Category: News and Views
This is for all the young facebook-clicking stand-taking idealists out there:
Get your skinny little hyper overweaning iPhone-wielding ass out there and *VOTE!* People died so you can, women faced death in Afghanistan so they could last year, so flick away if you must, click like on every conceivable fake group on Facebook if it suits you, but get informed, get your ass out there, and vote tomorrow night!
You can lmfao about it on Facebook afterwards.
I suggest you visit http://www.VoteSmart.org
It's got all your ballot measures for your state, how each potential candidate voted on every issue, blurbs from every candidate, but most importantly, the record for each candidate.
And this time around, unlike last year when people on here and on Facebook quoted quotes that didn't exist in legislation, get your facts straight cause they're there. Then make up your mind.
We blind folks, in my opinion have less excuse than our sighted counterparts, because it wasn't that long ago when all we blind people had were tapes of a voter's pamphlet, if we were lucky.
VoteSmart may have an iPhone app, even.
So, text about it, tweet about it, geolocate from the booth, lmfao about it, so long as you get your ass out there and do it. Do it first, then hate me for sayin' it later. you all aren't gettin' picked on, my nieces got it from me too ...
And the voting places will provide a reader for you.
I suggest you consider taking your own reader, but they would need to be someone who has no influence over you, or can be completely impartial when filling out the ballots, no sighs / awkward emotions stuff when helping you.
If I remember correctly, attempting to influence the vote of a disabled person while assisting them in voting is a Class E felony. But ultimately it's your responsibility to see that you get someone who can be impartial.
By way of example, my wife and i are very different in many ways, so I asked her point blank ahead of time if she would be willing to mark my ballot on the medical marijuana issue even though we might well have come down on separate sides of the issue.
In the spirit of not influencing another's votes, you may also want to stipulate they vote first, so however you mark your ballot won't influence them.
At one time, I hired readers for cash to do this, as they were responding to an ad, not being a family member or friend with whom you might have engaged in political debates. And i know from firsthand experience family can be very touchy about this, especially those who are single-party people, or get their data from non-objective sources (party magazines and the like).
Bottom line, you don't want them to affect your vote, and you don't want to affect theirs.
The more prepared you are ahead of time, and ring your notetaker or whatever so you have notes on the issues / candidates, the easier it's going to be going through the ballot.
It's not okay for your reader to ask you during the voting process why you voted a particular way. After the envelope is delivered, or in our case out here, in the mail, you can discuss it if you want, but it is designed to be a secret ballot for us as much as for them. So don't pick Allie McBeale from the workplace to help you, in other words.
Hope this helps first-timers.
Very valid points, Leo. I am sometimes skeptical when people say that every vote counts, but ever since I was old enough, voting has been a rite I take very seriously, and have done consistently. I am mindful that women did not always have the rite to vote, and I'm guessing that disabled people haven't always had that rite, either.
Yes, polling places will provide readers, but more than that, many of them now have accessible voting machines, so you can vote independently, no reader needed. I suggest finding out if your polling place has such technology. Much advocating was done by the blind to put that technology into place, so I hope people will use it.
I forgot to add in my previous post that I also believe you really shouldn't whine about the results of an election if you did not put your say into it, small as that say might seem.
Have yet to see a voting machine that talks or whatever, as Oregon is an absentee state - you mail in your ballots. I'm pleased they exist though, and aren't just prototypes.
Perhaps someone who's used one can give sort of a description for those new to the process.
I don't know if every voting machine is the same, but the one I use has only 4 buttons: 3 nearest the person and one on the far side of the machine, plus a touch screen between the 3 buttons and the one. The 3 nearest the person are up and down arrow buttons to move between candidates and the choices, and the diamond button is pretty much like a select/enter button. The button at the far end is the vote button, but you don't use it 'til your ready to turn in your balet. For privacy, you will also have/need headphones to use with the machine.
Someone at the poling place is supposed to set it up for you, as they will need to punch in some numbers or something on the touch screen, but soon after that, it will start talking and will talk you thru setting up the language and will give you a description of the buttons, instructions on how to read and select your choices on the balet; so it walks you thru everything after they set it up.
I've been using the machine for several years already, and I like it and always look forward to using it to vote. *smile* That sounds nice about getting the balet in the mail. I'm curious, wouldn't you be able to use a scanner to read it? Or would it not read it correctly.? Just curious because I'd probably end up trying to use a scanner to read mine and then just have someone fill in my list of choices.
