I mean, Tigger? Why Tigger, for the love of gods? Did this fellow's doctor give him a day pass, or did he just chew through the straps? What are these, Republican furries?!
Oh, and yeah - that's a Nazi swastika on the flag behind him.
What's truly ironic is that they're making a fuss over the 8, count 'em, 8 confirmed absentee ballots filed by persons who had died before the election date. Most of the dead (not to mention all of the brain-dead) voted for Rossi. Um.
What infuriates me is the way the state Democratic party has just kind of rolled over and ceded the court of public opinion to Republican rumormongers, hyperbolists, and outright liars. I don't think they understand that they may have won the Governor's race legally and will almost certainly prevail in the courts, but in the court of public opinion, they are losing, and badly. The number of people convinced that somehow King County, and only King County, gamed the system to screw Rossi out of a victory grows daily. Why isn't the state party out there buying full-page newspaper ads and TV airtime to call bullshit on some of the myths and nonsense being promulgated by the right-wing echo chamber? The very serious problem with letting Gregoire win in the courts and not in the minds of the voting public is that it makes Rossi kind of an electoral martyr, and gives him actual political credibility for future campaigns. If I were Senator Maria Cantwell in particular, I'd be very concerned about that.
The Seattle Weekly had a good article on this topic:
http://www.seattleweekly.com/features/0502/050112_news_revote.php
Here's some myths about the recount:
Myth: We don't know who won
Fact: Christine Gregoire won the election according to state rules and has been legally certified by the Secretary of State.
Myth: An election can be set aside because of errors
Fact: State law clearly says an election can only be set aside if there is clear evidence of fraud or errors that would result in a different outcome.
Myth: Dino Rossi is not trying to change the rules
Fact: Dino Rossi is taking the unprecedented step of calling for a new election, which could mean a constitutional amendment.
Myth: There are more votes than voters
Fact: Auditors say there are always discrepancies. Voting rolls are updated and changed beginning the day after the election. In fact, the safeguards for ballots are at the front end of the process, with signature checks and matches.
Myth: There is a significant problem of counting ballots from deceased voters.
Fact: There are actually very few of these problems uncovered. So far a total of eight out of 2.8 million votes cast. And nearly all uncovered so far were Rossi votes.
Myth: Military voters were disenfranchised
Fact: Counties reported very few problems with military votes. In fact, U.S. troops had extra opportunities and extra time to vote, as they well deserve. Options included a voting information officer in every unit to answer questions, and the ability to download a federal ballot from the internet and write-in any state races. They didn't need to pay postage and only needed to sign and date their ballots. They didn't even need to be registered.
Myth: Errors have changed the outcome of this election
Fact: Sure there were problems, but according to state auditors and the Secretary of State?s office, the problems have been blown out of proportion with an accuracy rate of more than 99%.
The Seattle Weekly had a GREAT article by one of the official ballot-counters on the hand recount about the actual process, and the way GOP operatives tried to game the system:
http://www.seattleweekly.com/features/0501/050105_news_recount.php
A brief excerpt:
"Democrat Christine Gregoire was elected governor by 129 votes last month in the third tabulation of one of the closest elections in U.S. history. While many are skeptical about the outcome, I am not among them. I was there at the historic moment the last ballots were tallied. In fact, I personally counted those and more than 10,000 of the 900,000 other ballots cast in King County. Over two weeks, as a temporary county employee and Democratic Party designee, I also learned a thing or two about partisan holy war—and human nature. The Re-Recount of 2004 wasn't pretty, but the system worked as designed. The hand recount gave us the true winner: the voters."
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