Weird Search of the Day

"Jerome Armstrong" Biography (Yahoo)

Also, shame on the NKU Student Government Association for failing to send a representative to the meeting held at UK for the Cradle to College Initiative. NKU is one of the, if not the most, underfunded colleges in the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

No Codey, Corzine wins

Call him Governor-elect Jon Corzine. Acting Governor Rob Codey (who just attacked a disc jockey) is not running for a full term. Corzine is scheduled to win the primary and the general election.

The decision clears the way for Sen. Jon Corzine to win the Democratic gubernatorial nomination without a divisive primary fight.

"It's a shame," said one source familiar with the situation. "The numbers were good. The message was right. What we can't overcome is the money Corzine has. Even if we raised $8 million we couldn't do it. We'll focus on having a good year and getting things accomplished."[...]

State GOP Chairman Tom Wilson said Codey's decision not to run makes things easier for Republicans.

"If Dick Codey's not running, that makes Jon Corzine the head of the Democratic Party and basically makes him governor," he said.

"He'll have to say whether he agrees with budget decisions or whether to lease the New Jersey Turnpike," Wilson said. "He can't hide behind process anymore. He has to deal with the nitty-gritty of governing, which is what we've been waiting for."

Codey is considering leasing the Turnpike to a private company for a one-time payment to help close a $4 billion hole in the upcoming state budget, which takes effect July 1.

Ray LaHood, you've got company! Keyes is coming back for a return.

Rumble is former Republican U.S. Senate candidate/nightmare Alan Keyes is eyeing a bid for governor.

Any other carpetbaggers running?

Before there was Jon Stewart...

...there was Johnny Carson's political legacy as CNN's Judy Woodruff explains:

Before politicians rushed to book face time with Jon Stewart or announced their candidacy on David Letterman or Jay Leno...there was Johnny Carson.

Carson played host to seven United States Presidents and "thankfully for comedy," he said, eight vice presidents of the United States.

Often called "the king of late night," Carson was an equal opportunity needler, mocking politicians from Dan Quayle to the Kennedy family, and everyone in between.

He even gave former President Richard Nixon a second chance at making a television debut.

He welcomed the powerful, making them seem a little more like the rest of us.

"The Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson was the venue for Bill Clinton's mea culpa after his poorly received too-long convention speech in 1988.

In just one week, then-Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton went from being the butt of jokes to a media darling, after his appearance on The Tonight Show where Carson gave him a chance to show some self-deprecating humor.

In no small part thanks to Carson, CNN at the time cited Clinton for the "fastest turnaround ever" on its weekly "Winners and Losers."

But, Carson's sharp wit could also contribute to a candidate's downfall.

As The New York Times reported on Monday, it certainly did not help former Sen.Gary Hart when Carson began including him in his monologues.

"Mr. Carson's jokes about Mr. Hart's extramarital activities were surely not the only reason his political fortunes evaporated in 1988, but they were repeated often enough to have played some part," said the Times writers.

But for the most part, Republicans and Democrats alike appreciated Carson's equal opportunity jokes. And not even Carnac the Magnificent could say where Carson's own politics lie.

Along with his biting humor, Carson also brought grace and civility to the often competitive world of television entertainment and the even more competitive world of politics. And, perhaps that is his political legacy.

I try to be an equal opportunity offender.

Johny Carson served in the navy where he missed tragedy by two days. Just thing had he reported the two days earlier how much entertainment would have been changed. There's a part of Johnny Carson in everyone of us. For some readers, he was apart of their childhood. Sadly, I only got to know him through the clips they have shown on television since 1992. Or through Dana Carvey of SNL as this article reminds me. From Carson to Conan? Who will take over for Conan O'Brien when he moves up to The Tonight Show in 2009 when Jay Leno retires? I'm not even well-known so that takes me out of the running. I don't think they'll move Jon Stewart over to NBC in 2009. I can't even stay up that late unless I'm in the central time zone.

Senator Evan Bayh, a potential contender in 2008, has endorsed a bill that is anti-meth.

Bayh is backing SB103, that would require medicines with pseudoephedrine -- an ingredient used to make the illegal stimulant -- be kept behind pharmacy counters. People would have to show photo identification, sign a log and be limited to 100 cold tablets.

"Your ordinary law-abiding citizen I don't think is going to object," Bayh said.

Charles Krauthammer's take on Rice and Democratic politics:

Regardless of the sincerity of Kennedy's assertion, it carries heavy political risk. Kennedy, however, is long past aspirations for higher office. Among the 13 senators who opposed Rice are some thinking seriously of running for the presidency in 2008. Most prominent are Evan Bayh and John Kerry. And Barbara Boxer clearly used the hearings to raise her national profile. By using Rice to vigorously oppose the war, they all vie for the 2008 Howard Dean role -- albeit played calm and composed -- of unequivocal antiwar candidate and favorite of the party's activist left.

