GOTV

Teresa Chambers just sent the following e-mail to members of the FCDC Steering Committee:

PLEASE take a look at Honest Chief and see what is being done to a career employee for telling the truth -- another victim in a series of Federal employees who have been silenced. A political appointee has silenced a nationally recognized law enforcement leader and is in the process of firing her for admitting to the press (without criticizing the Administration) that times were tight and resources were stretched. Now, Democratic leaders and others (including Face the Nation this past Sunday, March 28) are weaving this story into a larger story of similar situations.

The targeted Federal employee is the police chief responsible for the safety and security of some of our nation's most symbolic monuments and memorials, including the Statue of Liberty, the area around and at the base of the Golden Gate Bridge, the Washington Monument, the area around the White House, the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials, and others. While issues impacting her organization abound and while we all know that these monuments and memorials are among potential targets for terrorists, she is being paid to sit at home rather than work with her team to address critical needs to ensure your safety and the future of these icons. She VERY MUCH needs YOUR help!

Teresa Chambers only asks that she be allowed to protect us, her fight is our fight. Show your solidarity, support her.

From our good friends at Corrente, proof that our area is different from the rest of the county.

Caffeinated Republican operative leaves the meeting notes in a Starbucks 

Today is the end of the quarter, so Atrios has bumped help John Kerry day one day forward.

I am asking my readers, both of you, to donate money to the Fairfax County Democratic Committee.

FCDC
7245 Arlington Blvd., Suite 205
Falls Church, VA 22042

Grassroots politics is cheap, but it is not free.

Veterans for Common Sense

By Brian L., a private citizen in New Jersey, and a member of BlackBoxVoting.org wanted to know how the votes in his jurisdiction were counted. So he made inquiries:

"The next day I called Election Graphics and asked to speak to the person in charge. I said I wanted to report that drug deals were taking place in front of the building, which was true, of course. A perky sounding female receptionist answered the pone, but I heard other receptions in the background. I was speaking to an answering service. I was told that the President of the company was Adam L. Perna, who wasn’t available at that time.

"A Yahoo search of “Adam Perna + election” turned up a complaint filed against the Morris County Republican Committee by the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission for failing to report thousands of dollars worth of political contributions in a timely fashion. Among the donations listed were a $1,500 donation from Adam L. Perna and his wife and a $1,500 donation from - Election Graphics Inc. Further checking revealed that Mr. Perna gives generously to other Republicans, except in heavily Democratic Camden County where he gives to the Democratic Party. In 2001 and 2002 Mr. Perna and Election Graphics gave $7000 to the Morris County Republican Party.

Support the resolution on voter verified audit trails.

When the US Supreme Court ordered America's schools to desegregate with all deliberate speed, Senator Harry Byrd, Sr. and his cronies decided they would rather shut down all of Virginia schools rather educate black and white children together. The assault on our school system has continued ever since, but now it is carried out under the pretext of accountability.

Via our good friends at The Sideshow comes Built to Fail.

Prolonged tax battle in raises prospect of government shutdown

Wall Street also is scrutinizing Virginia's budget stalemate.

Moody's Investors Service last year put the state on notice that unless it ends chronic budget shortfalls that have totaled $6 billion the past three years, its perfect bond rating will be downgraded for the first time. That would marginally increase the state's cost of borrowing for major projects, but it would be a major psychological blow to a state that kept its finances in order in the toughest of times.

"It damages the state's pride. It means Virginia's becoming less distinctive and more like other states when it wrestles with these problems," said Tom Morris, a political scientist who is president of Emory & Henry College in Emory, Va. He oversaw a panel that studied updating the 80-year-old state tax code rooted in Virginia's agrarian past.

The loss of our perfect bond rating will cost far more than any proposed tax increases. This is how reckless the contemporary Republican party has become. Follow the whole hideous story on Commonwealth Commonsense.

Beef firm faces perplexing resistance to mad cow tests

Creekstone Farms Premium Beef is a small producer of high-quality beef in Kansas. But it's making a big point about mad cow disease. It wants to privately test all of the cattle it slaughters for the illness, which can cause a fatal brain disease in humans who eat infected meat. The way Creekstone Farms sees it, 100% testing would reassure U.S. customers. The company also says it is talking with Japan about restarting exports there, where total testing is required.

