Tag: Problems

If There Is A Heavy Voter Turn Out

Election officials around the country are bracing for huge voter turnout and a big spike in early voting may not be enough to prevent long lines at the polls come November 4.

The high level of interest in the election leaves local officials scrambling for unprecedented voter turnout. In Virginia, for example, the Secretary of State’s office is projecting 90 percent voter turnout statewide, compared to 71 percent in 2004. Nationally, Mary Wilson, president of the League of Women Voters, says many election officials are bracing for 80 to 85 percent turnout. Of particular concern is that a flood of first-time voters navigating the polling place for the first time could make lines move even slower.

But nationally, a study released by the Century Foundation and Common Cause of 10 swing states found significant problems remain in the allocation of voting machines, and the recruitment and training of poll workers. Increasingly complicated voting laws and technology have strained the army of low-paid senior citizens most localities rely on to operate polling places.

Local officials and both presidential campaigns have encouraged voters to cast their ballots prior to the election. Many states allow voters to cast their ballots early in person or use absentee ballots without an excuse such as illness or being out of town.

Early voting is expected to increase from eight percent in 2004 to a third of voters this year, predicts Paul Gronke, who directs Reed College’s early voting information center.

AS reported in CQPolitics by Seth Stem.

We Are Whiners!

I was really pissed after Phil Gramm made his now infamous statement about the American people. But after thinking it over completely I must agree with Gramm. Oh hell, not for the same reason he said but on others. America is truly a nation of whiners.

Why do I say this? Glad you asked.

WE whine about the price of gas while we pump it into a large SUV that gets 4 gallons to the mile. WE whine about the price of food yet we throw away enough food to feed a small third world country. We whine about the leadership of the country but we continue the same types to Washington.

It is the age old problem, everyone sees the problem but it is up toi someone to solve it…we cannot be bothered with that part of the problem.

So I say to my fellow Americans….Whine on and do nothing…that is always a good solution to the problem.

Collapse Of The Middle Class

This is a piece written by Rep. Bernie Sanders of the Progressive Caucus:

As gas and oil prices soared and as the nation slipped into recession, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) asked Vermonters to tell him what was going on in their lives economically.

He expected a few dozen replies.  In fact, hundreds of e-mail letters poured in.

Sanders has gone to the Senate floor to read aloud from scores of the letters. Now he has assembled the most poignant stories in a booklet; The Collapse of the Middle Class, Letters from Vermont and America.

A Vermont mother wrote, “We have at times had to choose between baby food and heating fuel.”  A 55-year-old man from rural Pennsylvania said, “I am just tired, the harder that I work the harder it gets.” A retired couple in Vermont asked, “Does anybody in Washington care?”

“It is one thing to read dry economic statistics which describe the collapse of the American middle class,” Sanders said.  “It is another thing to understand, in flesh and blood terms, what that means in the lives of ordinary Americans.

“The responses that I received describe the decline of the American middle class from the perspective of those people who are living that decline,” he added.  “They speak about families who, not long ago, thought they were economically secure, but now find themselves sinking into desperation and hopelessness.

“It is imperative,” Sanders said, “that Congress and the corporate media understand the painful reality facing the middle class today so that we can develop the appropriate public policy to address this crisis.”

An electronic version of the booklet also is available on Sanders’ Web page at http://www.sanders.senate.gov/qa/meetingqs.cfm