Odds and Ends for Monday Night

I just ran across a small diary on DailyKos that reports that the oldest daughter of John Edwards, Cate, was "fine" after being involved in an accident caused by a drunk driver on Friday night. From CNN Politics.com:

According to CNN affiliate WTVD, Cate Edwards's car was struck from behind in Chapel Hill, North Carolina Friday afternoon by a man who was driving at twice the legal blood-alcohol limit.

The Edwards campaign described the accident as "minor" and provided no other details.

Amazing.

I'd normally expect that in this news environment of media glitz and glamor ~any~ such incident involving the child of one of the candidates for President would be front-page material, if not headlined, across the nation. Even though this incident appears to be minor, the potential for overblown sensationalism must have been hard for the media pundits to resist. From The Associated Press:

In 1996, the Edwardses' 16-year-old son, Wade, died in a car accident. Wade Edwards was driving with a friend to the beach in North Carolina when a strong wind blew his Jeep off the road and it flipped over.

Perhaps there is something to the persistent cry of a virtual media blackout regarding the Edwards campaign.

More unrelated tidbits after the fold.

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Have a Heart...no, seriously.

From CNN, researchers at the University of Minnesota were able to demonstrate a new technique that could be used to grow a "bioartificial" heart.

Rather than building a heart from scratch, which has often been mentioned as possible use for stem cells, this procedure takes a heart and breaks it down to the outermost shell. It's similar to taking a house and gutting it, then rebuilding everything inside. In the human version, the patient's own cells would be used.

Amazing.

Antarctica is Melting.

According to an article by Eric Hand in NatureNews,

A comprehensive study of Antarctica’s ice confirms that the polar cap is shrinking. In 2006 alone, Antarctica lost nearly 200 billion tonnes of ice, researchers say — the equivalent of a global sea level rise of more than half a millimetre. That’s 75% more than losses in 1996, they add.

I've got my galoshes, a rubber ducky and a paddle.

Republican Hypocrisy and Voter Fraud Allegations

The blog DailyKos recently decided to have some fun with the Republicans in the upcoming Michigan primary, and devised a campaign called Democrats for Mitt.¹ A blogger² named John Bambenek filed a complaint with the Michigan Attorney General regarding the matter.

Unfortunately for Mr. Bombanek, Michigan has an open primary, and there's no case to be made.

Interestingly enough, however, Mr. Bombanek makes some interesting statements:

While appearing to encourage vote fraud, the Daily Kos may also be encouraging an attempt to subvert Republicans' constitutional right of free association and, at the same time, could be perpetuating a conspiracy to disenfranchise Republican voters and dilute their votes.

Vote fraud happens, and living in Illinois, I am no stranger to it. Make no mistake, the Daily Kos' posting could be a direct attack on the democratic elements of our Republic, which is exactly why I have filed a criminal complaint in the matter.

While I can find no reference to any actual cases of voter fraud that have been brought to trial and prosecuted, I do happen to know of quite a few instance of voter intimidation, voter disenfranchisement and voter suppression. The Republican Party, in fact, appears to be a wellspring of such activity. Here's a few related stories from ePluribus Media (most from the old Scoop site, some from the old Journal, and a couple from the new, updated Journal) touching on the science and practice of voter caging, disenfranchisement, suppression and fraud by the GOP:

1. CO state worker sells voter data to GOP, Sec. of State investigating
2. BREAKING, UPDATED: Bogus VA voter calls point to Allen campaign
3. Ohio's Brunner, SOSers File Brief to Supremes Against Indiana Voter ID Law
4. Voter Rights: Is Robert Popper the Fox Guarding the Henhouse?
5. Voter Suppression
6. Voter Caging: Is this Tool still in the RNC Arsenal?
7. Hans Von Spakovsky: Right choice for FEC Commissioner?
8. Ohio Wins Poll-Worker Training Funds, Voting Problems Persist in Cuyahoga County
9. Civil Rights Division to "Throw Tanner Under the Bus" to save Hans von Spakovsky’s FEC nomination   Print

And that's just a quick listing.

Voter fraud is a cry the GOP often makes while pointing at someone or something else, while they themselves do anything they can to tip the ballot box and prevent anyone not a loyal party follower from casting a legitimate ballot.

They've manipulated things at the state and federal level using their previous majorities, and even infested the Justice Department and other areas through rampant politicalization and cronyism, of which the US Attorney Scandal was merely one glaring example.

Because I'm such a mensch (at least according to one good friend), I provided that same list over on the appropriate discussion thread at DailyKos, too. :)

Bambenek wrote something else in his article that's also worth quoting here:

Such public and flagrant disregard for not only Michigan's election laws, but the rights of fellow citizens cannot be overlooked or tolerated. Doing so will simply encourages a state of lawlessness in our election system.

[Emphasis mine.]

With all the carefully orchestrated efforts to appoint cronies, disenfranchise voters, manipulate districts and suppress voters, perhaps Mr. Bambenek's ire and passion should be directed in a more realistic direction -- toward the Party of Corruption, Cronyism and Deception known to the common citizen as "The Republican Party" and "The GOP."

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Footnotes
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^1. Check out the cool video ad for "Democrats for Mitt":

^2. From Bombanek's article in the Illinois Review:

John Bambenek is the Assistant Politics Editor for BC Magazine and is an academic professional for the University of Illinois. By trade, he is an information security professional, part of the Internet Storm Center and a courseware author and certification grader for the GIAC family of security certifications. He is a syndicated columnist who blogs at Part-Time Pundit and the executive director of The Tumaini Foundation which helps AIDS orphans and other children in Tanzania to get an education.