I don't mind and would still vote if a person read it to me though. I agree that voting is important and that that opportunity should be used because whether or not you get who you wanted to be President, governor, or whatever, at least you had a say toward that person or for/against an issue.
We have the accessible voting technology in Delaware, and I used it during the presidential election, however, it took so long to complete the ballit, I decided this time to have somebody go in with me to work the touch screen. Tookonly about a minute compared to 10.
I'm sure that my parents went out and voted, but they didn't stop to pick me up and I didn't ask them to. I'm not involved in American politics and don't think it's right to simply vote for a candidate because he/she belongs to a given party. If I can cry, become angry and/or frustrated and ultimately complain about the politics of a country that I love with the core of my being but of which I am not a citizen, then I can complain about the ones in America where I am one. To be honest, I've lost faith in politicians to such a degree that I had to debate whether I would vote in this Sunday's mayoral elections if I were a Greek citizen. But since they're so local, and since I would still consider it my duty to at least try to improve things, I probably would.
When I did vote, Mom would go in with me and would help me flip the levers etc. I'm glad to hear that there are accessible machines out there, though, and that they're being put to good use. But the fact that they allow voting in different languages truly sickens me to the point that, should the issue be on a ballot one day, I'd go out just to vote against it. If I remember correctly, you need to either be a citizen or have your green card to vote. By that point, you should be expected to know English, certainly if you're taking on such a responsibility and voting for a candidate who could change the direction of the country in which you're living. Smoker's rights, gay rights and cuts in SSI etc. would probably be among the other issues that would convince me to vote here.
I had a voting machine set up but it didn't work but I still vote just fine with one from each party go in with me and be a reader.
I love the accessable machine. got to use it first time ever yesterday. by law their suppose to have them now I believe. If where i live in the middle of no where has it, you guys should have it. good description of the machine. :D
I understand not liking candidates, but you do have local ballot measures, and those affect your immediate area. Some states like Oregon have a ton, others not so much, but all have at least some, and they are local to your area, even your county or city.
I can complain about the results if I want to...I voted. And we still have that *bleep* Duval Patrick for governor! I thought Charlie Baker was a bit of a wimp on the so called poor...not requiring women to work part time until any children in the house were at least 7?! How wimpy is that?! But he at least had a plan to reduce expenses other than taxing folks for a meal at a restaurant or stay in a hotel.
I don't understand Massachusetts residents' affinity for taxes. Have they forgotten about the original Taxed Enough Already (tea) parties fighting taxation without representation? I do believe they voted to repeal the liquor taxes as merchants were complaining about potential buyers crossing the line into New Hampshire, where it's cheaper, but voted SOS on development of "affordable housing" and the same 5% sales tax rather than rolling it back to 3%. We pay enough in state & vehicle taxes and property taxes for those who own. We need this?! What kind of wimpiness is this? Developers get all sorts of financial incentives to make so many units they construct so called "affordable housing", and the proposed law I believe would have repealed this, yet I'm always amazed what the residents of these "affordable housing" units can afford. You about have to shoot landlords in Florida to take Section 8 vouchers, yet they practically beg for 'em here. We do NOT need any more affordable housing for the so called poor. I voted, and didn't get the results I wanted, but I'll keep voting anyway.
Sounds like that Charlie Bakerhas a good head on his shoulders, though seven is a bit much. Still, let mothers stay home with their children. There are too many children growing up today without their parents!
Right on! I absolutely agree with you, people do need to get out and vote. After all The United States is all about "We The People"
I will never understand Bostonians. It seems to me the place has gone from a state based on the Puritan work ethic to a wretched hovel of immigrants from socialist countries & native born welfare entitled people & folks buying into superficial niceties, like having a woman in public office or "Governor Patrick resonated a positive message, while Mr. Baker reflected anger"...of course he resonated anger, there is too much wasteful spending & too many working people penalized.
The woman in question should be serving prison time, not in public office. This *expletive for a woman* maliciously prosecuted a family for child molestation in the '80's and some of these people are to this day discredited on the Sex Offender Registry. There was not one shred of physical evidence these people assaulted the children in their charge...a guy friend of mine worked in a hospital where prison rape victims are brought, and they are all brought in on their stomachs and subjected to a surgical procedure...and this type of rape was claimed by the family of these kids. The *bleep* prosecuted, and folks buying into superficial niceties like they do, voted her into office when she should be serving time in Framingham for malicious prosecution. I voted to keep her out of office, the sheeple wanted a woman as state's attorney or some other such nonsense. Let's see how they feel when they are falsely accused of sex crimes.
sounds like they'll deserve what they get ... if they get ... which far to infrequently happens. Karma is wishful thinking.
