Category Archives: Elections & Voting

The Republican Party has been looking to clone Ronald Reagan for a long time now. Reagan, as you recall, was often depicted as the Teflon president because no scandal could tarnish him. Continue reading →

You maybe should think twice when even Jack Abramoff thinks you’re beneath contempt. Not that Newt Gingrich cares. Continue reading →

The crushing defeat Ohio’s working people dealt 1% politicians this month has critical implications for a whole other issue—election protection. Continue reading →

The Republicans who are running to replace President Obama in January 2013 are now playing musical chairs. Continue reading →

On election night 2011 during the evening and into the next morning, Franklin County poll workers contacted the Free Press telling the paper that they were unable to make the electronic voting machines print out precinct-level results as required by law. This prevented poll workers from posting election totals at the polling sites at the end of the night. Continue reading →

We now know everything we needed to know about Herman Cain, at least we think we do. We not only know about Godfather Pizza, but about alleged peccadillos he had while heading the Restaurant Association. Continue reading →

In his 2006 book American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America, Chris Hedges documented how theopolitics was at work corrupting the American ideal of civil equality for all citizens. Continue reading →

Washington, DC. As the new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll shows, Herman Cain is the cream rising to the top of the GOP bucket. Cain now leads Romney 27% to 23%, proving Republicans desire most to be represented by someone who knows absolutely nothing about government. Continue reading →

Labor Day has come and gone, but the real battle over whether workers are actually honored and valued in Ohio will be decided on Election Day in November. To understand what’s at stake, one must begin with the concept of American exceptionalism—the notion that America has its own unique political ideology embracing individualism and entrepreneurship. Continue reading →

With President Obama running for a second term, I cannot help but wonder which Obama we will see as the reelection campaign heats up over the coming year. Continue reading →

Savor the irony of the second Republican 2012 presidential debate, not only because it takes place in the Ronald Reagan Library, but because Reagan’s economic policies are the best argument against the Republican Party platform today. Continue reading →

Are you tired of trying to figure out if there’s any real difference between Republican and Democratic politicians, and whether there’s a difference between liberals and progressives, libertarians and anarchists, independents and moderates, or tea partiers and neoconservatives? Continue reading →

Listening to most Democratic liberals or progressives (you choose the term) leads one to believe that the biggest menace to civilization today is Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann. If not Bachmann, the latest and greatest bogeyman is Texas Governor Rick Perry. Bachmann won the recent Iowa straw poll and in so doing made herself more of a serious candidate, in media eyes at any rate, for the Republican presidential nomination. Perry’s announcement of his presidential ambitions shortly thereafter moved him up on the liberal fear meter. Continue reading →

Here are the words of a man in serious denial: “It’s time to believe the promise of our future is better than the best days behind us.”—Rick Perry announcing his candidacy. Continue reading →

The ruling Forces of Greed (FOG) appear to be upset that the Teabagger’s Michele Bachmann won the Iowa straw poll Saturday, finishing a close 152 votes in front of libertarian Ron Paul, two of the more extreme candidates difficult to package for a general election, since these two have a long history of targeting some of the most popular programs, Social Security, Medicare and the like. Continue reading →

As the noted philosopher and rock and roll irritant David Lee Roth once said, “Money can’t buy you happiness, but it can buy you a yacht big enough to pull up right alongside it.” Continue reading →

January 20, 2017, will be liberation day. That date will be the last day that Barack Obama can possibly be President of the United States. Assuming he will be reelected in 2012, his second term will end on Inauguration Day in 2017 and that will be a wonderful moment, even if his successor is a Republican. Continue reading →

Ohio Secretary of State John Husted has banned all minor political parties in Ohio from the ballot. In an August 5, 2011, letter written to the Libertarian Party of Ohio, Husted made it clear that his interpretation of the draconian Ohio House Bill 194, passed by the Republican-dominated legislature, means that all minor parties have lost their official statewide party status effective September 30, 2011. Continue reading →

The chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court who was removed from office for defying the Constitution and a federal court order is one of 14 major candidates running for the Republican nomination for the presidency. Continue reading →

Are you an African American? Are you poor? Are you elderly? Do you reside in the city? Are you a young person living in a college town? Are you planning on voting in 2012? You had better start making other plans for Election Day. Continue reading →

A new filing in the King Lincoln Bronzeville v. Blackwell case includes a copy of the Ohio Secretary of State election production system configuration that was in use in Ohio’s 2004 presidential election when there was a sudden and unexpected shift in votes for George W. Bush. Continue reading →

Another progressive coalition is seeking to repeal a new reactionary Republican election law in Ohio that targets black, elderly and poor voters. Continue reading →

Democratic Party sources who see President Obama championing cuts in social safety safety net programs instituted by Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson, are quietly talking about supporting the GOP presidential candidacy of former Utah Governor Jon Huntsman, Obama’s ambassador to China. With no Democrat willing to launch a primary challenge to Obama, some Democratic strategists are hoping that with a crowded GOP field of far-right candidates like Michele Bachmann, Sarah Palin, Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry, and others, Huntsman could garner enough moderate Republicans, independents, and primary cross-over disaffected Democrats to win key primary states. Continue reading →

The Ohio Republican Party is poised to steal the 2012 vote in Ohio. Unlike 2004, this time it will be legal. Governor John Kasich signed the bill, HB 194, July 1. Continue reading →

Mitt Romney’s inevitable re-emergence and manipulation of the 2012 presidential race comes about largely because many Republicans are dissatisfied with the alternatives. But, there’s another factor, a Supreme Court ruling back in January 2010 that empowered the candidacy of a corporatist like Mr. Romney in the first place. Continue reading →

With less than a week before the election, Marshbaum has been campaigning furiously. Continue reading →

On May 02, 2011, Canadian electors voted in a majority government for the former minority government of Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party. The Conservatives won 157 out of 308 possible seats, although statistically, because of Canada’s “first past the post” system of electing representatives, they did not receive a majority of the “popular” vote. With a voter turnout of 60 percent, and the popular vote of 40 percent for the Conservatives, only 24 percent of Canadians elected the new government. Continue reading →

Like postmodernist architecture, in which the aesthetic criteria of a structure’s exterior often possesses little correlation to its interior function, media age journalistic and political style exhibits a similar disparity between facade and content: The political content aired by mass media institutions and the cant of the governmental class are the political equivalent of the useless ornamental pediments, context-devoid cupolas, and empty atriums of postmodernist architecture. Continue reading →

Barack Obama’s presidential record is nothing short of dismal. The man who brought hope to the world with his intelligent balanced approach has reneged on almost all of his pre-election promises, leaving the door ajar for Republican opponents. Continue reading →

We’ve talked a lot about the devastating effects of corporate cash on elections following the Citizens United decision, but a new story in The Nation shows that the Supreme Court’s also made it a lot easier for companies to pressure their employees directly about voting. Continue reading →

Maybe it’s his hair, but now that Donald Trump has muscled his way into the upcoming presidential race, I can’t help thinking about a popular television show from 40 years ago, “The Mod Squad,” a show that was billed as “three young outsiders who fight crime as undercover agents of the police.” Continue reading →

The 2012 presidential campaign is already upon us, and that makes this a propitious moment to discuss America’s slide down an ever steeper slope. Next year we will be asked to decide between two major parties which differ only stylistically. One side exults in ignorance and mean spirited bigotry. The other appeals to and attracts a seemingly more intelligent crowd who would rather die than vote for someone who proclaims themselves to be part of the mean, stupid group. Continue reading →