V-O-T-E!
Outside the Democratic Debates: Charleston, S.C. - July 2007
03 NOV. 2008 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------>
You don't live in Ohio. You don't live in Florida. The chance is pretty small that New York will decide the presidential election. So: Why vote?
Here's why. This list is important—so please read it, and then pass it along. And remember: To find out where to vote, what you need to bring, or when the polls close, click here: www.voteforchange.com.
The Top 6 Reasons To Vote In New York
Or: Why It Still Means A Thing Even If It Ain't Got That Swing
Big margin = big mandate. The popular vote doesn't put anyone in the White House, but it affects what presidents can do when they get there. Want Obama to be able to actually do the stuff he's been talking about? Pass universal health care? End the war? Then we need a landslide.
The other things on the ballot matter! For example: Congress. Without more support in the House and Senate, Obama will have a hard time getting progressive laws passed. Plus, there are other important local races and ballot questions in some places.
If you don't vote, everyone can find out. Voting records are public. (Not who you voted for, just whether you voted.) Pretty soon, finding out whether you voted could be as easy as Googling you.
Help make history. You could cast one of the votes that elect the first African-American president. If we win, we'll tell our grandchildren about this election, and they'll tell their grandchildren. Do you really want to have to explain to your great-great-grandchildren that you were just too busy to vote in the most important election in your lifetime?
In New York, you can vote Obama on the Working Families line (Row E). Barack Obama will appear on your ballot twice in New York—first under the Democratic Party, and then again on Row E, the ballot line of New York's growing progressive third party. Voting for Barack Obama on the Working Families Party line counts exactly the same for the presidential race—and it also strengthens one of the most important efforts in the country to push Democrats to be more bold and progressive.
People died so you'd have the right to vote. Self-government—voting to choose our own leaders—is the original American dream. We are heir to a centuries-long struggle for freedom: the American Revolution, and the battles to extend the franchise to those without property, to women, to people of color, and to young people. This year, many will still be denied their right to vote. For those of us who have that right, it's precious. If we waste it, we dishonor those who fought for it and those who fight still.
Live your values. Love your country. Vote.
Click here for information about where to vote, what to bring, and when polls close:
Thanks for all that you do.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
November 2, 2008
Tomgram: The End of a Subprime Administration
[Note for TomDispatch Readers: As Election 2008 approaches, this seems like an appropriate time to look back, but also to say goodbye to all that. Yes, we have almost three months of the Bush administration to go; yes, so much that George W. did will be with us for an eternity. Still, the moment needs to be marked. I've done my best below. For new TomDispatch readers, in particular, let me suggest another way to mark this boundary moment: pick up a copy of The World According to TomDispatch: America in a New Age of Empire. It will bring you up to speed on this site, remind you of just what we've gone through since September 11, 2001, and offer you a sense of the ways in which our world has been changed that no new administration will be capable of ignoring. Tom]
Foreclosed
The George W. Bush Story
By Tom Engelhardt
They may have been the most disastrous dreamers, the most reckless gamblers, and the most vigorous imperial hucksters and grifters in our history. Selling was their passion. And they were classic American salesmen -- if you're talking about underwater land in Florida, or the Brooklyn Bridge, or three-card monte, or bizarre visions of Iraqi unmanned aerial vehicles armed with chemical and biological weaponry let loose over the U.S., or Saddam Hussein's mushroom clouds rising over American cities, or a full-scale reordering of the Middle East to our taste, or simply eternal global dominance.
When historians look back, it will be far clearer that the "commander-in-chief" of a "wartime" country and his top officials were focused, first and foremost, not on the shifting "central theaters" of the Global War on Terror, but on the theater that mattered most to them -- the "home front" where they spent inordinate amounts of time selling the American people a bill of goods. Of his timing in ramping up a campaign to invade Iraq in September 2002, White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card infamously explained: "From a marketing point of view, you don't introduce new products in August."
Indeed.
From a White House where "victory strategies" meant purely for domestic consumption poured out, to the Pentagon where bevies of generals, admirals, and other high officers were constantly being mustered, not to lead armies but to lead public opinion, their selling focus was total. They were always releasing "new product."
And don't forget their own set of soaring inside-the-Beltway fantasies. After all, if a salesman is going to sell you some defective product, it always helps if he can sell himself on it first. And on this score, they were world champs.
