The People Vs. Bush, et.al.?

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 12/21/04 at 12:55am

A ray of light?

http://www.solarbus.org/stealyourelection/articles/Election_Contest_2.pdf>http://www.solarbus.org/stealyourelection/articles/Election_Contest_2.pdf

and other information on the fraud in Ohio and Florida:

http://www.solarbus.org/stealyourelection/

[PalJoey]

Posted: 12/21/04 at 12:04pm

According to a new ABC News/Washington Post poll, 70 percent of Americans think these gains have come at an "unacceptable" cost in military casualties and 56 percent to conclude that, given the cost, the conflict there was "not worth fighting."

Seems impossible that the American public could have turned on the president so soon after the election.

Unless of course the election in the swing states was rigged.

====

Washington Post

56 Percent in Survey Say Iraq War Was a Mistake

Tue Dec 21, 8:46 AM ET

By John F. Harris and Christopher Muste, Washington Post Staff Writers

President Bush (news - web sites) heads into his second term amid deep and growing public skepticism about the Iraq (news - web sites) war, with a solid majority saying for the first time that the war was a mistake and most people believing that Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld should lose his job, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll.

While a slight majority believe the Iraq war contributed to the long-term security of the United States, 70 percent of Americans think these gains have come at an "unacceptable" cost in military casualties. This led 56 percent to conclude that, given the cost, the conflict there was "not worth fighting" -- an eight-point increase from when the same question was asked this summer, and the first time a decisive majority of people have reached this conclusion.

Bush lavished praise on Rumsfeld at a morning news conference yesterday, but the Pentagon (news - web sites) chief who soared to international celebrity and widespread admiration after the terrorist attacks three years ago can be glad he answers to an audience of one. Among the public, 35 percent of respondents approved of his job performance and 53 percent disapproved; 52 percent said Bush should give Rumsfeld his walking papers.

Seven weeks since his reelection victory over Democrat John F. Kerry and four weeks before his second inauguration, the poll suggests Bush is in a paradoxical situation -- a triumphant president who remains acutely vulnerable in public opinion on a national security issue that is dominating headlines and could shadow his second term.

While the results are bad for Bush as people look at past decisions -- whether the Iraq war should have been waged in the first place -- the president has more support for his policies over the choices he faces going forward.

A strong majority of Americans, 58 percent, support keeping military forces in Iraq until "civil order is restored," even in the face of continued U.S. causalities. By a slight margin, 48 percent to 44 percent, more voters agreed with Bush's position that the United States is making "significant progress" toward its goal of establishing democracy in Iraq. Yet, by a similar margin, the public believes the United States is not making significant progress toward restoring civil order.

This was just one area where there was considerable ambivalence and even pessimism about the challenges confronting U.S. policy in the coming months.

On the question of whether Iraq is prepared for elections next month -- a topic widely debated among national security experts -- 58 percent of respondents believed the violence-plagued country is not ready. Nonetheless, 60 percent want elections to go forward as scheduled -- even though 54 percent do not expect honest results with a "fair and accurate vote count." Fifty-four percent are not confident elections will produce a stable government that can rule effectively.

Bush waged his reelection campaign heavily on national security, but the polling data reaffirm what similar surveys showed during the campaign: He is winning only half the case.

A full 57 percent disapprove of his handling of Iraq, a number that is seven percentage points higher than a poll taken in September. But the president's core political asset, public confidence in his leadership on terrorism, remains intact, albeit down significantly from even a year ago. Fifty-three percent approve of his record on terrorism, while 43 percent do not. Those numbers were 70 percent and 28 percent a year ago this week.

The public splits down the middle on Bush's overall job performance, with 48 percent approving while 49 percent disapprove, percentages that closely approximate results taken just before the election. By contrast, President Bill Clinton (news - web sites) had an approval of 60 percent in a poll taken just before he began his second term.

The Post-ABC results are consistent with other newly released surveys. Time magazine, which this week named Bush its "Person of the Year," found that 49 percent approve of his job performance, little changed from before the election. A Pew Research Center survey, meanwhile, showed that the angry divisions about Bush that marked the 2004 campaign were hardly bridged by the election's end -- nor were the sharply divergent appraisals of reality. By emphatic majorities, Bush voters were upbeat on whether things are going well in Iraq and with the economy, while Kerry voters were negative.

The Post poll also showed such partisan divides on many foreign policy and national security questions. In a potential trouble sign for the White House, Republicans' support for Bush on these questions is lower than the Democratic opposition. And majorities of independents side with the Democrats in their skepticism toward the administration's course.

There are sharp partisan divisions over Rumsfeld, with about two-thirds of Democrats and slight majorities of independents disapproving of his job performance and believing he should be replaced. Smaller majorities of Republicans, about six in 10, approve of Rumsfeld and want him to stay in the job.

There are similar splits on Iraq. Majorities of Republicans, Democrats and independents agree the elections should be held. But more than two-thirds of Democrats and about six in 10 independents believe that Iraq is not ready for elections and that the vote will not be fair and will not produce a stable Iraqi government, in contrast to a majority of Republicans. Opinion is even more sharply divided over the outcome of elections. Seven in 10 Democrats and five in nine independents believe elections will not produce a stable government in Iraq, while more than two-thirds of Republicans believe they will.