But the firm has run into surprising obstacles: from the federal government, which has pledged to do everything possible to detect the disease, and from the meat industry, which has scrambled to keep consumer confidence since December. ...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) currently does not allow such private testing for mad cow disease.

Let us be clear, a beef producer wishes to do private testing to enhance consumer confidence in his product and our government will not let him. When Republicans talk about free enterprise, what they really mean is crony capitalism.

Stores to Close Tuesday While Workers Vote

It is absolutely critical that we support members of UFCW Local 400 in whatever way we can. The company's claim that they are concerned with maintaining shareholder value is simply laughable.

There are many reasons Democrats lost our majorities in Washington, not the least of which is our failure to pass Labor Law Reform during the Carter administration. As labor has come under increasing attack progressive causes, and the politicians that defend them, have been weakened.

To really understand the relationship between freedom and organized labor it is necessary to read about the Polish experience.

Perhaps this is not a moment for a labor war, from the Financial Times:

Pension funds seek to oust Safeway chief

UFCW Local 400 has more informaiton.

Atrios has declared Thursdays Help John Kerry Day, and is asking his readers to donate money to John Kerry. This is a great idea, but most of the work is done by local Democratic committees and I am asking my readers, both of you, to donate money to the Fairfax County Democratic Committee.

FCDC
7245 Arlington Blvd., Suite 205
Falls Church, VA 22042

Grassroots politics is cheap, but it is not free.

Can Republicans govern? For the second time since they took over the General Assembly, Virginia’s Republicans have collected their salaries, collected their per diem, but have failed to pass a budget. There is no requirement that legislators pass any new laws; the only thing the legislature has to do is agree on a budget. And the Republicans have failed. Again.

But they did find time to pass a ban on same-sex civil unions.

I recieved this e-mail from Bob Griendling, read it for yourselves:


It seems likely that the Virginia General Assembly will not approve a budget in the next few days. If the House recesses this weekend, the ball will be in our court. As in my court, your court. As in the court of every Virginian who cares about our future. Maybe Commonwealth Commonsense can help ensure we handle the ball well.

If delegates and senators return to their districts, it will be with a finger in the air, asking what we think about all this? But they will stick their finger only where they know which way the wind might blow (or rise, given its heat). Reports have described the conservative's plan for a public relations campaign that "will include targeted mailings, phone surveys, newsletters and town hall-style meetings...." They will try to pack those meetings with "Flat Earth Society" members and flood newspapers with their no-tax message. They will also try to cover their backs by pushing for a referendum, the coward's way out.

We need to make sure they hear from Virginians who recognize this is a defining moment for the state. Will we send our children to increasingly overcrowded and ill equipped schools with poorly trained, overworked or unmotivated teachers? Will we continue to waste countless hours commuting? Will we see our health benefits curtailed or eliminated? Will those in need become destitute? Will our property values increase our wealth but impoverish our standard of living? Will tuitions price our children out of an education? Will our universities wither as faculty seek better pay in other states?

We all need to encourage our neighbors to get involved and make our voices heard. This debate is not just for those who pour over statistics and know the political machinations. It's for all of us to be clear about what we want and how we want to pay for it.

Commonwealth Commonsense can be one connection point for those wanting to organize public forums or smaller gatherings with lawmakers to let them know where we stand. Others may want to organize letter writing campaigns to local newspapers. If you are organizing or know of a meeting with a delegate or senator, let Commonwealth Commonsense know. If you write letters, let us know. (You can email Commonwealth Commonsense directly or post a comment on the web site.) We'll post the info. and help in anyway possible to get the word out, including to your local media. Changes in times, places, etc. can be posted quickly.

We needn't wait until legislators call the meetings. We can organize them. Get even a small group of neighbors together and your delegate or senator will likely come to you to meet. Find their key supporters who may now feel betrayed by what's happening in Richmond. Include them in the meeting. Find out who their financial supporters are at Virginia Public Access Project. The non-partisan web site makes it easy to find out who bankrolls your legislator. Call the big contributors. Recruit them to your side.

