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February 23, 2004

Reporting
: Instapundit sent around email on the case of the mysterious, oft-quoted Republican/independent. I emailed the man to see which he was. Campaign Desk, to their credit, actually picked up the phone to call him. The results:

Will the real George Meagher please stand up? As it happens, he will; Campaign Desk called George, and he was happy to talk. He is an independent, he says, and has "never been a Republican" because he dislikes "labels."
[NYTimes reporter] Rosenthal admits she made a mistake, citing Meagher's involvement in Bush's 2000 campaign (which she mentioned in her Sunday piece) as the root of her confusion. She says that the two different quotes were pulled from the same interview, conducted during the run-up to the South Carolina primary. Meagher says he can't remember exactly what he said nearly a month ago, but he confirms he was interviewed just once.
A correction has already been written, and will be printed in tomorrow's Times.

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The virtues of the two-party system

: The accepted wisdom of blog comments and forums these days is that the two-party system is unnatural and even evil and that's why it's OK -- nay, somehow nobly virtuous -- for Ralph Nader (or Pat Buchanan or Ross Perot or John Anderson, in their times) to run, albeit futiley -- even destructively -- from a third party. And anybody (e.g., me) who complains about that and the impact it has on the real race is accused of trying to stifle free speech and democracy and -- gasp! -- defend the two-party system.and1 free movie downloading

Well, let me stand up bravely in defense of that two-party system.and1 free movie downloading

First, let's recognize that this is not Europe or much of the rest of the parliamentary world, where the people elect parties over individuals and where coalitions put together governments (which can easily fall apart) and the winning party, instead of the voters, often selects the nation's executive. In Germany or Italy or Israel, you can vote from among a few liberal or conservative parties but once you do, the leadership of the government is out of your hands. Still, this does mean that, in Germany, for example, you can vote for the Greens with some confidence and good conscience that, if they're big enough, they can join with the liberals and in the end, you're still supporting a left-leaning government and your party leaders are at least part of the government's cabinet. A vote for the Greens is a vote for the left, not a vote discarded.and1 free movie downloading

That's not the way it works here, of course. We elect one person for President and that has nothing to do with which parties win elsewhere. and1 free movie downloading

This means that our system forces voters to make a choice -- but at least it's our choice. and1 free movie downloading

When it comes to the presidency, only one person can win. When it comes to Congress, for that matter, only two parties can efficiently win, given our system of majorities and supermajorities needed to get the work of the people done and given the fact that governments won't fall because of any legislature's failures or whims and given the size of the country and the cost of running for office and marketing a message here. The same system operates down to the state and local levels. and1 free movie downloading

And that system works. It is more stable and effective than any other you can name.and1 free movie downloading

But, again, the system forces us to make a choice. We get a long time to make that choice. We get a long (albeit too long and too expensive) campaign season to push and support (and defeat) candidates. We get to push special-interest candidates to push the agendas they represent. That is how we build coalitions; that is how diverse interests get represented; that is how change erupts. That is why, for example, Al Sharpton and Howard Dean and Joe Lieberman, losers all, are telling people voters that the best way to change the system and get represented is to do it from within the party, not without. They all tried to win the top spot. But they lost. Yet they all believe they influenced the debate and the election and the winners. So votes for them were still votes for the left and not votes discarded.and1 free movie downloading

But once it gets toward the end, things change. I'll say it once more: You are given a choice: Do you want George Bush? Or do you want a Democrat. It's a simple, if sometimes tough, choice. But it's our choice. To avoid that choice is wasteful and sometimes petulant and immature and occasionally even destructive. and1 free movie downloading

If you truly can't stand George Bush yet you vote for Ralph Nader and allow Bush to get elected -- the first or second time -- then you have done worse than thrown out your vote, you have given your vote to your opposition and proven and changed nothing in the process. and1 free movie downloading

If you are Ralph Nader and you say you want to defeat George Bush yet you're the reason George Bush got elected the first time and you could be the reason he gets elected the second time, well, then you are nothing but an egotistical, petulant, selfish, short-sighted, destructive, pathetic, hanging-on has-been and hypocrite.and1 free movie downloading

Ralph Nader is absolutely free to make his choice to reveal himself to be such a twit. And I am just as free to call him a twit. He can campaign. I can complain. But if he continues to run and if too many vote for him and if those votes could have swung the election, well, there's no running away from the choice -- the moral choice -- and and those who voted for him made to avoid the real choice, the mature and necessary choice they were given this election.and1 free movie downloading

But I have faith in the voters that they saw Nader for what he was the last time around. I believe he'll be humiliated as he deserves to be with a pathetic and embarrassingly small vote this time (and Howard Dean helped assure that outcome today). I don't think this election will be the mess the last one was. and1 free movie downloading