A total of 1,004 randomly selected Americans were interviewed Dec. 16 to 19. The margin of sampling error for the results is plus or minus three percentage points.
56 Percent in Survey Say Iraq War Was a Mistake

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 12/21/04 at 1:56pm

You know full well that the horrors of two men getting married and living in a monogamous relationship outweigh the horrors of people dying.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 12/21/04 at 10:13pm

Isn't it interesting that 48% "voted" for Kerry and 51% for Bush, which was the flip flop of the exit polls.

Now just 7 weeks later, a new opinion poll shows only 48% approval rating for Bush.

Coincidence?

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 12/21/04 at 11:27pm

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6210240/

[PalJoey]

Posted: 12/22/04 at 10:26am

Michigan Congressman Seeks Exit Poll Data

2 hours, 54 minutes ago

By SETH SUTEL, AP Business Writer

NEW YORK - The top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee (news - web sites) has asked The Associated Press and five broadcast networks to turn over raw exit poll data collected on Election Day so that any discrepancies between the data and the certified election results can be investigated.



Rep. John Conyers (news, bio, voting record) Jr. of Michigan said in a letter released Tuesday in Washington that the polling firms that conducted the polls on behalf of the news organizations, Mitofsky International and Edison Media Research, had declined to share the information with the committee.

"Without the raw data, the committee will be severely handicapped in its efforts to show the need for serious election reform in the United States," Conyers said in the letter.

The AP and the five television outlets — ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, and Fox — formed a consortium called the National Election Pool to conduct exit polls for this year's election after disbanding a previous exit poll group called the Voter News Service, which had problems in both the 2000 and 2002 elections.

Edie Emery, a spokeswoman for the National Election Pool and a CNN employee, said the poll data were still being analyzed and that the group's board would decide how to release a full report on the data early next year. "To release any information now would be incomplete," she said.

Several Web logs carried accounts on the afternoon of Nov. 2 of what they said were leaked information from the exit polls showing that Kerry, a Massachusetts senator, was leading Bush in several battleground states, including Ohio, and poised for victory.

But Bush, a Republican, beat Kerry by about 119,000 votes in Ohio, winning that state's 20 electoral votes and putting him over the top in the race. Bush won re-election with 286 electoral votes to Kerry's 252.

Conyers' letter said the exit poll information could help determine whether there is evidence "of voting irregularities that occurred as a result of poor election practices and intentional voter disenfranchisement."

The exit polling was conducted for the AP and for ABC, a unit of The Walt Disney Co.; CBS, a unit of Viacom Inc.; NBC, a unit of General Electric Co.; CNN, a unit of Time Warner Inc.; and Fox News, owned by News Corp.

"Like Congressman Conyers, we believe the American people deserve answers," said Jack Stokes, a spokesman for the AP. "We want exit polling information to be made public as soon as it is available, as we intended. At this time, the data is still being evaluated for a final report to the National Election Pool."

Officials from ABC and NBC referred calls for comment to the National Election Pool, where CNN's Emery responded for the group. A CBS spokeswoman declined to comment, and officials at Fox could not be reached.

Earlier this month Kerry asked county election officials in Ohio to allow his witnesses to inspect the 92,000 ballots cast in the state in which no vote for president was recorded.

Despite improvements since 2000, when the presidential outcome was delayed for weeks by problems counting ballots in Florida, the nation's voting system remains a locally administered patchwork whose lack of national uniformity distinguishes the United States from many other democracies.

Most complaints have come from Democrats and third-party candidates, but Republicans and bipartisan groups have acknowledged problems. The Government Accountability Office is investigating election problems. Rep. Bob Ney (news, bio, voting record), R-Ohio and chairman of the House Administration Committee, will oversee an inquiry next year.

The U.S. Election Assistance Commission, created in 2002, is also scrutinizing the outcome. It plans to publish in January the government's first report on the voting, which will serve as the basis for congressional recommendations and reforms.
Michigan Congressman Seeks Exit Poll Data

[DaysOfWine&Roses]

Posted: 12/22/04 at 10:47am

I'm going to go out on a limb here and ask a dumb question....

Is there honestly any hope? I get physically sick to my stomach whenever I see GWB on tv acting all full of himself/I'm the President/The public voted for me and gave me "capital"/blah, blah, blah.....

But, the media (for the most part) has'nt mentioned much. People are (for the most part) acting as if he won, and accepting it (like the outcome or not), I've heard nothing from John Kerry....

The consensus seems to be he won. End of story. I would love it if the election was overturned, but at this point, can anything really happen?

Maybe I sound stupid. I'm certainly not as informed as most people. (The news depresses the hell out of me, so I rarely watch anymore...) But, at this point I just see a bunch of random news items that "something went wrong", and that's about it.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 12/22/04 at 10:59am

The system is set up to make overturning the Ohio results almost impossible. But that needn't be cause for despair. There is an opportunity in being the opposition party. The Republicans, after all, did that during 8 years of Clinton/Gore.

