Did you know that liquor companies are using their profits to kill health care reform in Congress?
I just signed a customer complaint form to the liquor company that makes Bailey’s, Guinness and Johnnie Walker, for running an online campaign attacking the health care bills before Congress.
I’m not going to drink Guinness again until they stop this campaign against health care reform! That’s what I told them, and I hope you’ll join me.
I just ran across this YouTube video at Daily Kos:
A blogger at huffingtonpost, asussman0206, has a great idea….here is his/her post…
If you have time on Tuesday, don’t just hand out water and snacks.
Get in line with a sign offering your place to someone who physically can’t wait in line for eight hours. The elderly or physically incapable.
And once they’re near the front, get in line again at the back and do it again, and again, and again.
Even if it’s not your polling place, even if you’ve already voted, even if you’re from a different state. You never actually have to enter the polling place, but it’ll make all the difference.
I think this is a great idea and encourage everyone to put it into action. This will be especially needed in minority precincts in most states, which will somehow manage to have fewer voting machines than those in white/Republican-heavy precincts.
Isaac and I are back from our first European tour with loads of stories to tell, but before the personal stuff, I’d like to comment on the global.
It was quite a relief (to me, at least — I think Isaac suffered from withdrawal) to be away from the incessant media coverage of the election in the states. Our European hosts said their media was dominated by American election coverage, but it was muted to us, especially since we were away from television for most of the trip. (I think the only TV we saw was in airports.) Now that we’re home, and after watching the news, we have to share our European experience.
Everywhere we went, three different countries, we had the most interesting election conversations with complete strangers on buses and trains, in airports, restaurants and museums, and just crossing the street by the simple expediency of wearing Obama buttons. (What the heck, if you’re going to look like a rubber-necking American tourist anyway, you might as well wear a badge proclaiming your country of origin.) Universally, the response was friendly and positive. (Of course, it’s possible that the disapproving Europeans were too polite to comment. We did get the occasional sidewise look, but there’s no way to know if it was because of Obama, or just because we were American.)
Most striking was the reaction of security guards. As you can imagine, in the course of international travel, you encounter a lot of security guards. Every single one, whether in an airport, or a transit station, or a public building spoke positively about Obama. They hate Bush. They dismissed McCain (and mocked Palin). It was Obama the anti-terrorist security forces want in office. One subway security guard told us he was Iraqi. “Bush must go. Obama.” Two guards in two different countries polished the button — “Obama!” Finally, as we left the Netherlands, I left my Obama button with an airport security guard who begged to have it — “We can’t get them here.”
Sarah Palin is on the TV speaking as I write. She calls Obama a socialist, as if she is not governor of the most socialist, share-the-wealth state in America (her words, not mine, conveniently forgotten now). A few minutes earlier, McCain was speaking live with his “bad guys will test Obama” rhetoric, as if every president is not tested. I remember the disdain of those who are really on the front lines fighting for the security of everyday people in everyday situations.
Who is really going to make us more secure in this anxious world? Who will better help us restore our reputation in the rest of the world? Who is getting our votes?
Obama. You betcha.
Based on the violent hate speech coming from the lunatic fringe on the right wing, I’d like to ask everyone to put extra energy into spells of protection for Obama and his family. Let’s make his Secret Service detail so darned intuitive that they are downright psychic!
I’m feeling very concerned for his safety and that of his family. No one wants to kill John McSame (though a few folks might want to gag Sarah Palin), but the first African-American candidate for President is a prime target of all those ignorant, bigoted folks who still think it’s 1860.
We’re coming down to the end of the campaigns and the actual voting. Here’s what we need to be doing in the next few weeks to assure a fair and honest election. Pick one and get to work!
Do the mundane stuff: Make sure you and your friends and neighbors are registered to vote and have not been accidentally-on-purpose purged from the voting rolls (see previous blog post). Volunteer to work at the polls. If you have a legal background, volunteer with the ACLU and other groups keeping an eye on the process.
Do the magical stuff:
Continue with revelation spells on the candidates and the White House, so that everyone’s true intentions are made public.
Find your local polling place(s) and do protection and honesty spells on the buildings.
Do binding spells on election officials to force them to keep their oaths of office.
Do binding spells on the warmongers in the White House and the Pentagon to prevent any last minute “surprises” that would “justify” postponing or canceling the elections.
Remember, if the spell you want to do would be ethical if done physically, then it’s ethical to do it magically.
The Republican Party is in all-out panic mode seeking to stave off their defeat on Nov. 4th by a landslide so huge they won’t be able to rig enough voting machines to stop it. So in nineteen states they are purging tens of thousands of (mostly minority) voters from the poll lists, in violation of a federal law that supposedly makes this illegal within 90 days of a federal election.
