Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News, Monday 06/23/08

[tbyg52]

Election Reform, Fraud, & Related News, Monday 06/23/08

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[tbyg52]

1. States nt

[tbyg52]

7. AL: AG King Calls on Justice Department to Help Stop Voter Fraud

Attorney General Troy King says the U.S. Justice Department is slowing down an investigation into alleged voter fraud in Perry County.

In a press conference Monday, King said the civil rights division of the federal department has refused to provided copies of any written reports of observed irregularites in the June 3 primary.

The justice department sent field observers to Perry County to monitor the primary elections. The observers reported concerns about candidates interferring with the voting process.

More:
http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080623/NEWS/80623011

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11. AL: Small counties' big absentee numbers raise suspicions in Alabama secretary of state's office

Perry County, with a population of just 10,602, is Alabama's second-smallest county. But 1,114 absentee ballots were cast there in the June primary, the highest number of absentee ballots cast in the state, according to unofficial numbers gathered by the secretary of state.

"If it wasn't so serious, it would be laughable," Secretary of State Beth Chapman said Friday.

Lowndes County, the state's fifth-smallest county with a population of 12,686, had 727 absentee ballots cast, according to Chapman's office.

By comparison, Jefferson County, the state's largest with a population of more than 600,000, had 365 absentee ballots cast, according to Chapman's office.

"That just is mind-boggling," Chapman said.

More:
http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/news/121420894573950.xml&coll=2

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12. TX: Nat'l Experts to Testify 6/25 on E-Voting Hacks at TX Capitol!

National Experts to Give Evidence of Hacking Electronic Voting Machines

at Austin, TX Capitol Hearing, Wednesday, June 25th. 2008

VoteRescue and its Coalition Bring in Compelling Witnesses

And Host Two Related Events

Who: VoteRescue and its Coalition, Texans for REAL Elections, bringing in experts to testify

What: National experts and former election officials debunk the myth of electronic voting security and accessibility for the disabled, and will present documented testimony before the House Committee on Elections’ Interim Hearing

When: Wednesday, June 25th, 9 a.m. PLUS two other events that day – media invited

More:
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Nat-l-Experts-to-Testify-6-by-Press-Release-080623-588.html

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14. CA: Election worry? A voter overload

l Turnout trouble

From Santa Clara County to Ohio, the presidential primaries this year were not plagued by machine malfunctions or disputed ballots. The biggest "problem" was more low-tech: a flood of voters that led to long lines and ballot shortages.

That's one of the main conclusions reached by the director of electionline.org, a non-partisan clearinghouse of election data that tracks voting around the country. With 56 million voters participating in the primaries (36 million in the Democratic races), some election offices and polling places were overwhelmed.

In Palo Alto, Saratoga and Cupertino, precincts ran out of ballots Feb. 5, and Santa Clara County's registrar of voters scrambled to photocopy additional ballots. In Ohio, Maryland and other states, judges ordered polling places to stay open later to serve voters who waited a couple of hours to cast their ballot.

More:
http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_9671692

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18. MI: Fight Continuing to De-certify Corruption of Michigan Presidential Primary

Following is a letter updating the fight by Taxpayers United Michigan
Foundation to de-certify the corruption inherent in the $10.2 million January
15, 2008 Michigan Presidential Primary Election fiasco.

U.S. Senator Carl Levin (D), Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D), Michigan
Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land (R), Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox
(R), the majority of elected Republican and Democrat State Senators and State
Representatives, Michigan Republican Party Chairman Saul Anuzis, UAW
President Ron Gettelfinger, and Debbie Dingell (wife of U.S. Rep. John
Dingell (D) seeking reelection for the 27th time) conspired to exclude 79% of
Michigan's 7.2 million voters from voting on January 15, 2008.