For the system works. The two-party system works. and1 free movie downloading

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Hyperlocal
: I'm proud of what I'm seeing on the hyperlocal blogs at my day job. Here's a sampling NJ.com put out there today:
: Notes on the new WalMart in town and pictures of the school science fair and more.
: A new town firehouse.
: A report on an elected officials' $26 omelet on a junket (from a competitive paper, even, via another Jersey blog).
This may not be news to you but it is news to the neighbors in these towns.
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Losers hang together
: Lloyd Grove, bloggers' favorite punching bag, is so desperate to find anybody else who's a loser like him that he gives publicity to the scurrilous hate speech from John Lee glibly throwing around the word racism as if it were meaningless. and1 free movie downloading

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To all my German blogging friends...
: Loic Le Meur, head of UBlog (the French blogging company) is coming to Germany to expand his empire and plans to set up some blogger dinners and meetings. I met Loic at ETech. Extremely nice guy; loves blogging; well poised for international expansion. So keep track of his schedule on his blog and leave him comments there....and1 free movie downloading

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Good for you, Howard Dean
: A few days ago, I said that Howard Dean should come out urging his supporters not to shift their support to Ralph Election Spoiler Nader.
Well, Howard Dean just did it. Good for you, Doc.

Those who truly want America's leaders to stand up to the corporate special interests and build a better country for working people should recognize that, in 2004, a vote for Ralph Nader is, plain and simple, a vote to re-elect George W. Bush. I hope that Ralph Nader will withdraw his candidacy in the best interests of the country we hope to become.
Many of my supporters urged me to run as an independent, but I judged it the wrong thing to do. There is still time for Ralph Nader to stand with those in the Democratic Party who are building a progressive coalition to defeat George W. Bush. But time is running out. We can win only if we are united.

Finally, something on which Dean and I wholeheartedly agree. and1 free movie downloading

: UPDATE: Joe Lieberman also tells Nader what for. and1 free movie downloading

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Read all about it
: There's a transcript of the ETech panel on which I served up here. I shudder to think what it's like to read what I say talking. I talk fast. There are probably nospacebars. and1 free movie downloading

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Iran sham
: Great Michael Ledeen column on the true numbers in the Iranian "election." We got way way better coverage out of Iranian bloggers/citizen reporters via Iranfilter.com than through most big media.
(And we got that thanks to the translation of Hoder, Pedram, and other Iranian bloggers.)and1 free movie downloading

: UPDATE: And Pedram says it even better. What does it matter how many people show up to a sham election?

In short, even if 80% take part in the next fake election, it won't prove anything. It will not be a sign of approval for the regime or the process in any way or shape. What is clear, is that the majority of Iranians do not approve of this regime. If they did, there would be no reason for the establishment to deny the demand of its various inside and outside opposition to hold a binding and monitored referendum and either silence all the critics once and for all, or accept their policies of the past 25 ears have been a major disaster and accept the consequences. Only if that vote is internationally supervised and accepted binding by all sides will we be able and justified to argue about what the numbers actually mean or how it'll effect the future of Iran.

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Later
: Have crappy connectivity. Back in a bit.and1 free movie downloading

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Another wet kiss
: Lee Gomes gives blogs a belated Valentine in today's Wall Street Journal.

These blogs are becoming an alternative-news universe, giving everyone with a PC and a Web connection access to the sorts of gossip that was once available only to reporters on the press bus. At a site like Feedster, which is to blogs what Google is to Web sites, you can track the rumor du jour. And what Napster did for MP3s, blogs are doing for news -- or, at least for rumors. They are eliminating the gatekeepers and all barriers to entry....
I am, in my private life, a voracious reader of these things, as are most of my friends, reporters included.

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The Stern vote
: Howard Stern spent the last few years singing George Bush's praises but Bush has lost him and here's the killer blow: Over vacation, Howard bought Al Franken's book and loved it. "If you read this book, you'll never vote for George Bush," he said.
Before you go off on a Frankenfest, that's not the point. Bush lost Stern in part because of what he confesses is a self-serving issue: threats of censorship from the FCC. But it's more than that; Stern said it's also about forbidding stem-cell research and trying to forbid abortion. Stern said Bush is a religious fanatic, "a Jesus freak." And, Stern said lately, it's about the economy; it's about jobs.
Stern didn't say much about Kerry; he didn't mention Edwards. But he said he has become an anybody-but-Bush voter.
This matters.and1 free movie downloading

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Howard's back
: This is what a sick fan I am: I'm on vacation and could actually sleep this morning, yet I set the alarm for 6 so I could hear Howard Stern on Stuttering John's defection to the Jay Leno show.
Stern won't stand in the way of his guy, John, getting a good gig with more money (reportedly $500k/year for three years). That's not the interesting part.
Howard said Leno called him twice and Howard called Jay lame for stealing not only his bits but now his people. Leno sends people out to the red carpet to ask odd questions, as Stuttering John does (and, in fact, Leno tried to hire John before to do this). Leno stole the Stern homeless game/stripper game. Now Leno steals Stuttering John. And as a I said a few days ago, it's all the odder that Leno is hiring him as announcer, extending Stern's stuttering joke.
Leno called Stern a second time asking him to come on Tonight to talk about it. Stern laughed at him.
And that's the morning Stern report.and1 free movie downloading

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