Help make sure the NEXT election is fair

I personally don't believe we're as bad as the Ukraine yet. But I agree with Rep. Conyers, quoted in this Bostone Globe piece ("Federal office to probe vote procedures"):

'What is far more important than the ultimate result is the public's confidence in it," said Representative John Conyers Jr., a Michigan Democrat who led efforts to get the Government Accountability Office involved. ''The purpose of this investigation is to figure out what systemwide deficiencies exist in voting machines and voting procedures so that those flaws can be fixed by legislation prior to the next election." 

Contact YOUR legislators. Or book that flight to Ukraine.

No wonder W stayed away this Thanksgiving

More disturbing news from Iraq (sorry about the redundant phrase).

And (from Juan Cole ):

Daily Outrage, at The Nation's website, lists some statistics that were not in the New York Times op-ed piece on Friday. For instance, 90 of 540 voter registration stations in Iraq are closed owing to poor security. And here is the coup de grace:
Iraqi Public Opinion
** Only 33 percent of Iraqis think they're better off now than before the war, as a Gallup poll discovered.
** Just 36 percent believe the interim government shares their values.
** 94 percent say Baghdad is more dangerous than it was before the war.
** 66.6 believe the US occupation could start a civil war.
** 80 percent want the US to leave directly after the January elections.

Good music

More Red State Pinko Faves, outside commercial music "mainstream," but worth checking out:
Dale Allen and The Cantrells.

Don't it make those red malls blue

Ron Brownstein and Richard Rainey (Los Angeles Times) cause Bull Moose to suggest that "the donkey spend more time in mega-malls."

"The donkey must appeal again to voters who are seeking upward mobility. As Brownstein and Rainey point out,

"'These are places defined more by aspiration than accumulation, filled more with families starting out than with those that have already reached their earnings peak.'

"The exurbs are not filled with 30-something Tom Joads or Joe Hills who are itching for a fight with the foreman. If they are fighting something, they are fighting for a parking place at the mega-shopping mall.

"'The People vs. the Powerful' will not resonate in these edge communities. Democrats must be seen as the party of growth, responsibility and prosperity again if they are going to compete in the places where America is moving."

Yes, there is a DLC connection here. But let me repeat my mantra: now is the time for all good pinkos to kiss up to moderates.

Kevin Sites speaks

Not surprisingly, the last guy to voice an opinion on the shooting of a wounded Iraqi guerrilla in a mosque by a marine is the embbedded reporter who actually shot the footage. The point(s) of view in his riveting account may surprise you.

Embedded in the fog

Fog of war, that is. If anyone should doubt that the first casualty of war is truth, or that there is a scary, dumb, reptilian element out there you should watch out for if you dare to question authority, ponder this (courtesy Juan Cole).

Frist the partisan hack

In case you needed it, here's the stinking gun (courtesy Joe Conason) that should remove all reasonable doubt about how low the esteemed majority leader was willing to go to discredit Dick Clarke's appearance on American Bandstand II (aka the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States). How long will the public's (and media's) short memories allow the scoundrels to keep getting away with this stuff? Don't answer that.

Apologies for making you jump through Salon.com's hoops to view the full article.

Repent!

Nothin' like a hell-raising Reverend to put the fear of God into them Corporate Pharoahs. Come on by Reverend Billy's Church of Stop Shopping. Sinners welcome.

But I'd be a little nervous about sending him money

Add this guy to Riverbend (mentioned below) and Juan Cole as you compile your list of good sources for non-rah-rah info coming out of Iraq.

Don't hate me just 'cause my President is a bloodthirsty chimp

I find these perhaps overly self-critical folks oddly comforting.

Red State Woman

Another song parody. Here's an excerpt:

I'm a red - state - woman
I ain't no left - nut - job
When I think 'bout folks named Clinton
I say I DECLARE JIHAD
And I vote for moral values like intrusiveness and war
And damned if lesbo couples will be MOVING IN NEXT DOOR
So listen all you pinko commie godless gunless Blues
Let me tell you what you'll see on your lib'ral biii-assed news
(MY BUSH!)...

I like it. Here's the link.

Of course, I can't even think about promoting a Gretchen Wilson parody without giving equal time to my friend and collaborator Sue Fabisch's brilliant "White Trash Husband" (go to her site and click on "listen").

Bye bye, Idle Hour

"...Idle Hour closes its doors, Nashville [loses] another one-of-a-kind landmark..."

Waaaaahhhh ::::(((((.
Maybe they'll find a new space. Maybe New Daddy Chuck will keep maintaining the blog.

Postelection "must do" list

This, my favorite postelection cartoon (from Mother Jones) was published BEFORE election day.

Mamas don't let your babies grow up to be...

...undecided voters (or Republicans for that matter). This hair-raising account from the psycho middle should chasten mamas everywhere (from The New Republic via E.J. Kessler's blog):

...Members of the political class may disparage undecided voters, but we at least tend to impute to them a basic rationality. We're giving them too much credit. I met voters who told me they were voting for Bush, but who named their most important issue as the environment. One man told me he voted for Bush in 2000 because he thought that with Cheney, an oilman, on the ticket, the administration would finally be able to make us independent from foreign oil. A colleague spoke to a voter who had been a big Howard Dean fan, but had switched to supporting Bush after Dean lost the nomination. After half an hour in the man's house, she still couldn't make sense of his decision. Then there was the woman who called our office a few weeks before the election to tell us that though she had signed up to volunteer for Kerry she had now decided to back Bush. Why? Because the president supported stem cell research. The office became quiet as we all stopped what we were doing to listen to one of our fellow organizers try, nobly, to disabuse her of this notion. Despite having the facts on her side, the organizer didn't have much luck....
Read the rest here, if you dare.