On March 26, 2008, Federal District Judge Nancy Edmunds in Detroit ruled
the Early Michigan Open Presidential Primary Election was actually closed and
violated "the equal protection of the laws" and secrecy of the ballot
provisions of our U.S. Constitution. Grassroots citizens rightly expected
politicians caught tampering with our constitutional rights to vote to
honorably replace the Michigan Primary with new Michigan Democratic and
Republican Party Caucasus.

More:
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/fight-continuing-to-de-certify-corruption-of-michigan-presidential-primary,443157.shtml

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19. PA: Redistricting debates in Pa.

After nearly losing to a political rookie in 2000, then-House Majority Leader John Perzel found a way to survive in elections to come: he had his Northeast Philadelphia district redrawn.

The result resembled a jigsaw puzzle scattered on the floor, with the pieces containing the maximum number of increasingly scarce city Republicans - people likely to vote for a guy like him. The GOP legislator has not faced a close race since.

Or take the 1991 case of State Sen. Frank Pecora, who woke one morning shocked to find that his district in the Pittsburgh suburbs had been uprooted and replanted 230 miles east in Chester County.

Such is the power of redistricting, the once-a-decade remapping of legislative and congressional boundaries based on fresh federal census numbers.

In Pennsylvania, political leaders control the process, allocating residents by party and voting patterns to help re-elect themselves and incumbents loyal to them and punish those who are not.

More:
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/politics/state/20080623_Redistricting_debates_in_Pa_.html

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20. FL: McCollum criticizes redistricting proposal

Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum has voiced concern over a proposed constitutional amendment that would change how lawmakers draw legislative boundaries.

In a letter to the state Supreme Court, the Republican attorney general said Friday that a proposed ballot summary fails to adequately explain the proposal would require that congressional districts be comprised of contiguous territory.

That, he said, would outlaw the multi-member districts that are currently allowed.

"A constitutional amendment requiring single-member districts as the standard for congressional redistricting or apportionment would appear to be a significant change to the Constitution of which Florida voters should be advised," McCollum told the high court.

More:
http://www.legalnewsline.com/news/213705-mccollum-criticizes-redistricting-proposal

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23. NY: City representatives fault move to fewer voting sites

Efforts to reduce the number of polling places drew protests Monday from elected officials and ward leaders who said it would disenfranchise voters in poorer neighborhoods.

The Albany County Board of Elections is cutting the number of voting places in the city from 72 to 49.

John Graziano, the Republican elections commissioner, said the decision was made because a 2002 federal voting law requires the purchase of all new machines and the locations must have sufficient lighting and power to handle them. The county also received a court order in January requiring every location have at least two voting machines.

By reducing the number of polling places, he said, it will trim costs for the new equipment. It will also make certain all sites are accessible to the disabled.

More:
http://timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=698205

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26. IN: County's Voting Machines Waterlogged As Election Nears

With a little more than four months until the November general election, officials in Johnson County are scrambling to find voting machines.

Raging floodwaters earlier this month rendered the county's electronic voting system useless, 6News' Ben Morriston reported.

Nearly 500 voting machines and about 100 printers were stored in the county government building that filled with about 5 feet of water.

"There's a company in Florida that refurbishes voting equipment and we're hoping that they might be interested in some of Johnson County's equipment," said Jill Jackson, the county clerk.

The waterlogged voting machines were put in storage while county officials await word on their fate.

More:
http://www.theindychannel.com/news/16688049/detail.html

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33. IN: League of Women Voters of Indiana challenges voter ID

The League of Women Voters of Indiana filed a complaint in the Marion County Superior Court to request that the Indiana Voter ID Law be declared unconstitutional under the Indiana Constitution.

The League's lawsuit is in furtherance of its purpose "... to promote political responsibility through informed and active participation in government and to act on selected governmental issues." The League of Women Voters of the United States adopted the Citizen's Right to Vote position which states "that voting is a fundamental citizen right that must be guaranteed."

