Health care is such an important issue and we are proposing reform in a very important and crucial time. That is why it is imperative that those who care about what happens to reform come out and participate. Our President has always been clear about needing our help to get the job done.To bring the CHANGE that we all seek in this country. This is it folks. We need to come out and get to some townhalls, call our representatives and congress members, attend local events in support of reform, and reach out to our familiy member and friends. Health care reform cannot happen without us. We need a very strong presence in the next month to show our congress that we mean business and we want REAL reform NOW!!!!
Please volunteer with OFA now!!!! Get involved AGAIN!!! If President Obama ever needed your support for any of the issues it is Health Care. Your fellow Americans needs you! 46 million uninsured need you! We need you!
This is from my blog...
Barack Obama does not want to kill your grandmother or your unborn child.
Relax. Breathe. Repeat.
Barack Obama does NOT want to kill your grandmother or your unborn child.
The president also does not want to take over your current health coverage and replace it with a government-run plan.
I know. I know.
You’re saying, “But the guy on Fox News told me that he does!”
Or, “That guy giving the speech outside one of those town hall meetings said that Obama is the next Hitler or Stalin and he was wondering what the American holocaust would be called. He seemed so convincing!"
Unfortunately, if you believe these things, you’ve been lied to. You’ve been the pawn of special interest groups. You’ve been hoodwinked and bamboozled by the Republican lying machine.
If you don’t believe me, look at HR 3200, America’s Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009, which was recently introduced to Congress. I know it’s lawyer talk and can be confusing, but nowhere will you see the words “abortion” and “euthanasia.”
But more about this later.
Over the next few days, I’ll try to explain why this healthcare reform is actually a good thing, what this reform actually is, why fears regarding state-funded abortions and increased euthanizations for the elderly are unfounded scare tactics, and why liberal cries of “single-payer,” while well-meaning, are pipe dreams.
We will get to the lies and misconceptions, and actually look to see what “reform” means, but before that, it's important to discuss why reform is actually needed.
During the last few weeks, I don’t know how many times I’ve heard critics of health reform say, “They want to make the U.S. system look like those in Europe or Canada.”
Yes, please!
Unfortunately, this reform won’t go that far, but why wouldn’t the American politicians want to emulate the systems from Europe or Canada?
All of those mostly public systems are cheaper and more effective than the mostly private American system.
Reality is that the American healthcare system is broken. It’s been broken for years. It’s too expensive and excludes too many people.
In fact, the United States is the only developed country in the world that lacks universal coverage.
An estimated that 15 percent, or 45.7 million Americans lack coverage (link opens a PDF).
There are several reasons why so many Americans remain uninsured. The primary one being cost.
Most of the uninsured live in households that make less than $50,000 per year.
But at least 5 million Americans are uninsurable because of “pre-existing conditions.” In addition, there are an estimated 8 million uninsured children and an estimated 8 million uninsured young adults.
Healthcare reform should bridge this gap in coverage.
According to 2005 numbers from the World Health Organization, the United States spent 15.5 percent of its gross domestic product on health. Canada, which has mostly a publicly funded system, which covers all of its citizens, spent 9.7 percent of its GDP on health.
What? That has to be a mistake.
Let’s look at other publicly run systems. France? 11.2 percent of its GDP on health. The United Kingdom? 8.2 percent of its GDP. Sweden? 9.2 percent.
So the question that begs asking is why does it cost so much more in the United States?
It comes back to the uninsured, which leads to the excessive use of emergency care. The costs of these visits, which run into the thousands of dollars per hour, are then passed on to the American taxpayer.
In addition, lack of preventive care in this country and the failure of technological advancement to spread to the health industry, also increase to the troubled system.
A recent study by the Commonwealth Fund, a nonprofit organization with the goal of “working toward a high performance health system,” ranked the United States last among 18 developed countries in healthcare.
In a smaller survey of six countries—the United States, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Germany, Canada, and Australia—the U.S. system ranked last or next to last in quality care, access, efficiency, equity, healthy lives, and cost.
The steps taken in the House bill would do much to alleviate these problems and substantially improve the American system.
Tomorrow. The lies and misconceptions about reform.
http://nasga-stopguardianabuse.blogspot.com/
http://www.stopguardianabuse.org/
http://www.sac-now.com/index.html
Thousands of adults are currently under Conservatorship. In California there are over 500 Conservators overseeing 4.5 BILLION DOLLARS in assets and 5,600 Conservatorship petitions filed each year. In 2000, the number of people in California who were 65 years of age or older was 3.7 million. By 2020, the number will have grown to 6.3 million. SAC, NOW is dedicated to the individuals who neither need nor require such drastic action and is working to protect everyone from abusive Conservatorships.
THE TOUGH BATTLE: FIGHTING CONSERVATORSHIP
In November of 2005, Robin Fields, a reporter for the Los Angeles Times, ran a four part series on the ramifications of seniors placed under Conservatorship. The stories of rampant abuse, neglect and outright theft were shocking. Assemblyman Dave Jones asked for tighter restraints on professional Conservators, realizing that 4.6 BILLION DOLLARS and the lives of Conservatees were at risk. Assemblyman Jones' bills resulted in new legislation by the California Legislature, known as the Omnibus Conservatorship and Guardianship Reform Act of 2006.
The Omnibus Act made new provisions in an attempt to protect Conservatees, which requires a review of a Conservatorship after six months, education for Judges and Court Investigators, licensing for Conservators, new procedures regarding the sale of the Conservatees residence and investigating Conservators if the Court finds it necessary.
The Omnibus Act DOES NOT PROVIDE for the protection of your Constitutional rights, individual freedom, how your money is spent, where you are to live, the right to make your own medical decisions and a standard for the Courts to follow defining "clear and convincing evidence" for Conservatorship.
