Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Did the Human Rights Campaign help cover up the Foley scandal?
One of the largest gay organizations is getting some heated commentary on its friendly relations with the GOP and Lieberman and the role it may have played in the Foley scandal.
First Socialist Senator Not Socialist Enough
The Socialist Worker has a long article condemning Vermont's new Socialist Senator Bernie Sanders. Given the history of Worker's Parties you are probably not a true Socialist or Communist unless others are condemning you for not being a true believer.
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
The Michael Moore Pledge
How liberals and Democrats are different from conservatives and Republicans.
1. We will always respect you for your conservative beliefs. We will never, ever, call you "unpatriotic" simply because you disagree with us. In fact, we encourage you to dissent and disagree with us.Also not related at all but check out a social history in monsters, it is now zombies, are werewolves next?
2. We will let you marry whomever you want, even when some of us consider your behavior to be "different" or "immoral." Who you marry is none of our business. Love and be in love -- it's a wonderful gift.
3. We will not spend your grandchildren's money on our personal whims or to enrich our friends. It's your checkbook, too, and we will balance it for you....
Where Texas Democrats can improve
The Latino vote - look at how poorly Bell and Radnofsky reached Latinos. This is from surveys at Latino majority precincts.
ONLY TEXAS VOTERS: Whom did you vote for in the Gubernatorial race?
Chris Bell 39.5%
“Kinky” Friedman 14.3%
Rick Perry 13.9%
Carole Keeton Strayhorn 28.6%
Other Candidate 3.6%
ONLY TEXAS VOTERS: Whom did you vote for in your Senate race?
Kay Bailey Hutchison 53.7%
Barbara Ann Radnofsky 35.6%
Other Candidate 10.7%
I am a bit confused as I am not sure how that differs from their final exit poll document which has different numbers.
1. Q: Whom did you vote for in your Senate race?
Kay Bailey Hutchison: 43.9%
Barbara Ann Radnofsky: 40.6%
Other Candidate: 10.6%
Did not vote: 5.0%
2. Q: Whom did you vote for in the Gubernatorial race?
Chris Bell: 42.8%
“Kinky” Friedman: 16.1%
Rick Perry: 24.4%
Carole Keeton Strayhorn: 11.9%
Other Candidate: 2.6%
Did not vote: 2.2%
The fact that the top Democratic candidates could not crack 50% in Latino voting to me shows no effort being made to reach those voters.
The CNN exit polls may be more accurate. The CNN exit polls show Radnofsky with only 67% of the African-American vote and 54% of the Latino vote. It has Chris Bell with 63% of the African American and 41% of the Latino vote.
Interesting that Bell did win the liberal and moderate vote but Perry had a 64% landslide in the 42% conservative Texas vote. Bell needed another candidate to the right of Perry (Just what we need, another candidate.) also interesting is that more Strayhorn voters would have stayed home than Kinky voters if their candidate was not running.
All the polls show little minority outreach by the top Texas Democratic candidates. That can and must improve for the Texas Democratic party to start winning state wide elections.
If you do a little calculation, 42/89, this exit poll does show that Bell would have received 47% of the vote if the choice was limited to him and Perry.
Former Senate Chairman using last days to attack Children’s Book on Global Warming
Every time I think Texas has the worst nutty politicians I look at Oklahoma.
Sarasota Congress race goes to court
Audits on why voting machines don't have 18,000 votes in Congressional race.
Sowing the Seeds of Fascism in America
Stan Goff, a retired 26-year veteran of the U.S. Army Special Forces, sounds a warning call that many of the historical precursors of fascism—white supremacy, militarization of culture, vigilantism, masculine fear of female power, xenophobia and economic destabilization—are ascendant in America today. This is a repost as I wanted to review it again after the elections.
Molly Ivins: Now They’re All for Bipartisanship
She also notices the populist meme, very popular so the beltway media can avoid saying the word liberal.
Analyzing the shift
Republicans lost but they were not concentrated in any ideological matter except that none of the most extreme lost. Neither did anyone left of center. I think Kevin misses the point to say this was an anti-Republican election and not an anti-conservative election. They were all conservatives who lost.
Monday, November 13, 2006
White House Briefing Post-Election
In his blog about the White House Froomkin did find a Texas quote:
Rod Dreher writes in the Dallas Morning News: "Old CW: Mr. Rove's strategy of winning elections by playing hard to the GOP base proves him a political genius. New CW: How could this knucklehead have allowed the president to alienate so many swing voters?"Dreher had another on his list of losers this election - Texas, due to Tom DeLay redistricting out all the Democrats with seniority in the House. Tom DeLay was another big loser.
Olbermann was another winner on election night
Suddenly, everyone wants Olbermann. Last week, he and political veteran Chris Matthews teamed up to anchor MSNBC's midterm election coverage.
The result? Abrams called it "a major turning point for this network." Ratings were up across the board and the coveted 25-to-54 age demographic increased 111 percent from the 2002 midterm election.
Tags: Olbermann
THIS is what Texas Dem infrastructure problems look like
Some odd things about this story of obsolete phone lists. Austin is supposed to be the one bright spot for the Texas Democratic Party organization. If this is the Austin area phone lists what does the rest of the state look like?
There were two separate online phone banking operations going on that consolidated phone outreach and allowed updates to the database as people called the phone numbers. The VAN and Bell lists had their own problems but nothing as out-of-date and antiquated as what she relates. So why was the Courage campaign not using them in this case?
A large part of the Democratic Texas state convention was taken up by the race for the state chair. The choices were a nice but old-fashioned good ol' boy and an Austin gay who wanted to improve the party infrastructure. The good ol' boy narrowly won after Chris Bell endorsed him and some Border area machine counties went for him. A lot of the opposition was that having a gay state chair would be bad for the party, ignoring the closeted gays in the GOP state and national parties.
Reading down the comments this might have been a problem with just this campaign in a newly
Trumped Up Charges at Airport Checkpoint
Almost anyone can work security at an airport. They are considered amateur private security guards by real police. They are looking for chances to take their lack of respect and authority out on someone. Here a pilot is thrown in jail for 12-hours on a trumped up charge because he didn't "respect my authority" as Eric Cartman says. The TSA, protecting us from rubber band balls. Link from Jim.What do Net Democrats want?
