Kerry speaking

[karynnj]

[TayTay]

1. Love the dark cream colored suit.

Looks good on him.

What is that color?

Kenyon College review. Nice. Ohio!!!!!

[ProSense]

2. I don't know.

Let's make up a name for it:

Too sexy taupe!

[TayTay]

3. Could it be dijon

It looks sort of cream colored. It's the brighest color I've seen him wear on the floor. I like it. Wonkette will flip-out. (Ah, bite me.)

Nice speech.

Or between champagne and sand: http://www.3-form.com/materials-varia-color.php#neutrals

[ProSense]

4. That's it!

Can I add an adjective? Delicious! Delectable! Disarming!

[ProSense]

6. It's posted (meant to link this to the OP)

in GD:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=1684823&mesg_id=1684823

[karynnj]

10. It looks like that - but isn't there a risk with Kerry wearing a

suit the color of French mustard! It did look nice - but wonkette to the contrary, he always looks well dressed in the Senate.

[TayTay]

12. I did like it.

I know he's worn that before, but I like it. (What is that color in English; ahm, light mustard?)

[karynnj]

14. In English it's Dijon - named after a city in France

"Dijon Vacation Guides & Tourism
Dijon is known overseas mainly for its mustard. Located in the center of the Côte d'Or, it's the ancient capital of Burgundy. Here, great wine accompanies good food. Between meals, you can enjoy the art and architecture. Your first impression, especially if you arrive at the rail station, may be misleading. You may think Dijon is a dreary modern city. But press on to its medieval core. Many old streets and buildings have been restored"


They forgot to say great color for summer suits for Senators.

[ProSense]

13. Hey!

The French have offered the best solution to the Mideast conflict. Besides, it's a lot better than chicken hawk yellow!

[TayTay]

15. I agree I really liked it.

Nice speech too. Maybe we should have a separate thread to discuss the speech and one for the color of the suit. (OMG! I can't believe I just wrote that sentence. LOL! Must be summer, I am silly.)

[JanusAscending]

27. Suit looked great on him, good color tie with it,

speech was great, but I couldn't help wanting to get up off my chair to straigten out his tie!! It was making me nuts!! Anyone else notice that? Maybe it's just me, on edge, waiting for that "special phone call" from my son-in law !!! I am weighing the Oct./ Dec. thing Tay. Lot will depend on when I start babysitting. Also, don't everyone forget about working for the election in Nov.if you have obligations and commitments , but I digress...... He looked good enough to ...........I'll stop there, love DC

[ProSense]

16. Moving (my aim is off today) n/t

[TayTay]

5. BLM: Kerry talked directly about the machines

Look this speech up tomorrow. The Senator specifically talked about misdirected vots on the machines as well machines that malfunctioned. Directly.

Good speech, Kerry wound into it and was quite passionate about what he was saying. Get a copy of this one.

Sen. Boxer: Thank you Sen. Kerry for raising these issues.

Many of us believe that we are not stopping our efforts to have the right to vote.

[karynnj]

7. He really addressed so many issues

Proprietary software in machines, touch screens where the wrong name came up, Democratic strongholds in states with Republican SOS where it took 5 minutes to vote in Rep areas and hours in Democratic areas, registrations being thrown away ... He also mentioned that it has changed outcomes. He mentioned the Clinton/Kerry/Boxer legislation to get a verifiable paper trail.

He did a nice job speaking about monitoring voting overseas. It was so nice that Boxer spoke to him at the beginning of her speech. Her comments on voting are outstanding.

Wyden's speech was really interesting - especially where it sounds like there were no down sides to the mail in voting, it's verifiable, and he said it was cheaper - if all this is true, then why don't we go that way.

[TayTay]

9. There are counter forces that don't want to make it easier to vote

They are holding up reforms that will get more Americans to vote.

Gee, who wouldn't want more people to vote? Hmmmmmm, I wonder.

