by Zina Saunders at 6:30 am on November 5th
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Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Open Letter to Senator Barack Obama from Ralph Nader
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HARPER'S WEEKLY
Democrats were outvoting Republicans in all nine states that track the party affiliations of early voters, indicating a likely election victory for Barack Obama. "It's gonna get nasty," Obama told a crowd in Missouri. Republicans claimed that Democrats were coercing dementia patients to cast absentee ballots, and fliers posted in black neighborhoods of Philadelphia falsely warned that voters with unpaid parking tickets would be arrested at the polls. It was reported that Obama's half-aunt Zeitun Onyango lives in a Boston housing project and is an illegal immigrant--a detail likely leaked by the Bush Administration against the procedures of the Department of Homeland Security. Evidence emerged that during the Senate Ethics Committee investigation of the Keating Five scandal in 1990, John McCain allegedly committed perjury and illegally leaked details to the press that made himself seem innocent and his colleagues seem guilty--actions that had they been exposed at the time, could have resulted in McCain's expulsion from the Senate. Novelist John Updike endorsed Obama. "I am so much for Obama," said the author of "Terrorist," "it would be hard for me to cook up a character who was for McCain." Dick Cheney endorsed McCain, and two white-supremacist skinheads were arrested in Tennessee for plotting to kill 88 people, behead 14 African Americans, and assassinate Barack Obama while wearing white tuxedos and top hats. Author Erica Jong told an Italian interviewer, "If Obama loses, it will spark the second American Civil War. Blood will run in the streets, believe me. And it's not a coincidence that President Bush recalled soldiers from Iraq for Dick Cheney to lead against American citizens in the streets." Madelyn Dunham, Obama's 86-year-old grandmother, died of cancer, and a man leaped to his death from the Spaghetti Bowl, in El Paso, Texas, leaving behind a note that read, "Obama take care of my family."
American consumer spending declined by 0.3 percent, its first dip in 17 years. "The economy has taken a turn for the worse, big time," said Allen Sinai of Decision Economics. Experts predicted a period of deflation, or falling prices--a condition that wrecked Japan's economy throughout the 1990s. "We could get into a vicious circle of deepening malaise," said economist Nouriel Roubini. The Treasury Department declined a request for $10 billion from General Motors to help finance its possible merger with Chrysler, which would result in the elimination of thousands of jobs. Somali pirates were reported to have attacked 75 vessels this year and were on track to make $50 million in tax-free profits. "All you need is three guys and a little boat, and the next day you're millionaires," said Abdullahi Omar Qawden, formerly a captain in Somalia's defunct navy. Studs Terkel died, and the Christian Science Monitor announced that it will drop its print edition and publish only on the Web. A drum maker in London died after inhaling anthrax from an African animal skin he was using to make a drum, and Chuckie Taylor, Boston-born son of former Liberian President Charles Taylor, was convicted in a Miami court of torture and conspiracy--the first instance of a conviction under a 1994 law that allows for the prosecution of American citizens accused of committing torture overseas. Charred flint found in Israel indicated that human ancestors--either Homo erectus or Homo ergaster--mastered fire 790,000 years ago, and a barn fire in Waterville, Nova Scotia, incinerated 1,000 hogs.
An Ohio judge ruled that the homeless may list park benches as their residences in registering to vote. A Montreal comedian posing as French Prime Minister Nicholas Sarkozy made a prank call to Sarah Palin and spoke to the candidate for five minutes about hunting, her foreign-policy experience, and Sarkozy's wife, Carla Bruni. "I must say, Governor Palin, I love the documentary they made on your life, you know, Hustler's 'Nailin' Palin,'" said the caller, referring to a pornographic video. "Oh, good, thank you," Palin replied. "Yes." Evangelicals were praying to block curses against McCain and Palin they believed were emanating from the witches and warlocks of Kenya. Obama paid an estimated $3 million to air an infomercial on three television networks, and McCain diverted funds away from ground operations to pay for more television advertising. Appearing on "Saturday Night Live," the Arizona Senator said, "I'm a true maverick, a Republican without money." Kay Hagan, a Democratic candidate for Senate in North Carolina, filed an application to sue her opponent, the incumbent Republican Elizabeth Dole, for an ad associating Hagan with the Godless Americans Political Action Committee. "Godless Americans and Kay Hagan," says the ad. "She hid from cameras. Took 'Godless' money. What did Kay Hagan promise in return?" The spot, which lawyers for Dole called "100 percent factually accurate and truthful," concludes with an image of Hagan and a female voiceover that states, "There is no God."
