Calling Natalya Dymitruk

Anyone listening to Red Radio or Fox News who doesn't buy into the GOP storyline must wonder why someone like Natalya Dymitruk can't work for those networks. And network officials must be nervously wondering if there is a Natalya Dymitruk among their midst.

Who is Natalya Dymitruk? Acording to the AP, viewers watching state-run Ukrainian television after last week's presidential runoff heard the official declaration of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych's victory. But the hearing-impaired got a radically different message.

"The results announced by the Central Election Commission are rigged, do not believe them," Natalya Dymitruk told UT-1 viewers when asked to relay the declaration in sign-language.

State run media in Ukraine have been pushing the Red State, Soviet backed candidate, over the Blue State, western backed candidate. Looking at how the media played the election, one has to wonder if they viewed Karl Rove's and the GOP's playbook and decided to model their coverage after Red Radio and Fox News.

Blue vs. Gray

For all the talk of Blue and Red states, questions about voting in Alabama over a constitutional amendment and a map of the states won by Kerry and Bush make me believe that we should be talking Blue and Gray and not Blue and Red.

Voters in Alabama apparently rejected a proposed amendment would delete unenforced sections of the constitution that mandate racially segregated schools and allow poll taxes, once used to discourage blacks from voting.

As Newsday put it When voters refused to approve a constitutional amendment that would have erased segregation-era wording in the state constitution requiring separate schools for "white and colored children" and referring to poll taxes that once disenfranchised blacks, Alabama was dragged into a confrontation with its segregationist past that illuminates the uneasy race relations of its present.

The amendment had two main parts: removal of the separate-schools language and the removal of a passage - inserted in the 1950s in an attempt to counter the Brown vs. Board of Education ruling against segregated public schools - that says Alabama's constitution does not guarantee a right to a public education.

Leading opponents, such as Alabama Christian Coalition President John Giles, said they did not object to removing the passage about separate schools for "white and colored children." But, employing an argument ridiculed by legal experts, Giles and others said guaranteeing a right to a public education would have opened a door for "rogue" federal judges to order the state to raise taxes to pay for better schools.

If anyone thinks this thinking is limited to Alabama, consider these maps, which basically show that Bush won the slave states and Kerry won the free states. The only changes were that Kerry barely lost Ohio and Iowa, picked up Maryland and Deleware but lost Indiana.

One has to wonder what has gone wrong in Indiana.

Florida - Good, Ukraine - Bad

On his way out of office, and too late to do any good, Secretary of State Colin Powell has discovered his backbone. Unfortunately it's four years too late for America.

On Wednesday Powell, who apparently in 2000 had no problems joining an administration that cheated to get power, challenged Ukrainian leaders "to decide whether they are on the side of democracy or not," adding that the United States cannot accept the results of elections in Ukraine.

Apparently Viktor Yushchenko, the Blue State, French sounding candidate, got more votes than Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, the Red State, Soviet supported candidate, but state supported election officials gave the victory to the Red Stater.

"We cannot accept this result as legitimate because it does not meet international standards" and allegations of fraud hadn't been investigated, Powell said at a news conference.

Right. And I suppose the fact that Bush's 2000 election "victory" was tainted and allegations of fraud weren't investigated prior to awarding Florida by Gov. Jeb Bush to his brother, George Bush are just complaint by ill-informed Democrats.

When the 2000 election was stolen by the GOP, many people said that the US would have no credibility with the world in complaining about election irregularities. That day has come and only because of the power the United States has as a nation does anyone pay any attention to our hypocritical comments.

Surely diplomats in foreign countries have to look in disbelief when someone from the US complains about election, thinking to themselves, "you of all people have no business talking on election irregularities."

Perhaps if the US had sent Katherine Harris over to the Ukraine to monitor the election our complaints would be believable. If anyone knows how to rig an election, its her.

What the Democrats should have done in 2000

Looking at the protests in the Ukraine over the disputed election, as a Democrat, one can only wonder if that's what we should have done in 2000. Instead Democrats tried to play by the GOP rules and got screwed.

After all, even if the GOP had allowed for a full counting of votes in Florida which would have shown Al Gore had won. Either the Florida legislature or the US House of Representatives would have stepped in to ensure the will of the people was ignored. Instead the Supreme Court stepped in to take the heat.

