A thank you for all those who have defended us and continue to defend us. This veterans day and every day.

But apparently it’s not for President Bush’s choice to replace Ashcroft – Alberto R. Gonzales.

Write your representatives and let them know that the former counsel of Enron isn’t fit for the post. We want a law enforcer. Not someone who writes the law as he goes along.

I like the theme. I’m going to continue it.

Tonight on frontline will be a documentary I hope you’ll take the time to see. Rushkoff, the author of the documentary (Wired) gives voice to a concern I’ve probably chatted the ear off of one too many people – that marketer’s slicing us into smaller and smaller sellable demographics is bad for our health, and he recognizes a truth that I believe in my heart – we have a need to connect to other people.

Should be an interesting show.

Jakob Nielsen rates Bush campaign email newsletters as far more effective and lists the reasons why. For the national campaign, I’m forced to agree, but if he were to judge the campaign in Pennsylvania, Nielsen would have give the Kerry campaign proper compliments on the criteria he is using.

Voters Unite has an easy to follow list of voting machine troubles across the country.

Even if you are one of those who feel that no election deciding fraud has taken place, you need to admit that these kinds of problems are unacceptable.

I’m looking forward to seeing a resolution on these concerns (Wired).

You agree that every vote must count, don’t you?

Not too long ago, we talked about how we were “bowling alone”. We were moving towards a disconnected future: disconnected family, disconnected friends, disconnected past times, and ultimately – disconnected democracy.

Tools have emerged that empower us to reconnect (The Nation), just when stakes have become highest in a generation. And we are using them! This isn’t as sudden as some might suggest, and it’s been happening under the radar of one too many pundits. Myself included. I got a feeling politics will be redefined as much as the music and publishing industries have been.

Despite the outcome of the election – I think it’s an exciting time.

It seems to me, and the numbers seem to bear this out, that where Bush, won, he did so by the slightest of margins. He had no overwhelming majority in any state comparable to some of the states that backed Kerry. What this map shows is that Bush won by convincing a certain number of Democrats to vote for him.

Mr. Bush drew more Republicans (93 percent) than Mr. Kerry drew Democrats (89 percent). More Democrats (11 percent) voted for Mr. Bush than Republicans (6 percent) voted for Mr. Kerry. Independents were split equally between the two.

NYTimes – Moral Values Cited as a Defining Issue of the Election: 11/4/2004

I am just an amature, but my gut tells me, and I’m sure I can find the figures to back this up, that similarly, Clinton drew similar numbers of Republicans, and Reagan drew similar numbers of Democrats in their election contests.

So who are these people that aren’t loyal to their party? Well their people like myself. A person who was very willing to vote for John McCain in 2004. You know why? I liked him. There, I admit it. I liked him and on some personal level, I trusted he would be a great President.

…Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter got elected because they were comfortable with their faith,” said Representative Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, a former Clinton aide. “What happened was that a part of the electorate came open to what Clinton and Carter had to say on everything else – health care, the environment, whatever – because they were very comfortable that Clinton and Carter did not disdain the way these people lived their lives, but respected them.”

He added: “We need a nominee and a party that is comfortable with faith and values. And if we have one, then all the hard work we’ve done on Social Security or America’s place in the world or college education can be heard. But people aren’t going to hear what we say until they know that we don’t approach them as Margaret Mead would an anthropological experiment.”

NYTimes – Electoral Affirmation of Shared Values Provides Bush a Majority: 11/4/2004

If you think this kind of moral talk is anathema, you’re the sort of person Karl Rove wants to be running the Democratic Party. Get out, or get a new attitude. Nearly 60 million people came out to vote for George W. Bush yesterday because they think that he represents their values and that you don’t. Prove them wrong and you’ll be the majority party again.

Slate – Democratic Values – How to start winning the red states: 11/3/2004

In the end, a small slice of America, across many, many states, decided the election. It’s in this part of America, the folks who didn’t realize that Kerry was a person they could trust, and in the end voted on their feelings alone, that the greatest opportunity lies for the Democratic party. Moving further to the left or to the right is not the answer. The Democrats need to stand for what it stands for and communicate its values and principals in a way that more people can relate to. The heartening thing is it sounds like the DLC agrees with me.

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A computer error with a voting machine cartridge gave President Bush 3,893 extra votes in a Gahanna precinct.

Franklin County’s unofficial results gave Bush 4,258 votes to Democratic challenger John Kerry’s 260 votes in Precinct 1B. Records show only 638 voters cast ballots in that precinct.

Matthew Damschroder, director of the Franklin County Board of Elections, said Bush received 365 votes there. The other 13 voters who cast ballots either voted for other candidates or did not vote for president.

Damschroder said he received some calls Thursday from people who saw the error when reading the list of poll results on the election board’s Web site.

He said the error would have been discovered when the official canvass for the election is performed later this month.

Damschroder said after Precinct 1B closed, a cartridge from one of three voting machines at the polling place generated a faulty number at a computerized reading station.

The reader also recorded zero votes in a county commissioner race.

Damschroder said the cartridge was retested Thursday and there were no problems. He couldn’t explain why the computer reader malfunctioned.

Workers checked the cartridge against memory banks in the voting machine Thursday and each showed that 115 people voted for Bush on that machine. With the other machines, the total for Bush in the precinct added up to 365 votes.

Information from: The Columbus Dispatch

Original story here.