In the race for Barry County Prosecutor it looks like the challenger has knocked off the incumbent.
Evans- 3463
Nakfoor-Pratt- 3168
100% of precincts reporting
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
County Board winners
Results according to WWMT Channel 3. 100% precincts reporting:
3rd District
Ferris- 504
DeMott- 304
6th District
Callton- 601
Noteboom- 189
6th District
Englerth- 470
Tripp- 280
7th District
VanNortwick- 360
Wing- 351 (can you say recount?)
8th District
Adams- 554
Nieves- 267
3rd District
Ferris- 504
DeMott- 304
6th District
Callton- 601
Noteboom- 189
6th District
Englerth- 470
Tripp- 280
7th District
VanNortwick- 360
Wing- 351 (can you say recount?)
8th District
Adams- 554
Nieves- 267
A Tale of Two Joes
Why is it that the media only cares that one guy named Joe is about to lose his seat in tonight's primary? All the attention had been paid to those "nasty liberals who are eating their own" in the Democratic primary for the the U.S. Senate seat from Connecticut while ignoring another Joe who is also facing attack from his party's base for drifting perhaps a bit too far to the center for their liking. The only difference is that one is a Democrat (Joe Lieberman) and one is Republican (Joe Schwarz). Republicans have been winning elections because of their willingness to challenge their frontrunners and incumbents to "keep them honest" and to create a unified front so voters know where the party stands but when Democrats start doing it the media starts whining about the radical "anti-war" left wing trying to move their party "Away from the middle." What's commonplace and pretty much ignored by the mass media on one side is treated as if it's the End of Democracy when it takes place on the other side- to me it sounds like good ol' democracy and that's just fine with me- makes you wonder why it scares the Beltway types so much. At least National Journal's Hotline blog sees it like it is. You can read their take on it while waiting for tonight's election results.
Monday, August 07, 2006
One small step for democracy
I sincerely have grave doubts about the survival of our so-called democracy or republic, depending on which semantic game you wish to play.
Even the greatest representative governments in history have fallen or have been "tweaked" (like Britain) to make them accommodate the relentless assaults by the privileged on middle and lower income people. The Roman Republic was blown away by Ceasar. Robespierre did a hatchet job on a brief fling with democracy not long after the French Revolution. Alexander Kerensky’s government of the people and by the people in Russia lasted less than a year before Lenin and the Bolsheviks dumped it in the almost bloodless October Revolution of 1917. How about the countless coups that overturned duly elected leaders throughout this century, many of which were the result of covert actions by our own government at the behest of a corporate agenda that had nothing to do with "freedom" or "democracy" and was often in direct opposition to it?
In America we’ve prided ourselves on living by the rules of the oldest document of its kind, the U.S. Constiution, yet it seems what we’ve known and understood as “freedom” and “rights” have only become toothless propaganda slogans. The culprit is not just George W. Bush and his merry band of Neocons. The real culprit is us. For, while the current adminstration ignores and even overturns the system of checks and balances that our nation's founders put in place to protect us from tyranny, the American people seem asleep at the switch, more concerned with the personal lives of celebrities than the actions of their elected officials and the country's slow slide into a dictatorship at the hands of a radical right wing corporate agenda that claims to love Jesus while carrying policies that look more like the worst excesses of the Roman Empire.
First, we must understand that just after the Constitution was adopted the right to vote applied only to free, white male landowners at least 21 years of age. It was only through amendments adopted in later years that women, blacks, non-property owners and 18-year-olds were enfranchised. Women and the under-21 crowd didn’t win the right to vote until the 20th century. Yet while so many have become enfranchised over the years because of an ever-evolving document that is our beloved Constitution, I fear our spoiled, disengaged, well-entertained, lazy and poorly informed modern U.S. society stands of the brink of giving it all up.
Someone once said that a majority in any democratic society, if given enough time, will vote away all their freedoms. One of the icons among the venerable “Founding Fathers” warned us that those who would give up freedom for security deserves neither. The most cynical comment closer to our time was, “If voting really made a difference, they wouldn’t let you do it.”
