Coastline of United States Sharply Altered in Post-Election Cataclysm

November 7th, 2012 | Posted by Jim Cook in Politics | Religion | Sex and Gender | State and Local - (2 Comments)

The morning after the 2012 elections saw a starkly changed American landscape, changed in a very literal sense as large sections of the North American landmass collapsed into the ocean.

As the dawn rose over the United States of America, it quickly became apparent that the entire states of Maine (where voters approved same-sex marriage by a margin of 53%-47%), Maryland (where voters approved same-sex marriage by 52%-48% margin) and Washington State (where voters approved same-sex marriage by a 52%-48% margin) had disappeared under the waves. NSAT-5 and NSAT-7 satellite imagery quickly pieced together by the Atmospheric and Oceanographic Administration of Very, Very Straight but Clergy revealed a new composite image of the American coastline:

Coastline of the United States Dramatically Altered in Cataclysm After Votes on Same-Sex Marriage in Maryland, Maine and Washington State

Reaction was swift from conservative quarters. “By their actions, the voters of three states invited God’s judgment on our nation,” opined theogeologist and chicken-frying magnate Dan Cathy. Fellow theogeologist Rabbi Yehuda Levin agreed with Cathy’s assessment:

The way this works is very simple: God warns us. God warns in the Bible as early as Noah that this kind of misbehavior can lead to floods. It can lead to disasters. It can lead to buildings falling and earthquakes.

So that is our tradition. It is written in our Talmud, two thousand years ago, that because of the sin of homosexuality and the, organized homosexuality, societal homosexuality is, cause, brings about earthquakes.

Innocent people then get destroyed with the guilty people, just like when a bus driver drives a bus and goes over a ravine, innocent people are killed. We don’t hold this against God. These are the regulations.

“Yes, millions of people are dead, but some ladies were planning to kiss one another. God had no choice,” added Rabbi Levin’s longtime personal assistant and groomsman, who refused to be named for this article. “God’s justice demands that we sort out our genitals hygenically.”

Update, 7:50 AM EST: Officials at the Atmospheric and Oceanographic Administration of Very, Very Straight Clergy have released a statement clarifying that the states of Maine, Maryland and Washington have actually not collapsed into the ocean after all. “One of our technicians misinterpreted the image on our lab computers. The map is just our screen saver,” explained the Very, Very Straight Reverend Frederick Updike. “We regret the error.” “Check back in tomorrow, though,” added VVSR Updike’s longtime personal groomsman.

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Jill Stein and Gary Johnson win Free and Equal Vote, Proceed to 11/5 Debate

October 27th, 2012 | Posted by Jim Cook in Alternative Parties | Election 2012 | Greens | Politics - (6 Comments)

October 23 saw the Free and Equal Debate to which the top six presidential contenders were invited. Barack Obama and Mitt Romney ignored this invitation, but Libertarian Party nominee Gary Johnson, Green Party nominee Jill Stein, Independent Rocky Anderson and Constitution Party nominee Virgil Goode did participate.

After the debate, watchers were asked to vote for who they felt did the best job, who deserved to proceed to a two-person, head-to-head debate on November 5. Two rounds of “instant runoff voting” were held. The first round tallied up voters’ first choice to debate on November 5:

Results of First Round of Voting After the 10/23/12 Free and Equal Debate

In a second round of votes, last-place finisher Virgil Goode was eliminated and those who voted for him had their second-choice votes for other candidates counted:

Final Round of Voting after the 10/23/2012 Free and Equal Debate: Gary Johnson and Jill Stein remain the winners

The shifting of Virgil Goode votes to other third-party candidates provides us a unique opportunity to judge the links between the ultra-conservative Virgil Goode and his 72.7% of the those supporting the government-for-Jesus-and-against-Mohammed, how-dare-they-put-God’s-name-only-on-the-edge-of-a-coin, utterly corrupt ex-Congressman shifted their votes to Gary Johnson. Just 16.5% of Virgil Goode supporters also supported Rocky Anderson. Only 10.8% of Virgil Goode supporters threw their support to Jill Stein, making the Green Party nominee the figure farthest from the controversial Goode.