There is at least one even more prominent Democrat who clearly considers that calculation wrong. Among the list of Democrats who did vote for Rice is Hillary Clinton, steadily moving to the center with her relatively hawkish work on the Armed Services Committee, her recent conciliatory speech on abortion and now her unwillingness to go over the cliff in opposing the Rice nomination.

Was Johnny Carson the Frank Sinatra of comedy? Johnny Carson's great-aunt is still alive and they last saw each other 40 years ago? I don't know about you but 40 years is a long time to not even attempt to see family members.

The Great Carsoni I think this might actually say it all about the current late night television shows:

Today's late-night TV still pays homage to Johnny Carson. The format is essentially the same: an opening monologue; banter with an Ed McMahon–like straight man and a colorful Doc Severinsen–like band leader; a few skits and comic bits; interviews with guests who scoot down on the couch to make room for the next guest.

The major late-night players today are like individual fragments of Johnny Carson. His successor Jay Leno has his ordinary-guy accessibility. David Letterman has his surreal humor. Jon Stewart has the political satire (though the pseudo-news format of "The Daily Show" derives from another late-night pioneer, "Saturday Night Live").

Mr. Leno, under criticism for being soft on Republicans due to his friendship with California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, felt constrained, like Galileo before the Inquisition, to come out publicly and swear fidelity to the one true liberal faith. "I'm not conservative," he pleaded to Nikki Finke of the LA Weekly. "I've never voted that way in my life." He said he had no Republicans among his writers, some of whom worked as speechwriters for Democratic candidates. His advice to the Kerry campaign: "Make Bush look as stupid as possible."

Mr. Letterman is also openly liberal in his politics, but his barbs are defanged somewhat by his comic style, where everything is presented with ironic detachment. Mr. Letterman manufactures much of his humor, taking a live camera to order something in a delicatessen and inviting ordinary people to do "stupid human tricks." The hip cynicism—a pose appealing to young adults—has its own irony, weakening the cutting-edge cultural elite who can't take their own ideas all that seriously if they don't take seriously anyone else's.

Jon Stewart, of "The Daily Show," does. His format, a parody of network news, gives satirical commentary on current events and politics. Unlike the network anchors, Mr. Stewart is quite open about his bias. Instead of his usual schtick, Mr. Stewart gave a serious critique as a guest on CNN's conservative debate program "Crossfire" as "someone who watches your show and cannot take it." He said the shouting heads are "hurting America."

A measure of hope on the horizon for a return to the Carson-style grounding in broader American culture might be found in Conan O'Brien, who has been announced as Mr. Leno's heir to the throne of Carson as host of "The Tonight Show." Mr. O'Brien, whose show "Late Night" comes on after "The Tonight Show" on NBC, is also liberal politically. And though he makes a point of cultivating "irreverent" and sometimes crude humor, he is a practicing Roman Catholic who sometimes serves as his church's lector, reading the Scriptures in the service. And of all the current late-night hosts, he is the least afraid of violating the tenets of political correctness—unleashing a hand-puppet named Triumph the Insult Comic Dog on French-speaking Quebec.

But none of the current late-night hosts holds a candle to Johnny Carson, as they themselves admit. "All of us who came after are pretenders," said Mr. Letterman. "He was the best, a star and a gentleman." The other fly-by-nights, the crude Jimmy Kimmell and wannabes like Craig Ferguson and Craig Kilborn, just are not in his league. The political commentary has grown more partisan than Mr. Carson's, and the humor more "lavatorial."

And yet late-night TV remains one of the few national meeting grounds. For all of the audience segmentation and the multitude of television choices in this era of cable TV, the major broadcasters still command a huge and diverse audience late at night. Late-night TV is the prime source of political information for 8 percent of the public and a whopping 21 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds. But most of them have never watched Johnny Carson.

Six ways Johnny Carson reinvented television.

Atrios joins the Fray

Atrios believes that Paul Newman will run for Senate in 2006. Now, I ask, who was the last Hollywood liberal to get elected? I see too many Hollywood conservatives in office!

Update: Bull Moose adds his two cents:

Democrats must also realize that this is a fairly conservative country. Self-identified conservatives far outnumber liberals.[...]

As is self-evident, the Moose values the blogosphere. But, despite all the recent hype, the internet and the blogosphere is not a mass phenomenon. At best, a few million people regularly visit political blogs on the right and the left. God bless them. And the internet has proven to be an effective fund raising tool. Yes, the blogs have occasionally broken through to the mainstream media and have broken stories. But most people don't spend the day focused on what the latest word is from the Corner or Daily Kos (and certainly not the Moose, alas). Appreciate the usefulness of the net, but don't over inflate its importance.

