Today is the last day to vote. For some, it is the day to vote. For those of you who will vote today, plan on long lines, bring your ID and cell phone, and try to be patient. Below are the links to more information about the presidential candidates by party affiliation.
Democratic Party: Barack Obama / Joe Biden [more info]
Republican Party: John McCain / Sarah Palin [more info]
Libertarian Party: Bob Barr / Wayne Root [more info]
Green Party: Cynthia McKinney / Rosa Clemente [more info]
Peace and Freedom Party: Ralph Nader / Matt Gonzales [more info]
Socialist Party: Brian Moore / Stewart Alexander [more info]
Because of individual state ballot access rules and regulations, not all of these candidates will likely be on your state's ballot. Check your state's election rules to see if they allow or count votes from write-in ballots, if your preferred candidate is not listed on your ballot.
Hopefully by now, you have done your homework and know for whom you will vote. If this election is the first one in which you will vote, however, you may not know exactly where it is you should go to cast your ballot today. As the video above promoted, you can simply enter your home address into this page at google.
I prefer the voter application at voteforchange.com to the google app. In addition to locating your specific polling place, it has information on the sidebar answering basic questions about your state's ID requirement and what to do if you encounter problems voting. It also lists some of your neighbors with their phone numbers who may need a ride to the same place. I think that is pretty cool.
The reason I told you to bring your cell phone is simply because there are problems in many voting precincts across the country. Take this number with you to the polls today: 1-866-OUR-VOTE (866-687-8683). If you encounter problems voting, call that toll-free number. You can follow the election protection coalition's incoming calls at ourvotelive.org. EFF for the win, as always.
Oh. Check out videothevote.org. That site should be hoppin' today. Also, Starbucks is giving everyone who asks a free cup of coffee today. Ben & Jerry is giving away a free scoop of ice cream and Krispy Kreme is giving away a free donut. Just remember that caffeine and extra sugar works against any anger management skills you may possess. /snark.
Two Montreal (a city in Canada for the geographically-challenged) radio comedians called Republican VP nominee Governor Sarah Palin and posed as French President Nicholas Sarkozy. The prank call is funny to some, yet scary to me.
Listening to Palin chit-chat with whom she thinks is the leader of another country and NATO ally sends chills up my spine. Her ignorance is breath-taking. Her nervous laughter is such a huge tell.
And for you right-wing fracktards that may be as dumb as Palin: Steph Carse is not the Prime Minister of Canada. Stephen Harper is.
Keith Olbermann had a nice montage of Sarah Palin answers to another simple yet important question: "What does the vice president do?" I have to say this. If McCain and Palin somehow win the election on Tuesday, people all over the planet will simply pull out the map of the United States and stamp it: EPIC FAIL.
Democratic Presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama recently aired a 30-minute Prime Time Special. Since I don't have traditional television, I watched it on Hulu.com and embedded it here for you.
Some people on the flying-monkey-right disparage the broadcast as just an infomercial. While the 30-minute broadcast is obviously produced and scripted, I appreciate that it is informative and educational. He bullet-points his political plans to move the country foreward. That's helpful to voters who might only have had time to catch the 2-minute video clips filtered through the corporate news media gate-keepers. McCain wastes my time attacking Obama and doesn't offer any solutions.
There are personal profiles, or anecdotal stories, in it. They are good examples to make his points -- unlike the McCain campaign's typical Republican strategy of dumbing the message down to a bumper sticker and insulting our intelligence with the likes of Joe the (fake) Plumber (and soon-to-be country music sensation).
This video really cracks me up. Like many plumbers, Joe doesn't actually show up when he says he will. McCain is even more lame when he declares, "Well, you're all Joe the Plumbers." What an adlib from a rich elitist dumbass. It really shows his disconnection from the average American who works for a living.
Have you even seen Joe the Plumber? That mouth-breathing moron looks like someone who was an extra in the television series Prison Break, I must say.
And no, John McCain, we're not all Joe the Plumber. I'm a mother-frackin' bricklayer from Detroit. Barack Obama has a plan to rebuild America after the last eight disastrous years of Republican war and pillage and John McCain does not have a friggin' clue.
Halloween may be upon us, but the scariest day could be election day, next Tuesday. If 2000 or 2004 is any predictive indication of the upcoming 2008 election day, I'm nervous already. If you're not at least slightly nervous about the 2008 election, you haven't been paying attention.
I'm not talking about the admittedly disastrous result of the 2000 and 2004 elections that brought us the last 8 years of the Bush/Cheney regime. I'm talking about the voting process itself, its integrity, and the validity of the next U.S. administration in the eyes of our fellow citizens. Frankly, the world is watching us. Are we going to show the rest of the puny humans on our pathetic spinning ball of mud that there is still hope for We The People and the redeeming qualities of democratic governance?
Or are you going to sit at home, not vote, and pretend that you don't have a responsibility as a citizen to fight back against political corruption?
I know, I know. What can I do? I'm just one person! Well, the totally surprising thing I have discovered is that while we are all just one person, every little bit each of us does adds up to make a big difference in the world. It's that way with nearly every collective challenge we have had in the past, we have right now or will have in the future.
First, you have to understand that we have indeed had elections stolen recently using a Machiavellian toolbox of methods all over our country already. I'm not going to dwell too heavily on the past stolen elections. I have researched it. The methods range from legal to illegal -- the things that most people call dirty tricks. Follow the links, if you are not familiar with the various things that have already happened.
Second, you have to understand that there are ways to steal back your vote. I've poured through years of articles written by the foremost experts on election fraud. Greg Palast, Brad Friedman, and Mark Crispin Miller have been the leading journalistic klaxons cutting through the white noise and static of citizen apathy, worker malaise and feel-good distraction of our corporate infotainment news media for years now.
I'm idealistically patriotic about the United States of America. I honestly believe in the ideals and principles expressed in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Biil of Rights penned by the founders of our country. Read them all for yourself some day.
I have sworn an oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution as a member of the United States Army several times. Insert screaming rant about Bush/Cheney here. The least I can expect in return from my fellow citizens is for my neighbors to participate in our political process once in a while.
Two things will change the course of the world right now. Undoubtedly, the first thing is new leadership of the United States. The second thing is how that person is actually elected to lead.
Personally, I have voted for Democratic, Republican and Libertarian Party candidates in elections over the years. So, while my personal choice is for an Obama/Biden presidential election victory this year, I'm more concerned with the integrity of the political process itself at the moment.
Watch the entertaining documentary film "Free For All" by John Wellington Ennis. See what just one dude can do (when he puts his mind to it). He boils down thousands of hours of election integrity research into an educational, informative, and even humorous film documentary. I know you'd rather watch his film than make me cite and quote articles, and PDF's of Congressional testimony, and news articles, and all of that.
