ACTIVISM: :08 Minute Activist 3rd Installment
Sat Dec 18, 2004 at 12:13:37 PM PDT
One of the things I've noticed here on Kos is how effective people can be when they join in here together to accomplish some goal. Here on Kos you can be transformed from a solitary pissed off person into an important component of a finely tuned, well-oiled, society fighting machine.
The way life is structured these days, it's hard for people to find the time to do something about the numerous injustices that face us today. This got me to thinking, "If Jane Fonda can provide us with a good abdominal workout in eight minutes, why not use the same principle to try and change the world?"
Warning: Today's Mission deals with the Voting Irregularity Issue.
A little bird told me perhaps I should preface this mission with a little explanation of our stance here at
:08 Minute Activist. But read fast..as you know, we don't have much time.
Regardless of where you stand on the voting
problems in Ohio and elsewhere, 9 out of 10 Dentists agree that the main goal to achieve is voting reform.
Maybe the glaring problems that are Oh-so-evident now, have always been there. Perhaps they are only now coming into the light as our most recent national elections have been closer than Siegfried and Roy at a horror movie.
Or maybe, just maybe, dark partisan operatives who's lust for power is surpassed only by unquenchable greed, have had just a little to do with the way things have turned out.
The point is we just don't know, do we?
We can thank both the policies of George Bush and the programming of FOX news for dividing Americans against one another to the point that we may never see another landslide election again for quite some time.
So whether or not small inaccuracies have always existed in our system is really irrelevant to our modern-day problems. Times, they are a-changin.
The point has been made here and elsewhere, and I think the logic is pretty much irrefutable, that if banks can maintain pretty much 99.9% accuracy when accounting for our dollars, then the same standard should be applied to our votes.
One other thing that I think we can all agree upon, is that a determined and willful attempt was enacted by republicans in this and many other elections to suppress and disenfranchise voters based on the color of their skin.
I've heard it argued here that while vote suppression is wrong and unethical, there is really nothing that can be done about it now. After all you can't recount a vote that could never be cast. While this may be true, surely
there are actions we can take now to insure that this never, ever happens again.
So what I am hoping is that I have identified two aspects here regarding the voting situation that everyone on the left (and maybe even some on the right) can agree upon.
We need open, transparent and accurate elections that can be trusted to reflect the true will of the people.
And we need to insure to all Americans that the
intentional targeting of any group of citizens with the expressed intent of silencing their electoral voice, will not be tolerated.
So without further adeiu, Let's Get on with today's mission.
As you may know, Leading demoicratic House representative of the Judiciary Committee, John Conyers , has been holding an investigation in order to determine exactly what went on in Ohio. This may lead to full hearings, which would go a long way towards bringing the reform that we all desire.
It has been reported that Rep. Conyers has requested One Million emails to the House Judiciary Committee, demanding full Congressional Hearings regarding the massive suppression of voters, and evidence of possible
vote tampering that occurred there.
Well it sounds like Conyers could use a little show of support, perhaps as a means to combat some of the indifference that some of of us have witnessed regarding this issue.
Say no more, Rep. Conyers. :08 Minute Activist is here to help.
This link will open a new browser window. In that window you will find the contact page for the House Judiciary Committee Members.
Today's mission is to send Rep. Conyers the correspondence he so desires
Now all we need is some text:
Dear House Judiciary Committee Members:
Recent revelations made at the Hearings on Ohio Vote Fraud that was held recently by Rep. John Conyers have cast a harsh light upon deep flaws within our electoral system.
There is in my opinion, ample evidence of a willful attempt by Sec. of State Blackwell and others to affect the outcome of the vote through unethical means, such as the imbalanced distribution of voting machines.
This not only smacks of unethical partisan behavior, but also of racism, as evidence has shown that the areas targeted to be under equipped have overwhelmingly been minority areas, particularly those areas known to have certain voting tendencies.
It is unconscionable to me that 80% of all votes in America are counted by only two companies: Diebold and ES&S. I consider it unacceptable that there is no federal agency with regulatory authority or oversight of the U.S. voting machine industry.
I find it particularly disturbing that The vice-president of Diebold and the president of ES&S are brothers, and that the chairman and CEO of Diebold is a major Bush campaign organizer and donor who wrote in 2003 that he was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral
votes to the president next year."
These actions cannot be tolerated in a free democracy and I am hereby demanding that action be taken on my behalf.
I would very much like to see legislation passed that guarantees open and accurate voting process in this country. I would also support any legislation that leads to harsher enforcement of laws pertaining to vote
suppression.
As usual here, you may feel free to cut and paste the above letter, or if you are feeling spunky write up your own little diatribe. Feel free to share your letter with
us here.
As today's mission was pretty simple, my calculation shave
us at about 5:50 or so into today's activism.
Since we have a little time left, I'd also like to direct you to the efforts of the women at codepinkalert.org
who have actually put together A Voting Bill of Rights that they will be submitting to Congress.
They are seeking 25,000 e-signatures before they send it.
This should take you all of a minute to accomplish.
Sign the bill & pass it on to your friends.
Click here to Sign
the Bill..opens a new window
Well once again, this concludes this weeks :08 Minute
Activist.
I'd really like to thank you for participating, but I'm
just too damned busy. Just kidding, I do thank you, very
much.
P.S.
To those who insist on continually calling out Kos and other outstanding citizens of this site and calling them cowards, etc. Just fucking stop it will ya? I can guarantee that if Kos makes anything off this site it's negligible, and it's quite possible it puts him in the red. I know that it requires dedication to maintain a site like this, not to mention lots of bandwidth that is not free ( like this site is to each and every one of us ) What anyone says here in these forums is up to each and every one of us. Contrary to popular belief, Kos is not our leader. He's a guy with a cool website. Whether or not you agree with his stance is irrelevant. If you want to fight for voting rights, do so. It's called Freedom people. I know, I know, freedom incldes the right
to call Kos a coward I guess, but I'm telling you here and now that it's just plain ignorant to do so. If you think it's going to make Kos change his tack, then you are stupider than your typing errors indicate. So if you insist on remaining ignorant, keep it up, but if and when Kos locks all our asses out because of it, no one will hear your screaming as 30,000 plus descend on your home
and obliterate it.
