That's debatable- Gubernatorial version

Govenor Granholm and challenger Dick DeVos will have their first of three planned debates Monday night on WKAR Channel 23 which will also be aired on Michigan Public Radio live at 8 pm. Monday, October 2. Unfortunately for fans of intelligent questions, Tim Skubick is hosting.

From the WKAR press release:

The Debate for Governor 2006
Monday, October 2 at 8 p.m.
WKAR-TV and 90.5 WKAR

WKAR Confirms Statewide Gubernatorial Debate on Public Television and Radio

Governor Jennifer Granholm and Dick DeVos have accepted WKAR-TV's debate proposal. The live, one hour statewide debate between the incumbent Democratic governor and the Republican challenger will air Monday, October 2, at 8 p.m., on PBS stations throughout Michigan.

WKAR will also repeat the debate on Saturday, October 7, at 6 p.m.
(snip)
Beginning Tuesday, October 3, the television special will be available for online viewing at WKAR.org, and the MPRN radio coverage will be available as a downloadable podcast.
(snip)

Additional debates are:
WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids on October 10, 2006
WXYZ-TV in Detroit on October 16, 2006

The format of the debates is as follows:

The Grand Rapids debate would be a joint production by WOOD-TV and WDIV-TV, with a panel of reporters from both stations questioning the candidates, and it will made available to all NBC affiliates in Michigan for simulcast. The debate at WXYZ-TV will be a town hall format with a live audience and moderated by a panel of reporters, and it will made available to all other ABC affiliates in Michigan for simulcast.

To forgive divine

Hastings and Barry County recently endured a tragedy that could have been avoided with a little common sense and application of appropriate theology by someone who professes loudly, proudly and arrogantly to be a Christian.

The sad and shocking story of the fall from grace of Pennock Hospital CEO Harry Doele was told by local and area newspapers and on nearby metropolitan TV stations. Doele, a pharmacist by trade, indeed has been accused of stealing a pain killing drug from the Pennock pharmacy, which if true is a violation of law and he must be punished (and Doele is reported to have pleaded no contest to the misdemeanor charge yesterday in court). However, it appears the already-inflicted punishment isn’t fitting the alleged crime, a common affliction in our “git tuff” society these days. Because of his weakness in committing a crime that harmed no one, he has lost his job and has been disgraced in the community he lived and worked in for more than 30 years, in addition to whatever penalty he faces in court.

The Pennock Board of Directors, led by High Priest Bruce Gee, one of the most self righteous among the local Pharisees, has deemed that Pennock’s CEO has committed a crime, shall be punished and must be exiled. Gee, a local attorney who subscribes heavily to the paternalistic “spare the rod and spoil the child” religious philosophy not unlike Pat Robertson, has successfully helped coordinate Doele’s fall from grace and banishment. It’s all a tragedy because this was a golden opportunity for Gee and his brethren to practice their professed Christian faith by publicly acknowledging their CEO’s problem and rebuking him, but then extending him the hand of compassion and forgiveness if he rehabilitates himself. No less than Banner Publisher Fred Jacobs has suggested this same idea in a recent “In My Opinion,” but to no avail.

It’s my impression Doele hasn’t been the kind of hard-ass executive we’ve become too accustomed to lately. Unlike his predecessor, Dan Hamilton, who employed a leadership style reminiscent of Attila the Hun, Doele used a kinder, gentler approach in which he seemed to believe if most everyone who worked at or did business with Pennock actually liked the place, they’d work their behinds off for its benefit. Pennock’s public image got a big boost when Hamilton took a hike a couple of years ago and Doele took over the top spot. I don’t know if he was truly a good boss, but he certainly was highly thought of within the ranks of employees and in the community from people I've spoken with.

Apparently things began to unravel for Doele when he suffered an injury in one of those “Iron Man” competitions he often used to compete in. He later suffered another injury in a traffic accident and was seen wearing a neck brace in public last spring. The medication he’s accused of stealing treats pain and discomfort. While we clearly must recognize Doele violated the law and his position, I fail to see how putting him out to pasture is the appropriate response. If he’s as good an administrator and public relations man for Pennock as I’ve heard, let’s insist he make restitution, pay a fine and perform community service. Then let’s have him rehabilitated and bring him back to work. If we really believe the immortal words of Christ, “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone,” then we should put the philosophy into practice.

