ELECTION DAY IN AMERCIA

11/1/12

As is always the case - and I think old Ralph Waldo and Wittgenstein and some others were in on it( see earlier post) - once I start thinking on something you can bet someone else as already been

doing enough thinking for the both of us on the very same thing. With one week to go before Amercia votes again I can't help but think that once again we've all been bamboozled into accepting the current choices for President as viable and "traditionally" brokered representatives of our two (only two?) bona fide parties and yet I cannot help but wonder, almost in awe, as to the surprisingly historical consideration that if Amercia has been electing presidents and representatives for the past 200 plus years and they -for the most part have had Amercia's best interests at heart (ok I'm giving an gi-normous benefit of the doubt here) - let's just go back 100 years - at least to 1920 - and as Amercia has voted in each of those elections always thinking that who they cast their vote for would make a better Amercia for everyone else and their kids why haven't we, by now, as a modern, unified country, ( lets leave Gore v. Bush out of this for a moment)  lived up to its so-called founding texts? Why does it seem that we - as an on-going nation- have to start all over again with every new hopefilled administration as if we have nothing to build on from before - and why does one of those "legitimate" parties want to tear down what few institutions and genuine social democratic practices that we have managed to continually benefit from? Why is it a fight for universal suffrage still after almost half-a-century ago the issue should have been inscribed in law (as it was in blood)? Questions that arise with each election cycle and with each newly arrived eligible young voter; Why, in the greatest and richest nation on earth is there so much poverty? Why, in the greatest and richest nation on earth is there no universal healthcare? Why are we still mucking around in the very same categories and propositions that Engels was writing about in 1842 Manchester? Why haven't we achieved a decent living wage for a goodly number of our working men and women? Why have we acquiesced in the perpetual dominance of the Corporate powers that be? Why do these same questions keep coming up again and again and it doesn't seem to matter whether a Democrat or Republican is sitting in the white house? Why do we accept the answers to some of these queries whenever the response contains a reference to the amercian dream or god's plan or some people can and some can't or why should we pay for them or...And why, according to a recent Michael Moore Tweet, will 90 MILLION VOTERS! NOT BE VOTING this Tuesday? I couldn't help but think of that quote from Bat Masterson - 

Bat Masterson- Is it just me or does he
remind you of the great Yankee broadcaster,
Mel Allen?

its the old desperado in me - found, according to Gene (Good Night Sweet, Prince) Fowler, on a paper in his typewriter on his desk at the  NY Morning Telegraph, where he had written a column for many years, where the "never-smiling" Bat died, when I came across a byline by a Steven Rosenfeld on the AlterNet.org (so many to read, so little time) writing about how Democrats out in Denver are "worried that their top local election official—who is running for county commissioner as a Republican—is not planning to deploy enough voting machines to easily accommodate polling place voters on Tuesday, particularly in racially mixed areas where Democrats are expected to do well." It seems the Republican in charge doesn't want to spend any additional money to provide the needed machines. Well, it certainly wouldn't be the first time such voting practices were called into question as Denver Post reporter, Tom Noel, reminded readers two years ago (10/31/2010) that back in '89, that's 1889, Denver had an election for mayor and the Republicans at the time ran a "popular grocer" by the name of Wolf Londoner, "who had not been previously politically active. Riding a wave of shocking exposes in the Rocky Mountain News the fusion party of Democrats and Prohibitionists were expecting a big win on Election Day." Neal writes:

Would you prefer paper or plastic?

"Election Day, April 2, 1889, however, turned into a carnival of abuses. The Republican Party raised enough money to pay $2 per vote, as well as free drinks. Tramps, hoodlums, hookers and others were recruited to vote early and often. Many legitimate voters arrived at the polls only to be told they had already voted. Downtown precincts reported huge majorities for Wolf Londoner.

Although reform-minded voters in outlying neighborhoods went for the Citizens' Ticket candidate, the swollen core city vote gave Londoner a 377-vote win.

Con man Jefferson Randolph "Soapy" Smith and gunman Bat Masterson starred among the Republican Party stalwarts. They prepared and distributed hundreds of slips containing phony names.

Soapy Smith boarded up his polling place. He claimed the glass had been broken. Voters then had to hand their ballots through planks to an unseen "poll judge" who could easily discard unwanted votes.

The Rocky Mountain News pronounced the 1889 mayoral elections "the most disgraceful in the history of Denver politics." A judicial investigation came to a similar conclusion.

Londoner and the Republicans appealed their shaky case to the Colorado Supreme Court, but it too ruled that this election stank.