One of the greatest enemies of a free society are fundamentalist religious zealots, and you can ask intelligent folks who live in Iran, Afghanistan or Saudi Arabia all about it. I fear it’s been happening in America. Our president said he prayed to God, who told him to invade Iraq, killing uncounted numbers of innocent people. Virtally all the Neocons in his entourage are right-wing, fundamentalist born-again Christians, many of whom have no respect for true freedoms, even though they use the word freely. Often these people act as if their beliefs are being attacked or that anyone who stands against them in their path to unlimited power is against all people of faith or even those of one particular faith. Over the last 25 years we’ve managed to allow these types to take over our government and, judging by events in the Middle East over the last three years, may even lead us a self-fulfilling prophecy of Armegeddon- Christians vs. Muslims worldwide. And if Jesus doesn’t come afterward, oops! I guess we got all wrong. What’s a few billion lives? At least gay people didn't get married!
The other great enemy is unchecked power concentrated in too few hands. The brilliant premise of a democracy is that power is shared among all. But they must use it, and do so wisely or else the democracy becomes a charade controlled by a select few with money and power. I'm afraid American elections are often a pointless exercise as the candidate with the most money and who panders most wins the race and goes on to legislate on behalf of his campaign contributors. Those donors are often giving money to promote a corporate agenda that cares not about your job or your family- so long as the company's profits are enough to dazzle Wall Street investors and help the rich get richer while the inflation rate eats away at any cost of living raise you're lucky enough to get- if you still even have a job.
Meanwhile, closer to home, virtually all Republican candidates in West Michigan eagerly pander with their marketing to voters, very simply because it works. Almost all of them have their pictures taken with their families or with an American flag in the background. Nearly all are very loudly pro-life, as if they’re going to do anything significant about the issue that surfaced almost 34 years ago. Nearly all support Second Amendment rights, but don’t talk much, know much or even care about the other nine of the 10 amendments in the Bill of Rights. Almost all of them talk about getting tough on crime, though we now incarcerate more of our citizens than any other civilized country.. Virtually all of them tout their pro-business philosophies and ideas and want more tax cuts, but won’t tell you how government’s going to afford critical services such as police, fire, education, roads, sewer, water, etc. The vast majority support privatizing public services, which is proving to be one of the greatest economic enemies of our republic and slowly outsourcing our economic advantage to third world economies. The American people have spent too long falling for this bait and switch- voting for tax cuts and against gay marriages while allowing their jobs to be outsourced and their government sold to the highest bidder. Meanwhile, the American version of the Taliban keep blaming it all on God-hating Liberals and the Multinational Corporations blame all our troubles on U.S. workers who want a decent wage and affordable health care.
Most of us apparently don’t pay enough attention to figure it out or don’t think it’s important. Though the primary will decide who our next state representative and county commissioners will be, we’ll be lucky to have as many as 30 percent show up at the polls Aug. 8. Why doesn’t someone in government find a way to make it easier for working people to cast their votes? Most likely, it's because the one thing that keeps the zealots and the well-financed in power is by making the process of voting too much for most people to bother with- especially if they keep seeing the same result. Election campaigns are often about confusing the real issues and dragging things so far down in the mud most people want no part of it. Gerrymandering and the corporate media have also made it so the incumbents often get sent back to office. Until we start addressing the real issues and start voting out the bums who got us into this mess, we'll keep on our descent into dictatorship and theocracy. We still have a chance to take back our country, but I fear that our time is running out. August 8 can be a small step toward putting this nation back onto the right path to move forward again. I ask you to do your part.
Even the greatest representative governments in history have fallen or have been "tweaked" (like Britain) to make them accommodate the relentless assaults by the privileged on middle and lower income people. The Roman Republic was blown away by Ceasar. Robespierre did a hatchet job on a brief fling with democracy not long after the French Revolution. Alexander Kerensky’s government of the people and by the people in Russia lasted less than a year before Lenin and the Bolsheviks dumped it in the almost bloodless October Revolution of 1917. How about the countless coups that overturned duly elected leaders throughout this century, many of which were the result of covert actions by our own government at the behest of a corporate agenda that had nothing to do with "freedom" or "democracy" and was often in direct opposition to it?
In America we’ve prided ourselves on living by the rules of the oldest document of its kind, the U.S. Constiution, yet it seems what we’ve known and understood as “freedom” and “rights” have only become toothless propaganda slogans. The culprit is not just George W. Bush and his merry band of Neocons. The real culprit is us. For, while the current adminstration ignores and even overturns the system of checks and balances that our nation's founders put in place to protect us from tyranny, the American people seem asleep at the switch, more concerned with the personal lives of celebrities than the actions of their elected officials and the country's slow slide into a dictatorship at the hands of a radical right wing corporate agenda that claims to love Jesus while carrying policies that look more like the worst excesses of the Roman Empire.
