OFA
President Obama needs more supporters on Facebook. The republicans there have started using the polling function and have made a significant number of anti-Obama polls and voted overwhemingly against President Obama making him trying to make him look unpopular there. OFA needs to try and get more Obama people on Facebook to vote in the polling functions there or create better poll's themselves. Maybe Facebook needs 1 million new Democrats to join it, so we can all vote in the polls there and change them. I think the press does look at the social networking sites when considering all the "popularity" articles they write, and the GOP has become "hip" enough to understand this. So Facebook is being bombarded by the GOP with propaganda and new users.
Thanks
John
CHICAGO (AP) -- Shortly after his 2002 election, Gov. Rod Blagojevich told Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. he didn't appoint the congressman's wife as lottery director because he had refused him a $25,000 campaign donation, a person familiar with the conversation told The Associated Press on Tuesday. "Blagojevich went out of his way to say, 'You know I was considering your wife for the lottery job and the $25,000 you didn't give me? That's why she's not getting the job,'" the person said, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing federal investigation.
Jackson's name has played prominently ever since Blagojevich was arrested last week on corruption charges, including allegations that he tried to sell or trade President-elect Barack Obama's vacant Senate seat for personal gain.
Jackson has been identified as one of the candidates Blagojevich was considering for the seat, and a criminal complaint said his supporters were willing to raise $1.5 million for the governor if he picked the congressman.
The complaint quotes Blagojevich as saying on federal wiretaps that an associate of the candidate offered to raise money for him if he made the Jackson appointment happen.
Jackson spokesman Kenneth Edmonds declined to comment on the account of the exchange shortly after Blagojevich's 2002 election but said the congressman, the son of civil rights activist Jesse Jackson, has approached federal investigators to discuss the governor and others for years.
"He has shared information with federal prosecutors about public corruption during the past several years, including information about Blagojevich and others," Edmonds said.
Randall Samborn, spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Chicago, declined to comment, as did Blagojevich spokesman Lucio Guerrero.
Jackson has openly sought the Senate position but denies initiating or authorizing anyone to promise anything to Blagojevich on his behalf. The congressman has said federal prosecutors told him he is not a target of their investigation.
The person did not know whether Jackson's wife, Sandi, who has since been elected to the Chicago City Council, had asked for the state lottery job. At the time, Blagojevich was the first incoming Democratic governor after years of Republican rule and had scores of state jobs to fill.
"The governor had kind of penciled Sandi in as lottery director and then asked for contributions from the congressman," the person said.
Sandi Jackson did not immediately return a call to her office seeking comment.
In April, the Chicago Tribune reported that an examination of campaign donations to Blagojevich showed that three in four donors who gave exactly $25,000 received administration favors such as state board appointments or contracts.
It's also the same amount of money that figured prominently in the testimony of a government witness in the political corruption trial this summer of political fundraiser Antoin "Tony" Rezko.
Ali Ata, the former executive director of the Illinois Finance Authority, testified that Blagojevich spoke encouragingly about getting him a job in his administration after he personally brought him a $25,000 campaign contribution.
Rezko, who raised more than $1 million for Blagojevich's campaign fund, was convicted of shaking down companies seeking state business for campaign contributions.
The person familiar with Jackson's discussions also said Tuesday that Jackson has spoken with federal investigators about a 2006 meeting with Rezko at which the two discussed a proposed airport in Peotone, long considered a possible location for a third Chicago-area airport.
The person said Rezko told Jackson, a longtime proponent of the airport, that Blagojevich wanted to control the airport's board, but Jackson balked.
Maybe I'm a little early but Obama did allude to his re-election in 2012 in his acceptance speech. So, this morning I surfed the groups and joined some. If You-re stopping by to see who this new member is, post a "hi."
Also, my first blog followed research dat that I posted for Colorado's Electoral College history. I advocated a massive voter registration program that worked. Obama is the first Democrat to take a majority in Colorado since Johnson in 1964.
