Posts by Lindsay Beyerstein

Lindsay Beyerstein a New York writer blogging at Majikthise.

In Alaska, Stevens-Begich Race is Far From Over
Posted by Lindsay Beyerstein, Majikthise on November 9, 2008 at 8:38 AM.

Nate Silver on the phantom ballots of Alaska:

Stevens currently holds a lead of 3,353 votes, or about 1.5 percent of the votes tallied so far. But, there are quite a large number of ballots yet to count. According to Roll Call, these include "at least 40,000 absentee ballot[s], 9,000 early voting ballots, and an undetermined number of questionable ballots". Indeed, it seems possible that the number of "questionable" ballots could be quite high. So far, about 220,000 votes have been processed in Alaska. This compares with 313,000 votes cast in 2004. After adding back in the roughly 50,000 absentee and early ballots that Roll Call accounts for, that would get us to 270,000 ballots, or about a 14 percent drop from 2004. It seems unlikely that turnout would drop by 14 percent in Alaska given the presence of both a high-profile senate race and Sarah Palin at the top of the ticket.

But even if Begich were to make up ground and win a narrow victory, this would seem to represent a catastrophic failure of polling, as three polls conducted following the guilty verdict in Stevens' corruption trial had Begich leading by margins of 7, 8 and 22 points, respectively.

I agree with Scott Horton, the more likely explanation is that someone has simply "lost track" of a good chunk of the Alaska vote.

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

Mercenary Firm Offers to 'Detain Troublemakers' on Election Day
Posted by Lindsay Beyerstein, Firedoglake on November 3, 2008 at 2:14 PM.

A mercenary firm in Oregon offered to provide "security" on election day in case voters "get out of control," Danger Room reports:

CIA-linked private military contractor Evergreen Defense & Security Services offered to post sentries at Oregon election offices on Tuesday, "detaining troublemakers" and making sure voters "do not get out of control."

In an e-mail to local election supervisors, obtained by the McMinnville, Oregon News Register, Evergreen president Tom Wiggins said he "recognized the potential conflict" that could occur on November 4th. "Never has there been a more heated battle in the race for president."

The company, he said, 'proposes to post sentries at each voting center on November 4th to assure that disputes amongst citizens do not get out of control. All guards will be unarmed, but capable of stopping any violence that may occur and detaining troublemakers until law enforcement arrives.'

Note that Oregon votes by mail.  

SourceWatch has more on Evergreen's longstanding ties to the CIA.

Palin Supporter Pulls Gun at Rally
Posted by Lindsay Beyerstein, Firedoglake on October 23, 2008 at 1:49 PM.

A Sarah Palin supporter pulled a loaded handgun while leaving a campaign rally in Colorado on Monday! The armed Palin supporter reported waved the gun at another driver after the two got into a dispute while attempting to leave the event:

Heated words between drivers leaving Sarah Palin's rally Monday allegedly escalated with one man brandishing a loaded handgun.

Jack B. Cheskaty, 62, of Grand Junction, said he pulled a handgun because "he wanted to be ready for anything" in what started as a verbal spat between drivers in bumper-to-bumper traffic leaving Lincoln Park around 8 p.m. Monday, according to an arrest affidavit.

Cheskaty and three family members were riding in a Chrysler, moving slowly in a line a traffic. A man behind the wheel of a Kia SUV attempted to inch in front of Cheskaty's Chrysler, the affidavit said. [Glenwood Springs Post-Independent]

 HT: ColoradoPols.

Brave New Films Exposes the Truth About ACORN
Posted by Lindsay Beyerstein, Firedoglake on October 21, 2008 at 7:28 AM.

Brave New Films released a new short film yesterday debunking the McCain campaign's smears against ACORN. The film argues that spurious charges against the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now are part of a larger Republican strategy to depress the turnount of low income, minority, and young voters in battleground states. If the propaganda onslaught succeeds, the Republicans could steal the election. If it fails, the GOP has laid the groundwork to contest the legitimacy of an Obama victory. 

Watch the clip and pass it on.  Do your part to defuse these poisonous allegations before they hurt more people. 

Presidential Debates are an Insult to Our Collective Intelligence
Posted by Lindsay Beyerstein, Firedoglake on October 8, 2008 at 1:52 PM.

Presidential debates aren't really debates. These faux debates are bad for democracy. Debates should inform voters about the issues and challenge the candidates to move beyond their talking points and think on their feet. Under the current rules, these events have degenerated into non sequitur public speaking contests.

