Saturday, September 30, 2006
Conversation with my Brother About Voting
In the past, whenever I asked about whether you’d vote or not, you said it didn’t matter. And you went back to the ball game.
I asked again this year and you said it just doesn’t matter to you.
I asked if you didn’t realize that it’s different now.
You said it still didn’t matter. The ball game is on.
I told you I, too, want to be able to sit on my porch and listen to the ball game without having the overwhelming feeling that everything’s caving in on us and worrying that our nation is being misused, abused, and plowed under by political Neanderthals with foolhardy arrogance.
You said I always say something like that.
Maybe I did, I said. But now it’s worse than ever before because it’s not just idiots and arrogant fools anymore. It’s grossly evil arrogant Neoconderthal bullies with unchecked, unlimited power.
You say just because I’m on the left and they’re on the right we’ll always be at each other’s throats.
That’s true, I say, but because the silent center of people like you hasn’t bothered to stop their unchecked power the next time they’re at my throat they may just decide to go ahead and cut it.
You say you wouldn’t let anyone hurt your brother.
I thank you for that thought but not doing anything, not voting, is what will indeed hurt all of us. I don’t care if you vote against my choices later on just to keep government centered, but not voting at all this particular time will bring an end to the rule of law in American lives. They have already gone too far and they will take us all down with them to medieval depths.
I’m being melodramatic, you say. All of us on the fringes think the other fringe is going overboard, you say.
Well, this time they are, I say. They want to conduct torture, for heaven’s sake, in our name. In yours and mine! Is this the America you want to be proud of?
There you go again, you say. Nothing really changes, you say. It never will.
And I say that’s not true. You used to think of hippies as radicals when you thought the government was in the center. But the Bushites and Cheneyites are radicals of a far worse kind than that. Some of us antiwar folk that you and they called ‘radicals’ used to feel alienated but gradually as we got older we moved back to the center because there used to be a center to come to. Now, however, the warmonger radicals have pushed the center entirely out of existence and we’re all alienated now. They cannot stand the center.
You don’t care enough about politics to be on anyone’s side, you claim.
They say you’re un-American if you don’t side with them. Who really are the radicals, now: me on the questioning left, you in the skeptical center, or them, so far past the normal right in their authoritarian bully psychoses they are even unconservatively wrong?
You say you don’t hear anything like that on the news or in the paper. Until it all shows up as a huge, black headline, as long as there is a press to keep government in check, what’s to worry, you ask?
Last Thursday, when they cleverly excused their own past war crimes and trashed the “moral basis” of American law with the torture bill their stacked Congress passed, they took away the right of habeas corpus that every individual in England and America has been allowed since it was granted in the Magna Carta in 1215 and since the start of the US. That was everyone’s right to challenge arbitrary arrest, to have the right to a public trial where the arrest is explained and evidenced. They threw in the language to accomplish this theft of those rights, late at night before the Congress voted on it so most ignored it as much as you do.
You’re a citizen, you say. Why worry about that?
That language, you might think, would seem to be used only against non-citizens, but since this President claims he has the sole authority to define what torture is, and his Attorney General says the courts can’t interpret law on their own anymore, he could very easily define who, inside or outside, of American citizenship “purposely and materially supports” any kind of “hostilities against” them. Have you heard about any of that question from the infotainment sources you get your news from?
Oh, come on, you chide.
They lied to force us to an unjust and unnecessary war. They lied about how they have bungled that war and turned it into worldwide disaster that has made America the least trusted nation in the world. They lie with every law they pass under a stealth name. They lie with every Katrina related inaction. They lie with every accusation they make against those who are not cowered into fear of them. They say they have no control over the price of gas, but why does it go down like this to make you not worry about their power just before the election that would take away that unchecked power? They have not accomplished the safety they claim. They’ve made it worse. They throw up distraction after distraction to keep you and everyone like you from knowing and asking about what they are doing.
The ball game’s still on, you say. At least they’re not changing that.
They just don’t need to, I say. They know you’re listening intensely to the patter of games instead of the pleas of patriots like me and that means you’re paying no attention to them.
Well, what do you expect me to do? you ask. Am I my nation’s keeper, you ask?
I sigh. We used to be free. We used to be moral. We used to think that everyone of us had a chance. It’s different here now. The US is no longer the land of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness that our American ancestors fought and died for since 1776.
We thought we were the shining example to the world of what liberty means down deep in our hearts. But now we are not.
They used people’s good intentions to get the power to do this. A bunch of amoral thugs came in, tricked well-meaning conservatives and moderates into giving them not just enough power to win debates but all the unchecked unbalanced power there is in America. Everything they do is to maintain that power. Everything they do is to keep us in fear of their power. Everything they do destroys the America we once knew.
In 1935 Sinclair Lewis wrote a book about people letting such small minded fascism take control in America. They allowed a man who promised them easy solutions to their economic depression, like cheaper gas, to become its dictator. Once ensconced he and the people behind him appointed his cronies to the courts and all other governmental positions, and kept all but gossip, funnies, and self promoting drivel out of the newspapers and radio. They formed a militia of jobless men called “The Minutemen” to push out ethnic minorities and this militia soon turned to ridding the country of anyone who dared challenge the status quo. The book was entitled It Can’t Happen Here.
It can happen here. And it is.
And people like you are letting it happen by not voting. Please, I beg of you, you have to help me vote the bastards out.
Please get off your ass and come over here and vote to save the country, and the state, from a fate far worse than death. They’ve already turned it into Soviet America with secret prisons and loss of rights. Don’t let them turn our beloved America into a complete fascist nightmare.
Be a real patriot, vote for once or it’s over for all of us, for all time.
For God’s sake, for your family’s sake, for your own sake, vote to save America!
I asked again this year and you said it just doesn’t matter to you.
I asked if you didn’t realize that it’s different now.
You said it still didn’t matter. The ball game is on.
I told you I, too, want to be able to sit on my porch and listen to the ball game without having the overwhelming feeling that everything’s caving in on us and worrying that our nation is being misused, abused, and plowed under by political Neanderthals with foolhardy arrogance.
You said I always say something like that.
Maybe I did, I said. But now it’s worse than ever before because it’s not just idiots and arrogant fools anymore. It’s grossly evil arrogant Neoconderthal bullies with unchecked, unlimited power.
You say just because I’m on the left and they’re on the right we’ll always be at each other’s throats.
That’s true, I say, but because the silent center of people like you hasn’t bothered to stop their unchecked power the next time they’re at my throat they may just decide to go ahead and cut it.
You say you wouldn’t let anyone hurt your brother.
I thank you for that thought but not doing anything, not voting, is what will indeed hurt all of us. I don’t care if you vote against my choices later on just to keep government centered, but not voting at all this particular time will bring an end to the rule of law in American lives. They have already gone too far and they will take us all down with them to medieval depths.
