Blast Off! Radio PRIMETIME tonight, 7:00 pm EDT: The ongoing battle against stupidity

I don't know whether it's the fact that we have a Scary Black Man in the White House or merely the complicity of the right-wing gasbags in the mainstream corporate media or something else altogether, but there seems to be an inordinate amount of stupid in America today ... and, predictably, the vast majority of it is coming from Republicans. Whether it's the ignorant ramblings of U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller (R-Dumbfuckistan), the neo-Confederate idiocy of GOP state legislators Carey Baker and Scott Plakon, or the astonishing lack of knowledge displayed by U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-You Kidding Me?), there's just a lot of morons out there, and unfortunately many of them have been elected to office by even dumber people.

Now you may be asking yourself, "Who is this blogger ... this DFH blogger at that! ... to be telling members of Congress and the Florida Legislature that they are dumb?" Well, that would be a legitimate question, but by any objective measure of intellect, these "rightards," who rely more on rhetoric and "talking points" than sense, clearly are on the lower end of the intelligence spectrum -- anyone can see that, including some other Republicans. So, we'll be discussing the increase in imbecility on tonight's special PRIMETIME edition of Blast Off! Radio, and I invite your input and participation.

It's quite easy to be a part of the show -- here's how:

SPECIAL TIME: 7:00 pm Eastern TONIGHT

Click here to listen

Call in number: (646) 716-7543

E-mail: blastoffradio-at-gmail-dot-com

It's long past time to take the country back from the stupid. And we're going to get it started on Blast Off! Radio tonight -- please make plans to join me for this very special episode. And don't forget to bring your wrath for the moronic and delusional among us ...

(cross-posted at FPC Blog)

Vern Buchanan needs remedial reading comprehension

I've been puzzled by the strangely detached, surprisingly uninformed tweets lately by U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Sarasota) regarding health care reform. On the one hand, I recognize that Florida hardly lacks for ignorant GOP members of Congress who seem to be unaware of the U.S. Constitution ... but Buchanan seems not to understand the English language -- an especially bizarre concept, considering Buchanan's own xenophobic, pandering call to make English the official language of the United States.

The word in question here -- the one that the erstwhile car dealer who originally won his congressional seat under highly questionable circumstances apparently doesn't comprehend -- is "option." As in "choice" or "selection." OPTION.

Yesterday, Rep. Buchanan tweeted, "If the public plan is so great, why shouldn't members of Congress be required to enroll in the same plan?" The obvious answer -- obvious to anyone with the ability to reason coherently, that is -- would be that no one would be required to enroll in the "public plan," because it would be an option. A choice, which one may make or not make as desired. That's the fundamental idea of an option, and I made that point (in abbreviated form) in my response to the congressman.

But I cut Vern some slack since he didn't use the word "option." That all changed today, though, when ol' Vern cut loose with this nugget of numbskullery:

click image for larger version

Vern ... poor, deluded Vern ... how many times do I have to tell you? A "public option" means you don't have to enroll. Even members of Congress don't have to enroll. And don't give me that crap about Max Baucus' massive FAIL of a bill. That's not a public option in any way, shape, or form.

What this country really needs is single-payer health care, like every other civilized nation on the planet and like the U.S. military and Medicare. Barring that, though, it appears we'll have to settle for a public option. And "option," Vern, means "choice." Everyone can keep their employer-provided coverage, Vern, if they so choose (or opt). But there would be an option (there's that word again!) to elect coverage under the federal health care plan for those who don't have the privilege of employer-provided coverage -- as members of Congress do, I know, and yes, even as I do through COBRA.

It's really not that hard to understand, Vern. It's just a matter of comprehending our country's would-be official language ... a skill you -- and your fellow signatories on that absurd, meaningless resolution -- suddenly seem to be lacking.

I'm not Vern Buchanan's friend anymore

Well, that relationship lasted about as long as Bristol and Levi ...

Remember yesterday how I told you that Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Sarasota) was following me on Twitter after I started following him? And how Blast Off! was following him through that account, after which he reciprocated on that account as well?

No longer. Vern stopped following me both personally and through the blog account sometime Sunday night, and he apparently blocked the Blast Off! account from following him, too (although I'm still following him on my personal Twitter account). The best part (and by "best," I mean funniest) is what you see if you are blocked, as shown here in this screen grab when accessing Vern's Twitter page from my (blocked) Blast Off! account:


It goes on like that for days' worth of updates. Maybe you need to take a loyalty oath or something ...