After the second round of voting, Stein and Johnson remained the top two vote-getters, and so Gary Johnson will debate Jill Stein in the final debate of the presidential election season on November 5 at 9 pm Eastern Time.

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FEC Documents Reveal the Functional Center of Americans Elect: Wall Street Money

October 8th, 2012 | Posted by Jim Cook in Alternative Parties | Americans Elect | Election 2012 | Ethics | Media | Politics | State and Local - (0 Comments)

Meet the voters of Americans Elect. There are only three of them.

Voter #1: Michael Bloomberg. Voter qualification: $500,000 in Wall Street money.
Michael Bloomberg made billions of dollars selling high-priced infrastructure to Wall Street traders, allowing those gain unusually quick access to company information so they could make better trades and make more money than the average American.

Voter #2: Peter Ackerman. Voter qualification: $500,000 in Wall Street money.
Peter Ackerman made hundreds of millions of dollars as the right-hand man of Junk Bond King Michael Milken, the Wall Street big money investor who went to prison for 2 years for insider trading. His current net worth is undisclosed. Peter Ackerman became a voter with Americans Elect by putting up $500,000 of the proceeds.

Voter #3: Passport Capital. Voter qualification: $750,000 in Wall Street money.
Mitt Romney says “corporations are people,” and Americans Elect proves it by enfranchising the wealth management hedge fund firm Passport Capital Limited Liability Corporation as its third of three voters. Sure, Americans Elect asks the FEC to make the payment “attributable to” John Burbank the Third, but according to the FEC Passport Capital cut the check for $750,000.

In an exercise of closed-door democracy, these three representatives of Wall Street money voted unanimously to endorse Angus King for the open U.S. Senate seat in Maine. After the unanimous vote, money flowed quickly to Angus King through the following channels, including long-time Bloomberg campaign aides Douglas Schoen and SKDKnickerbocker:

Infographic Follow the Money From America's Wall Street Wealth through Americans Elect to Angus King

What about the thousands of official Americans Elect delegates and millions of other Americans who were promised “a true voice” in choosing Americans Elect candidates?

Christine Todd Whitman promising Americans Elect delegates that every American would have a true voice in picking Americans Elect candidates, March 2012

You can forget the springtime promises and pledges in the Official Bylaws and all that. The Official Bylaws are toilet paper. The new Official Enfranchised Voters gain their privileges by making six-figure donations. For the rest of you, your new title with Americans Elect is Chump. Your new role is to stand mutely and applaud. If you refuse to do that, don’t worry. The Americans Elect corporation will buy some stock footage of some other applauding Chumps.

Source: Federal Election Commission. Mirror available here.

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List of Senators who voted Money for Big Useless F-22 Fighter but Against Jobs for Veterans

September 21st, 2012 | Posted by Jim Cook in Economy | Legislation | Politics | War and Peace - (1 Comments)

Who “supports the troops?”

Let’s get right to the point. There are some members of the United States Senate who have done both of the following:

Vote Number 1: On July 21, 2009, some members of the U.S. Senate voted to spend $1.75 Billion buying more F-22 aircraft, an extremely expensive and useless weapon. A billion dollars will build the government just three, and the cost just begins there. At the time of the vote, the Washington Post revealed that the F-22 manages to fly just 1.7 hours on average before suffering a critical failure, and requires 34 hours of maintenance for every hour it flies. At the time of the vote, it had never hit its contracted reliability goals. It could not be flown reliably in the rain. It couldn’t even communicate with other planes. Three years after the vote, the F-22′s system for delivering oxygen to pilots still doesn’t work as well people said it should ten years ago; pilots are losing consciousness in the air. And the purpose of this expensive mis-built plane? To defeat the hypothetical next-generation aircraft of the Soviet Union, a country that no longer exists and that never actually deployed such an aircraft. What has been deployed is a whole lot of cash to support the congressional campaigns of sympathetic legislators.

