The Nazi-Fascist Origins of the EU Superstate Idea - Rodney Atkinson (by ChooseLibertyTV)
Oh, Snap: “Obama Prepares To Screw His Base”
Obama is an asshole, why wouldn’t he screw over the 60% of college students who voted for him…..they elected him…they deserved it…
Our generation is so fucked….we are going to be taxed to death…
It is rarely considered that democracy, in its purest form, is nothing more than a minority group being subjected to the dictates of a majority group. If true liberty and prosperity are to be obtained then an individualist mentality must be adopted. Meaningful change cannot come from laws sponsored by a majority because popular support does not determine legitimacy or morality. Change should be a product of personal responsibility for individual action.
Its like choosing chocolate ice cream or Vanilla Ice cream
Even after the election. I am still confused at the Obama voters who thought Romney was in some way different then Obama. Same goes for Mitt Romney supports who thought Romney was different then Obama. There will be a lot of crying and a lot of gloating going on.
Us independents know better then is. Knowing they are both bad for our health. Its like choosing chocolate ice cream or Vanilla Ice cream. In the end it all gets crapped out and will make you fat and lazy if you have to much.
House Democrats propose online voter registration
House Democrats on Thursday introduced voting legislation designed to counter restrictions on voting rights that have been enacted across the country since 2010.
“The ability to vote should be easy, accessible and simple,” Rep. John Lewis (D-GA), the sponsor of the Voter Empowerment Act, said. “Yet there are practices and laws in place that make it harder to vote today than it was even one year ago. The sponsors of this act believe we need to take action or risk losing the liberties we have enjoyed. We should be moving toward a more inclusive democracy, not one that locks people out.”
The bill seeks to promote access to voting by allowing U.S. citizens to register and update their information online. Those who registered or updated their information online would also be able to receive voting information through email rather than just regular mail.
The Voter Empowerment Act would also promote voting by allowing for same day registration in federal elections and requiring states to assist voters with disabilities.
Nearly 3 million Americans were turned away during election day in the 2008 Presidential election because of voter registration problems. Nearly one in four eligible voters, about 51 million people, are not even registered to vote.
“This bill ensures that everyone — seniors, the disabled, working families, students and our military can register to vote,” one of the bill’s co-sponsors, Rep. Robert Brady (D-PA), said. “It makes registering to vote simpler, faster, and more secure for each and every American. The Voter Empowerment Act reaffirms the basic principle our democracy: one person, one vote.”
Americans Elect: The Truth Behind the Corporate Scheme to Swipe the 2012 Election
OurOregon.org
By Scott Moore
March 17, 2012
A new group called Americans Elect has come to Oregon as part of a nationwide effort to put a third party candidate on the presidential ballot.
But unlike legitimate third party efforts, Americans Elect is highly secretive, funded entirely by massive donations from hedge fund managers, and is run by a self-selected board of directors that has extraordinary control over who the party nominates.
And now they’re in Oregon gathering signatures in an attempt to qualify as a political party. (See this fawning report from KATU, in which the reporter failed to ask a single critical question.)
What is Americans Elect?
Americans Elect bills itself as a new way of nominating a candidate for president—through the internet.
Publicly, here’s how it works: You sign up to be a “delegate” at their website, after filling out a questionnaire about your political beliefs.
According to Americans Elect, members will be able to propose presidential candidates and ultimately will cast the votes to officially nominate that candidate as Americans Elect’s nominee. Their goal is to be on the ballot in all 50 states.
Here’s how the group describes itself:
Americans Elect is the first nonpartisan nomination. We’re using the Internet to break the gridlock in Washington, open up the political process and give every single voter—Democrat, Republican or independent—the power to nominate a presidential ticket in 2012. Your voice matters. You decide the issues. You choose the candidates. And in a secure, online convention next June, you will make history by putting the Americans Elect ticket on the ballot in every state.
With Americans Elect, you have the power to choose leadership that puts country before party, and America’s interests before special interests. You have the power to change politics as usual.
Americans Elect claims that it receives no funding from “special interests or lobbyists.” Even though the group has refused to disclose its list of funders, there is enough evidence to show that this statement is patently false. (Most of this evidence has been indispensably collected by Jim Cook at Irregular Times.)