Yes, I know there are those who say lesser known or liked individuals wouldn’t get such a break. I believe everyone should be given a second chance, especially if the individual has something to offer. I believe the alcoholic who loses his or her job should be given a chance to he healed of the disease and be returned to the work place. Punishment and banishment too often leads to the offender to continue to commit the offenses and cost society even more later in the prison system or perhaps in public assistance. Common sense and true Christian theology call us to recognize the offense, punish the offender appropriately and then make them and society whole again. I suppose that sounds like namby-pamby liberal thinking. Yet it makes better sense philosophically and economically than the way of the Pharisees.

It appears Harry Doele will not be welcome to come back to Pennock again, unless it’s as a patient. About the only chance he had of saving his job would have been to suck up to Gee, go to his church, cry crockodile tears like Jimmy Swaggart produced to his flock after being caught with a prostitute, get down on his knees and beg profusely for forgiveness, testify in front of the congregation like Brian Calley did and tell everyone he’s found the Lord. Even then I’m not certain Gee and his ilk would offer him the gift of compassion and forgiveness.

When the news about Doele broke, Gee and the Pennock Board of Directors refused to comment on or acknowledge their CEO’s resignation, demonstrating the customary corporate evasion of the truth. Now they’re searching for a new leader and won’t even consider bringing Doele back. I hope they don’t go back to the Hamilton school of leadership. As I said earlier, this is a sad story in which everybody is a loser — Doele, the hospital, the board and ultimately the community.

I can't help but wonder how a good man like the Rev. Michael Anton, a Pennock Board member, feels about all of this?

Minus the unions?

One of the most drawn-out dramas in the past 25 years has been the decline and fall of the labor union movement in this country. It’s been a sad saga about a once-proud tradition of protecting ordinary working Americans against the excesses and abuses of yesterday’s robber barons and today’s corporate chief executive officers. But unions today supposedly make up only about 12% of the U.S. work force and the numbers continue to decline mostly due to a conceerted effort to demonize them and to make non-unions workers resent the higher wages and better benefits that unions members receive instead of realizing theat they wouldn't have what they've got without generations of people who fought and agitated and even died for such things as a 5-day work work, paid time off, sick leave, vacations, health care benefits and more.

The watershed event came in August 1981, when Ronald Reagan screwed PATCO (the air traffic controllers) to the wall by threatening to fire them and then actually firing them. And since that event, middle class American workers’ wages have stagnated, corporate salaries have exploded, the pendulum of power has swung back to management and we see people losing their jobs all around us because of that phenomenon known as the global marketplace, "free" trade and outsourcing. Furthermore, in order to maintain lifestyles, American families have sent mothers into the work force outside the home, helping to break down that venerable institution.

Another chapter in this pathetic story was written closer to home earlier this month when Hastings teachers were no-shows en masse for the annual Business, Industry and Education luncheon, which each year kicks off the academic year with a boring speech by some corporate executive who usually wants public schools to serve as job training programs to serve business interests. Though billed as a chance for educators, business people and local muckey-mucks to network and gain valuable information, it’s really turned out over the years to be just a way for public schools to perform public relations exercises by sucking up to the wealthy.

Conspicuous by their absence from the BIE luncheon Sept. 6, the teachers were advised by their union leaders not to be present to protest the lack of progress on a new contract after the old one expired June 30. This move aroused the ire of J-Ad Graphics Publisher Fred Jacobs, co-founder of the event with former Superintendent Carl Schoessel. Jacobs wrote an “In My Opinion” piece in the Sept. 14 Hastings Banner that was critical of the teachers’ collective decision, maintaining they were sending the wrong message to students, administrators and businesses.

But what the teachers did in protest Sept. 6 did absolutely nothing to hurt the educational process. They did not strike, which these days is considered illegal by state law. They did not refuse to show up in the classrooms and teach local children. In other words, what they did was not really disruptive to the educational process we cherish, or at least we say we do. What they did, however, was thumb their noses at administrators and business leaders in an effort to call attention to their anger over a lack of a new contract. And now that they’re forbidden to strike, it’s little things like being no-shows for the BIE that are all that’s left for them to fight back.

Reaction among the working stiffs in Hastings and environs has not been positive toward the teachers. Many folks these days resent educators (and other union members) because they still have pretty good health care benefits and they’re getting raises, however small, while too many Joe Lunchbuckets are accepting wage freezes or cuts, or they’re being downsized. It’s interesting that while entertainers, athletes and corporate executives continue to enjoy skyrocketing compensation, ordinary working people are angry instead at the likes of teachers and want to bring them down to the same pay and benefit levels they must endure. The people at the top have found a way to divide and conquer.

