Various: Dick Cavett’s broken tv, the MN recount, and war crime thoughts…
November 21st, 2008 @ 3:17 pm - by NMC · 6 Comments
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- Dick Cavett says his TVs are broken– the only thing that will come on them is Sarah Palin. (And who knew that Dick Cavett had a blog?)
- Al Franken’s folks say that Coleman’s lead is now in the double digits and falling still. Meanwhile, one of his lawyers writes a serious correction letter to the Wall Street Journal, and both sides are challenging more of the ballots in the recount than they were previously, which means it’s harder to tell where it’s going, but if Coleman’s higher challenge rate means there will be more Franken votes out of the challenged group, Coleman may be toast.
- Judge Patricia Wald, former chief judge for the D.C. Court of Appeals and jurist on the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, writing in the new report "Guantánamo and Its Aftermath" (pdf): “There are bound to be casualties when any nation veers from its domestic and international obligations to uphold human rights and international humanitarian law. Those casualties are etched on the minds and bodies of many of the 62 former detainees interviewed for this report, many of whom suffered infinite variations on physical and mental abuse, including intimidation, stress positions, enforced nudity, sexual humiliation, and interference with religious practices. Indeed, I was struck by the similarity between the abuse they suffered and the abuse we found inflicted upon Bosnian Muslim prisoners in Serbian camps when I sat as a judge on the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, a U.N. court fully supported by the United States. The officials and guards in charge of those prison camps and the civilian leaders who sanctioned their establishment were prosecuted–often by former U.S. government and military lawyers serving with the tribunal–for war crimes, crimes against humanity and, in extreme cases, genocide.” h/t This Modern World.
Tags: U.S. government
Filed Under: Herald & Examiner
I hope Al Franken makes it.
He is a funny guy, but he is also a very serious guy. As I recall, he comes from a Mpls. suburb called St. Louis Park, on the southwestern edge of Minneapolis. Home of the Coen Brothers (Fargo, Burn After Reading, etc.) There is an elemental decency about Al Franken. I like that.
But I wonder, what is it these days that causes elections to be hairsplitters? Is it because we have become so much the same there is little difference in the end result.
Norm Coleman is also thought very well of in Minnesota and especially St. Paul area — Ramsey County.
I would like to hear what others think.
All the Mississippi county returns have been certified, delivered, and scanned:
http://www.sos.state.ms.us/elections/2008/General%20Election/GeneralMain.asp
Obama 554,659 – 43.0%
McCain 724,597 – 56.2%
Others 10,606 – 0.8%
4 Years Ago:
Kerry 458,094 – 39.8%
Bush 684,981 – 59.5%
Others 9,070 – 0.7%
Turnout up 12% 137,717 votes
Obama 96,565 more votes than Kerry
McCain 39,616 more votes than Bush
Counties with highest percentage turnout increases:
Tunica 38.4
Jefferson 29.2
DeSoto 28.1
Jeff Davis 27.8
Copiah 27.3
Stone 26.3
Madison 25.3
Walthall 22.5
Panola 22.1
Quitman 22.o
Clay 21.4
Simpson 20.4
Lafayette 20.0
Counties with turnout decline or lowest increase:
Sharkey -9.6 (but 2004 returns are questionable)
Hancock -4.5
Harrison -2.1
Issaquena -2.1
Coahoma -0.4
Washington -0.1
Bolivar +0.5
Tishomingo +1.1
Choctaw +1.1
Adams +1.5
Forrest +1.7
Claiborne +1.8
Counties with biggest Obama increase over Kerry %
Sharkey + 17.8% (but 2004 returns are questionable)
Copiah +9.6
Hinds +9.5
Jeff Davis +9.1
Kemper +8.8
Washington +8.1
Quitman +7.8
Issaquena +7.8
Coahoma +7.7
Yazoo +7.7
Obama biggest drops from Kerry %
Alcorn -11.1
Tishomingo -10.9
Itawamba -7.9
Hancock -6.5
Prentiss -5.9
Tippah -5.5
George -5.1
Benton -4.9
Pearl River -3.7
Greene -3.2
For the benefit of non-Mississippians (to make a long word longer) could you characterize the vote change by region or town?
Obama gained in Jackson, the Delta and a few other areas because of increased black turnout and because he received a higher percentage of black votes (though Kerry and previous Democrats already were at 90%).
Obama probably equaled Kerry’s white vote, but he lost some older and rural whites while offsetting those losses with gains among younger whites in metropolitan areas.
Obama lost ground in most counties that have less than 20% black population. Northeast MS (Tishomingo, Itawamba, Alcorn, Prentiss, Pontotoc, Union, Tippah) and the non-urbanized Gulf Coast counties (Hancock, Pearl River, George, Stone) are 80% white or higher and also are not attracting large numbers of younger college grads.
However, unlike some the white-flight suburbs (DeSoto, Rankin, Lamar) that have large white populations that vote overwhelmingly Republican, the NE & Coast counties still have older white populist, New Deal Democrats. Some of these older white Democrats who voted for Kerry did not vote for Obama and there were not many black voters and young idealists in those counties to offset them.
Obama actually did 2.4 to 3.5 points better than Kerry in suburban Lamar, Rankin, and DeSoto. There were not that many white Kerry votes there for Obama to lose and those counties are growing with college grads so they are very slowly trending more independent than in the recent past. Still we are talking about Obama getting 22, 23, 30 % compared to Kerry’s 19, 20, 27.
The turnout increases were in places with high black population, rapid population growth, or previously untapped voter populations (i.e. college students).
The turnout decreases were mostly about population loss or stagnation.