The Moose has also observed a certain cannibalistic tendency emerging on the left that is attempting to purge fellow Democrats who don't follow the party line. The latest example is the suggestion on some prominent lefty blogs to run a primary opponent against Senator Lieberman to punish him for his support for Rice's nomination and the war.

Here's some breaking news for the lefty Democrats - you should be adding to your numbers rather than decreasing them. Democrats must be about the politics of addition rather than subtraction. Democrats do not enjoy the luxury of driving centrists and even conservatives from their ranks.

Lefties may have their differences with Senator Lieberman, but he has loyally served the party as its vice presidential nominee and he is a deeply honorable and decent man. Don't succumb to the temptation to become just a mirror image of right wing Freepers. Left-wing cannibalism - an infantile disorder.

Some Joe Lieberman News

What do the Kossacks say now?!?

Senator Lieberman is helping to ensure that D.C. residents get full voting rights!

Iraqi-American Joins Fight for D.C. Voting Rights:

Shallal joined Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (website - news - bio) , D-D.C., and Sen. Joseph Lieberman, DConn., to introduce a bill aimed at giving District residents full voting rights.

"The voting rights in our bill are literally available to citizens of Iraq because of the service of D.C. residents and other Americans," said Norton, who can vote in committee but not on the House floor.

Lieberman said 1,000 district residents have served in Iraq or Afghanistan and three have died.

"Yet to our profound shame, these patriots do not have a say in electing representation to Congress," Lieberman said.

He warned of an uphill battle on Capitol Hill, noting resistance is strong among his Republican colleagues, who control both the House and Senate. He described that resistance as mostly "silence" because "there are not good arguments against it they would dare make in public."

Still, Lieberman plans to seek a GOP cosponsor.

"If I can get one Republican colleague to step forward on this and say, 'I want to be part of this because it's right' ... maybe we can get through this wall," Lieberman said.

He said Republican strategy is to simply not allow a vote on the bill. If legislators don't see the light, he plans to turn up the political heat - possibly by attaching an amendment to the 1965 Voting Rights Act up for reauthorization this year.

Blogshares

Any of you use BlogShares? You can purchase fantasy stock in The Kentucky Democrat!

My rant on Payola, Hillary moves to the center

Armstrong Williams. Maggie Gallagher. Michael McManus. Who isn't being paid [UPDATE: to write articles] by the government?

Hillary moves to the center, Evan moves to the left. Did I not get the memo and missed something?

A moment of silence

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In memory of all the victims of the Holocaust.

Hillary Clinton is Vulnerable

She's not a New Yorker but I'd rather see the primary in the state! The New York Daily News reports:

When Sen. Hillary Clinton runs for reelection in 2006, her opponent might just be another high-profile attorney from Westchester.

Westchester County District Attorney Jeanine Pirro is considering challenging the former First Lady, according to political insiders.

Senator Joseph Lieberman is running for re-election. Kossacks are demanding a primary candidate and there is a Draft Dick Blumenthal site already out there.

The popular three-term Democrat has begun hiring campaign staff to raise money for his re-election race in 2006, and he will attend one of his first fund-raisers Thursday night in Washington.

And while he has spent a significant chunk of the last five years running for the White House, Connecticut residents — by an enormous margin — approve of the job he is doing.

In a Quinnipiac University poll released earlier this month, 73 percent of the registered Connecticut Republicans surveyed gave him a thumbs up — a percentage point higher than the approval rating he got from Democrats, but within the margin of sampling error.

Of all registered voters surveyed, just 15 percent said they disapproved of his work, and 12 percent didn't know or didn't answer.[...]

So far Lieberman has hired four full-time fund-raisers. And his former chief of staff, Michael Lewan, now a Washington, D.C., lobbyist, is hosting a fund-raiser for Lieberman Thursday that is expected to collect about $25,000.

According to his latest campaign finance report, Lieberman had about $312,000 as of last Sept. 30. Historically, Senate incumbents have raised between $5 million and $7 million for a Connecticut race.

Fake news with real success?? Hmmm...

He may no longer be with us but his shows are back in syndication!

He'll be back on television tonight, his old comedy routines are selling large on DVD, and he'll be saluted by the United States Senate.[...]

TV Land, the cable channel dedicated to TV's golden oldies, at 10 tonight will air "TV Land Legends: The 60 Minutes Interviews featuring Johnny Carson." It will be the interview that Mike Wallace did with Carson in 1979.

In the interview, Carson discusses his own shyness and his off-camera pastimes, including tennis, card tricks and playing the drums.

Carson's DVD package, "The Ultimate Johnny Carson Collection – His Favorite Moments From The Tonight Show," long advertised in commercials on various cable channels, leaped after his death Sunday from No. 1,590 on Amazon's best-seller list to No. 1.

