November 7 Election Day Thread

[jackie hayes]

Virginia's law is that a recount only happens at the request of the losing candidate. If the first tally shows a deficit of .5% or 1% (I've read different things), then the recount is free. Otherwise, if the recount does not change the result, the candidate requesting the recount is responsible for all expenses.

[BigSqwert]

Some states have a law where it's automatic. Not sure if VA is one of those. I agree, tho, Chisoxfn... no recount. Just move on, unlike Webb would have.

Can anyone say "sore loser"?

[NorthSideSox72]

Can anyone say "sore loser"?

Not helping... needler.

 

Let's keep the positive and interesting discussion going, shall we?

[Mplssoxfan]

Couldn't post yesterday, but I had a pretty interesting time trying to vote. I moved about six blocks in the middle of October. Of course, I moved into a different precinct.

 

We have same-day registration here in MN, so I blithely went to my new polling place with my old Driver's License and my official Change-of Address confirmation from the USPS. The USPS document isn't acceptable, so I had to go to the DMV and renew my Driver's License.

 

While I was trying to renew my license, during the eye test, there was a problem with my periphal vision, which I found odd, since I got my eyes checked in May, and everything was cool. I got the renewal pending my eye doc faxing the state a form, but at least I could register. The thing is, after I finally voted, I ran into a co-worker going into the polling place -- she could have vouched for me and saved me the trip to the DMV.

 

Ah, well. Civic duty done.

[NorthSideSox72]

History was made Tuesday...

 

Keith Ellison (D) won Minnesota 05 for the U.S. House. He is the first Muslim ever elected to ANY national office in the U.S.

 

Minnesota certainly has a knack for bringing us some interesting politicians.

[Texsox]

History was made Tuesday...

 

Keith Ellison (D) won Minnesota 05 for the U.S. House. He is the first Muslim ever elected to ANY national office in the U.S.

 

Minnesota certainly has a knack for bringing us some interesting politicians.

see the terrorist are winning!

[Rex Kickass]

The losing candidate can request a recount if the total vote difference is less than one percent. In that case, the state of Virginia would pay for the recount. Otherwise, it would have to be funded by the person asking for the recount.

 

George Allen didn't want this seat, he wanted to use this seat to run for President. In Iowa early this year, he was saying that he was bored with being a Senator.... He'd already set up presidential organizations in Iowa and New Hampshire. A win via recount still keeps his presidential hopes dead, so why bother with the recount?

[Mplssoxfan]

History was made Tuesday...

 

Keith Ellison (D) won Minnesota 05 for the U.S. House. He is the first Muslim ever elected to ANY national office in the U.S.

 

Minnesota certainly has a knack for bringing us some interesting politicians.

MN-5 is as reliable for the Dems as it comes. Ellison was in a tough three person race and was beset by accusations that he was a member of the Nation of Islam (he says he isn't, although he was on the local committee for the Million Man March), that he publicly praised Elijah Muhammed (he wrote favorably of him while in Law School), that he was lax in reporting campaign gifts, and had enough troubles with parking tickets to have his license suspended.

 

Through all the attacks, he stayed above the fray and stayed positive and on message. He'll certainly be one of the more liberal members of the House.

 

It's interesting, since MN-6 is sending possibly one of the most conservative House members in Michelle Bachmann. I would be astonished if Bachamnn and Ellison ever voted the same way on anything of substance.

 

The two unknown winners in this state are Collin Peterson in MN-7 and Jim Oberstar in MN-8. They'll be heading the Ag Committee and the Transportation Committee, respectively. Lots of power for Northern Minnesota.

[Balta1701]

In something that I think you simply have to say is the absolute definition of irony...the lawyers are heading to FL-13, Katherine Harris's former district, after the Republican won by 368 votes. Supposedly a recount has already been triggered by law, but may be impossible due to the fact that the voting machines don't produce a paper trail. And there are like 18,000 people who voted in that election but did not cast a vote for Congress (13% of the total voters).

 

Beautiful.

Edited November 8, 2006 by Balta1701

[Controlled Chaos]

see the terrorist are winning!

 

CAIR’s Congressman: Will the media care about his troubling ties?

By Joel Mowbray

Tuesday, November 7, 2006

 

Barring a cataclysmic event, Minnesotans today will elect the first-ever Muslim to the U.S. Congress, and odds are the media serenade won’t be far behind.

 

What remains to be seen, though, is how many journalists will be willing to strike a discordant note by questioning Keith Ellison on his Nation of Islam past or his open embrace of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a group founded by two self-identified supporters of Islamic terrorism.