[karynnj]

11. True, they're called "Republicans"

[karynnj]

8. also the closed propriatary software in the machines

and he mentioned paper trail several times.

[blm]

23. I was gone most of the day, so it's gonna take a bit to catch up.

Thanks for the heads up.

[TayTay]

24. There is a thread on GD that goes into this

It really was a summing up of everything that went wrong in the election process in 2004. Kerry was forceful and passionate when he talked about this. Even Sen. Boxer complimented him on this and mentioend that the litany of wrongs that Kerry spoke about were known to her and influenced her decision to protest the election in Jan of '05.

Good, good stuff. You will like this. Ahm, I think that Kerry has a complete picture of what happened in '04. But he specifically mentioned defects with the machines. Get the speech off of the Congressional Record tomorrow. I think you'll like it. (That said, it's not really a 'Kerry speech' yet. This was still a bit formless. When the Senator makes up his mind about something, he has no problem talking about it and can be quite eloquent. This talk today was low-key and not 'there yet.' But the ingredients seem to be almost all assembled. It just needs a bit more time. This speech today was good for what was in it, not for the way it was put together, if you know what I mean.)

[blm]

25. Thanks - And I will stay noisy about this - but, hey, it's for HIM and for

this country.

And you know when I get corny I mean every word of it. ;)

[karynnj]

26. I agree on the speech

Near the end there were parts that were clearly already in very very effective shape. He spoke of how other countries once looked to our democracy, the times he monitored elections, and the litany of problems. He also had several sentences that spoke of how important this was and how strange that it was different in each state. He really had a lot of information packed into a short speech.

He might have felt that the issue carried so much emotion and was so serious that just laying out the facts was enough at this point. A passionate speech filled with eloquent patriotic rhetoric might be too much at this point. He did have one sentence where he spoke of the possibility of these flaws changing results. That these were said by Kerry on the floor of the Senate make it important in itself. He also focused it as what needs to be fixed and Boxer picked that up beautifully. (her speech was wonderful and her comments to Kerry were very very nice.)

[ProSense]

17. Check out this blast from the past (six months)

Posted by Kster in the GD thread:

John Kerry Interview - Ed Schultz, 12/21/05, concerning election issues
John Kerry
Interview - Ed Schultz, 12/21/05
Excerpt concerning election issues

"We brought a couple of lawsuits in Ohio, we were working there on the issue of what happened to our voters, with Mr. Blackwell and others, and the involvement of the machines. Well here we are now, with a Florida election official who has publicly refused to use those machines because they can be hacked, and the company for months and months and months was denying any possibility of hackability. Now you even have the New York Times in one of its editorials acknowledging that these machines indeed can be hacked, and obviously the Diebold company is in trouble for a lot of other reasons. So, this is something that really has to be followed up on. You can't leave the voting integrity of America and the rights of citizens to know what happened to their votes in proprietary hands. It's simply absurd to believe that could be the case. And so I believe there's not just the issue of survielance and not just the issue of accountability for violation of people's rights in terms of the organizations and their right to assemble, but also the fundamental right in our democracy to be able to have your vote count and be counted, is still at question, and we have to stay on that one."

Towards end of interview:
Audio: http://www.thedemocraticdaily.com/122105SenatorKerry.mp3

[globalvillage]

18. I have to say that I love him in that color suit.

Other colors, too. But that color in particular.

:-)

Check it out. If you're near a TV, Arlen Specter has the same color combo on. Beige suit, pink tie. He looks like crap.

Hmmm...Maybe it's not the suit.

[TayTay]

19. I felt guilty about this thread today

I hi-jacked it and started talking about the suit. (But I like that color. Is this new or did he wear this last year? I thought it looked new. It did really work for him.)

Ah yes, feelng guilty. Dear BLM, I am sorry. We need separate thread to talk about what the Senator said. It was really good stuff. Really good. But I also want to talk about that suit and tie, they were really nice.

