YOUR LETTERS

Roger MacDonald writes from LINK TV

I just saw your commentary on the Venezuelan referendum on TheRealNews.com.
Great job! Glad to see your insights getting wider distribution.
Evelyn Messinger produces our series Global Pulse, comparing news reports from around the world. You might be interested in taking a look at Global Pulse’s coverage of the referendum:

You can see the piece I am in by clicking here:

WEDGE ISSUES

Dau’d X Mohammed writes:

The only thing worse than being a Jew in Germany in the 1930s, is being a Mexican in the United States in 2008, an election year, where and when immigration has been made into a wedge issue for Republicans to pull the xenophobia card as a means of scaring white people into voting against Democratic candidates who mostly favor Comprehensive Immigration Reform.

After 9/11, being a Muslim in America was no picnic, and before that being Black in the United States was never any fun. But now driving while Mexican (DWM) or Hispanic or Latino has become the Numero Uno Made in the USA Holocaust because even many in the Black community are calling for a deportation of the Spanish-speaking from our shores.

American Jews, tarred with the same-brush perception problems; Palestine and the neocon, and American Muslims, still rocked by 9/11 overkill, are mostly silent on the issue of what is happening in the name of Lou Dobbs and States’ Rights to American Latino community now.

Our system of governance, with institutional racism and bigotry built-in is breaking down faster than you can say privately-owned Wal-Mart prisons. Which reminds me… Did you hear the one about mass produced foods ruining our health, environment, and taste buds?

HOW TO VOTE IN PRIMARIES (After Downing Street.org)

How to Vote in the Primaries and Make It Mean Something

By David Swanson, After Downing Street

1. Virtually nobody votes in primaries (or
caucuses) compared to general elections.
Therefore, each individual primary vote is worth
many times what it is in the general election.
And, it’s more likely to be counted, since
there’s typically less fraud and abuse of the
system in primaries. So, if you vote in general
elections, you pretty much have to vote in
primaries in order to not be an idiot. Bring a
few friends to vote too, and you’re practically a
genius.

2. If you have to join a party that you don’t
support in order to vote in a primary, you can
always unjoin again immediately after the
primary. In the meantime, maybe you’ll have
helped to create a party you can support. You can
even vote in a primary without planning to vote
in the general election. If the 50% of Americans
who don’t vote at all (or even a small fraction
of them) voted in primaries, they would determine
the candidates in the general elections, in which
they might then choose to vote as well.

3. If there’s no candidate you like in a primary,
you can write one in. A relatively very small
amount of organizing can even lead to a victory
for that candidate. (Or some signature gathering
could place your candidate’s name on the ballot.)

4. If there is a good candidate on the ballot,
then an extremely small amount of organizing can
lead to a victory for that candidate. And
something short of a victory can still mean some
number of delegates for your candidate going to
the party’s convention from your state, or
momentum for your candidate in future states.
Primaries, unlike general elections, are not
winner-take-all. (You can even become a delegate
for your candidate and get a trip to a convention
out of this.)

Why We Resist by Chris Hedges

Acts of resistance are moral acts. They begin because people of conscience can no longer tolerate abuse and despotism. They are carried out not because they are effective but because they are right.

Thanks for being here today. Your comments and support is welcome in this season of giving. Hint, hint!

Write: dissector@mediachannel.org