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POPSDemocrat tied to Obama wins special election in Mississippi More: The special election was held to fill the seat of former Rep. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), who was appointed to serve out the remainder of Sen. Trent Lott’s term last December. Wicker had never faced a competitive race since first elected in 1994, and the district gave President Bush 62 percent of the vote in 2004. The results amount to a rebuke of the Republican strategy of trying nationalize the race by tying Childers to Sen. Barack Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Obama held low approval ratings in the district, but the nearly $2 million that GOP groups poured into northern Mississippi failed to make the race a referendum on the national political landscape. A GOP House leadership aide told Politico last week that “if we don’t win in Mississippi, I think you are going to see a lot of people running around here looking for windows to jump out of.”
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POPSRepublicans See Storm Clouds Gathering More: "It's no mystery," said Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.). "You have a very unhappy electorate, which is no surprise, with oil at $108 a barrel, stocks down a few thousand points, a war in Iraq with no end in sight and a president who is still very, very unpopular. He's just killed the Republican brand." Presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain (Ariz.) helped Oberweis raise money, and the NRCC pumped more than $1.2 million into the district -- using more than 20 percent of its cash on hand -- to no avail. "Even if it was mostly about Jim Oberweis, it's a terrible sign," Rothenberg said. "It adds to Democratic energy and further depresses the Republicans. And you can't dismiss the idea that there is an atmospheric advantage for the Democrats." Barack Obama campaigned on behalf of Bill Foster, who took over Dennis Hastert's vacated seat.
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POPSPelosi's Delegate Stance Boosts Obama More: "But what if one candidate has won the popular vote and the other candidate has won the delegates?" asked Stephanopoulos. "But it's a delegate race," Pelosi replied. "The way the system works is that the delegates choose the nominee."
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POPSPakistani vote-riggng scheme obtained by CNN, CBS More: The dossier also accuses Musharraf's regime of diverting US aid into political dirty tricks, charging that "ninety percent of the equipment that the USA gave the government of Pakistan to fight terrorism ... is being used to monitor and to keep a check on political opponents." Pakistani Senator Latif Khosa told CBS, "The ISI has set up a mega-computer system which has the capacity to hack any of the computers in Pakistan, and it is connected with the Election Commission of Pakistan's computers and therefore they will overturn the results." Khosa also charged that computers are being used to change the voter rolls
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POPSOhio & Colorado: Electronic Voting Unfit for Elections More: California, Ohio and Florida have chosen to use scanning machines that count paper ballots electronically "I was surprised," Colorado Secretary of State Mike Coffman said Friday of the failures his office found. "It's an awful position to be put in, but I feel strongly it's important that this equipment be secure and accurately count a vote."
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POPSDemocratic Voters' Fervor Worries Republicans More: So far, Iowans who have donated $200 or more to the presidential race have given Democrats a total of more than $503,000, compared with $376,000 to Republicans. That's a sharp reversal from 2000 when Iowa residents had given $205,000 in $200-or-more donations to Republican candidates and just $51,000 to Democrats. Behind Republican's uneasiness are voters like Wes Von Schlotterback of Des Moines. Mr. Von Schlotterback served twice in past elections as a county chairman for Republican presidential candidate Steve Forbes. But this time he says he plans to stay home the night of the caucuses for lack of any good choices. He says he sees the same lack of enthusiasm among many of his Republican friends. "For the first time ever I'm thinking of voting for a Democrat -- for Obama," he says. He describes the Illinois senator as "genuine."
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POPSTexan Republican faces stunning defeat: Democrats riding wave in GOP Gerrymandered State.
This election is a sign of the future. In less than 2 years, Texas Democrats have picked up 8 state house seats with rumors circulating that another may be on the way. Before the primaries are over, the gains made by the Republican's have been cut in half while we still compete on the same Republican favored, unconstitutional, Tom DeLay sponsored map. We sit on the edge of a Democratic House because we have won special elections, general elections, and the hearts and minds of voters across the state. Texas Democratic Party Chairman, Boyd Richie stated simply: Dan Barrett won in a district drawn by Republicans to elect a Republican, and his victory is a slap in the face to Speaker Tom Craddick and the failed Republican leadership in this state. Voters have sent a message that they are tired of "business as usual" in Austin and want leaders who will replace the pay-to-play politics of the Republican Party with a state government that works for all Texans."
