Yesterday, Ralph Nader sued the Democratic Party for conspiring to prevent him from running for president in 2004. The lawsuit alleges that defendants used “groundless and abusive litigation” to bankrupt Ralph Nader’s campaign and force him off the ballot in 18 states, and names as co-defendants the Kerry-Edwards campaign, the Service Employees International Union, private law firms, and organizations like the Ballot Project and America Coming Together that were created to promote voter turnout on behalf of the Democratic ticket. According to
attorney Carl Mayer from the team that filed the suit, interviewed this morning by Democracy Now!'s Amy Goodman,
"what this lawsuit will do, and the importance of it is, is to set a precedent so that the two-party monopoly system that shuts out minor parties in a way that other Western democracies never do, that this will set a precedent to prevent this type of intimidation and harassment."
posted by finite
on Oct 31, 2007 -
236 comments
Media outraced by Bloggers, Kerry appeal to netroots galvanizes suprise drive against Alito On
Google News, you'll read how US Democratic Senators Obama and Biden are against a filibuster. Old news. They've agreed to support it. Encouraged by direct appeals by Senators.
Kerry and
Kennedy to internet activists, a blizzard of calls, emails, and
faxes, organized via the
Daily Kos and other blogs - with
tactical direction from Kennedy - have helped flip the positions of several Democratic senators, and as of Saturday some claimed the push was already
within 2 votes of forcing continued Senate debate on the Alito nomination. In fact, the pro-filibuster bloc might have
started with
37 votes Meanwhile, today,
Morning Edition, which declined to run the filibuster push as a top story and failed to mention the internet effort, asked Senator Kennedy on Senator Hillary Clinton's opposition to the filibuster: actually, she joined the effort last Friday [ see main link ] : D'oh !
posted by troutfishing
on Jan 30, 2006 -
236 comments
Operation Barbarella - from the London Review of Books, a review of
Jane Fonda’s War: A Political Biography of an Anti-war Icon by Mary Hershberger.
So, what is the story behind Jane Fonda? You will find few people so reviled among macho warrior types. Back in the Depressingly Christian Private School (DCPS) that I went to, to hear some of the things she had been accused of you'd have thought she was the Whore of Babylon herself.
The truly interesting thing about this article isn't the discussion of the reality of Fonda's anti-war protesting measured against the myth, but as an illustration of the kind of pass-it-along info, whose truth is a matter of almost-scriptural faith, that serves as the conventional wisdom concerning the Left in the ill-educated backwaters that compose so much of our nation. This kind of thing is the political equivilent of the story of the midget who hanged himself on the set of
The Wizard of Oz.
Additional reading: the
Snopes page on Jane Fonda.
Via Linkfilter.
posted by JHarris
on Nov 13, 2005 -
34 comments
The family trees of American politicians - There are those with
very long blue blood pedigrees, and there are those with
very short and unknown pedigrees. There are also some surprises, like a
certain Democratic senator and possible '08 Veep pick being somewhat closely related to the current
Veep, or that
certain ex-mayors have family trees that were apparently a bit inbred back in the old country. Other fun tidbits:
Newt Gingrich's father was illegitimate,
John Kerry is related to the rabbi who created the Golem of Prague,
Pat Buchanan is related to both FDR and Marilyn Manson, Wesley Clark's father was a
Kohan,
Martin Luther King was born Michael Louis King, and
Gary Hart was born Gary Hartpence, which was in turn derived from an ancestor named James Eberhart Pence. (more non-politicians
here)
posted by Asparagirl
on Oct 3, 2005 -
18 comments
The Rumors On the Internets Are True! "Our goal is to present you with these clips to help you make an informed choice next Tuesday." Your one-stop-shop for documentary clips related to Kerry and Bush, presented by the Internets Vets for Truth.
posted by mathowie
on Oct 28, 2004 -
13 comments
Endorsement: Kerry for President Ok. The NY Times endorsed Kerry. And now the Washington Post. But now the Orlando-Sentinel, a paper that has not endorsed a Demcorat in the past 40 years!
"Four years ago, the Orlando Sentinel endorsed Republican George W. Bush for president based on our trust in him to unite America. We expected him to forge bipartisan solutions to problems while keeping this nation secure and fiscally sound.
This president has utterly failed to fulfill our expectations. We turn now to his Democratic challenger, Sen. John Kerry, with the belief that he is more likely to meet the hopes we once held for Mr. Bush.