In 2006, the Judicial Council, the policy making body of the California courts, formed a 29 member "Probate Investigator Task Force". After eighteen months, the Council provided 85 recommendations for the Courts and the State. Patricia McGinnis, a member of the Council, was quoted in the Task Forces' final report as saying "We had a number of consumers to address this task force. Unfortunately all of the consumers that I talked to were afraid to testify. They were either fearful of being caught up in the system again or being sued." During a press conference, Administrative Presiding Judge Roger W. Boren, who heads the Los Angeles Appellate Court and the Task Force was quoted as saying "the elderly have a target on them, and that target is their estate." The Judicial Council acknowledged that it may take years, if at all, along with increased funding to implement their recommendations.
To read the articles in the Los Angeles Times, please visit www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-conservators-series
To read the Omnibus Act in it entirety, please visithttp://ceb.com/lawalerts/guardianshipconservatorships.asp
For their Judicial Council's full report, please visitwww.courtinfo.ca.gov
For more information on Conservatorships, please visit www.retirementnightmare.com
Requirements For a License
All Conservators must be licensed with the Statewide Registry, which is a division of the Department of Justice. The requirements for a license with the Statewide Registry is a fee and college education. The Statewide Registry has no authority to take any action against an abusive Conservator. Many Conservators belong to the Professional Fiduciary Association of America. They do not make membership mandatory nor do they have jurisdiction to investigate abusive Conservators. In July of 2008, the Department of Consumer Affairs will take responsibility from the Statewide Registry and will oversee and license Conservators.
If a family member agrees to become the Conservator, the only requirement is to be bondable, with no criminal history. According to the Professional Fiduciary Association, 60% of all abuses against Conservatees are by family members. Using the professional Fiduciary Association's statistics, does this mean that 40% of abuse is performed by professional Conservators? When is it ever acceptable for anyone to be abusive? When is someone going to step up and make a difference? When is someone going to stand up for the rights of beloved family members?
SAC, NOW knows that little has changed and people are as vulnerable today as they were prior to the new laws. All the previously mentioned abuses STILL EXIST TODAY.
SAC, NOW believes it is hypocritical that neither the Assembly nor the Judicial Council addressed any of the major issues; the Constitutional Rights, civil liberties and freedoms of Conservatees are still seized by the Court. It is a fact that convicted felons have more rights than those under Conservatorship. The Conservatee is still required to pay ALL attorneys' fees and Court costs. The Courts still allow testimony against the Conservatee without any proof or evidence.
If our elected officials won't seriously address these issues, it is incumbent upon SAC, NOW to inform the people that the new laws CHANGE NOTHING. If you believe this could never happen to you, think again. Once a Conservatorship is started, it's already too late.
Is Conservatorship Fair?
Don't let someone you love become the next victim of unwarranted Conservatorship.
If you support SAC, NOW please join us in our fight. The time for waiting is over.
What your tax deductible donation will do:
Please join us in our fight against unwarranted and abusive Conservatorships
Your donation will help SAC, NOW continue the fight to protect the rights of all, or.. you can wait for the day when you may become the next victim of Conservatorship.
Please contact us at info@sac-now.com
Send donations to: SAC, NOW 4968 Calvin Avenue Tarzana, CA 91356
If you wish you may call us at (818) 345-4339
Don't wait for your elected officials to have more committee's and debates.The time for change is NOW.
SAC, NOW is dedicated to our Mother, who was unjustly placed under Conservatorship
http://www.elderabuseadvocate.blogspot.com/
http://www.estateofdenial.com/
Links and Sources
IRA web sites and related content:
UNDUE INFLUENCE: There Oughta Be a Law (or Two)
PLEASE VISIT LISA NERENBERG'S WEBSITE
When undue influence was “discovered” as a significant factor in elder abuse a decade ago, it immediately struck a chord with advocates and service providers who'd been seeing the phenomenon for years. They may not have had a term for it, but they knew it when they saw it.But translating undue influence into law, or more specifically, translating it into an infraction of the law, hasn’t been easy. See Undue Influence is Not a Crime (Nov 20, 06), Postscript on Undue Influence is Not a Crime (Dec 4, 06), PPS on Undue Influence: The Civil Side (Dec 14, 06), and Long Distance Undue Influence (June 20, 06). For links to these postings and more on undue influence, visit my Web site at Prevent Elder Abuse. This year, advocates in California are tackling the problem full force. The California District Attorney's Association has teamed up with California Senator Bob Margett to broaden the definition of financial abuse used in California’s penal code (PC 368) to include “undue influence upon an elder or dependent adult for financial gain.” The bill, SB 1259, came largely in response to the criminal case against Ronald Brock that I described in “Elder Abuse is Not A Crime.” In that landmark case, Brock was convicted of theft based on undue influence, but an appeals court overturned the conviction on that grounds that obtaining money by consent is only theft if the defendant uses coercion or misrepresentation and that the judge had erred in allowing a conviction for conduct that was "little more than overpersuasion." See SB 1259. SB 1140, sponsored by State Senator Darrell Steinberg, would amend sections of the state’s Welfare and Institutions code pertaining to financial abuse to allow elders to recover property (and lawyers’ fees) when property is taken from them through undue influence or when they lack full mental capacity. See SB 1140. Drawing the lines between persuasion, overpersuasion, and unlawful acts clearly isn’t going to be easy. It requires rethinking old assumptions and reevaluating deeply held values. Our society reveres and rewards the ingenuous and entrepreneurial who succeed in anticipating and responding to both real and fabricated needs and desires. Enticement and seduction are a fact of life. But as we come to understand the vulnerabilities engendered by advanced age, we need to balance our commitment to personal freedom and choice with our obligation to protect and defend. In short, we need to define the point at which society has a responsibility to step in and call foul.
Posted by Lisa Nerenberg, Consultant, Speaker, Trainer at 10:53 AM
Labels: Bernard v. Foley, criminal justice, Financial Abuse, Undue influence
Learn About Elder Abuse Undue Influence PLEASE VISIT LISA NERENBERG'S WEBSITE (click HERE) http://lisanerenberg.com/whatsnew.html#emerging
Learn About Elder Abuse Undue Influence
PLEASE VISIT LISA NERENBERG'S WEBSITE (click HERE)
http://lisanerenberg.com/whatsnew.html#emerging
The "discovery" of undue influence as a significant factor in elder abuse has revolutionized thinking about how people fall prey to "artful manipulators" and what service providers can do help prevent exploitive relationships. The resources on this page provide an overview of undue influence and how it is being addressed by the criminal and civil justice systems.
