Elections

In a recent survey, 86 percent of Americans said our government was broken. How wrong they were!

That’s right, Virginia, you CAN have a say in how our government works. You just have to be among the very wealthiest of rightwing Americans.

A secretive gang of these people is all over the news right now.

See CBS:
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20020184-503544.html

See the NY Times:
http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/20/secretive-republican-donors…

Here’s a memo that read more

By David Swanson

I’ll admit it right now. My name is David and I hate elections. (HI, DAVID!) I hate choosing the evil of two lessers. I hate attack ads. I hate endless repetitive debates that exclude all the interesting questions. I hate painting one candidate as all bad and the other as infallible even when I have to squint to see a difference between them. I hate that there are only two candidates who have a chance at winning. I hate that most of what we hear is through advertisements read more

The only debate thus far between the Republican and Democratic candidates for Congress from Virginia’s Fifth District was held Wednesday evening. It excluded a third candidate who is on the ballot and was finished in 27 minutes minus the time devoted to advertisements. Somehow, I’m not overwhelmed with the health of our democracy. Have we really got this democracy thing down well enough to be bombing other nations in the name of spreading it — something that both Robert Hurt read more

By David Swanson

This debate over the merits of one Democratic congress member may have relevance for others around the country.

I recently posted On Voting for Bad Democrats: the Perriello Predicament, expressing doubts about exactly how progressive Congressman Tom Perriello (D., VA-05) is.

Bill Lankford sent me a response, arguing in favor of supporting Perriello. I said I would post it, but asked if there was any way to strengthen it by mentioning even one thing Perriello had done in the past read more

By David Swanson

What if you told your local congress critter you’d oppose them if they funded more war, and they funded more war, but their opponent is even worse and a Republican?

Tom Perriello, first-term Democratic congress member from Virginia’s Fifth district, is widely expected to lose his reelection bid, in part because he voted for a healthcare bill. Right wingers in the district hated the bill for doing anything at all. Others of us who want to eliminate the health insurance read more

By: Barbara Hollingsworth, San Francisco Examiner

Hard to believe, but Congressman Tom Perriello, D-Va. – who told startled Tea Partiers earlier this year that “If you don’t tie our hands, we will keep stealing.” – has also managed to infuriate left-wing activists in his Charlottesville district by pretending to be more conservative than he really is.

The freshman Democrat won his seat in 2008, defeating incumbent Republican Virgil Goode by just two tenths of a percent read more

By David Swanson

Well this is helpful. The best candidate for Congress I know of, Jonathan Tasini, is now running against an incumbent, Charlie Rangel, who is going to be put on trial in Congress for all sorts of alleged corruption.

According to the Christian Science Monitor, “the allegations range from misuse of rent-controlled apartments in New York City and read more

By David Swanson

In an interview I recorded on Tuesday with Jeff Clark, an independent candidate for Congress in Virginia’s Fifth District, and the father of a Marine currently in Afghanistan, Clark told me he was opposed to putting another $33 billion into escalating the war in Afghanistan. Clark comes from the right on many issues and is often billed as the Tea Party candidate. The Virginia Independent Green Party supports him, despite his distance from them on most issues, possibly because read more

If you missed my interview with David Segal, read it here and you’ll understand why I’m sending him $5 for $5 Friday. You can do the same here:
http://votesegal.com

By David Swanson

There are lots of ways to change Congress that falsely appear easy, that would alter the rules and patterns of behavior if only Congress were already fixed and willing to make the changes, or if we owned the television networks, or if people could suddenly hear what they’re paid good money never to hear. But I’ve got a way to change Congress that is actually easy.

Congress lacks leadership. There is a progressive caucus, but it has never fought for anything. It doesn’t read more

More candidates for Congress have signed a statement opposing war spending that have signed the tea party statement against all spending.  And there is no overlap between the two lists of candidates.  Clearly the opponents of government spending who receive the most media attention do not oppose the single biggest type of government spending.  Why would that be?  They have been exposed as severely limited in their fiscal responsibility, and their cheerleaders read more