Last night’s Ethics and Law class was very interesting. We discussed human rights and poverty.

Did you know that the majority of welfare recipients are white women with children? Or that women on welfare have fewer children than the average American? Or that: “(o)f black women considered ‘highly dependent,’ that is, on welfare for more than seven years, 81 percent of their daughters grow up to live productive lives off the welfare rolls.”

Did you know that in the US the fastest growing group in poverty is children?

from:
Weston, Anthony. “A 21st Century Ethical Toolbox” (2001) Oxford University Press, New York.

But at least our corporate welfare system is working well.

It seems like half the places I like to read are asking “what went wrong” and “what’s wrong with the Democratic party”?

Lots of ideas, but nothing concrete, and nothing that strikes me as particularly helpful useful.

My thoughts are this: I wasn’t pleased when Kerry was nominated. I had nothing personal against him, but I felt that he wasn’t the best candidate–that he wasn’t going to appeal to the voters needed to win the election.

That led me to wonder if perhaps something is wrong with our primary process. Which led me to this question:

How much of a say do the swing states–those states where the election was close (or should have been)–have in the nomination process? I know that personally I’m rather frustrated by the fact that I have never had a say in the nomination process–our primary is in May. This year the primary was essentially over in the beginning of March.

Sure, the first two states to hold primaries are Iowa and New Hampshire–major swing states. But do Iowa and New Hampshire reflect the rest of the country?

Here is a list of state that held their primaries after 9 March, and the number of electorial vores for each of those states:

Kansas 6
Illinois 21
Alaska 3
Wyoming 3
Colorado 9
North Carolina 15
Pennsylvania 21
Indiana 11
Nebraska 5
West Virginia 5
Arkansas 6
Kentucky 8
Oregon 7
Idaho 4
Alabama 9
New Mexico 5
South Dakota 3
Montana 3
New Jersey 15

In bold are the states with elections that were relatively close
In italics are state that went for Kerry

19 states, all but four of which went for Bush. States with 159 Electorial votes had no say in the primary process.

Does all this mean anything? I don’t know. But I do know that I’ve felt frustrated by my lack of say in the primary process, and felt it difficult to rally behind a candidate I felt only half-hearted about.

Sources:
http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/primaries/pages/scorecard/
http://www.cspan.org/
http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/

ADDENDUM the First: Here’s the table I complied.

Lance Cpl. John T. Byrd II was killed in Iraq, Saturday 30 October.

As of Tuesday, 2 November 2004, 1119 soldiers have been killed in Iraq, 146 soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan.

List of soldiers killed: from the Baltimore Sun, from CNN, from the Washington Post

Fallen Heros Memorial

The dark, grey skies outside perfectly reflect my current mood.

And I usually like rainy days.

It’s so bad that the only bright spot in my morning was the resounding defeat of Waner–and I dislike Manchin.

9:27 PM
“Joe Manchin is expected to easily defeat opponent Monty Warner in what might turn out to be the widest gubnatorial margin in state history.” (Metro News)

An humiliation for Warner. Perhaps he’ll take this message to GET OUT and STAY OUT.
(But I don’t have strong opinions about this or anything.)

The rest of the races I’m interested in are too close to call. And apparently Mon county is clue free, as last time I checked, 0% of Mon County precincts were reporting in. Bah humbug.

ADDENDUM the First: 9:54 and 0 Precincts reporting in for Mon county 44th Delegate district.

ADDENDUM the Second: According to the people on the TV, the reason that Mon county is taking so long to count is the number of write-in votes. (For those not in Mon County, Magistrate Alan Wheeler died two weeks ago, and so there is a write-in campaign since there was not enough time to take his name off the ballot.) Apparently all ballots with write-in candidates have to be tallied by hand before they can be run through the optical scanner.
I feel much better about things now.

ADDENDUM the Third: Yetch. Think it’s about time to head home…

VOTE!!

VOTE!!

VOTE!!

That time is fast approaching, so in preparation:

Why I don’t like Bush
Part I: War
Part II: Sex
Part III: Religion
Part IV: Environmentalism

National Political Parties
Democratic National Committee
Libertarian Party
Green Party

WV Political Parties and Information
WV Democratic Party
WV Libertarian Party
Mountain Party
WV League of Women Voters
WV Secretary of State

Remember, early voting is going on in WV!

Election Information
Project Vote Smart
CNN’s Voting Coverage 2004

You MUST read this post from Making Light.

I’d comment myself but:
No time! No time!

Great. The vote fraud in WV has now reached even unto the BBC.

In the state’s deep coal-mining valleys and small towns full of old style barber shops and “gun and loan” stores, money still changes hands every election year.

According to several people I spoke to, the going rate for a vote these days is $15 or a pint of whisky.

Logan county may be the middle of nowhere, but it now could be the most famous middle of nowhere in West (by God) Virginia.

And just like S, no one’s offering me anything yet. But as a note to all you vote buyers out there: if it’s good whiskey, I’m willing to listen.