The group was started by Peter Ackerman, the chief of Rockport Capital, a wealth management firm. He put in at least $1.55 million of his own money to start the organization. (It was originally a 527 organization, which is required to disclose donors. It is now a 501(c)(4) nonprofit, which isn’t required to disclose.)
According to various reports, Americans Elect has raised between $20 million and $30 million so far for its efforts. Other known funders are hedge fund manager Kirk Rostron and Melvin Andrews, president of Lakeside Capital Partners.
Another known funder is Jim Holbrook, president of Promotion Marketing Association, which is a trade association that does lobbying for the PR and marketing industry.
John Avlon, the founder of the corporate-backed “No Labels” group, wrote in the Daily Beast that Americans Elect has raised $20 million from just 50 people. That’s an average of $400,000 per donor.
New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman was invited to tour the Americans Elect offices in DC, which he described as “swank offices, financed with some serious hedge-fund money, a stone’s throw from the White House.”
According to its website, Americans Elect’s “leadership team” is composed largely of hedge fund operators and wealth managers, including Lynn Forester de Rothschild, who is married into the notorious Rothschild family.
In August, Americans Elect added five new names to its “Leadership” list (something like a board of advisors)—all five are wealth managers.
Again, this group has—repeatedly—refused to disclose who is funding it, but plenty of evidence shows that it is funded almost exclusively through large donations from leaders in the financial industry.
That makes this statement on its website completely laughable: “[Americans Elect] is funded exclusively by individual contributions—and not from corporate, labor, special interest, foreign, or lobbyist sources.”
By the way, the group claims that it will be paying back its initial funders, so that no one donor will have given more than $10,000. That means that if you give money to Americans Elect, your donation will likely be going right back into the pockets of the multimillionaires who are funding the project.
Why Does it Matter Who’s Funding Them?
501(c)(4) organizations are not required to disclose their donors, and there are plenty of legitimate reasons why real nonprofits would decline to publicize their funding.
But Americans Elect isn’t acting as a nonprofit; it’s a political committee. Its sole function is to nominate candidates for president and vice president of the United States, and then get them as many votes as possible. Nonprofits abiding by IRS regulations may not engage in political candidate activities as their primary activity. (Rev. Rul. 81-95, 1981-1 C.B. 332; Sec. 1.501(c)(4)-1(a)(2)(i-ii)).
Americans Elect has enough money to potentially sway the presidential election, likely by siphoning off votes from one of the two major parties. Doesn’t the public have a right to know who’s backing this political party?
Perhaps even more disturbing, Americans Elect’s own bylaws undermine their claim that the process and decisions are up to the public. Join us back here for follow-up posts on the “extraordinary” authority of the board of directors and more information about who’s behind this group—including troubling information about who’s gathering their signatures in Oregon.
http://ouroregon.org/sockeye/blog/americans-elect-truth-behind-corporate-scheme-swipe-2012-election
Dead Voters in South Carolina
You may remember this reply to a post claiming 953 dead people voted in S. Carolina’s GOP primary.
Luckily, the Executive Director of the S. Carolina Election Commission testified on this issue.
According to her testimony, 37,000 people in the state have been identified as deceased. Of those 37,000, only 953 ballots have been cast in the names of those deceased. Based on this finding, they checked the list of 37,000 presumed deceased to see if any of them requested absentee ballots for the 2012 primary. They found 10 who had requested absentee ballots; all 10 are alive and well.
This kind of thing happens: deceased voters are not removed from the rolls, voters are presumed to be dead when they are - in fact - alive, etc.
Further Reading:
Testimony of Marci Andino [pdf]
(h/t Election Updates)
A case for voter abstinence
By Carlos Alfaro February 26, 2012
2012 is an exciting election year full of several colorful and diverse candidates. Have you figured out whom you are voting for? If none of the presidential hopefuls look appealing, have you considered not voting?
The idea of voting gets engrained into our heads as children. The term that comes to mind with respect to voting: civic duty. While it is easy to interpret this term in a general context, it is important that we question the validity of its relevance. Civic duty is defined as actions and behaviors that better our society. Treating others with respect and looking out for your fellow neighbor fall into this category.
But if our civic duty is to participate in the voting process, what happens when the choices are detrimental? If you vote for “the lesser of two evils,” don’t you still end up with evil?
It is clear that both Republicans and Democrats are capable of giving great speeches and making us feel hopeful for our political future, but looking back at the last couple of decades shows that their policies haven’t been much different from one another. Although the parties may say they are different, the American people are left with the same result.
