November 7th, 2006
I am just going to keep updating this post, new info on top.
McCaskill and Tester are in the lead, McCaskill probably for good, based on where the votes are going to come from, and Webb has declared victory with reason. 51 is in range. Incredible. And the abominable South Dakota abortion ban has been soundly defeated.
Webb has taken the lead. We will not know who wins VA for a while, as I guarantee that there will be a recount request form whichever campaign comes out on the losing end.
Dems win the House. Many of the new Chairs are strong liberals and not afraid to challenge the Republicans.
If I am reading this right, the Dems have won in most of the reach seats — all three in IN, Ct-5, and Ky-3, losing two in FL. Good sign?
You know, if Armey was spinning any faster he would be a top.
I really thought that Chaffee would pull that off. He is likable, well liked, moderate and I just thought that he would be supported by the independent RI voters.
Ahh, Count Chocola just lost IN-2. Yeah, its nice getting the seat, but, man, Congress will be a colder place without a Congressperson named after a cereal.
Some good signs early: IN-08, a very moderate district has been called for the Dem challenger, and it looks like the Dem has the lead in Ky-03, a Republican held district that went pretty big for Bush in 2004. Those are districts that we didn;t expect to win if things weren’t going to go well for the Democrats.
CBS is calling OH-SEN for Sherrod Brown. That is one down.
CNN calls OH-Gov for Strickland. This means that Blackwell, who did so much to supress voter turnout in 2004 in Ohio, is gone. Definitely one for the good guys.
Categories: General, Politics |
1 Comment
November 7th, 2006
In addition to the House and Senate, there are several ballot initiatives that could shed some light on the direction that the culture is moving. There are minimum wage increases in severla states, as well as the embryonic stem cell question in Missouri and the abortion ban in South Dakota. There are a handful of anti-gay marriage amendments as well.
If the stem cell research question does well then I would take that as a good sign that such research is both mainstream and a good wedge for the Democrats. If the South Dakota abortion ban goes down, then it is a re-affirmation of the notion that while Americans are uncomfortable with abortion, they are not pro-life. If the gay marriage bills win by less than they did last cycle, that is both a sign that their salience has been reduced and that the culture is moving into a more tolerant direction. If one of them loses, then multiply that last sentence by like a thousand.
Categories: General, Politics |
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November 7th, 2006
Feel free to discuss results openly in comments. Please keep it civil.
Categories: Politics |
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November 7th, 2006
I’ve been picking on David Opderbeck a lot lately, and we disagree on a lot. But today I want to focus on an area where we agree. Yesterday, David wrote this:
Yesterday I received a “Voter’s Guide” from the New Jersey Family Policy Council. This “Guide” is supposed to inform voters about “public policies and cultural trends that impact the family.” I found it simplistic and deeply troubling.
The most troubling aspect of this “Guide” is that it contains zero information about the candidates’ positions on race, poverty, health care, the environment, international justice (e.g., human trafficking), or the Iraq war. Zero. Given that the Bible speaks more about justice for the poor and oppressed than any other topic concerning government, this is disgusting.
At the same time, the “Guide” contains many questions concerning policy positions about which reasonably informed Christians can disagree.
…snip…
One of the more troubling questions, in my view, is this one:
Would you confirm judges to our courts who: A. Seek to expand the law to include new concepts by redefining its terms, or B. Seek to interpret law based on the original intent of the writers of the law?
This presents such a simplistic picture of what courts do that it is fundamentally misleading. Personally, I’m a judicial conservative, meaning that I believe courts should decide only the “cases and controversies” before them, and should give primary attention to the statutory language and intent when applying a statute. Often judges go off the rails here and ignore applicable statutes. There are many examples, Roe v. Wade being Exhibit A, in which courts have made policy that should be made by legislatures. That’s bad.
But the idea that judges can easily discern and apply the “original intent” of a statute in every circumstance is ludicrous, as anyone who’s ever actually litigated a statutory case in a courtroom (as I have, many times) knows. Statutes usually are messy compromises, and often are so badly written that no one has any idea what the legislature really meant — if it’s even philosophically possible to find a unified “intent” among a diverse and divided body of individuals. If courts could do nothing but apply the literal words of a statute in light of clearly understood original intent, the justice system would grind to a halt, because very often that’s simply impossible.
Moreover judges have a legitimate, ancient and necessary role in developing the common law when, as is often the case, there are gaps or ambiguities in the statutory law. To me, as someone who practiced litigation in the trenches for thirteen years, who earned two law degrees and who has taught intensely statutory courses such as patent law, a polarized survey question like this reflects either ignorance of the judicial process or something more insidious.
