Today if you have not already, sign the petition to recover the constitution, democracy and the climate from these people:
John W. Dean's book, "Conservatives Without Conscience"
What I found provided a personal epiphany. Authoritarian conservatives are, as a researcher told me, "enemies of freedom, antidemocratic, antiequality, highly prejudiced, mean-spirited, power hungry, Machiavellian and amoral." And that's not just his view. To the contrary, this is how these people have consistently described themselves when being anonymously tested, by the tens of thousands over the past several decades.
Update:
http://writ.news.findlaw.com/d... ...because Election Day 2008 now provides the only clear remedy for the ills of Republican rule.
The Republican Approach to Government: Authoritarian Rule
Republicans rule, rather than govern, when they are in power by imposing their authoritarian conservative philosophy on everyone, as their answer for everything. This works for them because their interest is in power, and in what it can do for those who think as they do. Ruling, of course, must be distinguished from governing, which is a more nuanced process that entails give-and-take and the kind of compromises that are often necessary to find a consensus and solutions that will best serve the interests of all Americans.
Republicans' authoritarian rule can also be characterized by its striking incivility and intolerance toward those who do not view the world as Republicans do. Their insufferable attitude is not dangerous in itself, but it is employed to accomplish what they want, which is to take care of themselves and those who work to keep them in power.
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The McCain/Palin Ticket Perfectly Fits the Authoritarian Conservative Mold
During the 2008 presidential campaign, Senator John McCain and Governor Sarah Palin, the Republican candidates, have shown themselves to be unapologetic and archetypical authoritarian conservatives. Indeed, their campaign has warmed the hearts of fellow authoritarians, who applaud them for their negativity, nastiness, and dishonest ploys and only criticize them for not offering more of the same.
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What is wrong with being an authoritarian conservative? Well, if you want to take the country where they do, nothing. "They would march America into a dictatorship and probably feel that things had improved as a result," Altemeyer told me.
...there is only one way to deal with these conservative zealots: Keep them out of power.
Your voices have been heard and your support continues to send a powerful message to lawmakers. That is why I call on you again to help us in a new effort to deliver 1 Million signatures to Speaker Pelosi on September 10, 2008.
FAQ
With an election right around the corner, isn't this a waste of time?
Shouldn't we just forget about it?
If we allow this administration to 'get away with it', we are openly saying that their type of conduct is permissible in future administrations, which of course would be a disaster for our nation. In reaffirming the rule of law we correct our nation's course away from disaster.
URGENT: need your help -
Impeachment Petition Deadline Midnight Wednesday
Dear Friends,
Because of your vigilance and support for democracy, last Friday was a day of singular importance in Washington. The House Judiciary Committee met to discuss the Bush Administration's abuse of executive power and for the first time the case for Impeachment was discussed in front of a Congressional committee, in depth, at length and with authority.
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I'm asking each of you to please contact at least ten of your friends to go to www.Kucinich.us now and sign the Impeachment petition that will be delivered by me. Wednesday night is the deadline.
Please send out an email to all your friends and family, post this link, http://kucinich.us to your blogs and make this effort count as this is the only petition that I will deliver.
House Judiciary Committee Holds Historic Hearings on the Case for Impeachment
The House Judiciary Committee held historic hearings on Friday about whether the White House overstepped its constitutional authority during the presidency of George W. Bush and whether or not such abuses would justify his impeachment. The hearing was billed as one on "Executive Power and Its Constitutional Limitations." Although the title expressly did not include the word "impeachment," several Democratic Congress members and witnesses used the opportunity to begin impeachment proceedings against the President and Vice President.
BLOGGED BY Brad Friedman ON 7/25/2008 11:31AM
Arnebeck Live Tonight on The Peter B. Collins Show
NOW UPDATED With Audio Archive...
1) Bush can't pardon someone convicted under a civil RICO case, which is what Arnebeck is compiling. (Also, can't remember if it came up during the interview, but as some have suggested that Rove simply invoke Executive Privilege to avoid being deposed in this case, Exec Privilege does not come into play in such a case. It only refers to Congressional testimony.)
2) Connell had agreed to meet with the House Judiciary Comm. several months ago, but so far Judiciary hasn't followed up.
3) Arnebeck makes a tantalizing reference to the finding in the Paula Jones case that sitting Presidents may be deposed in civil cases. More detail on those points and others in the audio interview.
WELCOME TEXAS VOTERS
VoteRescue is a non-partisan Texas-based election integrity organization that is dedicated to restoring accessibility, fairness, accuracy and total transparency to the democratic process of voting in the United States.
HELP WANTED: "NETROOTS NATION" EVENT
We are in need of tabling assistance Friday and Saturday at the "NetRoots Nation" event....