To take Colorado again, Obama will have to deliver on his campaign promises & I want to help him do that.
As an Ohioan and Obama volunteer, I am very concerned about the legislation under consideration this week in both houses of the Ohio State Legislature. This is Ohio Substitute Senate Bill 380. Ohioans need to be voicing strong opposition to their Ohio legislators. One objectionable component of the legislation would require the Secretary of State to create lists of voters with mismatches between their voter registration information and their information in social security and motor vehicle databases. It is well known that such mismatches are widespread even for properly registered, eligible voters. The lists would go to the Boards of Elections and would be publicly available, thereby serving up caging lists to those with malicious intent. In the run-up to the November 2008 election, Ohio Republicans sued to require the Secretary of State to create and distribute such mismatch lists, but the courts sided with Secretary Brunner. Now Republicans are trying to legislate this disenfranchisement mechanism. Another measure that must be stopped is an amendment to Sub SB 380 that would tighten the ID requirements in Ohio to require a state photo ID for voting. Currently Ohioans without a state ID can use other documents such as a current utility bill or almost any current government document showing the person's name and address. The legislation also calls for the elimination of the "golden week" during which Ohioans can register to vote and vote at the same time. It is well established that any fraudulent voting in Ohio is miniscule. This legislation is opposed by the League of Women Voters. If enacted, it will disproportionately disenfranchise Democratic voters. It is a step towards defeating Secretary Brunner in 2010. Any future repeat of the happy results of Ohio 2008 would surely be dangerously threatened by a Republican Secretary of State (remember Ken Blackwell and Ohio 2004?) and by the loss of voting rights that would be brought by the passage of Sub SB 380. Wake up! Call your legislators!
Contact Info for Your Ohio Legislators: At this link, you can enter your zip code and find the names, phone numbers and email address of your Ohio senator and representative: http://www.legislature.state.oh.us/search.cfm#reps_zip Also, toll free messages can be left for members of the Ohio House of Representatives at 1-800-282-0253.
League of Women Voters opposition at:
http://www.lwvcols.org/theleague/displaynews.php?id=73
It is now being reported in the press that President-Elect Obama is "managing expectations". In other words, he is attempting to make people lower their expectations - based on his campaign promises - in order not to be too disappointed by what he can actually do.
Well, my group has SOLUTIONS which, if applied, will enable him to embrace HIGH expectations and perform BEYOND those expectations.
The solutions are described at http://www.wemsa.net/peace.htm
The support family here can do wonders working with those peaceful solutions. The lives of the individual members will improve DRAMATICALLY, and the new President's campaign promises will be successfully fulfilled.
The people (speaking charitably) behind the ultra-sleaze smear campaign, claiming that Vietnam veteran and triple amputee Max Cleland was a friend of Osama bin Laden, are at it again. Through the well-worn techniques of Republican vote suppression (http://www.gregpalast.com/the-steal-you-wont-see), Saxby Chandliss, winner of that "election", is ahead in this year's Georgia Senate race against Democrat Jim Martin.
But not enough ahead. He has fallen short of 50%, with the result that this contest is going to a runoff on Dec. 2. I don't know whether that is enough time to reregister those who were illegally thrown off the rolls, or to get a court to reinstate them, as in other states this year. I mean to find out, because Chandliss may well be the final obstacle to Democrats getting over 60 votes in the Senate and a filibuster-proof majority without Joe Lieberman.
This is where you come in. Just as we phonebanked all of the swing states in the Presidential election, now we have a new task:
Phonebanking Georgia
Bring the good ol' iPod folks! We'll sing another song,Sing it with a spirit that will start the world along,Sing it like we used to sing a hundred thousand strong,While we were phonebacking Georgia Hurrah! Hurrah! We bring the Jubilee.Hurrah! Hurrah! The ballot makes you free,So we sang the chorus from Atlanta to the sea,While we were phonebacking Georgia. "Barack's all-inclusive crew will never make the coast!"So the saucy sleazeballs said and 'twas a handsome boastHad they not forgot, alas! to reckon with the HostWhile we were phonebanking Georgia.So we made a thoroughfare for freedom and her train,Sixty miles of latitude, three hundred to the main;Oppression fled before us, for resistance was in vainWhile we were phonebanking Georgia.