First, we must understand that just after the Constitution was adopted the right to vote applied only to free, white male landowners at least 21 years of age. It was only through amendments adopted in later years that women, blacks, non-property owners and 18-year-olds were enfranchised. Women and the under-21 crowd didn’t win the right to vote until the 20th century. Yet while so many have become enfranchised over the years because of an ever-evolving document that is our beloved Constitution, I fear our spoiled, disengaged, well-entertained, lazy and poorly informed modern U.S. society stands of the brink of giving it all up.
Someone once said that a majority in any democratic society, if given enough time, will vote away all their freedoms. One of the icons among the venerable “Founding Fathers” warned us that those who would give up freedom for security deserves neither. The most cynical comment closer to our time was, “If voting really made a difference, they wouldn’t let you do it.”
One of the greatest enemies of a free society are fundamentalist religious zealots, and you can ask intelligent folks who live in Iran, Afghanistan or Saudi Arabia all about it. I fear it’s been happening in America. Our president said he prayed to God, who told him to invade Iraq, killing uncounted numbers of innocent people. Virtally all the Neocons in his entourage are right-wing, fundamentalist born-again Christians, many of whom have no respect for true freedoms, even though they use the word freely. Often these people act as if their beliefs are being attacked or that anyone who stands against them in their path to unlimited power is against all people of faith or even those of one particular faith. Over the last 25 years we’ve managed to allow these types to take over our government and, judging by events in the Middle East over the last three years, may even lead us a self-fulfilling prophecy of Armegeddon- Christians vs. Muslims worldwide. And if Jesus doesn’t come afterward, oops! I guess we got all wrong. What’s a few billion lives? At least gay people didn't get married!
The other great enemy is unchecked power concentrated in too few hands. The brilliant premise of a democracy is that power is shared among all. But they must use it, and do so wisely or else the democracy becomes a charade controlled by a select few with money and power. I'm afraid American elections are often a pointless exercise as the candidate with the most money and who panders most wins the race and goes on to legislate on behalf of his campaign contributors. Those donors are often giving money to promote a corporate agenda that cares not about your job or your family- so long as the company's profits are enough to dazzle Wall Street investors and help the rich get richer while the inflation rate eats away at any cost of living raise you're lucky enough to get- if you still even have a job.
Meanwhile, closer to home, virtually all Republican candidates in West Michigan eagerly pander with their marketing to voters, very simply because it works. Almost all of them have their pictures taken with their families or with an American flag in the background. Nearly all are very loudly pro-life, as if they’re going to do anything significant about the issue that surfaced almost 34 years ago. Nearly all support Second Amendment rights, but don’t talk much, know much or even care about the other nine of the 10 amendments in the Bill of Rights. Almost all of them talk about getting tough on crime, though we now incarcerate more of our citizens than any other civilized country.. Virtually all of them tout their pro-business philosophies and ideas and want more tax cuts, but won’t tell you how government’s going to afford critical services such as police, fire, education, roads, sewer, water, etc. The vast majority support privatizing public services, which is proving to be one of the greatest economic enemies of our republic and slowly outsourcing our economic advantage to third world economies. The American people have spent too long falling for this bait and switch- voting for tax cuts and against gay marriages while allowing their jobs to be outsourced and their government sold to the highest bidder. Meanwhile, the American version of the Taliban keep blaming it all on God-hating Liberals and the Multinational Corporations blame all our troubles on U.S. workers who want a decent wage and affordable health care.
Most of us apparently don’t pay enough attention to figure it out or don’t think it’s important. Though the primary will decide who our next state representative and county commissioners will be, we’ll be lucky to have as many as 30 percent show up at the polls Aug. 8. Why doesn’t someone in government find a way to make it easier for working people to cast their votes? Most likely, it's because the one thing that keeps the zealots and the well-financed in power is by making the process of voting too much for most people to bother with- especially if they keep seeing the same result. Election campaigns are often about confusing the real issues and dragging things so far down in the mud most people want no part of it. Gerrymandering and the corporate media have also made it so the incumbents often get sent back to office. Until we start addressing the real issues and start voting out the bums who got us into this mess, we'll keep on our descent into dictatorship and theocracy. We still have a chance to take back our country, but I fear that our time is running out. August 8 can be a small step toward putting this nation back onto the right path to move forward again. I ask you to do your part.