Del. Brian Moran of Alexandria said yesterday House conservatives have demonstrated the "raw arrogance of power." We need to overcome that arrogance. Over the next few weeks, it's clear the House delegates will try to make this a war of words. We need to make it a war of ideas.

Let us know what you plan and how Commonwealth Commonsense
can help.

 

Bob Griendling
Commonwealth Commonsense

I would only add two more questions, are the Republicans prepared to throw away Virginia's AAA bond rating? Will taxpayers pay millions more in interest payments and receive millions less in services?
 

He wanted every vote to matter; Athan Gibbs, Sr. dies in crash

After more than 1 million votes went uncounted in the last presidential election, Athan Gibbs Sr. devoted his life to making sure voters in future elections would know their votes mattered.

The enterprising 57-year-old saw his invention of the TruVote vote-casting system as nothing less than the key to social justice and democracy in America.

As family members and business partners gathered at the TruVote office yesterday morning to mourn Mr. Gibbs' death, they vowed that his dream would not die with him.

From our good friends at Corrente:

Block the Vote

The Virginia GOP officials who led the seminar explained Karl Rove's 72-hour plan--how to win this fall's election in the campaign's last three days--to the operatives in the seats. In coming months, RNC field staff will lay out the plan for similar audiences across the country.

The strategy is simple. Local organizers assemble teams to contact voters and watch the polls. Some teams will go out with palm pilots so they can access data about voters on the streets they're walking. They will go door-to-door and drive people to the polls. All of this is standard electioneering. But a new tool, crucially important, they said, is that an army of attorneys will be deployed alongside the get-out-the-vote campaigners and poll-watchers.

Ever since Florida, it's been obvious that an election's crucial point is not when you vote but when the vote is counted. To get to this point, lawyers are crucial. Rove's strategy ensures that there will be a Republican lawyer assigned to each contested precinct on election day. Thus positioned, they can explain ballots to loyal voters, confront potentially ineligible voters, and challenge the legality of election conduct. It is this element of the strategy, Rove and the RNC believe, that may win them the 2004 election. ....

The situation for 2004 doesn't look much better. This November, for example, Virginia's counties will use five different kinds of ballots (optical, punch card, electronic, paper, lever machines). Twenty-two of its counties will use more than one of these systems. This jumble of old and new, electronic and paper, is apt to spark just the type of what-the-hell-is-this sentiment among both voters and poll workers that put the Florida election into the hands of the courts. And it means that Karl Rove is probably right: Lawyers who can stage an immediate and effective campaign to have ballot and vote-counting inconsistencies interpreted their way will likely do much to help their party win in November.

Soon after Florida, Democrats, like Republicans, figured they had to act. The DNC put together and funded the Voting Rights Initiative, run by former Gore campaign manager Donna Brazile and dedicated to matching the Republican ferocity in contesting the election results. It was a good idea. Unfortunately, and somewhat typical of recent Democratic operations, the project has died.

There is a great deal I could say about this, but the most obvious is that we must never forget with whom we have to deal. Beyond that I would suggest that it is not enough to recruit Democratic poll watchers; we need to recruit honest election officials. Fairfax County has always be fortunate in that respect, but there is a shortage of people able to work from 5 AM until the last vote is counted and duly reported (which could easily be as late as 10 PM in a Presidential year.) I hope some of my readers will volunteer to be an election officer.

Very clever, read the article from the LA Times:

Organized labor opened a new front in the trade wars Tuesday.
Employing a tactic never tried before, the AFL-CIO filed a petition asking the Bush administration to impose stiff penalties against China because its "brutal repression" of worker rights gives its companies an unfair competitive advantage — depressing wages by as much as 86% and encouraging the transfer of U.S. jobs overseas.

It is Thursday and Atrios is once again asking use to contribute to Kerry's campaign.

I suggested Fairfax Democrats start giving away literature at grocery stores since we have so many early volunteers. I was told we don't have any Kerry literature to distrubute. Since Virginia has not carried for the Democrats since 1964, we are last in line for national resources. So I am asking my readers, both of you, to send some money so Fairfax Democrats can buy some literature from the Kerry campaign.