I’m being melodramatic, you say. All of us on the fringes think the other fringe is going overboard, you say.
Well, this time they are, I say. They want to conduct torture, for heaven’s sake, in our name. In yours and mine! Is this the America you want to be proud of?
There you go again, you say. Nothing really changes, you say. It never will.
And I say that’s not true. You used to think of hippies as radicals when you thought the government was in the center. But the Bushites and Cheneyites are radicals of a far worse kind than that. Some of us antiwar folk that you and they called ‘radicals’ used to feel alienated but gradually as we got older we moved back to the center because there used to be a center to come to. Now, however, the warmonger radicals have pushed the center entirely out of existence and we’re all alienated now. They cannot stand the center.
You don’t care enough about politics to be on anyone’s side, you claim.
They say you’re un-American if you don’t side with them. Who really are the radicals, now: me on the questioning left, you in the skeptical center, or them, so far past the normal right in their authoritarian bully psychoses they are even unconservatively wrong?
You say you don’t hear anything like that on the news or in the paper. Until it all shows up as a huge, black headline, as long as there is a press to keep government in check, what’s to worry, you ask?
Last Thursday, when they cleverly excused their own past war crimes and trashed the “moral basis” of American law with the torture bill their stacked Congress passed, they took away the right of habeas corpus that every individual in England and America has been allowed since it was granted in the Magna Carta in 1215 and since the start of the US. That was everyone’s right to challenge arbitrary arrest, to have the right to a public trial where the arrest is explained and evidenced. They threw in the language to accomplish this theft of those rights, late at night before the Congress voted on it so most ignored it as much as you do.
You’re a citizen, you say. Why worry about that?
That language, you might think, would seem to be used only against non-citizens, but since this President claims he has the sole authority to define what torture is, and his Attorney General says the courts can’t interpret law on their own anymore, he could very easily define who, inside or outside, of American citizenship “purposely and materially supports” any kind of “hostilities against” them. Have you heard about any of that question from the infotainment sources you get your news from?
Oh, come on, you chide.
They lied to force us to an unjust and unnecessary war. They lied about how they have bungled that war and turned it into worldwide disaster that has made America the least trusted nation in the world. They lie with every law they pass under a stealth name. They lie with every Katrina related inaction. They lie with every accusation they make against those who are not cowered into fear of them. They say they have no control over the price of gas, but why does it go down like this to make you not worry about their power just before the election that would take away that unchecked power? They have not accomplished the safety they claim. They’ve made it worse. They throw up distraction after distraction to keep you and everyone like you from knowing and asking about what they are doing.
The ball game’s still on, you say. At least they’re not changing that.
They just don’t need to, I say. They know you’re listening intensely to the patter of games instead of the pleas of patriots like me and that means you’re paying no attention to them.
Well, what do you expect me to do? you ask. Am I my nation’s keeper, you ask?
I sigh. We used to be free. We used to be moral. We used to think that everyone of us had a chance. It’s different here now. The US is no longer the land of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness that our American ancestors fought and died for since 1776.
We thought we were the shining example to the world of what liberty means down deep in our hearts. But now we are not.
They used people’s good intentions to get the power to do this. A bunch of amoral thugs came in, tricked well-meaning conservatives and moderates into giving them not just enough power to win debates but all the unchecked unbalanced power there is in America. Everything they do is to maintain that power. Everything they do is to keep us in fear of their power. Everything they do destroys the America we once knew.
In 1935 Sinclair Lewis wrote a book about people letting such small minded fascism take control in America. They allowed a man who promised them easy solutions to their economic depression, like cheaper gas, to become its dictator. Once ensconced he and the people behind him appointed his cronies to the courts and all other governmental positions, and kept all but gossip, funnies, and self promoting drivel out of the newspapers and radio. They formed a militia of jobless men called “The Minutemen” to push out ethnic minorities and this militia soon turned to ridding the country of anyone who dared challenge the status quo. The book was entitled It Can’t Happen Here.
It can happen here. And it is.
And people like you are letting it happen by not voting. Please, I beg of you, you have to help me vote the bastards out.
Please get off your ass and come over here and vote to save the country, and the state, from a fate far worse than death. They’ve already turned it into Soviet America with secret prisons and loss of rights. Don’t let them turn our beloved America into a complete fascist nightmare.
Be a real patriot, vote for once or it’s over for all of us, for all time.
For God’s sake, for your family’s sake, for your own sake, vote to save America!
LA Times Poll Not Pretty
I guess there really is still a lot work to do this for this election (pdf of Poll.)
In this poll of Likely Voters (moe of 3%) Debra Bowen is only up by 2 points (35-33)--that's a statistical tie. I need a Debra Bowen Bumper Sticker TODAY! I don't do bumper stickers, I just don't . . . but this one I must have. 29% are still undecided!
Also scary is that McClintock and Garamendi are tied for Lt. Governor (32-31). Yikes, A Republican Governor AND Lt. Governor in
There are still a lot undecideds in the poll and that's the good news...but it's safe to say this election in not in the bag. The article in the Times today comments that the anti-Republican wave in the nation hasn't really hit
Friday, September 29, 2006
The GOP family values despica-thon -- nominations accepted
Who is the most hypocritical family values peddler among contemporary Republicans? I'm accepting nominations, and then in about two weeks we'll vote.
Nominees so far:
Representative Mark Foley (see previous post)
Newt Gingrich -- twice-divorced; told one wife he was divorcing her while she was recuperating in the hospital from cancer surgery
Senator Bill Frist -- a family-first ethical healer, except when he needs to work the Schiavo story for votes from religious extremists, and then the braindead woman must suffer further along with her family
Former representative Bob Livingston chosen as Newt Gingrich's successor to be Speaker, again vocally critical of Bill Clinton's dalliances -- at least until his own were exposed and he resigned.
And how about all the closet case Republicans who run on anti-gay legislation -- until their secret is revealed and they tearfully run as a Log Cabin Republican?
Send in your names. All nominees welcome!
Nominees so far:
Representative Mark Foley (see previous post)
Newt Gingrich -- twice-divorced; told one wife he was divorcing her while she was recuperating in the hospital from cancer surgery
Senator Bill Frist -- a family-first ethical healer, except when he needs to work the Schiavo story for votes from religious extremists, and then the braindead woman must suffer further along with her family
Former representative Bob Livingston chosen as Newt Gingrich's successor to be Speaker, again vocally critical of Bill Clinton's dalliances -- at least until his own were exposed and he resigned.
And how about all the closet case Republicans who run on anti-gay legislation -- until their secret is revealed and they tearfully run as a Log Cabin Republican?
Send in your names. All nominees welcome!
The party of family values strikes again!
So Representative Mark Foley of somewhere in stolen Florida just resigned. He wasn't caught with his pants down -- but that's only because the teenage male page he was after got shook up and alerted others.
