Yesterday, after a year of battering by the forces assembled by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and funded by the likes of the Koch brothers, progressive America finally successfully fought back. But the victory is small, and will prove Pyrrhic (as 2008 victories have proven to be) if progressives feel they can now relax.
I received an email from Barack Obama - well, his fundraising campaign - that cited "big things" as a subject and provided a link that had "begin_again" in the URL.
Nice.
I didn't bother to read it. I have little money to spare - none, actually. The economy sucks; the recovery is slow. Much of this is do to a dual circumstance: the backbone of the GOP's efforts to undermine recovery, and the almost complete and utter failure of the Democrats and the President to effectively push back and expose those efforts as the crappy, un-patriotic shite that it is.
I wrote a response instead, and posted it as a note on Facebook that I shared as a status. (You can find the status here with a link to the note.) Feel free to share it via Twitter and/or FB.
I'm reprinting it below the fold for those of you who'd rather not venture there, and to give everyone the opportunity to comment.
Have at it...
In a piece posted to ThinkProgress by Kevin Donohoe titled REPORT: In 22 Statehouses Across the Country, Conservatives Move to Disenfranchise Voters, a disturbingly familiar bit of news:
In statehouses across the country, Republican lawmakers are raising the specter of “voter fraud” to push through legislation that would dramatically restrict the voting rights of college students, rural voters, senior citizens, the disabled and the homeless. As part of their larger effort to silence Main Street, conservatives are pushing through new photo identification laws that would exclude millions from voting, depress Hispanic voter turnout by as much as 10 percent, and cost taxpayers millions of dollars.
Today's GOP, coupled with the extreme insanity of their Tea Party brethren, has steadfastly pursued an accelerated agenda since they were able to reclaim some of their lost power through the last the election cycle. The previous decade of corruption and abuse, diminished civil rights and undermined social safety nets set the stage. Now, apparently panicking at the thought that they nearly saw all of their dismantling of the New Deal un-done with the transfer of power in the 2008 election cycle, they're scrambling to disable what elements they can and rig anThe ything else that could enhance their chances of keeping their claws on the levers of American power.
The most recent Census is behind us which puts the importance of the upcoming election's importance front and center. And, more importantly, what the results of the this election can do to your future vote. Right now it is all about one thing:
Redistricting across the nation.
It happens after every Census and it can decide whether to keep the district lines fairly and reasonably drawn... OR it can amplify or drown your voice in future elections. It is that big a deal. I wrote on this a short while back - foreshadowing the importance that it would have now, Now, NOW!
Dive in for more on both Redistricting and the inevitable Gerrymandering that results below...
{ed note - CM1] Cross posted with permission from and written by slinkerwink: A little bit of reasoning from the left wing on why you should get out the vote.
I voted early today. It's the first time I've done this, and it was a breeze to do. It's the fifth time that I've voted since 2000. I still remember that excitement of my first vote for Al Gore to be President, even though it was ten years ago.
I voted in 2000 because I knew how terrible Governor Bush would be as President. I was sadly right. I didn't vote in the 2002 midterm election since I was depressed and angry about the illegal war against Iraq which 40% of the Democratic caucus in the House had voted for at the time.
Then I came to Dailykos around 2003 because of Howard Dean. I was one of the followers on the Dean For America blog, which later became Democracy For America. Here's the transcript of that famous "I'm here to represent the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party" speech below:
Michael Collins
(Satire)
White House Press Secretary, Robert "the mole" Gibbs, was outed last night for his lead role in throwing the 2010 congressional election to the Republican Party. The White House refused to return calls to comment on the charge or verify the outline of the carefully orchestrated plot. But a variety of off the record sources spoke as one - the plot is real and has been going on long before the 2008 general election. The scope of the plot goes well beyond the upcoming congressional contests.
In a recent interview for The Hill newspaper, Gibbs used an entirely new technique in election tactics - offend and humiliate a key element of your voting block right before a critical election. Gibbs ridiculed progressives as part of the "Professional Left" and said, “They will be satisfied when we have Canadian health care and we’ve eliminated the Pentagon. That’s not reality.” Research indicates that this approach has never been used within 90 days of a general election.
But the story goes much deeper than simple electoral politics. The planned outburst has a short term benefit for Republicans but, as we will see, Gibbs is reporting to a higher authority.
The latest KWIN-uh-pe-ack© numbers are out for the CT-Gov race of 2010 and ctblogger looks at the data overall and the questions a bit, while Ct Bob looks at the inside game of the likely voter numbers.
Needless to say, the numbers look good for the Democratic party candidates no matter how it goes down.
Poll 1.
Research 2000 for Daily Kos. 5/24-26. Likely voters. MoE 4% (1/11-13 results)
Dick Blumenthal (D) 52 (56)
Linda McMahon (R) 33 (34)
It'd been a while since we polled Connecticut, and quite frankly, I didn't expect to ever come back to this Senate race (the governor's race is another story, and a race for another day to poll).
Poll 2.
These numbers are pretty darn close to where Quinnipiac had them yesterday:
Stock deals are rigged for insiders. Big money runs Congress. And we've gone to war based on a series of calculated lies.
Are you willing to accept the fact that our elections are subject to the same type of corruption?