 

Defenders of the Democratic frontrunner thus far have dodged most legitimate questions, instead choosing to smear critics as Islamophobic bigots. The tactic has worked, enabling Ellison to win comfortably the September 12 Democratic primary—and soon the general election.

 

But no amount of obfuscation or misdirection changes some simple facts: Ellison had a much deeper involvement with the Nation of Islam than he’s acknowledged, and he has forged an extremely close alliance with CAIR. The organization’s officials, in fact, have helped raise over $50,000 for Ellison. These are obviously legitimate—and necessary—questions, but few in the mainstream media have the stomach to go against the tide. And with Ellison becoming the first-ever Muslim Congressman, the media “tide” isn’t hard to predict.

 

For the most part, Ellison hasn’t had to defend himself because most in the local media apparently don’t believe the candidate’s past and present affiliations warrant scrutiny. Or maybe they just don’t want to be labeled bigots for questioning a Muslim about connections to certain Muslims.

 

When Ellison was taking heat this summer—including from other Democrats—state Democrat-Farm-Labor Party Chairman Brian Melendez lashed out at critics: “There are people in this world who hear Muslim and think terrorist. They’re bigots who wouldn't vote for Ellison anyway.” Of course there are anti-Muslim bigots, but there’s no evidence suggesting that any of Ellison's public critics are.

 

The state DFL chairman not only sullied Ellison’s critics, but also almost certainly preempted others who might otherwise have asked uncomfortable questions.

 

Dishonest “apology”

 

When Ellison’s history with the Nation of Islam initially surfaced as an issue, the candidate wrote a letter of apology to the Jewish community. He could have used this forum to come clean and display genuine contrition. Ellison chose not to.

 

Ellison wrote in his letter that his involvement with the NOI was limited to 18 months and that he was never a member. Thus, he claimed that he didn’t realize until later the organization’s racism and anti-Semitism. But it appears he wasn’t honest about either the duration or the depth of his ties to the NOI.

 

The candidate has acknowledged helping organize the NOI’s Million Man March in 1995, and when he ran for the state legislature in 1998, he was identified in the Star Tribune as an NOI member. Further, columns he wrote while in law school at the University of Minnesota defending NOI leader Louis Farrakhan indicate he was a member as far back as 1989. That’s almost a decade, not merely 18 months. (Powerline and Minnesota Democrats Exposed have been instrumental in unearthing this information.)

 

And Ellison was not merely a member. According to press accounts at the time, Ellison served as NOI spokesman at a 1997 public hearing where he defended—in his own words—“the truth” of a government official’s supposed comment that “Jews are the most racist white people.” How exactly could he have not understood those very words to be anti-Semitic?

 

Ellison’s embrace of CAIR

 

Most troubling about Ellison is the considerable support he has received from CAIR—and his subsequent show of solidarity with the group. Several CAIR executives have made contributions, CAIR co-founder Nihad Awad headlined an Ellison fundraiser in Minnesota, and just last month, the candidate flew all the way to Florida for a CAIR-hosted fundraiser.

 

CAIR was created in 1994, spun off from the Islamic Association of Palestine. Though the group bristles at that characterization, its two founders, Awad and Omar Ahmad, were both high-ranking IAP officials in 1994, and they maintained close relations for years afterward. IAP, which appears to have ceased operations within the past two years, was an openly anti-Semitic organization long believed to be Hamas’ political front in the U.S. A civil court judge in Illinois last year confirmed those suspicions when he declared that there was “strong evidence that IAP was supporting Hamas.”

 

Both of CAIR’s founders have given rhetorical support to Islamic terrorism. In a speech at Barry University in Florida in 1994, Awad declared, “I’m in support of the Hamas movement.” Addressing a youth session at the 1999 IAP annual convention in Chicago, Ahmad praised suicide bombers who “kill themselves for Islam”: “Fighting for freedom, fighting for Islam, that is not suicide. They kill themselves for Islam.” (Transcript provided by the Investigative Project.)

 

Though the candidate refused to talk, Ellison’s campaign downplayed the connection to CAIR and Awad when contacted by this columnist. Even when this conversation took place in early September, the campaign’s claim that Ellison neither wanted nor had asked for Awad’s assistance was tough to swallow. After all, Awad headlined an August fundraiser that netted just under $20,000. In July, CAIR’s co-founder apparently bundled contributions totaling just over $10,000. (The campaign issued a terse denial on the latter point, though it refused to explain away overwhelming evidence to the contrary.)

 

While Ellison could have been ignorant of Awad’s ugly beliefs at that time, after he won the primary—and long past the point of plausible deniability—he traveled to Florida last month for a CAIR-hosted fundraiser on his behalf.