As they say, read the whole thing.
Categories: Church & State, Politics, Religion |
1 Comment
November 7th, 2006
Guess which party this guy voted for!
Below is a hint.
Sorry, Jeff, I couldn’t resist!
Categories: Humor, Politics |
7 Comments
November 7th, 2006
This is quite a thought-provoking look at how an unwanted pregnancy is being portrayed in a syndicated comic strip. Especially this, from his update:
But Eliot makes an important statement above: “Women understand the mixed reaction to pregnancy. . . . [L]ots of our children were unplanned. It’s not always something we’d reverse.” One of the more frustrating mental gaps endemic among anti-choicers is their inability to understand that women can have mixed feelings about abortion without making it a bad choice - that one can regret the necessity of a choice one very much endorses, or indeed even wish things could be otherwise without undercutting the validity of the decision made in the circumstances at hand. It’s important then to realize the same can be true in the case of a decision made to bring an unplanned pregnancy to term. The fact that this character didn’t want to be pregnant, or is, even, overwhelmed by the enormity of the changes it comprehends, doesn’t mean she can’t choose to follow through with it. It is characteristic of anti-choicers to insist that only one choice, in the face of an unwanted pregnancy, can be right; the pro-choice position requires recognizing that imperfect outcomes can still be valid, no matter which direction the woman in question decides to go.
Categories: Health |
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November 7th, 2006
Go vote. If you don’t vote, you officially relinquish your right to bitch about anything in national politics for the next two years.
If you’re a Tennessee Democrat, hold your nose and vote for Ford.
If you’re a Tennessee Conservative, isn’t it time you were represented by a real conservative? Isn’t it time you voted for Bo Heyward? Literally ones of reluctanct conservatives can’t be wrong! 
Now if you don’t mind, I’m going to get back to doing my best to pay no attention whatsoever to the news until tomorrow. (Or, at least, until tonight’s Daily Show).
P.S. Don’t forget to watch Frontline tonight, as I mentioned before.
Categories: Politics |
4 Comments
November 7th, 2006
From TAPPED:
Our own Alec Oveis, who sadly left the Prospect few months ago, calls in from Connecticut, where he’s volunteering on behalf of Chris Murphy (one of Tom’s “Dropkick Murphys” positioned to defeat GOP incumbents this year). He reports that voter fury over robocalls is amazing and palpable at the polling site he’s near. Several people have gone out of their way to tell him and other Murphy people that they’re voting for Republican incumbent Nancy Johnson strictly out of anger at the harassing phone calls they’ve been receiving from the Murphy campaign. Alec and other’s explanations that those calls are actually paid for by Republicans have generally been falling on deaf ears (they are, after all, holding Murphy signs while offering these explanations).
If the GOP holds that seat, I don’t think it will be an exageration to say that the GOP’s perversion of democracy — convincing voters that Murphy was harrasing them — had a large role.
Categories: Politics |
8 Comments
November 7th, 2006
Things are so bad that the phone system for Franklin County crashed under the strain of voting compliants:
Franklin County’s phone system was returned to service about 90 minutes after it collapsed today under a crush of calls from voters and poll workers.
The volume of calls “overwhelmed the system,” Franklin County Elections Director Matthew Damschroder said.
Phones returned to normal about 9:30 a.m. The system also went down during the May 2 primary, delaying final returns until 2 a.m.
Damschroder said the system could not handle the quantity of calls from voters needing help to figure out where to vote and from poll workers needing help figuring out how to set up new electronic machines.
Polls opened at 6:30 today with relatively short lines but glitches at several polling places.
Looking at this map, Ohio is awash in voting problems.
Our electoral system is broken. It is long past time for a serious, national push to fix the problems. We need:
- Standardized machines — ones that have paper ballots that the voter can check and that are saved for recounts
- An end to allowing people who run the elections to also run campaigns.
- More polling places and more poll workers
- A national holiday on election day
And that is just to start. We have a joke of an election system and it is literally eating our democracy.
Categories: Politics |
3 Comments
November 7th, 2006
Election Protection’s 1-866-OUR-VOTE has live operators who can address some problems over the phone and dispatch lawyers on the ground, if necessary.
Common Cause’s 1-866-MYVOTE-1 can help people find their polling place.
You can find your polling place here
Go vote.
Categories: Politics |
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