The following essay repeats material that I originally posted on Facebook. For years, I subscribed on-line to both the New York Times and the Washington Post. I rarely read any given article past the headlines, but I thought it was important to support high-quality journalism. I looked on it as an act of charity, the way I…
I just got back from a letter-writing party at a friend's house. The point was to write letters as part of Vote Forward. You send hand-written letters to folks who haven't voted recently. The goal is to boost voter turnout. Everyone who writes a letter is encouraged to use their own words, as long as the tone…
In past years I've voted straight down the Democratic Party ticket. The exception was when the Democratic candidate was also running as a candidate for a minority party (e.g., Working Families); then I vote for them under the minority ticket in an attempt to give greater voice to those who feel underrepresented. This year, I feel I'm…
The New York Primary Elections are on Thu, Sep 13th. We've learned in recent years that primary elections are very important; the results of those elections bear on issues like who the superdelegates are at the Democratic National Convention. I've been doing some web research on the candidates. I found Ballotpedia to be a very useful resource,…
A friend of mine recently posted that the incoming administration was going to be a: kleptocracy = government by theft I agreed with the spirit, but disagreed with the specifics. I did a teeny bit of googling, and came up with this term: pseudocracy = government by lies I thought it appropriate, given the statements made by…
I have to vote for Barack Obama in 2012. The Republican slate consists of people with such an anti-intellectual stance that I cannot vote for them. But with the President's decision not to veto the NDAA, I dearly wish there was a Democratic contender running to oppose him.