Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Make Your "Local" a Little Bit Bigger - MoveOn!



Call For Change
Just back from voting. Pretty simple here in the village of Franklin, North Carolina. Rainy day, temperatures in the mid 50s. Got to the polling place about 1105, into the voting booth at 1125, left at 1135. Very friendly group, collegial, not any discussion that I heard about how people planned to vote or about any issue. Somebody was handing out sample ballots so the voters could see what their ballots would look like when they got in the booth - the sample ballots had even been marked to help the voter figure out who to vote for if they weren't sure. All the "suggested" markings were for Republicans. That's odd - or would be - but not here. When I checked in, no identification was required, I just told them my name and where I lived. Then signed the appropriate line with my signature. Sure glad nobody else had claimed to be me and already voted.

We had to fill in the circles with a special? ball-point pen. Then we fed the sheet into a reader and that was it. I asked the guy who sat beside the reader and who handed me my "I Voted" sticker if there was any kind of a paper trail. He looked deeply into my eyes and tapped on the case below the reader, and gave me a half-nod. I looked closely and didn't see any kind of a wink from him. I guess he was on the level and knew what he was talking about. Everybody seemed very happy and were smiling and laughing, and chatting very friendly-like with each other. Village voting.

All voting is local? Yeah. That's true. What has changed is the extent of "local". Here is a picture I made last week in Athens, Greece. This is one guy's way of spreading the word about how he feels. I'm using one of my blogs. You can do the same. Make your "local" a little bit bigger - Go to MoveOn and add their message to your blog.

John Womack.

MoveOn



Call For Change
Just back from voting. Pretty simple here in the village of Franklin, North Carolina. Got there about 1105, into the voting booth at 1125, left at 1135. Very friendly group, collegial, not any discussion that I heard about how people planned to vote or about any issue. No identification required, I just told them my name and where I lived. Then signed the appropriate line with my signature. Sure glad nobody else had claimed to be me and already voted. Rainy day, temperatures in the mid 50s.

© John Womack, 2006. All rights reserved.

Sunday, November 05, 2006

Media Shame

George Bush is so unpopular that he can only go to a few places in a few states and even then has to speak to selected and pre-screened crowds. Yet he went, probably at Karl Rove's direction. That seemed simple enough, what difference could it possibly make, who would really hear him, anyway, and so on. BUT the media picked up all his punch lines, played them again and again, led off most news segments with Bush draped over a lecturn, telling the nation that the Republicans would win, that everything was OK, there was no problem, and hurling insults at the Democrats and anyone else.

This smacks of more than just the Bully Pulpit, this seems to point to some type of payoff. Maybe not. Maybe it is just the media at its worst, but it has already swung the polls toward the Republicans. Enough? We'll find out Tuesday. Maybe it is just more of Rove's magic.

Saddam

Saddam is to hang. That's just been spoken by the judge but it certainly is not news. We all knew he was going to be hanged a year ago when we found out that was how they were going to kill him. Few tears will be shed at his death. My own feeling about the death penalty is that it is never justified, but of course that doesn't matter here. Neither does the fact that history will hold the entire mess to be a kangaroo-court performance. To have held the trial in the middle of a civil war, to have had numerous defense lawyers quit - 2 of them were shot dead, to have had judges removed and replaced, witnesses interviewed in secrecy and . . . well, there's just too many irregularities to try to mention even most of them.

The ICC was available for the job and would have done humanity proud if it that had this chance. But Bush hates the ICC even more than he hates Saddam. Besides, if the ICC had conducted the trial its verdict would not have been announced to coincide with an election in the United States that is of great importance to George Bush.

© John Womack, 2006. All rights reserved.