The Socialist Equality Party calls on all its supporters in the US to cast a vote for SEP candidates Jerry White for president and Phyllis Scherrer for vice president in today’s election. A vote for the SEP is a class-conscious statement of support for the socialist, working-class alternative to the two parties of big business, the Democrats and Republicans.
The 2012 election has been one of the most hyped in history. We’ve been hearing about both these candidate for years now, so at this point you probably know everything there is to know about them. But what do you know about the house they are battling to inhabit: the White House? Probably less than you think.
Supporters of Mitt Romney Are Pushing Ultra-Conservative Christian Agendas in Africa That Criminalize Gays and Threaten Women's Health
Jay and Jordan Sekulow are only the most recent Christian Right figures who manage to maintain credible reputations in the United States while taking actions overseas that would not be acceptable at home.
According to election polls, the presidential race is neck and neck. According to election polls, our country is split right down the middle. According to election polls, it's anyone's guess who will be the next president of the United States.
Voters increasingly post their ballot outcomes on social media
Americans going to the polls increasingly let others know the outcome of their vote by announcing it through social media, the Pew Research Center finds.
week has passed since Hurricane Sandy struck, and the short subway ride uptown this morning almost seemed normal, except for the bigger crowds getting on at Penn Station and Times Square - commuters from outside Manhattan where wind and storm surge water damage were so much worse and all too often deadly. Overheard conversations were filled with stories of how people had coped.
How Did You Vote? and Election Day Open Thread It's the big day. It'll be interesting to see how you voted-- how Opednews readers voted. We don't tie votes to individuals, so your vote in this poll is confidential. It's an Opednews reader exit poll. Please add your comments http://www.opednews.com/Poll/How-Did-You-Vote-by-Rob-Kall-121106-258.html
Displaced New Yorkers can vote Governor Cuomo is signing an Executive Order which provides that a voter who is a resident in the federally-declared disaster counties of Nassau, Rockland, Suffolk, Westchester and of New York City who have been displaced by Hurricane Sandy can vote an affadavit ballot at any poll site in New York State. http://www.opednews.com/articles/Displaced-New-Yorkers-can-by-Allegra-Dengler-121105-964.html
What Would Jesus Do? Sex, Hell and Christianity in the Noose of the Presidential Election According to ABC News, Paul Ryan offered a voting advisory during a conference call with evangelical voters on Sunday evening, Nov. 4, issuing "a warning about a second Obama term saying the president is putting the country on a "dangerous path' that compromises 'Judeo-Christian, western civilization values.'" http://www.opednews.com/articles/What-Would-Jesus-Do-Sex--by-Meryl-Ann-Butler-121105-67.html
The movement generally referred to in the United States as the Religious Right came of age in the late 1970s. While the Religious Right is extremely diverse and shouldn't be characterized in simple terms, the movement as we have come to know it is an ultraconservative religious response to the sexual revolution and other events that are seen, by Religious Right proponents, as being connected to the sexual revolution--and an attempt to effect this religious response as public policy.
The Dogs of War Are Barking, Mitt Romney’s Team Wants to Let ‘Em Loose in Iran
It’s the consensus among the pundits: foreign policy doesn’t matter in this presidential election. They point to the ways Republican candidate Mitt Romney has more or less parroted President Barack Obama on just about everything other than military spending and tough talk about another “American century.” The consensus is wrong. There is an issue that matters: Iran.
Why Do Both Major Parties Suck So Badly On Civil Liberties?
Over the weekend, I saw an article on Salon about how shameful it is that supporters of President Obama, who were loud in their condemnation of attacks on civil liberties by George W. Bush, seemed to ignore that President Obama has been worse in many ways (despite many public promises to the contrary). We've already noted that the Democratic Party -- which had fixing civil liberties abuses in its 2008 platform -- has removed all traces of that from the new platform. You would think that, for those who believe strongly in civil liberties, this would be a major concern. Rather than fix them, President Obama continued or expanded many of the very questionable policies of his predecessor, and then added a number of terrifying new ones.