We had a reunion at the coffee shop where we first started meeting, the week Barack Obama announced he was running for office.
It was a great night, lots of stories and laughs were exchanged. We had a reporter from a local paper there, and got a chance to talk about our current and future endevours at Rose City Obamaworks
So its September 11th again.
Seven years ago today, I learned a handful of my finest friends were dead.
I knew my accountant was on United Flight 93 to San Francisco that morning.
It crashed over a lonely field thanks to a handful of determined Saudi criminals.
My roommate and best friend emailed me from the Borders Books at the World Trade Center the night of September 10th, 2001, saying he'd be back in the building at 7 AM to get an email address he needed from me on the computer he was paying to use there. He and his mom were on vacation.
That next Sept. 11 morning I heard a radio report of fire inside Borders Books, where trapped people beat helplessly against reinforced glass walls. I was on my way home from a store where people were fighting over bottles water and canned beans.
I had to pull over.
EVERYTHING YOU EVER WANTED TO KNOW ABOUT ELECTION FRAUD BUT WAS AFRAID TO ASK.
This may be the most important email you get this election. Pay attention. Keep it and read it when you have fifteen minutes. But don't wait too long.
We're going to talk about the white elephant in the room, the fact that a bunch of our votes may not count if we don't act now. If we don't devote attention to this in our volunteer duties, we will lose. Two sentences added to the end of a phonecall or random conversation can win this election.
"Have you checked your voter registration lately?" and "Do you know where your early polling place is?"
Early voting IN PERSON is the key, not absentee. Most cities have polling booths open days ahead of the election in at least one central location. You can show up a few days ahead of time, find your name on the rolls and then cast your vote. If there's a problem you can still make changes to your registration or file a complaint so others know a problem exists BEFORE November 4th.
VOTING ABSENTEE CAN BE DANGEROUS. If your vote was challenged shortly before the election because your house was foreclosed and the GOP challenged your address at the last minute, you will not know you are not on the rolls. Soldiers in Iraq or otherwise overseas vote absentee and their votes often didn't count in 2000 and 2004 because DO NOT FORWARD letters sent to their house in the States on behalf of the GOP, friendly little reminder letters, have been returned to sender and the GOP has used them to challenge the vote of some poor grunt that may take a piece of shrapnel to protect somebody else's freedom to vote.
That grunt may die on a sandy battlefield never knowing his own right to vote was just challenged because he had to vote absentee.
Also, if its a Republican County and there are Republican poll workers sorting the mail there when your ballot comes in absentee, they could very easily toss in the trash anything that looks like its coming from a Democrat. Absentee only works in SAFELY Democratic districts we shouldn't be worrying about anyway.
Have I mentioned how important it is to learn how to become a poll worker?
How does the GOP poll worker that signed up to work the polls while you were watching Seinfeld know who's absentee ballots to toss in the trash?
Duh.
They looked at the name.
If the name sounds like John Smith, they may seig heil it as a good old boy white male Republican and let it through. If its Tanisha Jackson, or Maria Ramirez, Or Fundi Abdul Han, they would figure its a minority leftist insurgent, AKA a Democrat, and throw it out.
In some counties, absentee ballots are even marked on the distinctive envelope "DEMOCRAT".
Way to go slick.
Speaking of dummies, some people are even dumb enough to actually mark their party affiliation on the absentee ballot. I'm sure that will get past the hands of some unbelievably lucky Republican poll worker or mail thief with no scruples and a bone to pick.
I got a lot of this information out of the book "Armed Madhouse" by Greg Palast, a well respected American BBC reporter who is partnered with Robert Kennedy Jr. He's done his homework. You can find "Armed Madhouse" at the library or Borders and its all pretty well documented in those pages.
In his book, Greg suggests as I do that early voting, IN PERSON, is the key. I would suggest getting the word out to as many groups as possible about this. This needs to be distributed in the real world by real people, not just on the internet. PEOPLE NEED TO KNOW WHERE EARLY POLLING PLACES ARE. I'm not writing this to pass notes to my buddies, I'm writing it for the elderly couple in Indiana, the young turks in Ohio, and the middle aged taco vender in New Mexico. I'll let you translate it into something more suitable to get to those areas.
The people affected by this problem probably don't have the internet anyway. For 56 days we have a national organization that can get to them.
If we do nothing, we do it at our peril.
I don't have time to post the information on every group but a few of us could if someone is willing to start devoting time to this. We should also petition the obviously distracted and busy Obama campaign to do the same.
Nothing is more important as an issue, especially if you live in a swing state and especially if you live in an area that trends minority and Democrat, as those are the easiest to target for fraud due to the names.
Make no mistake, the GOP IS cheating. The poll results that have just come out as being skewed Republican in USA Today, Rassmussen and others are a foreshadowing of shady things to come. They're manipulating the polls to influence swing votes who believe mistakenly there's a GOP bandwagon to get on and to set us up for a possible loss. It is not a coincidence that every major election comes down to a few thousand or hundred votes. We are not that perfectly bipolar in our views across the nation.
Want to know more? Keep reading.
Other ways the vote is stolen? The privatized voting companies, who trend Republican because they're corporate, (don't ask me why we privatize our vote, or why one of John McCain's campaign managers tried to by Diebold, the biggest offender that also makes ATMs, just after he go the nomination.)
These private companies will deliver too few or too old manual voting machines (not electronic) to minority neighborhoods. Rickety machines will break early in the day or if there's not enough to begin with they will create long lines. At various times I've voted in Republican districts where I ALWAYS breezed through in twenty minutes. I've also voted in minority neighborhoods where it took me three hours.
Go figure.
People wont want to wait long periods and they'll go home or be forced back to work without voting. I don't know how we do it, but someone should be checking amounts of voting machines and quality of voting machines delivered to heavily minority areas. Really the campaign should be doing this or we should make them. Don't assume I am forwarding this information to the campaign or that they already know. I was shocked by the lack of knowledge on behalf of the Obama campaign when these issues occurred Super Tuesday. The response I got was, "we're going to file a complaint."
