, but like little kids in the bodies of adults we keep kicking each other instead of fixing the problem.
Minnesota, or “Mihn-Ah-Soat-Ah,” as some seem to prefer, is into a recount of the Franken/Coleman race. I swear, some Inspection columns write themselves, and in most cases, I have no idea why or how. In this case I do: it’s an issue I have been concerned with for a long time and I have no rabid dog in this hunt: I don’t like Franken, and I don’t like Coleman.
Coleman’s tactics and methods are beyond debate: they suck on the level of the worse “B” grade movie vampire, they’re Rovian and he’s more than one Oreo Cookie shy of a full package one needs to be a decent human being. But this political battle is like one dreamed up out of the bowels of Hell. Franken, on the other hand, while I often agree with him politically, is the occasionally unfunny master of the ad hominem attack who thinks he’s a comedic star on the level of Robin Williams. Perhaps closer to some of the worst years of SNL?
Oh, that was so cruel. Cruel… but true.
If Coleman went “bye, bye,” I’d be happy. If Franken walked the plank, I’ll be just a tad less so, but this pot has been sweetened by his tendency to insult and talk over anyone who thinks electronic voting and all the other issues surrounding it might be problematic.
Wonder what he thinks of the issue now? My guess? He still would behave that way and only consider it important for himself. That rather irritating side to his personality was obvious shown for all to see during his Air America days, when he couldn’t even hold on to his fellow female host because… well, working for a guy like this probably really sucks.
Let’s admit it, my fell… no where near as “low” as these two guys, Amer-ri-cans, when it comes to sucking these two candidates make Monica look like a faithful nun.
(I had to add “faithful” to the sentence structure because, well, you never know for sure if you just type “nun,” and to a far greater extent these days, “priest,” right?)
OK.
OK.
I admit I just accused Mr. Franken of being the master of the ad hominem attack and followed it by a plethora of admittedly enjoyable ad hominem attacks. But I’m neither debating Mr. Franken in public, nor expounding my opinions on the mass media level of a O’Reilly or a Limbaugh. I am simply telling you my perceptions, and why I no longer am willing to listen to anything coming out of his multiple level, wedding cake sized, cakehole. Kind of like why you are never willing to go over to your Aunt Blanche’s place anymore because she’s an utter bitch, though in this case you’re willing to let your Democratic family drag you over there from time to time rather than be forced to go to some unrelated, bigger bastard’s house.
Ah, that was so cleansing for me to type: kind of like when my wife and I secretly use our words to beat up relatives, or when we bather about each other to those same relatives. (Yes, I did “know what you did last night,” my Dear!) Now on to just a tad more respectable, more Inspection like, observations.
Be aware.
I really meant, “just a tad.”
Where in hell did we get this idea that recounts are wrong, always corrupt, and always an attempt to steal an election? Oh, we know where, it’s a meme’ pushed by media and pols who, in one case, have an inadequate male’s idea of the perfect sexual approach to politics: “a quick in and out,” and the media who loves to promote, once again; ad hominem attacks because it sells and provides great ratings.
Plus, it doesn’t help that major media outlets are owned by politically connected families; controlled by one sided, highly partisan, CEOs.
Kind of like the electronic voting machine makers, and those who offer services to certify them and keep them “accurate.” In the case of “accuracy:” too often in the middle of an election. In the case of “certify;” too tempting to “just slap the ‘label’ on and claim it’s ‘certified.'”
After 2000 we tried to solve this problem. And like most, if not all, “solutions” during the Bush II era when the “adults were in charge…” laughter not only allowed but encouraged but at this point… it made it all far, far worse. I personally don’t care how long it takes to count, or recount, an election: as long as it’s above board, honest and fair. The only way to do that is the spirit of cooperation we had when Democrats and Republicans had something physical to looked at, sat in a room together and assessed the nature of the actual votes. They counted votes together, quibbled; quarreled and finally decided which way to count, or not count, what had been provided by the voter.
I have never been so proud of my fellow Americans, when others claimed to be ashamed, before.
Electronic voting doesn’t automatically provide accuracy unless you wish to claim that those who program, build and maintain such machines will always be honest, fair and the whole process above board: not proprietary.
Strike one, strike two, strike three… but we insist the batter keeps swinging. Kind of like Blackwater and Halliburton/KBR were allowed an infinite number of strikes. Anyone else see a pattern here?
Recounts aren’t always easy and certainly could be unfair. There’s a way to solve that: get together and in the least partisan way possible: Republicans, Democrats and “other…” do our damnedest to make sure the whole process is…
“…honest, fair… above board: not proprietary (as in the control of some company; or any single party.)”
But given my opinion of the personalities involved in this race, my guess is no matter how it comes out in the end, the candidates will have checked “none of the above.”
Ah, if only we had that “none of the above” option every time we voted: we probably wouldn’t have to deal with the likes of either Mr. Coleman or Mr. Franken.
-30-
Inspection is a column that has been written by Ken Carman for over thirty years. Inspection is dedicated to looking at odd angles, under all the rocks and into the unseen cracks and crevasses that constitute the issues and philosophical constructs of our day: places few think, or even dare, to venture.
Ken, the ironic thing in the Minnesota case is that the recount isn’t something the candidates have any control over — like Florida in 2000, when the votes are close enough, state law mandates an automatic recount, whether the candidates want it or not.
