Oh. My. God.

Janis Joplin once sang someone else’s song very poignantly – “Freedom’s just another word for nothin’ left to lose…” – and that’s semi-true in my experience. We all make choices about what’s important in our lives, and usually become enslaved to that which we choose. At the low end of the scale there’s never enough, just paying the bills is a constant struggle. At the high end of the scale there is also never enough. The thirst for more and more and more rules lives and ruins them too.

As Wall Street melts down we’re suddenly informed we must Spend, Spend, Spend!!! They can never make up their minds. Either we’re not saving enough or we’re not spending enough, it’s always our fault. I call bullshit. Slave wages have not even kept up with the cost of living, they can’t have it both ways.

I read about a 50-something day care worker yesterday who a coworker noticed sitting in the corner crying. When asked what’s wrong, she finally said she couldn’t feel her face. The coworker was alarmed, saw one side of her face drooping as they were talking, speech slurring. She drove her friend to the hospital, but the woman just cried harder and wouldn’t get out of the car. Said yes, she must be having a stroke, but if she walked in the door she’d lose everything – house, car, meager income (job)… she was terrified. Her friend finally talked her into going, she is still in the hospital and her coworkers are trying very hard to raise the tens of thousands she’ll need to pay for the care. There is no insurance at that end of the scale.

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Filed under Barack Obama, Class War, Corruption, Depression, Economics, Eugenics, Foreign Policy, Gay Rights, Hate Speech, History, Hypocrisy, Market Crash, Osama bin Laden, Outrage, Politics of Hate, Propaganda, Religion, Sarah Palin, Universal Care, Voting Rights, War | Comment (0)

Early Voting: The Haters Can’t Win

My husband, grandson and I voted Monday evening at the library in our little town of about 750 people in western North Carolina. Grandson got to register and vote at the same time, turned 18 in May. He registered Independent – probably so he could be the ‘rebel’ in our household – but his heart’s in the right place.

One of the reasons we voted Monday instead of Tuesday (when the library’s One-Stop will be open until 9 instead of 5) is because of what happened to Obama supporters in Fayetteville on Sunday. Not only were McCain/Palin supporters stationed to shout epithets and harass the long voting lines after Obama’s speech, but about 30 of the attendees of that rally got their tires slashed. Very ugly.

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Filed under Campaigns, Hate Speech, Outrage, Politics of Hate, Racism, Voting Rights | Comment (0)

For Once, North Carolina Counts!

The three registered Democrats in my household (minus Independent but not yet registered grandson who just turned 18) all voted yesterday in the basement of the First Baptist Church. Where the precinct polling place was moved 6 years ago when the train station was being refurbished (for passenger service that never materialized), and has not moved back. We took to absentee and early voting after only one trip to the Baptist basement, given that I resented the Noah’s Ark mural looking over my shoulder, the many (obviously new and for the purpose) posters reminding us of what Jesus would think and do, and absolutely hated those awful, notorious Diebold Etch-a-Sketches that threw 2004′s state races into such turmoil that Diebold was shown the border and told NEVER to return. Criminals.

They did paint over the Noah mural, and we went back to paper ballots. In a town with just two precincts and a total population of 738, it’s just not that hard to count votes. Filling in a little circle like we did in school, with a nice black Sharpee ensures me that nobody’s going to misinterpret my intent. No chads to hang, no programming to hack, just a nice black mark right there next to the name of the person I’m voting for. Cool.

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Filed under Barack Obama, Campaigns, Hillary Clinton, Party Primaries, Presidential Candidates, Voting Rights | Comment (0)

The New and Improved Poll Tax

The US Supreme Court ruled on April 28th that voter ID laws are constitutional despite the fact that they disenfranchise at least 11 million eligible voters, expand restrictions on felony voting to millions of people who have unpaid parking tickets or minor moving violations that haven’t been taken care of, or have lost their auto insurance for some reason. It also amounts to an onerous poll tax for millions more Americans whose crime is simply being poor, elderly or disabled.

The justices split on the decision along entirely political lines, not surprising because these laws that require voters to produce a photo ID with a future expiration date primarily affect traditional Democratic Party voters. Justice John Paul Stevens wrote the majority opinion, citing the usual Republican fear of voter fraud as the state interest. Yet according to a survey by the Center for Policy Alternatives, voter fraud is extremely rare. From 2002 to 2005, an Ohio survey showed a total of 52 people convicted of any type of voter fraud, while just a tad less than 200,000,000 votes were cast in general elections by Ohio voters.

That’s half of one ten-thousandth of 1 percent. This is not a big issue.

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Filed under Analysis, Constitution, Corruption, Government Lawsuits, Republicans, Voting Rights | Comment (0)