Now, granted, I'm not Vern's constituent ... but let's say for a moment that I was. I can only assume that he still would have blocked me even if I lived in his district, which hardly counts as good service to his constituents, does it? And even though I'm not his constituent, what does it say about him as a man, let alone as a member of what presumably is the country's most representative governmental body, if he can't even share what he's doing with a concerned citizen in his own state?

I mean, unless he has something to hide ...

Buchanan loves his tweeps ... as long as they're wingnuts

Not long ago, I saw on Twitter that the Florida Democratic Party's communications director, Eric Jotkoff, had been following xenophobic Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Sarasota) there, but that the congressman had blocked him.

So, naturally, I started following Vern. Then, somewhat surprisingly, he followed me back with the following unnecessarily truncated direct message:

Thank you for the follow!Want to keep up w/other info from my office?Please add me on Facebook: Tinyurl.com/VernFacebook

How long until I get blocked, too? This ought to be interesting ... (Oooh -- plus maybe if Blast Off! follows him, he'll follow this sucky blog, too! Hilarity undoubtedly will ensue ...)

UPDATE (5:30 pm 4/5/09): Yep, now Vern is following me and Blast Off!, as I anticipated. There's really only one way to describe my glee at this development:

UPDATE (7:48 am 4/6/09): Okay, well, that was quick.

---

REMINDER: You too can follow Blast Off! on Twitter ... just click here and get updates on every post and comment instantly. Or, for you gluttons for punishment, follow me personally ... it's fun and it's free!

Buchanan's xenophobic rhetoric thrills "crowd"

U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.), whose narrow 2006 "victory" over Christine Jennings in Florida's 13th District was made possible by the curious disappearance of some 18,000 votes in Jennings' home county, Sarasota, held a campaign rally in wingnut-ridden Manatee County yesterday, attended by an intimate gathering of around 500. Gov. Crist was expected to be there but was unable to travel due to weather.

According to the article, "Buchanan said it was the biggest crowd he'd seen in Sarasota-Manatee." The article did not indicate how many of the 500 were there because they hoped to see the governor.

Five hundred Bradenton-area wingnuts for Buchanan is a big crowd? Even if they all were there because they wanted to see Buchanan (which I doubt), that's laughable. I recently attended a regular ol' luncheon featuring Buchanan's congressional colleague Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.) that drew 300, and it wasn't even a particularly special occasion -- plus they all had to pay for the privilege. Vern, I gotta tell ya, 500 in Wingnut Central seeking a free chance to see the governor isn't exactly a ringing endorsement of your campaign, y'know?

But at least Vern came through with predictable xenophobia and racism, which was like red meat to the modest group in attendance:

Hundreds erupted in applause several occasions [sic], but perhaps most loudly when Buchanan said English should be made the official language of the United States.

Yep, typical Republican: when in doubt, fall back on hating the brown people.

Well, don't worry, Vern. With a rematch coming up in November against Jennings, you'll be back home selling cars again in no time. Unless your henchmen find another way to "misplace" thousands of Democratic ballots ...

(cross-posted at Florida Progressive Coalition Blog)

Making Florida competitive

Interesting post by Chris Cilizza today on his WaPo blog, "The Fix."

Cilizza reviewed the big win by Bill Foster (D-Ill.) in Saturday's special election to fill former House Speaker Dennis Hastert's (R-Ill.) seat (not literally, one presumes) and, based on the degree to which that district, Illinois' 14th, went for Drunky McStagger in 2004, he posits that there will be a lot more seats in play in November than the Republicans ever imagined -- and several of those are right here in America's Wang™.

Looking for a way to compare apples to apples when it comes to congressional districts, we turned to our old friends at the Cook Political Report and their Partisan Voting Index (PVI). The PVI was developed by the folks at Cook in the summer of 1997 as a way of looking at measuring every district in the country against the nation as a whole. Each district was given a score -- R+6, D+19 -- that indicated how it performed on the presidential level when compared to the country. A score of R+6 means that the district performed six points more Republican than the country as a whole; conversely, a score of D+19 means the seat performed 19 points more Democratic than the nation. (A further explanation of PVI is behind the Cook Report's subscription wall so get one today!)