Habeas Corpus: restore access to courts for all prisoners of the U.S. 61%
Minimum Wage: increase to "living wage" above the poverty line and index to inflation 59%
Impeachment of George Bush and Dick Cheney: for Iraq War lies, Illegal Wiretapping, Torture, and other High Crimes 50%
Iraq: end U.S. occupation as quickly as possible 49%
Taxes: shift burden from working families to wealthy and corporations 48%
Wiretapping: enforce laws prohibiting warrantless wiretapping inside U.S. 42%
Voting Machines: use paper ballots counted by citizens until machines are open-source and unhackable 42%
Torture: outlaw all internationally-recognized torture by the U.S. military and the CIA and ban outsourcing of torture to 36%
Global Warming: sign Kyoto Treaty to reduce emissions, then set more ambitious goals 35%
Jobs: eliminate subsidies for exporting jobs overseas 33%
Alternative Energy: invest in wind, solar, and geothermal power 33%
Health Care: single-payer health care for all citizens 33%
more
Sunday, November 12, 2006
GOP Weekly Strategy Meeting: We Weren't Conservative Enough
Oh, just go right on thinking that. I'd love to have a GOP even more crazy.
"Our successes are killing us," said Grover Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform who convenes the weekly meeting. He compared Tuesday's election to the story of the princess and the pea, with the pea being liberal governance.Republican'ts as featherbedders burying pea-size problems, you tell them Norquist. Campaign on running up the debt, carpet-bombing Iraq in order to save it, cutting veteran's benefits, Social Security and Medicare -- that will get you your majority back, Yessireebob I guarantee. Jonathan Singer also urges them to go for it. The only thing better than this strategy would be a conservative urging their Republican representatives to all resign because of the liberal dictatorship. I guess that was only Oregon but the same principle applies in D.C.. Doesn't the GOP follow their grass roots convictions?
"Whenever we solve a problem — like cutting taxes or destroying the Soviet Union — we are in effect adding another mattress," he said. "We have to go back to the voters and convince them, 'you still can’t sleep because the goddamn pea is killing you.'"
The pillars of the movement, Mr. Podesta said, had collapsed under the weight of conservative rule: "stewardship of the Iraq war" had undercut conservatives' credibility on national security; budget deficits and stagnant wages had discredited tax cuts; and Congressional scandals had given the lie to the movement's moral values. As a result, he said, the Reagan Democrats were returning.
ASSESSING the election, William F. Buckley Jr., who founded the National Review magazine and helped define the movement, said he was not optimistic about the immediate future. "The conservative movement is in a sense inanimate, compared to 20 or 30 years ago," he said.
The article is an example of the current Conventional Wisdom meme that the incoming Democrats are more conservative. Wrong, but we learn that the GOP is saying their conservative caucus did not lose a member. So does that make more influence by both the progressive caucus and the conservative caucus? The Progressive Caucus wins this battle for influence.
The new Conventional Wisdom - Populism, not Liberalism
This was also picked up by the DC journalists on This Week. It must be true - Drudge also linked to this article.
Representative Rahm Emanuel, the Illinois Democrat who recruited many of these candidates as head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, described the group as “moderate in temperament and reformers in spirit.” Conservatives tend to highlight the conservatism in the new class as a sign that Democrats are essentially ceding ground to the right on issues like gun control and abortion.I hold that Populists are just liberals who aren't as outspoken on divisive social issues, are often not even united on those issues, but highlight economic inequality and want to rein in large corporations. For DC'ers this switch in rhetoric allows them to avoid their losing argument that the incoming class of 06 is less liberal and more conservative, false, and shift it to an accurate observation. Other people have shot down the idea that the incoming class is more conservative. Conservatives are wrong and the inside-the-beltway concensus are clueless. Democrats rebuilt the center-left New Deal and post-war coalition.
But many of these freshmen Democrats are hard to pigeonhole ideologically. Even among the most socially conservative, there is a strong streak of economic populism that is a unifying force.
Booman shouts out: "Progressives WILL NOW DOMINATE in the House. Progressives HAVE NEVER WIELDED THIS MUCH POWER IN HISTORY within either chamber of Congress." He expands on that here.
Rather you call it liberalism, populism or progressivism, conservatives are out and the others are in. In fact, for the first time in American history the party that controls the South does not control the Congress. I don't think that has really sunk in with our local conservatives yet. The loudest conservative voices right now seem disunited and shell-shocked. I think, or hope, that they are also considering that calling a majority of the country unAmerican and traitors was not a winning strategy and probably won't be in the future.
Saturday, November 11, 2006
Taking a bow
Daily Kos. Thank you again.
The new wars - within the GOP: "For once, we'll see "Republicans divided" stories. Their disparate and often times mutually exclusive wings -- the neocons, theocons, corporate cons, and paleocons, not to mention their dejected libertarian wing -- were held together by successes fueled by Democratic machine incompetence."
The Dem credit war: Carville - STFU, and that goes to that idiot at the Nation too. Dean responds and 99% of the net roots agree. Ford would be a disaster and a loser as head of the DNC. Salon: Howard Dean, vindicated.
Also in Salon - Another poll worker story and BattleStar Galactica is fighting the Iraq War. Demonizing the Republican'ts.
Taking a big bow and peeing their pants - Comedy Central scooped the media on Rumsfeld's resignation.
Taking a big bow - Politicians Sweep Midterm Elections.
The Secret Team, Shadow Governments and the Octopus
Is the enemy of my enemy really my friend of the Left in America? Dr. Steven Mizrach makes an attempt at detangling real conspiracies from false. The groups that have provided some of the hard investigation evidence have other agendas you might not agree with. He also wrote more about what is called the Octopus and its machinations in the Ford, Reagan, and Bush administrations and wonders if the Clinton administration choose not to pursue some investigations for a reason.
Posting a theory does not mean you believe it is true. Caveat lector. This should go without saying, but I guess people believe that I believe everything here is "true". Among certain chic circles, this type of analysis is now called "power-structure" research. - Dr. MizrachNo discussion of this type is complete without mentioning The Bohemian Grove and that link provides some real factual as opposed to conspiracy theory insight into that yearly secret beer blast.
Check into power-structure analysis and local governments being controlled by developers, another name for "land-based growth coalitions." This last link also discusses the agenda behind the "government reform movement" in local government. If you don't pay your city council members enough and have off-year non-partisan elections you benefit the developers.
Amazing how all my interests from who shot JFK to local politics and charter reform can be linked together.
Update - Why third parties don't work in America from a a power-structure analysis research perspective. Interesting that the last also brings in the Poole and Rosenthal studies of Congressional polarization and the existence of a one or two dimensional model of Congressional votes. They have a recent book linking polarized politics with income inequality and immigration.
