Bizzaro Land

Dimensions have shifted. A rift has opened in the fabric of the time-space continuum. Worlds are colliding and universes are inverting. No, I have not suddenly developed an abiding interest in quantum mechanics. I am a blue state professional living in a post-11/2 world. And that world is one in which almost nothing, politically speaking, makes sense. I almost expect Ralph Reed to start working for Planned Parenthood and Clinton to join a Fransiscan order.

Since Ronald Reagan , the Republican Cabal has wisely induced working and middle class voters to vote against their economic interests through the incentive of so-called moral values. Though the choice is not necessarily advisable from a financial perspective, I suppose one can understand why some vote with their hearts and not their wallets (even if their hearts are wrong and their wallets can scarcely afford the mistake). And for the wealthier classes, trending Republican made even more sense (even if in the long-run they're financially better off with a high-functioning economy, no matter what their tax burden, and besides, no amount of money can buy civil liberties). The marriage is not made in heaven, no matter what Bob Jones might have you believe - moral values do not feed and clothe children and the din of the proletariat evangelicals is bound to rub the rich the wrong way eventually. Still, we could divine, and perhaps even respect, the sense, the cosmic order, of this union, however short-lived we hoped it to be.

Many progressive professionals, who had something of a financial disincentive, at least in the short run, in voting Democratic, believed that at the very least the Republicans would not harm us financially, and that we were standing up for those who were less fortunate and who needed greater support from the state. Not only are we not going to benefit in any way from George Bush's re-election, but our tax burden will increase, in some cases to a very large extent, and we may even lose our health insurance. I am not talking about the deficit or some distant future in which we resemble Argentina or Indonesia, after our currency and our market tank. The future is here in the form of a massive tax code overhaul in which the only winners are the idle rich and the major losers are professionals who derive almost all of their income from work (rather than investment), live in states with high state and local income taxes (which is virtually everywhere but Texas), and have employer-provided health care. This means you.

According to the Washington Post, the administration is stepping off its flat tax or national sales tax scheme and moving to:

"...push major amendments that would shield interest, dividends and capitals gains from taxation, expand tax breaks for business investment and take other steps intended to simplify the system and encourage economic growth."

And now the part about you:

"The changes are meant to be revenue-neutral. To pay for them, the administration is considering eliminating the deduction of state and local taxes on federal income tax returns and scrapping the business tax deduction for employer-provided health insurance."

The sky is not blue, Rush Limbaugh is not a big, fat idiot, and the Republicans have become the party of tax and spend. Under this new cosmological infrastructure, I am not a limosine liberal but a fiscal conservative. I guess Bush is showing us what political capital really means - the power to upend the natural order of things. He never did like science anyway.

The Real Meaning of Rock the Vote

I know I've been an absentee blogger for some time now but I promise to do better. In fact, America could do better (wait, where have I heard that catchy phrase?). But then, despite our possibilities, we continue to disappoint left and right; well, maybe not so much on the right, but definitely on the left, middle, up, down, so on and so forth. The election results immediately caused shock waves to ripple throughout the progressive community; we were humiliated and grief-stricken. I went through all five stages but then reverted back to my favorite stage: anger.

From whence this anger? For the second time in a row now, a former frat rat and his rag-tag crew of hawkish corporate evangelicals (was there ever a stranger combination?) have stolen the election from the Democrats. From the get go, I did not believe the election results were valid and there is some credible evidence coming in from various fronts that this is not an insanely paranoid notion. While Kerry may not have been the warmest guy on the planet and he had some problems with PR late in the campaign, he surely did not cause more than half of the country to vote for the worst President ever (ala Comic Book Store Guy). Some of the rednecks, the stupids, and the bible beaters, sure I can see that, but fifty one percent?

The numbers do not lie but the media does, even if the lie is by omission. According to the Washington Post, although rumors and innuendo about a fallacious vote tally are flying fast and furious around blogs and bulletin boards, there is no "solid" evidence to support the allegations. Invariably, big media does not support a particular story, so political bigwigs don't buy in, and the two run in little circles around each other until they have effectively buried the story.

Wild-eyed leftists did not suddenly concoct the notion of massive electoral fraud to explain away a valid victory for the other side. This story has been brewing for over a year and the major papers thoroughly documented likely issues with the 2004 vote, especially with electronic voting machines. Both the Washington Post and the New York Times have published numerous articles on early problems and security faults with the machines, built and run by Republican contributers, now installed in so many counties. In fact, Diebold just settled a lawsuit with California over broken machines that disenfranchised thousands back in March and one machine in Ohio racked up 3,893 votes for Bush though only 600 people voted in that district.

The fact that the machines make mistakes and are paperless is of grave concern, but the ability to change votes from within the machine, when the data is transmitted, or even on the server that receives the transmissions, is even more frightening. According to one source,

"A manipulation mechanism was found hidden in the Diebold central tabulator. A two-digit code creates a second vote set, which in turn cues the voting system to read the totals from the bogus set of votes."

Altering votes once they have reached the server, regardless of how the votes entered the system, in many instances is also a snap. The "server" can be a regular old Windows PC, where one can dip into any of the files, say even the database of the Diebold tabulation software, and alter the data. Ask Howard Dean how he lost to Lex Luthor.

Disenfranchising voters does not require technology. Texas denied the vote to a relative of mine this year when he applied for an absentee ballot and was turned down because he requested that the ballot be sent to his home, rather than an address outside the county. I know that my relative's story is only one of a thousand even more aggregious stories.

Maybe now that MoveOn has called for an investigation, the media and Democratic leaders will grow a pair and officially uncover the latest in a long procession of hostile and sometimes criminal acts against the American people and the world. After all, if a democracy is based on one person, one vote, then surely we have failed as a democracy. How can we light the way of nations if we are ourselves lost?