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Cindy, Charlotte, and our Constitution

As you watch the presidential debates, here's a game to play that won't even get you drunk (unless you want to add tequila shots to it): every time you hear John McCain tell a lie write down $10 under the name Charlotte, and every time you hear Barack Obama agree with John McCain write down $10 under the name Cindy. You can also play this if you're broke by writing down 10 hours.

When you're done you can still plan to vote for Obama, with rapture or a clothespin or anything in between. You can still plan to do everything you can to deny Republicans as many seats as possible in both houses of Congress. But you can do something more as well. One thing you can do is send a powerful message to the woman who has managed the war funding, the Wall Street funding, the Bill of Rights shredding, and the elimination of the power of impeachment from our Constitution over the past two years.

CINDY:

I came to know Cindy Sheehan in May 2005, and -- like most people who know her -- I immediately loved her. She is a very friendly and loving person, and you cannot work on a project with her without being

Unofficial referendum in Vicenza, Italy: 95% opposed to new U.S. base

On October 5, 2008, Vicenza overwhelmingly said no to a second U.S. military base. In a referendum that had officially been suspended just four days before it was to take place, 24,094 voters, determined to express themselves, showed up to cast their votes. The referendum asked local residents if they agreed with the City of Vicenza taking up measures to purchase the Dal Molin area, the site of the proposed base, in order to designate its use in the public interest and to protect the environmental integrity of the site. With a resounding no to the new base, 23,050 voters, or 95.66%, voted in favor of the referendum.

The people of this city in northern Italy had been asking to have a say in this issue that has dominated local politics since May of 2006, when news of the proposed base first began to leak out. More than two years later, it had finally been called following a vote by the newly-elected city council this past June. Vicenza´s mayor, Achille Variati, had been elected in a runoff vote in April of this year on a platform that opposed the base and supported a local referendum.

As the date of the referendum neared, a campaign against this expression

Brace yourself

Call it, what, our crapshoot democracy?

The looming election — the process itself, not merely the feints and jabs of the candidates — is actually getting some mainstream media attention, as in, ahem, voting public, excuse me, but maybe you should be aware that irresponsible self-interest has been detected in the vicinity of our polling places and some bad choices have been made lately (electronic voting is unreliable) and, well, how badly did you want your vote counted?

In September, for instance, the Washington Post sounded this subdued, hapless warning: “Faced with a surge in voter registrations leading up to Nov. 4, election officials across the country are bracing for long lines, equipment failures and confusion over polling procedures that could cost thousands the chance to cast a ballot.”

Got that? Election Day could be chaos in many places. Election officials are bracing themselves. Crazy, untested equipment, too darn many new voters. Should the rest of us be bracing ourselves too?

Warming to Palin

It's the second week of October. When I was a kid it would sometimes snow and always be cold by now. I'm typing this on my laptop sitting outdoors in the warm sun with no sweater or jacket on the downtown mall, a pedestrian street in Charlottesville, Va. Flowers are blooming, and butterflies and hummingbirds are hanging out, several states out of their old territory. We haven't had the heat or the air conditioning on in our house for months. The weather is perfect and we're saving money. Global warming is making it easy for us to take steps to reverse global warming. So why does the perfect summer breeze on the back of my neck scare the hell out of me?

Dispatch propaganda campaign to cover-up e-voting flaws reaches new low

The Columbus Dispatch editorial of September 19 proclaimed: “Votes of confidence” and the editors offered this subhead: “Poll shows Ohioans trust elections to be fair, with accurate results.” The Dispatch touts a poll by the Institute for Public Policy Research at the University of Cincinnati demonstrating that most voters have confidence in the Ohio election system.

This is a bit like the Vatican scribes announcing in medieval times in a Papal bull that the vast majority of people believe that the world is flat. The Dispatch, with its usual Republican operative arrogance, writes “The outlandish conspiracy accusations concerning the 2004 election have been intended to convince the Democratic rank and file that the GOP ‘stole’ the Ohio vote to ensure President Bush’s re-election.”

Finally, the story of the whistleblower who tried to prevent the Iraq War

Of course Katharine Gun was free to have a conscience, as long as it didn’t interfere with her work at a British intelligence agency. To the authorities, practically speaking, a conscience was apt to be less tangible than a pixel on a computer screen. But suddenly -- one routine morning, while she was scrolling through e-mail at her desk -- conscience struck. It changed Katharine Gun’s life, and it changed history.

Despite the nationality of this young Englishwoman, her story is profoundly American -- all the more so because it has remained largely hidden from the public in the United States. When Katharine Gun chose, at great personal risk, to reveal an illicit spying operation at the United Nations in which the U.S. government was the senior partner, she brought out of the transatlantic shadows a special relationship that could not stand the light of day.

The fox in the henhouse

Grassroots movements, global elites and political economy in times of panic

What a week we have all had. I guess for those of us who make it to the weekend without a single scratch, it will be important to sit quietly in a corner making plans for the future. Obviously the time for tunnel vision and full faith in ‘somebody’ at the top having some mercy on us, must be quickly diffusing into an alternate form of thought. At least that is what I would hope for, because although the social inclination so far seems to be the blaming of a few rotten apples, based on my observations, I have no choice but to accept that the whole apple basket seems to be fairly rotten.

All I have heard on the streets over the last few days are words about the financial crisis. Everyone all of a sudden is concerned about their mortgage, their savings, their retirement, their stocks or more importantly, their jobs. Dismal economic data keeps propping up on every major newspaper and news channel and talk shows are packed with voices talking about the dire straits of this economic Armageddon. Yet, I can’t help ask myself if we are all simply asleep or we are too scared to face the truth.

One nation under capitalism: It’s time for a crucifixion

Proudly surveying our kingdom from atop the capitalist pyramid, we US Americans have deluded ourselves into believing we are at the pinnacle of cultural, social, political, and economic evolution. We fancy ourselves to be so exceptional that we are entitled to a perpetual blessing from “our” Christian God.

Break out the Haldol!

We have afflicted the globe with the fatal contagions of the American Way and corporatism. And all of us, to varying degrees, are culpable. From bicycle-peddling vegans to limo riding corporados, we are each complicit in perpetuating American capitalism, a system so rotten that were it a piece of decaying meat, starving maggots would reject it.

We would have far fewer amends to make if our nation’s impact were limited by the size of our population. Were that the case, we would be a mere blemish on the face of Mother Earth. But due to our extraordinary wealth and power, insatiable avarice, hostility towards life, and obscene appetites for consumption, the United States is more akin to a cankerous fist-sized boil, oozing pus and reeking with infection.

Videos from Ohio Election Protection Conference

As Goes Ohio...Election Protection Conference

Bob Fitrakis and Steve Rosenfeld on pre-Election Day Board of Elections Monitoring Project
Link: Fitrakis & Board of Election Monitoring

Keynote Address - Mark Crispin Miller delivers the keynote speech at the As Goes Ohio...Election Protection Conference, held Sept. 24 and 25 in Columbus.

Miller is a professor of media studies at New York University and author of the books: "Loser Take All," "Fooled Again, How the Right Stole the 2004 Elections" and "The Bush Dyslexicon." He is known for his writing on American media and for his activism on behalf of democratic media reform.

YouTube Link: Mark Crispin Miller Keynote (second one from left)

Mark Crispin Miller Interview:

The 'Trinity' of Reform

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