The US 2012 Election and China: why a real dialogue about human rights will never happen
Despite a prominent presence in the campaign, US policy towards China is very unlikely to change - especially on the hyper-sensitive topic of human rights.
The Best (And Worst) Of The 2012 CampaignElection Day is finally here and after a year and a half of non-stop campaigning it can’t come fast enough. But before today’s race becomes yesterday’s news and we move on to the transition or the fiscal cliff or (God forbid) the recount, we at TPM wanted to take one last look back at just how far we’ve come. http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/11/best-worst-2012-election.php
Which Prez candidate should a single-issue, federal-sentencing-reform voter support?
I ask this question with a serious interest in encouraging a serious (and respectful) discussion of whether folks think either of the two fellows seeking to be the US President over the next four years is likely to get behind and seek to move forward with federal sentencing reforms. If time permits late tonight, I will update this post to explain why I truly am not sure if there is an obvious answer to which candidate is more likely over the next four years to be interested and able to engender serious federal sentencing reform. In the meantime, let me hear readers thoughts only hours before the final day for voting begins.
Swing States that Will Decide the Presidential Election If you haven't seen any political ads for President Obama or Mitt Romney, then you're probably (a) somewhat thankful and (b) not living in a "swing state," which will most likely help "swing" the election. Here is a quick analysis of the swing states and how Obama and Romney look so far, from the NY Daily News and the New York Times' polling predictor Nate Silver. http://www.opposingviews.com/i/politics/2012-election/swing-states-will-decide-presidential-election
Most Mormon Men are Also the Mormon Priests and BishopsIn the Mormon church, all power flows through the all-male priesthood which consists of all Mormon men above a certain age. Priests hold all of the religious authority for sealing, binding, and loosing — the central sacred acts of the Mormon Church which serve to determine every Mormon's eternal destiny. These priests hold all of the keys to eternal life and are themselves the key to the claim of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints that it is the only legitimate Christian church on earth.
Justice Department will monitor Election Day votes in 23 states
Justice notes that state and local governments are primarily responsible for administering and monitoring elections, but its Civil Rights Division enforces federal voting rights laws that give citizens the right to access the ballot. Ten years ago the Justice Department established a nationwide Ballot Access and Voting Integrity Initiative and since has run yearly election day programs to monitor polls and boost public confidence in the voting process. http://www.fiercegovernment.com/story/justice-department-will-monitor-election-day-votes-23-states/2012-11-05
How to Steal an Election (Again)
Operations Plan:
1 – Step 1A: You, Mitt Romney, make millions of dollars by buying troubled companies, increasing their debt and then allowing them to go bankrupt, all with the result of reaping millions of dollars (and parking your plundered earnings in offshore tax havens)
hat will the United States look like in 2016 if Mitt Romney wins? While predicting the future is of course impossible, actually my experience is that if you play out known possible scenarios in your mind, you can often get a fair idea of the likely course of events.
In a conference call on Sunday, Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan warned tens of thousands of Evangelical Christians that President Barack Obama would jeopardize "Judeo-Christian, Western civilization values" if he is re-elected.
With all the attention being paid this election to millionaire campaign donors and the importance of helping the middle class, candidates on both sides are overlooking one critical segment of our society. And it’s not a small segment – in fact it numbers over 46 million people and potential voters.
The massive storm that ravaged Haiti, Cuba, and much of the east coast of the United States may be the ‘shock and awe’ of climate change’s permanent war against the U.S. (it attacked the rest of the world much earlier). Some argued that the storm’s ferocity was the great equalizer, that rich as well as poor were left without power, that luxury townhouses were swept aside along with seaside shacks. But that ignores the stark reality of the wealth-poverty divide in this country – laid newly bare by the storm.
A Vote for the Republicans is a Vote Against Yourself: 5 Reasons Why
To be more precise, it's a vote against yourself as long as you're making less than $250,000 a year, which includes about 99% of us. The Republicans have repeatedlyturned against middle-class and low-income Americans in their legislative proposals over the past two years. Here are some of the sordid details.