Somehow, that didn't work for Gore or Kerry. If we wait for the powers that be to act, we'll be waiting another four years.
The most frustrating and illusive way the vote is stolen is by electronic vote. Although usage of electronic machines is down because of problems that create miscounts that have surfaced publicly, (The new Secretary of State in California just decertified them shortly before the primary) electronic machines still represent 30 percent of the total machines nationwide, which is a huge margin. Most importantly, Ohio is still using them even though they admit that they lost at least 2000 votes in 2004. The real figure is probably in tens of thousands, maybe even hundreds. (The race was won by a Bush margin I believe less than ten thousand votes.)
In 2004, in one precinct in New Mexico, registered voter population 900, entirely Hispanic and heavily Democrat, where the Catholic church did a massive get out the vote drive to transport people to the polls from all over the rural area in school busses, there were 925 votes cast on the Diebold electronic machines. EVERY VOTE was either for BUSH or none of the above. Kerry didn't receive a SINGLE vote.
Can you say "machine error"?
There was no paper trail as these votes were beamed directly to the companies corporate headquarters. So Democrats drove miles in schoolbusses to vote "none of the above" or for Bush... I guess.
I talked to an IT tech. What happens is electronic machines can be "accidentally bumped" to change the touch screen radius, skewing the totals so some people may vote for Bush instead of Kerry because Bush has a touch radius on the screen bigger than Kerry. There's no paper receipt so you'll have no idea if the machine sent in a mistake.
Provisional ballots. Suck. If you get a provisional ballot in a swing State, count on your vote not counting. Sometimes Republican poll workers will stand smiling at the door and ask where people live, to direct them to either the green or orange table where they'll be on the rolls.
Only, in reality, sometimes they'll direct anyone that is minority or who looks bohemian or younger or just plain angry to the wrong table, so you won't find your name on the rolls and you'll be handed a provisional ballot that will not count because the most likely Republican Secretary of that swing State will rule NOT to count provisional ballots almost automatically. They only count provisionals in razor close votes, and if they haven't counted thousands of them yet, perhaps not even realizing the amount there, how will they ever know its close?
They won't. PROVISIONAL BALLOTS DO NOT COUNT!
Switching people to provisional ballots is also the purpose of why so many Democrat voters registrations get switched "magically" to Republican or Independent. I personally know six people this has happened to, and as a poll monitor I witnessed or heard secondhand of at least another 100 minority voters in just TWO precincts in Pasadena that were furious because their registrations had been switched without their knowledge and they were denied the right to vote in the Democratic primary. They were told gladly that they could vote for McCain or Romney... if they wanted.
Why bother changing a Democratic registration to Republican, you may ask?
Why? So that when voters show up on the day of the vote, their registration isn't listed where they think it will be, and again they'll be handed a worthless provisional ballot. Poof. No vote. I guess nobody thought to check under R for Republican.
When I told the Obama campaign about the many lifelong Democrat voters being turned away as being magically Republican in a Democratic primary, they were rightfully furious. Campaign workers said, "Those people should have been handed provisional ballots!"
Uh... did I mention the problem with those yet?
How does the anyone accomplish this amazing magic of registration switching and why does it happen to a few Republicans too? I remember on Super Tuesday night, the news even did a fluff piece on a, heaven forbid, REPUBLICAN, who had her vote registration switched in the primary. Hey, are the Democrats pulling something too?
I don't think so. I'd guess this lady probably is just a whale watcher and she got caught in the same net the Democrats that lost their vote did.
A whale watcher? What do I mean by that?
Well, all these magic flips of registration may have occurred months or years ago and voters were too lazy to check and see if their registration is still what they think it is. Independent groups loyal to the GOP have operatives canvass neighborhoods or hang out on college campuses. Y'know the guys with the petitions to save the whales or approve that new Indian Casino? Next time you sign one, flip to the last page. If there's a faded carbon copy there, it could be a voter registration change form, or transfered to one, and you sign it, they'll send it in and request your registration be changed to Republican or Independent.
The Republican on the news crying about how her registration was switched probably thought that she was saving the whales when she signed that form in the parking lot at Wallmart. Come to think of it, she did LOOK sort of liberal. Well, the result was that the form got sent in somehow to change her to a liberal on paper at least.
You think you're saving the whales and instead you're saving the GOP.
The angry would be whale watchers I met on Super Tuesday that had their registration changed weren't cheated by the DNC or Greenpeace in 2008, they probably didn't even bother to vote in 2004 or 2006 and their vote was stolen a long time ago by Karl Rove or someone else in a local race and we were just feeling the effect in the massive voter turn out caused by Clinton and Obama.
We can assume all those people that were turned away have fixed their registration by now, right?
Hmn. Big assumption. I'll bet money they're still working ten hours and then watching Sienfeld over a pizza instead of stressing about it. We better mention that the next time we make a volunteer call or have a conversation somewhere, huh?
Dealing with forms and government agencies scares people. They won't bother to check. I talked to girl who's registration was switched to Republican years ago and she's never been brave enough to figure out how to switch back so she can vote in a Primary. Some people actually think they'll get in trouble with the IRS if they call. Heck, beurocracy scares me too.
I know in Los Angeles you can check your registration at lavote.net, but for the rest of the country, I don't know. Thats up to you to figure out.
Rule 1 in election fraud; All politics are local. Even in a Democratic state, a Republican district may create election fraud. Why did those Precincts in Pasadena have so much magical registration flipping? Who cares, this is sunny Democrat California, right?
Wrong.
I live in a Republican Distict that has a lot of tight local races. These people were frauded to keep a local hack in office, not to rig a Presidential campaign, but the result is just the same.
