Year: 2008
Report: California Election Turnout Highest Since 1972
It’s interesting that voter turnout in California last month topped the numbers for both of former Gov. Ronald Reagan’s presidential elections, as well as all other elections going back to 1972 when Richard Nixon, another Californian, trounced George McGovern:
More than 60 percent of Californians who were eligible to vote cast ballots in the Nov. 4 presidential election, the highest turnout since Richard Nixon and George McGovern competed for the office in 1972, elections officials reported Tuesday.
The total includes all qualified citizens, including those who had not registered to vote. The percentage of registered voters who cast ballots statewide was 80.6 percentage — 81.9 percentage in Los Angeles County…
The high turnout in Los Angeles County, not seen since 1968, was a result of several factors, including strong voter interest in the presidential race between Barack Obama and John McCain, according to Dean Logan, the county’s Registrar-Recorder.
“It was the combination of an election that has historic significance to both major parties’ tickets, the economic situation and the fact that there was no sitting president or vice president on the ballot,” Logan said.
Controversial ballot measures, including a ban on gay marriage, also attracted Californians to the polls in high numbers.
The secretary of state will not post the voter totals until next week, but a survey of the counties indicates the highest turnout since 64.5 percent of all those eligible to vote cast ballots in 1972.
No word yet on the final tally of the vote for Proposition 8, the anti-gay measure that passed narrowly. There had been speculation that the more than 1 million absentee and provisional ballots from Los Angeles County that were counted after the election might change the outcome.
Parting Shot: Bush Lifts Mining Ban That Protects Mountain Streams
George Bush’s trashing of America is not quite complete:
The Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday approved a last-minute rule change by the Bush administration that will allow coal companies to bury streams under the rocks leftover from mining.
The 1983 rule prohibited dumping the fill from mountaintop removal mining within 100 feet of streams. In practice, the government hadn’t been enforcing the rule. Government figures show that 535 miles of streams were buried or diverted from 2001 to 2005, more than half of them in the mountains of Appalachia. Along with the loss of the streams has been an increase of erosion and flooding.
The 11th hour change before President George W. Bush leaves office would eliminate a tool that citizens groups have used in lawsuits to keep mining waste out of streams. Mining companies had been pushing for the change for years.
It also means that President-elect Barack Obama’s administration will have to decide whether to try to restore and enforce the rule, a process that could take many months of new rulemaking. Obama’s transition team declined to comment on its plans on Tuesday…
For now, however, the EPA’s approval means there are no further obstacles to the Office of Surface Mining’s plans to change the rule. The White House’s Office of Management and Budget approved it on Monday. The Department of Interior, which includes the mining office, plans to make the rule final in December after briefing members of Congress, and it will go into effect 30 days after that, said spokesman Peter Mali.
Hard to see what motivates this behavior other than greed and meanness.
Jeb Bush: Florida’s Next Senator?
His Jeb-nessIt doesn’t get much worse than this for Florida. Just as we finished the first round of cheers for the news that Republican Sen. Mel Martinez was able to read the handwriting on the wall and announce he will “retire” after his first term expires in 2010 rather than run for re-election, we got a shocker: Jeb Bush might run instead.
A recent Quinnipiac University poll showed that a mere 36 percent of Florida voters thought Martinez, who spent more time lately chairing the national GOP than serving Floridians, deserved re-election. Democrats weighed in on whether they wanted the job, while Republicans deferred to the incumbent. Now that it’s official Martinez knows he can’t win, all the contestants are surfacing — including Florida’s porcine-faced former governor.
Bush told Politico by e-mail Tuesday night: “I am considering it.â€
Were Alex Sink to run against Jeb Bush, it would set up an interesting dynamicSince Martinez’s announcement Tuesday, Bush has received many phone calls and emails from Floridians and national Republicans urging him to run, the source close to him said Tuesday night.
Bush has kept a low-profile since leaving office in 2007, but he retains a strong following among Florida Republicans and would almost certainly clear the Republican field should he decide to run.
But he’s in no hurry to decide, said a top adviser, and won’t make a decision until after the new year.
On the Democratic side, Florida’s chief financial officer and former Bank of America president Alex Sink had just finished changing her mind about running for the spot (she previously said she would not) when the Bush news broke. Were she to run against him, it would set up an interesting dynamic.