Robert Nozick, an American political philosopher in the 1970s and 1980s, wrote “The Tale of the Slave,” which goes through a sequence of nine “cases” that illustrate a philosophical point of view. Nozick invites the reader to picture himself as the slave in the story.
In the first case, a slave is subject to his brutal master’s whim, and if often beaten. Yet, the master gradually grants the slave several freedoms as the story progresses through the nine “cases.” Among the liberties given is free time, the ability to form a community with other slaves and choose a place of work. The master has claim on a percentage of what the slave earns and reserves the right to call the slave to his service at any time, as well as increase the percentage of his claim at any time. At the final stage, the slave is allowed to vote on what rules are implemented. Yet, your vote means nothing except in the case of tie. Nozick’s question is: At what stage between the small attainments of privileges did this become something other than the tale of a slave?
This brings up the question of the morality of voting. How much of a claim do voters have over your life? Can they take the right of marriage from you? The right to life or property? How about the right to smoke marijuana? Bringing abstract ideas to the practical level helps us see beyond the clichés and assumptions used in political rhetoric.
Who is to blame for the great losses in freedom and the great debt accumulated by this government? Who is to blame when a well-spoken politician promised change only to turn his back on the very people and principles that voted him into office? Who is to blame for the horrible choices we have available for the next leader of our country? The voters. The ones who choose to settle on “well, he seems better than the last guy.”
Reach the columnist at calfaro2@asu.edu
(via freemarketideas)
Futurama’s Bender Elected Head of the Washington D.C. School Board
this is funny…and fucking sad…when are people going to start taking systems and info security seriously?? especially when it comes to elections and voting which are suppose to be the focal point of democracy. at any rate, i’m sure the kids are thrilled.
When your login and password are both “admin” these sorts of things will happen, but the sheer incompetence of the Washington D.C. election board with electronic voting systems is frightening. Via Geekosystem:
Sure, widespread electronic voting would make the process of tallying and processing ballots exponentially easier, but can it ever really be secure? Maybe someday, but certainly not right now, as evidenced by a little experiment in Washington D.C. that ended with everyone’s favorite robo-sociopath Bender Bending Rodriguez being elected as the head of the Washington D.C. school board. Needless to say, there was a little bit of hacking involved.
Before we go any further, its worth noting that there was hacking involved partially because the Washington D.C. election board was asking for it. Literally. During the election in question, the election board actually invited all comers to try and break into the system as a test of its security. Among others, a team from University of Michigan took a crack at it, and cracked the system wide open …
Read More: Geekosystem
Someone needs to tell Ron Paul he needs to keep a 3rd party run on the table… I don’t care what he gets in to the Republican platform I’m not supporting the GOP Nominee.
Does anyone even think it would matter if he influenced the platform or spoke at the convention?
I don’t get the point of what he’s doing and why he’s basically mailing it in in South Carolina… the nomination may be about delegates but it’s also about momentum.
To me it’s increasingly clear he’s not competing to win no matter what he and the campaign say, either way I’ll support him, but I wish there was a way to be more honest about what the end game is, especially with us donating so much money.
I am of the same mind. If you vote for the lesser evil, you’re still voting for evil. I can’t support any of the other candidates for the GOP. Even if Ron does not do a 3rd party run. I will still write his name name when I vote.
Dead people voting…
Not surprised. It happens almost everywhere in the USA now days. Just look at what happen in my own state of Washington. First time Dino Rossi ran for governor of Washington. It was proven that dead people were voting. Mainly in King County. Of course the courts ruled it was OK for dead to vote and felons to do the same. Even had cases were imaginary people were voting.
It will not be the last time this happens. I am sorry to say.
Asking For I.D. To Vote Is Racist But You Need Government I.D. To Buy Drain Cleaner
It’s not a joke. It‘s the reality in President Obama’s home state.
Illinois has a new law that took effect on January 1 requiring all people who purchase drain cleaners or any caustic substances to provide a government issued photo ID. And retailers now must ask for identification from those buying drain cleaners and maintain extensive records of which caustic products have been purchased, in what amounts, and by whom.
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Look! Proof!!! Illinois Liberals want poor people and minorities to live in a shacks with plugged up sinks and shitters!! Those racist bastards!!
