Count Me Out

I just watched Recount, the HBO dramatization of the 2000 election. It was painful to watch it all again, having lived through it at fairly close range. It did prompt me to attempt to read that actual Supreme Court ruling. A few interesting points:

"This case has shown that punch card balloting machines can produce an unfortunate number of ballots which are not punched in a clean, complete way by the voter. After the current counting, it is likely legislative bodies nationwide will examine ways to improve the mechanisms and machinery for voting."

Hanging chad and dimpled chad (as a line in the movie points out, the plural of chad is chad) became jokes but illustrate the fundamental principle behind the recount: the establishment of the "clear intent of the voter."

The court's problem with the recount was that it violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution because the recount was not being conducted in a standard way across counties: "Seven Justices of the Court agree that there are constitutional problems with the recount ordered by the Florida Supreme Court that demand a remedy." The Supremes criticized the Florida SC because ".....a state court with the power to assure uniformity has ordered a statewide recount with minimal procedural safeguards." That's why they had stopped the recount three days earlier.

The court then found that the remedy for this violation of the rights of the citizens of Florida to vote was to do nothing. The clock had run out. Thing is, the Court stopped the clock.

The FL court ruling had mandated a December 12 "safe harbor" deadline,which allows states to appoint electors during a period after the election. As the US SC heard the case on December 11, there was no way for the FL court to fashion a remedy.

SO the Supreme Court decides that the rights of the people of Florida were being violated BUT that there was no remedy because the certification deadline had passed and there was no time for the Florida Court to provide new standards for a fair recount because they had stopped the recount.

Do you have to be a constitutional lawyer to smell the shit wafting off of that ruling?

In the words of John Paul Stevens, in his dissent, "Although we may never know with complete certainty the identity of the winner of this year’s Presidential election, the identity of the loser is perfectly clear. It is the Nation’s confidence in the judge as an impartial guardian of the rule of law."

Many people say, Well, if Gore had won his own state he wouldn't have needed Florida. If the count had continued maybe Bush would have won for real. I think the quote credited to Michael Whouley in the movie sums it up:

"Ralph Nadar should have pulled his head out of his ass, and Elian Gonzales should have never left Miami and Gore should have campaigned with Clinton and Clinton should have been caught getting a $%^&*^$ from Sharon Stone instead of Monica Lewinsky because his approval ratings would have shot through the roof and Katherine Harris should have thought twice about purging 20,000 voters from the voter files and George Bush, Jr. should have never quit drinkin', but, he did."

I won't even deliniate the 'what ifs' if Gore was president instead of Bush. It's too sad to count.

An interesting footnote: According to an analysis of ballots conducted after 2000, and contrary to the headline, Gore clearly won for certain if the Buchanan ballot fiasco hadn't happened. Even Chad would agree to that.

Iron Man in the Alps

How cool would this be? Aside from the military use, of course.

Great Site of the Day

You never know when you'll need this.

Thanks, Jason!

Socially Undesirable Bias

Thanks to Josh Marshall:
In reference to a Washington Post/ABC News poll, WaPo/ABC news poll:

While overall discomfort with an African-American president is much lower (than discomfort over age), it rises among less-educated whites - the same group that's been a challenge for Obama in the Democratic primaries. Among whites who haven't gone through college, 17 percent say they'd be at least somewhat uncomfortable with a black president; that compares with just 4 percent of white college graduates. Clinton may face a similar problem, however; less-educated whites also are more apt to be uncomfortable with a woman president (21 percent, vs. 7 percent of white
college graduates).

Is this why HRC is pressing the case that he can't win in November? See the WaPo article on overtly racist attacks on campaign staff. See WV exit polls: "One in four Clinton voters and about one in 10 Obama voters said race was an important factor in their vote." Per HuffPo

Please, say we've risen above this.

Man, Oh Man

Esquire's list of the 75 things men should know how to do. Find me such a man!
I especially appreciate the inclusion of my favorite poem by he who inspired this blog's name.

I love Esquire btw. Why is there no magazine for women that features interesting, sometime provocative articles as well as really nice clothes and how to wear them? In Style has the latter, some have the former, but none together.

Loving

“When any society says that I cannot marry a certain person, that society has cut off a segment of my freedom.” Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. ,1958

Mildred Loving died yesterday. She and her husband, Richard, were the couple who fought the last vestiges of legal segregation, the miscegenation law in Virginia. In 1967, the Supreme Court finally struck down 16 state laws prohibiting interracial marriage; at one time 38 states had such laws, which decreed that the marriage of two people violated the 'peace and dignity' of their states.

According to news reports, the Lovings shunned publicity and wanted simply to live together as husband and wife and raise their family. She once said, "What we wanted, we wanted to come home."

In its ruling, written by Justice Warren (who also wrote the Brown v. Board of Ed decision) the Court declared: "There is patently no legitimate overriding purpose independent of invidious racial discrimination which justifies this classification." Reread that sentence: "There is patently no legitimate overriding purpose independent of invidious homophobia which justifies this classification."

Mildred spoke publicly once in favor of gay marriage. How could she not? Don't we all just want to come home? May the Lovings rest in peace, once again at home, together.