Nebraska's two U.S. senators, Republican Chuck Hagel and Democrat Ben Nelson, are co-sponsoring a Senate resolution honoring the late-night talk-show host.

Classic Humor

Does anyone know if there is video footage of the finale anywhere? I might just have to order the DVD's (reminder: penniless college student)

Chris Matthews is talking about Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

Jon Stewart delievers commencement speech at William and Mary.

So I thought I’d talk a little bit about my experience here at William and Mary. It was very long ago, and if you had been to William and Mary while I was here and found out that I would be the commencement speaker 20 years later, you would be somewhat surprised, and probably somewhat angry. I came to William and Mary because as a Jewish person I wanted to explore the rich tapestry of Judaica that is Southern Virginia. Imagine my surprise when I realized “The Tribe” was not what I thought it meant.

More from Jon Stewart:

An article in last week's New Yorker magazine, by reporter Seymour Hersch, who will apparently talk to anyone, alleges the Pentagon has been conducting secret spy missions inside Iran to identify possible targets ... or a possible full scale invasion. If you are wondering how our already stretched forces will be able to handle invading Iran as well -- shuttle service will be complimentary.

Some Classic Johnny Carson monologue jokes:
Classic Johnny Carson Quotes and Political Jokes
"Democracy means that anyone can grow up to be president, and anyone who doesn't grow up can be vice president."

"Ronald Reagan just signed the new tax law. But I think he was in Hollywood too long. He signed it, 'Best wishes, Ronald Reagan.'"

"There is a power struggle going on between President Reagan's advisers. Moe and Curly are out. Larry is stil in."

"Nancy Reagan fell down and broke her hair."

"He doesn't dye his hair, he bleaches his face." -on Ronald Reagan

"That would have been a great ticket, Reagan and Ford -- an actor and a stuntman."

"You get the feeling that Dan Quayle's golf bag doesn't have a full set of irons?"

"Read my lips: No new promises." -on George H.W. Bush

On Jimmy Carter: Carson as Carnac the Magnificent held up the envelope to his head, divined the answer -- "Yes and no, pro and con, for and against" -- opened the envelope and said, "Describe Jimmy Carter's position on three major issues."

"Did you know Richard Nixon is the only president whose formal portrait was painted by a police sketch artist?"

"Only lie about the future." -giving advice to politicians

"Democracy is buying a big house you can't afford with money you don't have to impress people you wish were dead. And, unlike communism, democracy does not mean having just one ineffective political party; it means having two ineffective political parties. ...Democracy is welcoming people from other lands, and giving them something to hold onto -- usually a mop or a leaf blower. It means that with proper timing and scrupulous bookkeeping, anyone can die owing the government a huge amount of money. ... Democracy means free television, not good television, but free. ... And finally, democracy is the eagle on the back of a dollar bill, with 13 arrows in one claw, 13 leaves on a branch, 13 tail feathers, and 13 stars over its head -- this signifies that when the white man came to this country, it was bad luck for the Indians, bad luck for the trees, bad luck for the wildlife, and lights out for the American eagle."

Books about Johnny Carson but please order them through the Amazon links here (I'm a penniless college student).

Is this for real?

In the mailbag today...btw, Jay Leno wants the Patriots winning 85-13 against the Eagles.

DEAR ABBY,

My husband has a long record of money problems. He runs up huge credit card bills and at the end of the month, if I try to pay them off, he shouts at me, saying I am stealing his money. He says pay the minimum and let our kids worry about the rest, but already we can hardly keep up with the interest.

Also he has been so arrogant and abusive toward our neighbors that most of them no longer speak to us. The few that do are an odd bunch, to whom he has been giving a lot of expensive gifts, running up our bills even more. Also, he has gotten religious in a big way, although I don't quite understand it. One week he hangs out with Catholics and the next with people who say the Pope is the Anti-Christ. And now he has been going to the gym an awful lot and is into wearing uniforms and cowboy outfits, and I hate to think what that means. Finally, the last straw. He's demanding that before anyone can be in the same room with him, they must sign a loyalty oath. It's just so horribly creepy!

Can you help?

Signed,
Lost in DC

Dear Lost: Stop whining, Laura. You can divorce the jerk any time you want. The rest of us are stuck with him for four more years!

More votes for the Kentucky Democrat

I've been visiting the site lately. Please don't forget to vote for the Kentucky Democrat.

The latest votes come in for me:
The Kentucky Democrat's comments are usually thoughtful. He doesn't believe in every conspiracy theory that some blogger came up with.

And he is just unbelievably active in always getting you up to date with the latest news.

[does he believe in any "conspiracy theory that some blogger came up with"? which ones? i believe you know. ebw]

Posted by: temporary Iowan at January 25, 2005 07:29 PM

kentucky democrat

swing state project

Posted by: Jamie VW at January 25, 2005 09:16 PM

I'll keep you posted but please don't forget to vote!

