Author Archives: Michael Froomkin

The Bulge Was Not Tinfoil – It Was a Trope

Posted on November 4, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

The Hill reports, that the Bush bulge was a bulletproof vest:

Call off the conspiracy freaks. Now it can be told: That mysterious bulge on President Bush's back during the first presidential debate was not an electronic device feeding him answers, but a strap holding his bulletproof vest in place.

And why did they lie about it for such a long time? The supposed answer is also, I will bet, a lie:

The president’s handlers did not want to admit as much during the campaign, for fear of disclosing information related to his personal security while he was on the campaign trail.

Bah. The real reason is that they knew it looks cowardly and that would have been bad for the image. (If the security rationale were true, they wouldn't admit the truth the day after the eleciton unless Bush never plans to stir from the White House. )

Lies layered on lies. A fun four years, yes indeed.

Posted in Politics: Tinfoil | 19 Comments

Vote Suppression, GOP Style

Posted on November 4, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

Of course the GOP didn't want UM students to vote. And they made it as hard as possible. But the students out-waited them.

e-Veritas, 11-04-04—Students turned out by the hundreds on Tuesday to vote at the new campus precinct at the UM Convocation Center. The turnout apparently caught the Miami-Dade Elections Department unprepared, despite the fact that their rolls reflected that students had registered in record numbers for this election. Nevertheless, the intrepid students and area neighbors maintained their good humor and endured wait times of up to five hours — sustained by dozens of pizzas and crates of bottled water provided by the University. The total number of voters exceeded 1,000, and there were as many as 300 people in line at any given time. University staff and student leaders provided support and helped maintain order, and the last voters finally cast their ballots just after midnight.

On Wednesday, President Donna E. Shalala praised students for their “passionate commitment to our democracy.” She subsequently filed a formal complaint with the Elections Department citing “woefully inadequate provision of voting equipment and knowledgeable staffing,” as well as the department's “lack of flexibility and inability to adjust to what were extraordinary lines during the course of the day.” The president also requested that the elections supervisor come to campus to meet with student leaders and assure them of adequate preparation for the next election.

Once again Shalala seizes the moment — feeding and watering the students was a wonderful move.

Posted in Politics: US: 2004 Election, U.Miami | 4 Comments

So Much for Denials About Explosives Really Being at Al Qaqaa

Posted on November 4, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

The LA Times has the story a couple of days late: Soldiers Describe Looting of Explosives.

Four more years of incompetence to look forward to. Followed in each case by coveups and lying. What a delight.

Actually, the next act in this play, if it follows the script, is the 'breaking of the President' moment, whose ordinary run was delayed by 9/11. But consider that the 9/11 commission will be getting to the good stuff, the Plame investigation should lead somewhere, and perhaps now that the election is over some honest Republican in Congress will start to investigate torture by US armed forces and (I can dream, can't I?) by the CIA.

Posted in Iraq | Comments Off on So Much for Denials About Explosives Really Being at Al Qaqaa

Democrats Got Creamed in the Florida Rural Vote

Posted on November 4, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

Surprising Florida Presidential Election Results: I'm not one who follows the Florida county votes, but if I read this right, this chart seems to say that the GOP get-out-the-vote operation worked well statewide. In urban counties they tended to get more new voters than the Democrats; in rural areas they either got Democrats to switch or Democrats stayed home.

Posted in Florida | 10 Comments

Thought for the Day

Posted on November 4, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

Thought for the day:

“There is a lot of ruin in a country,”
—John Maynard Keynes1

1 Brad's right—Adam Smith said it first.

Posted in Politics: US | 8 Comments

Tinfoil or For Real?

Posted on November 3, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

A scary item (is it true?) submitted to Dave Farber's Interesting People mailing list by one Ken Deifik:

It occurs to me that one of the questions that could be answered without too much trouble, at least for someone with lots of access to data and a knowlege of statistics, would be: is there any difference in the Bush – Kerry percentages in precincts that used eVoting, especially Diebold but all eVoting machines, as opposed to those that used paper ballots or some other method of voting.  If this question has any meaning for you, I'd ask you to pose to the list, to see anyone with the proper skills and access could carry out such a study.

I hope in the next few days statisticians examine the issue of the exit polls.  Since the early 70's the exit polls have always been spot on.  I feel ashamed for any journalist who says the exit polls got it wrong in FLA in 2000, because it is clear they got it right.

I have to wonder how John Zogby, who predicted 312 electoral votes for Kerry at 5PM EST 11/2, could have gotten the exit polls so wrong.  Or really if he did.

One reason may be who votes at what time of day?

I just found this posting in the Democratic Underground site
…on several swing states, and EVERY STATE that has EVoting but no paper trails has an unexplained advantage for Bush of around +5% when comparing exit polls to actual results.

In EVERY STATE that has paper audit trails on their EVoting, the exit poll results match the actual results reported within the margin of error.

So we have MATCHING RESULTS for exit polls vs. voting with audits
vs.
A 5% unexplained advantage for Bush without audits.

Say it ain't so…

Posted in Politics: Tinfoil, Politics: US: 2004 Election | 17 Comments