When it comes to election fraud, the thing to understand is that its death by a thousand cuts. There is no one grand scheme. Yes, Karl Rove did approve thousands of names on caging lists, (voters to be challenged by first class mail being returned) The email was titled "RE: CAGING LISTS" and sent by Rove's protege Tim Griffin from his Washington office. Little Timmy was under investigation for vote caging until Bush fired the prosecuting US Attorney and gave GRIFFIN the U.S. attorney's job, uh, until Griffin resigned the day Greg Palast outted the story to Rep. John Conyers who swore to investigate (no joke, you can find the actual lists CC'd to Karl Rove in the latest version of "Armed Madhouse" Greg Palast's book.) The lists were sent accidentally to rnc.org instead of rnc.com, or something like that, and thus they were sent to a spoof site instead, who handed the emails to Palast. Oops.
But that was just part of it.
All the GOP in general does is look at any way possible to keep the amount of people voting down as much as possible.
When you add overly improvisational and passionate neocon poll workers to the mix, overly creative neocons working to approve registrations within the local parties, and some whacky new laws like the "VOTER ID" laws in Indiana and other states that will disenfrancise thousands of people simply because they're working two jobs and don't have time to go get a new I.D., or they're too elderly to get out of the house and get an I.D., or they can't pay the fee, if there is one, which amounts to a Jim Crow poll tax, well, that can ad up.
Thats why the Democratic party fought the voter I.D. laws and the GOP screamed to the rooftops about illegal aliens voting twice. (What illegal alien is even going to show up when they're afraid they're gonna be deported anyway?) Y'know how many people were charged with vote fraud in the last eight years, after Bush's task force on it?
Five.
And I'm sure those were probably trumped up. Oh wait, it was six. I almost forgot Anne Coulter.
Bottom line, find out where early polling places have been set up in each district and spread the word locally. Every volunteer at every Obama phonebank to a swing state should be at the end of the call telling voters to check their registrations before they vote with enough time to fix problems, and to vote early, IN PERSON, at early polling places.
I'm no supergenius expert here, I got all the information either by just reading some articles factchecked online or directly out of Greg Palast's book "Armed Madhouse." Its a book I highly recommend everyone get in the next few days and read, at least the chapters on stealing the vote. You can go to gregpalast.com to learn a bit more about the issue.
Dont assume I'm forwarding this information around. I took the time to compile it so you wouldn't have to spend a week reading Greg's book and so you can share it. Please, forward this information to anyone you know who cares about the right to vote, especially if they live in a swing state or Republican district with tight local races. We can short circuit this problem if we inform voters to simply check their registrations, vote early and vote in person at established early polling places.
Voting absentee is not the best solution, and neither is waiting until November 4th to figure out if your vote has been lost six months beforehand.
Make no mistake. This is a war for the future of this country and it will be won in the fine print.
Most importantly, most importantly of all, is DO NOT DESPAIR.
Hopefully you are still reading and not hanging from the rafters by now.
When I first heard all this information, my immediate reaction was to throw up my hands and say, "What?! Why bother to make an effort to vote if there is massive evidence out there of all this fraud."
I read the book "Armed Madhouse" before Barack Obama decided to run for the White House. I went into this effort knowing all the information I just gave you, and yet I have canvassed for Obama in two States, I've made hundreds of phonecalls, and I've made an award winning ad that played nationally for free.
Why? Why did I choose to support Senator Obama and work my ass off, putting my life and career at times on hold, when I knew what I know?
Because the GOP wants us to despair and stay safely on your computer bitching, or at home eating pizza.
Because from the start, from even before the start, I knew that Barack Obama was the only possible candidate that can surpass any effort to cheat the American Electorate. I knew that Barack Obama could do what he has done, that he could motivate the American people, and that there's nothing more dangerous than a motivated electorate. Barack Obama represents our best chance at taking our country back from the criminals that stole it in 2000 and 2004.
And the GOP has known it all along too.
Well, you see, its precisely because of all our efforts that stuff like vote caging isn't going to work. Elections can only be frauded if people aren't paying attention. In a war, you sacrifice some brave troops to the machine guns in order to overwhelm the machine gun nest. Not all the votes have to count, but there needs to be enough of them cast that they overwhelm any effort to cheat.
Why haven't we heard more outrage from our leaders on this issue? Why isn't Obama screaming from the rooftops about it the way that Dennis Kucinich did after New Hampshire in the primary? And hey, whatever happened to Dennis's appeal for a recount in New Hampshire?
Trust me, Obama comes from Chicago. He understands vote rigging. I believe he's on it. Think about it. That's why he's running the tremendous ground game he is. If Obama was to come out and say anything about possible election fraud in a way that was picked up by the main stream press, not only would he look like a fringe candidate, as Kucinich unfortunately but bravely did, he may also actually supress voter turn out. You'd get a lot of people that would say, "what's the use, my vote isn't going to count, why should I bother?"
We don't want to foster that impression, either in our own minds or others. We MUST, MUST, MUST educate ourselves on these matters so that we can fight them. We MUST, MUST, MUST, put enough fear in voters to get them a bit angry and make them check their registrations even if they believe them to be valid, but we MUST NOT cause despair.
The turnout in this election will be historic. Chances are that our months of voter registration drives already are going to overwhelm any chance at election rigging in at least most states. But all it takes is one State like Ohio or Florida, that is why we must concentrate our efforts in those swing States and be careful how its discussed with voters. We don't want to turn them off.
We're simply informing them about how to check their registration just to prevent any unforeseen problems that might be lurking because maybe they haven't ever bothered to check before. If you sound like a conspiracy theorist, they'll ignore you. Be practical when they say, "Oh, I'm not worried, I know my registration. I got my sample ballot." Then you just tell them, "Yes, but its worth a call to check your registration anyway. Last minute errors have been known to cost votes. Better safe than sorry".
Words to live by. Better safe than sorry.
Distribute this far and wide please.
P.S. I'm listening to radio as I type this. The talk radio host on Air America 1150. In Madison Wisconsin, Democrat voters are apparently getting unsolicited absentee ballot applications that are mailers apparently from JOHN McCAIN'S campaign. These mailers misinform voters to send applications to the wrong office in the wrong city to recieve their ballots.
(They're probably not really from the campaign, but they're from an Independent group with enough GOP funding to mess with the absentee vote. Try googling the story as told on Air America radio at 11:10am.)