FCDC
7245 Arlington Blvd., Suite 205
Falls Church, VA 22042

Grassroots politics is cheap, but it is not free.

Premiere!:

The Angry World: International News Coverage in America

Saturday, March 20 at 9 PM and Monday, March 22 at 12 PM on MHz Networks

This roundtable discussion will center on the international news editor’s role in presenting international issues in a democratic society. For example, the American public knows the world is angry—most just don’t know why. Why not? And as international views of the United States change, are Americans fully aware of changes in world opinion? Does the media have a responsibility to make the public more aware?

Irish minister urges e-voting

Concerns about the cost and accuracy of electronic voting are high enough in Ireland that a Cabinet minister spoke out earlier this week to reassure citizens about its use in the upcoming local and European elections.

Groups around the country, such as the Irish Citizens for Trustworthy Voting, continue to raise questions about the Powervote/NEDAP system that will be used in the European and local elections on June 11.

Irish Citizens for Trustworthy eVoting

At least we won't be asking our troops to trust their vote to the Internet-

Pentagon nixes Internet voting

In nine days Fairfax Democrats will be voting on a resolution calling for voter-verified audit trails.

This is the only mention I can find for this story:

As the one-year anniversary of Operation Iraqi Freedom approaches, anti-war activists plan to commemorate the event Sunday with a funeral procession beginning in Camden and ending in the nation's capital.

"This is absolutely a show of support for the troops," said event organizer Gordon Clark of Washington, D.C.

"Supporting the troops does not mean to put them into harm's way on a pretense."

Dubbed the Dover to DC Memorial Procession, members of about 17 anti-war organizations will gather in Camden at noon.

After a prayer service, the procession will move to its official starting point at the main gate of Dover Air Force Base. At 2:30 p.m. it will begin a two-day journey to Washington.

Additional information is here.

Via the Sideshow a post from a Yahoo discussion group:

Hello. My name is Michele and I am new to this group. I live in California and I'm a lifelong registered Democrat.

I've been following the political arena for three decades and I've never lived to see such a poor excuse of a President than President Bush.

I've been passing out a flier that points out Bush's actions that have harmed our schools, environment; abused our seniors and minority communities (i.e., racially, nationally and sexually oriented). It's geared for those who voted for Bush in 2000, but are unsure they want to vote for him again. If you would like a copy just email me.

So far, I've distributed approximately 5,000 in my community. It's now been distributed in 491 cities in the US and 6 foreign countries with American voters (including military bases). I work 60 hours a week, but felt compelled to do more than just vote. That seemed too passive for an election as important as this one.

Thank you for listening.

Take a look at Michele's work. It is certainly something we could adapt to Fairfax County.

Via Atrios

Carlos Watson on Wolf Blitzer:

BLITZER: All right, the Democrats, though, they have some tricks up their sleeves as well.

WATSON: Democrats have a new secret weapon.

For a long time, you have heard Democrats complain that Republicans have conservative talk radio, that Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly and others have shaped the agenda and gotten people aroused and excited at the base. And finally, in 2004, Democrats have an answer. The answer is what? It's the blogs, the so-called Web logs, where people go online and write information, write commentary, post news stories.

Very interesting study out of George Washington says about 15 to 20 million people are now actively using the Internet and these Web logs in particular, sites like Daily Kos and Talking Points Memo. And what's significant here is that Democrats are using this to shape the agenda, because, remember, lots of Washington reporters read these. They're using these to excite their own base, just like conservative talk show radio does.

We've already seen that they use the Internet to raise money, but also they may turn out voters using this critical weapon.

Well, that, in short, was the whole idea behind GOTV blog.

As soon as Kerry wrapped up the nomination, his supporters began to contact Fairfax Democrats. Never have we received so many offers to help this early in the campaign season and the challenge for us as a volunteer organization is to give our new volunteers something useful to do. Eileen Manning and Peggy Kugler will be collecting their names each week and try to make sure someone contacts them. If you don’t hear from us, please call again.

