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The case for irrational voting

When I was a philosophy grad student in the ancient times at the U. of Virginia, some over-smart logician pointed out to me that voting is not rational, since a single vote is never decisive. It's all the other stuff that's rational: appearing to have voted, applying a sticker to your bumper, registering voters, making phone calls -- because all of that stuff has the potential to spread sufficiently to make a difference in the election, or perhaps in a future election or in other forms of civic engagement.

But, of course, unlike the model "persons" in philosophical or economic mental experiments, actual people tend not to be sociopaths. Pretending to vote without voting is far more work than actually voting, which -- while it may be irrational -- does no harm. And so, good citizens tend to vote even understanding its irrationality, and even when there are no candidates worth voting for.

Dreaming of Duvets

I have spread my dreams under your feet. Tread softly, because you tread on my dreams.
––William Butler Yeats

Haroon has recurring dreams. Haroon whose father was killed when he was a boy and who remembers a gnawing hunger during the long winter in every year of his childhood. At night, he dreams that someone drops him from a great height. He freefalls through the air, crashes to hard ground, and dies. During the day, he dreams of relief from the anger and confusion that pursue him, and of being a photographer, a traveler.

Faiz, who lost his parents when he was a boy, and whose brother was shot and killed in front of him, has nightmares, too. Each night at the Afghan Peace Volunteer (APV) House here in Kabul, as he sleeps against the wall a few feet away, his moans and cries wake me. By day, he dreams of being a journalist, of marrying and raising a family, of a world without borders and war.

Employees of Romney family's secret bank tied to fraud, money laundering, drug cartels and the CIA

As previously reported in by the Columbus Free Press, the Romney family, namely Mitt, Ann, G Scott and Tagg Romney, along with Mitt's “6th son” and campaign finance chair have a secretive private equity firm called Solamere Capital Partners. This firms ties to Romney's campaign and bundlers is already well documented, along with its connection to the manufacture and distribution of voting machines. What is not as well documented is a subsidiary of that private equity firm hiring employees of a failed firm tied to a Ponzi scheme that has a long history of money laundering for Latin American drug cartels and to the Iran-Contra scandal.

Jamia Shepard: Advocate for Voter Rights

An interview with Jamia Shepard after the Ohio 2004 election (produced by filmmaker Dorothy Fadiman)from Elections at Risk:


Attorney General Eric Holder: Investigate Tagg Romney owning voting machines in OHIO....

Sign the petition:
Change.org Petition

Re-examining Lucasville: Essay 5

Representation on behalf of the five Lucasville defendants condemned to death has been frustrated by the prosecution’s unwillingness to turn over to lawyers for the defense the records of its own interviews with potential witnesses. Finally, during the winter of 2011-2012, lawyers for four of the five capital defendants won the right to see summaries and transcripts of investigators’ interviews (for the most part conducted by officers of the Ohio State Highway Patrol) with Lucasville prisoners. The labor of collecting and evaluating this material has barely begun.

What this, and the several following essays, will report is what can be concluded at this time as to each of the ten murders and the case against each of the five capital defendants.

The Death Squad

All the murders during the eleven days were horrific, inasmuch as they were to some degree premeditated, and were carried out against unarmed and helpless victims.

Does the Romney family now own your e-vote?

Will you cast your vote this fall on a faulty electronic machine that's partly owned by the Romney Family? Will that machine decide whether Romney will then inherit the White House?

Through a closely held equity fund called Solamere, Mitt Romney and his wife, son and brother are major investors in an investment firm called H.I.G. Capital. H.I.G. in turn holds a majority share and three out of five board members in Hart Intercivic, a company that owns the notoriously faulty electronic voting machines that will count the ballots in swing state Ohio November 6. Hart machines will also be used elsewhere in the United States.

In other words, a candidate for the presidency of the United States, and his brother, wife and son, have a straight-line financial interest in the voting machines that could decide this fall's election. These machines cannot be monitored by the public. But they will help decide who "owns" the White House.

Charges dismissed against nuclear missile launch protesters

Charges were dismissed on Wednesday in federal court in Santa Barbara, Calif., against fifteen people, including four members of Veterans For Peace, who were scheduled to face trial on Wednesday as a result of their nonviolent protest of nuclear warheads at Vandenberg Air Force Base. The 15 had been arrested on February 25th for protesting the launch of a Minuteman III Intercontinental Ballistic Missile from Vandenberg to the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. Video: Video

The Veterans For Peace facing trial were Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg of Berkeley, Calif.; Fr. Louie Vitale of Oakland, Calif. and Las Vegas, Nev.; John Amidon of Albany, N.Y.; and Mark Kelso of Las Vegas, Nev.

The district attorney moved to dismiss all charges. Two of the defendants, John Amidon and Toby Blome, wanting to raise their concerns about the Minuteman III missiles in court, offered motion not to dismiss. The judge sided with the district attorney.

Some of the same people will be among those protesting again on November 13th when another missile test is scheduled:

China mourns Sihanouk's death & continues advancing in Cambodia

BANGKOK, Thailand -- The death of Cambodia's Norodom Sihanouk on Monday (Oct. 15) in Beijing symbolized how China had sheltered him in a mansion with personal medical, diplomatic and financial assistance throughout much of his often bloody reign.

Beijing benefitted, especially during the 1970s and 1980s, from its supportive relationship with Sihanouk. But his death at age 89 will not slow China's current rapidly expanding political and economic influence in Cambodia.

Prime Minister Hun Sen, meanwhile, will no longer have to engage in a convoluted relationship with Sihanouk, and may be able to similarly increase his authoritarian power in Cambodia.

Hun Sen has ruled for 27 years, and could benefit by regaling the late Sihanouk with respect during the upcoming funeral and afterwards, while muting details of Sihanouk's treacherous past.

"China enjoyed a degree of appreciation from many Cambodians through its long association with Sihanouk," said Rich Garella in an e-mail interview hours after Sihanouk's death.

Secretary of State’s directive allowing early voting during three days before Election Day long overdue: Lawsuits and voter confusion could have been avoided

Secretary of State Jon Husted’s directive setting expanded statewide early voting hours for all three days before the election is long overdue, but the correct move for Ohio voters. The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to allow a lower court’s order to stand, forced Secretary Husted to issue a directive establishing uniform expanded hours.

“The federal court essentially forced Husted into allowing these early voting days,” said Mike Brickner, director of communications and public policy. “Nevertheless, the end result gives all Ohio voters what they deserve — expanded access to the polls on the Saturday, Sunday and Monday prior to the election.”

“Secretary Husted should have acted much sooner to allow all Ohioans expanded early voting opportunities,” added Brickner. “Instead, he chose to extend the legal fights, leaving early voting undecided and wasting taxpayer dollars on unnecessary lawsuits.”

Husted’s directive allows early voting on the following dates and times:

Saturday, November 3, 8:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.
Sunday, November 4, 1:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Monday, November 5, 8:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.

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