I will say it one final time. VOTE IN PERSON AND VOTE EARLY. FIND YOUR EARLY POLLING PLACES AND SPREAD THE WORD.
view more of my blogs and spread the word, any links appreciated, athttp://samuraipatriot.blogspot.com/
We are at war.
No, I don't mean in the deserts of Iraq and Afganistan, although surely that's the case too. I mean right here, on the streets, farms and blogs of the good old U.S.A.
As we wake up this morning there is a war going on for the hearts and minds of America. Depending on what paper or magazine you read, the war is going very differently. There are factions at work in the press, the polling industry, the entertainment industry, that are fighting a deathmatch before our eyes. One side will not survive, and they both know it.
This war will last less than sixty days and is not about the issues, it is not about grand ideas, it is not about which party is more qualified to lead us, although certainly all that too is at stake.
The war is about sustained momentum. It is about what drives it. It is about character. Most of all, it is simply about PERCEPTION of those things.
You see, the race for the White House has become about how long John McCain can sustain the illusion that he and Sarah Palin have taken over momentum. The race from this point forward is the difference between what McCain wants you to believe about the race versus the reality of the race. The national polls do not reflect a winner, they reflect a trend. Obama is winning hands down in the electoral college, but if perception doesn't shift, that could change.
John McCain hopes that you and more importantly Barack Obama will panic. He hopes that the illusion of victory will translate to the reality of it. As I type this he is trying to guilt the press into accepting his version of truth. He doesn't need to convince the entire nation or even the entire main stream media of the illusion that the country is swinging his way. No. Just as in the primaries much of the crystal ball reading by pundits and polls engaged in theatrics for the benefit of purely some undecided voters in Iowa, all of the histrionics about Sarah Palin and the national polls now are soley for the benefit of a few undecided and swing voters in OH, NV, NM, MO, and FL.
How do we combat this? Or better, how does Barack Obama combat this? By being blunt. By showing up to a knife fight with a gun. Obama needs to be more blunt than any candidate for President in U.S. history. He needs to pull back the curtain and show us Oz's saggy white bottom. He needs to expose the propaganda in ways a fifth grader will get.
Some of the most partisan polls and lies are also about padding the floor for the jaw drop that might occur should McCain actually win. He needs a narrative to justify his victory and prevent a second civil war. He needs to sell the American electorate a bill of goods so that he can say, "see, wasn't I a genius? I picked Palin and that's why I won."
They'll hit you with manipulated facts and figures. That'll work to a point. Beyond that, they're gonna cage votes. They're gonna deliver too few voting machines to minority neighborhoods. They're gonna send you to the wrong table to vote so you get a provisional ballot you can wipe Oz's saggy butt with.
All they need to do to win is suppress voter turnout enough so that their propaganda narrative can allow them a shot.
But Sarah Palin will not gain McCain the White House. That's political propanganda, smoke and mirrors. The truth of the matter is that they can't sustain Sarah Palin. Right now, McCain is simply gambling everything he's got that the house of cards won't crumble in the next 57 days or so.
Well, if your feet ain't movin' already, I'd start stomping the ground to get those cards a' tumblin'.
You see, McCain plays craps in Vegas, sometimes for up to 14 hours at a time. Right now he's got his whole wad sitting on lucky 6 and he's praying you roll the hard way. He's decided to take his campaign completely negative in the hopes something will stick while there's still the perception that hes not a loser. He's made the race about perception of character and this is a fight that he can and must lose.
Character. It is the key to victory.
If you haven't already, figure out your soundbite replies to the flimsy ties to Ayers and more importantly Wright. You'll be hearing from them both.
With the ad that McCain released last night accusing Obama of wanting to teach five year olds sex ed, when in reality the bill Obama passed was to ID sexual predators, McCain just crapped out. It is the biggest mistake of McCain's already reckless campaign if it is smashed down correctly. It opens McCain for attack on everything from the Keating Five to his blatant and consistant lies every day on the campaign trail. It takes away any shred of teflon Palin had left.
McCain falsely believes that Obama has to much caution in him to play rough and he's about to learn otherwise. Today will bring some serious accusations back and forth and this contest will be from now on only about whom the American people trust to tell the truth.
Obama needs to hit hard and so do we, but we also have to frame our arguement in simple, emotive terms. Framing the race emotionally has to be done because the undecideds left aren't looking at the issues or they would have picked a side by now. Saying Obama is a guy who's single mom was on food stamps, who grew up without privilege, who passed up 700 corporate jobs to help the unemployed, to be a civil rights attorney and a constitutional law professor, is stronger than any fact or figure about any issue in the minds of those holdout voters.
John McCain is telling those holdouts that he's a war hero and that makes him qualified to be president. Its important to note that John McCain is NOT a war hero. He is a war SURVIVOR who deserves our respect and admiration for his service to our country, but simply surviving a horrible situation doesn't give you an automatic pass on character issues.
Saying that John McCain swore up and down that he would never make baseless character attacks after he himself was slandered viscously in 2000 and yet he hired the same guy to slime Obama that had slimed him does far more to damage McCain than anything else that could be said to those swing voters. This works because McCain himself has made it all about his character. POW POW POW. MAVERICK MAVERICK MAVERICK.
He's no maverick, he's a sidekick.
Fatal.
Or, fatal for us if we choose to ignore McCain and only attack Palin, then we lose. The way to attack Palin is by informing people about her record and extreme views in the context of McCain; "Here's a fringe right wing radical who's extremist views remain a mystery even to John McCain, who John McCain has placed into a position of power for short term political benefit at the expense of his country." Leave it at that. Moving on.
Remember, this is all about a few hundred thousand people in those swing states. Its also about McCain trying to steal the race by creating false perceptions about it.
Its also about more concrete stealing. There's election fraud out there in those swing states, happening now, bigtime, and if the campaign doesn't address it, this thing will be far more of a nail biter than it has to be. It does less good to register a million voters if you're gonna let 500,000 of those registrations be returned to sender. This is an issue I can only hope and pray the campaign is paying attention to because if they don't, Obama is Al Gore all over again.