Tags: Bohemian Grove,, conspiracy,, shadow government,, octopus,, city charter,, secret team,, conspiracy theory,, power structure
Friday, November 10, 2006
Count the errors in counting the victims - AP SCLM edition
Update - count the errors in the AP revision.
In more media prostitute news, Greenwald spots the Washington Post removing a big Bush lie from their paper. Digby also has it. Can someone tell the WP that Bush lost and servicing him in the back seat could turn off other clients.
The continued incompetence of our national media
Related - It is also so typical that on the first Meet the Press after the election and after Rumsfeld's resignation their only guests are pro-war non-Dems.
Harris County Area Winnable For Democrats
Janette Sexton sent me something I would like to share. All of these candidates except the first were unknown and underfunded. No Democrat with deep pockets and political name recognition, except for Ellen Cohen, wanted to enter this year but first time candidates stepped up to the plate. They lost but it is the new political philosophy of many Democrats to step up and try to not have the GOP with unchallenged seats.
Janette Sexton was not a perfect candidate and is now bitter about the old Democratic establishment which did not provide more assistance to all the newcomers. Sherrie Matula is likely to run again, and very soon, but not Janette. From her email:
You can see the results for the 11 novice candidates below. Only Ellen Cohen won, and she had many volunteers and received over $500,000 in campaign contributions. She also had the wherewithal to take 10 months off from her position as CEO of the Houston Women's Center.The surprise to me is Thibaut who has experience working for other political campaigns and my checking now shows, oops, she did raise a ton of money as SR races go. I think her opponent was also well funded and it was considered a GOP seat but less than Sexton and Matula. Her district was 43.6% Democrat in 04, Sexton's was 38.2%, and Sherrie's was 32.7%. Why did Thibaut's district not match the Dem performance in 04 when Matula with lots of volunteers went up about 10% and Sexton improved with little funding or volunteers? Sometime after precinct results come back I'll like to look into these three races.
Ellen Cohen: 54.70%
Sherrie Matula: 42.29%
Kristi Thibaut: 41.76%
Janette Sexton: 40.55%
Diane Trautman: 39.87%
David McDavid: 38.73%
Chad Khan: 32.61%
Dot Nelson-Turnier: 29.93%
Scott Brann: 29.1%
Pat Poland: 25.00%
Sammie Miller: 22.8%
Inequality and Wages in the United States
One of the Federal Reserve bankers gave a speech recently which explained why the Republicans did not get credit for a good economy. The reason was obvious - for 80% of workers their real income has gone down the last several years as increases in business profits flow to less than 1% of the people. Nothing new here except this is from a Federal Reserve banker. Link from Jim.
Improvements in education are an imperative for reducing inequality and an easily justifiable investment, given its high social return. In contrast, improvements in the social safety net entail costs, even when policy interventions are well-designed from an efficiency standpoint. Even so, in my opinion, they deserve high policy priority. Inequality has risen to the point that it seems to me worthwhile for the U.S. to seriously consider taking the risk of making our economy more rewarding for more of the people.
Thursday, November 09, 2006
Local candidate news - the past and future
My candidate lost but had a respectable showing. Many months ago I said she needed 12,000 votes to win. I was right and she could have done it with a bit less. The last two weeks I did another prediction that after the lack of campaigning and funds in the summer and fall she might get only 8,000 which was correct. It remains respectable because it is a GOP stronghold and at 41% she was less than 2% behind her fellow new Democratic candidate in Clear Lake who had much, much more funds and support and even the benefit of some minor scandals that came out in the last two weeks.
Update - I should add in that this year she gained a new full-time job that greatly slowed her campaign and she also suffered new major health issues that precluded block-walking. Don't campaign or expect to hold a state office if you have a regular job.
I am sure Talton's seat is winnable, just not this time. I asked her to respond to a teacher's union PAC that considered a several thousand piece mail out in her precinct in this way: There is such a low turnout in elections in this area those mailers that could persuade more than a thousand people could swing your race and not those races the PAC is supporting with their higher turnout.
Talton...11,112 ____56%
Sexton...8,003 ____41%
Kolar........619
Total....19,734
Davis.....19,597___ 58%
Matula...14,358 __ 42%
Total.....33,955
What is really needing rebuilding though is grass roots neighbor to neighbor contact, why we are Democrats and Liberals and Independents and Progressives and how we can help and support working and retired families. Working on her campaign did make me not do contact work in my precinct I need to work on. Her district did not include the areas where her biggest supporters like me live. Among other things to think about for the future - 20 votes, total, could win my city council seat. (I told you this was a low turnout area!) 600 could win hers. And the turnout for school and college board races are even more pitiful....
Tags: Harris County, Texas, local, 2006, 2008, grass roots
Just Elected GOP Senator has leukemia
Wyoming Sen. Craig Thomas, hospitalized since Monday with pneumonia, has been diagnosed with a form of leukemia. They are putting an optimistic spin on it but at his age a standard article says "the possibility of long-term disease free survival is 20 percent in those achieving remission or less than 10 percent overall".
Outlaw Empire Meets The Wave By Tom Engelhardt
Will next year bring constitutional crisis as "unitary executive theory" meets Democratic subpoenas?
Driving around yesterday I felt we had another world shift sometime in the past week and we are in a friendlier environment and not rushing toward Armageddon. The Democratic victories are the fruits of that shift. Some would say they caused the shift but they are a reflection of the people making up their minds in the last few days before. I have a feeling other things also happened in that pre-election week. Maybe it was just optimism and a feeling of having turned a corner.
Dallas courts get cleaner
On my pre-election post I had the story of the Judge who gave the black man life in prison for stealing two bucks and smoking grass while letting a white murderer and crack addict violate probation and stay out of jail. Dallas removed all Republican judges who had Democratic opponents in this election including that one. It would probably have been a clean sweep except eleven judges were unopposed. Now that Republicans are starting to lose judges to partisan passions they may think about Texas's poor system of electing judges. Our local Democrats based on this year's Harris County results also need to challenge every race going forward as we are close to tipping back blue.
Big D means Democrats again
Being a few years in advance of Houston in the Texas demographic wave, Dallas has now turned Democratic. Harris County showed Democratic improvements but no county wide winners although Orlando Sanchez's opponent Richard Garcia came very close. (I ran across Garcia at the late Harris County Democratic victory party as he was putting his name stickers on everyone.) That was probably more a vote against Orlando who has no qualifications to be county treasurer. This is just a figurehead position in a job that doesn't do much of anything and for whom Garcia was running to get rid of. Maybe Orlando is qualified for that.