Vote Number 2: On September 19 2012, some members of the U.S. Senate voted against the creation of a veterans job corps. The veterans job corps would have employed the people who are coming out of the military and being dumped into an absolutely dismal job market that has no capacity to hire them. The veterans jobs corps would not have been a welfare program but a jobs program, hiring veterans for jobs that don’t just deliver a paycheck but help the country through law enforcement, firefighting, historic preservation, resource management and conservation work.

The following are the members of the U.S. Senate who voted in favor of billions of dollars in contracts with giant military corporations for a useless F-22 fighter jet that didn’t work and which the country didn’t need, then voted against jobs for veterans doing useful work for America:

Senator Richard Burr (Republican-NC)
Senator Saxby Chambliss (Republican-GA)
Senator Thad Cochran (Republican-MS)
Senator John Cornyn (Republican-TX)
Senator Mike Crapo (Republican-ID)
Senator Charles Grassley (Republican-IA)
Senator Orrin Hatch (Republican-UT)
Senator Kay Hutchison (Republican-TX)
Senator Johnny Isakson (Republican-GA)
Senator Mike Johanns (Republican-NE)
Senator Mitch McConnell (Republican-KY)
Senator Pat Roberts (Republican-KS)
Senator John Thune (Republican-SD)
Senator David Vitter (Republican-LA)
Senator Roger Wicker (Republican-MS)

They voted to spend money on useless military contracts that lined big corporations’ pockets. They voted against money for useful jobs for veterans. Now you know where their priorities lie.

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More Spills to Come? House Votes to Approve Oil and Gas Drilling Without Safety Review

July 13th, 2012 | Posted by Jim Cook in Democrats | Economy | Environment | Legislation | Media | Politics | Republicans - (1 Comments)

It wasn’t so long ago. Do you remember?

Just two years ago, a BP oil spill wrecked the environment of Gulf of Mexico. Louisiana is actually losing shoreline to the sea at an increasing rate because the deluge of oil has killed off protective marshland.

Why did the BP oil disaster occur? The corporation cut corners, sabotaging safety for the sake of profit.

All this wasn’t so long ago. Does your member of Congress remember?

On June 21, U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier took to the floor of the House of Representatives to introduce an amendment to H.R. 4480. Passed by the House and now waiting for Senate approval, H.R. 4480 contains a provision that automatically approves a company’s application to drill for oil or gas on U.S. soil if the United States Interior Department takes longer than 60 days to review the application. This provision is part of a setup. As Rep. Jared Polis noted in remarks on the subject in 2011, the Interior Department has been plagued by staff shortages because Congress won’t hire enough people to review the applications. Thanks to Congress’ inaction, the Interior Department often takes more than 60 days to review applications and ensure the safety of a drill. A provision to automatically approve drilling applications after 60 days, rather than hire enough people to actually review drilling applications for safety, is effectively a bill to approve drilling applications without safety review.

Rising to oppose the 60-day automatic approval, Jackie Speier noted that the oil and gas industries are already drilling extensively and have a large number of already-approved applications, making automatic approval unnecessary — unless the oil and gas industry is seeking to cut corners and operate outside unsafely:

The United States is in the middle of a great drilling boom. In fact, the Obama administration has issued more drilling permits in the last 3 years than were issued in the first 3 years of the Bush administration. A recent Citigroup report suggests that the U.S. is already the world’s fastest-growing oil and natural gas producer. In counting the output from Canada and Mexico, North America is the “new Middle East.” Meanwhile, the top five oil companies made $137 billion in profits last year. They are reaping the benefits of this revival, and they are doing just fine.

Oil and gas companies are currently sitting on 6,700 approved –and I underscore “approved”– drilling permits that are not being used. Issuing more drilling permits more quickly is not the answer. What we should not be doing is tying the hands of Interior Department regulators by imposing an artificial and arbitrary shot clock in approving these drilling permits, especially when the risks of safety problems remain high. In fact, oil companies are already committing scores of serious safety violations when drilling on public lands onshore.

