by TChris

As President Bush makes his support of the deceptively-named Patriot Act a central pillar of his reelection campaign, an editorial in the New York Times reminds us that there is more to the Act than provisions allowing the FBI and intelligence agencies to share information. The Act was a John Ashcroft wish list, giving law enforcement agencies unprecedented power to pry into private records and to conduct "sneak and peek" searches -- allowing government agents to sneak into a home, conduct a search, and sneak out without notifying the residents that their privacy has been invaded.

The President contends that the Patriot Act is a vital tool in his war on terror, but the Times reminds us that he isn't telling the rest of the story.

Mr. Bush's own Justice Department told Congress last fall that the act's loosened restrictions on government surveillance were regularly being used in nonterrorism cases, like drug trafficking and white-collar crime.

People who have seen the Patriot Act in action believe it gives the police too much leeway. The Times is not alone in criticizing the Act as Bush calls for its extension. Lawrence, Kansas just joined "nearly 300 communities and four state legislatures across the United States in expressing opposition to the act."

Congress passed the Patriot Act in the wake of 9/11 without serious debate. Rather than blindly supporting the Act's extension, it is time to have that debate. Rather than pretending that every element of the Act focuses on terrorism, it is time to decide which (if any) features of the Act deserve to be extended, and which are inconsistent with the fundamental values that underlie our nation.

Bump:

Ok, it's fundraising time again. Atrios collected over $75k for Kerry in March. Kerry got $116k from New England bloggers. We collected a little less, okay, a lot less. But there's a new round beginning....the top bloggers collecting for Kerry will get passes to the Democratic convention in Boston. So be generous, give now and give often.

John Kerry has agreed to release all of his military records, including evaluations by superiors and medical records. They will be available on his website, beginning tonight.

Kerry won three purple hearts and a silver star during his service in the Vietnam war:

A senior adviser to Mr. Kerry, Michael Meehan, said the campaign was releasing all the documents because Mr. Kerry was "running on his military record, not from his military record."

The FEC has fined the Bush-Cheney 2000 campaign $90,000. for using a separate, secret bank account which raised $11 million and spent $13 million on the recount - they never disclosed the money to the FEC.

The Federal Election Commission (FEC) has entered into a conciliation agreement with Bush-Cheney 2000, Inc. resulting from the failure to report to the FEC receipts and disbursements associated with its recount activities. Bush – Cheney 2000, Inc. has agreed to pay a $90,000 civil penalty. According to the conciliation agreement, Bush – Cheney 2000 held a bank account designated “Bush-Cheney 2000, Inc. – Media.” After the November 7, 2000 presidential election, the Committee redesignated this bank account “Bush-Cheney 2000, Inc. – Recount Fund” and used the account to raise funds and pay costs associated with the recount. However, the Committee failed to include that activity in disclosure reports filed with the Commission.

Bush- Cheney 2000 admitted that the failure to report the receipts and disbursements associated with its recount activity and to properly itemize them as “other receipts” and “other disbursements” violated the Act. The committee agreed to cease and desist from violating these sections of the Act and agreed to submit a miscellaneous filing to the FEC that discloses and itemizes, where appropriate, its recount receipts and disbursements.

The Los Angeles Times reports that Bush is losing ground with voters of rural areas:

....cracks have surfaced in President Bush's once-solid rural constituency. From places like Sherman County to Montcalm County, Mich., and Mahoning County, Ohio, some Republicans are so concerned about crop prices and high unemployment that they're considering voting Democratic for the first time.

Howard Dean is stepping up to the plate for John Kerry. In Monday's New York Times, he writes in an op-ed:

Many Democrats also admire Ralph Nader's achievements, as I do. But if they truly want George Bush out of the White House, they won't vote for Ralph Nader in November.

by TChris

In time of war, the President might expect to count military families in his base of support. As the war in Iraq continues to produce senseless deaths, with rumblings that more troops are needed and with no clear plan to withdraw, President Bush's support among military families is starting to erode. Families are questioning why the President is placing their spouses and children in harm's way.

[I]t was clear at Fort Campbell, based on more than three dozen interviews here this week, that the Republican Party will have to work harder this year to keep the votes of military families, a group who at other times could be counted as Republican stalwarts.

Polls of the military are few and tend to be unreliable since pollsters have only limited access to military bases, and many military personnel are scattered overseas. A recent Washington Post/CBS Poll found that military personnel were still 2-to-1 Republican, but a CBS News survey found that 40 to 48 percent of people from "military families" would vote for Senator John Kerry, said Peter Feaver, a professor of political science at Duke University who studies military-civilian relations.

As military families become less convinced that the President's war policy serves the nation's interests, "the large number of military personnel in swing states like West Virginia, Florida and New Mexico means that small shifts in military voting could prove decisive in the national election."

A new Newsweek poll shows:

Six out of 10 Americans say the Bush administration underestimated the threat of terrorism prior to Sept. 11, 2001, and nearly two out of three are at least somewhat concerned Iraq could become another Vietnam, according to a Newsweek Poll released on Saturday.

The poll of 1,005 adults taken on Thursday and Friday also showed a 51 percent disapproval rating for President Bush's conduct of the war in Iraq, where violence has flared up in the last week amid calls by Muslim clerics for an uprising against the U.S.-led occupation.

by TChris

It's too early for a poll to predict what voters will do in November, but when the trends point toward ousting the President, polls are fun to watch.

After weeks of increasingly violent news from Iraq, presumptive Democratic nominee Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts now leads the president in a two-way trial heat by seven points (50 percent to 43 percent), according to the latest NEWSWEEK poll.

The New York Times says military families are beginning to question their support for President Bush, and it could be a factor in the 2004 election. One military wife says:

So a lot of military wives are now asking: `Why? Why did we go to Iraq?' The administration talked a strong story, but a lot of us are kicking our butts about how we voted last time around. Now we're leaning the other way."

The article continues:

As the conflict in Iraq deepens beyond some prior predictions, the military voting block could become a serious domestic casualty for the Bush administration....it was clear at Fort Campbell, based on more than three dozen interviews here this week, that the Republican Party will have to work harder this year to keep the votes of military families, a group who at other times could be counted as Republican stalwarts.

Wealthy beer magnate Peter Coors will vie for the Colorado Senate seat being vacated by Ben Nighthorse Campbell. Why? Daily Kos says it's a sign the Republicans are giving up on the seat:

Ex-congressman Bob Schaffer was the only one to enter, and a Rocky Mountain poll showed him far behind presumptive Democratic nominee Ken Salazar (49-34). Clear that the national Republican party was surrendering this race for better pickings in the rash of open Democratic seats in the south, the Colorado GOP started looking for a wealthy self-funding candidate.

Ralph Nader told a crowd of college students Tuesday that Bush should be impeached.

"When you plunge our country into war on a platform of fabrications and deceptions, and you bring back thousands of American soldiers who are sick, injured or dead, and that war is unconstitutionally authorized to begin with, Mr. Bush's behavior qualifies for the high crimes and misdemeanor impeachment clause of the Constitution," the 2000 Green Party presidential nominee said to applause from about 200 students at Columbia College Chicago.

Nader said President Clinton was impeached for "far less of an offense." "Lying under oath is not a trivial offense, but it cannot compare with deceiving the American people night after night after night on national television, staging untruths and rejecting the advice of his advisers," he said.

He's right. But it's not going to happen. On the other hand, Nader still has the ability to influence youth. We wish he would use it to get out the vote for John Kerry and boot Bush at the polls in November, rather than promoting a pipe dream.