Police drones prompt privacy concerns Drones are well-known for their ability to hunt down suspected terrorists abroad, but they have also increasingly become a popular tool of police departments around the country. Drones are cheaper to build and fly than helicopters, making them a cost-effective option for police departments looking to gain a bird's eye view of a scene. But privacy groups are sounding alarm that there aren't enough legal safeguards in place to prevent drones from being used for mass surveillance. http://thehill.com/blogs/hillicon-valley/technology/265693-police-drone-use-prompts-privacy-concerns
What if the government was tapping your phone unconstitutionally, and there was nothing you could do about it? That’s just life in the United States of America, at least according to the Justice Department. On Monday, October 29, Solicitor General Donald Verrilli Jr. argued in the Supreme Court that, for all practical purposes, the most expansive authority Congress has ever given the government to intercept Americans’ international phone calls and e-mails could not be challenged in court, even by the very people most likely to be harmed by it.
Food companies Monsanto, Dupont, Pepsico and Nestle spend $45 million to defeat California GM label bill Prop 37
If it passes, it would require labels on GM food sold in supermarkets, but would not cover restaurants. It also has a number of gaping loopholes. For example, the law would not require labels on meat from animals that were fed GM corn.
No matter the outcome of the 2012 presidential election, we must eventually face the fact that our political system is broken. As such, our future struggle will be about whether we are able to fix it our not. And we must realize that the "it" we need to fix inheres not in our laws, our constitution or even some other arcane program. The "it" we need to fix is ourselves.
The Deafening Silence On Climate ChangeGlobal warming has seldom been mentioned this year on the campaign trail, despite Obama's promise to the contrary http://www.countercurrents.org/hertsgaard051112.htm
People Have Changed: A Legacy Of The U.S. War In Iraq Yesterday was a beautiful autumn day in Baghdad . As I was visiting two families in widely different neighborhoods, I was able to traverse a large part of the city. I looked with eyes that have not seen Baghdad for nine years. Today, it is a city of stark contrasts. Bright new autos wherever one looks. I saw them up close as we waited endlessly in gridlocks due to checkpoints. http://www.countercurrents.org/breen051112.htm
Portland Anti-Austerity Protest Draws 1,000 Despite Police Violence It's difficult to build a pre-election protest with so many labor and community groups busy campaigning for Democrats. Nevertheless, over 1,000 people marched the streets in Portland, Oregon on November 3rd against austerity cuts to education and other public services and the consequent debt accumulated by students. http://www.countercurrents.org/cooke051112.htm
12 Ways You Can Safeguard Your Vote
ill it happen again? On November 6, we may see voters waiting in long lines, only to find they're not on the voter rolls or because they now need to show ID to vote. In a new twist, some people may refrain from voting because they think they need ID, even when they actually don't.
get it - and I don't blame you. You're fed up and you could care less whether Tweedledee or Tweedledumber wins on Tuesday - because on Wednesday, your life will be the same, unchanged, regardless who is president. Your mortgage will still be underwater. You will still owe $50,000 on your student loan. Your son will still be in Afghanistan. Your daughter will still be working two jobs to make ends meet. And gas will still be at $4.
n Florida, Ohio and North Carolina , a majority of Republicans believe that Democrats will steal this election and a majority of Dems are convinced that the GOP's going to do the same. It's a sign of how deeply compromised our democracy has become.
ew York City officials said on Sunday that they faced the daunting challenge of finding homes for as many as 40,000 people who were left homeless after the devastation of last week's storm, a situation that the city's mayor, Michael R. Bloomberg, compared to New Orleans's after Hurricane Katrina.
With speculation now centered on how Superstorm Sandy’s impact may affect the U.S. election result, the final presidential debate, which focused on foreign policy, might seem like a distant event to American voters.But for the rest of the world, this was an event that mattered. As many pundits have noted, if the rest of the world were voting in the U.S. presidential election, the third presidential debate would probably have proceeded differently.http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/11/03-1
Prop 37 and Corporate Lies in the Post Truth Era
As a historic vote with profound implications for the future of our food system nears, the question becomes whether a campaign with limitless resources and a disdain for the truth can defeat an overwhelmingly popular idea supported by a grassroots army, and over 3000 public interest organizations: the right to know what's in the food we eat and feed our families.
