The Return of the Thread.
October 2008 archive
Oct 17 2008
Voter ID Laws: Bureaucracy of Democracy
In this election, to vote as a citizen of the state of Michigan, I will for the first time have to present photo identification at the polls, or sign an affadavit stating that I do not possess one. Michigan joins just seven states that now require photo ID.
In total, there are twenty-four states that require voters to present ID, although in seventeen of them no photo is required. In those states voters are able to vote with birth certificates and social security cards, forms of ID with no cost to acquire. This makes it possible for essentially all citizens to vote.
This is not the case with required photo ID laws.
Oct 17 2008
Iraq Moratorium today; Do something
Today is Iraq Moratorium day, a day to interrupt our usual routine and do something, big or small, individually or with a group, to call for an end to the war and occupation of Iraq.
Events are planned across the country. You can find them, and suggestions for individual action, on the Moratorium website, IraqMoratorium.com.
The Raise Hell for Molly Ivins campaign, which has participated in the Moratorium since it began in September 2007, started out asking people to bang on pots and pans, as the late, great progressive voice, Molly Ivins, had suggested in one of her last columns.
The Ivins campaign is asking people this month to call or visit their local Congressional offices today to demand an end to the war, and has enlisted Vietnam veteran Ron Kovic, author of “Born on the Fourth of July,” for this video:
A lot of people are preoccupied with the election, and that’s important. But we elected a new Congress two years ago with a mandate to end the war, and nothing happened. Just changing leaders is not enough. We need to keep the pressure on, no matter who wins on November 4.
Oct 17 2008
Help Stop Voter Harassment, Early Voting and on Nov 4th at the Polls
On my trip over to ePluribus Media this morning I found this open thread Help Make Sure Every Voter’s Story Gets Told in 2008, not long but with very useful information that was gathered from two other sources from yesterday, one found here at daily kos about incidents at early voting polls here in North Carolina and also sourced at Andrew Sullivan at The Atlantic
Regardless of your political alignment, nobody — from any party, special interest or group, has the right to interfere with your right to vote for the candidate of your choice.
Oct 17 2008
Docudharma Times Friday October 17
David Letterman Hands
McCain His G. Gordon Liddy
In Downturn, Families Strain to Pay Tuition
By JONATHAN D. GLATER
Published: October 16, 2008
In difficult dinner-table conversations, college students and their parents are revisiting how to pay tuition as personal finances weaken and lenders get tough.
Diana and Ronnie Jacobs, of Salem, Ind., thought their family had a workable plan for college for her twin sons, using a combination of savings, income, scholarship aid and a relatively modest amount of borrowing. Then her husband lost his job at Colgate-Palmolive.“It just seems like it’s really hard, because it is,” Ms. Jacobs, an information technology specialist, said of her financial situation.
Kenyans follow Obama’s fortunes nervously
Many are proud of his connection to their country but believe there is a lingering racism in the United States that will prevent a black man from being elected president.
By Edmund Sanders, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
October 17, 2008
NAIROBI, KENYA — A popular morning-radio personality summed up how many Kenyans are viewing the U.S. presidential race.“There’s no way,” said disc jockey Maina Kageni, “the U.S. is going to elect” a black man.
Despite Sen. Barack Obama’s strong lead in the polls and his huge popularity here in his father’s homeland, some Kenyans can’t shake a sense of doubt about whether Americans are ready to put a black man in the White House.The quiet pessimism is rooted in Kenyans’ perceptions about racism in the United States and sharpened by the nation’s own flawed presidential election 10 months ago, which saw hatred among tribes come to the fore.
USA
McCain Forced to Fight for Virginia
Traditionally Red State Finds GOP Struggling to Match Obama Operation
By Michael D. Shear and Amy Gardner
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, October 17, 2008; Page A01
Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain will take different messages to different audiences in different parts of Virginia over the next two days, but they will have the same goal in mind: to urge their supporters to spend the final stretch of the campaign fighting for every vote they can find.
Obama will hold a rally today in Roanoke, a conservative part of the state where he hopes to keep the race relatively close. McCain will travel tomorrow to Prince William County, where he aims to cut into Obama’s Northern Virginia base.
Oct 17 2008
Muse in the Morning
 Muse in the Morning |
Art Link The Dark Side of Redworld
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Oct 17 2008
McCain’s Utter Disdain for Meaningful Energy Plans
Architecture2030 is a tremendous group, with concepts that should be seized and acted upon as part and parcel of moving forward toward an Energy Smart future. 
Recently, they’ve made a bit of a name for themselves with excellent graphics that call out just how sensible John McCain’s energy policy proposals are for changing the nation toward a better path forward.
Today, they just released the graphic to the right.
Yes, according to their work, 20 years from now, John McCain’s 45 nuclear power plants would provide just over two percent of business-as-usual electricity generation.
Oct 17 2008
Trance Politics, Part Deux: Joe the Republican Entrepreneur
cross-posted from The Dream Antilles
Pink might be the new Black, Thursday might be the new Friday, and Joe The Plumber (JTP) might be the new Sarah Palin. In other words, yet another gigantic distraction. One with little political or economic substance. Exactly the kind of distraction that diverts us from the economy, Iraq, Afghanistan, universal health care, AIG, the DJIA, Gitmo (remember Gitmo?), renditions and torture and empire and the gaping hole in your 401k. In other words, yet another gift from the sinister mind of Rove and the Traditional MediaTM. Put simply, who gives a damn about anything important when we can play around with bald headed JTP?
Oct 17 2008
Tech Today
Synthetic telepathy.
http://www.nwotruth.com/army-d…
Well engineering students have shown they can to the process in reverse.
They can controll a wheelchair using commercially available off the shelf equipment.
http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda…
While it is great the private sector is taking up the noble cause of helping disabled people I still ponder what DARPA and the other alphabet soup “intelligence” agencies are cooking up, with unlimited funding no less.
Oct 17 2008
Let’s see how this baby runs…
The MSM would have us all believe that this election is about “Hockey Moms,” “Joe Sixpack” or “Joe the Plumber.” But as they obsess about all of this, there are stories going on under the radar that haven’t seen the light of day. Thankfully, this time around, we have the breadth and depth of the blogs to get these stories out there. Its where I’m finding my inspiration these days.
Perhaps the most untold story of this election is the ground game that the Obama campaign has developed. I first learned about all of this from our own Populista back in February from an essay titled Obama for Organizer-In-Chief. In it, Populista explained how, during the primaries, Obama was using his community organizing background to build a campaign ground game around the principles of “Respect. Empower. Include.”
This really caught my attention, so over the last few months, I have been trying to read the few stories that are out there about what is going on and how its working. Even the blogs are not paying this story much attention. The ones who are include Zack Exley at The Huffington Post, Al Giordano at The Field, and Sean Quinn at FiveThirtyEight.