Before joining the reformers who roundly condemned voting traditions in the good old days, think for a minute. Many more millions are spent this fall to buy elections with often fallacious television ads that smear nearly every candidate. By the end of the race, winners as well as losers have been discredited. Instead of spending vast fortunes on such media excesses and dirty political tricksters, why not just pay voters directly as we did a century ago?  

If voters were reimbursed and plied with free drinks to boot, we could greatly improve turnout and create better feelings about candidates. Disgusted by the current process, many citizens stay home on Election Day. It is a struggle to get 50 percent of the eligible voters to the polls. In 1889, after all, voter participation ran over 100 percent.

There's also a recent article about this election by Linda Wommack at something called ColoradoGambler.com . I'm not so familiar with this site but if they get writers the caliber of Ms. Wommack I will certainly return to read some more.

I'm sure there were (and are) countless elections in Amercian history that would rival the 1889 Denver mayoral - which eventually was settled in court much like Bush v Gore in 2000 which, I have a feeling, Soapy Smith would have been envious of those machinations but I believe it is the current election campaign that would have really impressed the quintessential con-man for this election the two major candidates - Obama and Romney - will have raised and spent about $1 Billion EACH, 

which would almost double what had arrived at the northwest Amercian ports during the height of the Klondike Gold Rush, where Soapy met his demise.

So as I was saying if I'm thinking about something so is someone else and sure enough there's that Chris Hedges, this time writing on a site called Truthdig.com, announcing that this election -as both a protest vote and as a vote of conscience he's voting for the Green Party's candidate, Dr. Jill Stein. In a heartfelt essay titled "Why I'm Voting Green" he states:

"The November election is not a battle between Republicans and Democrats. It is not a battle between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. It is a battle between the corporate state and us. And if we do not immediately engage in this battle we are finished, as climate scientists have made clear. I will defy corporate power in small and large ways. I will invest my energy now solely in acts of resistance, in civil disobedience and in defiance. Those who rebel are our only hope. And for this reason I will vote next month for Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate, although I could as easily vote for Rocky Anderson of the Justice Party. I will step outside the system. Voting for the “lesser evil”—or failing to vote at all—is part of the corporate agenda to crush what is left of our anemic democracy. And those who continue to participate in the vaudeville of a two-party process, who refuse to confront in every way possible the structures of corporate power, assure our mutual destruction." 

But it is Mr. Hedges short interview with Dr. Stein that cuts to the heart of what ails Amercia and what can be achieved or at least attempted in the spirit of what is truly important to all Amercians -rich and poor - all classes and all regions -. Her words and what

"In Dreams Begin Responsibilities"

she represents are something born of a dream of social democracy that should be in our grasps if we only find the courage to reject the corporate Amercian world that has been weighing on all of us for too long a time. It is the question we should have been asking all along and the answer we should have been demanding as well- Why aren't we a better country?

by sam enderby
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Imperium Watch: The Solamere Money Machine

It counts your votes—and enriches the Romneys.

By Stephanie Kraft

Valley Advocate, November 01, 2012

"Solamere Capital Partners is an equity firm started up with $10 million in seed money from Mitt and Ann Romney by their son Tagg and Romney chief fundraiser Spencer Zwick. It invests in other equity firms, many run by Romney political donors. One of those firms is HIG Capital. HIG in turn invests in firms that make things, things like the Hart Intercivic voting machines that are used in certain districts in Ohio and other states.  Several officials of HIG and Hart Intercivic are donors and bundlers for candidate Romney.

The point is not that Republican minions are likely to tamper with the machines—though, given the sudden uptick in votes for George Bush in certain districts in Ohio in 2004 and the impossibility of tracking votes on the machines, the idea of tampering is not altogether absurd. But what common sense can’t deny is the lack of concern for appearances, the lack of protectiveness toward the perceived integrity of the electoral process, in this ownership chain. As Forbes editorialized, “… why would a political candidate and his family have a financial relationship with a company that owns a chunk of the voting machine company that will be counting the actual votes given to that political candidate or his opponent?”

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Pennsylvania Judge Won’t Ban Misleading Photo ID Ads 

By Nicole Flatow on Nov 3, 2012 at 9:00 am

FROM THINK PROGRESS

A Pennsylvania judge rejected a move Friday to block misleading ad campaigns about the state’s photo ID requirement. Advocacy groups who won a suspension of Pennsylvania’s voter ID requirement earlier this month had argued that in the wake of the court ruling, the state failed to inform voters of the change and instead delayed correcting information in existing ads and other materials, and issued new and misleading ads, such as the one below, which features an image of a photo ID with the tiny words “This election day, if you have it,” followed by the huge and capitalized phrase “Show it”: