We lost power today for a few minutes. I haven't checked to how the microwave oven and VCR weathered this minor setback, but the pile of techno-rubble which contains my internet connection got confused enough that my housemates called me on the phone, wondering how to reset the thing.

Alas, my verbal instructions were to no avail. Later, hands on, I figured out the cable modem (by Belkin) needed to be unplugged and re-plugged. (Seems nothing these days comes with an on/off switch... as if the equipment was really that reliable.)

Anyway, for whatever reason, I sent to type in "google.com" and use that as a test page but ended up at gop.com, a site I've probably only visted once in my life, that I can recall (went there looking for an ad).

The front page offered this manual allegedly from Florida Democrats. Among the various tidbits there were several interesting tidbits I thought I'd share with you.

For one, the document lists the votes cast in the 2000 election as:

Bush		2,912,790
Gore		2,912,253

Apparently this nonsense that Gore won in Florida is only for the consumption of the proletariat. The party bosses speak candidly otherwise.

I thought this was interesting too (my notes in brackets):

Coordinated Campaign Decision Making Table:
A committee of the following individuals and organizations will serve as table partners of the Coordinated Campaign. This committee will meet bi-weekly through September and weekly during October:

• State Party Chair Scott Maddox
• Kerry-Edwards Campaign
• U.S. Senate Nominee
• Coordinated Campaign Director
• AFL-CIO
• SEIU [A service employees union]
• Florida Academy of Trial Lawyers
• Florid Education Association
• Florida Congressional Delegation

Everything was fine until we got to those last five. Kerry likes to make a lot of hay from the idea that Bush receives special-interest money. And of course, Bush does. But so does Kerry... all politicians do. It's a fact of life.

But what's shocking to me is: (a) The hypocrisy Kerry uses when claiming he's above special interests. That's absurd; he's just sold out to different people, and (b) the fact that the special interests are actually RUNNING HIS CAMPAIGN.

Imagine if I could produce a document showing the that pharmaceutical industry was actually directing the Bush campaign, or that Bush's top campaign staff met on a weekly basis with Oil or Insurance Industry leaders to coordinate the election.

We would hear no end of simulated browbeating from the left about how "sold out" the President was, and how bad it supposedly was to be influenced by special interests.

(And it is bad to be sold out; but I don't see that the Democrats in question have any justification for accusating others of such.)

But this isn't just unseemly -- it's actually illegal as the AFL-CIO and other groups mentioned above are 527s, and are supposed to be forbidden by law from coordinating with a candidate's campaign. Well, that explains why they accuse their opponents of doing it -- because they, in fact, do.

The moral outrage you hear from these guys is simulated indeed.

The only thing they're really unhappy about is being out of power.

And, perhaps I'm alone in this, but I find the traditionally mobbed-up AFL-CIO (has it reformed? not by the look of recent tactics), teacher's unions, and the trail lawyers a far creepier bunch than, say, insurance and pharmaceutical companies.

This sounds ominous:

Military Ballots:
The campaign is developing a thorough plan to address proactively the issues experienced in 2000 regarding military absentee ballots.

Some of their strategies remind me a bit of how communists worked in Asia -- designating people to "win" their Condo Complex or Universities to the cause. Perhaps the Republicans do this too, I don't know, but that's what it reminds me of.

The document highlights some other practices which make Florida rife for abuse, such as distinctly noting that it's legal to pick up ballots from early voters, and also a paragraph noting that early vote ballots no longer require the signature to be witnessed.

These are practices we definitely need to oppose. And when I say "we" I don't mean conservatives, I mean everyone who has an interest in a fair election. It often shocks me that Democrats often work to undermine these safeguards. Why, it's almost as they're admitting that they're going to cheat and do it more than they think they're opponents will.

What else could such a stance mean, psychologically?

Also available on the site is the now-nearly-famous Colorado manual which (page 2) instructs Democrats who see no evidence of misbehavior by Republicans to make a loud noise about how people are being intimidated, and shamelessly suggests using minority leaders to outrage the groups they purportedly represent, and says what they should say.

These are sad days indeed.