Report from the Social Action commitee

Format for printing
Submitted by John Lee on Thu, 07/20/2006 - 10:12pm.

We met last night to revise our issues - our current issues are on the left under the "categories" heading. Linda Hilton from CORC was so inspiring, we thought that it was time to do it.

After a voting on over 20 ideas, we arrived with the following three categories:

  • I'm mad that more people DONT VOTE!

  • I'm mad about the wage gap and inequality!

  • I'm mad about the polarization in our country!

I like these three issues, primarily because they all reflect a serious threat to our democracy. I know that sounds like hyperbole, but I do believe that the price of freedom is vigilance, and that threats to our country are from within. The threat is from complacency. It causes people to not bother getting involved or voting, not caring enough about their neighbor to make sure that they are treated as fairly as you or I would like to be treated, and caring more about your side winning than everyone winning.

I don't know anyone who is involved with Democracy for Utah who isn't involved because they worry about the direction our country is heading, and these issues reflect that concern.

We'll be working in the future to choose measurable goals to address these issues and welcome any input you may have.

Comments anyone?

Posted in Social Action Committee | John Lee's blog »

Let me count the reasons people give for not voting

#284 On Fri, 07/21/2006 11:33am UtahOwl said,

1. My vote doesn't count ( with electronic voting machines, this may become a problem even if you turn up at the polls...)

2. The choices are so bad I just avoid the whole thing (Avoidance is not a good governance strategy, dude)

3. I went to vote & wasn't registered ( you may have fallen victim to the wrong-wingers' Vote Suppression tactics)

4. Politics is boring, why should I bother? ( Newt Gingrich is going around saying we're in World War III - would you be interested if he brought back the draft? Inflated your wages so they were worth even less, to fund the Endless War on Terror?)

login or register to post comments

Watch Matheson support paper ballots tonight!

#289 On Mon, 07/24/2006 5:36pm Larry Bergan said,

Speaking of paper ballots. Apparently Jim Matheson got up and made a case for paper ballots at a recent Washinton hearing which tried to avoid a discussion about them until sometime in September. Thank you Mr. Matheson!!

Most observers don't expect any real action from congress until after 2010, with a LOT more money being thrown at voting machine companies who, as far as I'm concerned, only deserve to have their pants sued off! If Robert Kennedy Jr. has his way, (and he might), that is going to happen, at least to Diebold, (Utah's choice)!

Amazingly, Bob Ney, who the chairman refers to as "the father of HAVA", is at the hearing and still seems to be involved in the process, despite the fact he is likely to be indicted on criminal charges. The following excerpt from a Rolling Stone article explains an impropriety involving Ney, Diebold, and the famous Jack Abramoff:

"And now it comes out that Diebold, the notorious voting-machine company, paid some $275,000 to Abramoff's firm, Greenberg Traurig, with the apparent aim of keeping legislation requiring paper trails in the voting process from getting into the Help America Vote Act. Conveniently, Abramoff pal Bob Ney, one of the HAVA architects, blocked every attempt to put paper trails into law, even after the controversial electoral debacles of 2000 and 2004."

C-SPAN 2, (cable channel 19), has it scheduled for tonight at 12:39 EDT (what happened to EST?), which I think is 10:39 here, but may be later.

login or register to post comments

Sorry if anybody tried to see Matheson

#290 On Tue, 07/25/2006 3:25pm Larry Bergan said,

The hearing was indeed on C-SPAN as scheduled, but Matheson did not speak. My E-mail from MoveOn said this:

"Last week, Congress held a rare hearing to examine our national voting system. Your representative, James Matheson, rose to the occasion and asked tough questions about the need for voter-verified paper records of every vote.
Can you call Rep. Matheson to thank him for supporting paper records for voting machines? Your call will encourage his bold leadership on this issue."

And then said this:
"Rep. Ehlers emphasized that last week's hearing wasn't supposed to be about voter-verified paper records. But your representative, James Matheson, helped force the hearing to address the urgent need for paper records, establishing the case for immediate passage of H.R. 550."

I called Matheson's office to see if he had submitted some kind of written statement, but none seems to have been filed. Matheson's office said that MoveOn probably pasted his name into their message somehow.

Matheson can be seen sitting alone in a long row of empty chairs with bottled water provided just in front of the hearing committee while Bob Ney questions witnesses.

login or register to post comments

Vote, damnit!!!

#291 On Wed, 07/26/2006 8:55pm emoticon said,

Utah Owl, I am so glad that you responded to the first issue, which of course, is an umbrella for other issues dear to our hearts.

I was out on July 24th campaigning for Jim Winder for Sheriff along the parade route. I talked to several people, for whom the results of this next election will be serious...and they don't vote!!!

I'll report more about this soon. I am hoping that we as a group can do more to empower the peoople who are most affected by the lack of concern in the legislature, the legal system, and lack of awareness by the general public.

login or register to post comments

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.