Change is Coming House Meeting, Brandon, VT, December 13, 2008
We had five attendees and made plans for two events:
1. We are going to set up an "Obama" booth at the First Night Celebration on New Year's Eve in Rutland, VT and ask people to submit their opinions as well as make them aware of Change.Gov and the willingness of the Obama administration to solicit and implement the changes expressed through that website. Our group name is Rutland County Citizens for Change, which Brandon for VT has morphed into.
2. We plan to hold a forum and ask local representatives to discuss integrity and accountability in government and our ability to influence change in government.
a. We will invite new members to get in touch with us and hold a meeting to discuss the forum, assign tasks, and set up volunteer schedules.
b. We will invite the local representatives and ask them to commit to coming.
c. Once we have the forum in place, we will do free advertising as a nonprofit community event on 211 (a Vermont state toll-free call-in line that people can call and find out about services), local radio stations, local TV stations, Rutland-area newspapers, email, O-mail, word of mouth, and also by distributing and hanging up fliers at local community buildings, such as the library, schools, medical center, grocery stores, senior citizen centers, theaters, art centers, etc.
Please join us! We can use any and all help you can give!
1%, or 1 vote out of 100There have been 12 Presidential elections that were decided by less than a 1% margin; meaning if less than 1% of the voters in certain states had changed their mind to the other candidate the outcome of the entire election would have been different. More than half were decided by less than a 2% margin.
In 2004, 57,787 votes would have given us President Kerry.In 2000, 269 votes would have given us President GoreIn 1996, 575,515 votes would have given us President Dole.
From ABC News:
http://blogs.abcnews.com/scienceandsociety/2008/09/squeakers.html
=========="Squeakers"Ned PotterABC NewsSeptember 29, 2008How close have Presidential elections been? Closer, perhaps, than we ever guessed. Mike Sheppard, a grad student in statistics at Michigan State, has done a mathematical exercise that shows it.He ran a computer program to answer this question: "What is the smallest number of total votes that need to be switched from one candidate to another, and from which states, to affect the outcome of the election?"The answer: in some years, very, very few. Take a look at his analysis HERE. It shows the powerful interaction between the popular vote and the electoral college.[...]==========
Full article here:http://blogs.abcnews.com/scienceandsociety/2008/09/squeakers.html
Detailed analysis here, including colored maps:https://www.msu.edu/~sheppa28/elections.html-Mike Sheppard
Remember how good Bill Clinton was at stealing some ideas from the Republicans in order to appeal to the middle-right electorate? Seems as though Hillary is getting pretty good at stealing some of Karl Roves ideas too. The Republicans have railed at the "liberal" news media for years now when we all know the media has a serious conservative bent, and media watchdog groups have done studies and proven it. Rove's plan worked perfectly. He got the media to cow-tow to them because they were afraid of the "liberal bias" tag. Tell a lie enough times loudly, and people believe it. The media shares much of the blame for the Iraq war. Well it seems as though Hillary has adopted this tactic and the media is falling for it.
Hillary Wins 3 of 4! Obama Momentum Stopped! Oh really? Texas is a tie and its likely Obama will come out ahead in delegates. They also fail to mention that Edwards, Biden, Richardson, etc were on the Primary ballot. So, the truth is its a split, and probably no change in the delegate count.
Hillarys 35 Years of Experience. You have to be kidding me. Obama has more legislative/govt experience. Why doesnt the media report this?
Hillary is winning the big states needed to win in November. This is taken right from the Clintonista talking points. Does anyone think that Mass, Ny, CA wont go Democratic no matter who the nominee is? Get real. She also counts MI and Fl as wins. Obama wasnt even on the ballot in MI , didnt campaign, and many supporters stayed home because their vote wasnt supposed to count.
I could go on and on. Its sad to see the state of the media let alone her campaign tactics. I am eliminating my frustration this way and emailing news organizations every time they parrot a Clintonista lie. I encourage everyone else to do the same.
I am nearly 48 yrs old and have never composed my own blog before. Until a year or so ago, I associated "blog" with the sound of throwing up. Now I am catching up with the rest of the world and know better. I still dont know why anyone would read my wretching, but it seems to be good therapy. So if anyone is bored enough to read this blaaahhhhggg, heres why I am with Obama:
I do not like Hillary. I am a lifelong Dem who is not a "down the ticket" voter. I have voted for Republicans before, except never in a Presidential election. I vote for the person and the policy. Always have. Thats why I have voted for guys like Jim Jeffords. He is a good man who wasnt afraid to go against his party and vote what he thought was best. Oddly, thats why I have a strong dislike for Lieberman. But I digress. I dont like Hillary. I voted for Bill,naturally, and defended him through all the scandals. He really disappointed me with the Monica thing. Legacy gone. But NO! wait...he is doing good things with his foundation. He is raising a lot of money for the world's poor. He even got George I to go along. Then came his slams against Obama and inserting race her campaign. Thats it. I never was a fan of Hillary's. Always considered her a opportunist, a typical political hack. This is just a glimpse of what their administration would look like.
I was supporting Edwards for 2 reasons. First, he had the most progressive,comprehensive policy positions of anyone. Second, I liked the fact that he seemed ready to take on anyone. Trial lawyer working for me. That got old. I started thinking about our history as Americans. We are pretty much split down the middle now as far as people who are "conservative" and "liberal" We as a nation have only accomplished big things when we work together. We need someone thats inspirational. Someone that plays well with others, but will not let the others get away with changing the rules mid-game.
Senator Obama is inspirational. He may not be the whole package, but I think he has what we need right now. There really is no difference between him and Hillary on experience, except he has more. Im sorry, I dont give much credit for being a First Lady. Hillary is uninspiring. She is a conventional politician. It will be slash and burn politics again and Im sick of that. Maybe Im getting old. Or maybe, just maybe, I am getting wiser.