 

Ellison’s decision to lock arms with CAIR was certainly a lucrative one: the event pulled in over $20,000.

 

Despite Ellison’s decision to cement his connection to CAIR with the Florida trip, local media largely gave the candidate a pass. It could be a symptom of the general media ignorance about CAIR, or it could be that reporters mistakenly believe that criticism of Ellison’s embrace of CAIR is nothing more than typical political sniping. But perhaps it is something more pernicious: The fear of being deemed a bigot by other journalists.

 

Star Tribune columnist Nick Coleman helped stoke that fear by insinuating that Ellison is only being criticized because he’s Muslim. If anything, the opposite is true here. Had a white Christian candidate served as David Duke’s spokesman, for example, would the media have let him skate by with a deceptive apology that falsely downplayed his role in the organization? And if that candidate had also received significant support from an avowed supporter of the Irish Republican Army, would the media keep mum?

[mr_genius]

What remains to be seen, though, is how many journalists will be willing to strike a discordant note by questioning Keith Ellison on his Nation of Islam past

 

many should, it's a legit new story.

 

but i doubt they will, which shows the pathetic state of the news media in the US.

[NorthSideSox72]

many should, it's a legit new story.

 

but i doubt they will, which shows the pathetic state of the news media in the US.

Journalists want a juicy story. People will question it, if they haven't already.

 

If you do a search on "Keith Ellison Nation of Islam", you will see that nearly every headline article makes mention of it.

 

And, lo and behold, his ties were explored in more detail in the mainstream press as well.

Edited November 8, 2006 by NorthSideSox72

[mr_genius]

Journalists want a juicy story. People will question it, if they haven't already.

 

If you do a search on "Keith Ellison Nation of Islam", you will see that nearly every headline article makes mention of it.

 

And, lo and behold, his ties were explored in more detail in the mainstream press as well.

 

great. lets see an expose on 60 minutes.

[NorthSideSox72]

great. lets see an expose on 60 minutes.

You might, now that he won.

[SoxFan1]

We're GOING TO OHIO, AND WESST VIRGINIA, TOM HARKIN! WERE GOING TO SOUTH CAROLINA AND TEXAS AND SO FORTH ALL THE WAY TO THE WHITE HOUSE

BYAHHHHHH

Shameful.

 

You know something, we're not just gonna go to New Hampshire...Tom Harkin. We are gonna go to New York! We're gonna go to Vermont! We're gonna go to Oregon! We're gonna go to Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania! We're going to Cancun for Spring Break! We're gonna go to Montreal! We're going to Vancouver! I'm going all over the world! And then I'm coming all the way to Washington DC, to take back the White House.......BYAAAAAAAAAH!

[NorthSideSox72]

International reaction to the elections, for those who care. I'm sure this would only make some people more angry, and others more happy.

[mr_genius]

International reaction to the elections

 

One Frenchman, 53-year-old teacher Jean-Pierre Charpemtrat, said it was about time U.S. voters figured out what much of the rest of the world already knew.

 

oh France, you're just the best, aren't you.

Edited November 8, 2006 by mr_genius

[sox4lifeinPA]

Melissa Bean has a pretty hot daughter.

 

 

 

they look 12.... ????

[maggliopipe]

Maybe this was already mentioned, but David Loebsack (in his first attempt running for public office) took Iowa's second district over 15 term incumbent Jim Leach. He's a political scientist professor at my alma mater, Cornell College in Mt Vernon, a school of ~1000 students. Pretty sweet and considered quite an upset.

[sox4lifeinPA]

Maybe this was already mentioned, but David Loebsack (in his first attempt running for public office) took Iowa's second district over 15 term incumbent Jim Leach. He's a political scientist professor at my alma mater, Cornell College in Mt Vernon, a school of ~1000 students. Pretty sweet and considered quite an upset.

 

 

I don't know if this was mentioned...but his last name is Loebsack....

[Texsox]

I don't know if this was mentioned...but his last name is Loebsack....

 

How did he make it out of elementary school?

[KipWellsFan]

Associated Press is now saying that the Democrats have won the Senate.

[Balance]

I tell ya, if Webb's victory holds up in Virginia, this day will have exceeded my wildest hopes as a frustrated Democrat!

[Balta1701]

I tell ya, if Webb's victory holds up in Virginia, this day will have exceeded my wildest hopes as a frustrated Democrat!

[kapkomet]

Some states have a law where it's automatic. Not sure if VA is one of those. I agree, tho, Chisoxfn... no recount. Just move on, unlike Webb would have.

Oh for the love of God. HE SAID HE WOULD, or at least someone in his campaign said they would early in the night when he was down slightly. That's what I base my comment on, nothing more. Geesh.