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Please e-mail ( http://voterescue.org/contact.htm ) me if you can take one or more volunteer tabling slots, shift days/times described below. This will be a fun and exciting event, and a great opportunity to network:
Sally Castleman, of Election Defense Alliance (a sister org. to VoteRescue, based out of Connecticut) is coming to Austin to promote an election integrity movie, "Stealing America, Vote by Vote," by another wonderful election activist we know, Dorothy Fadiman. The movie will be screened Saturday night at 6pm; it is 90 minutes long.
Another Special Event today and tomorrow which could make a big difference with the success of having each and every person's vote count and be counted. To Vote for Change.
It is the difference between
Evidence and No Evidence such as with Touch Screen Voting
or
Evidence and Hidden Evidence such as with OptiScan counters
or
Evidence such as the physical evidence in your hands of paper ballots, hand counted in precinct on election night.
And, time is running out to be able to repair all the damage done to our Democracy and Climate:
In 2006, the great climate scientist James Hansen famously said
"I think we have a very brief window of opportunity to deal with climate change ... no longer than a decade, at the most."
Since then, things have gotten much, much worse. The Arctic ice is melting faster than expected. CO2 emissions are accelerating. Global warming is accelerating.
Hansen no longer stands by his estimate that we have one decade to turn things around. He now thinks that was too optimistic.
Today, James Hansen told congress that we have one year.
..................
To Vote for Change, We Have to Change the Way We Vote.
Al Gore has the best survival skills of us all for us all. He works very hard to try to save all of our families. As much as I really like our Democratic Presidential candidates, Al Gore has done more than all of them put together to try to steer clear of climate collapse and fund the building of new media to defend Democracy itself.
I noticed no one else had written about Al Gore's acceptance speech upon receiving the Nobel Prize for trying to save our butts. So, if you forgot, here it is:
Seven years ago tomorrow, I read my own political obituary in a judgment that seemed to me harsh and mistaken – if not premature. But that unwelcome verdict also brought a precious if painful gift: an opportunity to search for fresh new ways to serve my purpose.
Unexpectedly, that quest has brought me here. Even though I fear my words cannot match this moment, I pray what I am feeling in my heart will be communicated clearly enough that those who hear me will say, “We must act.”
The distinguished scientists with whom it is the greatest honor of my life to share this award have laid before us a choice between two different futures – a choice that to my ears echoes the words of an ancient prophet: “Life or death, blessings or curses. Therefore, choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live.”
We, the human species, are confronting a planetary emergency – a threat to the survival of our civilization that is gathering ominous and destructive potential even as we gather here. But there is hopeful news as well: we have the ability to solve this crisis and avoid the worst – though not all – of its consequences, if we act boldly, decisively and quickly.
However, despite a growing number of honorable exceptions, too many of the world’s leaders are still best described in the words Winston Churchill applied to those who ignored Adolf Hitler’s threat: “They go on in strange paradox, decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, solid for fluidity, all powerful to be impotent.
Moderates and Progressives in Congress and everywhere please bury Holt's HR 811. It is a monster that attacks Democracy, our political power and so our future survivability.
If Holt's HR 811 passes, I just hope that GOP felon Abramoff is spilling the beans on the criminal setup that HAVA was with its No Evidence and Hidden Evidence voting machines which HR 811 makes permanent. HR 811 also federalizes elections by putting all the control for 2008 in Bush's handpicked handmaidens, the EAC. HAVA and now HR 811 was and is being pushed onto Democrats by "Dr. Frankenstein" Steny Hoyer.
(links fixed)
We cannot regain our political power if we allow Holt's HR 811 to institutionalize vote-hiding DREs and federalize elections through the EAC which is filled by Bush's political appointees. We will have allowed those in power to self perpetuate their power. We will have made moderates and progressives in all parties and independents powerless.
Because look at the right wing who have been too often in control of these e-voting machine companies. How could you expect leaving them in control would help elect moderates and progressives? See: http://www.thelandes...
And, until we learn from the past, a long history keeps repeating, see: http://www.ecotalk.o...
PDA says NO to HR 811
HR 811 vote this week--Tell Congress NO!
from:
pdamerica.org/
Please Call Congress and urge your Representative to Vote NO on HR 811
Capitol Hill Switchboard: 202-224-3121
HR 811 will be voted in the House this week!
HR 811 uses the term "paper ballot" to refer to a voter-verified paper trail. This is intended to confuse you and gain your support.
HR 811 does not ban DREs -- BUT it should!
HR 811 does not require a "voter-marked paper ballot"-BUT it should:
* Paper trails are no substitute for ballots that voters can mark directly! * Paper trails are not counted on election night!
