Nicolas Maduro Did Not Steal the Election in Venezuela by Greg Palast + Venezuela Accuses U.S. of Plotting Coup

Image by Joka Madruga via Flickr

by Greg Palast
Writer, Dandelion Salad
www.gregpalast.com
For Vice Magazine - Leer el artículo en español aquí
April 22, 2013

The guy in the cheap brown windbreaker walking up the dirty tenement steps to my New York office looked like a bus driver.

Nicolas Maduro, elected President of Venezuela last Sunday, did indeed drive a bus, then led the drivers’ union, then drove Chávez’ laws through the National Assembly as Venezuela’s National Assembly chief.

Compare the 1912 Elections with the 2012 Elections by Ralph Nader

Image by Kheel Center, Cornell University via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

by Ralph Nader
The Nader Page
Dec. 31, 2012

Before the electoral year of 2012 slinks into history, it is worth a comparative glance back to the electoral year of 1912 to give us some jolting perspective on how degraded our contemporary elections, voter performance and election expectations have become.

One hundred years ago, workers were marching, picketing and forming unions. Eugene Debs, the great labor leader and presidential candidate that year, spoke to outdoor labor rallies of 100,000 to 200,000 workers and their families gathered to protest low wages and working conditions.

Go Back To Sleep America At Your Own Peril by Jill Dalton

by Jill Dalton
Guest Writer
Dandelion Salad
recoveringarmybrat
Nov. 13, 2012

Image by watchingfrogsboil via Flickr

Go back to sleep America. The election is over. The “lesser of two evils” or as Glen Ford so aptly labeled him the “more effective evil” has won and all is well with the world.

You cast your faux fear vote for your faux president who was actually selected and installed by the corporate powers to serve the corporate police state that’s been put into place over the past 30 years and is now accelerating at an alarming rate. The irony is many actually believe their vote matters and global warming doesn’t exist and we’re fighting the good wars and fracking will save us from peak oil and taking our rights away will keep us safe and we’re number one.

Obama Wins For Whom? by Michael Hudson

by Michael Hudson
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
http://michael-hudson.com
As published in Counterpunch
November 9, 2012

Image by anokarina via Flickr

The Democrats could not have won so handily without the Citizens United ruling. That is what enabled the Koch Brothers to spend their billions to support right-wing candidates that barked and growled like sheep dogs to give voters little civilized option but to vote for “the lesser evil.” This will be President Obama’s epitaph for future historians. Orchestrating the election like a World Wrestling Federation melodrama, the Tea Party’s sponsors threw billions of dollars into the campaign to cast the President’s party in the role of “good cop” against stereotyped opponents attacking women’s rights, Hispanics and nearly every other hyphenated-American interest group.

Election Results and News Coverage and Commentary via the Internet

Image by By League of Women Voters of California via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

Turn off your TV.

Commentary, results, and news via the Internet.

Live:

Jill Stein Interviewed by Dennis Trainer, Jr.

Dandelion Salad

If you live in a non-swing state, please consider voting for a third party candidate. Dennis Trainor, Jr explains it in this video.

Image by By Sunset Parkerpix via Flickr

Nov 4, 2012 by Dennis Trainor, Jr.

Does Voting Even Matter? by Jill Dalton

by Jill Dalton
Guest Writer
Dandelion Salad
recoveringarmybrat
October 30, 2012

Image by Nney via Flickr

I remember sitting in the large impersonal lecture hall in my American History 101 class feeling a bit forlorn and overwhelmed. I’m a freshman at the University of South Carolina. It’s 1968, the Vietnam War is raging, Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King have been assassinated, riots erupted in several U.S. cities, the antiwar movement, woman’s movement and civil rights movement are in full swing, my father’s currently serving in Military Intelligence, Saigon and my mom’s hospitalized after suffering 3^rd degree burns because she’s having a nervous breakdown trying to deal with my father being at war leaving her responsible for raising 4 kids ranging in ages from 5 and 18. I feel like I’m hanging on by my fingernails.

What’s wrong with lesser evilism

Dandelion Salad

Image by By beachblogger42 via Flickr

Editorial
SocialistWorker.org
October 24, 2012

Those who advocate a vote for the “lesser evil” hope to defeat the “greater evil” of the right wing–but they enable the Democrats to shift further right themselves.