So, do Edwards or Clark or Bayh or Warner people talk about the suits and ties their guys wear? Is this another function of having a lot of women in this group? (Don't get me wrong, all wonk and no play makes JK Forum people dull girls. I know that. But he was talking about election reform and the machines and voting and, and, ahm, I really liked that suit.)

[karynnj]

20. I personally like that about this group

I don't know if I would ever have consciously noticed the color of Kerry's suit and tie, if I hadn't seen all the the previous threads. He always Presidential. But, there is the other side where there are often more serious interesting threads here than in the larger forums.

[globalvillage]

22. I must say I'm a bit disappointed

The ladies at welovejohnkerry.com have not covered this. Maybe they're saving it for tie day?
I thought certain they would jump on the beige suit story.
They do have a good post up about the stem cell debate.

[globalvillage]

21. I don't think any of the Ohio stuff was in his prepared remarks.

I didn't see it in what KG posted.
He covered most everything regarding disenfranchisement and possible fraud in '04. I really wasn't surprised, although someone else (besides Boxer, who rocks), should have stood up. Were there any others? I was pretty busy at work, but stopped to listen to the Senator.
I'll bet he's wanted to 'go there' for a while. He's said most of this off the floor, but I think this is the furthest he's gone on this topic in the Senate, isn't it?
C-Span should have panned so we could see repub heads exploding. That would have been cool.

AND he looks awesome in that suit.

[JanusAscending]

28. You must have missed it then.(almost said mist have mussed it !)

He had a lot of stuff about Ohio in his speech. He mentioned the students at the college waiting 'til four in the morning , in line, to vote. How few machines there were in the heavily Dem areas, and the impropriety of a candidate for office (Blackwell) overseeing his own election in his capacity as Sec of State. Also about misinformation given by poll workers about different voting days for Dems than Reps. plus if anyone had an outstanding parking ticket, they wouldn't be able to vote. Yeh, he touched on a lot of the bullshit that went on. Oh, and I forgot purging the voter lists, and throwing new voter registrations in the trash. I for one do LOVE Oregon's solution to the problems we're facing in Nov. Mail in ballots!! Even the Good Senator from Mass. remarked on how well he liked the idea!!! What has to be done to get it done all over??( besides squashing a few repugs like bugs!!! ) DC

[globalvillage]

30. Yes, I heard him say all of that.

I just didn't see it in what was in the prepared speech that KG posted, so most of the stuff about fraud and lines and machines, etc. seems to have been extemporaneous.
I just wonder when he decided to go with all of that.
I did hear him. He was great.
I like the mail in ballot also. I have a friend in Oregon who just loves it. Wonder what the percentage of people is who vote in Oregon? Pretty high, I'll bet. Although I love the feeling of going to the polls to vote. I'd miss that, but small price to pay for having some peace of mind about votes actually counting.

[Island Blue]

31. I personally wish they would go back

to literally counting ballots by hand. (Especially in presidential elections.) So friggin' what if it takes a lot longer? I'm helping to elect the leader of the free world for crying out loud, not making a bag of microwave popcorn. The results don't have to be instantaneous. I can wait if it means the results would actually be valid.

[JanusAscending]

36. That would go along well with( Hillary's idea?)

Proclaiming election day a national holiday! Most wouldn't have to take time off from work, and I also agree, why not take a week to count the ballots like they do in other countries. Wouldn't that "knock the socks off" all of the TV election night forecasters, and their early "projections" of the winners? !!!!:rofl:

[karynnj]

37. That was actually something that Kerry has proposed

many times - well before Hillary was in the Senate. I would not be surprised if someone proposed it before - maybe before Hillary and Kerry were born. Hillary is the sponsor of the Count Every Vote bill, but Boxer and Kerry clearly contributed to it.