Political news for the evening

News from Dr. Ted Schlechter's the Bridge:

Hot rumors: Denise Bentley will soon leave the Metro Council. She is looking for a job in D.C. I also heard
that she may have some legal problems. I hear that Marget Harris and Reginald Meek's daughter are the favorites to replace her.

Jean Marie-Lawson of Bowling Green has the inside track for the Kentucky Democratic Party's Vice-Chair.[...]

Heather French Henry is thinking about a run for Congress. The question is it going to be against Annie or against the newly elected congressman in Northern
KY. Heather and Steve just bought Rosemary Clooney's old home in Maysville.

Tony Miller is considering NOT running for another term as Clerk of Jefferson County Circuit Court. If this happens, Russ Salsman, a long-time aide of Tony's, will be the Dems candidate for this position. Rusty will make a good Clerk of the
Jefferson Circuit Court.

How does Dr. Ted feel on Jerry Lundergan as state chairman of the Kentucky Democratic Party?

Jerry Lundergan was not my first, second, or third choice for the Ky State Chair. My first choice would
have been the charismatic Jack Conway; my second choice would have been Ed Hatchett, who is one of the most decent people that I have ever met in politics; my third choice would have been Audrey Haines who withdrew after the nominating committee couldn't decide between Jerry Lundergan and her. The political philosophy of these three people is much closer to mine than is Mr. Lundergan's.

Yet, I have no problem with the election of Mr. Lundergan to the State Chair. This election was a fair and open process. The nominating committee requested information from all interested Democrats. THE BRIDGE contained articles delineating this
nominating process. It also provided the names and e-mail addresses of members of the nominating committee.

I also believe that Mr. Lundergan deserved to win this election. He represents the Stumbo wing of the Democratic Party, which worked real hard for candidates throughout the State. In fact, many of Dr. Dan's key advisors were Stumbo associates. Bill Garmer, the former Chair, was more aligned with Crit Luallen and Jonathan Miller than Stumbo. And, Democrats did not fare so well in 2004.

Who knows, Mr. Lundergan might just be what the KY Democratic Party needs. Like Greg Stumbo, he will get in the Republicans' face. I also believe that Mr. Lundergan's political philosophy represents the typical Democrat outside of Jefferson County and
Lexington. I also agree with Mr. Lundergan that Democrats need to do much better in Western Kentucky if they are going to win state-wide races. Let's then give Mr. Lundergan a chance...

Nationally, Senator Evan Bayh is beginning to look like the presidential contender I want him to be when he joined the brave 13. MSNBC explains:

The big political news in Wednesday’s Rice vote was that strongly pro-Iraq war Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana voted against her confirmation.

“She has been a principal architect of policy errors that have tragically undermined our prospects for success in this endeavor,” Bayh told the Senate. “Those in charge must be held accountable for mistakes; we must learn from them, correct them, so that we may succeed in Iraq.”[...]

Looking to 2008?
But just as likely, it was the next election in 2008, not last November’s, that set the background for the vote on Rice and the one next week on Gonzales.

In electoral terms, Bayh’s vote seemed confirmation that he is running hard for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008.

“If Bayh is calculating that a vote against Rice would sit well with Iowa Democrats, he would be correct,” said Iowa Democratic activist David Loebsack, who teaches politics at Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa.

“Opposition to the war has grown here as well across the country, especially among Democrats.”

Loebsack added, “There is a palpable concern among activists that Bush will drag America into more and deeper conflicts in his second term. It clearly would behoove any potential ’08 Democratic candidate to be very aware of these concerns.”

Last May, Bayh, who voted for the 2002 Iraq war resolution, said, "our cause is morally superior to our adversaries’," a statement many on the left of his party would find hard to accept.

Intriguingly, the woman who may be Bayh’s chief rival for the 2008 nomination, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton, voted to confirm Rice.

Senate Democrats find themselves divided over Rice and Gonzales: 32 Democrats voted for Rice, while only 12 voted against her.

GO EVAN GO!

Fraud in Ohio?!?

The recount in Ohio is proving to be worth it even if it does not overturn the election. Check out Raw Story for the scoop.

1/26/2005
Ohio recount volunteers allege electoral tampering, legal violations and possible fraud
‘Why were there stickers on ballots in Clermont County, Ohio?’

Some of the affidavits cited and linked in this story are still in processing. Watch the main Raw Story page for active links as they become available.

By Larisa Alexandrovna
RAW STORY Staff

Serious new election tampering allegations have emerged from an Ohio county, where witnesses allege that stickers were placed on presidential election ballots, RAW STORY has learned.

Several volunteer workers in the Ohio recount in Clermont County, Ohio have prepared affidavits alleging serious tampering, violations of state and federal law, and possible fraud. They name the Republican chief of Clermont’s Board of Elections and the head of the Clermont Democratic Party Priscilla O’Donnell as complicit in these acts.

