Is our country moving fowards, backwards, or neither?

That's a very hard question. As a whole, in our current governmental state, I would say we are moving backwards (Ow SKY, STOP HITTING ME!!!). I think within our country, contrary to our current government, large masses of people are progressing.

I said progressing because I think it's starting to turn around. Diebold has been making me feel for a long time that we're really sunk, but check out the story on Maryland's Republican governor wanting to give them the boot and why. This is gonna spread and I think we've turned the corner.

I think for the last couple of decades our American society has been in many ways stagnant.
However, I feel that with the coming Liberal rebound we're on the verge of a new growth spurt.


National health care being a single example.
I think likely in the next 10 years we will have a national plan in place.

It'll never happen with the Repugs in charge.
They are too capitalistic, and will try to build a system that follows theire ideology,
and as such, won't work for everyone.

If every other developed country in the world can have a national health care system,
so can the richest country.

Towards what?

El Dorado! Or maybe just the path towards some of our goals such as the universal healthcare Sky mentioned, really fixing social security, good relations the rest of our global community etc.
Ride high, ride high
The shade replied
Over the mountains
To the valley

There upon a cliff
You'll see
A placed called
El Dorado

It's not about the destination.
And if you focus on that, all you will know is that you will never get there.

It's about the journey. Focus on the process of getting there.
If you can do that, then you will able to feel the joy of every success along the way.

I voted Stagnat. Man hasnt changed since we have been recording what we do. What makes you think anything about America is "special" and excluded from the rest of mankind?

Until last Friday I would have agreed with you....then I read this three-day-weekend bombshell about Diebold in CA. (McPherson is a Terminator appointee) I had to vote regressing. If the thugs pull this one off CA will "mysteriously" shift to the right. Keep in mind Chimpy's "popularity" is at 30% in CA.

They're after Big Blue...and to quote Churchill, it is something up with which I shall not put.
Californians are really steamed on this one. Rove is an asshole and a total bastard.
I've been leaving messages all weekend for the CA Senate Rules Committee.

http://www.bbvforums.org/cgi-bin/forums/bo...1954/19353.html
Calif. Sec. State certifies entire Diebold product line
(contact information at link)

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews...ia/13900909.htm
Posted on Fri, Feb. 17, 2006
McPherson gives conditional OK to Diebold voting machines
Associated Press

SACRAMENTO - California Secretary of State Bruce McPherson gave conditional approval Friday for counties to use two voting machines produced by Diebold Election Systems that he had previously questioned.

McPherson's office said in December that the Diebold machines failed one of the 10 criteria he established for voting machines because the source coding, or computer language, on their memory cards was not reviewed by independent investigators.

The coding performs two critical tasks - securing ballot entries and later providing instructions to election officials on how to access and tally the votes.

Since then, Diebold submitted the machines to further testing by University of California, Berkeley security analysts, who concluded that some of the codes on the memory cards need to be rewritten for long-term use.

Any immediate worries can be addressed by ensuring there is strict security during voting, the analysts said.

McPherson said the review persuaded him to authorize Diebold's Optical Scan and Touch-Screen voting systems, as long as counties take additional security precautions, including resetting the programmed code on the machines and keeping a written log of who has control of the memory cards.

Diebold is still required to make the long-term programming changes then resubmit the machines for independent testing.

Several California counties had already purchased the machines and some used them in November's statewide special election. The machines were designed to comply with the 2002 Help America Vote Act, which in part was intended to phase out punch card ballots and other old-fashioned systems as well as standardize electronic voting systems.

In an effort to meet federal requirements that take effect next year, McPherson's office has been engaged for months in evaluating and certifying several different electronic voting machines, including those from Diebold. The North Canton, Ohio-based company is the nation's largest manufacturer of such machines.
~~~~~
If CA goes down...all bets are off.


Rules Committee:

Senator Don Perata (Chair)
(916) 651-4009

Senator Jim Battin (Vice-Chair)
(916) 651-4037

Senator Roy Ashburn
(916) 651-4018

Senator Debra Bowen
(916) 651-4028

Senator Gilbert Cedillo
(916) 651-4022

CA State Senators
http://www.sen.ca.gov/ftp/SEN/senplan/Senate.htp

Panda!



Don't you see? This is a good sign, even a great sign!
Nearly everyone in your state is really really pissed about this!


I ask you,
would they have been pissed about this even just 1 year ago?
I rather doubt it would have been on anyones radar!

Now, they're on the run.
Now, they have to make extraordinary effort.
Now, we're watching, and we'll be aware by the millions if they try it again!

We might well be sheep, but even sheep get skittery when they figure out where the slaughter house is.



Nope, your regressive man in California has done the fair voting movement a big favor.

I think it's regressing but like sky's implying, awareness is the first step to solving the problem. I think it is good to know we know we are regressing, because in November people will want to IMPROVE everything about our country > WITH THEIR VOTES

(I guess my new pessimism is my new form of optimism? ... hmmmm, maybe I'm just crazy )

Unfortunately I believe we are still regressing. Today it appears that the rate of regression is slowing because more people seem to be realizing what is happening (despite the Bush administration's best attempts to either keep it secret or spin it in such a way that it does not seem to be what it is). But that is just today. Tomorrow is another day that may prove nothing has changed at all and nobody is waking up. You'll know it when it happens.

As long as there are all these signs of the coming theocracy, we are regressing.

Abortion bans in SD and MS, a love God or leave measure in MO...I don't like where it's headed.