Posts – Page 36 – Mason Votes

GMU Chapter of NAACP: “What’s Your Stance?” Series

Photo by Frank Ross| BigGovernment.com

On Thursday, October 4, the day after the first presidential debate the George Mason chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) held their first segment of their “What’s Your Stance” series leading up to the November 6 Presidential Election. Mason students met with Mike Everest, a member of the Fairfax NAACP chapter, and former Economics professor at the National Air College, who informed Mason students of the U.S.’ economic history from the 1950s to present day. He spoke at this event in order to share his thoughts on the current financial situation and further inform Mason students on different factors that are affecting not only the U.S. economy, but the Asian economy as well.

“When you think about economics, the first question at hand is where is the money in America?” said Everest.

Everest explained that to learn about the current economic situation, students should have a quick glance at the history of America’s economy. First, he explained that there have only been surpluses under two presidents in the history of our economy; the first being President Truman in 1947 and the second President Clinton in 1998. While using the Statistics of World Population, GDP and Per Capita GDP, 1-2008 AD”, Angus Maddison, University of Groningen, and Everest explained that China had a history of economic power. Because China had a history of economic growth, Asian Americans had the most homeownership in America in 2000, 2007, and 2008 and were the leading graduates in 2000, and 2008.

“I wanted to hear President and Governor Romney discuss these issues [during] [the] [Presidential] [debate].” said Everest.

Everest’s concern about this topic is that the money is not in America but in Asia. Because of the Asian countries being a strong economic environment, economic analysis reports the Asian economy first followed by Europe and the U.S. on a daily basis according to Everest. Also, he believes that because the economic deficit did not occur instantly, it will not be able to be fixed instantly.

“The President and congress should be able to work together in order to help the economy.” said Everest.

Everest indicated a few factors of how the U.S. economy differed from President Clinton’s term to now. During the Clinton presidency, the U.S. did not go through any wars. During the Bush presidency, the 127.3 billion surplus turned into a 157.8 billion deficit by 2002 because of the war in Iraq.

In the final moments of the “What’s Your Stance Series”, Everest mentioned what he felt would get the U.S. in a better financial situation.

“We need to get out of war, create jobs at home, and have everyone pay taxes,” said Everest.

Social Issues in the 2012 Election

With a struggling economy and unrest in the Middle East, discussion of social issues has taken a back seat in this election cycle. That is, until this week’s Vice Presidential debate, when moderator Martha Raddatz asked the Candidates to explain their views on abortion and the role that their religious practices have played in this opinion.

As Catholic men, both Vice President Biden and Congressman Ryan expressed the personal belief that life begins at conception; the sole difference being that Biden does not want to force his personal, religious ideology on the American public, while Ryan does. At one point Ryan attempted to pass his view off as not exclusively the product of religion, but stemming from “science and reason.” His evidence being an anecdote about seeing an ultrasound of his oldest child who was shaped as a bean; yet seemed to have forgotten to mention any actual “science” or “reason.”

The Congressman then held himself to a double standard, explaining that if he were to be elected Vice President, he would infringe on the constitutionally afforded right to freedom of religion, while simultaneously accusing the Obama administration of doing just that. He explained that a Romney/ Ryan White House would hold an anti-choice position (except in cases of rape, incest and life of the mother), while condemning the Affordable Care Act for “assaulting” religious institutions, without of course, any specifics. However, Biden was able to make it perfectly clear that this was a complete falsehood, and that no religious enterprise is forced to “refer contraception, none has to pay for contraception, none has to be a vehicle to get contraception in any insurance policy they provide.”

Ryan then went on to explain that, “unelected judges should not make this decision,” referring to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Roe V. Wade, that laws prohibiting abortion violate the Constitution’s Due Process Clause. Ryan seems to have also forgotten that the Supreme Court did not create the Constitution and that its role is not to serve as lawmakers, but rather ensure that all government action abides by this document through “science and reason,” not religious ideology.

While no one can deny that the economy and national security are of the utmost importance in November’s election, we must not forget that social justice is also at stake.

*The views and opinions expressed are solely those of the author.

Biden Defends Obama in Last Night’s Debate

If you watched last week’s debate between President Obama and Governor Mitt Romney you may have notice that Obama did not bring up many arguments in his debate. In last night’s debate with Vice President Joe Biden and Congressman Paul Ryan, the Vice President made many of the arguments that the president failed to make in his debate. Biden made an effort to improve the democratic stance within the debates from what is considered a “stumble” on Obama’s part by Karen Tumulty. As a result of this stumble poll numbers have moved slightly in the direction of the GOP ticket. Every criticism brought up by Ryan, Biden made sure to defend the Obama administration. He emphasized that the Republican Party is not concerned with the middle class and out of touch with average Americans.

While Biden approached the debate strong, Ryan on the other hand played it safe in an effort to avoid mistakes, which seems to be what the President decided to do in last week debate. Biden made reference to one of Gov. Romney’s controversial comments that were caught on videotape. He noted that the Republican presidential nominee suggested that the 47 percent of Americans who do not pay income taxes are government-dependent freeloaders who consider themselves victims. Biden gave a personal response to saying, “These people are my mom and dad, the people I grew up with, my neighbors.” Vice President Biden had far more experience than Ryan when it comes to debating on the national stage. When Ryan was only two years of age Biden was elected to Senate and has run for president twice in his career.

