We're back to the Wild West here, out on the frontier.  Velvet Revolution has just posted notice of a $100,000 bounty:

"...for information leading to arrest and conviction for election fraud affecting the outcome of California's Proposition 8.

Why Georgia? There's strongly suggestive evidence that the 2002 senatorial election in Georgia was stolen. That was the first election in which Diebold electronic DRE voting machines were used statewide.  Republican Saxby Chambliss beat front runner Democrat Max Cleland, with an astounding 12-point reversal of the vote count compared to pre-election polls.  A last-minute "patch" had been applied covertly by Diebold staff to multiple voting machines throughout the state.

This first novel, The Playbook, portrays a Republican presidential administration headed by an incompetent president, backed up by an unethical, conservative vice president and a scheming political advisor.  Sound familiar?  When a copy of a highly confidential document, the conservatives’ “playbook”, falls into the wrong hands, individual careers, an upcoming election, and ultimately the nation are put in jeopardy.  Interesting twists emerge as the plot evolves around the relationship of this administration to a religious fundamentalist sect, domestic secret torture facilities, an

If we progressives want to connect with people, it's important for us to talk about our values and what we care about.  Talking about a list of policy positions isn't sufficient --  it's too intellectual.  Yet many progressives aren't accustomed to talking, or even thinking, about what motivates us to support the positions we do. 

Here are examples of four Commonweal Institute folks talking about values:

Katherine Forrest:

Progressive values & her own values, especially truthfulness

There's a silver lining in the combination of the economic crisis and high energy costs, from the standpoint of the environment and workers.  The renewal of tax credits for solar and wind energy will not only help renewable energy companies, but unemployed workers as well.  People who are handy will likely be more able to find jobs installing solar panels or working in clean energy companies.  In addition, since petroleum costs continue to be high, there is likely to be increased demand for increased home and building insulation, weather-stripping, and even caulking of leaky walls that let

I'm scheduled to appear on KKUP radio, 91.5 FM, this coming Sunday, October 5, from 12:30 – 12:50 p.m.

The show is the Wimmin’s Music Program, hosted by Laura Testa.  Details about the program are on KKUP's website.  Their broadcast area is roughly demarcated by Oakland to King City inland, and Monterey to San Mateo on the California coast.

The Progressive Ideas Network (PIN), an alliance of 20 progressive think tanks and activist organizations, picked a perfect time for release this week of their first joint publication, "New Progressive Voices: Values and Policy for the 21st Century."

Science Debate 2008 has just announced that both major presidential candidates have now responded to a series of questions regarding major scientific issues.  Barack Obama responded two weeks ago; John McCain's response was announced today. 

ScienceDebate2008.com is a citizens’ initiative whose signers now include nearly every major American science organization, the presidents of nearly every major American university, and dozens of Nobel laureates and top American CEOs.

Internet communication, which makes it easier to target narrower audiences, has been contributing to the decline of newspapers and network television, which are mass audience media.  Online messaging is being targeted to narrower audiences and exploitation of social network facilitates this targeting.  The internet and other new media are also democratizing politics – not just in terms of fundraising and grassroots organizing, but also in campaign creation and management, polling, and candidate promotion. 

Greg Gordon (McClatchy Washington Bureau) today had a story that actually made it into the front section of my local paper:

Texas-based Premier Elections Solutions last week alerted at least 1,750 jurisdictions across the country that special precautions are needed to address the problem in tabulation software affecting all 19 of its models dating back a decade.

Premier Elections Solutions is the new monicker for Diebold, the notorious manufacturer of flawed voting machines. Talk about putting lipstick on a pig! But the stink remains.

Let’s consider the topic of this story, though. It’s new, but at the same time, it’s not new. A small cadre of technology experts, bloggers, and patriotic citizens has been trying for years to get the mainstream media to pay attention to the fundamental threats to American democracy that are posed by our flawed election system. All four of the most recent national elections, starting with 2000, have been marked by widespread problems with electronic voting machines, other equipment failures, disenfranchisement, missing votes, intimidation, names dropped from the voting rolls---the list is too long to recite. See the new documentary, Stealing America: Vote by Vote for a view of how pervasive and diverse the problems are.

It’s about time to pay attention, guys and gals. At this point, mainstream media’s inattention has to be added to the list as one of the major threat to democracy. How many letters to the editors and editorial page commentaries will appear after this important McClatchy story? How many further articles will be written or broadcast in other media outlets to advance public understanding of what’s been going on in those 1,750 jurisdictions, and who may have benefited by having that flawed tabulation software in operation for the past decade?