Illinois' 14th district has a PVI score of R+5. A quick look at Cook's PVI ratings reveals that 53 Republican-held seats have a score more Democratic than that. Of that group, the largest number (33) carry PVI scores between R+2.0-R+4.9 while 18 districts have PVI ratings of D+1.9-R+1.9 and two seats have PVI of D+5.0-D+9.9.

We wanted to go even further inside those numbers, however, so we did a quick scan of all the Republican held districts that had a PVI score of no lower than R+1 and no higher than R+5 -- the same rating as the Hastert seat.

(Before we get into the numbers, it's worth noting that IL-14 was a special election race held on a Saturday, so turnout and other factors are not directly comparable to a general election in a presidential year.)

That search turned up 51 districts -- the VAST majority of which would not be considered competitive in a typical cycle by most observers. (The full list of these seats can be found after the jump.)

Never mind the math, if you don't want to. Just know that those 51 districts lean Republican, but aren't locks (which you might have with, say, R+6 or greater). And check out Florida's part in that:

Florida boasts nine districts currently held by GOPers with PVI ratings between R+1 and R+5. Those nine districts are a mix of the once competitive (Florida's 8th and 12th), the occasionally competitive (Florida's 13th and 24th) and the never competitive (Florida's 5th, 7th, 15th, 18th and 25th.) Democrats have spent considerable time recruiting in Florida and are expected to put a number of these seats -- including the 24th and 25th -- in play this November.

We knew that the 13th, with Vern Buchanan stealing the seat from rightful winner Christine Jennings, would be back in play this fall. But the others? Let's take a look:

• 5 -- Ginny Brown-Waite
• 7 -- John Mica
• 8 -- Ric Keller
• 12 -- Adam Putnam
• 13 -- Vern Buchanan (as noted above)
• 15 -- Dave Weldon (retiring, thank Jeebus)
• 18 -- Ileana Ros-Lehtinen
• 24 -- Tom Feeney
• 25 -- Mario Diaz-Balart

A real rogue's gallery, that. And to think that, in light of Foster's win in Illinois, we could entertain the possibility of turnover in those Florida districts, well, that's a very exciting prospect indeed. This is a group of lockstep Bushie Republicans who ought to be disgracefully expelled from Congress ... and this might just be the year to do it.

Ros-Lehtinen and Mario Diaz-Balart already have solid Democratic challengers, 15 and 24 also are looking good for the Dems already, Brown-Waite is a moron, Keller is a corrupt assbag (which anyone with an ounce of sense knew when he was first elected to Congress), Putnam is a hypocrite, and Mica is in the pocket of so many special interests we lose count.

Will the Florida Democratic Party and the DCCC actually understand that we can knock some of these idiots out? That remains to be seen, but I hope the Foster situation -- er, I should say, Representative Foster -- is proof positive that we ought to try.

Paper ballots for Broward

The good news is that Broward County (which includes Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, and environs) will be getting paper ballots in 2008.

The bad news is that the county has contracted with ES&S, notorious for past election foul-ups, including the mess in Sarasota County where 18,000 missing votes may have contributed to the "victory" by Republican Vern Buchanan over Democrat Christine Jennings in the 2006 congressional election.

In a no-bid contract, Broward commissioners agreed earlier this year to buy the equipment from Election Systems & Software -- the same company that in 2002 provided the touch-screen voting machines that are now being replaced in both Miami-Dade and Broward. Broward still owes about $8 million of the $20 million those machines cost.

Election activist Ellen Brodsky asked commissioners why they were willing to pay $5.4 million to a company whose equipment had been inadequate in the past.

Commissioners said the contract made financial sense. "It would be extremely expensive for us to use anyone other than ES&S," Commissioner Ken Keechl said.

The optical-scan machines will be used in the August primary and in the November 2008 presidential election. Voters will fill in ovals on paper ballots, then feed them into machines.

The new equipment will have a paper record that election experts can consult if a recount is needed, said Supervisor of Elections Brenda Snipes. As of January, her will start random audits of the equipment.

Yep, we have to save money, so if we have to get machines from a company whose record is spotty at best, well, so be it. That's the Florida way. Hell, I think that's the American way.

But, looking at the bright side, this is certainly a step in the right direction. A paper trail doesn't make election fraud impossible, but it makes it less likely, and that's probably the best we can hope for in 2008.

It's not over in the 13th District

They're still fighting over in Sarasota over the hotly contested congressional election between Christine Jennings (D) and Vern Buchanan (R), and it's not going to end before the 110th Congress is sworn in next week.