Click here for the video of his resignation.
Here are the emails where he asks when the boy's birthday is and how old he is and what gift he'd like to receive and if maybe he could please send along an email photo.
Let me just say that if I caught him near my teenage son he wouldn't be around to hold this press conference.
Republicans: The Real Cut-And-Run Cowards
Bob Geiger: Republicans: The Real Cut-And-Run Cowards
From Huffington Post Fri Sep 29,
Republicans have become so accustomed to using the phrase "cut and run" that they probably mumble it while sleeping and their childlike leader, George W. Bush, babbled it again yesterday, saying at yet another GOP fundraiser that "the party of FDR and the party of Harry Truman has become the party of cut and run."
That takes a ton of nerve coming from a Chickenhawk like Bush, who used Daddy's connections to avoid Vietnam and then went AWOL from his cushy stateside post. But we've heard that empty phrase from the cretins in the right-wing of the Republican party so many times that it barely even registers any longer.
They like to question the courage and patriotism of Democrats for being unwilling to shed more American blood and waste billions more on a pointless war, that the country was lied into and that's made us far less safe and more despised throughout the world. Aside from the fact that the majority of Americans no longer support the Iraq war -- and, thus, they must all be cut-and-run defeatists as well -- it is the Republicans who have shown themselves to be the lily-livered cowards among us.
Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and their whole craven cabal are scared stiff -- and they want us to all be very afraid as well. How frightened are they? They're so afraid that they are willing to go against everything this country stands for, in a blind panic that they think will somehow protect their sorry asses from the big, bad terrorist bullies.
They are so damn scared that they're willing to take a country that was founded on individual liberty and turn it into a police state -- all out of fear.
So they respond to Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda attacking our country -- and, according to Bush, "our way of life" -- by putting their collective tails between their legs and abandoning the very core principles crafted by the founding fathers to embody "our way of life."
I didn't realize it at the time, but the hideous losses we suffered on 9/11 would truly test our national character more than any event of my lifetime. Do we stick with the values and hard-learned lessons of our past in the face of these new challenges or do we let Osama bin Laden
truly ruin our country by becoming a shadow of the nation we have always been?
Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), arguing against the Bush torture bill that passed both the House and the Senate this week, said it quite well yesterday:
"What has changed in the last five years that our Government is so inept and our people so terrified that we must do what no bomb or attack could ever do by taking away the very freedoms that define America? Why would we allow the terrorists to win by doing to ourselves what they could never do, and abandon the principles for which so many Americans today and through our history have fought and sacrificed?"
Whether he's in a cave, a nice hotel in Karachi or a CIA safe house, bin Laden must be laughing himself silly over the crisis of heart, soul and character he has so easily inflicted on the Bush Administration and, thus, our country.
It's trivial for a nation to stand by its creed when times are easy. But it's times like these, when circumstances and conditions are tough, that give us the real test of our national strength, courage and resolve.
Under Republican leadership, we are failing that test in the most miserable and pathetic way.
A great nation uses a horrendous event like September 11 to reinforce the things that have always made us the envy of the world and that, at least until our recent history, made us, in our best moments, the standard to which other countries aspired. A people of character suck it up and strive to remain a beacon of hope, equity and civil rights, while fighting those who attack us as strongly as we can.
The only thing Bush and his team of sissies have been right about is saying that we're not a nation that cuts and runs -- which is why all Americans should hate how our chicken-hearted, reactionary government has consistently done exactly that ever since we were attacked.
What we've seen happen in the last five years is not something that should invoke pride or flag-waving jingoism in Americans. We've watched a president and vice president whose lies have become so commonplace that they seldom even make the news. We've watched as our military men and women are killed or maimed in a war that has nothing to do with terror and everything to do with Bush and his mindless supporters selling fear to suit their ideological and financial agenda.
We've seen a world go from loving us on September 12, 2001 - many governments declared "we are all Americans today" - to us becoming a global pariah, with nary a friend who believes in our word or the promise of our deeds. We saw astounding pictures come back from
Abu Ghraib, in which prisoners under our watch were tortured and, in some cases, killed.
And just this week, we have watched the Republican-led Congress affirm that all of that -- and more -- is just fine with them. At the same time, we have become willing to let the president mortgage our present and our children's financial future to spend money on a war that did not need to be fought, while ruining a reputation that previous generations worked so hard to build.
So tell every Republican you know that they can take their 'cut and run' garbage and shove it.
In the face of challenge and terror, George W. Bush and the Republican party have continued to debase our nation's spirit and trash the values that have made us great. In other words, the Republicans are allowing a few terrorists to change the very essence of our country and make us so afraid that we no longer even know who we are -- or what we stand for.
When the going has gotten tough, and our nation's heart and soul are on the line, it's the cowardly Republicans who have truly cut and run.
You can read more from Bob at BobGeiger.com.
From Huffington Post Fri Sep 29,
Republicans have become so accustomed to using the phrase "cut and run" that they probably mumble it while sleeping and their childlike leader, George W. Bush, babbled it again yesterday, saying at yet another GOP fundraiser that "the party of FDR and the party of Harry Truman has become the party of cut and run."
That takes a ton of nerve coming from a Chickenhawk like Bush, who used Daddy's connections to avoid Vietnam and then went AWOL from his cushy stateside post. But we've heard that empty phrase from the cretins in the right-wing of the Republican party so many times that it barely even registers any longer.
They like to question the courage and patriotism of Democrats for being unwilling to shed more American blood and waste billions more on a pointless war, that the country was lied into and that's made us far less safe and more despised throughout the world. Aside from the fact that the majority of Americans no longer support the Iraq war -- and, thus, they must all be cut-and-run defeatists as well -- it is the Republicans who have shown themselves to be the lily-livered cowards among us.
Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and their whole craven cabal are scared stiff -- and they want us to all be very afraid as well. How frightened are they? They're so afraid that they are willing to go against everything this country stands for, in a blind panic that they think will somehow protect their sorry asses from the big, bad terrorist bullies.
They are so damn scared that they're willing to take a country that was founded on individual liberty and turn it into a police state -- all out of fear.
So they respond to Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda attacking our country -- and, according to Bush, "our way of life" -- by putting their collective tails between their legs and abandoning the very core principles crafted by the founding fathers to embody "our way of life."
I didn't realize it at the time, but the hideous losses we suffered on 9/11 would truly test our national character more than any event of my lifetime. Do we stick with the values and hard-learned lessons of our past in the face of these new challenges or do we let Osama bin Laden
truly ruin our country by becoming a shadow of the nation we have always been?
Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), arguing against the Bush torture bill that passed both the House and the Senate this week, said it quite well yesterday:
"What has changed in the last five years that our Government is so inept and our people so terrified that we must do what no bomb or attack could ever do by taking away the very freedoms that define America? Why would we allow the terrorists to win by doing to ourselves what they could never do, and abandon the principles for which so many Americans today and through our history have fought and sacrificed?"
