Paste this at the bottom of your emails.

NOTICE: Due to Presidential Executive Orders, the National Security Agency may have read this email without warning, warrant, or notice. They may do this without any judicial or legislative oversight. You have no recourse nor protection save to call for the impeachment of the current President.

• Impeach Bush
• Impeach Bush
• “The Case for Impeachment,” Harper’s
• “The Impeachment of George W. Bush,” The Nation
• Impeach PAC
• “Impeach Bush,” Garrison Keillor
• Impeach Bush Meet Up
• So you think you want to impeach?

At the Salt Lake County Democratic Convention this past Spring, I was giving out “Impeach Bush” stickers at the Progressive Caucus table. A certain candidate for federal office (whose numbers ended up in the 30% range), leaned in and said, “I agree with you, but I can’t wear that.”

UPDATE: After the article on Alternet (last link above), readers responded, then Alternet responded inviting more discussion.  You know, like a real conversation.  Amazing to see such a thing in the U.S. political scene.

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I spent Tuesday watching polls. I visited seven polling places for the County Democratic Party. No one was particularly thrilled to see me, but I was friendly and open about what I was there to do. Most of them warmed up to me.

At the first two places, I just asked how it was going and took notes. My precinct had a mismatch of numbers from the book (where they write the name of each person who has voted) and the machines (you know about those). At the last five polling places, I compared the list of registered Democrats to those who had already voted. An election official turned each page for me, so I didn’t even need to touch the registers. When someone came to vote, I stepped away. I took my check list of those who voted back to more volunteers, who called those Democrats who had not yet voted. I chatted with the Republican poll watchers in a couple of places. They were assigned to stay at the same polling place all day, listening for names of voters and marking them on their lists (to be picked up mid-afternoon).

Other than the miscount at my own precinct, I saw no lines longer than a few minutes and no unhappy voters (except those who had paid attention to the address on their voter card). A friend of mine was part of the Denver voting fiasco. She waited 2.5 hours on her birthday to vote. Still, that is a lot better than some people had.

I loved watching the polls. I was actually proud to be there, seeing the system (apparently) working so well. I took my children with me to watch democracy in action.

The issues of insecurity with electronic voting will not go away—nor will those fighting to ensure a safe vote no matter who is in office. Don’t forget, and keep supporting efforts to make voting fair.

Organizations Working for Fair Voting

• Black Box Voting. They are making Freedom of Information requests on the 500 reports most likely to generate evidence.
• Video the Vote. A lot of videos of (mostly young) people voting.
• Youth Noise.  More videos in their Veek the Vote section.
• Velvet Revolution. In addition to offering a $500,000 reward for evidence of election fraud, their Election Strike Force is a great collection of information and action.
• Election Defense Alliance. Their goal is to “build and coordinate a comprehensive, cohesive national strategy for the election integrity movement, in order to regain public control of the voting process.”
• Protect Our Votes. Collecting Election Outrages. They have a good list going already.
• Verified Voting. Sponsoring nonpartisan citizen poll watchers.
• Voters United. Sending the book, “Myth Breakers: Facts about Electronic Elections” to officials across the country.
• Voter Story. Collecting stories of election incidents from voters. Download these as a zip file. Add the widget to your blog. Cool tool and great idea.

News Roundups on Fair Voting

• Alternet. Election Theft Roundup.
• Truth Out. Voters Rights.
• Yes! Magazine. Voting Integrity.

Stories on Fair Voting

• Alternet. Great Outcome, Flawed Votes.
• Truth Dig. Voting Machine Crusaders. (Seriously, Crusaders? Have the writers read any history?)

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VOTE. Find your polling place.

VOLUNTEER. Find your local party to call and volunteer.

PARTY. There must be a party in your neighborhood tonight. Go! Or make your own party and invite the neighbors.

If you have trouble voting today, call The Hotline 1-888-DEM-VOTE (1-888-336-8683). Let them know if you have problems, need answers, need to find your polling location, or just want to know your voting rights.

Know Your Voting Rights (all three of them)

1. 1. If you have problems, you are still entitled to cast a provisional ballot.
2. 2. If you are in line before the poll’s closing time, you are entitled to vote.
3. 3. You are entitled to view a sample ballot at the polling place before voting.

First, know basic voting rights info.

Are you going to be talking to people today? How about printing an information card or flyer. Here are several flyers that look decent, including one doorhanger with the voting rights and hotline information above.

If people tell you they’ve been deluged with phone calls, listen carefully. Could those have been deceptive Republican robocalls like so many people around the county have been reporting? Be calm, be clear, be prepared. Know what is going on in the rest of the country, and tell people about it.
Be prepared for anything, Howard Dean wrote today.

Count every vote, and make every vote count.

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Vote for a Democrat no matter what this November, even if they are a DINO.