These volunteers, observing the recount on behalf of the Greens, Libertarians and Democrats, assert that during the Dec. 14, 2004 hand recount they noticed stickers covering the Kerry/Edwards oval, whereas the Bush/Cheney oval seemed to be “colored in.”

Some witnesses state that beneath the stickers, the Kerry/Edwards oval was selected. The opti-scan ballots were then fed into the machines after the hand recount.

Allegations of ballot tampering in Ohio – which decided the outcome of the presidential election by some 100,000 votes – find particular resonance in Clermont, one of three Ohio counties which saw the biggest increases in votes for Bush from 2000 to 2004. The other counties were Butler and Warren; Warren County had a lockdown after an alleged terror threat that the FBI later denied.

These counties “increased their support of Bush by only a few percentage points each,” the Cincinnati Enquirer reported Monday. “But in the raw numbers of votes, they made the difference.”

In a sworn affidavit, Clinton County Democrat Stephen Spraley, a retired plumber from Springboro, Ohio, saw the stickers on at least ten opti-scan ballots. Spraley brought this issue to the attention of Deputy Director for the Clermont Board of Elections, Kathy Jones, who is a Democrat. He says he was rebuffed by the Republican Director of the Board of Elections Daniel Bare.

“I had asked Kathy Jones – where did these stickers come from and who put them on the ballots?” Spraley said. “She was interrupted by Dan Bare, and he told me that the board would have another meeting and that is where questions about ballots would be determined.”

Spraley had one of the stickered ballot pulled as an example for the board meeting. Board members, including Bare, O’Donnell and Jones, as well as volunteer workers and county employees, discussed this particular ballot, he says.

“A Republican board member said the stickers were put on election night,” Spraley added. He says Clermont’s Democratic Party chief O’Donnell “said she knew nothing about the stickers.”

Another observer, University of Cincinnati math professor Bob Drake, corroborated Spraley’s allegations. “One person offered that [the stickers] must have been placed on the ballots by someone at the precinct on Election Day, and that no one could be responsible for that… Everyone, including the Executive Director Danny Bare, denied having ever seen them before or having any knowledge of them,” Drake said.

Eric L. Gifford, a Green Party volunteer who was also present at both the recount and the board meeting said that “Mrs. O’Donnell proceeded to nominate this ballot for a vote, and none of the other members would second the vote. The ballot was then counted for Bush.”

Jeanine Tater, a California resident who had volunteered to observe in Ohio on behalf of the Democratic Party, stated in her affidavit “a Kerry witness named Steve [Spraley], discovered white oval shaped stickers on some of the ballots during the 3 percent hand count. I personally observed these stickers during the machine recount.”

This will certainly be interesting. Every legal vote should count.

Howard Dean for Senate 2006

This was in the comments of a diary I had on MyDD:

Go Dick Durbin! (none / 0)

Jeffords too, who, word is here in VT, is not going to run again.

by Jerome Armstrong on Wed Jan 26th, 2005 at 04:02:49 PM EST

So how does Howard Dean for Senate sound? It sounds darn great to me! If Governor Dean does not run, will Congressman Bernie Sanders run?

If Senator Jeffords retires, I will endorse former Governor Howard Dean for Senate in 2006.

No on Gonzales (AGAIN)

I hope someone that knows Senator Lieberman can reach out to him. I know there are a few of you out there. I would be truly disappointed in Senator Joe Lieberman if he votes to confirm Al Gonzales for Attorney General.

The following was in reply to a comment I made somewhere on Daily Kos:

I think if we really concentrate on reminding Joe about this week being the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, it can reach his conscience.

Tried with my email to him on Rice, but that failed. Not giving up, though...will email him again when Gonzales comes up.

"It is no longer a choice, my friends, between violence and nonviolence. It is either nonviolence or nonexistence." Martin Luther King, Jr.

by grannyhelen on Wed Jan 26th, 2005 at 15:44:46 PST

Al Gonzales wrote the memo that said to ignore the Geneva convention. Please tell Senator Lieberman to take advice from Sen. Bayh and vote against Al Gonzales.

The 13 Good Guys

For the first time that I can recall, I am disappointed in both Senator Joseph Lieberman and Senator Russ Feingold.

Here are the 13 Good Guys (and Gals) to vote against the confirmation of Condoleezza Rice:
Daniel Akaka (D-HA)
Evan Bayh (D-IN)
Barbara Boxer (D-CA)
Robert C. Byrd (D-WV)
Mark Dayton (D-MN)
Dick Durbin (D-IL)
Tom Harkin (D-IA)
Jim Jeffords (I-VT)
Edward Kennedy (D-MA)
John Kerry (D-MA)
Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Carl Levin (D-MI)
Jack Reed (D-RI)

Why did the Democrats one would expect to vote against Condoleezza Rice vote in favor of her confirmation? Senator Bayh has increased his stock with regards to a run in 2008

Rise of the Empire

So it begins.