VOTE!
Tuesday, August 8 is your chance to be heard. Primaries are often low-tournout affairs and your vote can possibly sway the election in one candidate's favor. Also in our one-party state, also known as West Michigan, voting in the Republican primary is likely your only chance to pick your next county and state officials.
Election Magic is a great source of voting results as they come in if you don't feel like listening to the talking heads on your local news while waiting to see who won or lost.
Election Magic is a great source of voting results as they come in if you don't feel like listening to the talking heads on your local news while waiting to see who won or lost.
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Attorney General Misconception
It's been brought to my attention that some local Democrats are under the misconception that they will be voting for the party's nominee for Attorney General on the August 8 primary ballot. This is not correct. Candidates for Attorney General are nominated by political parties at their fall state convention (Michigan Election Law, Act 116 of 1954, Section 168.72).
While I understand the desire to not only replace the ineffective philanderer Mike Cox but also to try to quell any chance of Geoffrey Feiger from getting the nomination, the only way Democrats can vote for Scott Bowen, Amos Williams or even Feiger is to go to the Democratic Party state convention August 26-27 at Cobo Hall in Detroit. You have to be a member of the party for at least 30 days prior to be able to vote at the convention so if you aren't already a member it's too late.
This is something that has come up more than once in conversations about the local County Board races and the GOP primary race for State Rep. 87th district. Except for selecting the person very likely to go down to defeat against Vern Ehlers, there is really no reason for Democrats to not vote in the GOP primary and help select their next County Commissioner and State Representative. And voting in the Republican primary doesn't change your party affiliation or do anything else except make your vote actually mean something instead of being a symbolic act. While Democrats may not be fond of the choices, they can at least help make it so the truly awful candidates don't win. Sometimes, you have to take your best deal...
While I understand the desire to not only replace the ineffective philanderer Mike Cox but also to try to quell any chance of Geoffrey Feiger from getting the nomination, the only way Democrats can vote for Scott Bowen, Amos Williams or even Feiger is to go to the Democratic Party state convention August 26-27 at Cobo Hall in Detroit. You have to be a member of the party for at least 30 days prior to be able to vote at the convention so if you aren't already a member it's too late.
This is something that has come up more than once in conversations about the local County Board races and the GOP primary race for State Rep. 87th district. Except for selecting the person very likely to go down to defeat against Vern Ehlers, there is really no reason for Democrats to not vote in the GOP primary and help select their next County Commissioner and State Representative. And voting in the Republican primary doesn't change your party affiliation or do anything else except make your vote actually mean something instead of being a symbolic act. While Democrats may not be fond of the choices, they can at least help make it so the truly awful candidates don't win. Sometimes, you have to take your best deal...
Endorsement embarrassment
Endorsements have been discussed here in past postings, but I came to a realization Tuesday evening why some picks mean more than others.
While perusing the Grand Rapids Press, I noticed the daily publication endorsed four candidates for Kent County Board of Commissioners. One was of particular note, the selection of Holly Zuidema over Eric Schmidt in the 14th District. The reason for the Press picking her was, I kid you not, she is a female. That’s right.
The GRP apparently didn’t know enough about these two relatively unseasoned politicians who want to replace Tom Postmus, who is running for drain commissioner. So its editorial board took the chicken’s way out by choosing Zuidema simply because she’s a female and the GRP believes more women should serve on the County Board.
The Press didn't apply the same standard when it admitted Keith Butler and Michael Bouchard were both capable, yet they chose Bouchard who is white over Butler who is black. It could certainly be argued that there aren't enough blacks in the Senate- their editorial even admits it. So why the contradiction? And will the Press follow it's own version of Affirmative Action when Bouchard faces Debbie Stabenow for the U.S. Senate seat in November? Not likely. The Press will probably also pass over our female Governor to try to give a boost to the campaign of local billionaire Dick Devos- another white male, in case you hadn't noticed. I suspect their motives are insincere and they only support the "minority" when they don't have a dog in the fight.
The GRP has shown a disturbing trend in endorsing incumbents about 95 percent of the time and when in doubt over two or more challengers, it picks the female. I suggest it shows a lack of knowledge and understanding of the candidates and the issues. The Press back in 1994 endorsed for 87th District State Representative Cathy Williamson of Middleville, a former county commissioner who was retired by voters by a wide margin in 1988. She really didn’t bring anything to the table except she was a female. She was one of seven candidates back then and the GRP bypassed Terry Geiger, Bill Cook, Dennis McKelvey and Richard Dean — because Cathy was a female. She went on to finish way back in the pack so it's doubtful the endorsement from the GR daily had any effect on voters.
