Avoid the 5th of November Nightmare!
Ever since I had this nightmare (see news video below the fold) showing what might happen if I personally didn’t do my part this coming Tuesday, we’ve been out doorknocking and greeting Metro Transit Station commuters at 6 am with messages to get out and vote. This was my nightmare:
Anyway, I got busy and patched up this old weather-beaten sign that—long story—has been around our house since the lead-up to the crushing 2004 election. The good news is there’s now proof that campaign signs ARE indeed bio-degradable and this one ought to be nominated for sign sainthood. It was pretty much gone—more spirit than substance—but it’s kept our hope alive all this time and still does the best job of conveying what this coming election is essentially all about—
finally getting another chance to “Say NO to Bush” (and his horrible policies) by saying “NO to McCain-Bush”; “NO to Coleman-Bush” and (for those of us down in southern suburbs) “No to Kline-Bush”. (How anyone could vote for Obama and yet also vote for the corrupt Bush sycophants Norm Coleman and John Kline—as some polls have shown is the case--is just beyond my understanding! But then again our less-than-stellar newspapers were duped this way too.)So I painstakingly patched this sentimental favorite back together and will be holding it at the end of Election Day 2008 and hopefully crying some tears of joy that we’ve finally accomplished this goal. We’ve also, however, been painting some brand new bright blue banners and signs that say “Had ENOUGH?” “VOTE for CHANGE” and one that says “VOTE or shut up”. I hope to have enough painted by Monday to put a large banner and sign on each of the four corners on the intersection of 42 and Cedar Ave in downtown Apple Valley but we’ll need help holding them all. I’ve been told the Apple Valley one is the busiest intersection in Dakota County and it’s just a couple blocks from a voting place!
In the last hours to the election, it’s valuable to reinforce the momentum and remind folks one last time by holding visible banners and signs at our busiest intersections. None of us want to be responsible for that one missing vote that could have made the difference.
Let's everyone, whatever we resolve to do between now and Tuesday, let's not fail to carry through. Let's end this - our national nightmare - this week.
posted by Coleen Rowley at 11/01/2008 12:33:00 PM
13 Moderated Comments:
EEEEEuuuuuucccHHHHHHHH!
That's quite a nightmare, Coleen! I think I'm motivated to join my local phone banks now, if it's not too late!
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Making matters worse is that I saw someplace Zogby has McCain leading Obama by one point in some poll they did. If McCain does win I'll be contacting the New Zealand embassy looking for details on how to immigrate. I'm not worried about Iran, last I heard McCain wants to take on Russia.
I like your spirit, but I have volunteered and made calls, I'm sporting bumper stickers and lawn signs. I voted by mail. I'm still donating money and I wear my Obama T-shirt to the grocery store--the only place I go.
Agent Rowley, that's a real funny You Tube! I LMAO everytime a read a different name featured on it. But you gave it the best context's I've seen!
I could add that fixation with keeping the sign (and hope alive) sprang from a very mournful keynote speech that Seymour Hersh gave in the Twin Cities in spring of 2005. It was a successful fundraiser for a huge gathering of liberal-minded folks and attracted everyone who was anyone. But it was about the 2004 election and the further disastrous course we could expect to stay on. It was so depressing! Finally Hersh looked at his watch and said he would close with some good news: that in 3 years, 6 months, 2 weeks, five days, 18 hours, 45 minutes (something like that and then he counted the seconds), it would be time to vote for a new president and finally say no to Bush and start digging out from the previous 8 years.
So when we came home, we decided to leave 2004 sign hanging up on the swingset in our front yard. About 2 years later, it rotted away and dropped off but I hammered a few nails in its strongest parts, affixing it to our garage. About a year later, it decayed to the point of falling off that perch. Since then, it’s just been propped up against the house.
I had to use a lot of glue and new backing to resurrect it. Too bad I don’t have Mr. Hersh’s e-mail, or he might get a laugh out of it. But hopefully his mood has improved by now.
Coleen, speaking of my nightmare, is there anything left of the Diebolt brand name? There shouldn't be.
Coleen, what do you make of this story? Court Docs: GOP Donor Secretly Funneled $75K To Coleman Family And, Coleman's Best Legal Remedy May Be To Lose Election Does this story have legs?
In answer to the questions above:
I don't know whether any Diebold machines are still out there in the country but we Minnesohtans never fell for them. (Minnesota has one of the best track records in terms of fairness of election procedures and accuracy--same day registration, automatic auditing for accuracy, etc. as well as one of the highest voter turn-outs nation-wide.)
As for the last minute scandal that broke right before the weekend, it DOES have legs as a story and will undoubtedly pose some future problems for Norm Coleman (as the HuffPost says, more so if he wins re-election than if he loses).
The impact of the late-breaking scandal upon the Coleman-Franken race is harder to figure out. Coleman's political savvy is so great that he was able to turn the whole scandal--benefiting from the timing of the lawsuit being filed just before election--upon Franken by falsely alleging that Franken was behind the lawsuit and it's nothing but a campaign trick and attack upon his (Norm's) wife. Believe it or not, Coleman was so quick on this that he immediately put out an ad accusing Franken of going after his wife. His wife appears silently in the ad with her lip quivering as if she could burst out sobbing any minute. (People forget Norm's wife is an actress of course.)
My sense is that a number of the low information voters will fall for the ad and believe in the victimization of Laurie Coleman.
Additionally the 3rd party candidate, Dean Barkley could see his (very solidly established) 17 or 18 percent share of the vote rise, taking more from Franken.
All considered, this race is going to be CLOSE one way or the other.
OMG, Colleen, I'm absolutely sick after watching that clip. I'll be a poll inspector tomorrow and make every effort to ensure fair votes. California has ink-a-dot voting, which helps ensures clean elections. I'm out here routing for Franken.
It is clearly time to vote for a new president and finally say no to Bush and start digging out from the previous 8 years. Obviously, I hope it's Obama and I don't envy him the task ahead.
DB, the problem is ES&S. Please visit my post on on Swiftspeech. You'll find links to ES&S flaws in 34 states.
O'Dell resigned from Diebold in 2005 for "personal reasons." O'Dell was part of Bush's "Rangers and Pioneers," a group of individuals who had raised at least $100,000 each for Bush/Cheney's 2004 re-election campaign. He pledged Ohio's electoral votes to Bushit in 2003.
Diebold is still around, but it's not clear from their site whether they are still manufacturing and distributing voting machines. Looks like their primary products are ATM machines.
That's comforting, huh? Here's more voting machine information:
*The vice-president of Diebold and the president of ES&S are brothers.
* There is no federal agency with regulatory authority or oversight of the U.S. voting machine industry.
* Republican Senator Chuck Hagel used to be chairman of ES&S. He became Senator based on votes counted by ES&S machines.
[Source for more information and links.]
I hope for a fair election. Colleen, I also hope your sign from 2004 reminds everyone what happened in the past four years. DB, you touched a nerve mentioning Diebold. My nightmare involves those voting machines glitches. I, too, think we've got a close election this year.
Obama is going to win! Gasp! I said the (WIN) word. The Republicans will do what they can to corrupt the process but it will not work this time. They are too late, too tired and too tainted by their own bankrupt morality to fool us again. Obama is going to win.
Let America listen to Mike! Let's hope for a great 11/5. You know I hope you're right, bro!
Trophy Wife and I have voted. Now we're looking for the nearest Starbucks. Where is it??????
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