The League's challenge is based upon Art. 2, Sec. 2 of the Indiana Constitution which sets forth the only qualifications for voting eligibility that can legally be imposed upon voters without further amendment of the Indiana Constitution. For example, the Indiana Constitution was amended in 1882 to grant the legislature power to enact a voter registration program.

More:
http://www.thepaper24-7.com/main.asp?SectionID=23&SubSectionID=22&ArticleID=16440&TM=9106.481

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36. MA: Voting Booths May Be Set Up At Supermarkets

Schools have often been the polling location of choice for most elections , but that may be about to change.

NewsCenter 5's Jim Boyd reported that this fall, some Worcester voters may be punching ballots at the supermarket.

"It became a logical option for us to go to the supermarkets to try and meet the voter where the voter already is," Worcester City Clerk David Rushford said.

Some voters say it makes perfect sense.

More:
http://www.thebostonchannel.com/politics/16688511/detail.html

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37. TN: Commission Investigates Illegal Voting Practices

A small town election may have been marred by some big problems.

The DeKalb County Election Commission said it is investigating allegations of illegal voting practices in Smithville in connection with an election that occurred this month.

Election Administrator Lisa Peterson said there are reports of voter intimidation, violations of boundaries and also the forcing of some individuals to sign documents.

In Smithville, politics can be polarizing and one woman said she often gets an earful at the store she runs.

"We've always had Democrats and Republicans, and we're in a small town where not a lot goes on and sometimes that's just the interest of the town," said Annette Greek.

At the election commission, a lot is going on as Peterson is trying to get to the bottom of the allegations following last week’s city election of the mayor and alderman.

More:
http://www.wsmv.com/politics/16686151/detail.html

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42. LA: MAS Freedom 'Voting is Power' Not Connected to Democratic Party Voting Campaign in Louisiana

Right-Wing Groups Push False Information Concerning National Muslim Voter Drive

MAS Freedom (MASF, http://www.masnet.org/freedomfoundation.asp), the civic and human rights advocacy entity of the Muslim American Society (MAS, http://www.masnet.org/), has learned that numerous individuals and organizations on the political right have recently embarked upon a campaign, through various internet-based "news" sources, to openly vilify both MAS and MASF by falsely associating the MASF voter registration, mobilization and education campaign, Voting is Power (VIP, http://masvip.org/), to an investigation of possible election fraud in the state ofLouisiana.

The campaign, through no fewer than 16 separate cross-postings of similarly accusatory articles, began surfacing on the internet June 12, 2008, directly identifying MAS/MASF as having contracted with the national Democratic Party to register voters inLouisiana.

An article posted on the web forum of conservative FOX news host Sean Hannity, displayed a headline reading: "Democrats Hire Radical Islamic Group to Register Voters - Fraud Ensues." Other headlines read, "Islamic Group Hired to Register Voters - Result, Fraud" and "Muslim American Society Committing Voter Fraud in Louisiana," which also incorporated unauthorized use of the MAS logo. These allegations are absolutely false.

Here are the facts:

More:
http://newsblaze.com/story/2008061909430500005.pnw/topstory.html

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2. National nt

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13. Worst Company In America "Elite 8": Capital One Vs Diebold

Here's what some of you had to say about these two companies:

Capital One:

"Cap one is the most evil of all these companies!!Down with cap one!!"

"I'm tired of them wanting to know what's in my wallet."

snip

Diebold:

"Diebold, because they still haven't fixed their voting software, and they hate the idea of paper trails on voting machines. "

"Diebold = threat to the processes of freedom and democracy"

"I voted for Diebold, but it registered my vote for Pat Buchanan."

More:
http://consumerist.com/tag/worst-company-in-america/?i=5018510&t=worst-company-in-america-elite-8-capital-one-vs-diebold

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21. Predicting the Vote: Pollsters Identify Tiny Voting Blocs

Want to know exactly how many Democratic-leaning Asian Americans making more than $30,000 live in the Austin, Texas, television market? Catalist, the Washington, DC, political data-mining shop, knows the answer. CTO Vijay Ravindran says his company has compiled nearly 15 terabytes of data for this election year — orders of magnitude larger than the databases available just four years ago. (In 2004, Howard Dean's formidable campaign database clocked in at less than 100 GB, meaning that in one election cycle the average data set has grown 150-fold.) In the next election cycle, we should be measuring voter data in petabytes.