Sink’s husband, Bill McBride, ran against Jeb for governor in 2002. In a contest that foreshadowed the 2008 presidential race, McBride emerged the victor of a grueling primary battle with former Attorney General Janet Reno. But many of Reno’s supporters took their toys and went home, declining to support McBride, who never quite got his mojo back in time for the fight with Jeb. For Sink to have a go at the arrogant and snide former governor — and win — would be sweet indeed.
Palm Beach County’s White Supremacist Test
In yesterday’s “Idiocracy Watch” column we explored the stupidity of the voters and Republican Party of Florida’s Palm Beach County. As you may recall, Derek Black, the 19-year-old son of former Ku Klux Klan leader and current white supremacist Don Black, won election to the Palm Beach County Republican Party’s executive board. The mortified PBCRP now is trying to withhold Black’s seat based on his failure to take a party loyalty oath before the election. Coming to Black’s defense was one of America’s most famous racists, David Duke.
Palm Beach Post columnist Frank Cerabino understands the PBCRP’s embarrassment at having allowed a white supremacist to be elected to their executive committee. He has created a brief five-question test the party should administer to potential candidates to ensure their racism falls within the party’s acceptable range:
Before we consider your candidacy as a Republican Executive Committee member, please take the following quiz so we can determine if your views fall into the comfort zone for Republicans.
You can score your own results, then see how you fared.
1. When it comes to immigrants from Latin America, we should …
(a) make them speak English.
(b) build a wall on the border to keep them out.
(c) have a no-amnesty policy for illegals.
(d) all of the above, plus call them derogatory names.2. Affirmative action …
(a) is unnecessary.
(b) creates reverse discrimination against whites.
(c) is the product of a corrupt liberal judiciary.
(d) all of the above, plus we should refer to black people by derogatory names.3. Barack Obama …
(a) is a secret Muslim.
(b) hates America.
(c) should be called Hussein, his middle name.
(d) all of the above, plus we should refer to him by derogatory names.
4. The separation of church and state …
(a) doesn’t prevent public education from being dismantled with vouchers.
(b) is a liberal ACLU notion.
(c) doesn’t apply, because we’re one nation under God.
(d) is a plot to deny America’s destiny as a Christian nation, plus we should refer to plotting Jewish lawyers by derogatory names.5. Tolerance of homosexuality …
(a) is a sin.
(b) just allows gays to recruit people to their deviant lifestyle.
(c) leads to disgraceful same-sex marriages.
(d) all of the above, plus we should blame it on the Jews, and throw in some derogatory names.Scoring: If you answered (a), (b) or (c) to the above questions, your views are within reason for our party. We’d love to have you join our committee team.
If you answered (d) to any of the above questions, you engage in an unacceptable level of hate, and we want nothing to do with you.
Please don’t apply.
Quote du Jour
I don’t think I’ve ever seen the world in such a mess — that’s a diplomatic term.
— Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, quoted by Politico.
Idiocracy Watch: White Supremacists are Really Just White Survivalists, Really
“Idiocracy Watch” chronicles stories that expose the fact that the U.S. of A. is a nation of stupid people who blend anti-intellectualism with racism to create ignorance and intolerance.
From the “How’d That Happen?” file comes the story of a 19-year-old son of a former Ku Klux Klan grand dragon who ran for a Republican Palm Beach County post and won, and who is now fighting his own party, which is trying to deny him his seat. Oh, and who came to Derek Black’s defense? Former presidential candidate, America’s best-known racist and former KKK grand wizard David Duke. Whose ex-wife just happens to be Derek’s mama.
Derek’s daddy, Don Black, runs Stormfront.org, the oldest continually running discussion board for the “White Nationalist Community.” When he was 12, Derek contributed to a kids page on Stormfront and today helps Daddy Don with his podcasts on the “Racialist discussion board for pro-White activists and anyone else interested in White survival.”
But let’s let them tell it in their own words:
“We’re going to fight,” [David] Duke said. “I know Derek Black is going to fight for his constitutional liberties. That’s why I’m here, because I want to assist Derek.”
Sorry, says county GOP Chairman Sid Dinerstein. In the qualifying period in June, Black didn’t sign a loyalty oath pledging he would not do anything injurious to the party. And that’s not the only problem.
“He participates in white supremacist activities,” Dinerstein said. “We’re the party of Lincoln. We’re the party that says we don’t judge anybody by the color of their skin.”
Derek Black’s response: “I’ve told (Dinerstein) I’m not a white supremacist; that’s an insult. I would describe myself as a white person who is concerned about discrimination against white people.”