If you are, then Proving Election Fraud by Richard Charnin pulls back the curtain and exposes the pattern of election fraud over the past four decades. It's not a mystery when your look at the numbers and check them against multiple public sources. The information is all there - if the experts care to look.
I have been saying that the numbers are pretty clear on what is missing from Healthcare Reform for a while, and is a political killer for Dem incumbents, has clearly been the fact that there was no public option in the final Senate bill that passed. All along the way you could see the politicians' numbers dropping like an anchor while the public option remained pretty darn steady in its popularity. While everyone is concerned about jobs and the government opening up the taxpayer's wallet to the greedy banksters, via Charles Chamberlain's diary, we get a pretty clear picture of what is pushing the people over the edge and will likely lead to a Dem salughter in the next elections:
This isn't just a strategy that makes good policy sense, it's the
key issue these Freshman Democrats need to pass to get reelected.
Here's the headline details of the voters Democracy for America and the
Progressive Change Campaign Committee had Research 2000 poll over the weekend.
FRESHMAN DEMOCRATS FACE TROUBLE IN 2010 IF CONGRESS DOESN'T PASS A PUBLIC OPTION
Polls in 10 frontline freshman districts show:
- 68% of voters want a public health insurance option
- By 5 to 1, voters want their Representative to fight to add the public option over simply passing the Senate bill
- By 3 to 1, persuadable voters are less likely to vote for
local Democrat if Congress doesn't pass a public option as part of
reform
- 55% say Democrats need to do more to fight big corporations
- 6% say Democrats haven't done enough to fulfill Obama's 2008 campaign promises
- 52% of Democrats less likely to vote in 2010 if Congress doesn't pass public option -- Republicans more likely
These numbers are not a surprise to Americans out-side of
Washington, but you can be sure they are turning a lot of heads today
inside Washington.
Those numbers are about as damning to the Dems as Senator Nelson's strategy to kill health reform should be by now. Via slinkerwink:
The Polls are open in Massachusetts and there are early reports are of a high voter turnout. Polls will be closing at 8 P.M. Eastern time. The mathcup between Coakley/Brown has clear ramifications in the Senate and on future legislative efforts by the Obama administration being that it will decide the fate of the Democratic party's 60th vote and the filibusterosity of the Senate.
Greg Sargent at The Plum Line reported one very fishy voting ballot, though it appears to be an isolated incident:
Rep. Weiner has been hammering Lieberman's stupidity lately in his own special way and, below the fold, hits Harold Ford with a Lieberman too...
The boycott of the election by registered voters will gain a clear plurality, around 48%, and possibly a majority, of registered voters.
The 2009 Mexican boycott includes those who deliberately nullified their ballots and those who simply chose not to vote. Early reports indicate that 8% are actively nullifying their vote (voto nulo) and that another 40% of registered voters are not showing up at all. That combined figure, 48% or so, will handily beat the vote totals for the ruling PAN Party and the former rulers, the PRI, without out any doubt. While totals will change, there is no way that PAN and PRI can overcome the anulistas and those who stayed away from the polls.
... Code?
A California software company has filed a lawsuit against Diebold and its subsidiary, Premier Election Solutions, claiming that PES' electronic voting machines violate its copyrights.
Artifex Software, of San Rafael, Calif., claims that PES systems infringe on its copyrighted Ghostscript PDF interpretation and printing software. Artifex claims PES is using Ghostscript in its electronic election systems even though Diebold and PES "have not been granted a license to modify, copy, or distribute any of Artifex's copyrighted works," Artifex claims in court papers filed late last month in U.S. District Court for Northern California.
Why is this important?
Obtaining GNU Ghostscript
GNU Ghostscript is a copyrighted work; it is distributed under the GNU General Public License. You can get the current version of GNU Ghostscript by Internet FTP from ftp.gnu.org/gnu/ghostscript from any of the GNU distribution sites; likely, alpha versions may be available on alpha.gnu.org/gnu/ghostscript.
As (h/t) lambert at Corrente pointed out, under GNU General Public Licensing, if Diebold and PES used Ghostscript to create their product they may be legally bound to make their product's code open for our inspection, as well.
The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU project. The GPL is the most popular and well-known example of the type of strong copyleft license that requires derived works to be available under the same copyleft. Under this philosophy, the GPL grants the recipients of a computer program the rights of the free software definition and uses copyleft to ensure the freedoms are preserved, even when the work is changed or added to. This is in distinction to permissive free software licences, of which the BSD licences are the standard examples.
[ed. - bumped on preliminary NTSB report - luaptifer]
The crash of Michael Connell's single-engine Piper last Friday leaves a somber Christmas season ahead for his wife and four children and ends the career of an information technology pioneer. Connell's expertise drove the Republican Party onto the infotech highway of the Internet era in time to seat the most famous of his three Bush clients in the country's top office.
His death should mark the beginning of a thorough examination of his political role inside the technology infrastructures that elected and that supported an Administration so widely recognized for politicizing the machine of Federal governance and justice.
For the Bush dynasty's RNC, Connell embodied a paraphrase of his favorite place -- he ~was~ the cutting-edge, not just at it. His partnership with the Party and its most powerful operatives (now known as DCI Group among other names) gave its political and corporate leaders the Internet edition of mass communication 'astroturfing' tools by which to engineer the consent of the public.