Here is my original post dealing with Star Wars and reality.

The Senate Judiciary Commitee panel voted to send Al Gonzales name to the floor of the Senate. The vote was on party lines.

divided Senate Judiciary Committee (news - web sites) on Wednesday approved Alberto Gonzales as U.S. attorney general, rejecting concerns about his role in formulating administration policies blamed for contributing to the torture of suspected terrorists.

On a party-line vote of 10-8, the Republican-led panel sent President Bush's nomination of Gonzales to become the nation's highest ranking lawman to the full Senate for anticipated confirmation, possibly as early as next week.

Gonzales, now Bush's White House counsel, would replace John Ashcroft, who submitted his resignation after Bush was elected to a second term in November.

The United States should not use torture to get the truth out of detainees. Another reference that I forgot in my original post. Governor Moff Tarkin and Darth Vader use a probe droid on Princess Leia to find out where the rebel base is. She does not tell them where the base is. She gives a different answer.

I want the terrorists gone as much as the Republicans do but there has to be ways other than torture. I don't care if Al Gonzales is pro-choice. Although Roe may be at stake in these next few years, whats more important is how we are seen in the world. We are already at war in Iraq and Afghanistan (where is that schmuck anyway? We had him cornered and outsourced the job to the people fighting against us just days before!!!)

Tell the President to get our troops out of Iran:

Even as matters go from bad to worse in Iraq, there is increasing evidence that the Bush administration has already begun military incursions into an additional ten countries in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia. Most prominent among these countries is Iran, where the stated goal appears to be identifying targets related to Iran's nuclear program that could be subject to a preemptive attack.

According to an explosive article by renowned investigative reporter Seymour Hersh, President Bush has signed a series of executive orders and Presidential findings authorizing the Pentagon to send in reconnaissance teams into a number of countries to prepare for military action. Underlying the mission in Iran appears to be the prediction that an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities would lead to regime change, throwing out the fundamentalist mullahs who largely control the country. The only analysts who share this view also predicted that our troops occupying Iraq would be greeted with flowers.

The human, financial and moral costs of attempting regime change in Iran through a preemptive military strike are likely to dwarf those we are already suffering from Iraq.

These are dark times and Democrats must use Jedi-like instincts to prevail. With the brain that President Bush has, he can easily succomb to the mind tricks.

In 2008 election news, people are registered Bill Richardson for President domain names on the internet. Bill Richardson has nothing to do with it at all, it appears.

More Entertainment and Political News

Monday's tribute was 4th in the ratings!

Monday's Tonight Show With Jay Leno on NBC, which was a tribute to Johnny Carson, yielded the fourth-highest ratings for that show since it began in 1992, according to numbers gathered from Nielsen's local markets. The broadcast featured highlights from Carson's Tonight show run, as well as appearances by Ed McMahon, Don Rickles and Bob Newhart. David Letterman's Late Show, which might have offered a tribute, was a repeat on Monday night. Unlike the overnight ratings for prime-time programs, the complete results for the Tonight show, including the number of viewers, will not be available until next week.

Just to think, Paris Hilton would have been on. For the life of me, I just don't understand how a hotel heiress gets her own show when she can't even act worth a darn. She's worse than Hilary Duff who can't even act at all. She only has one character that she portrays over and over. Advice to Hilary Duff: Improvisation!

Rolling Stone pays tribute to Johnny Carson. Park Overall remembers Johnny Carson. Johnny Carson was remembered at the Oscar nomination announcements.

"I want to say on behalf of all of us at the Academy, to the man who was our voice for so many years on the Academy Awards, Johnny Carson, goodnight and sleep well," said Frank Pierson, president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Carson was ringleader of the Oscar broadcast repeatedly in the 1970s and 1980s, and along with the late Bob Hope, was considered one of the program's most capable hosts.

Bob Hope: Or as I calll it--Passover.

If you didn't think that Johnny Carson was generous, think again after reading this!

Carson gave back to Corning three years ago when kids there complained there was no place to play. Parents wrote Carson for help to build a new skate park, and they got it. "I had to look at the zeros. At first, I thought $7,500. No, it was $75,000. We were shocked, shocked to death, it was great," one parent remembers.

Thanks to Johnny Carson, Corning opened the Carnac Family Skatepark, named after Carson's famous Tonight Show character, "Carnac The Magnificent".

SNL is gearing up for a new anniversary show following Lorne Michael's contract extension.

NBC will celebrate “Saturday Night Live” with the two-hour special on “Live From New York: The First 5 Years of Saturday Night Live” on Feb. 20.