Whether he's in a cave, a nice hotel in Karachi or a CIA safe house, bin Laden must be laughing himself silly over the crisis of heart, soul and character he has so easily inflicted on the Bush Administration and, thus, our country.
It's trivial for a nation to stand by its creed when times are easy. But it's times like these, when circumstances and conditions are tough, that give us the real test of our national strength, courage and resolve.
Under Republican leadership, we are failing that test in the most miserable and pathetic way.
A great nation uses a horrendous event like September 11 to reinforce the things that have always made us the envy of the world and that, at least until our recent history, made us, in our best moments, the standard to which other countries aspired. A people of character suck it up and strive to remain a beacon of hope, equity and civil rights, while fighting those who attack us as strongly as we can.
The only thing Bush and his team of sissies have been right about is saying that we're not a nation that cuts and runs -- which is why all Americans should hate how our chicken-hearted, reactionary government has consistently done exactly that ever since we were attacked.
What we've seen happen in the last five years is not something that should invoke pride or flag-waving jingoism in Americans. We've watched a president and vice president whose lies have become so commonplace that they seldom even make the news. We've watched as our military men and women are killed or maimed in a war that has nothing to do with terror and everything to do with Bush and his mindless supporters selling fear to suit their ideological and financial agenda.
We've seen a world go from loving us on September 12, 2001 - many governments declared "we are all Americans today" - to us becoming a global pariah, with nary a friend who believes in our word or the promise of our deeds. We saw astounding pictures come back from
Abu Ghraib, in which prisoners under our watch were tortured and, in some cases, killed.
And just this week, we have watched the Republican-led Congress affirm that all of that -- and more -- is just fine with them. At the same time, we have become willing to let the president mortgage our present and our children's financial future to spend money on a war that did not need to be fought, while ruining a reputation that previous generations worked so hard to build.
So tell every Republican you know that they can take their 'cut and run' garbage and shove it.
In the face of challenge and terror, George W. Bush and the Republican party have continued to debase our nation's spirit and trash the values that have made us great. In other words, the Republicans are allowing a few terrorists to change the very essence of our country and make us so afraid that we no longer even know who we are -- or what we stand for.
When the going has gotten tough, and our nation's heart and soul are on the line, it's the cowardly Republicans who have truly cut and run.
You can read more from Bob at BobGeiger.com.
Why Phil Angelides won't win
I should begin by saying that I've heard Phil Angelides speak and I was impressed: he was articulate and he made sense. I believe he would make a good Governor for
First, he's running against a
The Second reason Phil won't win is that his campaign seems to have misunderstood the "kick the bums out" wave as being applied to only Republicans (his Arnold Supports Bush ads just don't seem to be working.) Sure, this national sentiment is directed at Republicans in the Congress and Senate (since they, as the majority, are officially "the bums," but I don't think this holds in California local and state wide elections. In fact, I think the State Party is getting this wrong too. In a series of emails they sent out, they were urging us to "take back
All the rest of the Democrats will win because they are running on
Thursday, September 28, 2006
Get Paid to Protect the Election in California
Appropos of our speaker last night from Debra Bowen's campaign, as well as our concern about stolen elections, club member Karoline Steavenson forwarded along this great way to help protect the election -- and get paid to do so.
Deadlines Looming; Support Election Integrity -- and Get Paid!
Every year, thousands of people in California help make it
possible for citizens to exercise one of their most fundamental rights
-- the right to vote. This year, new voting machines may result in
serious problems at the polls. The best way to ensure that every
voter's rights are respected is for you to be there -- working at the
polls and helping protect voters' right to cast their ballots -- on
Election Day.
Deadlines to get hired as a pollworker are approaching fast -- click
here for information on how to sign up in your county.
In order to support our democracy, Working Assets and our partner
organizations have created the "Pollworkers for Democracy" project --
a nonpartisan effort to get more people involved in supporting our
elections. We'll provide you with information to supplement your
pollworker training -- and also a system to report and track any
problems on Election Day.
Click here to find out more about the Pollworkers for Democracy
Program.
Almost all California counties are still in need of
pollworkers for the November 7th general election. By signing up as a
pollworker, you can support our democratic system...and get paid at
the same time!
There are many long-time pollworkers in California waiting for
the opportunity to pass on their wisdom and experience to the next
generation of citizen pollworkers. As our voting systems become more
complicated and less transparent, it behooves us as citizens to step
in and help our democracy work.
*** Please share this email with all of your friends and neighbors in
California!!!***
THANK YOU for working to build a better world.
Will Easton
Working Assets
Not worried about Diebold voting? You should be.
Click here to watch a nine-minute video from some nice folks at Princeton who demonstrate how effortless and quick it is to manipulate voting with a Diebold machine. (As though some of us didn't already suspect.) As you'll see, even the paper test that poll workers run to "verify" the voting process can be fooled by this manipulation.
Why is it that the modern era's "birthplace of democracy" can't secure the vote?
At times I think it's almost... intentional.
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
40 Republican-held seats in serious play
From myDD
This is far, far superior to any position we have been in since 1994. In fact, there are a growing number of Republican-held House seats where the most recent independent poll of the district shows a Democratic lead:
This is far, far superior to any position we have been in since 1994. In fact, there are a growing number of Republican-held House seats where the most recent independent poll of the district shows a Democratic lead:
- CO-07: Perlmutter (D) 54%--37% O'Donnell (R) (Survey USA, September 25)
- IN-08: Ellsworth (D) 47%--32% Hostettler (R) (Evansville Courier and Press, September 21, 2006)
- AZ-08: Giffords (D) 48%--36% Graf (R) (Arizona Daily Star, September 19)
- IN-09: Hill (D) 53%--42% Sodrel (R) (Constituent Dynamics, September 10)
- VA-02 Kellam (D) 51%--43% Drake (R) (Constituent Dynamics, August 29th)
- IN-02: Donnelly (D) 50%--42% Chocola (R) (Research 2000, September 15th)
- PA-10: Carney (D) 50%--43% Sherwood (R) (Constituent Dynamics, August 29th)
- IA-01: Braley (D) 44%--37% Whalen (R)(Des Moines Register Iowa Poll, September 13th)
- CT-02: Courtney (D) 51%--45% Simmons (R) (Constituent Dynamics, August 29)
- PA-06: Murphy (D) 50%--45% Gerlach (R) (Constituent Dynamics, August 29)
- KY-04: Lucas (D) 48%--44% Davis (R) (Survey USA, September 18th)
- NC-11: Shuler (D) 50%--47% Taylor (R) (Constiuent Dynamics, August 29)
- WA-08: Burner (D) 49%--46% Reichert (R) (Constiuent Dynamics, August 29)
- IL-06: Dcukworth (D) 47%--46% Roskam (R) (Constiuent Dynamics, August 29)
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
New venue, same risks—more heroes
So, our just-retired generals and faceless CIA bureaucrats are really “coming out,” as it were. It’s a dam that is really breaking wide open now.