A disputed election result in a House of Representatives race in Florida will be one of the first items raised when the Democratic-controlled House convenes next week, injecting partisan politics into the start of the 110th Congress.

Rep. Rush Holt, a New Jersey Democrat who has pushed for better safeguards on electronic voting machines, said on Friday that he will make a procedural point to establish that the swearing-in of Florida Republican Vern Buchanan does not prejudice ongoing challenges by his Democratic opponent, Christine Jennings.

"This is a district, Sarasota area in Florida, where there's no way of knowing whether the result presented by Florida's secretary of state is valid. In fact, I think there is significant evidence that it is not," Holt told reporters.

Buchanan was certified the winner of the November 7 election by a 369-vote margin. But oddly, about 18,000 ballots in Sarasota County had no votes recorded for the disputed House race, while other races on those same ballots were voted upon.

A re-vote is not out of the question, so stay tuned. It looks like Buchanan will be sworn in, but Jennings' legal challenges can continue.

Once again, the nation watches and waits to see if Florida has any fucking clue on how to conduct an election.

Today's Daily Schadenfreude: ES&S

Election Systems & Software, Inc., got some bad news in their attempt to avoid divulging their source code for touchscreen voting machines in Sarasota County.

These are the machines that managed to - oops! - miss some 18,000 votes in the hair's-breadth election for FL-13 between the declared winner, Vern Buchanan (R), and Christine Jennings (D). Well, it appears that there's really no explanation for how 18,000 votes just disappeared, unless it was a computer glitch:

An MIT political science professor who is a specialist on election systems testified Tuesday that it's statistically unlikely that almost 13 percent of Sarasota voters chose not to vote in a congressional race.

A more likely conclusion to explain the unusually high "undervote" is that something went wrong in the preparation of voting machines, the professor, Charles Stewart, told a judge during a hearing over whether Christine Jennings' campaign can obtain access to computer codes used to program the electronic touchscreen voting machines.

State officials have declared Republican Vern Buchanan the winner over Jennings, a Democrat, by fewer than 400 votes out of more than 238,000 cast in the race to replace Rep. Katherine Harris in Congress.

But 12.9 percent of voters in Sarasota County did not record a vote in the race -- far more than the 2 to 6 percent of voters in other counties in the congressional district who appeared to have skipped the Jennings-Buchanan race.

There have been calls for a revote in the race, including one Tuesday by the liberal political group MoveOn.org, which took out a full page advertisement in The New York Times.

The Jennings campaign and 11 Sarasota County voters are asking a judge to require the maker of the voting machines, Election Systems & Software Inc., to divulge the computer "source code" for the touchscreen voting machines used in the county. The code is essentially the programming instructions that tell the computer what to do in a certain situation.

Well, hang on a sec. If it's not a computer glitch, could there be another plausible explanation?

*cough* (vote fraud) *cough*

I'm just sayin' ...

So, ES&S, as you find yourself up a creek without a stylus, this Blast Off! Daily Schadenfreude is for you!

Howard Dean steps into the FL-13 fray

Yesterday, Democratic National Committee chairman (and - full disclosure - my political hero) Howard Dean called for a new election in Florida's 13th Congressional District, where Republican Vern Buchanan purportedly defeated Democrat Christine Jennings by an extremely slim margin.

Buchanan led Jennings by a few hundred votes on Election Day and in subsequent recounts. But Jennings is challenging the result because touch screen voting machines in Sarasota County recorded that more than 18,000 people, or 13 percent of all voters, did not vote for either candidate, a rate much higher than in other counties in the district.

Predictably, the Republicans are standing firm in their conviction that little concepts like democracy and truth shouldn't stand in the way of GOP hegemony:

"We feel that Christine Jennings is putting her own interests above those of the 13th District," Buchanan spokeswoman Sally Tibbetts said. "It's unfortunate."

**********

"I think there would be a huge pushback in terms of the American people," said Rep. Tom Feeney, an Orlando area Republican. "I think that the consequences of that would be severe for the Democratic leadership."

Dean accurately put the situation in perspective, though:

"This election is not valid. There are 18,000 people who may have voted, and we don't know what happened to their votes," Dean said. "You can bet that if the Republicans were 500 votes short they'd be calling for a new election, and they'd be right."

Word.

Stay tuned. This is not over by a long shot.