Recently in The Election Category

I don't think for a minute that tomorrow's national election will go smoothly or easily. Considering the long lines encountered in North Carolina, Florida, Ohio, and even Georgia for early voting, we should expect the system to be overwhelmed with record turnout. Already Colorado's Attorney General has stated there there is no way the state can finish counting its absentee and early ballots before Wednesday at the earliest. There is a distinct possibility that we will go to bed tomorrow night not yet knowing who will be the next President of the United States.

What is for certain, however, is that tomorrow morning, women will be able to vote. African-Americans will be able to vote. No one will have to pay taxes to qualify to vote. You will not have to own land to cast your ballot. You will not be prohibited to vote because of advanced age. Come January, if American history serves us well, there will be a peaceful, bloodless transfer of power. We take this for granted, but need only look beyond our door to see that this tradition is exceptional.

In this last post before election day, I just want to encourage you to get up tomorrow morning and go vote, even if your preferred presidential candidate is not mine. We've worked very hard to get to this place in time and we should be very proud of our process. Is it flawed? You betcha! But every single American individual has a role to play, in making history and shaping the course to come. Is it a rough road? Yes. But not only can we survive as a nation, we can flourish with compassion and pride. Yes. We. Can.

Before leaving to vote tomorrow, please review your rights. People for the American Way has compiled a state by state list of local election laws (for instance, what forms of ID may be required). Just take a few minutes to check out the information for your state HERE!

Please do not hesitate to speak up at your polling place if you encounter any irregularities. If you feel as if you have been unfairly treated at the polls or if the conditions are untenable, please feel free to call 1-866-OUR-VOTE and report your concerns.

Please make sure you are at the correct voting location by checking with your state's Division of Elections website, or check here for a state by state directory of election contacts.If you are asked to cast a provisional ballot instead of an official ballot, please resist and question the authorities till you are satisfied you are at the correct polling place (they will not tell you where you should be voting, only that you are not on their voter roll and if you fill out a provisional ballot outside your registered precinct, it will NOT COUNT). In 2004, having recently moved to a new Boulder neighborhood, I accidentally waited in line for three hours at an elementary school that had a very similar name to my new registered precinct voting location. They would not give me an official ballot because I was, of course, not on their voting roll, but they did give me a provisional ballot, something I knew absolutely nothing about. First, they assured me that it would count once they figured out where the error was. Then, they pressured me to fill it out because I was holding up the line (there were now six or seven of us with provisional ballots in hand). Three people who could not be found on the voter roll gave up and filled out their provisional ballots, not wanting to be considered a pain in the ass and not wanting to wait to see what the problem was. The rest of us held firm. When they threatened us that if we spent anymore time on the issue, we would be considered a "menace" (and this was in uber liberal Boulder), a very kind gentleman behind me in line suggested that I look at the precinct map to make sure I was at the correct voting location. Sure enough, my address put me at an entirely different precinct and I was at the wrong voting location. That was the case with the other folks with provisional ballots as well. We dispersed to our other voting locations and once I was at the correct elementary school, there was a ballot waiting for me. In a single moment, my vote could have been wasted. You have a right to vote and a right for it to be counted.

Please bring water and a snack with you when you go to vote. If the lines are long, you do not want to run the risk of dehydrating or low blood sugar. If you have a folding lawn chair, do bring that as well (even if you don't need it, there may be an elderly person who may). Bring a book. Bring knitting. Bring a movie on your iPod. Bring five friends with you. Bring your good humor.

Most of all, bring patience and pride in knowing that you are participating in making the United States the country that it is.

The McCain/Palin campaign (or is it the Palin/McCain campaign?), with five day left till the Presidential election, is beginning to pull out all the stops in order to win at whatever cost to America as a whole. The GOP didn't get quite as much poll traction as they had hoped from the William Ayers/ "Obama palls around with terrorists" fear mongering, so they are now going for another past association in the hope that Jews will turn their back on Obama.

Rashid Khalidi is a widely respected, if controversial, Palestinian-American Middle East scholar who founded the Center for Palestine Research and Studies as well as numerous academic panels and news outlets. He is an author, a teacher, an adviser, a journalist, and geo-political expert. He has also been erroneously linked to the PLO as their "spokesperson" or "figurehead" because of his reporting for WAFA in the late '70's and his participation in the Madrid Conference in 1991.