Not very many unions go on strike these days, not even the auto workers, because they fear they’ll lose their jobs to someone overseas who will do the same work for a lot less in wages and benefits. Talk about a race to the bottom! The good side of that process is prices for manufactured goods will go down significantly at places like Wal-Mart and all those electronic and computer gadget prices continue to slide.

I'm not going to say that unions haven't been without their problems- bloated adminstrations and corrupt leaders have done their part to bring us to where we are at this point in history. But it's funny how often unions get blamed for the state of the American economy while we ignore corrupt politicians, corporate lobbyists and overpaid CEO salaries' part in all of this. While the winners slice up the spoils, we peasants fight over the crumbs. And the modern age robber barons laugh all the way to the Swiss Bank account.

The Hastings teachers reportedly have been asking for 3 percent raises and would probably settle for 2%. Interestingly, administrators settled for 2 and 3 percent and no one cried fowl, but Superintendent Chris Cooley said it’s easier to handle those increases in the budget because they are much fewer in numbers. Message: There’s too many of you, so you get smaller raises than the few, the proud, the elite- which Cooley happens to be one of now.

Some people around town are critical of the teachers by saying they’ve got “that damned union mentality.” Funny, that mentality a century ago was a big reason for creating the most prosperous society in human history, a distinction now apparently in grave peril. And when we’re no longer number one in the world, we’ll probably blame unions instead of corporate greed and a beholden and complicit government that made a lot of stupid decisions on debt and on war and peace.

Yeah, I got a problem with that!

Some readers of this blog may have gotten the impression over the last several months that I don’t like GOP Michigan gubernatorial candidate Dick DeVos. Some readers would be right — I despise DeVos. Allow me to explain. DeVos is a filthy rich billionaire, which by itself is not necessarily a bad thing. My problem isn's even as much about how I suspect he and his family and the VanAndels have obtained their enormous wealth- through deceit and flim flammery- but more about how he has used that wealth to further a toxic, extremist agenda.

First, if you really think the Amway-Alticor empire is driven simply by sales of soap and household products, I’ve got some expensive Enron stock I want to sell you. Amway-Alticor has made its massive fortunes by deceiving people into thinking they too can get rich by becoming succesful Amway distributors. I think the appropriate word here recalls P.T. Barnum’s immortal “There’s a sucker born every minute.”

A little more than 30 years ago an ambitious hair-lipped salesman named Glenn W. Turner was busted by federal authorities for running an illegal pyramid scheme. His “Dare to Be Great” motivational tapes made the rounds and he tried to sell his flock a lot of elusive dreams about becoming wealthy. Since I read of Turner’s awful fate, I’ve wondered what the difference between him and Amway was. As a friend once told me, “Somebody found a box of soap.” Never in my life have I been approached by anyone who has attempted to sell me an Amway product. However, I have been asked more than once to become an Amway distributor, with promises of making a nice tidy sum to supplement my low-paying full-time job. Of course, I declined after being given a folksy and friendly pitch by a couple hoping to climb the ladder in the corporation by selling a distributorship to some unwary sucker like me. I’ve been told by several in the know that Amway takes distributors to retreats, herds them into a huge lecture hall and then has a few of the blessed people at the top of the pyramid give them pep talks that look and sound a lot like religious revival services.

I’ve since learned the average Amway distributor makes about $56 a month, despite all the talk of riches and economic rewards that come to those who apply themselves and the principles of the corporation. What most suckers don’t seem to understand is that only a very few will make the big bucks at Amway-Alticor.

I’ve seen the slick marketing used in Alticor-Amway’s TV ads that suspiciously follow DeVos for Governor spots though each side is claiming independance from the other to avoid campaign finance law violations. Both sets of commercials try to tell us DeVos didn’t lay off those 1,400 Michigan workers and send their jobs to China. Yet it was quite a coincidence, that 1,400 lost their jobs the same time the billionaire DeVos invested big bucks in China so he could sell products (not made in Michigan, but in a China plant) in the world’s largest market. These slick pros doing the ads for Amway and DeVos also want us to think those 1,400 were let go gently through benign processes such as attrition or early retirements. I know a man who was an engineer at Alticor for five years. One day, without warning, as he returned from lunch, he was met by two security officers who escorted him out of the building and to his car, not even letting him clean out his desk. The man had done nothing wrong. His job had been eliminated.

