NOTE: Welcome to this new column series. In "BTB Review" we will be discussing US national politics through the relatively unclouded lens of Beyond the Beltway, a weekly two-hour syndicated political radio talk show headquartered in Chicago. On this independent Sunday evening program which airs from 6 to 8 PM Central Time, veteran host Bruce DuMont teams up with conservative, liberal, Republican, Democratic, and independent guests to "take America's political pulse" and provide "a fresh and balanced perspective of national politics." I discovered this show in late 2003 and have been listening to it ever since on Fort Wayne, Indiana station AM 1190 WOWO. Given that after twenty-eight years of steady running Beyond the Beltway is still not well known, I hope that this column will encourage people to listen to the show, to learn and think more about the issues our country faces, and to become better informed and more responsible citizens of the United States of America.

In the year 2008, most Americans would acknowledge that their national politics has degenerated into quite a sorry state in recent years. Name-calling and mudslinging, detraction, slander and libel have never been so commonplace. Not a single solidly-pro-life candidate is likely to win Republican nomination, much less Democratic nomination, for the presidency. People are being asked which candidate they like or trust instead of which candidate measures up to their core convictions. A significant minority of allegedly pro-life Americans is even placing a candidate's support for the "War on Terrorism" ahead of his position on abortion. Finally, thanks to the endemic corruption of our modern political system, the presidential candidates likely to be nominated do not come close to truly representing the American people.

Rise like lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number.
Shake your chains to earth, like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you--
Ye are many, they are few.
~Percy Bysshe Shelley

My friend Bernie says he can't believe the American people haven't figured out what it's all about. "The whole damn political scene is nothing but a corporate media freak show," he said. "There's no breathing room between elections -- no time nor interest in investigating, or even addressing, issues that are critical to our survival as a nation. The minute every last dollar is sucked out of the competition, the candidate who bought the most attack ads -- the most face time -- wins, and the election is over. Then," Bernie said with disgust, "it's time to start raising money for the next election, because the media is already out there campaigning."

Justin Soutar

(NOTE: This article currently appears as the cover story in the inaugural issue of U. S. Politics [April 2008].)

July 6, 2007

Each year, it seems, the Grand American Puppet Show is getting longer, and the assortment of characters more diverse and talented. This time the curtain was lifted in the middle of 2006, more than two years before the Grand American Puppet Choice Day--er, excuse me, Election Day. The first two characters to appear on stage were New York Senator Hillary Clinton, representing the Democratic Party, and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, representing the Republican Party.  

The progress being made in our 4 1/2 year war of terror on Iraq is phenomenal. So impressive are our recent gains that the "top tier" Democratic candidates who have lined up in competition to become the heirs of this great struggle for freedom, for Middle Eastern democracy, for oil and gas rights for western corporations and of course for lucrative contracts in arms sales and private security for campaign contributors, last night went way out on a limb and declared their goal of removing our troops from the quagmire in Mesopotamia by the end of their first term in office in 2013.

Despite their boldness, they did not report whether or not they could guarantee the colonization of Mars, a cure for cancer, or flying pigs within that time frame.

The Washington Post this morning ran an article, "Bellwethers, Eight Issues That Will Shape The 2006 Elections" or one of a series of articles which is indicative of a coming surf tide of newsprint, virtual and otherwise, which will wash up on the shores of our collective consciousness over the next dozen or so weeks.

Predictions about the midterm election will curl whitely and proudly in the air and regularly and rhythmically slap our calm beaches until we are struck silly with predictions, expert opinions, and statistical analyses of the 06 election.

My name is Sherri Welsh; I am the wife of Congressional Candidate Barry Welsh of Indiana's 6th District.

I have been actively participating in my husband's Congressional race opposing Mike Pence - this is my first Diary. The contents of this diary have not been vetted through my husband's press secretary or my husband or for that matter anyone else.  This diary is affording me the opportunity to speak my mind and express some of the things I see, hear and read in today's issues and commentaries as well as being connected to my husband's, Barry Welsh for Congress, campaign.

More...

Whether or not electoral fraud can be proved, the most important issue is whether the current electoral system can be trusted.

Clearly it can not. The GAO report is unequivocal. Electronic vote tampering is not only possible, it is down right easy. It can be pulled off with relatively little effort.

Whether or not we believe that the 2004 election was stolen is not the point here. My point is that because of the way e-voting is implemented, the electoral system is ripe for unprecedented abuse and we need to do some serious hell raising. Quickly.

Bradblog Rocks!!

...As Half of Ohio's Counties Fire Up Blackwell's New Diebold Electronic Diebold Voting Machines
Is this the Election that will finally break the camel's back?

With so much going on, we haven't had much time to report here on the extraordinary outcome of last Tuesday's election in Ohio where the crooked state that brung you -- by hook and by crook -- a second term for George W. Bush may have turned in results so staggeringly impossible, that perhaps even the Ohio Mainstream Corporate Media will have no choice but to look into it.

With 44 of Ohio's 88 counties for the first time using Electronic Touch-Screen Voting Machines last Tuesday -- most of them the same Diebold, Inc. machines that were decertified in California -- you must take a look at the extroarindarily inexplicable results of the 4 ballot initiatives that would have reformed voting in the Buckeye State and removed Sec. of State J. Kenneth Blackwell (a hard-right Bush partisan) from elections entirely.

Simply put, the polls published in the historically accurate Columbus Dispatch just two days before the election, matched almost identically on the one ballot initiative supported by Ohio's Governor Taft, but the 4 that called for Electoral Reform? Didn't synch up by a long shot:

ISSUE 1 ($2 Billion State Bond initiative)
PRE-POLLING: 53% Yes, 27% No, 20% Undecided
FINAL RESULT: 54% Yes, 45% No

ISSUE 2 (Allow easier absentee balloting)
PRE-POLLING: 59% Yes, 33% No, 9% Undecided
FINAL RESULT: 36% Yes, 63% No

ISSUE 3 (Revise campaign contribution limits)
PRE-POLLING: 61% Yes, 25% No, 14% Undecided
FINAL RESULT: 33% Yes, 66% No

ISSUE 4 (Ind. Comm. to draw Congressional Districts)
PRE-POLLING: 31% Yes, 45% No, 25% Undecided
FINAL RESULT: 30% Yes, 69% No

ISSUE 5 (Ind. Board instead of Sec. of State to oversee elections)
PRE-POLLING: 41% Yes, 43% No, 16% Undecided
FINAL RESULT: 29% Yes, 70% No

FULL STORY and EXTRAORDINARY DETAILS...

Tomorrow is another step toward November 2006.  Just as the Special Election in Ohio's 2nd was a slice of hope, tomorrow will be a day that could become the origin of a tidal wave.
There are several races across the nation that will serve as indicators to the public sentiment in a way that no poll or political column can.
Think of America as the whole, not just as everywhere other than your neighborhood.  Just because there may not be an election in your particular neighborhood, what happens tomorrow in elections will impact you.
 This is to ask that you do your part.  Don't ask, what can I do?  Ask, what will I do.

Don't just be a talker, be a doer.   Let's take our Country back, and let's start tomorrow.

Barry Welsh
IN-06
www.barrywelsh.org