We Can't Afford the Silencing of the Voice of "We, the People"
We use the metaphor "herding cats" to describe a situation in which someone tries to govern the collective behavior of creatures who have only individual goals and agendas, and little interest in being governed.
'The Time to Choose Sides on Climate Change Is Now'
As the devastation from "superstorm" Sandy continues for millions, Up host Chris Hayes urged viewers on Saturday that the time to choose sides on climate change is now. While "we want our government first and foremost to keep us safe," it has neglected to heed warnings from climate scientists and the manifestations of climate change we have seen in extreme weather events. http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/11/03-0
‘OK, Fine. Shoot Him.’ Four Words That Heralded a Decade of Secret US Drone Killings
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) usually gets all the credit for the first US drone targeted killing beyond the conventional battlefield. But it was the military which gave the final go-ahead to kill on November 3 2002. Lt General Michael DeLong was at Centcom headquarters in Tampa, Florida when news came in that the CIA had found its target. The deputy commander made his way down to the UAV Room, showing live video feeds from a CIA Predator high above Marib province in Yemen. http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2012/11/03
A Cure for America's Corruptible Voting System
hen I went to vote last week in New York City, using an absentee ballot (because I will be out of the country on election day), I had a surreal experience that was also very ordinary: I marked my ballot – put it, as advised by the nice man behind the counter, into a sealed envelope, handed it to him and … nothing.
he American Red Cross struggled on Friday to reassure beleaguered New York City residents that its disaster-relief efforts were at last getting up to speed, after the agency's delayed arrival in devastated areas of Staten Island, Brooklyn and Queens drew intense criticism.
s the lights come back on in lower Manhattan, the power imbalance in parts of the city worst hit by Sandy is more literal than ever. Brownstone Brooklyn neighborhoods like Cobble Hill and Carroll Gardens were able to celebrate Halloween as usual, but just blocks away, many residents of the Red Hook Houses, the city's second-largest housing project, are without electricity, heat, or running water, and growing increasingly desperate. Red Hook, like other areas with overheard power lines, could wait another ten days or longer for juice, according to Con Edison. So far, Red Hook has received little help from the city or FEMA, and a team of Occupy protestors have been heading relief efforts.
itt Romney's “closing argument” redefines chutzpah. “You know that if the President is re-elected, he will still be unable to work with the people in Congress,” Romney said on Friday. He warned of a government shut-down, or another debt-ceiling crisis – two examples of Congressional Republicans taking the economy hostage for partisan gain – if Barack Obama emerges victorious next week. If elected, Romney promised not to “pass partisan legislation.”
hat's the state of mind this weekend of the conservative outrage machine? With regard to liberals, I think it's fair to say as of Saturday that most of us (excepting your allowed-for percentage of nervous nellies) expect Barack Obama to win. If he somehow doesn't, we'll be surprised and deeply depressed. But provided the outcome doesn't involve some kind of Florida-style shenanigans, in a couple days' time, we'll come to terms with it.
y now, in these last remaining days before the election of 2012, we have learned enough about the beliefs of the Republican presidential candidate to see them as a worldview all its own – a kind of creed that explains Mitt Romney. Those who say he has no principles are selling him short.
Beyond The 6th Of November; The Rise Of The Peer Progressive As the 2012 US presidential election looms, the familiar red and blue fever spreads across television and computer screens like another World Series or Superbowl. This election is no different than any other, as the corporate two party duopoly propagates the illusion of choice and sucks people into a presidential charade between two sock puppets that essentially work for the same bosses. http://www.countercurrents.org/hayase041112.htm
Peddling A Zionist Ticket To Nowhere Addressing mesmerised fans from Australian Palestine solidarity in Adelaide, Evans, former Attorney-General and Foreign Minister of Australia, former Head of the International Crisis Group (ICG) and Chancellor of the Australian University, offered a grandiose crumb of righteous insistence that Australia should be on the right side of history by supporting Palestine's bid for statehood recognition in the UN General Assembly. http://www.countercurrents.org/vlazna041112.htm
A Quick Guide to Mitt's 10 Most Destructive Guiding Principles
Despite its contradictions and ellipses, Romneyism has an internal coherence.