I voted for Obama today! I did not have to wait very long in line, about maybe 5 minutes! I voted on a machine and it worked well. Today was the first time I have ever voted on a touch screen voting machine, in the past it was the old punch card or scantron type ballots. It was easy and fast to use the machine, and the poll workers were more than helpful. Everyone please go out and vote today this is the most important election in many years.
Sincerely
....reports CNN, of the enormous numbers showing up for early voting. Many states report that their turn out last week had already exceeded voter turn out for 2004.
Voters in all early voting states are reporting excessively long waits, with 4, 5, even 6 hours or more not uncommon.
Not all states keep track of party affiliation, but of those that do, 58% of early voters are Democrats and 42% are Republicans.
AND
CNN's international news edition reports the world is dumbstruck that the most powerful nation on earth is incapable of conducting an election which permits citizens to easily vote.
Several counties are reportedly involved. The flips are always from Obama to McCain. The machines are the same ones that caused the mess in Sarasota, FL where thousands of votes were not recorded in a very close election.
http://truevote.us/nucleus/index.php?itemid=397
The bad machines need to be taken out of service. They may be losing votes as well as flipping them.
This is probably a deliberate campaign of voting machine tampering by Republican operatives. We need to be on our guard everywhere for this.
Extract from newspaper article:
another update from BBV.org, (rather late, i've been working for the O); read it here!
USA - Diebold/Premier says it's too late to fix a new voting machine 2-minute warning and "time-out" feature, which can kick voters off the machine, forcing them to accept a provisional ballot. At least 15 voters were booted off the machine in Johnson County, Kansas recently, and Diebold/Premier says this is due to a software upgrade which sets a timer on voter inactivity. According to the company, the machines receiving the upgrade are used in 34 states and 1,700 jurisdictions.* *This seems inflated, though. Unless the optical scan machines are also outfitted with a 2-minute warning, which doesn't make sense, it would seem that this should only apply to the DRE states and locations. JOINING THIS PROBLEM TO MAKE IT BIGGER: A study on DRE allocation from Ohio indicates that it takes an average of four to nine minutes per voter to cast an average-length ballot, and ballots in many locations will be longer than average this fall. Each additional ballot question can add 30 seconds to the time a voter must monopolize the DRE. Diebold's 2-minute timeout kicks in when the voter does not make a selection quickly enough. (Welcome to 21st Century literacy tests.) According to a Sept. 10 Kansas City Star Article, Johnson County upgraded touchscreen voting machines with a new software release from Diebold subsidiary Premier Election Solutions Inc. Buried in the release notes was a mention of a new "time out" feature that makes the voting machine eject a voter card if there has been no activity for 150 seconds. The machine emits a warning sound at 120 seconds. You can read the full article here: http://primebuzz.kcstar.com/?q=node/14307
It both saddens me and disgusts me that these 2 are using so much anger, fear, hate and lies to divide us at a time when understanding, honesty, unity and courage are what we need. That is what would be best for our country! So, I'm asking them to follow their own 'slogan' and put our country 1st for a change!!
Not to mention the RNC and their robocalls! Unethical and unacceptable!
What would you ask them to do to show us that they are putting 'country 1st'?
looking forward to hearing from you!
Gail/Obama in the Heart, Peoria, IL
An alert on this was posted on the TrueVoteMD, SaveOurVotes, and other mailing lists.
Here are links to the reports:
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6528#more-6528
http://wvgazette.com/News/200810170676
This sounds to me like a deliberate misalignment of the screens. (The touch and the screen are two separate electronic systems and have to be aligned.)
