i-sako.com

You fill in the rest, because the reason is certainly beyond my ability to grasp. As usual, Krugman is right on the mark:

Travesty of Justice

We can’t tell directly whether Mr. Ashcroft’s post-9/11 policies are protecting the United States from terrorist attacks. But a number of pieces of evidence suggest otherwise.

…

First, there’s the absence of any major successful prosecutions.

…

Then there is the lack of any major captures.

…

But most important is the memo. Last week Mr. Ashcroft, apparently in contempt of Congress, refused to release a memo on torture his department prepared for the White House almost two years ago.

I’ve often thought that, of all the high-profile members of the Bush administration, Ashcroft would be the one to get fired. Isn’t it about time he was?

One would think that, given the national embarrassment that stemmed from Florida’s handling of the 2000 elections, it would have made every effort to set an example this year by improving their system, but no. The election news coming out of Florida makes me think that the state should be excluded from the national election until it gets its act together.

Florida Faces Election Fracas

Following the disastrous 2000 election snafu, Florida faces another debacle—this time over a database that’s supposed to keep felons from voting. But it also contains thousands of names of people who have every right to vote, critics say.

New ‘Hiccup’ for Florida Voters

The Sunshine State’s election controversies continue to unfold: Now the state admits that a number of e-voting machines have a software flaw that makes manual recounting impossible.

Really, why bother even having an election? Why not just declare Bush the winner in Florida right now? Then we can spend the money that would otherwise go to this pathetic, half-assed election effort on more important things, like tax cuts! 

Sounds fair enough to me:

Gambling on Voting

If election officials want to convince voters that electronic voting can be trusted, they should be willing to make it at least as secure as slot machines. To appreciate how poor the oversight on voting systems is, it’s useful to look at the way Nevada systematically ensures that electronic gambling machines in Las Vegas operate honestly and accurately. Electronic voting, by comparison, is rife with lax procedures, security risks and conflicts of interest.

More specifically, the editorial goes on to enumerate half a dozen things that are done to make gambling safe that notably are not being done with electronic voting:

1. The state has access to all gambling software.
2. The software on gambling machines is constantly being spot-checked.
3. There are meticulous, constantly updated standards for gambling machines.
4. Manufacturers are intensively scrutinized before they are licensed to sell gambling software or hardware.
5. The lab that certifies gambling equipment has an arms-length relationship with the manufacturers it polices, and is open to inquiries from the public.
6. When there is a dispute about a machine, a gambler has a right to an immediate investigation.

Go read the rest of the article, and then call your congressperson.

There’s a discussion going on at TalkLeft about the ten most likely people to be offered the chance to run as John Kerry’s veep. According to The Financial Times, the list looks like this:

• John Edwards
• Bill Richardson
• Dick Gephardt
• Bill Nelson
• Evan Bayh
• Bob Graham
• Tom Vilsack
• Wesley Clark
• John McCain
• Max Cleland

My thoughts on this list are as follows.

John Edwards
I think Edwards would contribute a lot to the ticket, but he wouldn’t be my first choice. The only negative I can think of for Edwards is that the opposition will try to tar him as a “trial lawyer,” as if familiarity with the law is an automatic disqualifier.

Bill Richardson
Richardson would be my first choice, but he has indicated that he is not interested in the job. It would be fun to watch Richardson and Cheney debate energy policies, though. ("Here’s my plan, Dick, what’s yours?")

Dick Gephardt
Gephardt is probably the only candidate on this list who would actually diminish my enthusiasm for this election. Gephardt is a good guy, but I think he would be a drag on the ticket, like Lieberman was in 2000. Whatever appeal Gephardt may have had evaporated after the Iowa caucus, so why tap him? 

Bill Nelson
Don’t know much about him. Could be good for some votes in Florida, but can he guarantee the state’s electoral votes? That’s far from clear at this point. Moving on…

Evan Bayh
Fiscally conservative, former two-term governor of a state in the Midwest, Bayh is my second choice—or first, if you consider that Richardson is really not an option.

Bob Graham
There seems to be no evidence that Graham can carry Florida, and he was the first of the Democratic candidates to drop out of the race, so he would be closer to the bottom of my list.

Tom Vilsack
Strong voice for the Democratic party. Would not be a bad choice, but he is relatively unknown (to the American public).

Wesley Clark
Excellent defense credentials, but if he was really the type of guy who would accept the No. 2 spot, he probably would have done it back when Dean was hinting at the prospect of teaming up. After all, it was pretty clear to me that Clark got started too late to have a viable candidacy of his own, yet he resisted the opportunity to be someone else’s VP. Will it be different if the offer comes from Kerry? I don’t know, but I would prefer to see Clark doing Powell’s job rather than Cheney’s.

John McCain
I really like the idea of a unity ticket, but a Kerry/McCain pairing is about as unlikely as Bush announcing that he no longer wants to be president, so we’ll have to forget about this possibility. Besides, not enough Democrats really mean it when they say that they will support “anybody but Bush”; a lot of them would be deeply offended by a Kerry/McCain ticket. The Nader supporters, of course, would love it. ("See, there really is no difference—you’ve got Republicans on both of the other tickets! Vote for Nader instead!")

Max Cleland
It would be an ironic turn of events (and a powerful slap in the face) to see the guy that Bush put out of a job return to put Bush out of a job, but I’m not really sure how much appeal Cleland has with voters. If you want another vet on the ticket, try for Clark or McCain before asking Cleland.

Also, although he did not make this list, I rather like the idea of tapping Virginia Gov. Mark Warner for this position. Sure, it’s a long shot, but tapping Warner could provide Kerry with an even greater lead in neighboring Ohio, which is a must-win state for both campaigns.

How about you? Have any thoughts on the short list? Other candidates that you feel strongly about, one way or the other?

So now President Bush is apologizing for the ”stain on our country’s honor and our country’s reputation” caused by the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at the hands of U.S. solders, which it seems that Rumsfeld may have approved.

I believe we can all remember a previous president who was impeached for leaving a stain on our country’s honor (and an intern’s dress). As my mom heard someone on a radio show say this weekend, “Pick your president, pick your stain.” Ideally, we would have a president who doesn’t leave stains at all, but given a choice between the two, I know which stain I’d prefer.