Let’s not forget Dick DeVos has spent a lot of money on toxic causes such as the attempt to enact a voucher system to steal money from public education to find fundamentalist Christian madrassas, which thankfully was turned away by voters soundly a few years back. Let’s not forget his wife, Betsy, who has been strangely AWOL during her husband’s campaign for governor, was chairwoman of the Michigan Republican Party and was quoted in the Grand Rapids Press not long ago as saying one of the reasons for this state’s economic trouble is Michigan workers are paid too much- an unfortunate admission of something most of the hard core right wing int his country believe. DeVos has been one of the country's most generous donors to radical right wing fringe groups seeking to rewrite out tax laws to makes themselves even wealthier and to gain control of our electoral system to force through their extremist agenda which is nothing short of a fundamentalist Christian rule in this country and an attempt to rewrite the Constitution and the history books to make it so. Here's just one example of the place DeVos holds in the Republican power structure:



In case you don't recognize him, that Karl "Turd Blossom" Rove on the left side of that photo rubbing elbows with Dick and Betsy DeVos. That photo is the best reminder that Dick DeVos in the Governor's mansion would be Michigan's version of George W. Bush in the Oval Office- a mistake we can avoid making if enough people bother to inform themselves, wake up and realize that a lot of the problems we are facing are ones created by Republicans in order to create a Neo Con Utopia in which everyone is "responsible " for their own education, retirement, health care, roads and whatever over "socialist" programs can be privatized to line some contributor's pockets.

DeVos has spent a great deal of time trying his damnedest to blame Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm for this state’s horrible economy, as if one individual can do that much damage as a Democrat in a sea of Republicans running Michigan. Since John Engler’s election as governor in 1990, the GOP has been in the majority in Lansing, sometimes dominating it with the governor’s chair, both houses in the State Legislature and the Michigan Supreme Court. Republicans have just about owned this state politically for the last 16 years and yet DeVos has the gall to suggest it’s all Granholm’s fault. And Dick and Betsy DeVos have been the prime movers and shakers. Dick is right- what they're doing in Lansing isn't working, but the recipe they're cooking with was written by Dick DeVos and a handful of other radical Republicans who refuse to see their policies are failures, the corrupt rule a horrible mistake.

Furthermore, it’s been difficult for Granholm to govern effectively when she must deal with snakes and sons of snakes who don’t want anything positive to happen to make her look good. A do-nothing legislature that wants to see her packing her bags rather than serve the people has been all too common in the last four years. When she was elected, Granholm faced a 63-47 GOP majority in the House and a 23-15 GOP majority in the Senate. If we were playing “Clue,” the guilty one eventually should be identified as the stonewalling, feet dragging legislators with an agenda to make the governor appear to be ineffective.

Then there are people who point to the wonderful philanthropy of the DeVos and VanAndel families. Just look at DeVos Children’s Hospital, the VanAndel Arena, DeVos Place, DeVos Hall, and the list goes on. There comes a time when a robber baron decides to use his massive fortune to put his name up in lights to get a sense of immortality. It also gets him out of paying taxes on the money while buying some really good PR. Sort of a win-win situation.

I agree with those who have expressed disappointment in Granholm, but I think she’s had to deal too often with people who don’t want her to succeed and I think Dick DeVos is not much more than a filthy rich smooth salesman who hasn’t really discussed issues and his plans.

To answer the man at the end of those new ads for Amway: Yeah, I got a problem with that!

Election Reform, part 2

In a previous post I presented some suggestions on how to make voting less cumbersome to get more Americans to take part in the most important process in our democracy- voting. I present here some more suggested changes that could tweak the system but this time I focus less on making voting easier but on actually making it more effective...

Cooked down, my sequel proposals are to prohibit judges from using their incumbency advantage on the ballot, to quit voting on positions of functional government officials who must have a certain amount of job expertise and to enact some form of proportional representation or cumulative votingsystem.

