“If you don’t vote, don’t complain.” Newark Mayor, Cory Booker.
THE NEW YORKER PICKS 15 RACES TO WATCH
All the predictable ones are here. But there are some others you might not have on your radar.
WHY IDAHO’S MINNICK/LABRADOR CONGRESSIONAL RACE MIGHT BE A BELLWETHER FOR MUCH OF THE WEST
The cable news networks tend to focus on contests that involve former witchcraft dabbling anti-self pleasurers, persons who favor “2nd Amendment solutions,” and/or candidates who send out equine-related porn to their BFFs via email. (And so does the New Yorker, as we have just seen above.)
But there are other races-–many of them involving democratic incumbents versus tea party candidates who are not actively crazy.
New West’s Audrey Dutton profiles one such race in Idaho, which she maintains is one to watch because it points beyond itself to larger trends. Right now the race is a toss up between a popular Democratic congressman in an extremely conservative state hit hard by economic downturns running against a tea party candidate.
Read about the race. And then watch what happens in Idaho on Tuesday to see what it may tell us.
NEW YORK NOVELIST DANA SPIOTTA SEES TEA LEAVES IN POLITICAL YARD SIGNS
A snip from her essay:
“…An election isn’t a yard sign contest,” my mother advised me. Yet I continued to notice more and more Paladino signs. Not only that, his and other Tea Party signs were often planted on public property: on street dividers, on the edges of parks and next to shopping malls.
Obviously, their supporters are excited about the election. I imagined them driving around in the middle of the night sticking up illegal signs, high-five-ing and joyful in their righteous anger. I felt no joy on my side. The lack of enthusiasm on the left has been widely discussed. But the despair about New York is longer and deeper than this election or recession…..
CONVICTED FELONS WANT THE RIGHT TO VOTE
Felons get that they have to pay their debts to society, but they still want to participate in the democratic process.
I see no reasons why they shouldn’t.
NPR has the story. Here’s a clip:
A new study by the Sentencing Project shows that some 800,000 people with felony convictions have been given the right to vote over the past decade, thanks to reforms to laws governing eligibility in 23 states. But at least 5.3 million felons of voting age remain disenfranchised.
That number includes nearly 4 million who live in 35 states which deny people — on probation, parole or those who have completed their sentence — voting rights….
IF YOU WANT TO FIND YOUR POLLING PLACE AND BE GRATUITOUSLY INSULTED AT THE SAME TIME….
This is the site for you. (What the heck, it made me laugh. It also got my polling place right.)
PS: CONGRATS TO THE GIANTS!!!!
SO, GO VOTE!
Jerry Brown’s “Call To Action” Rally in LA was a huge disappointment, the entire Brown ticket was there, and hardly anyone showed up. http://www.laslimes.com.
I wonder if it will be the same at the polls?
So now, who is it again that’s the party of white males?
More than half the Democrats on the ballot are white males.
Less than half the Repubics on the ballot are white males.
Imteresting.