The special will look at the franchise’s nascent years and will feature new interviews with Michaels; original stars, including Dan Aykroyd, Chevy Chase, Laraine Newman and Garrett Morris; and the early hosts such as Candice Bergen, Elliot Gould, Buck Henry, Eric Idle, Steve Martin, Penny Marshall and Lily Tomlin.

NBC also plans to air classic shows from those first five years in the “All-Night” time slot after “SNL” on Sunday mornings.

The Blues are Back!?!

The classic-soul cover band the Blues Brothers, featuring Dan Aykroyd and Jim Belushi, will don their trademark sunglasses for a concert at 8:30 p.m. Saturday at Caesars in Atlantic City. The show is a benefit for the Positive Impact Foundation, devoted to using positive images to bolster self-esteem among New Jersey youths. PIF founder Joe Piscopo -- like Aykroyd and Belushi, a "Saturday Night Live" alumnus -- will host.

Piscopo created PIF in 1997, the same year that Belushi began co-fronting the Blues Brothers with Aykroyd (who originally partnered with Jim's late brother, John). In their original incarnation, the goofy R&B group had some unlikely hit singles (1979's "Soul Man") and persuaded stars like Ray Charles, Aretha Franklin and James Brown to cameo in their boisterous 1980 movie, "The Blues Brothers."

Does Johnny Carson want his house sold on ebay?

Is Evan Bayh running for President?

Bayh's criticism of the war's handling suggests his interest in running for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2008, said Thomas Mann, a political scientist at the Brookings Institution.

"Defending the Bush administration's record on Iraq is the kiss of death for a Democratic presidential candidate," Mann said.[...]

But Bayh said the mistakes in Iraq couldn't be ignored. In his view, they include not planning for the aftermath of the war, not having enough U.S. troops, disbanding the Iraqi army and disqualifying members of Saddam Hussein's political party from serving in the new government.

"This is no ordinary incompetence," Bayh said Tuesday on the Senate floor. "Men and women are dying as a result of these mistakes."

Johnny Carson DVD's are hitting the top of the charts. I might buy one myself as soon as I get the funding.

But the longtime host of NBC's The Tonight Show, who died Sunday at 79, remained a shrewd if conservative businessman, friends say, and even in retirement stayed active in one pet project. Between trips around the world, Carson supervised video and DVD compilations of his most memorable bits, designed to keep his legacy alive. On Monday one of those anthologies — The Ultimate Johnny Carson Collection — His Favorite Moments From The Tonight Show (Vols. 1-3) (1962-1992), originally released in 2000 — zoomed to No. 1 on the Amazon.com DVD sales ranking. Four other Carson compilations, representing a fraction of the more than 5,000 hours of existing “Tonight Show” tapes, spiked to top 10 positions on the chart.

Give me a break

Bush edits tapes of MLK speech. Recommend this diary if you use Kos. I clicked on the Common Dreams link and couldn't believe my eyes.

Arguing that the Bush Administration is illegally withholding documents on its plans to cut scenes of gay rights, pro-choice and anti-war demonstrations from an educational video shown at the Lincoln Memorial, People For the American Way Foundation (PFAWF) and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) filed a lawsuit in federal court today to force the National Park Service to release the documents.[...]

These far-right organizations reportedly complained that brief seconds of footage showing gay rights, pro-choice and anti-Vietnam War demonstrations implied that “Lincoln would have supported homosexual and abortion ‘rights’ as well as feminism.” In response, the Park Service is reported to have promised to develop a “more balanced” version of the videotape that has been playing at the Lincoln Memorial since 1995.[...]

The Park Service has reportedly spent nearly $200,000 making two new versions of the video. The first version is a wholly new video that, according to other Park Service documents, “revise(s) and update(s) the Lincoln Memorial video [including] off-line and symphony picture editing, the acquisition and addition of commercial and public domain stock footage and specialized captioning.”

This June, a second version of the video was ordered. This version would make “three minor picture changes to the Lincoln’s Living Legacy Video. This work includes purchasing new stock footage, edit [sic], mastering and captions for the video.”

“We are simply trying to unearth the history of an attempt by the Bush Administration to rewrite history,” stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch, whose organization represents Park Service employees. “Our tax dollars are being spent so that images of feminists, war protestors and gays can no longer be glimpsed at what is supposed to be a shrine of democracy.”

Throughout the controversy, the original videotape has been showing at the Lincoln Memorial, except for a brief shutdown for projector repair. The Park Service has not shown its proposed replacement videos to members of the public and has also resisted requests for copies to be released.

President Lincoln would indeed be a Democrat in today's age. He was a Kentuckian and Kentuckians should know better (those of us who are still blue and voting blue. I think a reason why Democratss in Kentucky have been going red is because of the ethical problems that Democrats have shown lately.