UPDATE - Perry Dorrell expands on the Harris County turn which has the local Republicans worried. Our statewide candidates and party did not have the money for a Latino outreach program and it really hurt Bell. I complained about the 2000 election and the 2002 and the 2004 and now the 2006, Democrats are well behind the GOP in going after the Latino vote. An analysis of this election doesn't look that good even if Baselice is a lying SOB who works for Perry mainly good at spin - Perry did not get 36% of the Hispanic vote as Baselice claims.
Tags: Orlando Sanchez, Richard Garcia, Texas, Harris County
Molly Ivins: Post-Election Etiquette
So after 12 years of tolerating lying, cheating and corruption, the press is prepared to lecture Democrats on how to behave with bipartisan manners.
Given Bush’s record with the truth, this bipartisanship sounds like a bad idea on its face. Go back to the first year of the administration, when Bush double-crossed Ted Kennedy in the No Child Left Behind Act. Think about it: You’ve said at the outset of your administration that you need cooperation to get anything done. Then you double-cross one of the senior senators of the other party when your re-education and labor agenda is dependent on him?
These people are not only dishonest, they’re not even smart. Not that I recommend nailing them at every turn, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they try to do it to Democrats. If what Republicans have been practicing is bipartisanship, West Texas just flooded.
Election Day report
Very long day. We opened about three minutes after 7 AM after the Republican judge did not set up the night before and we had to find the San Jacinto college police at 6 AM to open up the library. We then had to assemble 13 polling booths and get set up. We only had two clerks plus the presiding judge and myself as the alternate judge. We were authorized 9 people total plus should have received two bilingual Spanish clerks (one would have been good) from the county. The judge said none of the others showed up. Who did show up were two poll watchers from the Lampson and Sekula-Gibbs campaigns that we could not put to work.
Normally judges hate poll watchers whose job it is to spy on their elections and make sure they know what they are doing and that they conduct a fair and honest and non-partisan election. Our judge was not concerned with that, we do, and did not impose the strict restrictions of no talking by the poll watchers except to the election judge. We had conversations with the poll watchers and even let them have a few instances of non-election talk to a voter if a friend came in.
I ran one Judge Booth Controller controlling 6 booths and the presiding judge ran the other with 7 and the two clerks divided up the sign in. Both of us judges also assisted voters and handled problems and called in to the county to find correct precincts for wanderers or about other problems.
I refer to my booths, we set up one aisle with booths on either side. I normally gave voting codes activating a booth to one side and the presiding judge the other. We both assisted voters on any booth or handled problems at check-in.
A good election except we just had a few minutes slack during the day as there were about 540 voters, I don't have the exact number with me right now. Very understaffed for the election. I have had fewer people as a presiding judge but not with that many voters and four is the minimum you need.
Around 9:30 AM or so I went out and moved some polling location signs further out to the street after hearing a complaint from a voter of having a hard time finding us. I believe the clerks had placed the signs before 7. We were in the San Jacinto College Library lobby and were down a few blocks from where early voting was held. I was surprised we had no candidate signs near us. I was going to put up a Lampson sign at Spencer highway and our side street, moving it from my front yard, but forgot this at 5:45 AM.
There was a minor opening glitch - the battery of my JBC didn't work but it worked off of the power cord. When the tech guy came around later he just said he didn't think it would be a problem unless we lost power and then we could call him. The other JBC seemed fine.
There was another programming glitch in the machines we discovered. If you accidentally voted a straight party ticket, which someone did for the Libertarian Party, canceling the straight party vote did not remove the votes for all of that party's candidates. The voter had to go through and make individual changes in each race. That was a simple programming error.
The biggest problem with the machines we use is the big cast ballot button. A few voters just love to push that instead of the enter button for a selection. A warning should pop up on the screen that you are about to cast your ballot and you will be done but it doesn't do that. Instead, the e-slate just goes through and starts showing the tally list of all the races and who you voted for and didn't vote for. There is now an information pop-up they added the first time you override a straight party ticket vote, there should be one final warning on the cast ballot action. This time we only had one person we know of who cast his ballot after only voting for the first race but looking at the under votes later there were probably several others. There were 10 non-votes, also called under votes, at my booths in the most popular election. Most people when they start getting the tally screens will ask us for help or we will spot and go assist.
The other problem, of course, is those voters who go through the ballot and check their tally screens and then forget to push the cast ballot button. This is the first election I had this didn't happen to any of our voters - we manage to spot the couple of voters before they left.
A large number of people did need help on the first special election for the US House CD-22 race. "Why wasn't there a straight party choice first," etc. This was also the first page and some had to be shown how to move the highlighted choice over what they want as their selection and hitting the enter key and so on. After that special race the machines did not automatically go to the next page after a choice was made, you had to move the selector wheel or hit the next button. Or maybe it was just sometimes it didn't, I was too busy assisting voters wondering what to do next to see if it automatically advanced for some.
We had a line from 7 AM to 9 AM and were also busy around noon. Right after 3:30 with no one voting I looked out the glass entrances and saw what looked like a scene from a Night of the Living Dead movie, a large group of people with lots of kids converging on us. They had picked up kids from school and here they came. We stayed very busy from then on with it intensifying even more right before 5. At 5 all thirteen booths were occupied and there was a line of fifteen or so waiting to sign in and another line of a dozen waiting for us to give them a ticket for a free booth. The presiding judge's wife showed up to help - technically she was supposed to be the presiding judge and then said something came up and the husband who was normally the presiding judge anyway had taken over. We stayed constantly busy with all booths occupied from 4:30 or so until 6:45. I am surprised there wasn't a last minute rush right before 7 PM.
Phone help from the county: During the 5 PM rush a clerk asked me to help with a person with a driver's license only and not on our books. And then to help the other four or five people there not on our books. I got on the phone with the registration office. They couldn't find the voter. This involves giving them name and address and then more information like date of birth or TDL number and Social Security number and then previous addresses. This was taking a while and the guy couldn't remember his previous address. When I said there were several others as well she said we sounded like we were too busy and I should just let them call a public number the clerks could give them to find their correct precinct. There was another clerk who for the longest time could not understand me when I spelled out a person's name. Jan. Jay Aye eN. Kan? No, J as in jello. Kay? No, J as in Jello? KellO? J as in jet, J as in jump rope. Ken? No matter what she kept hearing k - no matter what examples I gave. Finally she passed me to someone else less tired who had no problems. Kello?
