Oh, What A Beautiful Morning!
Oklahoma! Soundtrack
Music by Richard Rodgers, lyric by Oscar Hammerstein II
There’s a bright golden haze on the meadow,
There’s a bright golden haze on the meadow,
The corn is as high as an elephant’s eye,
An’ it looks like its climbin’ clear up to the sky.
Chorus:
Oh what a beautiful morning,
Oh what a beautiful day,
I’ve got a wonderful feeling,
Everything’s going my way.
First time I’ve voted in the new neighborhood – at the Old Centrum church on 12th and Central. It’s a bit easier to get into and park than the firestation I used to vote at.
Jon Elrod was there, as well as one of Mahern’s nephews, handing out campaign literature. I forgot to wear my Democrats baseball cap today.
Oh, and I should report that I had not trouble voting even though I didn’t update my address on my driver’s license. The poll workers did note that it didn’t matter that my address was different — all that was needed was my picture and name.
Looks like others around the country are not having such luck, however, as compiled by Shakespeare’s Sister…
Please remember – The polls close at 6 p.m. in Indiana, so vote early! Try to vote before work or at lunch. People often skip voting in mid-term elections, which is unfortunate since they tend to have a much greater impact on your daily life than the national elections. If you don’t know who your candidates are, Vote Smart is always helpful in figuring that out.
Where to vote: Indianapolis has a polling locator website. Unfortunately it seems to prefer Internet Explorer to Firefox, where the form to enter your address into is completely hosed. The screen is better in Safari for the Mac; at least you can enter your info. Way to be accessible, people. Incidentally I’ve noticed lots of the city website is only useable in IE.
If you live in Indianapolis (especially downtown) and are concerned about GLBT issues, here’s a great rundown of the candidates on that issue from Mark St. John of the Indiana Equality PAC. I should clarify I grabbed this information from an email list from our neighborhood where people were asking Mark directly what he thought about candidates, so some of his personal preferences might be included with official positions of IE.
In Marion County the House of Representatives candidates with which IEPAC has been working in support include Susan Fuldauer (D) in House District 88 (running against Representative Brian Bosma), Representative David Orentlicher (D) in House District 86 (running against Kathryn Densborn), and John Barnes (D) in House District 89 (running against Larry Buell). All three – Orentlicher, Fuldauer, and Barnes – have stated positions in opposition to the marriage amendment and in favor of the inclusion of sexual orientation and gender identity in the state’s civil rights laws.
As for House District 97 (which includes most of downtown Indianapolis, including the Old Northside, Chatham Arch, etc.), the candidates are the incumbent, Representative Ed Mahern (D), and the Republican candidate John Elrod. Mahern is a strong supporter of LGBT civil rights issues, and voted in opposition to the proposed marriage amendment. He has a gay brother, and his entire family is highly supportive of the LGBT community. Elrod has stated his opposition to the marriage amendment, although mostly in private, one-on-one conversations. He has put out some pretty nasty mailings during the campaign, twisting around votes made by Mahern regarding illegal immigrants and child abuse so as to make Ed appear to be the Devil incarnate. Just a few minutes ago I received a killer call on behalf of Elrod, stating that Mahern is a career politician who is only worried about taking care of himself. Please be aware that Elrod is an attorney, and serves on the advisory board of Center Township. Elrod is in opposition the proposed consolidation of Marion County fire departments – hence, Elrod is busy protecting his political friends in township government and his own bottom line. For me, the real bottom line – Elrod is a Republican who will vote for Brian Bosma to be Speaker of the Indiana House of Representatives – something that is very dangerous to the future for the LGBT community.
In other races, both prosecutor candidates, Melinda Kennedy (D) and Carl Brizzi (R) have expressed support for hate crimes legislation (to include sexual orientation and gender identity). Melinda appears to be far stronger than Brizzi on domestic violence issues. Brizzi has included sexual orientation (and gender identity, I believe) in his office’s non-discrimination policies. My vote is for Melinda.In the Senate District 31 race the challenger, Russell Brown (D) has announced his opposition to the marriage amendment and in favor of LGBT civil rights protections. The incumbent, Jim Merritt, voted in favor of the marriage amendment in both 2004 and 2005. Pretty simple choice here.
In Congressional District 7, what can I say? Julia Carson has been with the LGBT community through thick and thin. Her support of the changes to the Indianapolis Human Rights Ordinance were key to the enactment of local protections for the LGBT community. It’s essential that we remember our friends.
Mark St. John
From the New York Times:
Last March, the federal government set up a Web site to make public a vast archive of Iraqi documents captured during the war. The Bush administration did so under pressure from Congressional Republicans who had said they hoped to “leverage the Internet” to find new evidence of the prewar dangers posed by Saddam Hussein.
But in recent weeks, the site has posted some documents that weapons experts say are a danger themselves: detailed accounts of Iraq’s secret nuclear research before the 1991 Persian Gulf war. The documents, the experts say, constitute a basic guide to building an atom bomb.
Last night, the government shut down the Web site after The New York Times asked about complaints from weapons experts and arms-control officials. A spokesman for the director of national intelligence said access to the site had been suspended “pending a review to ensure its content is appropriate for public viewing.”
Officials of the International Atomic Energy Agency, fearing that the information could help states like Iran develop nuclear arms, had privately protested last week to the American ambassador to the agency, according to European diplomats who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the issue’s sensitivity. One diplomat said the agency’s technical experts “were shocked” at the public disclosures.
Early this morning, a spokesman for Gregory L. Schulte, the American ambassador, denied that anyone from the agency had approached Mr. Schulte about the Web site.