Not long ago at a candidates’ forum at Grand Valley State University for four people hoping to succeed term limited State Senator Ken Sikkema, it was said the GRP will endorse Joanne Vorhees over fellow State Rep. Mark Jansen — you guessed it, because she’s a female. My source who attended that forum called the four candidates “Tweedledee and Teeedledum Squared” because there was virtually nothing different in the candidates’ views, they all seemed to come from the same GOP School of Marching in Lockstep. They all dance to the same fiddler, so perhaps Vorhees isn’t sucha bad pick. After all, she’s a female and she and her husband, Harold, have had a lot of experience feeding at the public trough and skirting term limits laws.
With all this in mind, do not be shocked if the Press urges voters to fill in the little circle next to Susan Vlietstra for the Republican 87th District State Representative primary. It has nothing to do with whether she’s best qualified or has a solid grasp of the issues — she’s a female, that’s what counts — at least when none of the candidates are friends of the Press' editorial board.
At least the Lansing State Journal carefully examined all of the candidates and then made the difficult and correct choice in the 87th District by endorsing Brian Reynolds. Meanwhile, the Grand Rapids Press editorial page continues to be an embarrassment.
While perusing the Grand Rapids Press, I noticed the daily publication endorsed four candidates for Kent County Board of Commissioners. One was of particular note, the selection of Holly Zuidema over Eric Schmidt in the 14th District. The reason for the Press picking her was, I kid you not, she is a female. That’s right.
The GRP apparently didn’t know enough about these two relatively unseasoned politicians who want to replace Tom Postmus, who is running for drain commissioner. So its editorial board took the chicken’s way out by choosing Zuidema simply because she’s a female and the GRP believes more women should serve on the County Board.
The Press didn't apply the same standard when it admitted Keith Butler and Michael Bouchard were both capable, yet they chose Bouchard who is white over Butler who is black. It could certainly be argued that there aren't enough blacks in the Senate- their editorial even admits it. So why the contradiction? And will the Press follow it's own version of Affirmative Action when Bouchard faces Debbie Stabenow for the U.S. Senate seat in November? Not likely. The Press will probably also pass over our female Governor to try to give a boost to the campaign of local billionaire Dick Devos- another white male, in case you hadn't noticed. I suspect their motives are insincere and they only support the "minority" when they don't have a dog in the fight.
The GRP has shown a disturbing trend in endorsing incumbents about 95 percent of the time and when in doubt over two or more challengers, it picks the female. I suggest it shows a lack of knowledge and understanding of the candidates and the issues. The Press back in 1994 endorsed for 87th District State Representative Cathy Williamson of Middleville, a former county commissioner who was retired by voters by a wide margin in 1988. She really didn’t bring anything to the table except she was a female. She was one of seven candidates back then and the GRP bypassed Terry Geiger, Bill Cook, Dennis McKelvey and Richard Dean — because Cathy was a female. She went on to finish way back in the pack so it's doubtful the endorsement from the GR daily had any effect on voters.
Not long ago at a candidates’ forum at Grand Valley State University for four people hoping to succeed term limited State Senator Ken Sikkema, it was said the GRP will endorse Joanne Vorhees over fellow State Rep. Mark Jansen — you guessed it, because she’s a female. My source who attended that forum called the four candidates “Tweedledee and Teeedledum Squared” because there was virtually nothing different in the candidates’ views, they all seemed to come from the same GOP School of Marching in Lockstep. They all dance to the same fiddler, so perhaps Vorhees isn’t sucha bad pick. After all, she’s a female and she and her husband, Harold, have had a lot of experience feeding at the public trough and skirting term limits laws.
With all this in mind, do not be shocked if the Press urges voters to fill in the little circle next to Susan Vlietstra for the Republican 87th District State Representative primary. It has nothing to do with whether she’s best qualified or has a solid grasp of the issues — she’s a female, that’s what counts — at least when none of the candidates are friends of the Press' editorial board.
At least the Lansing State Journal carefully examined all of the candidates and then made the difficult and correct choice in the 87th District by endorsing Brian Reynolds. Meanwhile, the Grand Rapids Press editorial page continues to be an embarrassment.
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