According to a recent Natural Resources Committee report, more than 2,000 safety and drilling violations were issued to 335 companies drilling in 17 States between 1998 and 2011… on dozens of occasions, oil and gas companies began drilling on Federal lands without the formal approval to do so. Many violations were issued because companies failed to keep proper records or to conduct routine safety tests….

We have many examples of when safety was not put first. Instead of preventing these sorts of safety violations, this bill puts profits first and safety and oversight last.

Rep. Speier’s amendment, if it had been passed, would have cancelled the automatic drilling approval provision in H.R. 4480… but the Speier amendment was promptly voted down by 255 members of the House.

Votes on the Speier Amendment to Stop Automatic Approval of Oil and Gas Drilling, June 2012If you think automatic approval for oil and gas drilling regardless of safety is a good idea, then you’d be best advised to vote Republican this November: of the 235 Republicans who bothered to show up and cast a vote, 234 voted against Speier’s amendment. Only one Republican (Tim Johnson of Illinois) voted to stop automatic approval of oil and gas drilling.

On the other hand, if you think that maybe in the wake of the BP disaster some safety checks might be in order, then voting Democratic this November is a better bet — although not an entirely assured one. 88% of voting Democrats voted for those safety checks and for Speier’s amendment. That’s most, but not all. Some 21 Democrats voted to grease the skids by for the oil and gas industry by voting against the Speier amendment. They are:

Rep. Jason Altmire
Rep. John Barrow
Rep. Sanford Bishop
Rep. Dan Boren
Rep. Leonard Boswell
Rep. Dennis Cardoza
Rep. Emanuel Cleaver
Rep. Jim Costa
Rep. Mark Critz
Rep. Henry Cuellar
Rep. Joe Donnelly
Rep. Gene Green
Rep. Kathleen Hochul
Rep. Tim Holden
Rep. Jim Matheson
Rep. Mike McIntyre
Rep. William Owens
Rep. Collin Peterson
Rep. Nick Rahall
Rep. Mike Ross
Rep. Jose Serrano

Members of the media appear not to have noticed any of this — not a single newspaper article has been written about the Speier amendment and Congress’ rejection of safety for the sake of quick corporate profit.

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They Voted for War to stop Fake WMDs. They Voted to let Real WMDs get away. Read the List.

June 4th, 2012 | Posted by Jim Cook in Legislation | Politics | Republicans | War and Peace - (0 Comments)

In May of 2012, Rep. Trent Franks of Arizona proposed a legislative amendment to eliminate funding for programs in which the United States cooperates with Russia to prevent the proliferation of nuclear weapons. This amendment, which passed, brings an end to relatively cheap but effective efforts to keep weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) out of the hands of terrorists. The roll call of votes for this amendment is here.

In October of 2002, the House of Representatives voted to authorize war against Iraq on the basis of the claim that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction (WMDs). This claim was false. The roll call for this vote is here.

The following is a list of members of Congress who voted for a deadly war to stop fake WMDs, but who voted 9 years later to cut funding for the program to stop real WMDs:

