17 August 2005

Babblemur's Asshat of the Month contest heats up!

Babblemur's Asshat of the Month contest is heating up as nominations come in fast and furious! If you want to vote, here is a list of some of the nominated 'asshats' and some comments as well. (Note: Rumsfeld hasn't been nominated yet! But if this picture doesn't have "asshat" written all over it...) You are more than welcome to nominate others, vote on these, both, or neither! Here in Ohio/Florida/Wisconsin, you can vote however you want, for as many as you want, as many times as you want, and our Accenture Machine will magically produce the result!

15 August 2005

Israel starts pulling Jewish Settlers out of Gaza

Jewish Settlements in the Gaza Strip are being sealed off, residents who haven't already left are being forceably removed this week. In the picture above an Israeli soldier delivers an eviction notice.

14 August 2005

Christopher Walken for President?

Now this is how to run a grassroots third party campaign!

"If you want to learn how to build a house, build a house. Don't ask anybody, just build a house." - Christopher Walken

12 August 2005

Cindy Sheehan Commercial to be run in Crawford, Texas

A commercial, paid for by Gold Star Families for Peace, consists of just Cindy Sheehan talking directly to the camera, calling President Bush a liar, holding back tears. No music. No graphics. Just words and emotion. Raw Story has the commercial here.

Oklahoma Green Serena Blaiz first hand account from Crawford Texas (greencommons.org)

First hand accounts from the ground are so much more interesting than the media-filtered reports.

10 August 2005

Send Wal-Mart back to school

Entirely taken rom Tony Palmeri's site:

August 10, 2005

At a late morning press conference held at Oshkosh North High School, four speakers called on members of the community to sign on to WakeupWalmart.com's pledge not to buy their back to school supplies at Wal-Mart this year. 2004 Democratic Party candidate for the 54th state assembly district Gordon Hintz, president of the WEAC Fox Valley Retiree's chapter Ken Flood, Oshkosh Education Association President Len Herricks and I [Tony Palmeri] all focused on some part of Wal-Mart's failing report card:

• Child Labor: Wal-Mart agreed to pay $135,540 to settle federal charges that it broke child labor laws in 2005. Three Wal-Mart stores in Connecticut were fined just weeks ago for child-labor law violations.
• Gender Discrimination: Wal-Mart is facing the largest gender discrimination lawsuit in history affecting more than 1.6 million female employees.
• Taxpayer-Funded Health Care: Fewer than half of Wal-Mart's workers are covered by the company's health plan. Wal-Mart costs American taxpayers up to $2.5 billion per year in public health care can public assistance programs.
• Poverty Level Wages: Wal-Mart pays workers too little to keep a family of four out of poverty.

In my [Tony Palmeri's] remarks, I emphasized that Wal-Mart in Wisconsin is the chief corporate abuser of the state's Badger Care program. As of April, 809 Wal-Mart employees and 443 employee dependents were enrolled in the Badger Care program, costing the state $2.7 million per year. It's unconscionable that a company profiting off cheap labor is a health care moocher.

I also made the point that refusing to buy back to school supplies from Wal-Mart is a simple yet powerful way that citizen consumers can demand accountability from the company.

The press conference was part of a coordinated nationwide launch held in 34 cities and 24 states. The "Send Wal-Mart Back to School" campaign is the most coordinated action against Wal-Mart in recent history.

8 August 2005

Dubious Democracy 2005

(FAIR VOTE - Voting and Demcracy Research Center) Since 1982, only three House incumbents have been defeated in Wisconsin out of a total of 99 reelection races. In 2004, seven of eight U.S. House races in Wisconsin were won by landslide margins of at least 20% and the average margin of victory was 37%.

Dubious Democracy 2005 provides a comprehensive assessment of the level of competition and accuracy of representation in U.S. House elections in all 50 states from 1982 to 2004. It ranks each state on a “democracy index” based on average margin of victory, percentage of seats to votes, how many voters elect candidates and number of House races won by overwhelming landslides. Some highlighted national facts include:

* Sky-high incumbency rates. Only five incumbents lost to challengers in 2004 -- the second lowest in our nation’s history. Nearly nine in ten incumbents were re-elected by “landslide” margins of at least 20 percent.

* Landslides. In 14 states, every race was won by a landslide margin of at least 20 percent in 2004. Only four states (all with less than three seats) recorded no landslide wins.

* High victory margins. The average victory margin was a whopping 40 percent. Seven of every eight (83%) U.S. House races were won by landslide margins of at least 20 percent in 2004. Only 23 races (5%) were won by competitive margins of less than 10 percent.

* Apathy. Nearly one out of every 11 voters skipped over their House race on the ballot. Despite a surge in turnout due to the presidential race, more than 62 percent of eligible voters – nearly two in three – did not vote for a winning House representative.