The documents, roughly a dozen in number, contain charts, diagrams, equations and lengthy narratives about bomb building that nuclear experts who have viewed them say go beyond what is available elsewhere on the Internet and in other public forums. For instance, the papers give detailed information on how to build nuclear firing circuits and triggering explosives, as well as the radioactive cores of atom bombs.
“For the U.S. to toss a match into this flammable area is very irresponsible,” said A. Bryan Siebert, a former director of classification at the federal Department of Energy, which runs the nation’s nuclear arms program. “There’s a lot of things about nuclear weapons that are secret and should remain so.”
The government had received earlier warnings about the contents of the Web site. Last spring, after the site began posting old Iraqi documents about chemical weapons, United Nations arms-control officials in New York won the withdrawal of a report that gave information on how to make tabun and sarin, nerve agents that kill by causing respiratory failure.
The campaign for the online archive was mounted by conservative publications and politicians, who said that the nation’s spy agencies had failed adequately to analyze the 48,000 boxes of documents seized since the March 2003 invasion. With the public increasingly skeptical about the rationale and conduct of the war, the chairmen of the House and Senate intelligence committees argued that wide analysis and translation of the documents — most of them in Arabic — would reinvigorate the search for clues that Mr. Hussein had resumed his unconventional arms programs in the years before the invasion. American search teams never found such evidence.
Drinking Liberally Election Night Party
Election Night — Tuesday, 11/7
6pm-whenever
Spencer’s Stadium Tavern
802 S. West St (SW Corner of West & McCarty)
Drinking Liberally Indianapolis is having a special “Election Night” edition of their regular weekly gathering (usually held on Thursday nights, but switched to Tuesday this week for the election.)
I haven’t had a chance to attend one of these yet, but I’m on their mailing list and I keep it on my radar. I really want to go if I can clear out my schedule. Unfortunately, I’ll be at the gym for this event.
If you haven’t heard of it yet, Drinking Liberally is a national thing with local chapters, and Jason from X-TraRant puts together the local event. It’s a way for liberals to get together and talk politics and network.
The Indy Star has an online poll on it’s front page, asking:
Should the Indiana General Assembly amend the state constitution to ban same-sex marriages?
Please go vote NO on the poll.
A couple of local progressive websites I discovered through actblue.com, the online donation clearinghouse for democratic candidates. I added them to my feedreader under politics.
http://www.indianaprogressives.com/
http://indyfordemocracy.com/
These are Marion County, Indiana Democratic candidates who have shown strong stances and leadership on progressive issues including improving education, finding health care solutions for all Hoosiers, property tax reform and equality for GLBT citizens.
I’ve personally shaken hands with all of these candidates at one time or another and discussed issues with them. I met with Russel Brown, Dr. David Orentlicher and John Barnes last week and think highly of their plans for office. I’ve recently had an email exchange with Susan Fuldauer and was equally impressed. I’ll sit down and write about the discussions I’ve had with all of them more fully this weekend.
Candidates with strong, sound stances deserve our support, and your dollars can make the difference. Please make a contribution to this critical cause, either to all of the candidates or on an individual basis.
| Julia Carson (IN-07) | $ |
| Russell Brown (IN-SD-31) | $ |
| David Orentlicher (IN-HD-86) | $ |
| Susan Fuldauer (IN-HD-88) | $ |
| John Barnes (IN-HD-89) | $ |
| John Day (IN-HD-100) | $ |
| Edmund Mahern (IN-HD-97) | $ |
If you’d like to promote any of these candidates on your own site, you can link to this page to encourage contributions:
http://www.actblue.com/page/marion_county_indiana
And you can add some nice graphics from this page. Like this one:
Act Blue: Support
Progressive Candidates
UPDATE: The Indiana Stonewall Democrats are endorsing J. D. Lux for House District 57, which is in Shelbyville, Indiana. He doesn’t seem to be plugged into the actblue.com website yet, so visit his page for more information on him and to figure out how to make contributions to his campaign.
I attended a blogger forum at lunch to day, where three local progressive candidates for office met with local bloggers to answer questions and talk about their political issues and campaigns.
The candidates were:
Russell Brown ( Democratic candidate, Senate District 31)
Dr. David Orentlicher (Democratic Representative, House District 86)
John Barnes (Democratic candidate, House District 89)
And the other bloggers:
Taking Down Words
Stallio’s Way
Resisting Inertia
ManfredEye
Confessions of a Hoosier Democrat
bilerico.com
Advance Indiana
I took some pretty extensive notes, so I have to look them over and take a little bit of time to write up some of the discussion.
Indy Star Matt Tully’s analysis of the recent polling in the Carson/Dickerson battle for made my jaw drop in shock:
No mudslinging: Carson took hard personal shots at Dickerson last month, but the Republican remained positive. He knows there is nothing to gain by trading potshots and respectfully argues that Carson’s time as an effective politician has simply passed.
WHAT? This campaign is the dirtiest, slimiest one I’ve ever known, and it’s not coming from Carson’s end. I’m sorry — Dickerson is slinging more than any candidate I’ve ever seen, but it’t not mud he’s slinging — it’s shit, plain and simple.
He’s feeding libelous allegations and smear tactics to the IndyUndercover site (which is run not by cops or sheriff’s officers, but by the Republican Party — current investigation points toward Ike Randolph as the responsible party) and to Gary Welsh of Advance Indiana. Go to these site and read what they’re saying about Julia Carson.
They’re alleging she stole someone’s wallet, for pete’s sake. Tell me that’s not shit-slinging. Tell me that’s positive campaigning.