Go to www.voteforchange.com where you can fill out an online form to search your state’s voter registration records to see if you are still registered. Do it fast, because if you aren’t, your state’s registration deadline may be in the next few days.
Oh, and be sure to bring several forms of identification, including utility bills or other proof of residence, as well as a driver’s license, passport, and social security card, especially if you use more than one version of your name. Many states have instituted “anti-fraud” programs to make it difficult for even registered voters to actually vote. All this becomes even more important if you are a student, elderly, or a member of an ethnic minority.
College students: it is perfectly legal in most states to register from your dorm or other temporary college residence address. Call your local Board of Elections to make sure what the laws really are, then double check with state authorities.
Pass the word.
UPDATE: Here’s another link to information about voter disenfranchisement and how to preserve your vote.
As I saw it early this morning (news pages have already been changing, but my earlier meanderings did give me a snapshot view)…
As far as online news sites like Yahoo’s or CNN are concerned, Obama is presently relegated to…where is anything on him? I went a couple pages deep and all I saw was Palin, mention that the Cultural War was reignited (which generally is good for the Republican party because it puts attention on their talk), McCain, McCain, McCain, Bush likes McCain, and that Palin’s daughter’s impregnator will attend the RNC like a good boy.
On Obama’s official site’s front page, I see a “Together We Can, Help the Victims of Hurricane Gustav” map featuring the states affected by Hurricane Gustav. I can click directly on a state on the map, I choose Louisiana, and it takes me directly to:
http://www.aidmatrixnetwork.org/CashDonations/Default2.aspx?ST=Louisiana.
Obama and his staff, being more direct and focused, have worked together to exact swifter navigation and, presumably, results.
What you see when you hit McCain’s front page is a plea to donate to his campaign. Continue on to his second page and there is something about Hurricane Gustav included among other titles regarding donating to his campaign, volunteering for his campaign, and wearing Republican campaign T-Shirts. Click the Hurricane Gustav button and you are taken to a third page where you will see a button that will take you to a fourth page so you can read the speech given by Cindy McCain and the first lady. Click a button on that fourth page to go to a fifth page to “Take Action.” You get to choose which state to assist on this fifth page. I choose FL and it takes me to http://www.flahurricanefund.org/, where I have to now navigate that site. There was unnecessary busy work involved and that’s something that creates delays and ineptitude on a governmental scale, such as what did and didn’t happen after Hurricane Katrina.
Have you been wondering why things are going so wrong in McBush’s America? Someone finally gives us the answer:
Here are some suggestions for some ethical spellwork we could do this weekend and at the next few new moons. Feel free to do one or more of the following:
1. Cast a spell of protection around your favorite candidate to protect him/her from physical danger. I’m especially concerned about protecting a certain Democratic candidate that will have a lot of crazies, as well as sane but evil members of the Power Elite, gunning for him — perhaps literally.
2. Cast a revelation spell around your least-favorite candidate, to expose any aspects of their history or personality that would make them unfit for office.
3. Cast a revelation spell around your state Secretary of State (or whoever is the highest elections official) to expose any illegal, unethical, or immoral attempts to rig the elections. This would include efforts to purge legitimate voters (usually minorities) from the election rolls, hack the programming of electronic voting machines to throw the election to a preferred candidate, etc.
4. Cast a courage and tenacity spell on the members of the House Judiciary Committee who are investigating illegal behavior by the Bush administration. You could also help them with a few more revelation spells on the White House.
In each spell, design it to build with the moon, reach full power at the full moon, and stay at full power until after the elections (for spells 1-3) or 2010 (for the 4th).
Note that revelation spells have to be very powerful to cause results that will be widely reported by the corporate media — just reaching the blogosphere isn’t enough. The targets have to be made so psychologically clumsy and/or courageous that they blurt out the truth under circumstances that are impossible to edit or spin. So don’t hold back!
I had this thought last night, after watching his brilliant yet subtle speech about race in America, that Obama was sounding like a combination of Bobbie Kennedy and Martin Luther King. Then I remembered what the right wing Power Elite’s response to them both was.
Those of us who believe in the power of prayer/magic better start praying/spell-casting for Obama’s protection real hard, right now. I suggest that we use this weekend’s full moon energy to place psychic and physical shields around the KKK/American Nazi Party/Christian Militias’ number one target. (Not to mention the powerful corporate and criminal organizations who would love to see him killed before the elections can take place.)
For that matter, there are probably a few nuts out there who would like to kill Hillary Clinton or even John McCain, so feel free to put protection around them too.