[JanusAscending]

38. I thought that might be the case!

I vaguely remember hearing of it before. That's why I put it in parenthesis. Anyhow.....I heard a lot of very good "common sense ideas from our side of the Senate floor yesterday! :hi:

[JI7]

29. is there any way we can get pictures of him

[Mass]

32. Here is the actual floor speech, as usual different and more interesting

than the speech written by the speech writers.

Mr. KERRY. Mr. President, on this particular component of the bill, there is agreement. Republicans and Democrats can agree. I was really pleased that every attempt in the House of Representatives to weaken the Voting Rights Act was rejected.

We need to reauthorize these three critical components especially: The section 5 preclearance provisions that get the Justice Department to oversee an area that has a historical pattern of discrimination that they can't change how people vote without clearance. That seems reasonable.

There are bilingual assistance requirements. Why? Because people need it and it makes sense. They are American citizens, but they still may have difficulties in understanding the ballot, and we ought to provide that assistance so they have a fully informed vote. This is supposed to be an informed democracy, a democracy based on the real consent of the American people.

And finally, authorization for poll watching. Regrettably, we have seen in place after place in America why we need to have poll watching.

A simple question could be asked: Where would the citizens of Georgia be, particularly low-income and minority citizens, if they were required to produce a government-issued identification or pay $20 every 5 years in order to vote? That is what would have happened without section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. Georgia would have successfully imposed what the judge in the case called ``a Jim Crow-era like poll tax.'' I don't think anybody here wants to go back and flirt with the possibility of returning to a time when States charged people money to exercise their right to vote. That is not our America.

This morning, President Bush addressed the 97th Annual Convention of the NAACP after a 5-year absence. I am pleased that the President, as we all are, ended his boycott of the NAACP and announced his intention to sign the Voting Rights Act into law.

But we need to complete the job. There are too many stories all across this country of people who say they registered duly, they reported to vote, and they were made to stand in one line or another line and get an excuse why, when they get to the end of the line, they can't vote. So they take out a provisional ballot, and then there are fights over provisional ballots.

There are ways for us to avoid that. Some States allow same-day registration. In some parts of America, you can just walk up the day of an election, register, and vote, as long as you can prove your residence.

We have this incredible patchwork of laws and rules, and in the process, it is even more confusing for Americans. We need to fully fund the Help America Vote Act so that we have the machines in place, so that people are informed, so that there is no one in America who waits an undue amount of time in order to be able to cast a vote.

We have to pass the Count Every Vote Act that Senator Clinton, Senator Boxer, and I have introduced which ensures exactly what the Senator from Oregon was talking about: that every voter in America has a verifiable paper trail for their vote. How can we have a system where you can touch a screen and even after you touch the name of one candidate on the screen, the other candidate's name comes up, and if you are not attentive to what you have done and you just go in, touch the screen, push ``select,'' you voted for someone else and didn't intend to? How can we have a system like that?

How can we have a system where the voting machines are proprietary to a private business so that the public sector has no way of verifying what the computer code is and whether or not it is accountable and fair? Just accounting for it.

Congress has to ensure that every vote cast in America is counted, that every precinct in America has a fair distribution of voting machines, that voter suppression and intimidation are un-American and must cease.

We had examples in the last election of people who were sent notices--obviously fake, but they were sent them and they confused them enough. They were told that if you have an outstanding parking ticket, you can't vote. They were told: Democrats vote on Wednesday and Republicans vote on Tuesday and various different things.

It is important for us to guarantee that in the United States of America, this right that was fought for so hard through so much of the difficult history of our country, we finally make real the full measure of that right.

I yield the floor. I thank the Chair and I thank my colleague for her forbearance.

[globalvillage]

33. Thanks.

Yes, much more interesting.

[ProSense]

34. Excellent. Thanks! n/t

[blm]

35. I wish he was more ready to publically say BAN THE MACHINES - paper ballot

are the only way to count accurately. As long as there can be a video camera trained on every precinct counting the votes there is no reason why paper ballots would be more corruptible than the machines.