Rep. Robert Aderholt (Republican-AL, District 4)
Rep. Todd Akin (Republican-MO, District 2)
Rep. Spencer Bachus (Republican-AL, District 6)
Rep. Charles Bass (Republican-NH, District 2)
Rep. Judy Biggert (Republican-IL, District 13)
Rep. Mary Bono Mack (Republican-CA, District 45)
Rep. Kevin Brady (Republican-TX, District 8 )
Rep. Dan Burton (Republican-IN, District 5)
Rep. Ken Calvert (Republican-CA, District 44)
Rep. David Camp (Republican-MI, District 4)
Rep. Shelley Moore Capito (Republican-WV, District 2)
Rep. Steven Chabot (Republican-OH, District 1)
Rep. Howard Coble (Republican-NC, District 6)
Rep. Ander Crenshaw (Republican-FL, District 4)
Rep. John Culberson (Republican-TX, District 7)
Rep. David Dreier (Republican-CA, District 26)
Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (Republican-MO, District 8 )
Rep. Jeff Flake (Republican-AZ, District 6)
Rep. Randy Forbes (Republican-VA, District 4)
Rep. Elton Gallegly (Republican-CA, District 24)
Rep. Bob Goodlatte (Republican-VA, District 6)
Rep. Kay Granger (Republican-TX, District 12)
Rep. Samuel Graves (Republican-MO, District 6)
Rep. Tim Griffin (Republican-AR, District 2)
Rep. Morgan Griffith (Republican-VA, District 9)
Rep. Michael Grimm (Republican-NY, District 13)
Rep. Frank Guinta (Republican-NH, District 1)
Rep. Brett Guthrie (Republican-KY, District 2)
Rep. Ralph Hall (Republican-TX, District 4)
Rep. Doc Hastings (Republican-WA, District 4)
Rep. Walter Herger (Republican-CA, District 2)
Rep. Darrell Issa (Republican-CA, District 49)
Rep. Timothy Johnson (Republican-IL, District 15)
Rep. Sam Johnson (Republican-TX, District 3)
Rep. Walter Jones (Republican-NC, District 3)
Rep. Peter King (Republican-NY, District 3)
Rep. Jack Kingston (Republican-GA, District 1)
Rep. Tom Latham (Republican-IA, District 4)
Rep. Robert Latta (Republican-OH, District 5)
Rep. Jerry Lewis (Republican-CA, District 41)
Rep. Frank LoBiondo (Republican-NJ, District 2)
Rep. Frank Lucas (Republican-OK, District 3)
Rep. Donald Manzullo (Republican-IL, District 16)
Rep. Jim Matheson (Democrat-UT, District 2)
Rep. Mike McIntyre (Democrat-NC, District 7)
Rep. Howard McKeon (Republican-CA, District 25)
Rep. Patrick Meehan (Republican-PA, District 7)
Rep. John Mica (Republican-FL, District 7)
Rep. Jeff Miller (Republican-FL, District 1)
Rep. Gary Miller (Republican-CA, District 42)
Rep. Sue Myrick (Republican-NC, District 9)
Rep. Mike Pence (Republican-IN, District 6)
Rep. Collin Peterson (Democrat-MN, District 7)
Rep. Thomas Petri (Republican-WI, District 6)
Rep. Joseph Pitts (Republican-PA, District 16)
Rep. Todd Platts (Republican-PA, District 19)
Rep. Dennis Rehberg (Republican-MT, District 0)
Rep. Harold Rogers (Republican-KY, District 5)
Rep. Michael Rogers (Republican-MI, District 8 )
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (Republican-CA, District 46)
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (Republican-FL, District 18)
Rep. Mike Ross (Democrat-AR, District 4)
Rep. Edward Royce (Republican-CA, District 40)
Rep. Paul Ryan (Republican-WI, District 1)
Rep. Pete Sessions (Republican-TX, District 32)
Rep. John Shimkus (Republican-IL, District 19)
Rep. Bill Shuster (Republican-PA, District 9)
Rep. Michael Simpson (Republican-ID, District 2)
Rep. Christopher Smith (Republican-NJ, District 4)
Rep. Lamar Smith (Republican-TX, District 21)
Rep. Steve Southerland (Republican-FL, District 2)
Rep. Clifford Stearns (Republican-FL, District 6)
Rep. John Sullivan (Republican-OK, District 1)
Rep. Lee Terry (Republican-NE, District 2)
Rep. Mac Thornberry (Republican-TX, District 13)
Rep. Patrick Tiberi (Republican-OH, District 12)
Rep. Michael Turner (Republican-OH, District 3)
Rep. Frederick Upton (Republican-MI, District 6)
Rep. Timothy Walberg (Republican-MI, District 7)
Rep. Greg Walden (Republican-OR, District 2)
Rep. Edward Whitfield (Republican-KY, District 1)
Rep. Joe Wilson (Republican-SC, District 2)
Rep. Frank Wolf (Republican-VA, District 10)
Rep. Don Young (Republican-AK, District 0)
Rep. Bill Young (Republican-FL, District 10)

If your member is on the list, click the link associated with his or her name and ask the staffer who answers the phone what gives. Get ready for the sound of feet shuffling.