John McCain is now taking that false claim and running with it, claiming that Khalidi is another terrorist and extremist with whom Barack Obama has a close relationship. Sara Palin, at a rally in Ohio yesterday, called Khalidi a "radical professor" and Obama's "political ally," all while sneering his name and generally attempting to whip her crowd into yet another hate-fest.

As I have stated before in these pages, I hate hypocrisy. Fear mongering at the cost of truth runs a close second. Put the two together and I run a fever. Thus, I feel it is necessary to shine a little light onto the bullshit that is McCain's new attack on Barack Obama.

Before you claim that I am a partisan hack with a hard on for the Democratic ticket, please let me say, my distaste for political hypocrisy knows no party boundary. Should a democrat or an independent say or do something monumentally stupid or nefarious, I'll be there to illuminate it and deconstruct it as well. Don't worry.

In 2003, when Rashid Khalidi was leaving his position as Middle East professor at the University of Chicago, Barack Obama attended his farewell dinner. He had some nice things to day about the academic who was leaving the city for Columbia University. This is fact.

Another fact? While John McCain was chairman of the International Republican Institute (IRI) in the 1990's, the IRI granted more than $500,000 to Khalidi's Center for Palestine Research and Studies to fund studies in the area. You can read details of the transactions in Michael Tomasky's Guardian article.

I repeat. John McCain and the International Republican Institute gave money to Rashid Khalidi. If Khalidi is such a terrorist and radical, why would John McCain give his research group American money?

The Israeli/Palestinian conflict is one of the most heinous and recalcitrant geo-political messes currently on the books. Any and all light thrown on its causes, reinforcements, and realities is money well spent. This is not only research but due diligence. As a Jew, I think all measures taken to encourage diplomacy and understanding should be employed. The issue is not black and white and to treat it as such is irresponsible.

To turn around and use Rashid Khalidi as yet another tool to cast suspicion on Barack Obama is first class hypocrisy and it sits about as well with me as a day old oyster. The depth to which the McCain/Palin campaign is now stooping is right up there with what Rove and Eskew did to John McCain himself in the Republican Primary of 2000 (it's notable that the GOP ticket now employs Tucker Eskew). These actions do not speak well of Senator McCain and are an embarrassment to the political process.

Want to see who else voted to table the measure to fund troop body armor? You can see for yourself on the Senate.gov roll call. You'll be surprised. Remember, the "yea"s are to shelve the proposal NOT to pass it.

I could not be more pleased to discover that the peaceful protest Colorado Women Against Palin staged the day Sarah Palin appeared in Centennial two weeks ago merited a piece in the Huffington Post! Mayhill Fowler wrote a very nice report on our gathering and captured the spirit of our endeavor (and a few pictures to boot). Even with my nose running and having to evade water bottles hurled out of pick up truck windows, it was incredibly empowering to be part of the process. Democracy in action!

Protesting Palin Down the Road in Swing State Colorado - Mayhill Fowler

It is now considered de rigeur for American political candidates to engage in heavy handed negative campaign tactics aimed at the outraged emotional heart of the lowest common human denominator. George Bush I had the infamous and tasteless Willie Horton ad. George Bush II had the carpet bombing "McCain has an illegitimate black baby" calls in South Carolina. Now we have the McCain campaign's unrelenting drive for the American people to see Barack Obama as a black, Muslim terrorist who doesn't "see America as you and I see America." Wink. Wink.

We have already endured ten days of She-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named, the presumed GOP VP, race baiting and hate mongering at rallies all over the country. Apparently inciting fear based violence against one's political opponent is now considered acceptable behavior from a major party candidate, regardless of the damage it inflicts on the health of the nation.

On October 12th, Time magazine ran an article by Karen Tumulty on the a new campaign tactic adopted by Virginia state GOP Chairman Jeffrey M. Frederick:

With so much at stake, and time running short, Frederick did not feel he had the luxury of subtlety. He climbed atop a folding chair to give 30 campaign volunteers who were about to go canvassing door to door their talking points -- for instance, the connection between Barack Obama and Osama bin Laden: "Both have friends that bombed the Pentagon," he said. "That is scary." It is also not exactly true -- though that distorted reference to Obama's controversial association with William Ayers, a former 60s radical, was enough to get the volunteers stoked. "And he won't salute the flag," one woman added, repeating another myth about Obama. She was quickly topped by a man who called out, "We don't even know where Senator Obama was really born."

