Friday, November 07, 2008
Minnesota learns the lesson of Florida: Own the choke points
Sigh. Once again we have an election in which the difference in vote totals is within the margin of error for counting votes, the United States Senate race in Minnesota. There is the whiff of fraud.
Last night at around 7:30, a precinct in Mountain Iron, St. Louis County, mysteriously updated its vote total to add 100 new votes--all 100 for Barack Obama and Al Franken.
Mountain Iron uses optical scanning, so the Coleman campaign asked for a copy of the tape documenting the ballots cast on election night. St. Louis County responded by providing a tape that includes the newly-added 100 votes, and is dated November 2--the Sunday before the election. St. Louis County reportedly denies being able to produce the genuine tape from election night, even though Minnesota law, as I understand it, requires that tape to be signed by the election judges and publicly displayed.
Coleman is a goner. Minnesota's secretary of state is a Democrat, which gives the Donks enormous leverage in a recount over a razor-thin margin, just as the Republicans had the upper hand in Florida eight years ago. This, by the way, is why parties still matter and why it remains important to fight for state and local offices no matter what the national political environment. State and local politicos can influence election results in countless lawful and unlawful ways even after the ballots are cast, and the party that owns the official choke points -- county election boards, the secretary of state's office, and so forth -- will usually control the result.
CWCID: Glenn Reynolds.
12 Comments:
By 
, at
Fri Nov 07, 05:37:00 PM:
On the upside though, is the gift of Al Franken as a Democrat Senator.
Al Franken, freshman Senator from Minnesota, this is all about you. :)
The first few years will be painful, but the idiot factor will almost guarantee a swing in the other direction in by 2012. Boy, is this country in for a wild ride the next few years.
Hiding out in Ohio with lots of beer and guns....
-David
By , at
Fri Nov 07, 06:51:00 PM:
Here in CA, the left has been using positions like board members for water districts or planning commissions to advance their causes. They elect anti-growth types to create a majority on a board and then impose restrictions on future development by controlling the choke point of access to water.
Conservatives need to study the tactics by which the left has gained control of education, the media, local governmental bodies, etc. and realize that their timeline and tactics are assuring them of a permanent victory unless we start emulating them - NOW.
By , at
Fri Nov 07, 07:13:00 PM:
Prediction. Coleman will win.
The officials in Mn may be Democrats but that doesn't mean they will commit fraud.
No doubt some would. So would some Republicans.
Election fraud is a dangerous game because anyone involved must trust several other criminals. That is always a reckless bet.
Enough about FL in 2000!
A consortium of big media funded an independent review. The conclusion was Bush actually won.
The NYT and LAT buried that story with two paragraphs somewhere around page 18.
Then both spent the next 8 years insinuating Gore won.
If Coleman wins the media will again review. If Franken wins they will have no interest in how.
By 
JPMcT, at
Fri Nov 07, 08:04:00 PM:
I've been listening to the Hannity show about this and it would seem that ALL of the new votes from the various precincts are for Franken.
Coleman has issued a statement indicating the a full investgation will be undertaken because of the statistically "dubious" recount data.
Actually, with Biden taking up his new office in the Executive Office Building, the Senate will need a new court jester...or, as the job was described back in medieval times...a new "fool".
By Georg Felis, at
Fri Nov 07, 10:19:00 PM:
I’m certain that the Democratic voting officials and the Democratic Secretary of State, and the Democratic press corps will keep a close eye on the votes in order to make sure a positively accurate and untainted election takes place so that the inauguration of Democratic Senator Franken is unmarred by controversy.
I believe this was bullet point 4, on my predictions list. Scary.
By , at
Sat Nov 08, 01:33:00 AM:
Republicans - this is not stealing the election the way that you guys did in Florida or Ohio or other states in 2000 or 2004. This is an honest recount. There was a typo error on the discrepancy. Which Republican lawyers can review. In the recount, all the ballots will be examined in a hand count with representatives of both parties present when each individual ballot is examined.
Sorry to interject facts and disrupt your paranoid delusions. Unlike Florida where the US Supreme Court stopped the recount and awarded the election to Bush, this will be an honest result. You may have to get used to winning elections honestly. Honesty? It might be a great concept to use as you try to rebuild your party.
By JPMcT, at
Sat Nov 08, 02:17:00 AM:
"this is not stealing the election the way that you guys did in Florida or Ohio or other states in 2000 or 2004"
You know...isn't it just amazing that people still carry this torch despite all the independent analysis, multiple recounts and lack of any factual basis to claim that Gore won Florida in 2000...truly amazing. I had a teacher in high school who coined the term "invincible ignorance" to apply to those who faithfully hold beliefs clearly at odds with the simple facts.
That statement is truly invincible ignorance.
Besides, the Democratic party has had a long and hard fought history of election fraud that has become almost a badge of dishonor:
1. The Chicago voter fraud that put Kennedy in office.
2. Registering the dead, felonious and homeless vote.
3. Disallowing absentee ballots from US troops.
4. Establishing a park bench as a "home address" to allow bums to be bussed to the polls.
5. Loading mentally incapacitated residents of adult homes into busses to carry them to the polls.
6. Refusal of the Ohio Att'y General to review over 200,000 mistakes in registrations to establish accuracy.
7. ACORN...need I say more??
That's all I could come up with in 45 seconds...
So, Anon 01:33...it would appear that you are the kind of person who would actually think that Al Franken is a viable candidate worth risking your credibility to defend...huh?