(via Hillbilly Sophisticate)

An update on politics and pregnancy…

Jeanne at Body and Soul has also been writing about abortion trends in the US, and according to her:

The short answer seems to be that national numbers for 2000-2004 won’t be available for awhile, but some states have posted statistics and they suggest that the trend has reversed itself: The abortion rate has increased during George Bush’s presidency in most of the states for which numbers are available. The author of the linked article, a Christian ethicist, and father of a severely handicapped child, suggests that the reasons for the increase are probably the economy and lack of access to health care.

From the article she cites, I’d like to quote the following paragraph.

Economic policy and abortion are not separate issues; they form one moral imperative. Rhetoric is hollow, mere tinkling brass, without health care, health insurance, jobs, childcare, and a living wage. Pro-life in deed, not merely in word, means we need a president who will do something about jobs and insurance and support for prospective mothers.
— Glen Harold Stassen, The Courier-Journal

As someone who is a Democrat and also pro-life, I have been frustrated by those who vote Republican solely because of the Republican stance on abortion. For me, the Republican stance on abortion doesn’t make up for the fact that the Republican platform is in every other way anti-life and ignores the tenets of Christianity except when it suits their purposes.

Finally, in an editorial in today’s NY Times, I’ve found something else saying who has the same idea:

During the eight years of the Reagan presidency, the number of legal abortions increased by more than 5 percent; during the eight years of the Clinton presidency, the number dropped by 36 percent. The overall abortion rate (calculated as the number of abortions per 1,000 women between the ages of 15 and 44) was more or less stable during the Reagan years, but during the Clinton presidency it dropped by 11 percent.

(Note, [Tom] that the author gives both change in number and change in rate.)

I have long felt that the policies of conservatives are not conducive to healthy families, and that the conservative concern for children ends immediately following the birth of the child.

It is all well and good to say that we want a culture of life in this country, but saying it isn’t enough. It has to be backed up with things like health care, child care for working parents (single and married), quality education, real jobs with decent benefits for the parents of those children. All these things will contribute to a culture of life, instead of a culture of poverty and despair.

It’s one thing to claim, like the current president, that you are pro-life. It’s something else entirely to create policy that supports those who are living.

…unless we’d like to have our voices heard, in which case we’re an inconvenience.

The president has stopped taking questions from the small pool of reporters who cover his photo opportunities, and he has answered questions from the White House press corps twice since Aug. 23, both times with interim Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi at his side. His last prime-time news conference was April 13.

The tradition of the White House news corps shouting questions at the president has largely faded during this term because Bush reacts testily and does not answer, and his staff typically sets up events so he does not have to walk near reporters.
…
Although all presidents are kept somewhat removed from reality because of security concerns and their staffs’ impulse for burnishing their image, Bush’s campaign has taken unprecedented steps to shield him from dissenters and even from curious, undecided voters. On the way to the forum outside Cleveland, the media buses that went ahead of Bush were temporarily marooned in a church parking lot because police had been told to divert all buses since they could contain demonstrators.
…
Bush has held 15 solo news conferences since taking office. At the same point in their presidencies, according to research by Martha Joynt Kumar of Towson University in Maryland, Bill Clinton had held 42; George H.W. Bush, 83; Ronald Reagan, 26; Jimmy Carter, 59; Gerald R. Ford, 39; Richard M. Nixon, 29; Lyndon B. Johnson, 88; John F. Kennedy, 65; and Dwight D. Eisenhower, 94.

I don’t understand how a president can be said to represent the people, if he refuses to listen to people unless they are proven to be loyal.

Hear this on the news this morning, and read an article on it in the DA.

“During the day there is one officer for 550 inmates,” said Kent Gilkerson, a correctional officer at the prison and the local president of the Council of Prison Locals. “At night there’s two.” Gilkerson also said at times, inmates are left unattended.
…
“The funny thing is, there was an outrage that at Abu Ghraib (the military prison in Iraq) one soldier was watching 500 inmates. They (the Bush administration) need to look at their own federal prison system,” Glover said.

What is most interesting is that we wouldn’t be hearing about this, except for the fact that Alderson Federal Prison Camp is getting a rather high profile prisoner.

Results of the presidents refusal to fund Veterans Benefits:

The disability benefits and health care systems that provide services for about 5 million American veterans have been overloaded for decades and have a current backlog of more than 300,000 claims. And because they were mobilized to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan, nearly 150,000 National Guard and reservist veterans had become eligible for health care and benefits as of Aug. 1. That number is rising.

At the same time, President Bush’s budget for 2005 calls for cutting the Department of Veterans Affairs staff that handles benefits claims, and some veterans report long waits for benefits and confusing claims decisions.

I’ve complained previously and extensively about the way Bush treats our soldiers. What I can’t understand is why all those flag wavers with fake yellow ribbons plastered to their cars can’t be bothered to see what is happening with the way our soldiers and veterans are being treated.

It’s as if as long as we say we’re supporting the troops, and as long as well label all those who speak out against the war traitors, we don’t have to do anything else for our soldiers.

I think that the appropriate punishment for Bush would be to force him to finish his national guard service–with the same equipment, pay, and benefits he has given the rest of our soldiers.