The latest was the leaked National Intelligence Estimate that called Iraq what it is—a terrorist creator, not destroyer—and now Monday's blunt military indictments from the top-level “boots on the ground,” fresh from Iraq. All those “support the troopsters” and their bumper-sticker mentality can't hide the fact that not only is this Bush bunch single-mindedly bungling our security and bankrupting our future, but they are politicizing our historically nonpartisan intelligence services and breaking the military.
Now we have NIEs coming out the wazoo: West L.A.’s Rep. Jane Harmon--a nominal hawk who was perhaps stung a bit by her noisy onetime primary challenger who focused on Iraq--confirmed Tuesday that a second NIE had been prepared on the war, and demanded to see it in Congress, even in secret session--alongside full, non-cherrypicked disclosure of the April NIE already out. As the ranking Democrat in the House Intel Committee, Harmon notes that this second report has been conveniently left in draft form and is thus not yet “ready” to be distributed--but she wants it now. Rather than, say, sometime next spring ... or summer... you know, just anytime after Nov. 7.
The even bigger picture here is the fact that somebody has short-circuited the Bushista secrecy once again—someone amid the career agents and Pentagon office-dwellers, the guys n galls nominally working day in and day out, through Republican and Democratic administrations alike. They are the true patriots; many of them are conservative politically, for gosh sakes, and abhor the very idea of acting or speaking out of turn against superiors, either civilian or military. But that was before the torture, the rendering, the secret prisons, the under-armored troops, the understaffed mission, the blundered assignments, the overpaid contractors, the unsupervised private “agents”…. Who'd a thunk it? How repelled can they be ... how agonized are their consciences at the sight of our intelligence and military forces so thoroughly twisted and abused that these career-service folks are simply compelled to transcend politics and retire early so they can speak their mind, or risk far worse by staying “inside” and on the job? They have the perspective, they have the years in--and they are saving this nation by the sheer force of the unlikeliness of their actions.
Does anyone else in the MSM “get it”?
When was the last time so many leaked so much to save even more from such damage? Oh yes--it was the last time a president abused power and covered it up, a little era we like to call “Vietnam and Watergate.” Back then we had only one Daniel Ellsberg and only one Mark Felt… today, we just about do need our little army of “Deep Throats,” whoever and wherever they may be. They are still risking it all for their country.
Sunday, September 24, 2006
This resume merits serious review
Resume
GEORGE W. BUSH
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington DC 20520
EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE
LAW ENFORCEMENT
• I was arrested in Kennebunkport, Maine , in 1976 for driving under the influence of alcohol. I pled guilty, paid a fine, and had my driver's license suspended for 30 days. My Texas driving record has been “lost” and is not available.
MILITARY
• I joined the Texas Air National Guard and went AWOL. I refused to take a drug test or answer any questions about my drug use. By joining the Texas Air National Guard, I was able to avoid combat duty in Vietnam
COLLEGE
• I graduated from Yale University with a low C average. I was a cheerleader.
PAST WORK EXPERIENCE
• I ran for U.S. Congress and lost. I began my career in the oil business in Midland , Texas, in 1975. I bought an oil company, but couldn't find any oil in Texas. The company went bankrupt shortly after I sold all my stock.
• I bought the Texas Rangers baseball team in a sweetheart deal that took land using taxpayer money. With the help of my father and our friends in the oil industry, including Enron CEO Ken Lay, I was elected governor of Texas.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS AS GOVERNOR OF TEXAS
• I changed Texas pollution laws to favor power and oil companies, making Texas the most polluted state in the Union.
• During my tenure, Houston replaced Los Angeles as the most smog-ridden city in America
• I cut taxes and bankrupted the Texas treasury to the tune of billions in borrowed money.
• I set the record for the most executions by any governor in American history.
• With the help of my brother, the governor of Florida , and my father's appointments to the Supreme Court, I became President after losing by over 500,000 votes.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS AS PRESIDENT
• I am the first President in U.S. history to enter office with a criminal record.
• I invaded and occupied two countries at a continuing cost of over one billion dollars per week.
• I spent the U.S. surplus and effectively bankrupted the U.S. Treasury.
• I shattered the record for the largest annual deficit in U.S. history.
• I set an economic record for most private bankruptcies filed in any 12-month period.
• I set the all-time record for most foreclosures in a 12-month period.
• I set the all-time record for the biggest drop in the history of the U.S. stock market.
• In my first year in office, over 2 million Americans lost their jobs and that trend continues every month.
• I'm proud that the members of my cabinet are the richest of any administration in U.S. history. My “poorest millionaire,” Condoleeza Rice, had a Chevron oil tanker named after her.
• I set the record for most campaign fund-raising trips by a U.S. President. I am the all-time U.S. and world record-holder for receiving the most corporate campaign donations.
• My largest lifetime campaign contributor, and one of my best friends, Kenneth Lay, presided over the largest corporate bankruptcy fraud in U.S. History, Enron.
• My political party used Enron private jets and corporate attorneys to assure my success with the U.S. Supreme Court during my election decision.
• I have protected my friends at Enron and Halliburton against investigation or prosecution.
• More time and money was spent investigating the Monica Lewinsky affair than has been spent investigating one of the biggest corporate rip- offs in history.
• I presided over the biggest energy crisis in U.S. history and refused to intervene when corruption involving the oil industry was revealed.
• I presided over the highest gasoline prices in U.S. history.
• I changed the U.S. policy to allow convicted criminals to be awarded government contracts.
• I appointed more convicted criminals to administration than any President in U.S. history.
• I created the Ministry of Homeland Security, the largest bureaucracy in the history of the United States government.
• I've broken more international treaties than any President in U.S. history.
• I am the first President in U.S. history to have the United Nations remove the U.S. from the Human Rights Commission.
• I withdrew the U.S. from the World Court of Law. I refused to allow inspectors access to U.S. “prisoners of war” detainees and thereby have refused to abide by the Geneva Convention.
• I am the first President in history to refuse United Nations election inspectors (during the 2002 U.S. election).
• I set the record for fewest numbers of press conferences of any President since the advent of television.
• I set the all-time record for most days on vacation in any one-year period. After taking off the entire month of August, I presided over the worst security failure in U.S. history.
• I garnered the most sympathy for the U.S. after the World Trade Center attacks and less than a year later made the U.S. the most hated country in the world, the largest failure of diplomacy in world history.
• I have set the all-time record for most people worldwide to simultaneously protest me in public venues (15 million people), shattering the record for protests against any person in the history of mankind.