Our choice was not dictated by partisanship. Already this election season, the Sentinel has endorsed Republican Mel Martinez for the U.S. Senate and four U.S. House Republicans. In 2002, we backed Republican Gov. Jeb Bush for re-election, repeating our endorsement of four years earlier. Indeed, it has been 40 years since the Sentinel endorsed a Democrat -- Lyndon Johnson -- for president...."
posted by Postroad
on Oct 24, 2004 -
35 comments
Two weeks from today, John Kerry will win the popular vote by "23% or more" over George W. Bush, according to
5 Star Psychic Advice. See if you can do better than the spirit world by predicting the electoral and popular vote totals in the
second quadrennial MetaFilter Presidential Contest ...
posted by rcade
on Oct 19, 2004 -
127 comments
Why this election is so disappointing... Opposite today's New York Times' 30-column-inch endorsement of John Kerry, Thomas Friedman makes a good case that several of the most important issues are not being talked about by either candidate in any serious way.
posted by MattD
on Oct 17, 2004 -
27 comments
Coward-in-Chief. George Bush has announced that he will give a major national speech on Wednesday, in which he will respond to John Kerry's criticisms of the president. This appears to be the first time any president has tried to hold a major televised speech during the election season for such a purpose. During his term in office, Mr. Bush has given
the fewest press conferences of any president in the televised era. John Kerry had previously offered Bush
weekly debates... and George Bush refused. Is it fair to say that he'd rather use his power of office to dictate to us instead?
posted by insomnia_lj
on Oct 5, 2004 -
183 comments
An excellent
WashPost primer on the lies each candidate is currently telling about the other, and how they hold up to reality. Also, enjoy the many euphemisms employed to avoid the "L" word: (Misleading. Inaccurate. Oversimplified. Exaggerated. Carefully selected. Unfair. etc etc) Who will be the first mainstream media outlet to state plainly that a politician has told a lie?
Login: shutyomouf@hotmail.com - pw:shaftbaby)
posted by luser
on Sep 30, 2004 -
6 comments
Kerry Haters For Kerry Are you going to vote for John Kerry even though you find him unpleasant, annoying, arrogant, waffling, misguided or just generally unappealing in some profound way? Then you've come to the right place! We're Kerry Haters for Kerry -- perhaps his largest constituency! No need to hide in the Kerry-hating closet anymore while you pretend to everyone that he'll be a great president. Here you are among friends. You can speak freely and honestly. You can admit: 'He's awful! And I'm for him!'
via Wonkette
posted by psmealey
on Sep 30, 2004 -
67 comments
According to
multiple recent nationwide polls, the
presidential race is a dead heat, with the spread
within the margin of error. Some have Bush by a
couple points, some say Kerry by a couple. But take a look at the way the race is represented by
www.electoral-vote.com, which tracks polls state-by-state and
takes electoral votes into account. Suddenly, the tally is Kerry 332, Bush 195.
posted by msacheson
on Jul 23, 2004 -
130 comments
Clinton’s Former Aide Drops Windfall in the Lap of Bush Campaign "...Presidential challenger Kerry will have to think twice before attacking Bush on national security issues lest he lay himself open to reminders that a former Clinton aide and his own adviser was caught red-handed misappropriating classified materials that revealed how a Democratic president mishandled the threat of terror...."
posted by Postroad
on Jul 20, 2004 -
46 comments
Yet another political flash cartoon! Anyone else getting tired of hearing the same bland crap about the upcoming election?
This flash cartoon somehow manages to be funny anyway, even though its subject has been done to death. It's brilliant, and definitely worth a look.
posted by Veritron
on Jul 12, 2004 -
27 comments
The intern accused of having an affair with Kerry does some investigative reporting of her own.
And so my education had taken me pretty much as far as it could. I started out as an ambitious young woman inspired by politics and the media. I’ve ended up disenchanted with both. If I had been an ambitious young man, this story would not have happened. I’m never going to know exactly what happened, but that matters less to me now. I lost a good friend and learned a few lessons. I am struck by the pitiful state of political reporting, which is dominated by the unholy alliance of opposition research and its latest tool, the Internet. Even the Wall Street Journal’s Website ran Drudge’s story, with only a brief disclaimer that his stories weren’t always accurate.
It was important for me to set the record straight. I don’t mean to dredge up old news by writing this, and I’m not trying to create any now, though I’m not unaware of the irony that I am adding to the ink spilled on this story. I don’t intend to discuss it again in public either. But for me, this painful experience will be hard to forget. It may be only a minor footnote to the campaign, but it has changed my life completely.
posted by psmealey
on Jun 2, 2004 -
36 comments
Howard Dean is closing in on the lead in New Hampshire, with 16% to Kerry's 17%.
Dean is appealing to voters by being
outspoken in an environment in which many of his fellow democrats are submissive to Bush's approval rating, and due to anticipation of his
universal health care plan, which he is soon to unveil. Already established as the most net-savvy candidate, Dean has hundreds of real-life
meetups planned for
today.
posted by Ignatius J. Reilly
on Jun 4, 2003 -
38 comments
Democrats finally speaking out? "Today the Republican majority leader in the House of Representatives announced that -- and I quote -- 'Nothing is more important in the face of war than cutting taxes.' Let me make this clear: Never in its history has the United States passed a big tax cut in a time of war. We have always believed in shared sacrifice. " Sen. John Kerry's speech at the Jefferson Jackson Dinner April 3 in Georgia.
(Salon article, click the free day pass to view)
posted by Espoo2
on Apr 6, 2003 -
29 comments
