Furious Dreams – art blog by Victoria Webb

all the local townships are now having environmental festivals. Yesterday Willistown township had Senator Andy Dinniman and Rep. Duane Milne speaking at the end of  its event. I was there representing the GHGR Task Force. Here are a few pics from the event.

You’ve probably all seen the email circulating about the 1400+ Alaska anti-Palin rally held this weekend in downtown Anchorage. You may not know that the rally was organized by a small group of women, talking over coffee. Just goes to show that a couple of people can do anything, perhaps even turn an election around. The buzz made it into the Washington Post.

These are some of the better posters:

Women’s rights groups endorse Obama. This is an excerpt from the AP story by Ann Sanner.

Women’s rights groups endorsed Barack Obama for president Tuesday, asserting the historic selection of a female Republican vice presidential candidate does not make up for John McCain’s lack of support on issues important to women.

“We don’t think it’s much to break a glass ceiling for one woman and leave millions of women behind,” said Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority Foundation.

Smeal was among leaders from six organizations that announced their endorsement of the Democratic presidential nominee at a news conference.

Obama also won the support of the National Organization for Women, which said it has not endorsed a candidate for president since Walter Mondale and Geraldine Ferraro shared the Democratic ticket in 1984. Ferraro was the first female major-party vice presidential candidate.

NOW backed New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton in the primaries. “We join with her in saying ‘no,'” said NOW President Kim Gandy, referring to a line Clinton used at the Democratic convention last month. “No way, no how, no McCain.”

Gandy and Smeal dismissed polls that suggested McCain has received a boost in support from white women after he picked Palin.

“The die is not cast yet,” Smeal said.

An Associated Press-GfK Poll of likely voters last week showed Obama’s lead among women at 49 percent to 44 percent. The same AP-GfK poll showed that white women are backing McCain over Obama, 53 percent to 40 percent.

Gandy predicted women will quickly swing their support to Obama once they know where Palin stands on the issues. The Alaska governor opposes abortion except in the case of a threat to the mother’s life.

This is a post from the Chester County Coalition for Voting Integrity, a non-partisan organization dedicated to ensuring the integrity of our voting process. They are a Yahoo Group that Chester County citizens can join.

Thankfully, here in Chester County we vote on paper ballots. Unfortunately, in 52 other counties in Pennsylvania, paperless electronic voting systems rule.  In every election since 2006, these machines have broken down in enough numbers to cause long lines at the polls resulting in voter disenfranchisement.  November’s election is likely to generate a very high turnout.  As a result, certain advocacy groups are sending a letter to the Secretary of the Commonwealth, Pedro Cortes, to urge him to release a directive that requires counties to issue enough emergency paper ballots to precincts in the event of machine failure or long lines at the polls.  Chester County Coalition for Voting Integrity will sign on to the letter and help advocate for these vital ballots.  Although we do not have this particular issue in our county, every Pennsylvania voter deserves to have the opportunity to cast a ballot.

Three friends of mine from the St. Joe Valley Greens in South Bend, IN ran for office last year on the Green Party ticket. Unbelievably, their votes were not counted. As one of them stated at the end of her posting: 

‘In a Democracy, no one should have to hire an attorney to make sure their vote is counted.’  You can read about it on her blog here.

Maureen Dowd has redeemed herself a little with this weekend’s ‘Bering Straight Talk’. excerpt:

‘An Arctic blast of action has swept into the 2008 race, making thinking passé. We don’t really need to hurt our brains studying the world; we just need the world to know we’re capable of bringing a world of hurt to the world if the world continues to be hell-bent on misbehaving.’

As always, Frank Rich is one of the more astute journalists reporting on election shenanigans;

‘McCain’s conspicuous subservience to his younger running mate’s hard-right ideology and his dependence on her electioneering energy raise the question of who has the power in this relationship and who is in charge. A strong and independent woman or the older ward who would be bobbing in a golf cart without her? The more voters see that McCain will be the figurehead for a Palin presidency, the more they are likely to demand stepped-up vetting of the rigidly scripted heir apparent.’