Tag: elections

Dennis Kucinich, the Democratic Congressman from Ohio’s 10th district, won renomination last night.

“To surge or not to surge!  That is the question!  Whether it is nobler to send more Americans off to face possible death, or to say I was wrong.”  

Heh!  Like I’m going to say I was wrong about something – G.W. Bush, Presnit USA

Back, oh a few months ago, the Bush/Petraeus/Cheney/Liberman/McCain Surge™ was going swimmingly!  We were told that it was going so VERY WELL that before the year 2008 was over, we would be reducing the number of American soldiers in the Iraqi theater down to less than the number of troops that were there pre-Bush/Petraeus/Cheney/Liberman/McCain Surge™.

Well.  Not so much.

If you would be so kind as to read on below.

This is the Burning the Midnight Oil Midnight Thought for tonight … which will be found in Burning the Midnight Oil for Electoral Reform … but not until later tonight (Monday).

Posted here because … well, Docudharma blogs the future. Yeah, normally further ahead in the future than three or four hours, but if I didn’t already have this part in the draft diary queue, ready to go, I’d have no idea what I was going to say.

And, yes, the two most important parts of the Midnight Oil are, first, the commentary that follows and, second, the diary roll, so what I’m giving you here is a Bronze Medal at best … but thems the hazards. I haven’t finished the diary roll yet, because I am still reading diaries, and I have no idea what direction the commentary is going to take. Third Place is the only part of the future I can see with any clarity.

.

..

…

..

.

Midnight Thought

Is the present mess any worse than a National Primary, dominated by 30 second sound byte ads and providing a revenue windfall to television networks, both broadcast and narrowcast, and raising the hurdle for a grass roots popular campaign even higher than they are now?

Well, heck, I don’t know. The present mess is pretty bad but … all in all, given the example that jumping up to the first Tuesday open date on the calendar does not, in fact, make you decisive, and given the example that breaking the rules agreed to by the state parties working together under the auspices of the National Democratic Committee is not the high road to massive influence …

… it seems like we – we, here, means both the body politic in general and progressive populists in particular – would really would end up better off running the the next Open Primary under the current mess than as a National Primary.

So, no, I don’t think that the present mess would be improved by a Mess Media Dominated National Primary (and I am not copyrighting that phrase … I’m releasing it into the Public Domain, so feel free to use it anywhere and everywhere without bothering with attribution … but do attribute it if you are running for President and making a speech … you don’t want to pull a Biden, after all).

But, just because a Mess Media Dominated National Primary is teh suck, doesn’t mean the present mess is the best we can do. Oh, no, there’s plenty we could do better.

And fighting for electoral improvement is, after all, an old Progressive Populist fight.

‘Twas the night before Super Tuesday

When all through the house

Not a creature was stirring

Not even Dennis Kucinich a mouse

The ballots were stacked

By the ballot box with care

With hopes that the voters

Soon would be there

The voters were nestled

All snug in their beds

While visions of Democrats

Danced in their heads

Obama in his kerchief

And Clinton in her cap

Had just settled down

For a long winter’s nap

When on the White House lawn

There arose such a clatter

I sprang from my bed

To see what was the matter

Away to the TV

I flew like The Flash

Grabbed the remote

Which I almost crashed

The loon on the screen

On the White House lawn

Gave me the shivers

And caused me to yawn

When, what to my wondering

Eyes should appear

But that horrid wretch

Who likes to shoot deer

I knew in a moment it must be Mr. Dick

More rapid than the Eagle Forum

His minions they came

And he whisted and shouted

And called them foul names

“Now, Russert, now, Brit Hume

Now, Billo and Hannity

On, Fox News, teh stoopid

On Matthews and Blitzer!

To the top of the screen

To the top of the wall

Now bash away, bash away

Bash away all!”

As dry leaves that before,

The wild hurricane fly,

When they meet with an obstacle,

Mount to the sky,

So up to the White House

The minions they flew,

With reports Republicans,

And St. Dickless, too.

A few days ago, I posted an essay about Columbia County, New York.  What I didn’t mention was that for seven years, Columbia County was the scene of a huge, grassroots battle against St. Lawrence Cement and plans to construct an enormous cement plant in Columbia County on the Hudson River. The citizens group, Friends of Hudson, believe it or not won the battle.  There is no new cement plant today.

Today the founder of Friends of Hudson, Sam Pratt, posted the following diary at dKos about the Friends of Hudson and Hillary Clinton.  This is an important story, which I am posting here with Sam’s permission without further comment:

(I was originally going to write this in one post, but then I realized it was going to get way too long.  There’s a lot of ground that needs to be covered, so I’m splitting it up into a few essays.  This part introduces you to the point of view from which I’ll be writing throughout the series, and then focuses on the historical reasons behind our current election and voting systems and why I view them as separate and dependent systems.)

—-

I am a gamer.  I enjoy playing games and have done so nearly my entire life.  Of course, I don’t like all games.  Who does?  In my case, games of chance are not my cup of tea, since there’s little, if any, skill involved.  And I’m not much into sports.  (I must be un-American!)  That doesn’t mean I’m unfamiliar with those games or that I don’t appreciate them, but being that I’m uninterested in them, I haven’t taken the time to really learn their rules.  Primarily, I’m a role player, but I also enjoy board games, card games, silly games, serious games, and many other types.  I’ve been playing games since I can remember, but I wasn’t a student of games (so to speak) until after I left high school.  I want to briefly (I hope) explain why this has any bearing on elections and voting.

the MIC (Military Industrial Complex) is not just a “part” of America, it now IS America.

And it is America’s most successful export.  We have not spread Democracy, we have spread the infestation of the Military Industrial Complex to the rest of the world.

In fact, in America’s Orwellian parlance, “Democracy” = “Military Industrial Trade”.  

I read OPOL’s diary “Dispatches From the Land of Lying Bastards” when it first appeared over at Dailykos.  And OMG it was like “The Masque of Red Death” (if you’ve read that story).  A major buzzkill.  Like “oh man, we’re having a big-ass election orgy over here, don’t bother us with the TRUTH, please!  You’re harshing our mellow!”

And reading the comments to his diary over here, where I expected (and saw) more of a welcome for his brilliant work, I couldn’t help but feel there was a certain naivety about the MIC, something of a sense of hope that in no way is deserved by the facts on the ground.

The fact of the matter is that the Military Industrial Complex is a beast which is utterly out of anyone’s control.