In the interests of electoral fairness, let’s lose the incumbent designation for judges on the ballot. We don’t allow any other people seeking office to tout themselves as incumbents, so why should judges get such special privileges? All I ask is that Circuit Court Judge James Fisher be referred to on the ballot as simply “James Fisher.” Judges get plenty of publicity so that voters are likely to know who they are anyway, certainly as opposed to some sacrificial lamb opposing them.
It is no secret that in West Michigan, if you’re a Republican and an incumbent, the chances of you being ousted at the polls are about as good as mine trying to hit a home run off Justin Verlander. In the Detroit area, Democrats enjoy the same unfair advantages. The dealer a long time ago handed the good cards to those already in power and left those brave or foolish enough to challenge with lousy hands. It’s time to level the playing field.

Though it’s been said before elsewhere, I call for eliminating the process of electing at all for the so-called “county elected offices” of register of deeds, clerk, treasurer, sheriff, prosecuting attorney, drain commissioner and surveyor. One of my biggest worries is that an electorate that doesn’t pay attention will elect unqualified bozos, and maybe they already have,  to one of more these jobs, which really should be appointed by an elected County Board of Commissioners. Many of us, myself included, have little clue what a drain commissioner or register of deeds does or better yet what makes a good one, yet we’re charged with the solemn task of selecting such an animal. Even worse is when somebody running for prosecuting attorney or sheriff can be a demagogue or slick political salesman, but not a competent or effective professional, and the masses of the clueless easily will choose the former over the latter because they’re nice people and give us false promises to “get tough on crime” rather than promise us fair justice for all. Sometimes deciding things by a vote of the people isn’t in our best interests. Plato cautioned us about mob rule mentality.

We also need to take a look at the very nature of how we elect people to office. There are many other ways to distribute votes and elect politicians that would not interfere with the plan our Founding Fathers set into motion- in fact many of the problems I seek to address are "add ons" that came later such as gerrymandering which haven't been dealt with with by the 2 major parties simply because it helps both of them consolidate their power into their geographical bases and it leads to a government that only works as a re-election machine for incumbents. Proportional representation offers a way for people who dislike our current two-party system where both parties seem to be offshoots of one Corporate Party to have a bigger say in who gets sent to represent them. Proportional representation exists in many different forms and likely it would tough in our current atmosphere to enact such a plan let alone choose just one but it would allow for so-called "fringe" groups to have their voice heard who aren't currently being served now. Cumulative voting would allow minorities to not be completely silenced by the majority and would also perhaps provide a sensible and simple method to eliminate the "need" to gerrymander districts to reduce the power of minorities which results in skewed districts where minorities represent only a small number or an overwhelming majority producing the "wasted vote effect." These methods could be effective in breaking the 2 major parties' stranglehold on votes and power and produce a more effective government and a less divided nation.

Consider these ideas along with the proposals I advocated earlier to make it easier for all of us to vote. Let's make it so incumbents don't get an unfair advantage, let's clear the clutter off the ballot and make it so citizens aren't having to worry about who they should elect dog catcher and let's think about how the process of voting is used to send people into office and whether we can't tweak the system and reduce the grip of power from corrupt fiefdoms where the party in power has no fear of losing. Maybe there will come a time when we truly can make a difference. Until that glorious and wonderful day, I’ll have content myself with venting on a boring, repetetive and obscure blog that only a few read for occasional comedy relief...

Dick's got WOOD (TV 8)

From the DeVos for Governor campaign's PR dept.:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sept. 8, 2006                                                                       

FALSE CAMPAIGN AD PULLED

The DeVos for Governor campaign attorneys received notification today from WOOD TV 8 in Grand Rapids that it was pulling the Democrat’s China attack ad which started airing on Wednesday.

“Voters win when stations stand up for truth, the only question that remains is how many more lies will Granholm attempt to peddle,” said John Truscott, campaign spokesman.  “Their ad was found to be false so they were forced to change it.”

CONTACT: John Truscott (517) 485-8404

It should come as no surprise that WOOD TV 8 which has spent so many years pandering to the Amway executive's fiefdom in West Michigan would come to his rescue in the gubernatorial campaign. The Grand Rapids Press and WOOD TV 8 for years have served as a 1-2 punch to not just reflect what may be a conservative-leaning West Michigan's public opinion but to ensure it and strengthen it. This is nothing more than members of the West Michigan mafia helping their own with little regard to the public trust or their viewership. The only other station that has made such a call is in Sault Ste. Marie.