This all reinforces my resolve, in the unlikely event that I'm ever asked to run for public office, to use this slogan: What the $%^& is wrong with you people? (Oh, like "Help is on the way" was SO much better). At least my slogan could double as EITHER an acceptance or a concession speech.

Fire up that moderate (aka "Centrist") base

OK fellow pinkos, it's time to try to understand our last hope in the war against the creeping Santorum-ization (or Fristing?) of America. I'm talking about - gasp! - moderates. America is a moderate country, and the Right has made most of its gains simply by letting us speak and then scaring the Middle by exaggerating how loony we are. We now need to swallow our ideals for a couple of years and start doing some serious kissing up to folks like these (at the Centrist Coalition).

Or else move. (See "Canada to the rescue" below.)

RED STATE BLUES (2)

My friend T-nek Backward (if you can guess his real name, keep it to yourself) had already completed the following cathartic rant when I told him about my RSB idea.

I guess you snooze you lose, so here's the...

RED STATE BLUES
Written by: T-Nek Backward

VERSE:
HELPING THE POOR IS TOO TAXING FOR FOLKS HERE YOU SEE
THEY NEED TO HOARD EVERY PENNY, GAS UP THEM S.U.V.'S
CIVILIANS DYING IN IRAQ, BUT THAT’S OK WITH THE FOLKS IN THE PEWS
I CAN’T BELIEVE I’M LIVING HERE, I GOT THE RED STATE BLUES

CHORUS:
THE RED STATE BLUES, THE RED STATE BLUES
GOD GET ME OUTTA HERE, I GOT THE RED STATE BLUES

VERSE:
MORAL VALUES IS A TAX BREAK FOR GOOD OL' ENRON
AND OBSCENE DRUG PRICES FOR ALL THE SOCCER MOMS
JUST WAVE THAT FLAG AND WE GET SO DUMB AND CONFUSED
IF THESE ARE FAMILY VALUES, I GOT THE RED STATE BLUES

CHORUS (Repeat)

VERSE:
THEY'RE PROUD AND PRO-LIFE AND THEY'RE PRO-DEATH PENALTY (that makes sense)
LOVE NORMAN ROCKWELL WARS SANITIZED ON FOX T.V.
AND EXPORTING FREEDOM WITH THE JACK-BOOTED HEELS OF THEIR SHOES
EVEN THE FOUNDING FATHERS WOULD HAVE THE RED STATE BLUES

CHORUS (Repeat)

The Limitations Newsletter

Exclusive! View this newsletter from my favorite Nashville band, The Limitations, ONLY at Red State Pinko...

Official Newsletter (Vol. 1, Number 1)
November 2004

List of shows:
Saturday Nov 6: Springwater Working Stiff Jamboree Saturday
(you can check this one off 'cause it was last week)

Friday Nov 12: Worlds Famous Brown's Diner 8:30 PM (whoops this one's over too)

Saturday Nov 20: Family Wash split night with Tom House/Tommy Goldsmith

Following this hectic tour schedule the band plans to jet off to the 'getaway house' in southern Italy for some well deserved r & r during the Thanksgiving Holidays;
returning to the 'states' (Idaho) in time to play the Christmas Working Stiff's Show December 18th.

More on this exciting news in next month's Special Holiday Issue of the Official Newsletter.

Another wacky site

My friend JD is a contributor to this den of anarchy. Enjoy.

Oh, what a lovely war

"The bombs being dropped on Fallujah don't contain explosives, depleted uranium or anything harmful - they contain laughing gas - that would, of course, explain [Pentagon chief Donald] Rumsfeld's misplaced optimism about not killing civilians in Fallujah. Also, being a 'civilian' is a relative thing in a country occupied by Americans. You're only a civilian if you're on their side. If you translate for them, or serve them food in the Green Zone, or wipe their floors - you're an innocent civilian. Just about everyone else is an insurgent, unless they can get a job as a 'civilian'."
- Riverbend, an Iraqi civilian girl, author of the blog Baghdad Burning

Blues seeing red, Reds feeling blue

My friend Andy from New York tried to post this here. It's the thing that's been going around that begins "I am writing this letter to the people in the red states in the middle of the country".

For geographical balance try this.

Exit poll post mortem...

...if you must.

Calling all conspiracy theorists

Who knows. But if you really wanna get all riled up, here ya go.

This guy had it right on Sunday

If I'd read this I could have started getting depressed SO much earlier. Read it and weep (again).

BTW, that link came from Sam Wang, who makes a good case - if you scroll down to his 11/8/04 comment - that the Christian Taliban really did NOT make much difference. It was "terror, terror, terror."

Canada to the rescue

Now, I'm not one of those who would rather leave the US than endure four more years of this Bu-- sh--, nor would I encourage any other pink-leaning 'merikins to do so. We need your votes in '06 and '08. It's not hopeless yet. Still, it's nice to know there are some friendly neighbors to the north who feel our pain enough to marry an American.

Draft Bush

Here's a thought: if this dude (courtesy the daily kos) who has fulfilled his Nat'l Guard Contract can be called up, what about a certain leader of the free world who did NOT fulfill his military obligation? I suggest we flood the 1600 PA Ave mailbox with creatively-worded recall notices from the Army's Human Resources Command.

Orwell's War

Here's a little 1984 to ponder.

Red State Blues

This is an attempt to write online, interactively, a traditional 12-bar blues song whose first verse culminates in the phrase "you got the red states, I got the blues." Biting satire and hopeful left-leaning sentiment is welcomed. Right-wing gloating is discouraged.