« previous | MUCK HOME | next »
The Daily Muck
Rep. Gary Miller (R-CA) is not under FBI investigation. At least, that's what Miller has told The Hill in a recent interview. Of course, as he points out, that doesn't dispute the fact that a federal agent could be looking into a few of his real estate windfalls; he explains: "a federal agent could be anyone — anyone flashing a badge." Just not the FBI. (The Hill)
Yesterday, the White House cleared up confusion about whether the Office of Administration was subject to FOIA by doing the respectable thing: it changed its website. But, as CREW points out, the rationale for excluding the OA is, well, false. (CREW)
The D.C. Madam is facing government persecution because her clients before 9/11 included Muslim men, some of whom cannot be named because the information is classified (according to her). I'm of the opinion that with a line of defense that crazy, it has to be true! (Washington Post)
Californians are likely to vote next year on a referendum that would change the state's winner-take-all system to disburse electoral votes by congressional district. In a sign that the change would be a huge advantage to Republicans, the organization supporting the reform has also worked closely as "Swift Boats for Truth" supporter Bob Perry; Perry has paid $65,000 in past legal fees for help with the PAC that helped attack Kerry's war creds. (Think Progress)
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) has the worst luck; he just keeps getting money from corrupt donors. Joh Erickson was charged with illegally funneling a quarter of a million dollars to Florida candidates, including Ryan. Erickson is closely linked to Dennis Troha, a prominent businessman who just recently was charged with the same crime; Troha also gave to Ryan. (Journal Sentinel)
Yesterday, China denied reports that their military had hacked into the Pentagon this past June, claiming such criticism was absurd and reflected cold war-style thinking. (Financial Times)
More worries leak out about Michael Chertoff, a man still sitting atop a short list of replacement candidates at the Justice Department. Chertoff played a role in prosecutions at the Justice Department that seemed charged by a partisan agenda, and it didn't help that he promised members of the ultra-conservative Judicial Watch that he would go after the Clintons during an investigation (he went after fundraiser David Rosen instead). (LA Times)
Finally, 167 Iraqi translators will receive visas to come to the United States with their families. (U.S. News)
Comments (4)
nancy wrote on September 5, 2007 10:16 AM:Paul Ryan is from Wisconsin.
sandy wilson wrote on September 5, 2007 1:57 PM:Changing the electrol collage would be a good thing. It is not a good thing what Calif. wants to do. Republicans can't win a popular vote so they want to change the rules in a heavy Dem. state. Gore won the popular vote (and the electoral vote). I believe that Kerry won the popular vote too. They, the Republicans did some tricky voting machine stuff and dissed some voters.
Mr. Marshall, please start addressing this with the passion you had for the Plame case and the Gonzales problem.
The voters have to know that the voting machines do not have a paper trail. This country can't survive another all Republican government.
V. Populi wrote on September 5, 2007 7:02 PM:167 visas is a shamefully small number, and I hope the pressure continues to grant asylum to Iraqi refugees, especially the ones who've tried to help us.
Roberta wrote on September 5, 2007 10:16 PM:H.R. 811 is coming up for a vote soon. MoveOn.org, after polling its members, backs it because, even though it's not perfect, it at least requires some sort of paper trail for ballots. And it requires them for the 2008 election, with actual paper ballots required by 2012 (instead of cash register-type slips allowed in 2008).
This paper trail at least gets rid of the all-electronic vulnerability in voting machines. So make sure your representative knows you want her or him to support it (if you do--I do).
But the electoral college is another animal. Yeah, I know it's supposed to maintain a balance between the federal-state power struggle in elections, but it has always struck me as elitist. And it's hypocritical, if the US actually is encouraging democracy elsewhere, since it undoes the primacy of the popular vote.
And if California goes to a proportional system, that will be disastrous. Again, I understand the autonomy of the states thing, but if there's going to be a winner-take-all electoral system, then all the states should follow it. Ditto for proportional.
At the least amend the requirement for an absolute numerical majority of electoral votes going to one candidate, so that it is as democratic a vote as the one-person-one-vote model is. But then, there really wouldn't be a need for an electoral college if that happened.
The worry that some states will get more attention than others and the electoral college's mitigating that is, I think, outdated, since virtually everyone has access to some form of electronic media, even if it's just a radio broadcast. And communication goes both ways with relative ease. It's much easier to have our voices heard now than when the electoral college might have had value to keep certain regions' agendas from dominating others'.
Let me go all the way with this: It's time for a Constitutional Convention. After all the harm that's been done to that poor beleaguered document, it's time to dust it off, read it all, get rid of the stuff that's just wrong, and strengthen the stuff that best reflects the original aims of the Republic.