Politics

The most recent issue of The Economist, which arrived last weekend, correctly called the outcome of the U.S. elections and the reasons (corruption, incompetence, Iraq). In the special report on the U.S. mid-term elections appears this box of data taken from Stephen Slivinski’s book Buck Wild: How Republicans Broke the Bank and Became the Party of Big Government, which shows the benefit of having control of the executive and legislative branches of the government in the hands of different parties: Divide and save Annual growth in federal spending per head under recent administrations Unified government* Growth, % Lyndon Johnson 4.6 George Bush junior 3.1** Jimmy Carter 2.9 Divided government Growth, % Richard Nixon/Gerald Ford 1.9 Ronald Reagan 1.7 George Bush senior 0.6 Bill Clinton 0.3 * President’s party controlled House and Senate during most of term. ** First five years. I’m looking forward to some gridlock. ...

You can watch it at Google Video. Everyone should be aware of the issues raised in this documentary.

An unexpected bonus for today. Schtacky (2006-12-09): And in another nice bonus, SD has rejected its abortion ban: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15613198/ William Zeranski (2006-12-09): Rumsfeld stepped down? There must be a right-wing conspiracy some where! Better now than BEFORE the election--the move would’ve helped the Republicans! Lippard (2006-12-09): Rumsfeld should have been fired years ago, and that would have helped the Republicans, the United States, and the situation in Iraq. ...

Of CREW’s list of the twenty most corrupt politicians in Congress, seven or eight will no longer be in office next term. While it is extremely disappointing that so many sleazy politicians get re-elected, it is at least gratifying that the re-election rate for incumbents on this list is significantly lower than average. Sen. Conrad Burns’ (R-MT) race against Jon Tester is still too close to call, but Tester has a slight lead. Sen. Bill Frist (R-TN) has retired, and will be replaced by Bob Corker (R). Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) was voted out, and will be replaced by Bob Casey, Jr. (D). Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO) was re-elected. Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA) was re-elected. Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA) was re-elected. Rep. Tom Feeney (R-FL) was re-elected. Rep. Katharine Harris (R-FL) failed in her attempt to win a position in the Senate, defeated by Bill Nelson (D). Rep. William Jefferson (D-LA) was re-elected. Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA) was re-elected. Rep. Gary Miller (R-CA) was re-elected (and unopposed in the general election). Rep. Alan Mollohan (D-WV) was re-elected. Rep. Marilyn Musgrave (R-CO) was re-elected. Rep. Richard Pombo (R-CA) was voted out, and will be replaced by Jerry McNerny (D). Rep. Rick Renzi (R-AZ) was re-elected. Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) was re-elected. Rep. John Sweeney (R-NY) was voted out, and will be replaced by Kirsten Gillibrand (D). Rep. Charles Taylor (R-NC) was voted out, and will be replaced by Joseph Shuler (D). Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) was re-elected. Rep. Curt Weldon (R-PA) was voted out, and will be replaced by Joe Sestak (D). CREW’s dishonorable mentions also saw two removals from a list of five: Rep. Chris Cannon (R-UT) was re-elected. Rep. Dennis Hastert (R-IL) was re-elected. Rep. J.D. Hayworth (R-AZ) was voted out, and will be replaced by Harry Mitchell (D). Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) was re-elected. Rep. Don Sherwood (R-PA) was voted out, and will be replaced by Carney (D).

The good news: Arizona did not elect aspiring theocrat Len Munsil (who was soundly defeated by incumbent Governor Janet Napolitano), got rid of corrupt Congressman J.D. Hayworth (replacing him with former Tempe Mayor Harry Mitchell), narrowly voted down an amendment to the state Constitution to ban gay marriage and anything “similar to” it, and voted in favor of greater protections against eminent domain abuse. The bad news: Arizona re-elected Sen. Jon Kyl and Rep. Rick Renzi, approved the creation of a new bureaucracy to continually raise the minimum wage (the main effect of which is to reduce teen employment; it has negligible positive effects for low wage earners, versus something that would genuinely be effective like reducing payroll taxes), passed the worse of the two anti-smoking measures, banned probation for methamphetamine abuse offenses, and passed all of the anti-illegal immigration measures (declaring English the official language, prohibiting illegal immigrants from posting bail or being awarded certain kinds of damages in court, and limiting educational services to illegal immigrants). Teenager Jarrett Maupin (Al Sharpton, Jr.) was elected to the Phoenix Union High School District Board in Ward 2. Maupin, who was a member of the Republican club at Brophy College Prep before switching schools to St. Mary’s and becoming a Democrat and protege of Sharpton, charged that Brophy students demonstrated their racism by referring to “blackboards.” ...

In New Mexico, the state Republican Party has been calling registered Democrats and telling them that their polling places have changed, giving them incorrect information. The NM Republican Party head says it was just one instance, but the Democratic Party has identified at least five, and is seeking an injunction. UPDATE: This has now been reported to have occurred in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and New York in addition to New Mexico.

In 1999, a set of secret U.S. war games conducted as part of a simulation called Desert Crossing showed that more than 400,000 troops would be needed for an invasion and post-war administration of Iraq to prevent it from falling into chaos. That number is three times the number of U.S. troops in Iraq. Yet Donald Rumsfeld refused to even listen to any of his subordinates who thought a plan was needed for post-invasion Iraq. ...

Military recruiters lying to recruits is not a new problem, but this is pretty extreme. ABC News sent students with hidden cameras to 10 Army recruiting offices in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut. The students were told that no one is going over to Iraq any more, that the soldiers are being brought back. One recruiter told students that if they didn’t like the Army, they could just quit. Historical Comments oop_master (2011-06-02): Yeah, you can quit if you authentically worry your superiors that you may commit suicide, or kiss a same gendered sergeant on the lips. Sometimes you go to jail instead, but not always. ...

The Republicans have been hitting voters over the last week or so with repeated pre-recorded political calls beginning with the phrase, “Hi, I’m calling with information about ,” which have fooled many recipients into thinking that they are being harassed by the campaign of that Democratic candidate. Some recipients have received dozens of repeated calls or more. These campaigns are paid for by the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) and have occurred in at least Illinois, New York, and New Hampshire. They’ve been partially stopped in New Hampshire after intervention by the state Attorney General–but only by discontinuing calls to voters on the national Do Not Call list. One of the New York calls can be heard here (WAV file). UPDATE: Here’s a list of the twenty districts where these calls are occurring and which Democrats they are attacking. They’re in California, Illinois, Florida, New York, Virginia, Kentucky, Georgia, Iowa, North Carolina, Connecticut, Kansas, New Hampshire, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. UPDATE: The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has sent the National Republican Congressional Committee a cease and desist letter. UPDATE (November 7, 2006): The New York Times and the Washington Post have covered the story. Michigan Representatives Conyers and Dingell have asked Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to investigate the issue.

SAIC was commissioned to perform a study on security issues in Diebold voting machines by the State of Maryland. One of the conditions Diebold set on the report in return for allowing access to their machines for the study was the right to redact whatever they wanted from the public version of the report. The public version of the report (PDF) was 38 pages. The unredacted version was 152 pages plus 41 pages of appendices. The private version of the report has now been leaked, and Rebecca Abrahams writes about the differences.