In next week’s debate something to look out for is President Obama’s approach and if it will be similar to Biden’s. Something else to look out for is whether Governor Romney takes a less aggressive approach, or goes on the attack.

The full article on the “Stumble” written by Karen Tumulty can be found at the following link:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/decision2012/in-vp-debate-biden-seeks-to-repair-damage-from-obamas-stumble/2012/10/11/f9c90942-13e5-11e2-bf18-a8a596df4bee_story.html

Election Poll Monitor Opportunity

My name is Michael Lore and I am the Virginia Grassroots Poll Monitor Volunteer Coordinator for Common Cause. The 2012 election is upon us and VA is a battleground state with new districts and new identification standards at the polls. I applaud you for your interest to be an engaged citizen on Election Day 2012. We are a non-partisan coalition of groups that seeks fair and open elections with as much participation as possible. (www.866ourvote.org)

The roll of a grassroots poll monitor is fairly simple. Although you will learn the specifics when you are trained, the basic idea is that you would serve as a frequently asked question guide outside the polls. Most of the time will be spent helping citizens who are confused about their polling place or whether they can vote on a regular ballot or provisional, you would serve as a first line of defense and a go-between with our command centers around the state and national offices. Overall, we need boots on the ground to help voters and relay problems to our central offices so we can examine trends and alert the election officials of the problems. You will not be an election official, you will be the non-partisan citizen oversight of those officials from a distance.

In 2008 I was an election protection volunteer in Virginia and the experience gave me the reward of a patriotic pride of participation in our democratic process. As a grassroots election protection volunteer you will be a true participant in the process, without a partisan hat. However, if you so desire, you can put your partisan hat on, once you have taken off the Election Protection shirt, you must also however go to a different polling place than where you were volunteering.

Just a reminder, Election Day is November 6th and your participation in the grassroots poll monitoring program will require a commitment to work several hours on Election Day and to be trained to handle your role outside the polls before Election Day where you will be assigned to a polling place near you, or if you are available to one of the more contentious areas in the state. Spanish speaking individuals are especially desired.

Please sign up at this link TODAY.
http://salsa3.salsalabs.com/o/50015/p/salsa/web/questionnaire/public/?questionnaire_KEY=1297

The trainings will begin next week (NOVA: Saturday Oct 20th 10am-12pm or Friday Oct 26th 6-8pm) and we are trying to determine if we will require additional trainings, so please sign up as soon as possible. Do not hesitate to call or email if you have any questions prior to the trainings, but training info will be found on the electronic sign-up sheet at the link above and we will be in touch when you have signed up. I know you are busy with day-to-day responsibilities, so we will ensure that your time is truly appreciated and not wasted.

Regards,
Michael

Biden Unhinged, Ryan Composed in VP Clash

I want to give the sitting Vice President his due. He is a powerful man and he deserves respect. I just thought he knew how to give respect as well as he gets it.

For a full 90 minutes in Danville, Kentucky, Joe Biden’s conduct was childish, rude, and did not live up to the high office he holds. It has me questioning everything from Biden’s sanity to his sobriety. The general sense even from some in the media was that Joe was some iteration of a cranky old man carping at a younger adversary. He interrupted Paul Ryan 82 times, regularly laughed during Ryan’s answers, and maintained a condescending attitude throughout the debate. If President Obama showed his disdain for the GOP ticket by shrinking and being meager, Vice President Biden showed it by lashing out and acting like a fool.

Substantively, the topics varied between domestic and foreign policy. Moderator Martha Raddatz began with Libya and moved to Afghanistan and to Syria. Ryan defended his running mate’s early response on the embassy attacks last month by saying, “”It’s never too early to speak out for our values,” to which Biden literally called “malarkey.” After Ryan attacked the administration for sending mixed signals to Iran, Biden quipped, “This is a bunch of stuff,” an Irish saying, Biden explained.

On the domestic side, things got pretty heated when Biden finally invoked Mitt Romney’s infamous 47% comment and his wealth. Ryan responded with a personal story about Romney, a fact about his vast charitable giving, and what turned out to be the zinger of the night: “With respect to that quote, I think the Vice President very well knows that sometimes the words don’t come out of your mouth the right way.”

On entitlement reform, Biden attacked Ryan’s budget plan as well as defended Obamacare. In a heated exchange and after many interruptions by Biden, Ryan quipped, “Mr. Vice President, I know you’re under a lot of duress to make up for lost ground, but I think people would be better served if we don’t keep interrupting each other.” The substance almost didn’t seem to matter because the fighting was so rough and the clash of facts so stark that it’s really up to the fact checkers to decide.

It seemed Joe Biden’s job was to do the opposite of Obama. He was supposed to take it to Paul Ryan and get the left flank energized about the Democratic ticket. If that was his objective, he may have succeeded to a degree. But where I believe the Obama team miscalculated was that this display of Biden’s wild side may very well turn off the very independents they will need to win the election.