Apparently the beef is not that the accusation itself is unfair or even untrue- it's a semantic argument. DeVos' people claim that the workers the Democrats are accusing him of "laying off" were in fact merely "paid off" to retire early- a move often given an innocuous name such as "attrition" but is really just a different way of sending a worker packing with a severance package and given a nice market-tested buzzword type name that sounds a little nicer. It's a little corporate shell game but the end result is the same and so the ad is as true as most political ads are and certainly no more unfair than so many of DeVos' own ads- all of which have been cleared by his wine and cheese party friends at the Grand Rapids TV station. If WOOD TV seeks to hold political ads to a new standard then maybe they need to look at both sides of the coin.

Anyone who would like to tell TV 8 that maybe they should report the news and not try to make it can register their opinions here:

General Phone: 616-456-8888
Fax: 616-456-5755
Website: www.woodtv.com

Station Manager
Diane Kniowski
Phone: 616-771-9607
Email: diane.kniowski@woodtv.com

A list of other phone numbers and email addresses for WOOD TV 8 can here found by clicking HERE.

Insist on easier elections

The Counterculture in the 1960s used to like to say that “If voting really made a difference, they wouldn’t let you do it.” Those words have been haunting me lately, in the wake of the Aug. 8 primary election and in the wake of some hard thinking about recycling. So what do voting and recycling have in common? Let me explain.

I noticed Barry County finally is going to attempt to encourage people to do the right thing with a voluntary curbside recycling program, something that’s been long overdue around here. The best way to get people to do the right thing is either make it convenient for them or penalize them if they don’t (see: seat belt use in automobiles). If people can set their recyclable materials out on the curb for pickup just like they do for garbage, a far greater number will take part in the process to reduce solid waste. I’m not ashamed to tell everyone I think it’s a good thing.

Hastings about 15 years had a group of high school students present a proposal for curbside recycling to the City Council, but it was shot down because the teens forgot to stroke the inflated ego of No. 1 Barry County blowhard Dr. V. Harry Adrounie, who showed up at a subsequent meeting half in the bag (this, according to an impeccable source) to admonish the kids for not going through the proper channels by asking him first. But now, thanks to Mark Doster and Don Boysen, citizens in Thornapple Township are the first in Barry County to try out a voluntary program that will cost them $25 a year.

Now, for the voting. If we can make it easier for people to vote, I think they’ll do it in larger numbers than they currently do. After almost all elections almost everywhere, the area newspapers are inundated with letters to the editor decrying the low numbers at the polls, like 23% in Barry County’s Aug. 8 primary, the highest in this area. What seems to be overlooked is that in today’s modern society, with both Mom and Dad working outside the home, there’s little time you can set aside for going to the polls.

Most elections are held on Tuesdays, which customarily are work days. Most folks these days are working or traveling to and from work in the hours between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. With the polls open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., that leaves only one hour in the morning and two hours in the evening as a reasonable window of opportunity. And don’t forget Junior’s soccer practice and Molly’s clarinet lessons, not to mention somehow finding enough time to make and gather to eat dinner together.

What I’m saying is that it’s becoming increasingly difficult for ordinary workaday Americans to set aside time to exercise their right to vote. And if voting is inconvenient and perhaps even a hassle for many, why should they bother, no matter what we political freaks say about its importance? We need to make it easier for the masses of ordinary Americans to do it. Resistance, or the infamous process known as “that’s the way we’ve always done it,” these days almost sounds like the political party in power, the GOP, doesn’t really want the unwashed masses to vote, so let’s keep making it inconvenient, let’s just keep things the way they are so the priviledged and powerful will have even more control over the process. I say we must find a way to try mail-in voting or even Internet voting as a way for citizens to fill out their ballot selections in the privacy and comfort of their own homes.

I’m already hearing the objections. Some warn of the dangers of fraud, yet few dispute sending their money via the mail or over the Internet- in fact, the system we have already sends vote total via Internet to a central database to be tabulated- I have my concerns about the system now in use but the fact is that it can be done in a way that provides safeguards and offers alternate methods for vote counting to ensure no fraud or theft is committed. We have seen in several recent elections problems with the current system and yet the status quo prevails- and when changes are made they just seem to be a way of throwing big contracts to campaign contributors. With anything there is a certain amount of risk. We just have to have the courage and will to change and the wisdom to do it right.

Another contrary comment is that anyone these days can get an absentee ballot and send it in. But that involves bureaucratic hassles and puts the onus on the citizen rather than forcing the government to provide a service by making the ballots readily and easily available to the people. Also, current events have a way of changing political reality- those that vote weeks in advance via USPS may not be able to change their vote if last minute news happens that alters the dyanamic of the race.