Provisional ballots - my presiding judge hates provisional ballots and always tries to persuade people not to waste our time. There was one person near the end with his wife at the same address in our books but he wasn't. He said he had moved around a lot the last several years and was now with his wife again, technically ex-wife, I think. After passing around several people at the clerks office they said he had been removed from the rolls when he moved to Galveston County. The man said he had requested a new voter residency at the driver's license bureau six months ago when he got a new driver's license. The presiding judge explained that if it had been one or two months ago his vote might count but six months or more he did not think they would find a record of him applying that did not get passed on. Sometime the DPS offices are late passing the material on but not that late. The presiding judge explained he could fill all of this provisional ballot stuff out and then after the election they would check but it was very likely, more than very likely, it would not count. (I am not the presiding judge and have a higher opinion of provisional ballots and would not try to discourage them as much as our judge does. The Stanley - Harrison election both times was decided by provisional ballots. I didn't push my opposite viewpoint when the man started in on this "all these illegal aliens voting and he doesn't get to" spiel.) We had no provisional ballots cast.
At closing, I had no real problems with my JBC, just had to remember to print a result of the write-ins as well as the vote tally. The other JBC when the presiding judge attempted to do the first write-in printed tally the machine died with a programming error - "Status Error line XXXXx - expected XXx, data exception" and more computerese database programming error message. The machine was frozen and the judge could not get the printed tally. So we only received a printed tally of a little less of half the votes in my precinct - those who voted on the booths connected to my machine. Help Desk was not available at either number so he took it in with no printed tally. Remember the morning battery problem? The battery key would not unscrew from my machine at closing.
Poll watching is more dull than working the election. They stayed all day and didn't observe any real problems - I think they both wrote down a couple minor things but at least one tossed it away later. Both of us judges only provided help when asked or it looked liked a voter needed it and avoided mentioning candidate's names. If assisting straight ticket voters or Republican voters I pointed out some races do not have party candidates listed on the ballot and to look at the other candidates or write-in candidates - period. I showed them the list of write-in candidates in the machines. I said the same to all voters. The Republican presiding judge persuaded one poll watcher - the Lampson actually, to work elections.
Looking at my heavily Republican precinct where Sekula-Gibbs lost to Lampson on my booths, I expect also on the others but no idea because of the problem at closing, it seemed obvious to me Lampson would win in a close race. Sekula-Gibbs would win if more voters knew what they had to do. I was surprised on how many write-in votes were cast and it wasn't obvious until I printed the tally after 7 PM. When you are handling problems you don't notice all the ones who quickly get through even the write-in without problems.
Election Results from the booths I ran: Of the 260 ballots - Straight party: R - 65, D - 31, L - 1.
District 22: Lampson (D) 102, Smither (L) 23, Write-in Sekula-Gibbs(R) 81, Other write-ins 3.
Governor: Perry 101, Bell 48, Kinky 54, Strayhorn 46, write-in Sekula-Gibbs 1.
Unexpired term CD-22: Smither 40, Stockman 28, Richardson 19, Sekula_Gibbs 116, Tran 3.
Governor's race had the most votes with 250.
County Commisioner Sylvia Garcia running unopposed had the most votes of any Democrat with 136, Lampson next with 102.
State Rep. Wayne Smith (R) was the biggest vote getter at 183. Many unopposed Republican judges were within 10 of this.
Odd for this election was the high number of statement-of-residence change-of-address forms we used. I don't remember having had more than two in previous elections. I think we had over 25 for this one which is high even with the much higher number of voters. I don't know if it was the Kinky factor or the interest in the Lampson - Sekula Gibbs race.
I let the judge take the materials to turn in after spending over an hour taking everything down, packing up poll booths and putting every thing in the proper place.
For the first time I went to a post-election party. I picked up Pat who had been a judge at her precinct and met Janette Sexton at an election party in Northwest Houston where we stayed until past midnight. The next morning I slept through someone coming to fix the furnace.
ADDED -I keep making minor edits to this. Here is another election day poll report from another blogger in Lampson's district.
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
Who's responsible for the Democratic gains?
Kos: Going down the list, the only Democrats out of 28 officially confirmed victories that could be called "conservative" are Shuler in NC-08, Lampson in TX-22, and the three Indiana Dems,
FDL: A victory for liberals, not Rahm Emanuel.
TNR: A victory for Democratic bloggers, not Rahm Emanuel.
A victory for Ford in losing.
A huge victory for Howard Dean.
Tom DeLay: Republicans got a ‘Texas whooping’
Democratic gains in state legislatures - victory from the roots. You always wonder if these roots are grass or oak trees. A Democratic Tsunami at the local level by the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee.
WP: "Corruption proved to be a more potent issue than it had appeared even weeks ago," election a repudiation of Bush, the war and the right.
Karl Rove's "disciplined and well-financed campaigns to drive away voters."
51% Mandate Bush says this election was so close the Democrats must be bipartisan. Bush announces Rumsfeld resignation, says he lied when he said last week he would keep him on. (Waiting for press conference to be posted. OK, Greenwald has the best take - identical to mine)
Greenwald: The Democrats who won have one thing in common -- aggressive and unapologetic opposition to what the Republicans have become.
"The only Republicans who lost were too moderate or involved in scandal - this is a victory for a more conservative Republicanism." Latest crazy meme from the right.
Will post these Updates here: Hastert to step down as GOP leader, Democrats take Montana Senate seat. Allen won't concede, he had denounced Gore for not conceding in 2000.
This was a lot of links - maybe I should just point to Howard Dean and the vindication of his 50-state grass roots strategy.
TPM - don't count on Virginia any time soon - see Karl Rove's history. But If it stays at 7,000 votes or so it may be too big a margin for a long GOP court battle and the GOP may not want all their election dirty tricks hanging in the media for months.
Tags: Glenn Greenwald, election 2006, Democratic victory, liberals, Bush, Rumsfeld, digest, Rahm Emanuel, Howard Dean
Election Results
HARRIS COUNTY ELECTION NIGHT RESULTS
Texas State Election Results
National and state election returns and exit polls
Victory is ours! Around 30 Dem gains in House, Dems gain 4 of 6 Senate seats needed for control, lead in other two. Expect recounts.
I'm tired and partied and worked out, I'll let Kuff speak for me.
Sunday, November 05, 2006
A Reminder
I will be very busy the next 72 hours so I'll just remind people what the Texas Republican party is all about.