HR 811 requires only 3-10% recounts of the paper trail. That leaves at least 90% of tallies uncounted. We'll have to "trust" that the computers worked right and all invisible counting was accurate and honest!
from: http://www.alternet.... "On the one hand, people will now say you can't prove the fraud," he said, "but the rule of law says that when evidence is destroyed it creates a presumption that the people who destroyed evidence did so because it would have proved the contention of the other side."
I was so hoping for fast change--John Kerry--for the good of us all.
If Rep. Holt's HR 811 were a true remedy, you would have been hearing all along from its supporters the call for an honest recount...which did not happen. What's up with Holt's HR 811 supporters? And all to comply with HAVA which was devised by GOP felons Abramoff and Ney to...do....
Ohio 2004 Presidential Election Ballots Illegally Destroyed, Missing in At Least 56 of 88 Counties...
Blogged by Brad from somewhere in TX...
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...we're happy to point over to AlterNet's coverage of the story listeners may have heard us cursorily break during a phone call from Ohio's Paddy Schaeffer on the air the Friday before last while we were Guest Hosting the Peter B. Collins Show from Houston.
Here's the lede...
Two-thirds of Ohio counties have destroyed or lost their 2004 presidential ballots and related election records, according to letters from county election officials to the Ohio Secretary of State, Jennifer Brunner.
The lost records violate Ohio law, which states federal election records must be kept for 22 months after Election Day, and a U.S. District Court order issued last September that the 2004 ballots be preserved while the court hears a civil rights lawsuit alleging voter suppression of African-American voters in Columbus.
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"The extent of the destruction of records is consistent with the covering up of the fraud that we believe occurred in the presidential election," said Cliff Arnebeck, a Columbus attorney representing the King Lincoln Bronzeville Neighborhood Association, which filed voter suppression suit. "We're in the process of addressing where to go from here with the Ohio Attorney General's office."
and in related news:
Today Is D-Day for Electronic Voting Machines
By Steven Rosenfeld, AlterNet
Posted on August 3, 2007, Printed on August 3, 2007 http://www.alternet....
SACRAMENTO, CALIF. -- Friday, August 3, is a day that will likely live in political infamy for election integrity activists across the country.
California's Secretary of State Debra Bowen, a newly elected, reform-minded Democrat, will decide whether or not the largest state will use electronic voting machines in its new, early presidential primary next February. No matter what Bowen decides, she will make waves from Capitol Hill to county election offices.
If Bowen bans some or all of the machines, she will face an open revolt from many of the county officials who oversee California elections. She also will be sending a big message to Congress, where efforts to regulate electronic voting machines have stalled. The strongest proposals there -- requiring a paper trail to verify votes and tough new audits -- echo existing California law, which Bowen would be saying no longer is sufficient.
more
Holt's HR 811...Verify votes? Tough new audits? Audits delayed are audits denied, vote counts delayed are vote counts denied...look at Gore and Kerry.
What does it mean to not fix a known problem which any future Democratic candidate would also face?
On 7.7.07 more than two billion people will come together during Live Earth. That number is unfathomable - more than one-fourth of the world’s population will participate in a single event and demand a solution to the climate crisis. This unique moment presents us with a unique choice.
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Live Earth will not just be a 24-hour concert – but the launch of a massive campaign to demonstrate that the political will exists to solve the climate crisis.
There are a lot of Texans who live on and near the Texas coast. For the sake of all the coastal Texans of all political backgrounds, I don't want to go through another Hurricane season with Thelma Bush and his Louise GOP.
Please count Ohio's ballots now, during Hurricane season to save all our families on the coast. And, please count Ohio's ballots now, because the Climate is collapsing faster than scientists had earlier thought.
Also, time is running out as bee colonies are dying out this year. Bees need to be recovered this year.
If voter disenfranchisement bills pass in Texas, my vote in 2008 and beyond may not ever count again. That is already a big problem with the Republican owned "No Evidence" and "Hidden Evidence" Voting machines (kept in place if Holt's HR 811 passes) with which you have had to deal (will deal?). Our political power is being taken by elites who do not have the skills (nor intention if apocalyptic or profiting from catastrophy) for us to survive global warming.
Instead of waiting voteless and so powerless, for a meaningless 2008 election while our rulers drive us all over a cliff with Climate Collapse, we need to consider something different and meaningful.
If you are waiting to be asked, then I am begging, please count Ohio's votes now. And, if you won (which you may well know beforehand as each ballot has been copied/photographed for documentation), then hire Al Gore, John Edwards, Jim Webb, and James Lee Witt, among many other strong, caring and competent people to clean up the Bush/GOP disasters, help us through hurricane season, and save our Democracy, our Climate, and therefore, Us.