More:
http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/magazine/16-07/pb_vote

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25. Election Enthusiasm Dips After Primaries

A new USA Today/Gallup poll finds a sharp drop in voter enthusiasm -- 48% of registered voters say they are "more enthusiastic than usual about voting," compared with 63% who said this in a poll conducted just after the Super Tuesday presidential primaries and caucuses in early February.

The drop has occurred among both Republicans and Democrats, though the decline has been greater among Democrats, in large part because Republican enthusiasm was relatively low to begin with. Democrats continue to hold a wide advantage (61% to 35%) on this measure.

A post-primary voter hangover is not unprecedented, but Gallup did not observe as large a decline in enthusiasm in 2000 or in 2004 after the presidential nominees were largely decided.

More:
http://www.gallup.com/poll/108322/Election-Enthusiasm-Dips-After-Primaries.aspx

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30. ACORN focuses on vote

About 2,000 members of ACORN, an advocacy group for low-income individuals, focused on getting out the vote this fall as they gathered for their national convention Sunday.

ACORN, or Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, is the nation's largest such group, with offices and 400,000 member families in 42 states.

ACORN is hosting its biennial national convention at Cobo Hall with workshops on the mortgage foreclosure crisis, voter registration, health care and other key issues affecting low-income families.

"It is time for a regime change in America," said Maude Hurd, ACORN national president, to whistles and enthusiastic applause.

More:
http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080623/POLITICS/806230355

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34. Ex-U.S. attorney speaks out for 'In Justice'

As a Navy lawyer, David Iglesias handled a case at Guantanamo Bay that sparked the movie “A Few Good Men,” famous in pop-culture lexicon for the line Jack Nicholson snarls: “You can't handle the truth.”

In March 2007, former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias testified on Capitol Hill about his firing.
Iglesias is pretty sure he can handle the truth. He just doesn't know if he'll ever get it.

Eighteen months ago, he and six other U.S. attorneys – including Carol Lam in San Diego – were fired in an unprecedented midterm reshuffling that led to congressional hearings and criminal investigations.

Iglesias, from New Mexico, was among the first to claim the firings happened for political reasons, and in time he emerged as a spokesman for those forced out – not just the seven let go on the same day, Dec. 7, 2006, but also two others sent packing earlier.

Now he's written a book about the scandal, “In Justice,” and is touring the country to talk about it. He'll be in San Diego on Wednesday.

More:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/features/20080623-9999-1c23iglesias.html

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3. Foreign nt

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8. Zimbabwe Election Impasse -African Union Must Act Now

The huge gains made towards the attainment of democratic governance on the continent of Africa after years of military and despotic civilian rule, is now witnessing a reversal to the days of old.

A typical example is the situation unfolding on the Zimbabwe political landscape, where the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and its leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, have withdrawn from the presidential run off, citing security concerns. The elections are scheduled for June 27.

In a strongly worded statement issued June 22, to announce his withdrawal, the opposition leader pinpointed key reasons for his action: the continuous widespread brutal attacks and arrests being carried out by the state security against him and his supporters; the deployment of Zanu PF militias and the war veterans to man checkpoints in the streets; the blocking of opposition rallies, among others.

More:
http://newliberian.com/?p=418

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10. Zimbabwe opposition leader pulling out of election

Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai pulled out of Zimbabwe's violence-wracked presidential runoff Sunday, declaring that the election was no longer credible and the loss of life among his supporters was simply too high.

The announcement cleared the way for President Robert Mugabe to continue his 28-year rule, despite mounting condemnation from even loyal African allies that the former independence hero has become a despot who has bankrupted the country's once thriving economy.