If you are available during the day time, headquarters can always use more volunteers. But most of the work is done by the district committees. If you do not know which Supervisor District you live in, you can find out here.

Just as your lawn has seasons, so does grassroots politics. During winter and early spring local committees are raising money. This money is used to pay rent for headquarters, telephones, publishing the monthly newsletter, and all the other expenses of a local committee.

As the year progresses Fairfax Democrats will be doing visibility work. That means marching in parades, setting up and staffing a booth at community festivals and other ways to demonstrate the visible presence of our party.

Beginning in the spring, and continuing through the summer we conduct voter registration drives. In autumn our volunteers will distribute literature to parents on back to school night. Autumn is also the time we distribute literature door-to-door. By hand-carrying literature to voters’ homes, volunteers drastically reduce the expense of running for office, saving our candidates the cost of postage.

Those who wish to express their sympathy to the people of Spain can write their embassy at:

Embassy of Spain
4801 Wisconsin Ave NW
Washington, DC 20016

From the Dallas-Ft. Worth Star-Telegram:

WASHINGTON - The Justice Department investigation that criticized FBI agents for taking souvenirs from the World Trade Center site also found that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and a high-ranking FBI official kept items from the Sept. 11 attack scenes.

Title 49, USC, Section 1155(b:

A person that knowingly and without authority removes, conceals, or withholds a part of a civil aircraft involved in an accident, or property on the aircraft at the time of the accident, shall be fined under title 18, imprisoned for not more than 10 years, or both.

Graphic evidence that Democrats are best.

The Fairfax Connection has written a story about Fairfax bloggers. I'm included:

Another blogger, Alice Marshall of Fairfax, said she started posting partly to help local Democrats organize.

In a county such as Fairfax with over a million residents "people have this sense of isolation," said Marshall, co-chair of the local Democratic Party's voter registration committee. "They know what they're doing in their district, they're vaguely aware of what's going on in McLean or Dranesville … but they don't have the understanding of the really just phenomenal degree of what's going on."

In July 2003, during the state and local electoral campaign, she wrote her first blog: a primer on how to run a precinct. It became an online hit.

"Well, it was really flattering and I was thrilled," she said. "It showed me that there was a hunger for definite knowledge."That experience led her to start her own blog, called GOTV short for "Get Out The Vote."

via Counterspin:

Bush alienating some military voters

WASHINGTON - When the Bush campaign asked James McKinnon to co-chair its veterans steering committee in New Hampshire - a job he held in 2000 - the 56-year-old Vietnam veteran respectfully, but firmly, said no.

"I basically told them I was disappointed in his support of veterans," said McKinnon, who served two tours in Vietnam with the Coast Guard. "He's killing the active-duty military. ... Look at the reserves call-ups for Iraq, the hardships. The National Guard - the state militia - is being used improperly. I took the president at his word on Iraq, and now you can't find a single report to back up or substantiate weapons of mass destruction."

Here in Fairfax County we have many veterans and active duty military voters who feel the same way. Combine them with the spook vote, and you begin to understand the opportunity the Busheviki have offered us.

Atrios has declared Thursdays Help John Kerry Day and is asking his readers to donate money Kerry's campaign. It is a great idea, and those John Kerry T-shirts will be all the rage this summer as Fairfax County goes wild for visibility chic.

But I hope some of you will consider writing an old fashioned check made out to the Fairfax County Democratic Committee and mail it to:

FCDC
7245 Arlington Blvd., Suite 205
Falls Church, VA 22042

Grassroots politics is cheap, but it is not free.

New to my blog roll, Commonwealth Commonsense. Excellent analysis of the current budget negotiations in Richmond.

Who knew?

From the Financial Times:

Sales fell from $9.11bn to $8.65bn, with the strike costing $700m in lost sales.

Someone send the memo to Giant and Safeway. UFCW Local 400 has more information.

A reader has requested more information about voter registraiton campaigns, so I am posting excerpts of a letter I wrote on November 23, 1998:

The Voter Registration Committee will hold planning meetings for 1999 on Saturday, December 5th and Saturday January 2nd at 4 PM at Fairfax County Democratic Headquarters. HQ is located in Loehmann’s Plaza at 7245 Arlington Boulevard, #205, Falls Church.