"Where did this idea come from that everybody deserves free education, free medical care, free whatever? It comes from Moscow, from Russia. It comes straight out of the pit of hell." - Representative Debbie Riddle, Republican Incumbent Texas District 150, North Harris County Spring-Cypress 2006Or this little goodie in the Texas GOP platform "We oppose any criminal or civil penalties against those who oppose homosexuality out of faith, conviction, or belief in traditional values." Oops, some have taken that to mean freedom to beat up a gay for Christ.
Or this latest reminder of Texas Justice, a black man is in a prison for life for a $2 robbery and smoking a joint while on probation. Two minor strikes you get life. A white man is about to go free from probation by the same judge after murder and repeatedly violating his probation. Among other violations, he appears addicted to crack. The judge relaxed his probation terms because he couldn't keep them and he came from a wealthy well-connected family. Repeated strikes you get nothing, if your white and well-connected. Skin color and family amd class is everything for many Texas judges.
Here is Harris County voting information. Check candidate websites for how you can call people to remind them to vote. Or just call and visit your neighbors, take a friend with you to the polls, remember to review your choices before you hit that cast ballot button - have a party on election day. Things are not gonna get worse. We have just a little more of this election crap and lies to get through.
What would Ronald Reagan say: "Can anyone look at the record of this administration and say, ‘Well done?’ Can anyone look at our reduced standing in the world today and say, ‘Let’s have four more years of this?’"
HAD ENOUGH? VOTE.
Saturday, November 04, 2006
Republican Pasadena Fish Fry Clogs Sewer Line
Down at Bay Area Park, Republican State Representative John Davis had a campaign fish fry. It didn't attract many people, around 30, but got lots of attention later. You see, they decided to dispose of the fish fry grease by dumping it down the toilet. All umpteen gallons of it.
This clogged up the sewer line lift station near there and took some time to fix and eventually trace back to the fish fry.
Now everyone knows that John Davis doesn't believe in environmental regulation, we didn't know we would be given evidence that when given the chance he would be a major polluter.
Of course, anyone with any sense also knows it is illegal to dispose of buckets of grease that way. There are even public service announcements on TV about this. It is not clear if it was the caterers from Sudie's Catfish Kitchen, whose food is usually pretty good but a bit expensive for the quality except at lunch, who did the dumping or someone else from the event.
Here is the video from 26 News. Here are other local bloggers on this - Musings and John at BAND.
Was Pasadena Mayor Manlove at the fish fry? Did he order anyone to be charged with the crime?
Find A Party Tuesday Night
Related to my earlier post of putting the party back in party and getting our own Democrats willing to work the refs.
Pearland Political Advertisements Praise Candidate
Neglects to point out that she is dead. Good ol' Texas politics.
A slick new campaign mailer shows a smiling state Rep. Glenda Dawson meeting with Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison. It lists Dawson's achievements in education, economics and politics. What the ad doesn't say is that Dawson has been dead since September. The recorded message for the Dawson campaign headquarters says that "your message and vote are very important to us." Dawson's campaign hopes the candidate will win re-election over Democrat Anthony Dinovo of Pearland. If Dawson wins, which is likely in the heavily Republican district, Gov. Rick Perry will probably call a special election open to all in mid-December.Dr. Dinovo [blog] has had a lot of experience with those "compassionate conservative Republicans" with his campaign. An odd sad thing for Texas is that he is the compassionate conservative and his opponent is dead but she will likely win.
Checking on Texas Election Woes - Update 2
Updates at the botton.
Well, my checking with early voting election workers I know show they are not aware of the dropped vote for Chris Bell problem. No one else has reported it in two EV locations. They say there are problems with people hitting cast ballot too early or not hitting it at all. We'll see how it goes election day.
I just came from latest 3 hours training on eSlate. The Harris County machines are claimed to be better than most black box machines with 3 separate cards holding the ballots. They don't have anything like the California machines with a button on them that permits anyone to vote multiple times or the Florida machines that can be programmed to allow bad ballots in Democratic precincts but give a redo for Republican precincts. I would be more concerned with the Diebold GEM software [video] they use to count the votes.
Continued problems reported in Jefferson and Hardin counties with touch screen machines. Always Democratic votes being turned into Republican. The official explanation is long fingernails register a vote for the incumbent listed above the Democrats. If not that the problem is machines that need recalibrating.
Update again - I may have spoken too soon on the better reliability of the machines Harris county uses. I just watched a documentary that included a demonstration on where the memory cards that actually hold the votes can be set up ahead of time to subtract votes from some candidates and give them to others. This was on an actual voting machine used in Florida. Hacking Democracy, which is on HBO now. They also demonstrated the widely known GEM bypass procedures which I think is the more serious threat. Seeing the bald-face lies of Republican election officials and voting machine company representatives should be instructive to people. The voting machines we use here in Harris County are only better because of the three memory cards used at the polling places, not just one. The zero count opening tapes and the closing tapes also proved useless against this memory card hack - displaying 0 votes before the votes when there were both hidden votes and negative votes in the card and then printing the results the hacked card wanted.
Conservative Writer Frank Schaeffer: "I should be supporting George Allen, instead I'm leaving the party."
I'm a Christian, a writer, a military parent and a registered Republican.Frank Schaeffer is the author of "Baby Jack," a novel about Marines.
I've been voting Republican for years. My late father – Dr. Francis Schaeffer – was an evangelical theologian, friend to Jerry Falwell and White House guest of Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford and the first President Bush.
I have nice handwritten letters from various members of the Bush family, including Barbara, thanking me for my books on military service. So I have every reason to stay in the Republicans' good graces. (It's nice to be complimented on television by the First Lady.)
But enough is enough. I've had it with Republican smears.
My wife and I have reached the tipping point. We plan to go to town hall to dump our Republican voter registration and reregister as independents. I don't care anymore what party someone is in. These days, what I care about is what they're made of.
Wartime demands leaders with character and moral authority. The political party smearing Mr. Webb proves it has neither.
Perry Appointed Supreme Court Judge Don Willett lies about endorsements
A liberal watchdog group has filed a complaint with the Judicial Conduct Board that Willet is advertising media endorsements that his opponent Judge William "Bill" Moody actually received.
Updated Archives
I am still working on more searchable archives. I have made the archives weekly to enable people to find posts easier if you know a general date.
Never mind, although blogger reported it was done it apparently wasn't and the posts appeared a few minutes later.
So You Think You Want to Impeach?
The more you look at it the more problematic it becomes.
Not that Bush and Cheney don't deserve impeachment - in fact, it is too good for them. Tar and feathers and long prison terms come more to mind.