"We can't ask the people to cast their vote on June 27 when that vote will cost their lives. We will no longer participate in this violent sham of an election," Tsvangirai said.

He addressed a news conference in Zimbabwe's capital after thousands of militants loyal to Mugabe prevented opposition supporters from gathering for its main campaign rally.

More:
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5i4kT7pJlnuzY_vpKdTACcQYIPcvQD91FGJU80

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16. Rice says fair vote impossible in Zimbabwe

It will be impossible for Zimbabwe to hold a free and fair run-off election on Friday amid violent assaults on the opposition and such a poll will not legitimize the government of President Robert Mugabe, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Monday.

"Yet another vicious assault on the opposition and its supporters for exercising their right to assemble and their right to free speech has reinforced that it is impossible for there to be a free, fair or peaceful election in Zimbabwe on June 27," Rice said in a statement.

"The Mugabe regime cannot be considered legitimate in the absence of a run-off," said the statement, which added that Mugabe's government must be held accountable for the attacks that prompted Zimbabwe opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai on Saturday to pull out of the presidential election.

More:
http://uk.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUKWBT00924420080623

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17. UN Security Council discusses action on Zimbabwe

The UN Security Council discussed Monday holding President Robert Mugabe responsible for the worsening political and humanitarian situation in Zimbabwe and condemning him and his government for it, diplomats said.

They said the 15-nation would consider the March 29 election results legitimate if the runoff ballot planned for Friday cannot take place because of violence against the opposition.

Opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai won the first vote, but failed to achieve the required 50-per-cent majority vote, prompting a runoff election.

US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, who is serving as council president in June, and his counterpart from France, Jean-Maurice Ripert, said following a closed-door meeting of the council that a presidential statement expected to be issued Monday would say the violence in Zimbabwe would make it impossible for the runoff election to be free and fair.

The draft statement under discussion would say "until there is a clearly free and fair second round of presidential election, the only legitimate basis for a government of Zimbabwe is the outcome of the 29 March, 2008, election."

More:
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/darticlen.asp?xfile=data/theworld/2008/June/theworld_June1444.xml§ion=theworld&col=

[tbyg52]

9. Philipines: Poll automation cannot solve poll fraud, Comelec admits

Automated counting machines alone cannot solve the problem of poll fraud, including that in the upcoming Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) elections this August, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) admitted Monday.

In a statement posted on the Comelec blog site, Comelec spokesman James Jimenez said exhorted stakeholders to remain vigilant against fraud in the coming polls, saying the poll automation addresses only one aspect of the elections.

"No amount of machines can solve election fraud. The machines only address one aspect of the election, which is accurate and speedy counting. People's vigilance and active participation is sill key in achieving clean, honest, orderly and credible elections," Jimenez said.

Jimenez also said the security features embedded in the automated voting and counting machines will be useless without vigilance and active participation of stakeholders in the upcoming polls.

More:
http://www.gmanews.tv/story/102747/Poll-automation-cannot-solve-poll-fraud-Comelec-admits

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22. Kenya: To avoid ethnic violence, try proportional representation

TO PREVENT POLITICALLY-instigated ethnic conflict, we must change our electoral system.

The battle for ethnic supremacy pitting the Maasai against the Kipsigis during the recent Kilgoris by-election clearly exposed the main electoral flaw that has caused violent ethnic conflict in Kenyan multiparty elections since 1992.

Earlier, the same flaw was exposed in a more civilised manner when the Ilchamus, a minority indigenous community in Baringo Central Constituency, successfully moved to court.

In a landmark December 2006 ruling, the two-bench Constitutional Court ordered the Electoral Commission of Kenya to create a special constituency for them when next boundaries are reviewed, so that an Ilchamus could be elected to Parliament.

