Nailed it on both counts
Last night, I predicted, “Romney walks away with Wisconsin and we wind up waiting for results from Waukesha, as a result of the incompetent County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus.”
Romney’s win is common knowledge by now and Nikolaus hasn’t gotten any better at her job. As of this writing, the only result on the county clerk’s webpage is a single court race. We’re still waiting for results from the GOP primary.
Wisconsin Supreme Court Race Recount Update
From the Associated Press:
Justice David Prosser held a 7,316-vote lead over challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg before a statewide recount began April 27. The state Government Accountability Board is providing daily updates on the recount’s progress by precinct. Here’s a look at where the recount stood as of Friday afternoon:
_Precincts recounted and given a preliminary review by board staff: 3,455 of 3,602
_Prosser’s current total: 689,642
_Kloppenburg’s current total: 721,391
The good news: that represents 94% of the total vote.
The bad news: Waukesha County — home of the magically appearing Prosser lead — is still counting. Apparently, the gross incompetence of County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus left the county system in shambles and a judge extended their recount deadline by nearly three weeks.
Still, you do the math. Prosser was originally up by 7,316 and now he’s down by 31,749. Keeping my fingers crossed.
Stories to Watch: 4/11/11
I’m having burgers tonight. I started thinking about them yesterday, when it was nice out. But I finally decided against it — still too dark at dinner time. Now I can’t get them out of my head. They’ll be pan-fried, but that’s better than nothing. Now here’s the news…
Mittens (forms a committee to explore his viability as a candidate and fundraiser before he) throws his hat in the ring.
Obama’s budget proposal calls for entitlement reform (bad idea), letting the Bush tax cuts expire on the top 2% expire (good idea), and closing tax loopholes that benefit the fabulously well-to-do (even gooder idea). Of course, there are even better ideas out there, but no one’s interested in really good ideas anymore. America is 24/7 wishful thinking now. If we can’t have our cake and eat it too, then we just won’t have any cake at all.
A CNN poll shows that 58% approve of the deal that averted the government shutdown — not a huge surprise given that previous polls showed a shutdown to be an unpopular idea. The winners seem to be Democrats here, since 48% give them credit for breaking the logjam, while 35% give it to the GOP. It’s not the best deal ever — in fact it’s a shitty one — but perceptions are what perceptions are and, even if dems let themselves be screwed, it seems they’ve hidden that fact pretty well.
Remember that Wisconsin Supreme Court election? Remember those 7,500 votes that appeared from out of the blue in Waukesha County and turned the loser into the winner? Remember the Democratic County Board member who vouched for everything and said the “numbers jibed?”
Yeah, her name is Ramona Kitzinger and this is from her official statement on the matter:
Once the canvass had been completed and the results were finalized, I was called into Kathy’s office along with Pat (the Republican observer) and told of an impending 5:30pm press conference. It was at that point that I was first made aware of an error Kathy had made in Brookfield City. Kathy told us she thought she had saved the Brookfield voter information Tuesday night, but then on Wednesday she said she noticed she had not hit save. Kathy didn’t offer an explanation about why she didn’t mention anything prior to Thursday afternoon’s canvass completion, but showed us different tapes where numbers seemed to add up, though I have no idea where the numbers were coming from. I was not told of the magnitude of this error, just that she had made one. I was then instructed that I would not say anything at the press conference, and was actually surprised when I was asked questions by reporters.
The reason I offer this explanation is that, with the enormous amount of attention this has received over the weekend, many people are offering my statements at the press conference that the “numbers jibed” as validation they are correct and I can vouch for their accuracy. As I told Kathy when I was called into the room – I am 80 years old and I don’t understand anything about computers. I don’t know where the numbers Kathy was showing me ultimately came from, but they seemed to add up. I am still very, very confused about why the canvass was finalized before I was informed of the Brookfield error and it wasn’t even until the press conference was happening that I learned it was this enormous mistake that could swing the whole election. I was never shown anything that would verify Kathy’s statement about the missing vote, and with how events unfolded and people citing me as an authority on this now, I feel like I must speak up.
This may very well change things drastically. Maybe not in this election when all the smoke clears, but in the coming recalls. The fishier this election smells, the more fired up voters may be for the next ones.
Folks in Paul Ryan’s home district aren’t sold on his fantasy-economics porn.
A court of appeals rules against Arizona’s “papers please” immigration law.
Finally, the Japanese government may reassess the Fukushima incident, reclassifying it’s severity — drastically and not in a comforting direction. The constant mantra of “it’s not as bad as Chernobyl!” may finally be proven untrue.
Stories to Watch: 4/7/11
Nothing much going on. How about you? Now here’s the news…
The election night that would not die: vote count corrections are popping up all over the state of Wisconsin. Go here, scroll down to the updates at the end of the article, and keep your hands away from your hair.
Wait a second. Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that Prosser picked up 7,582 votes from Waukesha County. There’s reason to doubt the veracity of this previously unknown cache of votes; Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus is a Republican activist and she’s previously been under scrutiny for her handling of election data.
Gay caveman! You’ll never look at Fred and Barney the same way again.
Defunding Planned Parenthood and crippling the EPA are the hills Republicans have chosen to die on.
The question (almost) no one’s asking: does a government shutdown have a price tag? Yeah, it does. And it’s hefty. Kind of makes Republican claims that they’re being forced into a shutdown by “fiscal irresponsibility” ring a little hollow, doesn’t it?
Finally, what you already knew is now confirmed: the New Black Panther case was pretty much bullshit.