According to the Commission on Presidential Debates, the non-profit that sponsors these events, "the public deserves to hear and see the candidates offer and defend their positions on the critical issues facing our country in the most thoughtful and in-depth manner that television time constraints will allow. Loosening the constraints within the ninety minutes debate will allow for more serious examination of complicated questions."

Epic fail.

After three debates and the pattern is clear. Loosening the constraints just made the problem worse than last season. The candidates don't argue about anything; they take turns rattling off talking points. They don't have to engage with each other, or even answer the questions. Since Sarah Palin blew off Gwen Ifill last week, the candidates know that they don't have to respect to the moderator, either. Last night we saw McCain insulting Tom Brokaw. Both candidates felt entitled to ignore the time limits. As Brokaw put it, "I'm just the hired help."

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

DNC Police T-Shirt:'We Get Up Early to Beat the Crowds'
Posted by Lindsay Beyerstein, Firedoglake on October 2, 2008 at 11:24 AM.

The Denver police union is selling t-shirts DNC commemorative t-shirts emblazoned with the slogan "We Get Up Early to Beat the Crowds:" 

DENVER -- The Denver police union is selling T-shirts that poke fun at protesters at last month's Democratic National Convention, but the main target isn't laughing. The back of the shirts reads, "We get up early to beat the crowds" and "2008 DNC," and has a caricature of a police officer holding a baton. The front has the number 68 with a slash through it, a reference to the Recreate 68 Coalition, which organized several demonstrations during the convention.

I hope this design is introduced as evidence in every police brutality lawsuit launched against the Denver Police Department from now on.

Makes me extra sad to see a union joking about beating people up. 

Kurtz: Journalists Privately Admit to Censoring Palin Coverage
Posted by Lindsay Beyerstein, Firedoglake on September 29, 2008 at 4:04 PM.

WaPo media critic Howie Kurtz says some journalists admit they're self-censoring their coverage of Republican vice presidential nominee's flailing incompetence, lest they be perceived as "piling on":

While some journalists say privately they are censoring their comments about Palin to avoid looking like they're piling on, pundits on the right are jumping ship. MSNBC's Joe Scarborough says Palin "just seems out of her league." National Review Editor Rich Lowry called her performance "dreadful." Dallas Morning News columnist Rod Dreher described the interview as a "train wreck." Conservative columnist Kathleen Parker urged Palin to quit the race, saying: "If BS were currency, Palin could bail out Wall Street herself."

The interview is drawing extraordinary attention because of the McCain campaign's calculated decision to shield Palin from reporters. No vice-presidential nominee in modern history has been this inaccessible to the media, reinforcing the perception that she can't hit major-league pitching. When the networks balked at recording Palin's photo ops with foreign leaders at the U.N. last week unless journalists were allowed in -- and a CNN producer was granted access for all of 29 seconds -- the no-press dictum degenerated into farce. [WaPo]

So much for the myth of the ravening liberal media elite bent of the destruction of plucky Sarah Palin.

Happily, your faithful correspondent has no compunctions about covering Sarah Palin's faults and foibles. Check out my new piece in AlterNet on the Wasilla rape kit saga.

FBI Raids Home of Alleged Palin Email Hacker
Posted by Lindsay Beyerstein, Firedoglake on September 22, 2008 at 12:23 PM.

The Wired blog Threat Level is reporting that a student from the University of Tennessee may have claimed to have hacked Sarah Palin's email account by resetting her password using publicly available information to answer the security questions.

The student allegedly posted a first person account of his exploits on a message board. Threat Level declined to publish the individual's real name because the link between the guy and the post is still "tenuous" and the authorities haven't named any suspects. 

Update 2:09pm: Fox is reporting that the FBI served a warrant on the home of David Parnell a UT student and the son of a Democratic state representative. 

Karl Rove Tells the Truth: Palin 'Not the Most Qualified'
Posted by Lindsay Beyerstein, Firedoglake on September 18, 2008 at 10:52 AM.

In a rare candid moment, Karl Rove admitted that Sarah Palin "is not the most qualified candidate" and that she was a "political pick." However, he added that he had no qualms about her ability to lead.

Speaking with the Associated Press after appearing at a health care conference in Orlando, Florida, the Republican puppeteer predicted, ""Nothing lasts for 60-some-odd days," Rove told The Associated Press. "Will she be the center of attention in the remaining 48 days? No, but she came on in a very powerful way and has given a sense of urgency to the McCain campaign that's pretty remarkable."

Maybe he'll disappear with Carly.

Palin Blanks on Bush Doctrine, Sexism to Blame
Posted by Lindsay Beyerstein, Firedoglake on September 12, 2008 at 9:24 AM.