The 19 Things Republicans want you to forget
Early voting is over. If you haven't gone to the polls yet get your ass out the door Tuesday and bring a friend.
Army, Air Force, Marine, and Navy Times call for Rumsfeld to Resign
Roll out the barrel. As they say:
Rumsfeld has lost credibility with the uniformed leadership, with the troops, with Congress and with the public at large. His strategy has failed, and his ability to lead is compromised. And although the blame for our failures in Iraq rests with the secretary, it will be the troops who bear its brunt.BTW, I think Saddam's being found guilty and sentenced to hang Sunday will not influence voters - which appears to be a November surprise being cooked up. Three U.S.N. carriers are now positioned off of Iran with a fourth amphib carrier a few hundred miles away, that has been the most worrisome possible surprise I keep imagining.
This is not about the midterm elections. Regardless of which party wins Nov. 7, the time has come, Mr. President, to face the hard bruising truth:
Donald Rumsfeld must go.
We're All Prisoners, Now: US Citizens to need ''Clearance'' to leave USA
Under a proposed regulation to take effect Jan 14, 2007 you must have permission to leave the country by plane or cruise ship.
Friday, November 03, 2006
How Low Will Bush Go?
If Democrats manage to take control of one or both houses of Congress on Tuesday, the reason will be that voters were not roused into "a state of heart-pounding, knee-knocking, teeth-chattering fear" by Bush and the GOP's constant FEAR! messages. This has worked on many, but hopefully not enough, this time.
New Rothenberg Ratings Weekend before election edition
Here are exclusive excerpts provided to Political Wire:
The Senate: "While Senate control is in doubt, with Democrats most likely to win from 5 to 7 seats, we do not think the two sides have an equal chance of winning a majority in the Senate. Instead, we believe that state and national dynamics favor Democrats netting six seats and winning control of the United States Senate."
The House: "Going into the final days before the 2006 midterm elections, we believe the most likely outcome in the House of Representatives is a Democratic gain of 34 to 40 seats, with slightly larger gains not impossible. This would put Democrats at between 237 and 243 seats, if not a handful more, giving them a majority in the next House that is slightly larger than the one the Republicans currently hold. If these numbers are generally correct, we would expect a period of GOP finger-pointing and self-flagellation after the elections, followed by a considerable number of Republican House retirements over the next two years."
Hmmm - more evidence of a flaw in some Texas voting machines
I had written where my straight party Democratic ticket did not record a vote for governor. My father says his ballot showed the same thing.
Working the refs and election parties
William Kristol of The Weekly Standard once said, "I admit it. The liberal media were never that powerful, and the whole thing was often used as an excuse by conservatives for conservative failures." Rich Bond, former head of the Republican Party, also admitted they often "work the refs" as he put it. They always do it because it works. Some recent cases in point: Kerry being slammed on every media in the country for over 24 hours for omitting "us" in a speech, turning what was meant to be a joke about the intelligence of Bush into a joke of dumb people volunteering to go to Iraq. Never mind he immediately fired back that you would have to be crazy to think he would disparage the troops - the Republican base is crazy and the media plays to them.
In Houston, the city health department started giving flu shots in some of the centers that were having early voting. The Republican party and their noise machine were all over this as inducing poor minority people to vote but not rich white Republicans. Mayor White stopped the program after the complaints. Are many Democrats afraid to be seen as being for their party and for encouraging minorities and the poor to vote? You don't find the GOP apologizing for their several campaigns to keep minorities and the poor from voting despite it benefiting their party.
President Bush himself went to a fund raiser for a Republican accused of attacking and trying to strangle his mistress and urged voters to support him. What would the GOP do if a prominent Democrat did that?
Another candidate in the Houston area aggressively went after an Asian group advertising and distributing discount coupons at and near a polling location. Should Democrats check what stores are having sales near Republican precincts?
My reading of the law also shows that a generic inducement to vote as opposed to a vote for a particular candidate, party, or ballot measure is probably not illegal. I am sure I will get others emailing me soon that I am wrong.
Some law students conducted experiments on holding election day festivals and showed it increased voter turnout. Is this to be illegal? Providing free refreshments outside voting locations, which I personally have seen here in Pasadena - illegal or not?
Originally, voting places were often located in saloons and often free beer was provided, after this fell out of favor voter participation rates started dropping to where we are in our current sorry state. We are too sober, solemn and unhappy at a ritual that should bind communities and groups together. When one party runs on tearing communities apart and restricting and limiting the vote and telling others what to do in their bedrooms and castigating the other party as supporting terrorists perhaps we don't deserve happy party elections.
Let us work to put the party back in the political parties.
Election 2006: Where Senate and House Races Are Updated Daily
Projections: Senate toss-up. New House at at 240 or more Democratic.
Dem House pickups: AZ-05 AZ-08 CA-11 CO-04 CO-07 CT-02 CT-04 CT-05 FL-13 FL-16 FL-22 IA-01 IL-06 IL-10 IN-02 IN-08 IN-09 KY-03 KY-04 NC-08 NC-11 NH-02 NM-01 NY-19 NY-20 NY-24 NY-25 NY-29 OH-01 OH-02 OH-15 OH-18 PA-06 PA-07 PA-08 PA-10 TX-22 WI-08Tags: election, Senate, House, national, 2006
GOP pickups: none
White House Political Religious Advisor and Church Leader Resigns in Gay Sex Scandal
The Rev. Ted Haggard, who until Thursday was President of the National Association of Evangelicals, has apparently admitted to some of the claims made by Mike Jones, a bodybuilder and personal trainer based in Denver, Colorado.This supports the continuing evidence that those who are most outspoken in demonizing behaviors are wrestling with their own demons. I am only surprised it is this mega-church leader and not another from California whose books and pamphlets make the case good Christians must stamp out homosexuality with the harshest measures because if it becomes acceptable a majority of men will switch to that delicious but forbidden gay sex. Say what? Ask the men you know if they would find gay sex more appealing.
Jones claimed Wednesday on a Colorado radio talk show that he'd had a sexual affair with a prominent pastor, but did not give names at the time. Jones and Haggard were later identified by a Denver TV news station.
Rev. Haggard, a graduate of Oral Roberts University, at first denied the charges, telling the station on Wednesday night that he'd "never had a gay relationship with anybody, and I'm steady with my wife. I'm faithful to my wife."
With scrutiny intensifying, on Thursday Haggard resigned from the evangelical association and took paid leave as senior pastor of the New Life Church in Colorado Springs. He said in a statement that he could "not continue to minister under the cloud created by the accusations" and was stepping down to let the church conduct its own investigation. The statement did not include a denial of Jones' allegations.