Duke can still turn an elegant racist phrase: “Sid Dinerstein, a Jewish-extremist loyalist to Israel, has the chutzpah to think that he has the right to deny Derek Black his legally elected office because he doesn’t like Mr. Black’s views.”
Apparently, Barack Obama’s election to the presidency has been a boon for Don Black’s Web site, with white survivalists flocking to its discussion boards:
Duke said the historic election has helped galvanize support for the causes he believes in: “Obama enables people to see more clearly. It makes it clear we’re losing control of our country.”
I couldn’t find a copy of the Palm Beach County Republican Party’s loyalty oath online, but I did manage to find the PBCRP’s constitution. The eight principles of the PBCRP’s constitution include: “In general to uphold the principles of freedom, equality and justice on which the Republican Party and the government of the nation are founded as set forth in the Constitution of the United States and the State of Florida.” (emphasis added)
Young Derek might have trouble adhering to that portion of the platform, though it does seem to provide a loophole. But Black must have counted on the PBCRP’s inability to fulfill this part of their mission statement: “Promote an informed electorate through political education.”
Man, the party really blew it there. Do you think that if the Republicans of Palm Beach County had known that they were voting for the son of a former KKK leader, they would have voted for him? Well, maybe the outcome of the race would have been different if Black’s opponent had gone by “Ed” or “Eddie” instead of Eduardo Burkhart, which, in West Palm Beach at least, doesn’t sound quite white enough, does it?
Quote du Jour
I wish the intelligence had been different, I guess.
— President George W. Bush, in an interview with ABC News, blaming poor information for his decision to go to war in Iraq.
2012? Run Sarah, Run!
Before you go over this Gallup Poll of the top contenders for the 2012 Republican ticket, we should review the caveat provided by psychics before a reading: This is only what the future looks like if nothing changes from the way things are today. And of course, that never happens.
Republicans and Republican-leaning independents were asked whether they would like to see the following candidates on the ballot in the next presidential election.
| Want to see run (%) | Don’t want to see run (%) | No opinion (%) | |
| Sarah Palin | 67 | 30 | 3 |
| Mitt Romney | 62 | 32 | 5 |
| Mike Huckabee | 61 | 33 | 6 |
| David Petraeus | 49 | 39 | 12 |
| Rudolph Giuliani | 48 | 47 | 5 |
| Newt Gingrich | 47 | 48 | 5 |
| Bobby Jindal | 34 | 36 | 30 |
| Jeb Bush | 31 | 61 | 9 |
| Charlie Crist | 23 | 46 | 31 |
| Lindsey Graham | 21 | 53 | 25 |
Scary as the prospect of Palin at the top of the list is, there are two pieces of good news. First, Jeb Bush is way down there. Second, Obama’s administration is looking pretty damn strong so far, and he’s not even in office yet. Whoever runs against him in 2012 will likely be the Bob Dole/John Kerry throw-away.
So, O.K., let’s get Palin over with. Left on her own, she’s bound to screw up like even she hasn’t yet, and to alienate entire new segments of the electorate. Bring her on.
Bush Reveals Inner Whackjob-ness to His Sister
Just embarrassing
George W. Bush is delusional. That’s the only explanation, short of alternate universes, for his comments on what his legacy will be in an interview conducted by his sister, Dorothy Koch.
The most delusional statement of all has to be Bush’s view of his nation-building invasion and occupation of Iraq
Let’s start with No Child Left Behind.
“I think the No Child Left Behind Act is one of the significant achievements of my administration because we said loud and clear to educators, parents and children that we expect the best for every child, that we believe every child can learn, and that in return for Federal money we expect there to be an accountability system in place to determine whether every child is learning to read, write, and add and subtract,” he said.
Bush said because of his administration’s No Child Left Behind policy, the “achievement gap” between white children and African-American and Latinos is “narrowing.”
“The promise of No Child Left Behind has been fulfilled,” Bush said.
Among its “17 Reasons NCLB Must Go,” NoChildLeft.com lists disappointing educational results, schools labeled as failures despite being underfunded or serving challenged students such as those for whom English is a second language, narrowing of curriculums to accommodate “teaching to the test,” forcing out underachieving students in order to raise school-wide test scores, loss of current and future teachers, and stagnation within the educational system.
So much for No Child Left Behind. What else does Bush want us to remember?
