9/30/8: Action alert •
Fact: You have the right to vote without photo ID in Michigan
Just ask to sign the affidavit form at the polls. Michigan's new photo ID law allows registered voters who don't have photo identification, or those who have forgotten to bring photo ID, to vote by signing a form at the polls stating they are not in possession of photo ID. Voters without ID need to know their right to vote because Michigan cities are getting this wrong. Shortly before the August 2008 primary election, both the cities of Allen Park and Grand Blanc sent newsletters to city residents stating the need for photo ID with no mention of the affidavit form for those without ID. The Secretary of State estimates that approximately 370,000 Michigan residents have no form of photo identification.
Fact: You have the right to vote in Michigan if you are an ex-felon.
Even those still on probation or parole can register and cast their vote on Election Day. Michigan law only prohibits those serving a sentence on election day from voting. People in jail awaiting trial or sentencing may vote by absentee ballot, and those who have been released but who are on probation or parole may vote after registering.
Fact: You have the right to vote if your home is in foreclosure
The Michigan State Department of Elections is informing poll workers statewide that voters with homes in foreclosure may not lose their right to vote nor be challenged on their right to vote. Those who have moved from their homes may vote in the same precinct up to 60 days after they have left that address.
Fact: You have the right to vote if you wear campaign gear to the polls
You cannot lose your right to vote if you wear a t-shirt, hat, button or other garb endorsing a candidate or an issue into the polling place. You will, however, be asked to remove these items by a poll worker or risk misdemeanor charges. Any and all campaign materials, including apparel, must be a minimum of 100 ft. outside of the polling place at all times.
Fact: You have the right to be free of intimidation or harassment at the polls
Voters should not be intimidated or discouraged from voting by questions like, "Have you paid your rent?" or "Have you paid your child support?" During the last presidential election, ACLU heard stories of voter intimidation like these occurring in precincts with low-income and African American voters. If voters are harassed or intimidated by anyone at the polling place, they should tell a poll worker immediately and call the Election Protection Hotline at 1-866-OUR-VOTE, a joint project of state and national civil rights organizations, including the ACLU of Michigan.
-Paul
8/12/8: •
I stumbled into this hilarious article at alternet. Note the hilarious terms, “Golden Asshole” and “money-saturated dickhead.” Priceless.
Comments by John McCain's recently fired principal economic adviser, Phil Gramm, about America being a "nation of whiners" in a "mental recession" are worthy of forced drowning. This golden asshole, drafter of the Enron loophole, vice president at the disgraced and near-defunct Swiss bank UBS, and emitter of similarly foul, wealth-arrogant quotations about not feeling sorry for destitute 80-year-olds ("Most people don't have the luxury of living to be 80 years old, so it's hard for me to feel sorry for them"), thinks the economic downturn is all in your head and has nothing to do with the collapse of the mortgage and credit industries or the unsound practices that were encouraged by an anarchist regulatory philosophy of which Gramm himself is a huge proponent. McCain and Gramm have been tight for years, and although he had no choice but to dump Gramm for the duration of the campaign, fellow money-saturated dickhead Steve Forbes assures us Gramm will be back, to help combat the whining poor and their paranoid delusions about hunger and homelessness.
-Paul
7/16/8: Gas Prices •
fuel up!
I try pretty hard to not worry about gas prices and I'm succeeding. I barely care.
When I do think about high gas prices I'm actually pretty pleased. I'd like for them to go much higher actually. If they got to $10/gallon, some of the really allegedly-expensive alternate fuel sources would start to seem unreasonably attractive. I'd like to see an expansion of nuclear power (especially fast breeder reactors like the Japanese use). Battery powered cars would produce almost zero emissions if they taped into a nuclear grid at night.
This Alternet article from yesterday highlights four more reasons to enjoy the high fuel costs.
-Paul
7/10/8: immunity passed •
Well, that passed just fine. The government is for sale and they can give retroactive legal protections to comapnies that break the laws they wrote. It's probably the way it's always worked, but I think they used to at least pretend it wasn't like that. Perhaps it's just my imagination. Anyway, the Senate voted to give retroactive immunity to the laws broken by the telcos without knowing what they were granting immunity to. Yeah, that really happened.
It is an immeasurable tragedy that just after its return from the Fourth of July holiday, the Senate has chosen to pass a bill that betrays the spirit of 1776 by radically expanding the president's spying powers and granting immunity to the companies that colluded in his illegal surveillance program. This so-called compromise bill represents a shameful capitulation to the overreaching demands of an imperial president. As Senator Leahy put it in yesterday's debate, the retroactive immunity provision of the bill upends the scales of justice and makes Congress and the courts handmaidens to the White House's cover-up of its illegal surveillance program.
It seems clear to me the reason they granted the immunity is to prevent discussing the program in court, where Americans would learn what the program was really doing... Otherwise, why would the President even care (and threaten a veto)?
links:
- http://www.eff.org/press/archives/2008/07/09
- http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/07/09/2027248
-Paul
6/30/8: FISA •
It seems everyone hates the idea of immunity for the telcos except for the telcos and people paid to care about it (which includes a bunch of Senators). There are a bunch of lawsuits running, concerning the fact that we-the-people were spied upon without a warrent and the telcos capitulated.
Apparently, there weren't really enough yes-votes for immunity for these lawsuits, so the telcos poured money into the Senate until there were. Your government is literally for sale and the laws are drafted by lobbiests.
Well, there was a backlash about this immunity issue. So they decided to delay the vote for a couple weeks in the hopes that we'll just forget about what they're doing. Sadly, I expect this strategy to work as planned.
We have dangerously short memories and we lack the stamina to really fight for our civil liberties. Here are some ideas on things to do...
UPDATE(7/3): If they're hoping we'll just forget about it and squeek it through on the 8th... They should probably quit with the hilarious namecalling...
-Paul
6/6/8: Baby Shoes •
I had never read this story before.
For sale. Baby Shoes. Never worn.
Wow. Apparently he won a bet that he could tell a complete story in six words. It definitely makes me want to read more of his stuff. I haven't read any since highschool. Yes, I'm going to claim I did some homework in highschool. I possibly only read the Cliff's notes...
-Paul