-- Christian Lorentzen
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Nader wins!
Voting for the President--A New Type of Transparency
Danielle Regis, the treasurer of the 10th grade, introduced the candidates. From left to right:
Bari Saltman, Zak Sawyer, Emily Graham, Nia James, and Jesse Goldberg.
Bari Saltman, Zak Sawyer, Emily Graham, Nia James, and Jesse Goldberg.
Imagine being in the voting booth and the only thing you have to go on is the candidates' stand on the issues. Imagine voting purely based on a candidate's record. Imagine not knowing anything about a candidate's personality. Imagine not even knowing a candidate's gender or race. Imagine that nothing would get in the way of making an educated, informed decision.
The Upper School Student Council imagined such an election and on October 28, 2008 five candidates addressed the entire Upper School. Under the direction of teacher Taylor Black, they presented issue-oriented platforms, presenting their stance on Iraq, Afghanistan, healthcare, abortion, the bailout, gay marriage, drilling for oil, immigration, death penalty, public education, and Israel.
The students listened and then they voted. It was only after they elected Bari Saltman that they learned they had elected Ralph Nader (Bari received 46% of the votes). Zak Sawyer stood in for McCain and received 4%; Emily Graham, being Obama, got 29% of the votes; Nia James represented the Libertarian Bob Barr and earned 2% of the votes; and Jesse Goldberg was Green Party candidate Cynthia McKinney and took 17%.
Quote
"Every single one of Obama's friends is a dangerous lunatic."
- Ann Coulter on Hannity & Colmes
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Dogs ready for mass wedding
Terriers in tuxes and dachshunds in dresses are likely to be among the pooches gathered Nov. 8 in Downtown Oak Park as the village attempts to set a new world record for hosting the largest dog wedding.
The mass dog wedding, "I Do, Doggone It," will take place at 1 p.m. Saturday on Marion Street at Westgate Street, between North Boulevard and Lake Street.
The record, according to Guinness World Records, stands at 178 dog "couples" set May 2007 in Littleton, Colo. So far 10 couples have registered for Oak Park's dog wedding, but organizers remain hopeful a new record will be set.
"I think Oak Park is absolutely able to break the record," said Pat Zubak, executive director of Downtown Oak Park, which is organizing the mass dog wedding. "My hope is that everybody who has dogs will sign up and come out for the event.
"The pressure is on because the Guinness adjudicator will be here," Zubak said.
http://www.pioneerlocal.com/oakpark/news/1261219,op-dog-110508-s1.article
Tomorrow
WEDNESDAY 5 NOVEMBER 2008
- J.R.R. Tolkien
It has been a long and terrible time since tomorrow mattered as much as it does today.
It began with that first terrible election, the media manipulations, the stolen and uncounted votes, the menacing mobs, and a decision by the highest court which sealed our doom. A man who was not chosen came to possess an office he was unworthy of, and everything that since has come to pass now seems almost preordained, fated, inevitable.
We have seen tax cuts which looted our Treasury and further enriched the wealthy, we have seen presidential vetoes of legislation designed to heal the sick and feed the children, and we have seen executive orders designed to shatter the Constitution and erase our rights. We have seen annihilation by fire and water visited upon our cities and ourselves. We have seen wars and rumors of wars. We have seen fear visited upon the populace by design. We have seen terrorists, and all too often, they have been us.
We have known death, and disgrace, and failure, and greed, and theft, and shame, and utter lawlessness. We have lost hope, and been afraid, and fallen to exhaustion and despair. We have seen torture and murder stamped with the seal of highest approval, and we have become what we despise.
But tomorrow is a different matter.
Tomorrow is a place of definitions, where change may come and be welcome even in the smallest degree. Tomorrow will see millions upon millions from every national nook and cranny pour forth in celebration of their own lone and lonesome voices.
Tomorrow, we will know.