Al Gore spoke of the people versus the powerful in 2000 and it was the powerful that decided the election. Yet the powerful pretended to be the people as a number of legislative officials complained about Florida officials attempting to count votes.

On Nov. 22, 2000, the so-called “Brooks Brothers Riot” of Republican activists helped stop a vote recount in Miami -- and showed how far George W. Bush’s supporters were ready to go to put their man in the White House.

With the media bending to wishes of George Bush and the GOP, they urged Gore to concede because the nation was being disrupted. That shallow thinking in the end will lead to eight bad years for the United States. What a trade a couple of bad weeks for eight really bad years.

Here's to the protestors in the Ukraine. Keep the faith because once you concede, you concede a lot more than you think.

Rules to live by

Among the many columns resulting from the recent election were a number from Red Staters attempting to explain to Blue Staters why John Kerry lost the election. Included in these explanations were tips for Blue Staters to use in future elections.

However most of these tips assume people buy the GOP’s view of history. Any Blue Stater who know the facts behind the issues like the Swift Boats Veterans for Truth and Kerry’s alleged flip-flopping, will surely question the motives of these “helpful” people.

However, in a rush to figure out why they lost, some Blue Staters may take their “advice.” But before doing so, here are 10 things Blue Staters must understand.

1.) The Media is NOT the Democrats friend. Red Staters who complain about the CBS National Guard story forget that it was the New York Times, Washington Post and other “lefty” media that promoted the GOP’s agenda in pursuing the “War Against Gore,” the Whitewater investigation, and campaign against Kerry.
2.) The media is clueless. The media makes mistakes because they (i.e. CBS) won’t do the work to fully investigate political stories.
3.) Facts don’t matter. A University of Maryland study, The Separate Realities of Bush and Kerry Supporters, found that Bush supporters believed Iraq had WMD’s or a major program, that WMD’s had been found and that experts also share these views. Few Kerry supporters held these fictitious beliefs.
4.) The media is uncomfortable going after the GOP. Mark Hertsgaard’s “On Bended Knee” showed how the Reagan administration tamed the media and transformed it into its willing mouthpiece. With Bill Clinton in the White House, the media attacked, shown by Joe Conason in “The Hunting of the President.” With the GOP back, expect a sequel from Hertsgaard.
5.) Fight fire with fire. In Elliott Ness, Sean Connery’s character said the way to fight Al Capone was if "they pull a knife, you pull a gun. They send one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue."
6.) Strong and Wrong beats Weak and Right. George Bush is weaker but his obstinance was portrayed as determination.
7.) Honesty and integrity apparently are not GOP values. Jeb Bush helped steal an election; Neil Bush, as member of the Board of Silverado, was part of one of the largest savings and loans scandals; and George W. Bush ran one of the most dishonest campaigns in recent history.
8.) Democratic values are America’s values. For all the celebratory talk about Bush’s victory, the GOP is ditching his values to change the constitution so in 2008 they can nominate Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a pro-choice, pro-stem cell research, and domestic partnership supporter.
9.) It's not who votes that counts - it's who counts the votes. Joseph Stalin said it but Jeb Bush and Katherine Harris figured it out in 2000.
10.) You can’t fool all of the people all of the time. This may be the Blue Stater’s last, best hope.

None so blind as those who choose not to see

The 2004 election results, which by a tiny majority will allow George Bush to remain in the White House, are evidence that that the war on knowledge and thinking has escalated.

Rather than elect someone who was familiar with, and understood the issues, 51% of the public went for the candidate with strong beliefs. Strong beliefs and faith are important and may help people get through troubled times, but they don't pay the bills nor solve the nation's problems.

As John Kerry said, just because George Bush says something is so doesn't make it so. But the people in the middle of the country are willing to accept that it is so. One only has to look at the results of an University of Maryland survey which showed that many conservatives believe that Iraq had WMDs, the world is behind Bush and that Iraq was involved in the 9/11 attacks.

None of those statements were true, but was unimportant to the "Value Voters." To them, understanding more than one side of an issue is either unimportant, unnecessary or just plain wrong. One wonders how they survive in business.

Can one imagine what would have happened to Microsoft if it had kept to the belief that the Internet was not going to be that important. Instead they evaluated the data and changed their ways, an approach that is anathema to the right. To the value voters, there is only one way and that way is always right, even if it is wrong.

After the election, one person asked "how bad do things have to get." Apparently pretty bad.