Many people believe it's clear that Bush won unfairly, that the "mandate" is a lie and that and that history will regard this president, this war and these economic poilicies with shame.

That's why it's important to keep the candle of dissent burning, to discredit the election and the Bush/Rove regime as strongly as possible and to support the individuals and organizations that are fighting the good fight.

[DaysOfWine&Roses]

Posted: 12/22/04 at 11:34am

You know, I have no doubt that years from now everyone will look back at the W. years and see that it was illegit.

But, it's so damn depressing NOW. I have to sit through another 4 years of that man. God knows what damage will be done in the next term.

I'm all for supporting the good fight. But, with nothing buy dark days ahead, it just gets overwelming you know? That's why it's good for me to not watch alot of news. It's just too too depressing.

I'm just venting here I guess. Ignore me.

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 12/22/04 at 11:38am

as this link clearly shows, the gop was willing to sink to poison to win!

http://www.pnionline.com/dnblog/extra/archives/001283.html

[PalJoey]

Posted: 12/22/04 at 11:53am

Can't see what he wrote, because he's one of my BLOCKED USERS, but ignore it anyway, because it's either nasty or dismissive.

Keep fighting the good fight!

[PalJoey]

Posted: 12/22/04 at 5:20pm

Looks like REPUBLICANS are the crybabies in Washington State.

====

Wednesday, December 22, 2004 · Last updated 2:03 p.m. PT

Supreme Court orders King County to count disputed ballots

By REBECCA COOK
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

OLYMPIA, Wash. -- The state Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that King County should include hundreds of recently discovered ballots in the hand recount of the still-undecided governor's race.

After seven weeks of counting and recounting, the ballots from the Democratic stronghold of King County could swing the election for Democrat Christine Gregoire. Republican Dino Rossi won the first count by 261 votes and won a machine recount by 42 votes.

At a hearing Wednesday morning before the high court, Republicans had argued that a recount should be a mere retabulation, and that it was too late for counties to go back and correct errors.

But the court unanimously said state law and previous court rulings specifically allow county canvassing boards to correct mistakes during a recount.

"We are absolutely thrilled," said Democratic Party spokeswoman Kirstin Brost. "All along this has been about those voters who have been disenfranchised, and this is a tremendous victory for them today."

State Republican Party officials and Rossi's campaign did not immediately return phone calls seeking comment.

It was the second piece of good news for Gregoire fans in as many days. Tuesday night, Democrats said their analysis showed the King County recount would reverse Rossi's lead and make Gregoire the winner by a margin of just eight votes. That was without counting the 700-plus newly discovered ballots, which would likely add to Gregoire's total.

King County, the state's largest and the last among Washington's 39 counties to report, was to announce official results of its hand recount Wednesday afternoon.

"Christine Gregoire was elected governor and that will be proven true" when King County reports, Democratic State Party Chairman Paul Berendt said Tuesday. "The Republicans should concede, for the good of the state."

Not so fast, Republicans said.

"I don't think anyone will view Christine Gregoire as the legitimate governor" if she wins by a tiny margin in King County or because of the Supreme Court ruling, Rossi spokeswoman Mary Lane said Wednesday, before the court ruling was handed down. Republicans are already preparing to challenge the election results in court if Rossi loses.

"We're keeping all of our options open," Lane said.

Gregoire, 57, a three-term attorney general, was the favorite going into the election against Rossi, 45, a real estate agent and former state senator.

But out of 2.9 million ballots cast on Election Day, Rossi won by 261 votes over Gregoire. His lead was whittled to 42 votes in a subsequent machine recount. Democrats paid $730,000 for the hand recount, though by law the state will have to pay the party back if the recount reverses the results.

King County officials discovered last week that at least 723 ballots had not been counted because of mistakes made by election workers.

A lawyer for the secretary of state's office told the Supreme Court during its Wednesday hearing that state law allows canvassing boards to fix errors made by elections staff.

"The recount process is to secure a prompt, accurate closure to close elections," lawyer Thomas Ahearne said. "Correcting errors by election officials makes the results more accurate."

Harry Korrell, a lawyer for the Republican Party, countered that state law does not grant King County the right to add new ballots to the recount seven weeks after the election. Korrell said counting those votes would cause irreparable harm, but justices questioned who would be hurt.

"You're looking at it from the point of view of the winner or the loser - shouldn't we be looking at it from the point of view of the voter?" asked Justice Susan Owens.

The lawsuit was brought by King County, the state Democratic Party and the office of Secretary of State Sam Reed, a Republican.
Supreme Court orders King County to count disputed ballots

[jacobtsf]

Posted: 12/22/04 at 10:31pm

The Republicans were able to hassle(and impeach) Clinton because they had the majority in congress and could care less about a President actually doing good things.

I ask all of the Republicans a question: Which should get a President fired?

a.)He has oral sex in the oval office and lies about it.
b.)He starts a war and lies about the reasons that he decided to go to war, causing the death of thousands while doing it.

If you answer a than I must say that you have no sense of morals whatsoever