Of course, in the case of Florida 2000, the Supreme Court stepped in to illegally overrule state law and stop the recount (which Gore eventually won). The SC had no Constitutional jurisdiction to do this and, as someone on Democracy Now said years ago, it was from this illegal SC decision that all of the other ‘extra-Constitutional’ acts of the Bush Gang emanated — they got away with it because the Big Media didn’t bother, for reasons ranging from corruption to ignorance, call them on it. The man-whose-name-I-don’t-recall on DN said something to the effect that he was told by one Washington reporter anonymously that the Constitution was effectively dead because no one in Washington had the time to read and understand it. After all, we live in a media culture where if there are two applicants for a TV news job — one who has an attractive personality and the right ‘look,’ while the other has solid journalistic credentials and experience — the one with the right ‘look’ will get the job everytime.
As far as the partisanship, I saw a Frontline documentary last night called “Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story.” Atwater, and his acolytes like Karl Rove and Jack Abramoff, intentionally and cynically wanted to divide the country in hatred and keep it divided — divide and conquer — they felt it was the only way to get Republicans elected. None of it was an accident — the sociopathic and amoral Atwater-Rove types wanted to foment the kind of viciousness and lies we’re seeing from the Coleman camp and stir up the ‘injured victimhood’ of the right. If Coleman loses, no matter how fair the recount, he’ll claim the election was stolen and, even if Coleman never runs again, the GOP will use it to bash Franken and the Dems. (BTW, Saxby Chambliss is using the same foul methods in Georgia.)
Unfortunately, until the right-wingers realize how they have been made suckers by the cynical manipulations of the Atwater-Rove wing of the GOP, the sliming, smearing and lies will continue to divide us, spearheaded by the Usual Suspects — cynical mouthpieces Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, Sean Hannity, Michelle Malkin, Ann Coulter, et al. They all know very well, I’m told, what they are doing to the country and they just don’t care — they’ve become famous and made a bundle of money from peddling their tripe and ruining our political system.
I hope Obama will mitigate against some of this, but I’m not hopeful it will all go away soon — there is just too much money and power at stake.
Yeah, isn’t that incredible: it’s automatic but the Freepers and Coleman are doing their best to blame Franken. As must be obvious by now, I’m no Franken fan. Beside being a mediocre’ comedian, at best, the way he treated those who questioned the machines and election problems during his show led me to have no use for Coleman. But he’s better than Coleman.
Supremes, almost all appointed by Bush’s father and friends, made a one time ruling that was not to be taken as precedent, by their own claims? Sounds like about as anti-Constitution as one can get.
I gathered that, Ken 😉 I like some of his stuff, but the Stuart Smalley and other bits weren’t that funny to begin with and they didn’t improve with more exposure. BTW, you mentioned in your article that his co-star on AAR, I forget her name right now, left because she couldn’t stand Franken. That may be true, but I also heard she wanted to settle down and write a book and didn’t care for the radio game, Franken or not.
I agree with you there. I remember seeing the rebroadcast of his AAR radio show on Sundance and he’d cut off callers who brought up vote theft, caging, or the Diebold systems, and ridicule guests who delved into the subject. Sadly, I know several good progressive Dems who would not talk about the subject — one, after the 2004 election, even asked me not to send him anymore email if it had to do with vote theft or electronic voting systems. These are not bad people, but their ears are clogged with sand on this topic. Hopefully now that the BM has covered the story to some extent, these folks will be more open-minded on the subject.
It was mighty scary to think that if McCain won, he had promised to appoint another Alito or Scalia to the high court. ‘Scalito’ got their knowledge of the Constitution pumped from the rear end of the Federalist Society, after it had been passed through the intestines of the theocratic Dominionists. These people, literally, would like to crown a Christian King of America who would rule from their interpretations of the Bible. We really missed a bullet there.
R.S.:
My mind keeps blanking out on her name too, don’t know why. I think it’s the same lady who Thom Hartmann has on often… has a website and some organization she runs.
Funny you should bring up his attitude. I was just commenting on one of the last ones I heard on another site where Inspection is published. He had a guest on who was an expert in computers. All week long he mentioned that this would debunk us nutjobs and conspiracy wackos. Someone didn’t check his opinions at the door though. He agreed there were serious problems. I seem to remember him cutting the interview short and then just not taking calls on the topic after that. Still… he continued the name calling regarding the topic.
For now, my friend, for now. I’m sure they’ll keep shooting.
I vaguely recall that incident, too, but I don’t remember who the guest was. I think it was Mark Crispin Miller who called in and Franken basically asked him “Why are you spreading all of these nutty conspiracy theories about the 2004 election?” Starting an interview in that manner, you know it’s all down hill after that. Of course, most of Miller’s ‘nutty conspiracy theories’ had a factual basis and have since been proven right. Franken’s a loyal Party Democrat and, so far, they have been loathe to mention vote theft or vote fraud much. That may be changing, though, in spite of Obama’s landslide victory. The media question of the future, once Bush is safely gone, may be “Where did all those votes disappear to?”
LOL — right, but I think they’re shooting blanks these days, Ken.
It wasn’t Miller because I remember that one too. This was a computer guy… nothing else if I remember right. He promoted the show for weeks… God he must have felt two inches tall as soon as this guy opened his mouth.
I suspect that’s an important job: making sure it will be blanks until they learn to behave.