Unfortunately, the two judges missed a golden opportunity to cure that flaw and instead prescribed poison. Their controversial solution that the ECK draws ethnically gerrymandered constituencies is not the cure; it will worsen the confusion swirling around the question of minority/ethnic representation.

More:
http://www.nationmedia.com/dailynation/nmgcontententry.asp?category_id=25&newsid=125879

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29. Ireland: I was almost barred from Lisbon vote

snip

Despite Shalini's insistence, passport and evidence that she was on the electoral register -- an issue she had checked twice in recent months -- officials at the south Dublin voting station repeatedly insisted she was not eligible to vote.

But after a half-hour stand-off during which the RTE presenter and Irish citizen demanded to speak to the supervisor, her legal right to vote was finally allowed, with officials at the voting station putting the mistake down to an administrative error.

Shalini went public with the situation in her column in the latest edition of multi-cultural newspaper Metro Eireann.

And speaking to the Herald today, she added that while an administrative error waw cited the situation is a worrying sign.

The RTE presenter said:"I have an Irish passport, I am on the electoral register, and I voted in the 2007 General Election, but I was at first stopped from voting last week.

"If I had an Irish name I have to say I don't believe this would have happened," Shalini told the Herald.

More:
http://www.herald.ie/national-news/i-was-almost-barred-from-lisbon-vote-1419156.html

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31. Nepal: Electronic voting in forthcoming by-elections

The Election Commission is giving a thought to holding the by-elections in five constituencies using electronic voting machines like the one used in Kathmandu Constituency No: 1 elections on April 10 this year.

People in five constituencies going to the by-elections have not so far experienced what it would feel like to have their homes illuminated using electricity. It is hard to say when their dreams will come true, but even before that they would be able to cast their ballots using electronic machines.

More:
http://www.gorkhapatra.org.np/detail.php?article_id=2197&cat_id=4

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4. Blogs, Editorials, LTTEs, etc. nt

[tbyg52]

15. Common Sense Is Overrated

Michael Waldman, former Bill Clinton speech writer and current director of the Brennan Center, has a new book called "A Return to Common Sense: 7 Bold Ways to Revitalize Our Democracy." He intends "Common Sense" as a reference to Tom Paine, but after reading the book it takes on another meaning, namely rehearsal of the ideas any slightly left of center Democratic partisan would have been expected to espouse.


Don't get me wrong. I like a lot of ideas held by slightly left of center Dem partisans, and I think we'd be better off if this sort of book gained the level of influence that Paine's pamphlets did. On the other hand, I see a lot of major shortcomings in the proposals found here, and the writing lacks the fire that could spark a revolution.

Waldman's is yet another book on election reform that insists such reform is both needed and not yet really missed. That is, Bush won in 2000. Bush won in 2004. But we need electoral reform because something COULD go wrong someday. Waldman recommends universal voter registration, or as a second choice, election-day registration. I agree. He also recommends re-enfranchising people who have been convicted of crimes and fulfilled their punishments, pointing out the Jim Crow origins of felon disenfranchisement, including in my home state of Virginia:

More:
http://www.opednews.com/articles/Common-Sense-Is-Overrated-by-David-Swanson-080622-12.html

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24. The national popular vote alternative

With the state Legislature scheduled to adjourn at the end of July, there is a long list of unfinished business. But in the heat of a presidential campaign, one item seems especially timely: An interstate compact providing for presidents to be elected by popular vote.

The Electoral College has not turned out to be among the Founders' brightest ideas. Its vote is a mere formality in almost every presidential election, an outrage in the rare cases when it has awarded the White House to the candidate who came in second.

But the Electoral College's most insidious impact is on how campaigns are run, not in determining the winner. Created to equalize the clout of the states, it has instead created two tiers: Battleground states, which candidates fight over because party affiliations are evenly balanced, and states where one party holds a clear advantage, which the candidates ignore.