BTW, there is something similar that can be done with optical scan if the columns have separate sensitivity adjustments. However, recovery is possible if this is detected by hand counting the ballots.
Please get the word out and be on guard for this everywhere. If they are doing it in West Virginia early voting it is possible they intend to do it elsewhere both in early voting and on election day.
West Virginia allows optional use of opscan paper ballots. The alert recommends using them.
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When I sit down and seriously conider what kind of change is possible under President Obama, I get kind of shaky and weepy. I feel myself floating into a hazy, dream-like state; a state of hope and excitement; of fearlessness and optimism.
Tonight I watched "When We Were Kings", a documentary on the famous "Rumble in the Jungle" boxing match between Goerge Foremen and Muhammed Ali in October of 1974 in Zaire. For those of you who haven't seen it; rent it, borrow it, or buy it: it's spectacular.
The movie highlighted a message that I've been trying to broadcast to everyone I talk to about this election.
This election is not just about the obvious choice between two candidates, or the astronomically poor choices of John McCain, or of the massive problems facing the US today. There is a larger issue that I feel so excited about, I can barely contain myself.
Some people think that Obama's race is a question mark, as if being black somehow makes him less qualified, less acceptable, or less "real". In my eyes, I see his race as an enormous plus; a bonus. And here's why...
I have heard stories fom a number of different sources about how, for the first time in our nation's history, the vast minority population will be able to have a leader who understands who they are and where they've been and the unique (and supremely unjust) struggles that minorities face in this country. This, in and of itself, is one of the most beautiful and poetic things that could happen to us as a nation.
But, more than that (as if that weren't enough), I truly believe (and try to just go with me on this journey) that we are at the precipice of ending our issue with race in the US.
I'm not kidding; and I'm not crazy. We all know someone who has been racist, homophobic, or discriminatory in some way, who has had the very foundations of their beliefs turned 180 degrees by the mere fact of working with, getting to know personally, or otherwise personally relating to the object of their discrimination. This happens everyday on main streets across this country; on factory floors and in offices; in schools and churches and hospitals and communities.
Racism, like any other form of discrimination, cannot stand up to any kind of scrutiny. We all know that. But, when we are presented with an opportunity to hear the stories and share the experiences with people who are different, we realize, on a very personal level, how connected and similar we all are.
This election is the nation's first opportunity to share this experience on a national level in a way that no other President has been able to do with mere "dialogue".
I not only believe that Obama is the best candidate for President right now -or at any time on our history- regardless of race, I welcome the opportunity this country has to grow up and out of it's long history of racism and to embrace the genius and leadership that can only come from equal representation.
For the first time, we are facing the possibility of a leader who can represent the best America has to offer, in a package that makes that representation meaningful to everyone.
So, let's roll up our sleeves a little further, dig deep in our pockets, and do whatever we can to make this dream (and it is a dream come true) a reality.
We've got about 15 days left until we can wake up to a brighter, more just and rational world...
Im so excited!
All we heard before the last Presidential debate was William Ayers, William Ayers, and even more William Ayers by the mainstream media because McCain-Palin were preaching it at all their rallies. So when the debate came, the mediator asked the question of both candidates. McCain went first and defended his obsession with it. Barack answered back calmly and factually and made all the hoopla about Ayers, fall completely flat. McCain even stated he didn't care about a washed up domestic terrorist, he just thought everybody should know. For a week the news was dominated about Obama palling with Ayers by the McCain campaign. McCain got free advertisement by pushing a few incendiary buttons, and we find out it was much to do about nothing. The TV media is now focusing on McCain robocalls stating Obama is palling with terrorists and is threatening a leftist movement. Instead of fact checking McCain and putting an end to this nonsense, they devote much of the news with it. This all helps McCain because they ignore the issues facing the nation and all Americans. McCain can't find an answer to our economic woes because he was a key part of the present administration's economic policies that brought us to this dark place. I hope in the next 2 weeks we get back to Obama's economic, tax, and energy plan because I think they are ALL winners!