The last weekend of the 2012 US presidential election campaign was marked by rallies for both Democratic President Barack Obama and his Republican challenger Mitt Romney in a handful of closely contested states, while the deluge of television commercials continues right up to the opening of the polls on Tuesday.
Obama tells us that we better lick his boots or we will face the brute down the hall, Mitt Romney. After all, we wouldn’t want the bad people to get their hands on these newly minted mechanisms of repression. We will, if we do not behave, end up with a more advanced security and surveillance state, the completion of the XL Keystone pipeline, unchecked pillage from Wall Street, environmental catastrophe and even worse health care. Yet we know on some level that once the election is over, Obama will, if he is re-elected, again betray us. This is part of the game. We dutifully assume our position. We cry out in holy terror. We promise to obey. And we are mocked as we watch promises crumble into dust.
Broken US System Needs Watching: International Election Observers Could Face ArrestTuesday's national election in the US is shaping up to be a bruising affair, with both parties hiring armies of lawyers to fight over likely contentious battles over voter access to polling stations, dealing with long lines that could prevent people from voting after polls officially close, the counting of votes cast, and now, the right of international inspectors from the respected Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to monitor the process. http://www.opednews.com/articles/Broken-US-System-Needs-Wat-by-Dave-Lindorff-121104-664.html
America's Deplorable Human Rights Record Far and away, America's human rights record is the world's worst. No other nation approaches its unprincipled history. Earlier crimes against humanity were largely internal and regional. Twentieth century ones went global. New millennium ones elevated atrocities and other human rights abuses to an unprecedented level. It keeps rising. America is guilty of virtually every crime imaginable and then some. http://www.opednews.com/articles/America-s-Deplorable-Human-by-Stephen-Lendman-121104-10.html
The “debates” revealed that not only the candidates but also the entire country is completely tuned out to every real problem and dangerous development. For example, you would never know that US citizens can now be imprisoned and executed without due process. All that is required to terminate the liberty and life of an American citizen by his own government is an unaccountable decision somewhere in the executive branch. http://www.darkmoon.me/2012/you-are-voting-for-your-own-extinction-by-paul-craig-roberts/
Judaism: A Threat to Humanity Judaism, like all of the “revealed”/hearsay man-made religions, breaks the people of the world down to “us versus them.” In Christianity and Islam the “us” are the believers and the “them” are the non-believers. In Judaism this also holds true to a point. However, in Judaism much importance is placed on being an ethnic/racial Jew and not merely a religious Jew. For example, a person who has aJewish mother but who does not believe in Judaism is considered by Judaism and religious Jews to be a Jew. http://www.veteranstoday.com/2012/10/31/judaism-a-threat-to-humanity/
What the Bible Says About Rape
Christians of many stripes are scrambling to distance themselves and their religion from Republican comments about rape. But a literal interpretation of the Bible is quite disturbing.
'm so struck with America's human spirit as Hurricane Sandy has left a trail of destruction in its wake, destroying homes and businesses and turning the lives of so many upside down. And yet people remain unbowed - New Yorkers and New Jerseyans, first responders, hospital workers, National Guard and countless others - are pulling together, as they always do, in the face of tragedy. And this would be the case whether or not a Presidential election were running in the background.
The Sixteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which authorized the federal government to impose an income tax on individuals, will turn 100 years old on February 3. It is unlikely that many corks will pop in celebration. But they should, because the income tax plays a central role in ensuring American democracy. More to the point of contemporary politics, the Sixteenth Amendment was designed precisely to protect the 47 percent of Americans Mitt Romney has reviled.
The Democratic Party is at risk of becoming irrelevant. I have spoken with so many Republicans who, when arguing for Governor Romney, have made the startling point that it does not really matter who is president. Both parties are more or less the same. I believe now that if the Democratic Party continues to fight for the same old issues, it will be abandoned, and cease to exist. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/maxwell-kennedy/democratic-party-_b_2072910.html
In Defiance of Christ’s Teachings Right Wing Evangelicals Become Gun Toting Maniacs