Count Massachusetts in the latter category. Bay State voters are taken for granted by Democrats and written off by Republicans. There is no incentive to campaign here, since our 12 electoral votes are assumed to be locked up by the Democratic candidate. Massachusetts Republicans - like Democrats in such GOP strongholds as Utah - might as well stay home.

More:
http://www.dailynewstribune.com/state/x833717366/Editorial-The-national-popular-vote-alternative

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28. Americans Disenfranchised Again

Most of the country was captivated on Tuesday night, June 3, by the apparent nomination for the first time of someone other than a European-American man as a major party presidential candidate. Here in Los Angeles, however, we had a very consequential and quite captivating election of our own taking place on the very same night.

Unfortunately, due to the profound structural flaws in the way America’s antiquated electoral system operates, it ended in a fizzle.

The race was for one of the five seats on the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. Since more than 10 million souls reside now in Los Angeles County, that means that each supervisor represents some two million constituents. That is more than twice as large as the size of the average congressional district in the United States. The county supervisors, largely under the radar screen of the public in this age of extreme civic disengagement, grapple every day with crucial if unsexy issues. Like law enforcement. Prisons. Fair elections. Homelessness. Trying to build and expand a workable transit system — to ease, if only a bit, LA’s perpetually gridlocked traffic (but having little success in an era when so many American taxpayer dollars end up in the black budgets of the Pentagon or the deep pockets of defense contractors). And, perhaps most crucially, the LA County board of supervisors tries bravely to improve a woefully insufficient local public health system, in an effort to provide a modicum of care to the millions who cannot successfully navigate America’s hyper-profit health care obstacle course.

More:
http://www.alternet.org/election08/89105/?ses=2b874b38afed3c14c13a01aa53d655eb

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32. The most basic ingredient of democracy

Daniel Webster once stated, "Whatever government is not a government of laws, is a despotism, let it be called what it may." I can't help that he may have been thinking of something like Hudson County when he said it. Even in New Jersey's freewheeling political atmosphere, Hudson County is a special case. Many would like us to think that place is in history, not in contemporary actions. I would disagree.

There has been nothing so fundamental to political perfidy in Hudson County than electoral malfeasance. Unsurprisingly, our latest attempt at an election is being contested. And, it appears, rightfully so. The problem is that the recount is unlikely to shed any light on what is wrong in Hudson County.

We'll start with the fact that the voting machines throughout the state are too easily hacked to be trusted with anything as important as, say, ordering a daquiri. This is where I point out that it doesn't really matter what equipment is used, though, if the people running it are willing to subvert the process, they will find a way to do so. Still, I'm of a mind that we shouldn't make it easy for election thieves.

More:
http://blog.nj.com/njv_thurman_hart/2008/06/the_most_basic_ingredient_of_d.html

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35. LTTE: Voters just an inconvenient nuisance

As U.S. citizens (the few who still pay attention) watch in powerless amazement, elected leaders and appointed judges constantly make decisions and implement policies that undermine and destroy our economy and the principles that made this country great.

(A little) more (plus comments:
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/0623monlets233.html

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5. Campaign Finance nt

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27. Really, it's the money

Humorist Kin Hubbard commented that when someone says it's not the money, it's the principle of the thing -- it's the money.

That certainly applies to Barack Obama, who supports public financing but can't bring himself to use it because he argues the system is broken. What he is really saying is that he can raise vast more sums through private means that he hopes will give him the advantage in his race to the White House against Republican John McCain.

To justify his breaking of a pledge and becoming the first general election presidential candidate to eschew public funding since it began in 1976, he blames the system and McCain. Well, it's one thing to break a promise in a presidential race -- it happens all the time, both before and after the election -- but it's quite another to blame one's opponent as the reason for doing so.

More:
http://www.scrippsnews.com/node/34194

[tbyg52]

38. Campaign Finance Reform Has Failed

Barack Obama’s decision to opt out of federal campaign financing has riled newspaper editorialists, TV pundits and even some progressives who view regulating “money in politics” as the silver bullet to kill the special-interest domination of Washington.