• I am the first President in U.S. history to order an unprovoked, pre-emptive attack and the military occupation of a sovereign nation. I did so against the will of the United Nations, the majority of U.S. citizens, and the world community.
• I have cut health care benefits for war veterans and support a cut in duty benefits for active duty troops and their families-in-wartime.
• In my State of the Union Address, I lied about our reasons for attacking Iraq and then blamed the lies on our British friends.
• I am the first President in history to have a majority of Europeans (71%) view my presidency as the biggest threat to world peace and security.
• I am supporting development of a nuclear “Tactical Bunker Buster,” a WMD. I have so far failed to fulfill my pledge to bring Osama Bin Laden [sic] to justice.
RECORDS AND REFERENCES
• All records of my tenure as governor of Texas are now in my father's library, sealed and unavailable for public view.
• All records of SEC investigations into my insider trading and my bankrupt companies are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public view.
• All records or minutes from meetings that I, or my Vice-President, attended regarding public energy policy are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public review. I am a member of the Republican Party.
PLEASE CONSIDER MY EXPERIENCE WHEN VOTING IN THE 2006 MIDTERM ELECTIONS. PLEASE SEND THIS TO EVERY VOTER YOU KNOW.
GEORGE W. BUSH
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington DC 20520
EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE
LAW ENFORCEMENT
• I was arrested in Kennebunkport, Maine , in 1976 for driving under the influence of alcohol. I pled guilty, paid a fine, and had my driver's license suspended for 30 days. My Texas driving record has been “lost” and is not available.
MILITARY
• I joined the Texas Air National Guard and went AWOL. I refused to take a drug test or answer any questions about my drug use. By joining the Texas Air National Guard, I was able to avoid combat duty in Vietnam
COLLEGE
• I graduated from Yale University with a low C average. I was a cheerleader.
PAST WORK EXPERIENCE
• I ran for U.S. Congress and lost. I began my career in the oil business in Midland , Texas, in 1975. I bought an oil company, but couldn't find any oil in Texas. The company went bankrupt shortly after I sold all my stock.
• I bought the Texas Rangers baseball team in a sweetheart deal that took land using taxpayer money. With the help of my father and our friends in the oil industry, including Enron CEO Ken Lay, I was elected governor of Texas.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS AS GOVERNOR OF TEXAS
• I changed Texas pollution laws to favor power and oil companies, making Texas the most polluted state in the Union.
• During my tenure, Houston replaced Los Angeles as the most smog-ridden city in America
• I cut taxes and bankrupted the Texas treasury to the tune of billions in borrowed money.
• I set the record for the most executions by any governor in American history.
• With the help of my brother, the governor of Florida , and my father's appointments to the Supreme Court, I became President after losing by over 500,000 votes.
ACCOMPLISHMENTS AS PRESIDENT
• I am the first President in U.S. history to enter office with a criminal record.
• I invaded and occupied two countries at a continuing cost of over one billion dollars per week.
• I spent the U.S. surplus and effectively bankrupted the U.S. Treasury.
• I shattered the record for the largest annual deficit in U.S. history.
• I set an economic record for most private bankruptcies filed in any 12-month period.
• I set the all-time record for most foreclosures in a 12-month period.
• I set the all-time record for the biggest drop in the history of the U.S. stock market.
• In my first year in office, over 2 million Americans lost their jobs and that trend continues every month.
• I'm proud that the members of my cabinet are the richest of any administration in U.S. history. My “poorest millionaire,” Condoleeza Rice, had a Chevron oil tanker named after her.
• I set the record for most campaign fund-raising trips by a U.S. President. I am the all-time U.S. and world record-holder for receiving the most corporate campaign donations.
• My largest lifetime campaign contributor, and one of my best friends, Kenneth Lay, presided over the largest corporate bankruptcy fraud in U.S. History, Enron.
• My political party used Enron private jets and corporate attorneys to assure my success with the U.S. Supreme Court during my election decision.
• I have protected my friends at Enron and Halliburton against investigation or prosecution.
• More time and money was spent investigating the Monica Lewinsky affair than has been spent investigating one of the biggest corporate rip- offs in history.
• I presided over the biggest energy crisis in U.S. history and refused to intervene when corruption involving the oil industry was revealed.
• I presided over the highest gasoline prices in U.S. history.
• I changed the U.S. policy to allow convicted criminals to be awarded government contracts.
• I appointed more convicted criminals to administration than any President in U.S. history.
• I created the Ministry of Homeland Security, the largest bureaucracy in the history of the United States government.
• I've broken more international treaties than any President in U.S. history.
• I am the first President in U.S. history to have the United Nations remove the U.S. from the Human Rights Commission.
• I withdrew the U.S. from the World Court of Law. I refused to allow inspectors access to U.S. “prisoners of war” detainees and thereby have refused to abide by the Geneva Convention.
• I am the first President in history to refuse United Nations election inspectors (during the 2002 U.S. election).
• I set the record for fewest numbers of press conferences of any President since the advent of television.
• I set the all-time record for most days on vacation in any one-year period. After taking off the entire month of August, I presided over the worst security failure in U.S. history.
• I garnered the most sympathy for the U.S. after the World Trade Center attacks and less than a year later made the U.S. the most hated country in the world, the largest failure of diplomacy in world history.
• I have set the all-time record for most people worldwide to simultaneously protest me in public venues (15 million people), shattering the record for protests against any person in the history of mankind.
• I am the first President in U.S. history to order an unprovoked, pre-emptive attack and the military occupation of a sovereign nation. I did so against the will of the United Nations, the majority of U.S. citizens, and the world community.
• I have cut health care benefits for war veterans and support a cut in duty benefits for active duty troops and their families-in-wartime.
• In my State of the Union Address, I lied about our reasons for attacking Iraq and then blamed the lies on our British friends.
• I am the first President in history to have a majority of Europeans (71%) view my presidency as the biggest threat to world peace and security.
• I am supporting development of a nuclear “Tactical Bunker Buster,” a WMD. I have so far failed to fulfill my pledge to bring Osama Bin Laden [sic] to justice.
RECORDS AND REFERENCES
• All records of my tenure as governor of Texas are now in my father's library, sealed and unavailable for public view.
• All records of SEC investigations into my insider trading and my bankrupt companies are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public view.
• All records or minutes from meetings that I, or my Vice-President, attended regarding public energy policy are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public review. I am a member of the Republican Party.
PLEASE CONSIDER MY EXPERIENCE WHEN VOTING IN THE 2006 MIDTERM ELECTIONS. PLEASE SEND THIS TO EVERY VOTER YOU KNOW.
Friday, September 22, 2006
The Constitutionalist!
Faster than a speeding court order! Able to leap tall histories of jurisprudence at a single bound! It's the Constitutionalist!