DOES BARACK Obama deserve your vote? That’s the question people on the left should be asking as Election Day approaches.

Noam Chomsky: Elections Are A Public Relations Operation

Dandelion Salad

Image by m-c via Flickr

with Noam Chomsky

Oct 23, 2012 by ExplodedView MEF

Noam Chomsky’s acceptance speech upon receiving the inaugural People Before Profits Award from the Center for Popular Economics on September 27, 2012. He discusses the dysfunctional election and media systems that contribute to the maintenance of a closed and rigged government advancing the agendas of corporations and the wealthy.

Why I’m Voting Green by Chris Hedges

by Chris Hedges
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
Truthdig
October 29, 2012

Image by ra_hurd via Flickr

The November election is not a battle between Republicans and Democrats. It is not a battle between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. It is a battle between the corporate state and us. And if we do not immediately engage in this battle we are finished, as climate scientists have made clear. I will defy corporate power in small and large ways. I will invest my energy now solely in acts of resistance, in civil disobedience and in defiance. Those who rebel are our only hope. And for this reason I will vote next month for Jill Stein, the Green Party candidate, although I could as easily vote for Rocky Anderson of the Justice Party. I will step outside the system. Voting for the “lesser evil”—or failing to vote at all—is part of the corporate agenda to crush what is left of our anemic democracy. And those who continue to participate in the vaudeville of a two-party process, who refuse to confront in every way possible the structures of corporate power, assure our mutual destruction.

Greg Palast: Voter Suppression, Billionaires and Ballot Bandits

Image by djwudi via Flickr

with Greg Palast
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.gregpalast.com
September 30, 2012

Sep 29, 2012 by talkingsticktv

Talk by investigative journalist Greg Palast author of “Billionaires & Ballot Bandits: How to Steal an Election in 9 Easy Steps” given September 27, 2012 at Town Hall Seattle in Seattle, WA.

Lance Selfa: What do socialists say about Election 2012?

Dandelion Salad

Image by RafePhoto via Flickr

Interview with Lance Selfa
SocialistWorker.org
Sept. 5, 2012

Everyone–the media commentators, leaders of the two parties, liberal supporters of the Democrats and conservative supporters of the Republicans–are saying that the 2012 presidential election offers a clear choice between two fundamentally different political visions. So why doesn’t it seem that way most of the time? Lance Selfa, author of The Democrats: A Critical History, explains why in this interview with SocialistWorker.org.

Colonels in Mirrored Sunglasses by Greg Palast

by Greg Palast
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.gregpalast.com
September 6, 2012

Image by djwudi via Flickr

An excerpt from Greg Palast’s Billionaires & Ballot Bandits

Here are the facts, ma’am:

In the 2008 election, no less than:

• 767,023 provisional ballots were cast and not counted;

• 1,451,116 ballots were “spoiled,” not counted;

• 488,136 absentee ballots were mailed in, but not counted.

Add it up: in the last presidential election, no less than 2,706,275 ballots were cast—and never counted. I have not included a quarter million (251,936) provisional ballots counted only in part (that is, for some offices).

Quiz Time: Very Liberal, Very Conservative or Somewhere In-between? Dennis Kucinch Takes The Quiz

Dandelion Salad

Image by League of Women Voters of California via Flickr

PBS

Take the Quiz

***

Sep 5, 2012 by PBSNewsHour

For more coverage: http://to.pbs.org/RmuIv4

The NewsHour partnered with Pew Research Center for a quiz to determine where voters fall on the political spectrum. At the Democratic National Convention we’ve been asking people to take the quiz on camera. Outgoing Rep. Dennis Kucinich was our first. Watch his responses here and see how you rate on the quiz.

An Unreasonable Man – Ralph Nader (2006)

Dandelion Salad

Reposting, please watch while available.

Image by Dandelion Salad via Flickr

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Unreasonable_Man

An Unreasonable Man is a 2006 documentary film that traces the life and career of political activist Ralph Nader, the founder of modern consumer protection in America and frequent presidential candidate. The film was created to defend Nader and restore his reputation after his controversial role in the 2000 U.S. presidential election.