It has been a long, strange and entirely preposterous course that has brought us today to the edge of our next tomorrow. Millions of new voters rewrote an old, calcified map. Fifty states one and all had their say, and their say mattered to the last of it. Money mattered less than organization, less than passion, less than hope, less than tomorrow.
There are many eyes upon us today as we prepare to step into tomorrow. The eyes of those lost in fire and smoke of a bright September morning watch us, the eyes of those lost in needless battle watch us, the eyes of those subsumed by an invading sea watch us, the eyes of those lost to disease and poverty and greed watch us, the eyes of all those lost who should not be so are upon us, they remember what we did yesterday, and they will see us tomorrow.
What they call change is nothing more than choice. Tomorrow is another choosing, perhaps the greatest of our lives. Something will happen, and afterward, we will know.
Tomorrow has come at last.
California GOP Files FEC Complaint Over Obama Visit to Grandmother
By Matthew Mosk
Perhaps the most ill-timed press release of the 2008 campaign arrived shortly after 1:30 p.m. today, sent by the Republican National Committee.
The release forwarded word that the California Republican Party filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission, in part because of a visit Sen. Barack Obama made to his dying grandmother.
"Obama for America violated federal law by converting its campaign funds to Senator Obama's personal use," the release stated. "Senator Obama recently traveled to Hawaii to visit his sick grandmother. This was the right thing for any grandson to do -- at his own expense -- but it was not travel that his campaign may fund."
At issue was whether the trip should have been paid for with campaign funds, based on the law that forbids candidates from using such funds to pay for personal travel. The Obama campaign said the trip had been vetted with lawyers beforehand and was allowable. The Republicans argued that, because Obama did not campaign during the quick journey to Hawaii, it should not have been a campaign expense.
But filing the complaint today now seems to have been ill-advised, if not legally, then certainly politically.
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/11/03/california_gop_files_fec_compl.html
Gracie Allen's 'Surprise' White House Run
Remembering Gracie Allen's White House Run
Listen Now [6 min 14 sec] add to playlist
In 1940, the United States was just emerging from the shadow of the Great Depression and war loomed in Europe.
Into these serious times stepped Gracie Allen, part of the popular comic duo Burns and Allen, who launched a campaign for president.
Allen's Surprise Party began as a publicity stunt, but during a whistle-stop tour across the country the campaign took on a life of its own.
This story was produced by Joe Richman of Radio Diaries.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96588557
Studs for Obama
by Hearing that Barack Obama is visiting his ailing grandmother made me think of another old-timer who's hanging in there, hoping to see history made if America elects its first African-American president.
And so I gave him a call. Studs Terkel, now ninety six years old. He's done as much as anyone in this country - and far more than most - to advance civil rights. He wrote oral histories and other books and hosted a radio interview show on Chicago's WFMT for forty-five years.
I asked Studs, if he were to interview Obama, what would he ask him? That got him going. Studs is always "going." When he talks, he's going, still today, full speed ahead with ideas and enthusiasm. The unmistakable ever-crackly voice on the end of the line shouted,
I'd ask Obama, do you plan to follow up on the program of the New Deal of FDR?I'd tell him, 'don't fool around on a few issues, such as health care. We've got bigger work to do! Read FDR's second inaugural address!'
The free market has to be regulated. And the New Deal did that and they provided jobs. The government has to. The WPA provided jobs. We have got to get back to that. We need more reg-u-la-tion.
I was just watching Alan Greenspan, he's an idiot, and by the way so was Ayn Rand!
Community organizers like Obama know what's going on. If they remember. The important thing is memory. You know in this country, we all have Alzheimer's. Obama has got to remember his days as an organizer. It all comes back to the neighborhood. Well I hope the election is a landslide for Obama.
I started to ask Studs about the pioneering Chicago organizer Saul Alinksy, whose name has been disparaged recently by the Republicans and as soon as he heard that name, he belted out,
The idiots! They label Saul Alinksy - the great neighborhood organizer - as a subversive! He's been dead for 35 years and he was honored by the Catholic Church! He's no subversive. Neither is Bill Ayers! That Sarah Palin - you know, she's Joe McCarthy in drag!
This from a man who was investigated by Joseph McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1953. Studs refused to give evidence against other left-wing activists and he was blacklisted and his television contract was canceled.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/edward-lifson/studs-for-obama_b_137278.html
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