Bring a friend. Refreshments will be served.

What did you like about this past year? What did you not like? What should we do in 1999? Your ideas are needed to make this year’s effort a success. Below is a draft for this coming year:

Neighborhood. We will continue to distribute applications in apartment complexes, mobile home communities, and other neighborhoods we identify as overwhelmingly Democratic.

Take One. We will bring boxes of Voter Registration Applications to High Rises in Democratic Precincts, and private businesses with overwhelmingly Democratic clientele (coin operated laundromats, etc.)

Visibility. We will have tables at events that attract Democratic constituencies. For example, if the Bolivian American Soccer teams plays the Salvadorian American Soccer Team, we will set up a table where spectators and players can register.

Job site. We will identify ways to contact workers as they come and go from work and offer them an opportunity to register to vote. We will target workers such as janitors, food service, and others who are most likely to be Democrats.

Outreach to the disabled. We will place voter registration applications in stores catering to the disabled, those selling braille books, wheel chairs, and other products necessary for an independent life, wherever we can get the merchant’s permission.

I look forward to seeing you on December 5th.

Very truly yours,
Alice Marie Marshall

Dubya is not very popular on the Internet. This ranking by traffic data shows that his site not only has fewer visitors than Kerry's, but fewer than Edwards or Kucinich.

comic relief for the unemployed

From a letter to the editor in today's Washington Post:

At this point I demanded to vote again. But the senior election judge on site said, "Once you've pressed 'cast my vote,' that's it. You can't vote again." I pointed out that I had been denied the right to vote because I was never presented with the ballot for that race, and she said, "Well, you should have complained before you pressed the button." In other words, it's up to the voter to account for all the races and to make sure the machine doesn't malfunction.

I fussed enough that an official called the administrator of the Montgomery County Board of Elections. I reviewed the facts with her, and she said, "Once you've pressed 'cast my vote,' that's it. You can't vote again." (It must be a script.) I repeated my argument that I had not voted because the county had not presented me with a valid, complete ballot. The administrator put me on hold, spoke to somebody, and, lo and behold, I was told that I could fill out a "provisional" paper ballot and that the board of elections would decide within 10 days whether to count it. So, after investing an hour and a half at the polls, I came away with the satisfaction that maybe my ballot would be counted, and maybe it wouldn't.

The most amazing thing about this experience was something the administrator said to me. When I explained that a race had been dropped, she asked whether I had pressed the magnification button. I said that I had not even seen and fortunately did not need a magnification button. She said, "The reason I ask is that we know that this sometimes happens when you press the magnification button." So the election officials know that the machine will malfunction.

These machines are a disaster and will delegitimize our democracy. I hope Fairfax Democrats will come to the meeting on March 23 and support the Resolution for Voter Verified Audit Trails.

Via The Sideshow, a persuasive column by Kevin Raybould that makes the case for universal health care:

The system just does not work. We constantly pay more and more for less and less adequate health care. One of the primary ways to reduce costs is to deny care and to limit choice. As employers looks for ways to reign in costs, they will move towards companies that do both in order to keep costs controlled. We have a system that wastes anywhere from 15-30% of its money on paper pushing and profits but limits choice, creates incentives not to treat people, doesn't even cover everyone in the country, and that costs more and more each year. This is not a good system.

Whatever problems a universal care system would have, it would be better than the current mess we have now. A universal care system would cover everyone, decreasing health costs across the board as people who are now uninsured get treatment early, instead of over-burdening emergency rooms. A universal care system would spend more money on health care. A universal care system would be better for business - they would no longer have to pay the insurance premiums and small, innovative businesses would not lose employees to larger companies based on benefits. A universal health care system would be good for the economy as a whole. Not only would we lose far less time to illness, employees would be able to move much more freely among employers. People who do not have to worry about taking care of the health of their families would be able to move form job to job much easier. That would allow people to go from dying companies to new, innovative companies, speeding up the process by which the economy grows.

// posted by Alice @ 3/07/2004 09:10:00 AM 0 Comments