Here's press secretary Tony Snow's response to the question of whether the Supreme Court is the body empowered to decide if something is constitutional:
"No, as a matter of fact, the president has an obligation to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. That is an obligation that presidents have enacted through signing statements going back to Jefferson. So, while the Supreme Court can be an arbiter of the Constitution, the fact is the President is the one, the only person who, by the Constitution, is given the responsibility to preserve, protect, and defend that document, so it is perfectly consistent with presidential authority under the Constitution itself."
Wow -- don't you feel a whole lot safer -- and better represented -- now??
So I guess that Richard Nixon, in his secret identity then as The Consitutionalist, should have overrulled the Supreme Court on the Watergate matter.
And Bill Clinton should have done the same thing on the Paula Jones matter!
Here I thought that the Supreme Court was the ultimate arbiter on the Constitution. Wrong again.
Guess I'll have to do a little boning up this Election Season.
End run around the Electoral College
In the ongoing effort to make every vote count:
Schwarzenegger's signature on the Umberg bill would make California the first state to ratify an interstate compact obligating each signatory to cast all its electoral votes for the presidential candidate who wins the national popular vote.It would be nice to have California count in presidential elections instead of being a gauranteed block of votes for the Democrat - not that that's a bad thing. But I do think that if the candidates had to concentrate on all the people, and not just the ones in Ohio (and the other "swing states") the debate would move WAY to the left where it should be
The compact wouldn't go into effect until enough states ratified it to make up a majority of the Electoral College vote. Depending on the states' sizes, that could be anywhere from 11 to 39, but probably would be around 25, according to the numbers nerd who came up with this proposed system, Stanford genetic programming professor John Koza. He also invented the scratch-off lottery ticket.
Under the current system, California issues — water, immigration, offshore drilling — don't get debated because the candidates never show up here, except to bum money off rich people. But in Iowa, there's a full discussion of corn and ethanol....So now we wait and see if Arnold signs the bill or not -- I guess that all depends on whether or not he thinks it will get him re-elected: how liberal can he appear before the republican's decide they can't trust him and the independants realize he's full of it?
"If you're in Ohio and sneeze," Umberg says, "you immediately get $100,000 in cold medicine. If you're in California and the levees need repair, good luck."
This isn't about big vs. small states. "Voters in two-thirds of the states are effectively disenfranchised in presidential elections," Koza writes in a book with his National Popular Vote co-promoter, elections lawyer Barry Fadem of Lafayette, Calif.
They list six of the 10 most populous states as campaign spectators — California, Texas, New York, Illinois, New Jersey, North Carolina — but also 12 of the 13 smallest (all except New Hampshire).
"From the perspective of presidential candidates," the authors write, "a vote in Wyoming is equal to a vote in California — both are equally worthless."
Thursday, September 21, 2006
I'll bet he is
"I'm proud to be here with Congresswoman Katherine Harris, who is running for Senate," George W. Bush told a crowd of about 400 people at a fundraising event in Tampa.
No doubt -- because without Katherine Harris he would be back in Texas losing more of his friends' money as a failed oil tycoon.
(I guess he's paying them all back now.)
Come hear about Clean Money on 9/27
Newly confirmed for our September 27th meeting: Robin Gilbert, from the California Clean Money Campaign.She'll talk about Proposition 89 and the battle to clean up campaign funding, and take your questions.
For more info on the meeting, visit our website.
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Unions will spend big to defeat governor
Some good news for Angelides ---
A coalition of the state's most powerful public employee unions has agreed to start an independent campaign opposing the re-election of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that could cost as much as $25 million, according to several sources familiar with the plan.--- and he needs some good news with with the polls trending worse for him now down 36 to 48
--SFGATE.com
Short-term memory gain
Just when you thought that everyone had forgotten Schwarzenegger V2.0 (the one who inveighs against "girly men," smooches George Bush, and double-deals the schools; we're now on Schwarzenegger V3.0, the "moderate" who sells out his own party in an attempt to stay in office), along come some unions with better memories than most, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
If it seems like a "duh" moment that of course the unions are going to mobilize for Phil, check out these quotes from the story:
"While it would seem natural that the unions would line up with Angelides in the gubernatorial race, political observers note that the strategy to fund a significant opposition campaign comes at some risk.
"If you go after Arnold and he wins, you're giving him more reason to go after you when the election is over," said Bruce Cain, political scientist at UC Berkeley. "But if you don't go after Arnold now, you still have the risk that he will do another 180-degree turn on you after the election.
"My guess is that labor probably doesn't think they have a choice -- they've got to go all out for Phil and not trust Arnold."
Or -- we could all just trust Arnold again and watch him help more fundamentalist nutballs down the road. Regardless of what he says now.
Monday, September 18, 2006
Voting - What We Sent to Debra Bowen and Al Franken
We were at Immanuel Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles Saturday September 15 when Debra Bowen and others spoke forthrightly about her plans to make sure California has trustworthy elections with no hackable electronic voting machines when she become the next California Secretary of State.
Because we were so impressed with her honesty and passion we are sharing what we learned there. The following is the letter from www.debrabowen.com to let people know what she stands for. She stands for what we stand for.
Dear Friend,
I wanted to write to you about a critical election this fall: the election for California Secretary of State.
Debra Bowen is running for two reasons: Florida and Ohio, two states where we saw inaccuracies in the vote counts and deliberate attempts to disenfranchise voters in recent elections. Today 52% of Americans do not have confidence that their votes will be counted accurately. Debra Bowen is committed to changing that!
Our current Secretary of State recently re-certified Diebold electronic voting machines here in California despite the accuracy and security flaws. We need a Secretary of State that will fight for fair and accurate elections, and Debra Bowen is just the person for the job. Debra has been endorsed by Senator's Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, the California Federation of Teachers, the California Nurses Association, and the Sierra Club, as well as dozens of elected leaders and organizations throughout the California.
Check out her website at http://www.debrabowen.com for more details on endorsements and where she stands on the issues. It's time to restore people's faith in our democracy, and Debra Bowen will do just that as California's next Secretary of State. Please join me in voting for Debra Bowen for Secretary of State this November!
We first sent the following letter to Al Franken but have not received a reply. We wonder if it is an issue worth investigating.
My wife and I spent yesterday afternoon registering voters at a mall for our local Democratic club and one person's request to change parties left me wondering how frequently this situation is happening across the U.S. Working in the mall he saw our table near his store for two days and finally worked up the courage to approach us.
The man, in his late twenties or early thirties, said his Republican father had registered him as a permanent absentee Republican voter when he first became eligble to vote, and that the father has been sending in his votes for him for years. The son has finally decided to reclaim his independence and register as a Democrat. He was concerned that the Registrar of Voters would not let him because he was already listed as a permanent absentee.
We assured him no such thing would happen; in fact, they would now send his voter's information and sample ballot directly to his own address and he would be free to vote his conscience. He said his father will know when his usual absentee ballot doesn't come but he will have to face it this time. We commended him on his newfound courage and good citizenship.
