In case you didn't catch Jay Myerson...

...check out this flash animation about what happened with the voter purge list in 2000.

Via Ian at BOPnews.

Jay Myerson is General Counsel to the Democratic Party of Virginia. He swung by Campaign 101 late in the afternoon of Sunday, July 11. Most of you had left to face the long drives home, but Jay spent about half an hour talking with those of us were left about the 2000 Florida Recount, which he and Jack Young led for the Gore campaign. Prevailing wisdom says that if the Gore team had listened to Jay and Jack..we'd be re-electing Gore right now. I highly recommend Jeffrey Toobin's book Too Close to Call,which gives a play by play of what happened with the recount--for those of you who missed hearing it first-hand from Jay.

Not old enough for politics?

Think again.

Twelve year old speaker wows convention delegates

(Ilana) Wexler, who founded a grassroots group called kidsforkerry.org, was rewarded last week with a phone call from Teresa Heinz Kerry inviting her to address the convention in prime time...With her high pitched voice and breathy enthusiasm, the seventh grader from Oakland, Calif., wowed the crowd Tuesday night.

...Jonathan Wexler said his daughter decided to get involved in politics after listening to Bruce Springsteen's Sept. 11 tribute album, The Rising, and traveling with her family through Central America and Europe for five months last year, where she saw how the Iraq war had affected the world. After researching all the candidates, she settled on Kerry...In February, Wexler began doing voluntary phone banking for the Kerry campaign, and launched kidsforkerry.org shortly thereafter...Ilana has even done her part to grease the Kerry money machine, turning her own birthday party last March into a Kerry fund raiser.

Read more...

That could be any one of you making a speech at the DNC, you know. And I look forward to watching many of you get up there over the years in a variet of roles.

If you have friends or younger brothers or sisters that aren't into this yet, try turning them on to Ilana Wexler's group, Kids for Kerry.

Voting with our wallets

I've been wanting to talk with everyone about is the power of voting with your wallet.

When I grew up, the mantra was "the personal is political." I'm curious if this is a concept that you're even familiar with--the idea that your consumer decisions (including not buying, or choosing to recycle or buy second-hand) are a logical extension of your personal politics.

Making political decisions as a consumer is a radical concept in such a consumption-oriented society. It is also an easy practice to adopt that adds mindfulness and moral awareness to our everyday actions.

For me, this means not shopping at Walmart (do you know about Walmart's labor practices or the Walmart class action suit that is pending right now), it means supporting local businesses, it means buying organic and fair trade products when they are available. And, it means I don't support corporations that contribute to the Republicans. It also means, and this is the radical part in our culture...choosing to do without or make do with less so that I can afford to sometimes pay more for goods and services that are consistent with my personal beliefs. And it means I take responsibility for my own ignorance, and try to educate myself so I can make informed decisions.

I have two specific examples for you.

Ian Welsh, on The Blogging of the President has a well-researched and well-written post up about the differences between Wal-Mart and Costco:

Be clear, both provide cheap goods for consumers and good profits for investors, so the only question is this: do you want citizens who are workers to be well treated, well paid employees who have healthcare or not?

Choose your model for America. I know which model I prefer.

The article is excellent, and so are the comments beneath it. Read the whole thing here.

In a similar vein, I've been posting on my own blog lately about the problems with Amazon.com and the many great reasons I prefer Powell's Books:

It's all about voting with my wallet (the only way I can vote here) and putting my money where my mouth is...instead of putting my money where their jackboots are.

I hope you'll read the whole post here, and I'd love to hear your thoughts on the subject.

Fair and Balanced

Here is a taste of objective journalism, Canadian style:

The CBC's INDEPTH: US ELECTION 2004 - U.S. Presidential Candidates

Read the biographies of both the candidates and then let me know how you think this compares to American media coverage of the election.

Cost of War

Are you familiar with the Cost of War counter?






(I've just added one to Tsuredzuregusa.)

As I write this, the money that Bush has looted from American taxpayers to squander on his illegal invasion of Iraq has just topped $127,554 MILLION dollars.

To put that number in perspective, it could have hired 2,372,522 additional public school teachers across the country.

So far, Virginia's share of the cost has surpassed $3 BILLION dollars. With that money, we could have hired 59,222 new teachers in Virginia -- or 1,017 teachers in Richmond alone. We could have likewise used that money to provide full, 4-year university scholarships to 78,863 Virginia students.

The US could have fully funded the global anti-hunger program for 5 years. Stop and think about that. Not a single man, woman or child would have to go hungry anywhere on this planet for a full five years.

But instead, we are killing Iraqi civilians and American service people so that Bush, Cheney, Halliburton and the Carlyle Group can make a quick buck.

Check out the Cost of War website--by the time you look, the figures I have quoted above will be obsolete.

How would you feel about adding a cost of war counter to C101 as well?

Update:
Here is another way to put those big finance numbers in perspective.