Ohio
Jennifer Brunner Running for Ohio Senate
I supported Jennifer Brunner when she ran for Ohio Secretary of State. After years of a massively corrupt Republican, Ken Blackwell, I thought an intelligent, honest Democrat might be a nice relief. Happily, with help from the Secretary of State Project, Jennifer Brunner won.
And she has proven to be an intelligent, honest and excellent Secretary of State for Ohio. Her reform of the corrupt election system in Ohio has actually won awards it was so well done. She turned Ohio's election system from America's laughing stock to a fair, effective, efficient system. From her website:
Key accomplishments since taking office in January 2007 include,
* Delivery of a successful & efficient March Presidential Primary in 2008 with a record turnout of 45%, accomplished mainly by improved communication and providing hands-on instruction to Ohio’s 88 county boards of elections and the state’s thousands of poll workers.
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Republican Election Fraud: The Evidence Mounts
I still hear people dismissing accusations of Republican election fraud as crazy conspiracy theories. This dispite mounting evidence that Republicans and their corporate allies, like Diebold, HAVE systematically explored vote tampering. Right now the evidence is strongest for the 2002 Senate race in Georgia and now evidence links Karl Rove with election fraud in that race.
Anyone who first makes such accusations is almost bound to be accused of being crazy. One of the earliest whistle blowers was Clint Curtis in Florida, a former Republican and computer expert, who claims he was approached by his Congressman, Tom Feeney, and asked to design software that could alter vote totals on touch-screen voting machines. This was in 2000 BEFORE the Presidential election. Clint Curtis was horrified, left the Republican Party in protest and even made two runs against Feeney (whose corrupt ass was finally brought down this year by Kosmas). Many criticized Curtis for claiming that people were trying to subvert the touchscreen machines BEFORE the 2000 election when supposedly no one was thinking touch screen. Well, some actual investigativg journalism by Dan Rather eventually revealed that people WERE thinking touch screen before the 2000 election and, in fact, the problems that arose in 2000 in Florida may have been part of the push for touch screen machines. That makes two reports of Republican scheming to commit election fraud in Florida. Add to that evidence that Republicans deliberately tried to create an undercount in Florida's 2006 Congressional race in the FL-13 district (see here and here) and you have a pretty good case for Republican Fraud in Florida.
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Culture Kitchen's Twenty-One State Endorsement Roundup
Well, I think 21 states is about my limit. Was considering trying to put together West Virginia and Oklahoma pages, but I think the following are all I can do before election day rolls over us. Look for your state. I cover whatever caught my attention from school board and port authority up to Governor and Senate races. It is compiled from Progressive Majority, INDN List, Daily Kos efforts and my own research. The only controversial one I endorsed was in Washington State, and you can see the contrary comment in that section (from a Republican with a chip on his shoulder, but still with a valid point). So here they are, the 2008 Culture Kitchen Twenty-One State Endorsement Roundup:
Please forgive me if I skipped your state or skipped candidates in your state. I am just one person!
Words of Encouragement from the Secretary of State Project
Since 2000 the specter of election fraud has haunted America's elections. There is little question that things have gone wrong in our elections in recent years, from gun toting rednecks threatening Hispanic voters to voter caging to what appears to be manipulation of voting machines by Republican biased companies. It is unclear if this kind of activity has actually affected the outcomes of elections, and if so how many elections, but problems have been frequent and almost always favoring Republicans. It should be noted that this year, to date, accusations of fraud that favor Democrats has been largely debunked, while accusations of fraud favoring Republicans has led to actual arrests in at least two cases.
Since 2000 the reaction to apparent election fraud has ranged from denial to panic. Panic is NEVER appropriate. And I will deal with the denial end when I have more time. But the truth is, neither panic nor denial are terribly effective strategies. What is effective is preparation and action. Barack Obama's unprecedented legal team is one example of this. But there is a much quieter example that is already paying dividends: the Secretary of State Project. The Secretary of State Project (SoS) was created by concerned citizens to provide an easy-to-use, low-cost vehicle for online donations to key Secretary of State races. They got started in 2006 and won five key races. You want to hear preparation, compare the list of states that the SoS project won in 2006 to our key swing states this year: Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, Iowa and...yep, Ohio. This success in 2006 should be reassuring to America in 2008, as recently pointed out by the Secretary of State Project:
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For our Ohio Readers: Election Guide
Dr. Victoria Wulsin is running for the OH-2 Congressional seat against the nasty, mean-spirited Bush Republican Schmidt.
Victoria Wulsin has dedicated her career to public health, working at the community level in Cincinnati and leading international projects around the world. As Cincinnati's city epidemiologist, Vic fought deadly outbreaks of disease like whooping cough and influenza. In Adams County, she directed a health literacy program Vic serves on the board of the Health Resource Center, a free clinic in Over-the-Rhine. As a uniformed officer with the US Public Health Service, Vic brought unions and business leaders together to improve worker safety. Together, they reduced carcinogens in the workplace through a nation-wide effort against vinyl chloride, a chemical known to cause liver cancer. She has fought for occupational safety through her work with the International Chemical Workers and the United Steel Workers.
Wulsin has been endorsed by Governor Ted Strickland, Ohio Association of Retired Americans, the United Auto Workers, United Steel Workers, Teamsters, International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, AFL-CIO Ohio, Sierra Club, and many others.
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Right Wing Terrorist Attack in Ohio
Right wing terrorism is alive and well in America and being ignored. On 9/11/2006 there was a terrorist attack on a woman's health center in Davenport, Iowa. There was the Delaware Pogrom where Jewish and Muslim families were driven out of a small town for not being Christian. The list goes on. And mostly it is just ignored by the media, but Homeland Security...by everyone.
The latest attack is a chemical attack on children in a mosque in Ohio. From Daily Kos:
On Friday, September 26, the end of a week in which thousands of copies of Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West -- the fear-mongering, anti-Muslim documentary being distributed by the millions in swing states via DVDs inserted in major newspapers and through the U.S. mail -- were distributed by mail in Ohio, a "chemical irritant" was sprayed through a window of the Islamic Society of Greater Dayton, where 300 people were gathered for a Ramadan prayer service. The room that the chemical was sprayed into was the room where babies and children were being kept while their mothers were engaged in prayers. This, apparently, is what the scare tactic political campaigning of John McCain's supporters has led to -- Americans perpetrating a terrorist attack against innocent children on American soil.
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On This Day