After he had filled out a registration form my wife and I talked about this for some time and we wondered if this was just a personal thing, a cultural thing, or was it, in fact, a more widespread thing than we think? It's one thing to be stuck in a family mind set that controls voting choices as well as marriage and career well beyond usual eighteeen-year-old emancipation, but is it a ploy used by countless Republican authoriarians who take advantage of their grown children's willful ignorance of what they ought to be doing as citizens? Are they coopting their college students' votes?
On the other hand, there were others just turned eighteen and some college age folk delighted to have the opportunity to register, who also wanted information to take back to their colleges. Many people didn't know they needed to reregister because they had moved and were very happy to find out how easy it was. The best part was the number of people who specifically wanted to register this time as Democrats; they were done being Republicans just because their husbands or fathers had told them to be. People are finally beginning to stand up for themselves as they should be free to do.
Registering voters is a wonderful experience and very heartening. Many more should do it. It's more than necessary, more than good citizenship, it's actually fun. And you get to do a lot of people watching at your local mall. A lot goes on there.
Sign up with Janet to register voters.
Because we were so impressed with her honesty and passion we are sharing what we learned there. The following is the letter from www.debrabowen.com to let people know what she stands for. She stands for what we stand for.
Dear Friend,
I wanted to write to you about a critical election this fall: the election for California Secretary of State.
Debra Bowen is running for two reasons: Florida and Ohio, two states where we saw inaccuracies in the vote counts and deliberate attempts to disenfranchise voters in recent elections. Today 52% of Americans do not have confidence that their votes will be counted accurately. Debra Bowen is committed to changing that!
Our current Secretary of State recently re-certified Diebold electronic voting machines here in California despite the accuracy and security flaws. We need a Secretary of State that will fight for fair and accurate elections, and Debra Bowen is just the person for the job. Debra has been endorsed by Senator's Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, the California Federation of Teachers, the California Nurses Association, and the Sierra Club, as well as dozens of elected leaders and organizations throughout the California.
Check out her website at http://www.debrabowen.com for more details on endorsements and where she stands on the issues. It's time to restore people's faith in our democracy, and Debra Bowen will do just that as California's next Secretary of State. Please join me in voting for Debra Bowen for Secretary of State this November!
We first sent the following letter to Al Franken but have not received a reply. We wonder if it is an issue worth investigating.
My wife and I spent yesterday afternoon registering voters at a mall for our local Democratic club and one person's request to change parties left me wondering how frequently this situation is happening across the U.S. Working in the mall he saw our table near his store for two days and finally worked up the courage to approach us.
The man, in his late twenties or early thirties, said his Republican father had registered him as a permanent absentee Republican voter when he first became eligble to vote, and that the father has been sending in his votes for him for years. The son has finally decided to reclaim his independence and register as a Democrat. He was concerned that the Registrar of Voters would not let him because he was already listed as a permanent absentee.
We assured him no such thing would happen; in fact, they would now send his voter's information and sample ballot directly to his own address and he would be free to vote his conscience. He said his father will know when his usual absentee ballot doesn't come but he will have to face it this time. We commended him on his newfound courage and good citizenship.
After he had filled out a registration form my wife and I talked about this for some time and we wondered if this was just a personal thing, a cultural thing, or was it, in fact, a more widespread thing than we think? It's one thing to be stuck in a family mind set that controls voting choices as well as marriage and career well beyond usual eighteeen-year-old emancipation, but is it a ploy used by countless Republican authoriarians who take advantage of their grown children's willful ignorance of what they ought to be doing as citizens? Are they coopting their college students' votes?
On the other hand, there were others just turned eighteen and some college age folk delighted to have the opportunity to register, who also wanted information to take back to their colleges. Many people didn't know they needed to reregister because they had moved and were very happy to find out how easy it was. The best part was the number of people who specifically wanted to register this time as Democrats; they were done being Republicans just because their husbands or fathers had told them to be. People are finally beginning to stand up for themselves as they should be free to do.
Registering voters is a wonderful experience and very heartening. Many more should do it. It's more than necessary, more than good citizenship, it's actually fun. And you get to do a lot of people watching at your local mall. A lot goes on there.
Sign up with Janet to register voters.
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Bad ballot design -- an ongoing story
Marketer Seth Godin on his local precinct's badly designed ballot -- and a modest proposal for fixing this situation.
A reminder of the war we SHOULD have been fighting
Monday, September 11, 2006
Remembering September 11th
(To mark this sad day in our nation's history, Governor Dean sent the following e-mail to Americans across the country, as we remember, together.)
Dear Fellow American,
Today we remember many things.
We remember where we were. We remember the scenes on television.
We remember the victims who were murdered. We remember the families and loved ones they left behind.
We remember the heroes who charged into danger to save lives.
We remember a moment of unity at home and around the world, where people rallied around a single mission and a common sense of justice that must be done.
Today we face many challenges at home and abroad. And too often it's too easy to be distracted by the politics, the pundits, and the posturing.
We must always remember that the dangers we face know no political party, and the solutions and leadership we need now go beyond ideology.
We must meet these challenges head-on -- remembering to stand together in action as we live together under threat. We are all Americans.
Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."
We will not be silent.
Today we remember many things.
And tomorrow, back on the campaign trail, we will remember to take with us the plain truth and a commitment to true justice for all those whose lives were transformed on this day five years ago.
Thank you.
Governor Howard Dean, M.D.
(To mark this sad day in our nation's history, Governor Dean sent the following e-mail to Americans across the country, as we remember, together.)
Dear Fellow American,
Today we remember many things.
We remember where we were. We remember the scenes on television.
We remember the victims who were murdered. We remember the families and loved ones they left behind.
We remember the heroes who charged into danger to save lives.
We remember a moment of unity at home and around the world, where people rallied around a single mission and a common sense of justice that must be done.
Today we face many challenges at home and abroad. And too often it's too easy to be distracted by the politics, the pundits, and the posturing.
We must always remember that the dangers we face know no political party, and the solutions and leadership we need now go beyond ideology.
We must meet these challenges head-on -- remembering to stand together in action as we live together under threat. We are all Americans.
Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."
We will not be silent.
Today we remember many things.
And tomorrow, back on the campaign trail, we will remember to take with us the plain truth and a commitment to true justice for all those whose lives were transformed on this day five years ago.
Thank you.
Governor Howard Dean, M.D.
Saturday, September 09, 2006
Local patriot Kevin Harrop of the Burbank Democratic Club joins in the recent protest of Disney/ABC's lying mockudrama that accuses the Clinton administration with causing 9/11 and, I guess, the war in Iraq, because of their inaction on terrorism.Disney/ABC says they're going ahead anyway, truth be damned. Is their mascot a mouse -- or a rat?