According to the McCain campaign itself, in order to shore up his flagging Virginia polling numbers, Senator John McCain is scheduled attend a GOP rally this Saturday in Woodbridge, VA. With Jeffrey Fredrick. Such an appearance does not give the impression of a tacit endorsement of Fredrick's campaign strategy. It actually is a flat out endorsement. Considering McCain was practically foaming at last night's debate over what he perceives as Obama's negative campaigning, one would think McCain would want his own campaign to stick to the facts. Well, McCain's very actions prove otherwise.

Today, while perusing the news, I came a cross a startling article in the San Francisco Chronicle which further illuminates the lows to which the GOP has sunk in order to get its man into the White House.

Violent anti-Barack Obama rhetoric - such as "Waterboard Barack Obama" - and images linking the Democratic presidential candidate to terrorist leader Osama bin Laden appeared this week on the official Web site of the Sacramento County Republican Party, the latest in a series of increasingly graphic attacks nationwide on the Illinois senator that seek to cast him as a terrorist sympathizer.

As if Fredrick's campaign approach wasn't horrifying enough, now we have a GOP office with "Waterbaord Obama" on it's official page. I decided to call the office directly to find out what the hell they were thinking. I found their telephone number on their website, and gave them a ring. The brief conversation went as follows:

"Good afternoon, Sacramento County Republican Headquarters."
"Hi! I am a registered independent voter and the wife of a Navy veteran in a swing state and I am wondering if the news reports are true that you posted on your official website 'Waterboard Obama!'"
"You're going to have to call our Communications Director Hector Barajas."
"You can't just tell me what was on your website?"
"You have to call our Communications Director Hector Barajas."
"What is your name, please?"
"I am not going to tell you that."

With that, I was given Mr. Barajas's telephone number and hung up on. I called Mr. Barajas. According to his out going message, he is actually the California State Republican Party's Communications Director. So I was shuttled up the chain of command because, apparently, the Sacramento County Republican Headquarters was no longer permitted to speak on its own behalf. They were permitted to put hate speech on their website to rally their base, but because they were caught by the media, they have had their reins pulled up.

I left a message with Mr. Barajas asking for an explanation, but as just another voting citizen, I don't truly expect to receive one. I decide to again call the Sacramento office to give Ms. Anonymous GOP staffer another shot at explaining their campaign approach.

"Good afternoon, Sacramento County Republican Headquarters."
"Hi, I called earlier about your website. I called Mr. Barajas and left him a message, but I thought I would call you back one more time just to ask if you could confirm that you had posted 'Waterboard Obama' on your website."
"You really have to speak with Hector Barajas."
"Yes, you told me that once already, but I am an independent voter in a swing state and I am trying to get a clear picture of how John McCain is running his campaign for President, so I am hoping you can just tell me a little bit about the way in which the Sacramento County Republicans are campaigning for John McCain."
"Listen, you are going to have to call Hector Barajas. He is much more knowledgeable about this subject than me (sic). I can not comment on this matter. He is the man you should speak with."
"So you are not going to tell me anything about your official website."
"I told you no."
"OK, then. That's all I need to know."

And, really, that is all I need to know. The individual GOP campaign headquarters are now approaching this campaign in the most undignified manner possible in the hope that there are enough uninformed Americans who will vote from a place of ignorant terror. This has nothing to do with the economy, or the failing wars on two fronts, or the fact that the bill for said wars has never actually been included in the national budget. This has nothing to do with the personal debt crisis looming on the horizon like a darkened iceberg, or how you and I will pay for health insurance as we age, or tax cuts or tax increases. This has nothing to do with eight years of unprecedented deficit spending, or the failing national infrastructure, or the fact that buying canned beer gives you a better return on your investment than most financial stocks. The McCain campaign is now about portraying Barack Obama in the most negative light possible, regardless of truth or reality, in the hope that the American public is as easily manipulated as they believe. Well, I choose hope over fear because I think we can do better and that we deserve better, regardless of how little John McCain actually thinks of the American people.

I leave you with a little food for thought, straight from the horse's mouth in 2000:

*update*
Hector Barajas actually called me back this afternoon and left a message on my cell phone inviting me to call him back. I certainly intend to! I'll keep you posted!