Okay, enough is enough. John McCain's team has got to stop messing with Sarah Palin. I mean, this is getting sexist. They totally set up America's ruby lipped hockey mom by not telling her what the Bush Doctrine was before her 9/11 interview with Charlie Gibson!

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

McCain's Mean Streak: He Only Pushed One Woman in a Wheelchair
Posted by Lindsay Beyerstein, Firedoglake on September 9, 2008 at 4:17 AM.

On Sunday, McClatchy chronicled some of John McCain's most notorious temper tantrums:

There's a lengthy list of similar outbursts through the years: McCain pushing a woman in a wheelchair, trying to get an Arizona Republican aide fired from three different jobs, berating a young GOP activist on the night of his own 1986 Senate election and many more.

McCain observers say the incidents have been blown out of proportion.

Yeah, a senator pushes just one woman in a wheelchair and suddenly it's a big deal.

Tom Harkin has the best line in the McClatchy story:

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

Continuous Police State: Hundreds of Demonstrators Detained at RNC
Posted by Lindsay Beyerstein, Firedoglake on September 5, 2008 at 6:46 AM.

Police detained hundreds demonstrators on the final night of the Republican National Convention in St. Paul. Approximately 250 people were arrested shortly before John McCain took to the stage to accept the presidential nomination. That's in addition to the 422 people who had already been arrested earlier in the week.

Riot police held approximate 300 people, including journalists and observers for nearly an hour on an overpass spanning Interstate 94. Police instructed the crowd to get on the bridge, then announced that everyone on the bridge was under arrest. 

The Joint Information Center offered conflicting accounts about the status of the assembly permits for last night's gatherings. When I called at 4pm, a spokesman told me that the organizers of the March were slated to march from the capitol, through downtown, around the xCel Center and back to the capitol and that the protest was set to go until 7pm. 

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

Media Silent, But Activist Groups Loud About RNC Police Brutality
Posted by Lindsay Beyerstein, Firedoglake on September 3, 2008 at 3:35 PM.

A slideshow by Lindsay Beyerstein of security forces tear-gassing a peaceful Poor Peoples March during the Republican National Convention, Sept. 2, 2008. Set to music by Junior Murvin.

Several activist groups held an outdoor press conference in St. Paul this morning to decry police brutality against peaceful protesters. Last night, police filed tear gas into a peaceful crowd on 7th Street when the group did not immediately scatter upon the order to disperse -- rapid egress was hampered by the fact that the the police had encircled groups of people and locked down intersections at both ends of the block.

The demonstrators were part of the Poor People's March. The March is not affiliated with the anarchist groups whose members destroyed property during a demonstration on Monday. When some anarchist protesters joined the procession, organizers asked them to leave or move to the back. They were concerned that the anarchists might cause trouble or attract unwanted police attention.

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

Riot Cops Gas Docile Crowd Outside the RNC
Posted by Lindsay Beyerstein, Firedoglake on September 3, 2008 at 9:31 AM.

Police officers used tear gas on a peaceful crowd that was following instructions in St. Paul on Tuesday evening. In an overwhelming show of force, well over a hundred riot police locked down 7th Street between Wabasha and St. Peter, surrounded protesters in the Poor People's March, media, and bystanders and then proceeded to launch several cannisters of tear gas after the crowd was hemmed in.

The police were clearly in a nasty mood. Shortly before the tear gas started flowing an officer on horseback made his horse lunge at me to force me off a concrete median. The traffic island was public property and nobody said anything to indicate it was off limits. If he'd asked me to move, I would have done so immediately. Luckily, since the intersection was locked down, there weren't any cars coming.

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »

Hundreds Arrested at RNC Protests
Posted by Lindsay Beyerstein, Firedoglake on September 2, 2008 at 1:40 PM.

As of 10:30 pm last night, 284 protesters had been arrested and booked at the Ramsey County Jail in Saint Paul, MN. The most common charges included obstruction, unlawful assembly, conspiracy to riot, and rioting.

The bulk of the arrests took place late yesterday afternoon. The mass arrests started around 3:00pm when officers dragnetted protesters on Shepherd Road in a park near the river. The officers encircled the protesters and detained them for over an hour. About 50 people were let go, according to Gena Berglund of the National Lawyers Guild, which dispatched between 80 and 90 trained legal observers to monitor and videotape yesterday's protests.

Some of the protesters arrested during yesterday's demonstration in St. Paul began to make their way through the court system today. The first hearings began at 8:00am at the Ramsey County Court. Another round of hearings will begin at 1:00pm.

Read the rest of the post on the flip side »