That is perhaps the most remarkable fact of all.
By , at
Sat Nov 08, 02:23:00 AM:
At this site, you will find numerous sources that lay out the facts and refute the misinformation that you posted. I don't mean this as an insult but you are ignorant (misinformed) and you need to educate yourself. Start by reading some sources outside of your little, insulated far-right world of paranoia and hate radio. Here they are. It will be more rewarding than wallowing in this deluded, conspiratorial self-pity of the extreme right.
http://archive.democrats.com/display.cfm?id=248
By , at
Sat Nov 08, 02:26:00 AM:
Not to overload you with too much truth in one sitting but how about some facts on global warming:
Current warming sharpest climate change in 5,000 years: study
AFP
Published: Friday November 7, 2008
Research on Arctic and North Atlantic ecosystems shows the recent warming trend counts as the most dramatic climate change since the onset of human civilization 5,000 years ago, according to studies published Thursday.
Researchers from Cornell University studied the increased introduction of fresh water from glacial melt, oceanic circulation, and the change in geographic range migration of oceanic plant and animal species.
The team, led by oceanographer Charles Greene, described "major ecosystem reorganization" -- or "regime shift" -- in the North Atlantic, a consequence of global warming on the largest scale in five millennia.
"The rate of warming we are seeing (now) is unprecedented in human history," said Greene, whose research appears in the November 2008 issue of the journal Ecology.
In order to forecast the path of climate change, Greene and colleagues have been reconstructing major episodes of warming and cooling in the Arctic over the past 65 million years.
They have found in the paleoclimate record periods of rapid cooling, with average temperatures plunging by 10 degrees Celsius (18 degrees F) within just decades or even years.
But the rise in temperatures over the past five decades is unmatched since the onset of human civilization, Greene said.
The paleoclimate data gives the scientists more insight into the impact of melting Arctic ice sheets and glaciers on the North Atlantic oceanic system.
They have found "extensive" shifts in the geographic range of numerous plant and animal species.
For instance, the massive Arctic fresh-water melt in the past 10 years has helped one species of microscopic algae move from the Pacific ocean to the North Atlantic.
The last time that algae appeared in the North Atlantic was 800,000 years ago, the Cornell research found.
The increase of fresh water can have a huge impact on the ecosystems of the Atlantic continental shelf, for instance extending the growing seasons of phytoplankton and microscopic drifting animals fundamental to the food chain.
"Such climate-driven changes can alter the structure of shelf ecosystems from the bottom of the food chain upwards," according to Greene.
In another example, the collapse in the last century of cod populations in the north Atlantic is partially due to overfishing, but also partly due to Arctic glacial melt adding more fresh and colder water to the ocean, which stifles cod reproduction.
At the same time, the research noted, less cod and colder water benefited shrimp and snow crab populations.
"As climate changes, there are going to be winners and losers, both in terms of biological species and different groups of people," said Greene.
The Cornell studies also focused on the way the introduction of more freshwater in the north Atlantic can disrupt circulation patterns further south.
"When Arctic climate changes, waters in the Arctic can go from storing large quantities of fresh water to exporting that fresh water to the North Atlantic in large pulses, referred to as great salinity anomalies," Greene explains.
By modelling the current changes, the Cornell researchers posited that the highly saline water of the deep North Atlantic will likely not be heavily affected by the "pulses" of fresh water during the 21st century.
"Continued exposure to such freshwater forcing, however, could disrupt global ocean circulation during the next century and lead to very abrupt changes in climate, similar to those that occurred at the onset of the last ice age," the studies said.
"If the Earth's deep ocean circulation were to be shut down, many of the atmospheric, glacial and oceanic processes that have been stable in recent times would change, and the change would likely be abrupt," said Greene.
4 Comments
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By , at
Sat Nov 08, 07:31:00 AM:
There's been an eruption of troll diarrhea in the comments on this post. Someone needs to get a life.
By Dawnfire82, at
Sat Nov 08, 08:27:00 AM:
"http://archive.democrats.com/display.cfm?id=248"
I went to that site. Know what's there?
* Gore Won Florida: The incontrovertible proof that Al Gore won
* FloridaGate: We've documented nearly 60 crimes committed by Republicans to steal the election
* Recount Spin: How the media distorted the truth that Gore won and Bush is a thief
Links called 'GOP Lies,' and things like 'George W. Bush and Dick Cheney have illegally occupied the White House since January 20, 2001, and have repeatedly failed to carry out their oath to "protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.'
Tell me again who's paranoid and hateful?
If you actually want a look into the truth of the situation (instead of the partisan garbage that you've been feeding off of for years), try this.
It's a political science pamphlet called 'The Exceptional Election" that explains the 2000 election, and especially the FL idiocy, rather well.
But, as it doesn't support your conspiracy theories and justification for demonizing Republicans, I'm sure my well-intentioned advice will be ignored.
Invincible ignorance indeed. I like that term.
By JPMcT, at
Sat Nov 08, 09:19:00 AM:
Well, I pulled up "Democrats.com Unity" site as suggested by Anon....
The only thing missing was the links to the roles of UFOs and Bigfoot in stealing the Florida election!!
Now I know why you guys need tin foil hats...it's not just to improve reception from Mars, but also to filter out intelligent human discourse.
I have a strange feeling that that is YOUR site, isn't it, Anon?
...wierd theramin music playing in the background...