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The 72 Post-Cancellation Tweets about Americans Elect

May 3rd, 2012 | Posted by Jim Cook in Alternative Parties | Americans Elect | Election 2012 | Media | Politics - (3 Comments)

Since the morning of May 1, when Americans Elect was forced to cancel its first primary vote due to a very low participation rate, there have been just 72 posts on Twitter (“tweets”) using the hashtag #AmericansElect. Here’s a breakdown of the tweets by subject matter:

37 tweets: The cancellation of Americans Elect’s first primary vote
11 tweets: The declared presidential campaign of Buddy Roemer
9 tweets: Automatic “I signed up” notices of new members of Americans Elect
6 tweets: The declared presidential campaign Ronald Grey
2 tweets: The draft presidential campaign of David Walker
2 tweets: The draft presidential campaign of Jon Huntsman
2 tweets: Links to an essay by Walter Russell Mead lamenting the fact that Americans don’t like Americans Elect
1 tweet: Link to the effort by Richard Grayson to take over the Americans Elect Party in Arizona
1 tweet: French commentary on Americans Elect
1 tweet: German commentary on Americans Elect

Just as most of the action by people is to walk away from Americans Elect, most of the talk by people is about the shut-down of Americans Elect votes.

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Americans Elect Race to the Nomination Ballot (3/10/12): Turtles all the way Down

March 11th, 2012 | Posted by Jim Cook in Alternative Parties | Americans Elect | Election 2012 | Politics - (17 Comments)

Bill Busa, a frequent observer of Americans Elect with a critical eye for detail, has asked me to post the following graph and accompanying text he’s written about prospects for contenders to actually make the Americans Elect ballot in the nation’s first online privatized presidential nomination. I’m happy to oblige:

Americans Elect Corporation: Race to the Primary Ballot (Results as of March 10 2012)

Busa’s captioned commentary:

To advance to the first primary ballot, a candidate must attain either 1,000 or 5,000 “delegate” votes in each of ten states (1,000 for candidates with qualifications favored by Americans Elect’s Board of Directors, 5,000 for all others). To calculate the “Percent of required votes attained” shown here, a candidate’s current vote totals for each of his/her top ten states was expressed as a percentage of the per-state requirement (1,000 or 5,000), and these ten values were then averaged. The “On-Track Line” indicates that with 37% of the voting period completed, a candidate should have attained at least 37% of the required votes in order to be on-track to qualify for the primary ballot.

My thoughts on Busa’s contribution (thanks, Bill):

In the past, Americans Elect has surmounted the lack of popular excitement about Americans Elect by hiring paid signature gatherers. Given the lack of participation in the delegate vote for Americans Elect presidential contenders, one might suppose that a financially-endowed candidate might swoop in at this late stage in the process and hire more paid gatherers to sign people up and manage their vote.

I’m not sure such a move would be effective. In order to gain ballot access in various states, Americans Elect has only needed money (supplied by deep-pocketed hedge fund managers) to hire people to stand outside supermarkets and collect signatures. For the people who agree to sign ballot petitions, there’s only a 20 second commitment. But voting for a candidate requires a much deeper commitment. A person has to:

1. Head online
2. Create an account at Americans Elect, tethered to an e-mail account
3. Provide a variety of personal information, including name, address, date of birth and the last four digits of a social security number
4. Search for a candidate, and then vote.

Even if that process weren’t fraught with reluctance, it couldn’t be completed in a supermarket parking lot. And it turns out that the process is fraught with reluctance. Some people are complaining that the Americans Elect system won’t verify their status even though they’re required to vote. Others are refusing to fully register if that means sharing personal information that taken together could be used to carry out identity theft.

Big money won’t magically overcome these barriers, not with just a handful of weeks left to go in the process. For Americans Elect contenders to reach the needed threshold to make the ballot, there has to be an actual swell of grassroots support that is fervent enough to overcome these barriers to participation. As Busa’s graph demonstrates, that’s just not happening. In a race to obtain presidential ballot access, there are usually fast hares and slow turtles. In the case of Americans Elect, it’s turtles all the way down.

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