Summary of Florida Constitutional Amendments 2008 Ballot

When I read my ballot, I shook my head and could not believe the lengthy nature of the different initiatives. So, I have been searching on the web for various research sites for information on the Amendments. I list them below, based on the document from Florida League of Cities. For clarity’s sake, I am also including the Miami Herald’s and Sun-Sentinel’s endorsements.

I also received a great link for explanations on the Amendments from a commenter – which I am now including in the post. Be sure to look at the Flash display on each Amendment at the Collins Center.
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Posted in Campaign 2008, Political Thoughts | Tagged , , , , | 14 Comments

Summary of the Florida/Broward 2008 Ballot

Voting on the Broward Ballot

Voting on the Broward Ballot (photo by @fredericguarino)

Whew! I just got my ballot in the mail (since I hate long lines) and I was astounded at the NINE EIGHT sides (four pages) of content on the ballot.

Last cycle, I was on the Early Vote effort for Kerry, I remember going to houses and condos of Early Voters and seeing their ballots on their kitchen tables and the need for the voter to go through all sorts of information to understand each of the ballot measures that were there.

So this time, I decided – why not make a cheat sheet on how to find the answers to the different ballot measures that you might need to research. Spending time on google is one thing, spending it on six different elected offices, six statewide amendments and ten county initiatives is quite another…

I am going to list all of the elected positions on this post, and then summarize the amendments and county initiatives on another. And to help in making a choice, I am going to include the opinions of the two major papers of the area – the Miami Herald and the Sun-Sentinel.
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Posted in Broward County Ballot 2008, Campaign 2008, Political Thoughts | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Voting Problems already? Join the twittervotereport team!

Voting Problems in Kendall (Dade County, FL) for 2008

Voting Problems in Kendall (Dade County, FL) for 2008

Already – in Florida, reports of issues are already happening. Granted, this is a complaint on a delay in West Kendall in Dade County – but come on, this is 2008.

An ambitious team of developers and technical people are trying now to get a project launched in time for the election to allow members of the voting public to communicate on what the status is of the polling places around the country such that issues are not swept under the floor and people can act/react to the issues – and contribute to the success of the our political process.

Twitter Vote Report (http://www.twitter.com/votereport)

The concept is simple – when you see an issue, see he status of what is happening at your polling station, send a message to #votereport via twitter or a number of other mechanisms.  The tweet, message, call, whatever will be collected into a single database and can be used for visualization (on a google map for example) or with a SMS message to the Voting Right Attorneys in Florida.  

The goal, stated by the team (which includes Allison Fine and Matthew Cooperrider) as well as a slew of volunteers who have joined the cause, is to create a non-partisan service which allows for the freedom to vote to be protected by all Americans, not just the ones hired by the states.  

Are you interested in doing some programming?  Some marketing?

The team needs your help.  They are looking for people to get involved in the coding, the spreading the word about the process and the engagement of others into the fold to make this happen – through partnerships with any number of anti-suppression groups.

If you’d like to jon – go to http://groups.google.com/group/twittervotereport and ask to become a member.  You can do your part.

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Did the Democrats cause this financial crisis? Did the Repugs?

Today, while waiting for the markets to open, I watched a couple of videos that were on YouTube, and a particular duo of them were incredibly impactful – using what could be perceived as nicely, sliced content setting up the argument that Democrats are the cause of the financial contagion. This does not make sense to me.
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Posted in Campaign 2008 | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Death of Posse Comitatus Act? Can this be true?

Sent by a friend from Naomi Wolf and the American Freedom Campaign:

Dear Friend –

What would you do if you learned that President Bush was preparing – in violation of federal law – to use the U.S. military to maintain order within our borders? I hope you would at least take one minute to help raise awareness about the situation.

For more than 200 years, federal laws have protected the American people against the use of military forces on our own soil. Strengthened in 1878 by the Posse Comitatus Act, these laws have guaranteed that the federal government could not use the military for domestic law enforcement purposes.

Without such protection, the federal government could use the might of our army to violate state and individual rights. Moreover, minor incursions by the military into domestic law enforcement activity could lay the foundation for the imposition of martial law at a moment’s notice. This is one slippery slope we don’t want to start sliding down.

That is why we should all be deeply disturbed by the news that President Bush has assigned the 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team to be under the day-to-day control of U.S. Army North, the Army component of Northern Command (NorthCom). According to an article in “Army Times”, the soldiers could be called upon for a variety of tasks, including quelling “civil unrest.” They are apparently engaged in training with shield and batons, beanbag bullets, and Tasers.

We need to raise awareness about this threat to our liberty immediately. That is why I just sent an email through the American Freedom Campaign Web site, urging the moderators of the next two presidential debates to ask the candidates whether they would fully enforce the Posse Comitatus Act.

I hope you will join me in this effort. You can do so by using the following link to take action.

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/2165/t/1027/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=26045

Thanks in advance for making your voice heard.

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