How do we address something as shadowy as election fraud? Tell every voter to check that their registration is valid and have them do it NOW. The campaign has the soapbox to get the word out for 57 more days. If new voters literally didn't cross a T, if they didn't dot an I, their registration may be thrown out, especially if they live in a vulnerable state like OH or NV or NM which has a history of such events. Hell, three members of the OH election board were tried and convicted of election fraud after the debacle of 2004 yet the main stream barely heard about it.
Yesterday I wrote the campaign to suggest they do a PSA for both established voters and new ones asking them to please, please, PLEASE check their voter registrations to make sure its accurate. Otherwise they may show up at the polls and be handed a provisional ballot that is a waste of paper. I would suggest everyone reading this check their voter registrations and inform every person they meet from now until November fourth to do the same. I would also ask every person reading this to contact the campaign and force them to run PSAs and ask their friends to do the same.
Gregpalast.com wants to run psas that you can donate to on the issue of election fraud. I highly recommend his site. Greg's an American reporter for the BBC that works with Robert Kennedy Jr. and I cannot recommend his book "Armed Madhouse" enough if you want to know precisely how election fraud is being done around you NOW.
All of this, the whole enchillada, boils down to one thing. John McCain is a politician without honor and the neocon radicals that have hijacked his party have even less so. He's a man who has put short term poltical gain ahead of his country's best interest. We should put nothing past him and a frightened GOP that may go down in flames of scandal for good if they don't win and cover their messes.
That one simple fact, that McCain is not the man that once earned our respect, that he clearly has lost his honor in a desperate, reckless grab at power which by default will protect criminal elements in his own party, will tie every other issue together.
It is the grand unification theory of victory.
We have 57 days. If you can, I would suggest getting to a swing state either online or in person because the best way to win a revolution is to show up. The swing states deserve every microscope and voice we can raise.
Best,
Lance Mungia
I just heard this slogan, "CAN VERSUS CON!" on Air America when a caller suggested the campaign use it. I believe this is a brilliant slogan that is emotive and rich with the kind of simple imagery that sticks in people's minds.
Three words that can win the race. "CAN VERSUS CON!!!"
Please blog about this and use it!
John McCain's character is at issue. We may not enjoy it, but its the truth and it shall set us free. McCain. Here's a guy that swore up and down he'd never run a negative campaign. His wife cried on election night 2000 because an ad ran accusing his adopted daughter of actually being his illegit black kid. He vowed never to run that kind of campaign, and yet, a month ago, whom did he hire to make ads for his campaign? The same guy that made that ad that made his wife cry. So much for his vow.
So much for his character.
John McCain's character is not above reproach just because he was a POW. Even then, he knew there was a seniority system to being released from captivity, which is why he stayed. He also didn't figure the war would last five more years. He's not a war hero, he's a war survivor. He should be given respect as a Vietnam survivor who went through things no one should, but when he's made his campaign all about that event in his life, its not above reproach to say respectfully he's a war survivor, not a war hero. Somebody do some research and put together talking points about The Keating Five, of which John is linked. John likes to hang around with lobbyists, he's got SEVEN of them running his campaign. The race will be won, unfortunately, not on the issues but of character. ie. who do the voters believe they can trust? You better believe me on this, because its the brass ring. It what propelled Bush to victory twice and what propelled Clinton to office and almost into impeachment. Maybe its only a perception but its one that bites.
Character.
Obama has never been about a paycheck. He's staunchly opposed to lobby money and he hasn't taken any in this race.
McCain has.
Use that. Why is McCain competitive in the money game? Corporate lobbies. Why is Obama competitive? Small donations from millions of real people. Use that. People like and trust Obama, we need to uplay the reasons why, and then hammer McCain on being of weak character because he's simply shilling for the oil interests, big pharma, and the other usual suspects. Palin is his biggest present to the corporate oil interests to date! "Drill baby drill!" Today Obama took the gloves off and he called a spade a spade. He said they lied and he was right to do it. A lot of politicians wouldn't have taken the risk because it elevates the level of emotion, but he did. Emotion is just what was needed. By doing so, he drew a line in the sand and he's forcing Americans to now pick a side and determine who's honest and who's not. He's forcing a debate. Good. We can win that arguement if we're prepared. Obama has just now made this entire election about ethics and morals and character. He's chosen to drive the argument instead of only responding. From this moment until November 4, character is the one issue that undecided voters will determine their vote with. The rest of us pay attention to the issues and made up our minds by now, the rest, will go on their gut. Character. They're gonna start hitting Obama almost soley on issues of trust and character. They're gonna call him a liar and a phoney ten times as often as what he said today. We need to pre-empt that by making sure people know his record and what he stands for on an emotive level.
He passed the first ethics reform in a generation which is the reason John McCain can no longer fly on his corporate provided campaign jet for free.
He turned down 700 corporate job offers out of Harvard to be a civil rights attorney and a community organizer working with churches on behalf of the unemployed.
In the IL Senate, he never voted "Present" because he didn't have an opinion as they'd have you believe, he voted "Present" to make sure both sides would come to him so he could bring people together for compromise before he cast his vote yes or no, which is why he passed more bipartisan bills in IL than anyone.
Because he was known for having a singular, powerful character. A man of integrity. A man that puts the American people ahead of special interests, unlike John McCain. They'll use Wright and Ayers of course. We need to point out how feeble that arguement is. Palin's religious ties cancel Wright with spades. Ayers connection is so fleeting that its a joke. Paint McCain as what he is, out of touch and willing to say or do anything to win. He's willing, frankly, to lie. If he's not lying, he's simply uninformed and doesn't care to know the truth, just like Bush, which is just as bad and just as damaging.
"She sold that jet on ebay, for a profit!" No John, she didn't. You lied.
Character. Remember character. Its the only attack that will stick.
January 20, 2009 Well, we lost, again.
Maybe McCain won't be so bad afterall. Maybe he'll actually do a few of the things he says he's going to do. Maybe he'll actually let a few Democrats into his cabinet or something so we won't feel left out.