If we take back power, the following will happen:

- At least 9 Congressional Progressive Caucus Members would become Committee Chairmen or Chairwomen
- An additional 35 Congressional Progressive Caucus Members would become Subcommittee Chairmen or Chairwomen.

The following Progressive Caucus Members would become Committee Chairs:

- Congressman George Miller, Chairman of Education and Workforce Committee
- Congressman Barney Frank, Chairman of Financial Services
- Congressman Henry Waxman, Chairman of Government Reform
- Congressman Bennie Thompson, Chairman of Homeland Security Committee
- Congressman Tom Lantos, Chairman of International Relations Committee
- Congressman John Conyers, Chairman of Judiciary Committee
- Congresswoman Louise Slaughter, Chairwoman of Rules Committee
- Congresswoman Nydia Velazquez, Chairwoman of Small Business Committee
- Congressman Charles Rangel, Chairman of Ways and Means Committee

The following Progressive Caucus Members would become Subcommittee Chairs:

- Appropriations Subcommittees — Congresswomen Rosa DeLauro and Marcy Kaptur and Congressmen John Olver, Jose Serrano, and Ed Pastor
- Armed Services Subcommittee, Congressman Neil Abercrombie
- Education and Workforce Subcommittees, Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey and Congressman Dennis Kucinich
- Energy and Commerce Subcommittees, Congressman Ed Markey and Congresswomen Jan Schakowsky and Hilda Solis
- Financial Services Subcommittee, Congresswoman Maxine Waters and Congressman Luis Gutierrez
- Government Reform Subcommittees, Congresswoman Diane Watson and Congressmen Dennis Kucinich, Elijah Cummings, Danny Davis of Illinois, and William “Lacy” Clay
- International Relations Subcommittee, Congressman Donald Payne
- Judiciary Subcommittees, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson-L! ee and Congressmen Jerry Nadler and Melvin Watt
- Interior Subcomm ittees, Congressmen Raul Grijalva and Tom Udall and Congresswoman Donna Christensen
- Rules Subcommittees, Congressman Jim McGovern
- Small Business Subcommittees, Congresswomen Madeleine Bordallo
- Transportation and Infrastructure, DeFazio, Filner, Holmes-Norton, and C. Brown
- Ways and Means Subcommittees, Congressmen Pete Stark, Jim McDermott, and John Lewis of Georgia

It’s that critical. Please spread the word.

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There was a time, even a couple of years ago, when people were still whispering about fascism. I read the transcripts of a sermons by the Austin, Texas, UU Minister and former Vietnam combat photographer, Dr. Davidson Loehr on “Living under Fascism.” (Now part of his book, America, Fascism, and God.) It was electric to see someone put it into words, to go through Lawrence Britt’s 14 points of fascism and check them off one by one. I realized I wasn’t alone in recognizing the creeping authoritarianism in the U.S. (and beyond).

As soon as it was reprinted in early 2005, I read Sinclair Lewis’ It Can’t Happen Here (1935). I took it overseas with me and wondered. Just wondered. (Come on. I know people who wonder whether their harmless and 1st-amendment protected novels will cause trouble during a search.)

As I’ve seen several times in the past few days George Allen’s people assault the (blogger) man asking Allen about his first wife, I’ve considered what made the tough guys believe it was OK to tackle this guy for asking a question (even if it was personal). “Did you spit on your first wife?” BAM! Down he goes. “Now you’re getting personal,” said one of the thugs. Isn’t that man’s speech protected by the 1st Amendment? That hasn’t been repealed yet, has it? Yes, of course it’s not fascism when we do it.

I already wrote about the Bush administration’s fun with the term “Islamofascism.” Tossing the word around makes it more familiar and, perhaps, less scary. It still scares me, though.

Then I read an article and listen to a story this past month that bring it into the present. First was the Truthdig podcast by Robert Scheer including American Fascism, then an article by Stan Goff, a Special Forces veteran, on “Sowing the Seeds of Fascism in America.”

I have spent enough time studying the fascist movements of the mid-twentieth century that I realize we are frogs boiling slowly. It’s happening so slowly that we don’t jump. JUMP!

What good does vigilance do us. Yes, I’m paying attention. Yes, I see it. What do I do about it? The answer I’m coming up with right now is so simple: VOTE.

And encourage those around you to vote. Talk to the people around you about the dangers of authoritarianism. Face to face is the place we have the most power. Tell the other frogs to jump.

• American: From Freedom to Fascism (feature film by Aaron Russo)
  Review: “The scariest damn film you’ll see this year. . . . Makes ‘Fahrenheit 9/11′ look like ‘Bambi.’”
  Watch it at Google Video.

• Positive Universe - Fascism Watch Headlines

• Third World Traveler - linked up resources

• It Isn’t Fascism When We Do It - Buy the shirt, support Project for the Old American Century

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