In Haggard's case, it was his own demons, literally. He taught his church group to believe demons cause gay sex cravings. So the White House loses another political advisor in a way they don't appreciate before an election. Haggard had a weekly call to the White House as part of their religious political network. Update - a senior pastor says Haggard admitting to some accusations.
Tags: White House advisor, Rev. Ted Haggard, Evangelicals, closeted gays, gay sex scandal, election, 2006, demons
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Sheky-Something's 15-minute potty break and other Fort Bend election news
Not only did Sorry-Gibbs spend 10-15 minutes talking to voters inside a polling location on what she has claimed was a potty break, she also attempted to enter the other polling location as well. The election officials there properly kept her out. What was the matter with the officials at the other location? Many disputes between poll watchers and clerks where the Republican voting officials don't usually have scrutiny.
Tags: CD-22, Lampson, election, Texas
Air America hit by large corporate advertiser blacklist
BREAKING: Nearly 100 large American corporations have reportedly sent a memo indicating they want no advertisements aired on the liberal radio shows affiliated with Air America. The memo is aimed at ABC stations that may carry some of their programming. Hewlett Packard, Bank of America, Exxon Mobil, Federal Express, General Electric, McDonald's, Microsoft, Wal-Mart, and the U.S. Navy are some of the advertisers listed.
Update - one company claims it is not so.
Mark Halperin's sad little whimpering for right-wing attention
Pathetic. Interesting in that his ABC's The Note has been playing for the Washington Republicans for years but he whimpers that the outside of DC conservatives think he is part of the liberal media elite. He is engaged in an email debate right now on Slate, throwing rose bouquets to Karl Rove, and may have had someone post his complaint about Atrios, if it is not fake, but I am too busy to read any more of his onanistic nervous breakdown.
Tags: Mark Halperin, ABC, wanker
Kinky says he needs 'Texas miracle' to win
Concedes the best he can hope for is second and he might come in fourth. This is a winner-take-all election, no runoff. A vote for Kinky leaves Perry in office.
Were Texans Overcharged $700 million by TXU and Reliant this year?
That is the charge of a consumer group at rate hearings. Another group pointed out hundreds of thousands of entertainment expenses utilities were wanting consumers to pick up. Don't count on Perry appointed boards stacked with corporate insiders to get your money back. Consumer issues like this should have been big this election. Chris Bell's consultants didn't highlight them in ads. If you haven't voted this is one reason why to vote.
I wonder how the more corporate friendly Houston Chronicle will carry this? So far nada.
Link from South Texas Chisme.
Tags: Texas, corporate cronyism, Perry, Bell, utility bills, rate hikes, election, vote
A Real War is still going on
I am a bit worried about the light Bush schedule mentioned at the end though - Bush and Rove have something planned.
DNCC Sends out mailer for GOP Candidate in CD-22
This is going to create some controversy. With several Republicans running as write-in candidates the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee figures they can split the anti-Lampson vote if they help the underfunded candidates with their message. This is a winner-take-all election and Lampson just needs the most votes.
I can hear the wailing and gnashing of teeth and the posting of illiterate implied threats from Lone Star Times when they find out about this. Of course, when Republicans do similar things, help Green candidates get on the ballot and fund their campaigns, it is good clean fun.
What brought this on was a recent poll showing almost as people planning to write-in a candidate as vote for Lampson. Didn't benefit Sekky-Something that much it was still 36% to 28% in Lampson's favor but that was enough for the DNCC to notice.
UPDATE: A closer look at the ad reveals it was an attack ad on Don Richardson for being too conservative. It was not a fake endorsement. Kristen Mack and the local GOP disagree. It was also clear who sent the ad. FactCheck.org agrees:
"There's no deception in the DCCC mailing in Texas, while the Pennsylvaina mailer falsely claims to be from a 'progressive' organization," he told me. "The Pennsylvania mailing deceives voters about the motives of the sender," while "the Texas mailing. . . is up front about coming from Democrats."
Technorati Tags: Texas, CD-22, Lampson, politics, 2006
Slate Quiz: Match the porn with the politician who wrote it
Link from Memo. Dirty election campaigns get literary. BTW, the US Marine Corps recommends Webb's book as does Sen. McCain.
Police investigating assault charges against Allen Aides
Blogger thrown to the ground when he shouted question at Allen.
American Held For Three Years Without Charges Claims He Was Tortured
Lawyers for alleged al Qaeda operative Jose Padilla have asked a Florida judge to dismiss the terrorism case against him, saying he was tortured and force-fed psychedelic drugs while held at a U.S. military brig for more than 3-1/2 years.Padilla was barely mentally competent before the torture. There was also no real evidence against him so they wanted him to confess to something. Charges were only finally brought against when the courts were going to order him released. He is also an American citizen. Slippery slope folks, slippery slope.
"The torture took myriad forms, each designed to cause pain, anguish, depression and ultimately, the loss of will to live," Padilla's attorney's said in the motion for dismissal filed in Miami federal court earlier this month.
"Often he had to endure multiple interrogators who would scream, shake and otherwise assault Mr. Padilla," his lawyers said. "Additionally, Mr. Padilla was given drugs against his will, believed to be some form of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) or phencyclidine (PCP), to act as a sort of truth serum during his interrogations."
GOP Congress Set To Take Away Free Speech Against Animal Enterprises
The Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act (AETA) S. 3880 / H.R. 4239 will set penalties (jail time and fines) for any action that can be linked to a loss of profit to any company classified as an "animal enterprise". An "animal enterprise" would include anyone who produces or distributes animals or products from animals, animal entertainment - including rodeos, circuses, zoos or aquariums, research facilities, pet stores and even animal fighting. This means that legal activities such as peaceful protests, consumer boycotts, media campaigns legislative proposals, or even telling the public what happens in puppy mills, factory farms, or canned hunting facilities, could be classified as acts of terrorism.Amy sent this. You can take action against it here. Or call or write your Congressman or speak to him on the campaign trial. Something like: "Hi, my name is ____, and I live at _________. I am calling to urge Representative _______ to strongly oppose HR 4239, "The Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act." This legislation seeks to criminalize the most basic and protected elements of free speech. This is unconstitutional and unAmerican. Does he value dollars from corporations higher than the right of free speech?"
I just love that linking terrorism in there. That is how you persuade people to give away their freedom, by making them afraid.
Tags: Constitution, Free Speech, corporations, GOP, HR4239, Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, Take Action
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