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Originally uploaded by Smash Monster
Voted! Do you smell that? Democracy cleaning House!
City Hall had two precincts voting. One line was about 45 min but mine was only 15 – hoping that means lots of people voted by mail
He might be ahead in the polls but none of us should take this election for granted. Already Republican operatives are trying to undermine democracy as they did in the 2000 and 2004 election. Fliers were distributed in Virginia informing voters that Republicans vote on Tuesday, Democrats on Wednesday – and this type of deception has happened in the past.
Ask everyone you see on election day: Did you vote today? Remind people how important it is.
I saw this image today of Republicans who support McCain – Palin demonstrating with a revised Rosie the Riveter showing Palin’s face and the famous WWII tagline: We can do it.
Blue economies have historically outperformed Red economies – and they offer a great quote from FDR – Vote Democrat and Live Like a Republican.
Learn more about how when one major company cuts costs the burden falls on all of us to pay the bill.
Blue Meany took some awesome pics in Bagdhad of people giving her the purple finger 
Interesting case of a woman who decided she should not be required to show ID while commuting to work on a public bus. I’m always impressed by people who decide their own comfort is not as important as a principle – it would have been easy to just show the ID, but she felt there was a deeper issue (freedom) at stake.
There is a pretty good video clip on Democracy Now! from this documentary on the use of white phosphorous, also known as Willy Pete in soldier slang, in Iraq.
There are some disturbing discussions of how it burns the flesh to the bone and photos of burned bodies. So be prepared for that.
For those who are interested (this seems to have fallen out of the national press and has stayed local) here is an update on the trial of the University of Florida professor Al-Arian.
Interesting commentary from Toronto’s Globe and Mail.
“Middle-class families with the best private health plans are declaring bankruptcy because of deductibles and co-payments for sick kids. Living standards are in decline: Pay, vacations and benefits are shrinking — even under “good” union contracts. These crises get reported but not discussed or debated. Those in power aren’t challenged on them. Instead, you’re allowed to go after poor (literally) Private Lynndie England for the mess in Iraq, or pathetic Mike Brown of the federal emergency agency for the mess in New Orleans. If you want to attack those at the top, though, it has to be for some minor spy botch, which is in a complicated way connected to Iraq. When real politics is off the agenda, it has to sneak in the back door by way of ethics, corruption, dating or spying.”
