Must Read Articles On The First Real Political Weekend

Of course the political wind has been blowing regularly with the upcoming mid-term election. But this is the first real down in the trenches weekend. I believe there are two things that are a must to read and contemplate. First, please read this transcript of an interview with former President Bill Clinton conducted by Republican mouthpiece Chris Wallace to be broadcast on Fox News Sunday. As you read this, keep in mind that Clinton was originally told that the interview was about his Clinton Global Initiative: Inspiring Change, and they try to sandbag him. Here is a sample... WALLACE: Do you think you did enough sir? CLINTON: No, because I didn't get him. WALLACE: Right CLINTON: But at least I tried. That'’s the difference in me and some, including all the right wingers who are attacking me now. They ridiculed me for trying. They had eight months to try and they didn'’t I tried. So I tried and failed. When I failed I left a comprehensive anti-terror strategy and the best guy in the country, Dick Clarke. So you did FOX'’s bidding on this show. You did your nice little conservative hit job on me. But what I want to know.. [snip] WALLACE: I asked a question. You don'’t think that'’s a legitimate question? CLINTON: It was a perfectly legitimate question but I want to know how many people in the Bush administration you asked this question of. I want to know how many people in the Bush administration you asked why didn'’t you do anything about the Cole? I want to know how many you asked why did you fire Dick Clarke? I want to know... You can read the entire interview at Think Progress. I applaud President Clinton for showing the obvious bias and and bullshit of Faux and the other wingnuts of the right-wing. I hope his fellow Dems in both houses of Congress take note. Of course the only thing to watch now, is how much of the interview is left on the cutting room floor to make Wallace and Faux News look good. The other article I recommend is written by Robert Kennedy Jr. and published by Rolling Stone. The article gives us a look into the hacking of Diebold voting machines and the stolen 2002 election. Further, is the story of Chris Hood who worked for Diebold as a consultant and admits to tampering with the touch screen voting machines in Georgia. According to Hood, Diebold employees altered software in some 5,000 machines in DeKalb and Fulton counties - the state's largest Democratic strongholds. To avoid detection, Hood and others on his team entered warehouses early in the morning. "We went in at 7:30 a.m. and were out by 11," Hood says. "There was a universal key to unlock the machines, and it's easy to get access. The machines in the warehouses were unlocked. We had control of everything. The state gave us the keys to the castle, so to speak, and they stayed out of our way." Hood personally patched fifty-six machines and witnessed the patch being applied to more than 1,200 others. [snip] But the tally in Georgia that November surprised even the most seasoned political observers. Six days before the vote, polls showed Sen. Max Cleland, a decorated war veteran and Democratic incumbent, leading his Republican opponent Saxby Chambliss - darling of the Christian Coalition - by five percentage points. In the governor's race, Democrat Roy Barnes was running a decisive eleven points ahead of Republican Sonny Perdue. But on Election Day, Chambliss won with fifty-three percent of the vote, and Perdue won with fifty-one percent. Since the Republican controlled Congress hasn't see fit to make "mandatory" paper trails of votes for verification in the upcoming mid-terms, the only way to help insure that voting results are not "flipped" to the Republican opponent is to vote in high enough numbers so there is no doubt of the outcome. Read the entire article (and I'll worn you ahead of time - it is long), at Rolling Stone.com.