As long as we keep voting the same way our ancestors did 200 years ago, we’re going to continue to see declining numbers, because it’s just not as easy as it used to be to set aside time to go to the polls, stand in line and do your duty. We make it more convenient these days for people to pay their taxes (on line or by mail), more convenient to buy license plates and easier to have all kinds of important interactions with government, many of us do our banking online or shop for Christmas presents, but somehow we don’t want to change the voting system to accommodate modern realities. Casting a ballot for elected office should be as simple and quick as ordering a meal at a fast food restaurant or buying a book from Amazon.com- American citizens are used to fast and efficient service and our government should respond my making elections run more smoothly and efficiently.

There are many other needed and effective changes that can be made to our current election and voting systems and schemes- online voting is but a start, but one that would have instant dividends by increasing interest and turnout in elections especially in younger generations which are woefully under-represented in the current political process. I also think we need to look at instant runoff voting and proportional representation as ways to increase the small "d" democracy in our big "D" Democracy. We must push our elected leaders to alter the system that got them into office which is something that not many of them are eager to do.

Let’s not let the powers that be pull what Harry Adrounie did on those high school kids, let’s insist on curbside recycling and homeside voting. Let’s tell Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land and all city, county and village clerks what the late Ward Weiler used to tell the County Board: “You work for us, not the other way around.”

Campaign cruise control

Well, we had our chance to get a look at the contenders for the November general election in the 87th district State Rep. race and were reminded why conventional wisdom says Brian Calley won this race in August. Last night's forum at Thomas Jefferson Hall in Hastings showed no reason for anything to think Brian Calley won't be sworn in to a Gary Newell's vacant seat in January barring a meltdown by Brian Calley which would likely have to include multiple felony charges. Calley's decisive win over a crowded Republican primary field was impressive enough that even the Barry County Republicans who charged certain candidates with "crowding the field" have had to realize that even in a one-on-one match that Calley likely still would have won- which means there is not a serious sense of bad blood- and a unified Republican Party means another commanding win in November for the banking industry's Golden Boy.

Democratic Party nominee Doug Kalnbach showed a sense of humor and got in some good zingers but it won't be enough to even bring him above 40% most likely. Kalnbach come across as a likeable guy but also a typical union candidate- presenting a gut level appeal to the working class who has long ago tuned out the Democratic Party's message of economic populism in favor of the Republicans' message of corporate fascism and theocracy sold through fear mongering and spoon-fed easy answers to complex moral and social issues. If Kalnbach was serious about this race, he'd also be hitting the streets harder than he is- there's not many votes to be won at small town drinking holes or biker rallies. I'm sure the calculation is that the anti-helmet biker crowd shows up and swings this race for Kalnbach, but Calley's pro-gun and pro-life stances are all it takes to win here. It's time for the Democrats to hit harder and play smarter if they want to win. Dave Brinkert's campaign against Gary Newell showed that even a pro-gun, pro-life Democrat doesn't have a chance- it's time for some long-term thinking and to lay the groundwork to take these seats when the political landscape has shifted more in favor for the Democratic Party- perhaps when they get redistricted in 2010.

If the Democratic Party wants to win seats in West Michigan they need to begin a long-term campaign in the form of a 5, 10 and 15 year plan that works on voter registration and education, candidate recruitment and grooming and an attempt to provide a funding structure besides relying on the remaining union members and a few $50 from friends and family to fund their candidates.

The only way I could see Brian Calley losing this race was if the far right voters, feeling alienated by a national Republican Party that has spent money like drunken sailors and failed to do anything of substance on abortion or homosexual marriage despite having a solid majority in Congress as well as control of the Executive branch and having a majority of Republican-nominated justices on the Supreme Court, decided to abandon the GOP and cast protest votes for fringe party candidates but that won't happen here. Constitution Party and US Taxpayers Party candidate Walt Herwarth failed to appear as a credible alternative to Brian Calley, sometimes losing his train of thought and not finishing his answers. It wasn't a good performance and it was a good sign that there won't be much to worry about from Calley's right flank which was the only place there could be a serious challenge.

The status quo will reign and re-elect Gary Newell (well, his protogé anyway) to another term in Lansing. And in a couple more years when you hear people grousing about Lansing and politicians, ask them how they voted in November, 2006. I bet you'll know the answer...