V-O-T-E!
Outside the Democratic Debates: Charleston, S.C. - July 2007
03 NOV. 2008 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------>
You don't live in Ohio. You don't live in Florida. The chance is pretty small that New York will decide the presidential election. So: Why vote?
Here's why. This list is important—so please read it, and then pass it along. And remember: To find out where to vote, what you need to bring, or when the polls close, click here: www.voteforchange.com.
The Top 6 Reasons To Vote In New York
Or: Why It Still Means A Thing Even If It Ain't Got That Swing
Big margin = big mandate. The popular vote doesn't put anyone in the White House, but it affects what presidents can do when they get there. Want Obama to be able to actually do the stuff he's been talking about? Pass universal health care? End the war? Then we need a landslide.
The other things on the ballot matter! For example: Congress. Without more support in the House and Senate, Obama will have a hard time getting progressive laws passed. Plus, there are other important local races and ballot questions in some places.
If you don't vote, everyone can find out. Voting records are public. (Not who you voted for, just whether you voted.) Pretty soon, finding out whether you voted could be as easy as Googling you.
Help make history. You could cast one of the votes that elect the first African-American president. If we win, we'll tell our grandchildren about this election, and they'll tell their grandchildren. Do you really want to have to explain to your great-great-grandchildren that you were just too busy to vote in the most important election in your lifetime?
In New York, you can vote Obama on the Working Families line (Row E). Barack Obama will appear on your ballot twice in New York—first under the Democratic Party, and then again on Row E, the ballot line of New York's growing progressive third party. Voting for Barack Obama on the Working Families Party line counts exactly the same for the presidential race—and it also strengthens one of the most important efforts in the country to push Democrats to be more bold and progressive.
People died so you'd have the right to vote. Self-government—voting to choose our own leaders—is the original American dream. We are heir to a centuries-long struggle for freedom: the American Revolution, and the battles to extend the franchise to those without property, to women, to people of color, and to young people. This year, many will still be denied their right to vote. For those of us who have that right, it's precious. If we waste it, we dishonor those who fought for it and those who fight still.
Live your values. Love your country. Vote.
Click here for information about where to vote, what to bring, and when polls close:
Thanks for all that you do.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
November 2, 2008
Tomgram: The End of a Subprime Administration
[Note for TomDispatch Readers: As Election 2008 approaches, this seems like an appropriate time to look back, but also to say goodbye to all that. Yes, we have almost three months of the Bush administration to go; yes, so much that George W. did will be with us for an eternity. Still, the moment needs to be marked. I've done my best below. For new TomDispatch readers, in particular, let me suggest another way to mark this boundary moment: pick up a copy of The World According to TomDispatch: America in a New Age of Empire. It will bring you up to speed on this site, remind you of just what we've gone through since September 11, 2001, and offer you a sense of the ways in which our world has been changed that no new administration will be capable of ignoring. Tom]
Foreclosed
The George W. Bush Story
By Tom Engelhardt
They may have been the most disastrous dreamers, the most reckless gamblers, and the most vigorous imperial hucksters and grifters in our history. Selling was their passion. And they were classic American salesmen -- if you're talking about underwater land in Florida, or the Brooklyn Bridge, or three-card monte, or bizarre visions of Iraqi unmanned aerial vehicles armed with chemical and biological weaponry let loose over the U.S., or Saddam Hussein's mushroom clouds rising over American cities, or a full-scale reordering of the Middle East to our taste, or simply eternal global dominance.
When historians look back, it will be far clearer that the "commander-in-chief" of a "wartime" country and his top officials were focused, first and foremost, not on the shifting "central theaters" of the Global War on Terror, but on the theater that mattered most to them -- the "home front" where they spent inordinate amounts of time selling the American people a bill of goods. Of his timing in ramping up a campaign to invade Iraq in September 2002, White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card infamously explained: "From a marketing point of view, you don't introduce new products in August."
Indeed.
From a White House where "victory strategies" meant purely for domestic consumption poured out, to the Pentagon where bevies of generals, admirals, and other high officers were constantly being mustered, not to lead armies but to lead public opinion, their selling focus was total. They were always releasing "new product."
And don't forget their own set of soaring inside-the-Beltway fantasies. After all, if a salesman is going to sell you some defective product, it always helps if he can sell himself on it first. And on this score, they were world champs.