As I said in my preview, VP debates are very inconsequential in the grand scheme. Neither candidate did their side too much damage. Thus the debate can be considered a draw by most non-partisan thinkers. Now the stage is set for round two from the top of the ticket. That clash will mean a lot more than Biden belligerence at this debate.

*The views and opinions expressed are solely those of the author.

Kaine in the Lead

Photo by: Giarc80HC on flickr.com

In the race to represent Virginia in the United States Senate, Public Policy Polling has Governor Kaine steadily leading Senator Allen in a poll taken between October 4^th and October 7^th.

Democratic Candidate Kaine is holding a 7-point lead, with 51% of the people surveyed saying they would vote for him if the election were held today and 44% saying the would vote in favor if Republican Candidate Allen; with a margin of error of +/- 3.6%. The survey was taken by 735 likely voters in Virginia, with 38% identifying as democratic, 32% as republican and 30% as independent or other.

Polls taken within the first week of October by Rasmussen Reports and NBC/WSJ/Marist also have Kaine with a 7-point advantage, while and Real Clear Politics has him leading by 4.7%. This signifies a large shift in the campaign as many past polls had this race at a virtual tie until midway through September.

Democrats, who hold a majority in the Senate with 51 seats, are defending 23 of them this election cycle, while Republicans are only fighting for 10.

Common Cause Student Fellow Opening

POSITION AVAILABLE: Student Fellow
LOCATIONS: VA
REPORTS TO: Youth Outreach Coordinator

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS: Common Cause is seeking campus fellows with excellent organizing, outreach, communication and programming skills to assist in the implementation of our “Greater Cause” fellowship program in several states. Fellows will support Common Cause by working on campus to organize youth educational events and engage students in nonpartisan election activities. Fellows will also have the opportunity to assist with current Common Cause issue campaigns including but not limited to the issue areas of corporate accountability, money and politics, government accountability and election reform.

RESPONSIBILITIES: Assist in developing a campus outreach plan for your specific campus, help design and implement recruitment tactics to build a volunteer base on campus, serve as a liaison from your specific campus to Common Cause, execute a set number of “frappe n’ raps” in your community (informal coffee shop style discussion series), find creative ways to share policy information with peers, open and maintain communication between campus administration, organizations, faculty and Common Cause, and recruit volunteers for the national polling place participation program.

QUALIFICATIONS: Experience with organizing especially among Millennials; Basic writing skills; Any student in good standing is eligible and all majors are welcome. Fellows will receive a stipend. Course credit may be available depending on administrative rules and restrictions. Working knowledge of social media tools including Facebook and Twitter.

TO APPLY: Please submit resume, cover letter to Director of Human Resources at [email protected] & [email protected], and include VA STUDENT FELLOW in the subject line; or fax to 202.355.7546. No phone calls please. Applicants are encouraged to respond as soon as possible. For more information, please visit: www.commoncause.org.

The U.S. Supreme Court and the 2012 Election

Photo by: Hickydoo on flickr.com

Yesterday the United States Supreme Court heard arguments for Fisher V. University of Texas, a case in which the decision will either render Affirmative Action constitutional or not, possibly altering the college admissions process completely. This exemplifies the substantial role Supreme Court Justices play in American society; and with three members of the Court in their late seventies or eighties and retirement on the horizon, the implications of this presidential race on case law is immense.

Whoever wins the 2012 presidential election will likely be able to appoint at least one person to the Supreme Court; which is currently split between four Justices that lean liberal, four that lean conservative and one swing vote. The next appointee may very well swing the balance of the Court, which will have major consequences regarding jurisprudence in the United States.

The U.S. Supreme Court determines whether government action is constitutional, making it an immensely powerful institution with in the American government. The next court may face issues regarding anything from immigration to the right to privacy. Whoever the winning Presidential Candidate is, may be the difference between the overturning of decisions like that of Roe V. Wade, deeming abortion constitutional, and not.

Though the Supreme Court appointments are not often a factor many people contemplate when deciding whom to vote for come November, the implications are great. The person that assumes office in January 2013 will likely be able to determine the direction of the Court for many years to come.

Election Officers Needed for Fairfax County – Pays $100

Be an Election Day Officer in Fairfax County

Long lines at the polls. Confused voters with no one to help answer their questions. People leaving the polls without casting a ballot.

These scenes could be common in Virginia if an urgent need for election officers (also known as poll workers) is not met. Fairfax County is 500 election officers short, and the last training opportunity for election officers is Tuesday.

General Registrar Quinn has reached out to Common Cause and our coalition partners with strong warnings that the election officer shortfall is at a crisis stage. Let’s make it easy for all Virginians to vote on November 6.

To be an election officer, you must be a registered Virginia voter who does not work directly for an elected office holder.

Election officers can work a half or full day, and are paid about $100 for the day. You don’t need to be a resident of Fairfax County to sign up. If you can work, you can apply by calling: (703) 324-4735. More info at: http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/elections/working.htm

Application: http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/elections/training/eoapprev2012.pdf

If you have any questions, please contact Common Cause’s VA Election Protection Volunteer Coordinator, Michael Lore at [email protected].