David Goldstein and I were the guest speakers at today's Microsoft PAC lunch.
An audio of the discussion is here (.WMA, 1 hour, 15MB).
I was told that some of the attendees would be liveblogging the event. Send me the URL and I'll post a link.
UPDATE: Mike Stall liveblogged it here. Mike is the one who remarked from the audience that Sound Politics inspired him to become an election-day poll judge last fall. Kudos to Mike!
UPDATE 2: One of the points that David and I disagreed on was the possible disenfranchisement of military voters in King County in 2004. It's toward the end of the discussion. I mentioned that I don't know for sure whether or not military voters were disenfranchised, but I do know that King County has never been able to produce documentation showing when all the military ballots were mailed. Goldstein responded in King County's defense that turnout among military voters was the same as the average for all of King County. I replied that that meant little and that I would expect that military voters would vote at a higher percentage than the general population. A helpful reader sent this link to a Washington Post article, which reports that military voters do have a higher rate of voter participation than the general public.
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at July 31, 2006 03:20 PM | Email ThisI think that's a key difference because I think that Stefan is actually principled. He believes in the things he believes in because they are good ideas, and not because he's trying to be an entertainer.
That really sums up a lot of today's left. Do they really believe in apoligizing for a terrorist in Seattle, or is it just a path to political power, or a way to discredit Bush, etc.
If you are interested in entertainment, and want to suspend reality for a bit, then you should listen to David Goldstein. If you are serious about ideas and facts and what's right for the world, then you should listen to Stefan Sharkansky.
Posted by: Jeff B. on July 31, 2006 04:42 PMI thought you let Goldstein off the hook on a few topics. On the corrupt stolen election for one. And on the topic of public access to government business for another. I forget the name of the local fellow who had to take King County to court over the Safeco debacle just to get access to the supposedly public records, but he is a shining example of how Democrats have slammed the door to open government in the public's face. Government under Democrat control has become more secretive.
Posted by: pbj on July 31, 2006 11:43 PMI was also disappointed that you let Goldstein spread the Ohio lie, saying the Republicans were cheating. Ask him about Chad Staten, the one Democrats traded crack cocaine for fraudulent voter registrations.
And you should also have mentioned the Democrat party establishment that went to jail in East St Louis Il for fraud in the 2004 election.
Convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit vote fraud during the Nov. 2 election was Charlie Powell Jr., head of the city's powerful Democratic Central Committee and a former city council member. He faces five years in prison.
Convicted of conspiracy and vote fraud and facing five years on each count were:
• Kelvin Ellis, a Democratic precinct committeeman and former East St. Louis city government department head who served a federal prison term for extortion in the early 1990s.
• Yvette Johnson, secretary to the city Democratic organization.
• Democratic precinct committeemen Sheila Thomas and Jesse Lewis.
Posted by: pbj on August 1, 2006 12:21 AMthe effort to have countless African American's and others' registrations not count because it was on too thick a stock of paper--that was also a lie?
Posted by: David Campbell on August 1, 2006 10:08 AMThe whole premise of the left ont the 2004 election is that it was a game of musical chairs. Too bad, when the music stopped, Gregoire was in a chair and Rossi was not. Nevermind all of the mishandled absentees, provisionsals, failure to produce records on time, etc. Goldstein has the blinders on and only sees that the outcome was to his liking and is not willing to acknowledge anything further.
He takes this tack on almost every issue. Squawk loudly when it ruffles his feathers and stay quiet as a mouse when it does not. He's got no integrity, because those on the left with real balls are willing to look at the issues and admit that the election was very poorly handled and that it's absolutely legitimate for the public to be wary of problems with an incredibly close result and Dean Logan's constant obfuscation.
I guess when one lives in a world, as Goldstein does, where entitlement is such a central part of his thinking, speaking out of turn comes naturally.
Posted by: Jeff B. on August 1, 2006 02:44 PM