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POPSRepublicans Dirty Election Trick Delayed But Still Alive Of note is the manner in which they left the state to go ahead an allocate 2 electoral votes to the overall winner. One presumes that Republicans even crafted that in anticipation of a move towards this happening in every state. This kind of voting is closer to popular vote but with each state giving its 2 electoral (senator) votes to the overall winner it favors the republicans. The republicans usually win a majority of states because they are supported in the rinky dink states like North Dakota and Wyoming. Gotta love those Republicans. Want to give Iraq Democracy (laugh snort) but craft skewed elections in the U.S.A. Stinking Jerks.
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POPSUnder Bush, EPA pursuing fewer Polluters. More: Critics of the agency say its flagging efforts have emboldened polluters to flout U.S. environmental laws, threatening progress in cleaning the air, protecting wildlife, eliminating hazardous materials, and countless other endeavors overseen by the EPA. "You don't get cleanup, and you don't get deterrence," The actual number of investigators available at any time is even smaller, agents said, because they sometimes are diverted to other duties, such as service on EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson's eight-person security detail. "Environmental crimes are simply not in the U.S. attorney top 10 priorities," said one senior EPA official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to talk to the news media.
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POPSIraqis disagree with Bush/Petraeus Propaganda Spin More: Meanwhile, the level of satisfaction in other quality-of-life categories -- including the availability of jobs, supply of clean water and freedom of movement -- has decreased since March. The poll reveals a disconnect between U.S. commanders' view of a steadily improving situation in Iraq and a bleaker outlook among Iraqis.
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POPSBush/GOP rig US Voting Report We also raised questions about the way the Justice Department was handling complaints of fraud and intimidation. The commission excised all references to the department that might be construed as critical -- or that Justice officials later took issue with. And all of the suggestions we received from political scientists and other scholars regarding methodologies for a more scientifically rigorous look at these problems were omitted. several Republican officials, including a state official, a former political appointee at the Justice Department and current Federal Election Commission member (Hans Von Spakovsky), and a Capitol Hill staffer complained about our project, particularly about my role in it. Officials at Justice were actively involved in the report throughout the process and even exerted some degree of editorial control over the new report. It is evident from the commission's "document dump" that its Republican general counsel assumed primary control over rewriting the repo
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POPSGOP Sinator gettin down with DC Hookers Randall Tobias, a senior official in the State Department, resigned in April after ABC News confronted him about his use of the escort service. He admitted that he had hired women to come to his Washington condo and give him massages but denied that he had sex with the escorts. Palfrey threatened for months to release her client list, which led prosecutors to accuse her of trying to intimidate potential witnesses. At the time, ABC said it could not link any information provided by Palfrey to members of Congress or White House officials but did find links to prominent business executives, NASA officials and at least five military officers. Prosecutors contend that Palfrey knew the 130 women she employed over 13 years were engaged in prostitution. She claims that she operated a "legal, high-end erotic fantasy service" and that the women signed contracts in which they promised not to have sex with clients. The service charged a flat rate of $275 for 90 minutes, she said.
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POPSUS wants next President to Halve Poverty More than four in five voters also showed a willingness to embrace solutions oriented at combating problems experienced by many impoverished families, including a lack of financial knowledge and the predatory lending institutions that frequently target low-income families. Notably, three in four American voters (76%) also believe that steps to help the poor could also be helpful for middle class families—with providing guaranteed health coverage for every American seen as the step most beneficial to the middle class
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POPSGOP: Luster gone, losses attractiveness Adults, not voters? Perhaps most alarming for Republicans is that for the Gallup interviews conducted during the last quarter of 2006, the Democratic advantage was a whopping 14.2 points: 52.3 percent for Democrats and 38.1 percent for Republicans. In my mind, I can already see many Republicans and conservatives, particularly in the blogging set, rushing to their computer keyboards to point out that the Gallup numbers were among adults and not voters. But I seriously doubt that any credible pollster or psephologist (a student of elections and polling) would argue that the differential between adults and voters, particularly presidential election year voters, would amount to more than 10 points.
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POPSObama Steps Up For Wounded Soldiers "This bipartisan legislation provides federal protections against a family member on invitational orders being fired," said the Illinois Senator. "I think we can all agree that a mother should never have to choose between caring for a wounded son or daughter and keeping her job."
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