Wednesday, January 23, 2008

The Florida no-count

The Democratic party blows my mind. Republicans in Florida stole the vote in both 2000 and 2004, but the first time through, Gore stopped the recount, and four years later, virtually none of the (many repeat) voting irregularities reported in the state were investigated. Now this election cycle, with the state of Florida seemingly still destined to swing in November, the party goes and strips the state of its convention delegates because it moved up its primary date (this Tuesday, the 29th) in threatening proximity to the Iowa/New Hampshire first-in-the-nation party power structure. Floridians' votes "essentially don't count," says party chair Howard Dean. And rules committee member Donna Brazile added a mouthful, "This is about a process we're trying to keep some control over."

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As Candidate Clinton regains her only-temporarily-missing air of invincibility as the Democratic nominee-to-be, it's time for Barack Obama to "nut up"-- to borrow a Liz Lemon phrase. Our former Stainmaster-in-Chief has been calling Obama to the carpet for a pair of weeks now, and the only way to hit back at Clinton Inc. is to finally call out this inexplicably popular couple as the betrayers of progressive principles that they've always been. The Village Voice's longtime conscience, Nat Hentoff, suggests that the senator take a powerful stand for the restoration of our lost liberties. And note: Nat's looking for specifics here: that is, signing the Freedom Pledge that Clinton has refused to sign.

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It won't be finalized for months, but the CM Blog list of the top 5 movies of the year for 2007 may wind up completely overlapping the Academy Award Best Picture nominees. Either I'm going mainstream, getting old, or both.

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The owner of the St. Louis Rams football club, Georgia Frontiere, died Friday. She's recalled lovingly in the Gateway City of her birth, but she's also being remembered fondly this week by many in the city that the Rams used to call home. The LA Times' T.J. Simers on Madame Ram.

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