Oh, and y'know what, after four years of McCain, maybe Palin will not be such a bad President. Afterall, she'l have four, maybe eight years to gain valuable experience. She too will be ready on day one by the time she takes office.
Its really too bad that we never, as a party, developed a good half dozen talking points about why we should vote for Obama and why McCain/Palin would have been a disaster. A half dozen blunt, often repeated talking points would really have won the election for us. Too bad Obama and Biden didn't bother to do that. I guess they got too caught up in their intellect and forgot that emotion, not intellect, wins elections.
They had it all going for them, the war, the morgage crisis, McCain and Palins' own words used against them, but they never took the shot. They forgot that on the highroad, sometimes its better to have some bumps just to remind yourself that you're still at the wheel.
They ignored the bumps, didn't own them and make others realize they were there. And they lost. Remember way back when the lack of passion by Senator Obama and Senator Biden on the national Sunday talk shows, right after Palin became v.p., the weekend after the GOP convention, sunk their campaign? It was like they were just grinning and bearing it as reality was twisted before their noses. It was like they were saying, "What bumps?" instead of calling the damn road service and raising hell about it.
Joe Biden even complimented Sarah Palin on being a good politician and giving a great speech. Yep, that was the beginning of the end. There were at least twenty lies in that speech. I guess Joe was asleep at the wheel. He must not have noticed the bumps in the road.
As I was watching that fated Sunday morning, flipping back and forth from Biden on Meet the Press to Barack with Stephanopolis on two different channels, seeing the very low key nature of both interviews, I kept telling myself that they were both up to something, that they were simply playing possum. Lord, I hoped so at the time. But I guess history proved that I was wrong. And we lost.
We lost because we got caught up in the details. We went inward instead of outward. We played to facts, figures and lofty ideas, but we forgot about the emotion. We did the same thing Democrats always do. We lost. I sure wish somebody, Biden, Obama, heck even Hillary Clinton, would have simply said at that pivotal moment in history, "John McCain, Sarah Palin, and the rest of the GOP are bald faced lying to you. They lied all week. They're habitual liars. They're hooked on lying because lies are all they got."
That would have been something. Big news. Would have really caused a stir. Probably would have led to a lot of fact checking that would have put more voters in the Obama/Biden camp once voters realized the truth of the allegations. That would have grabbed the headlines and momentum away from McCain's spin machine. Maybe voters would have stopped talking about Sarah Palin's make up and gone back to realizing what was at stake.
Its not enough that the NYT writes an article pointing out misstatements made by Mrs. Palin and Mr. McCain regarding the issues and the records in question. Don't Democrats realize that people don't read the newspapers? I guess Obama and Biden expected John Stewart to do all their dirty work.
Too bad Obama and Biden never got the fundemental truth that voters respect leaders who do their own dirty work as much or more than they respect a politician on the highroad. A crying shame they didn't realize sooner that the two concepts aren't mutually exclusive. Why, if Obama and Biden would have swung their elbows a bit sooner, the grassroots wouldn't have got caught up in the weeds. They would have taken the cue to start playing to emotion the way the GOP does so well. Why, if that had happened, we may have won.
Those Democrats, they lost because they played nice. They minced words. They turned the other cheek and hoped voters would admire their good natures and subtle jibes. In the war of emotional imagery, that was no good. I guess they just never realized, there's a time to turn your cheek, and another time to face forward and stare hard.
I guess they never realized that if you don't speak bluntly and speak fast, you eventually lose your right to speak at all.
"They lie!" Two little words that could have changed the world. But didn't.
Who would have thought that when Obama was forced to put away his soapbox for good, 59 days after that first fatal misstep on that Sunday morning, that he could have changed it all by saying TWO LITTLE WORDS on national t.v. one Sunday morning. Two words, combined with maybe six little talking points the grassroots could have used to chop out the weeds, could have changed history.
Well, maybe we'll have a better shot at it next time. If there is one.
This posting is for all my fellow Californians who will be voting to elect Sen. Barack Obama as the next President of the United States. I want to give you a heads up on some very important legislation that will be on our state ballot in November.
Here are some of the reasons why I feel it is vitally important that everyone vote yes for Proposition 2 on California's November ballot this year. Prop 2 addresses prevention of animal cruelty resulting from the current cage confinement of veal calves, pregnant pigs and hen layers in current factory farm practices. While in veterinary medical school, a classmate (now colleague) and I had the opportunity to visit a hen-laying factory farm during our senior veterinary year and I have saw the amount of housing allotted to hen layers. Currently the amount of cage space a hen layer is alloted ranges from 67 to 86 square inches of space per chicken. Do you realize that this area is less than an 8.5 x 11 inch piece of paper (= 93 square inches)? According to principle #5 of the California Veterinary Medical Association's (CVMA) "Eight Principles of Animal Care and Use: "Animals should be provided with water, nutrition, and an environment appropriate to their care and use, with consideration for the safety, health, and species-specific biological needs and behavioral natures." I have seen first hand that a hen barely has enough room to turn around within her present caged system. As veterinarians, medical professionals, engineers, teachers, scientists, artists, animal welfare advocates, and concerned citizens, we are aware that stress compromises health. And as a consequence stress compromises production efficiency. I find it hard to believe that an absurdly small area of 67 (8.2 x 8.2) square inches constitutes the best space utilization by hens from both a production stand point and animal welfare consideration. Proposition 2 calls for 900 square inches (i.e. an area 2.5 feet by 2.5 feet) per bird which is much more reasonable and HUMANE. Did you know that currently one in five eggs are contaminated by salmonella due to overcrowded conditions? That is why eggs have to be thoroughly cooked and why chicken must be thoroughly cooked before eating. This is all a result of the present short cuts factory farms have in place. Providing more space means less crowding, less contamination, and more humane treatment of these animals. Please be aware that a coalition against Prop 2 has started. Do not let their scare tactics confuse you. As citizens who are concerned about animal welfare and as consumers, we deserve a choice in the matter! I encourage you to vote Yes on Prop 2 this Nov. 4, 2008.Dr. Alexandra Swanson, DVM