But the fury over Obama’s choice to rely on his Internet-based small donors – rather than take nearly $85 million in federal funding – misses a difficult truth that may be especially heretical on the Left: campaign-finance reform has been, by and large, a failure.

This reality comes clear if one asks the simple question: Is the U.S. government more in the pocket of special interests today than it was in the mid-1970s when this reform movement gained traction after the Watergate scandal? It’s hard to reach an answer other than that today is worse.

Indeed, since Ronald Reagan became President in 1981, the federal government has operated in the interest of corporations and the well-to-do with a stunning consistency. Even when a Democrat (Bill Clinton) gained the White House in 1993, he did so as a pro-corporate centrist beholden to the Democratic Leadership Council.

More:
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2008/062308.html

[tbyg52]

6. The Youth Vote nt

[tbyg52]

39. Will Rock the Vote Rock the Vote in 2008?

Rock the Vote made a name for itself in 1992. First by defending the voting rights of students during the New Hampshire primary, and then by running a coordinated field and media campaign that helped elect President Bill Clinton and substantially raised youth turnout for the first time since 1972. One year later, the group helped pass the Motor Voter law. That was the peak of Rock the Vote as an organization.

Over the course of the next decade, two things happened. First, Rock the Vote's field apparatus atrophied during the mid 1990s as the organization morphed into a media vehicle. Concurrently, that media vehicle became the biggest brand in youth politics, rivaled only briefly by P. Diddy's "Vote or Die" initiative in 2004.

While RTV held the biggest name brand in youth politics, youth turnout declined in 1996 and 2000, and a lot of political minded folks concluded that Rock the Vote wasn't getting the job done. As described in my book, Youth to Power, the vacuum left in youth organizing by the failures of Rock the Vote in part inspired the boom in youth organizing that occurred between 2003 and 2007.

More:
http://www.thenation.com/blogs/passingthrough/328720

[tbyg52]

40. With blogs, texts and Web videos, marketers pitch their products to young voters

Raldon Lumpkins, 20, hits the streets of San Francisco today. His mission is to produce articles, blogs and videos of concern to young voters interested in the upcoming presidential election. The work is for the nonprofit Rock the Vote, which uses music, pop culture and new technologies to engage young people in the political process. And the tool he'll wield to produce it is an AT&T Samsung BlackJack II personal digital assistant, equipped with, among other things, a 2-megapixel camera, GPS, 3-D graphics and, of course, text messaging.

"It's one-stop shopping when it comes to phones," says Lumpkins of the BlackJack II. "And if I like using it, I'll tell my friends this is cool and you should get one."

That's exactly what AT&T was betting on when it hooked up with RTV for its "Rock the trail" campaign, which will put five young reporters out on the street with the phones, as well as offer the company numerous branding opportunities.

More:
http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/strategy/e3ibd29ae66455c7a70c8b83b318533f535

[tbyg52]

41. They rock! Group uses concerts to sign up young voters

I'M NOT MUCH of a rock concert fan.

I'm too old and they're too loud.

And even when I wasn't too old I didn't go to many.

Elton John once (but that wasn't my idea), the Righteous Brothers, Simon and Garfunkel and (to really date myself) The Temptations.

I also saw Andrea Bocelli, though I'm not sure that counts.

Still, I find it interesting that rock concerts these days are taking on an active political bent.

Pearl Jam, for example, performed in Camden over the weekend, and a nonmusical group called HeadCount was with them.

HeadCount is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, New York-based, almost entirely volunteer national effort to sign up young people across the country to vote in November's elections.

More:
http://www.philly.com/dailynews/local/20080623_John_Baer__They_rock__Group_uses_concerts_to_sign_up_young_voters.html

[tbyg52]

43. That's all, folks!

A few rec's for the news, please? :hi:

[livvy]

44. And this makes an even dozen. Can we go for a baker's dozen of KnR's?

Thanks for a great thread!