Oh just say the words for goodness sakes. No screen reader will crash when coming across them, and besides, if anyone deserves them, it's a so-called person who would raise false accusations of rape against someone. So of course, one who perpetuates these accusations and has the power to destroy lives is even more seserving of being dragged through the mud. Personally, I think that's one of the worst nonphysical things you could do to someone, accuse him/her of a sexual offense. I wouldn't even do that to my worst enemy.
For more information on this worthless bitch, look up Martha Coakley in wikipedia. Also Gerald Amirault & The Fells Acre Case. This piece of shit lobbied then Governor Swift to keep Mr. Amirault in prison in spite of the lack of physical evidence against him, including one allegation that he "inserted a knife into a child's rectum and had difficulty removing it." Miraculously there was no physical evidence of that. Yet when a Sommerville police officer was accused of molesting a 2 year old, she let him run free on bail. A jury found him guilty and sentenced him to life without parole. Again I hope no one who voted for this trash for state's attorney is falsely accused of sex crimes. Last time I checked Mr. Amirault was still on the state's sex offender registry as a Level 3 (the worst) offender.
There you go! *hug* She sounds like a horrible excuse for a human being and I'd seriously cringe if she was in NJ. No one, regardless of position, family connection, wealth etc. should ever be allowed to walk free if it's clear that they molested anyone, particularly a child! On the same token, as I said, no innocent person should ever have to endure such a tragic thing as having their name and reputation destroyed like that. I truly pray that these people are able to get off the sexual offenders list and can claim serious psychological damages from all of this.
Massachusetts voters as a whole remind me of battered women. You offer them a palatable alternative, like hey let's decrease the sales tax or eliminate the state tax...trust me there's absolutely nothing at all to show for the latter...and they choose SOS every time. It's as if they like being beaten, only in this case it's out of their own hard earned money, and it's totally wasted on an infrastructure that isn't there and people who just don't want to work or pay for things.
I have an average I Q and probably less than average technological smarts. How was I able to pull up Martha Coakley on a google search, which has been cited by other sources, while those seriously enamored with her couldn't? Also, why would ANYONE want a man who pressured the banks into issuing subprime housing loans to those not likely to pay 'em back, which meant they weren't paying for other goods or services as well, costing many their jobs? Why would anyone at all want Barney Frank to continue to "serve" them? This is a man who exempted Fannie Mae from ANY scrutiny because his former friend with benefits is in a high level position there? They were offered a palatable alternative, and, like a battered wife, went back to the dude with a leather belt in hand to beat 'em? Anyone who made the same ages old choices or stayed home that day needs to shut their pie hole next time they feel they pay too much in taxes here, or move to another state.
there must be something seriously in the water up there. You guys have had the misfortune of Barney frank, and the late uncle teddy, who I personally think had brain cancer from burth.
Know why they call it Taxachusetts now.
I'll probably rot in Hell for saying this, but here goes: I'm happy Ted Kennedy died! I hope his death from brain cancer was so excruciatingly painful it made my migraines look like a walk on the beach on a sunny day. This piece of rot took an immigration system that worked beautifully & trashed it with his "Green Card Visa Lottery" where even a terrorist can get in with a winning number. We have signs in the subway advertising "free, confidential home prenatal visits for pregnant women and families with children up to three years of age." Oh, great, out of my paycheck these so and so's don't even have to get off their own asses to get to the obstetrician, and I had to get off mine to be talked to as if I was a child molester because I had my daughter late in life? And my insurance is paying both my & their expenses? Did I mention the free prenatal clinic that goes out to the home has interpreters in Somali, Portuguese, Spanish, French, Creole, and even announces "We speak English"?! Why are we importing so many people who can't afford themselves or the kids they pop out?! Everybody's beloved Uncle Ted, that's why, messing up a system that worked great and penalizing the rest of us.
On the flip side there was also an "I Chose Life" sign on the same train, and I just had a wonderful dinner with folks more on the same page with me. Perhaps in another 100 years Taxachusetts will have caught up with the rest of civilization?
Oh, at that dinner...attention all dads who might visit here...I heard an interesting little tidbit about ol' Martha Coakley. Seems a dad in Raynham beat up a perp in a restroom who reached under the door to molest his 8 year old son. Perp was an illegal alien & fled back to God knows what country to evade prosecution. Dad was busted & prosecuted by Byotch Coakley for "taking matters into his own hands and not calling the police." No, folks, you are not free to protect your own child here.
This brings to mind the dad in Lexington who wanted a phone call if his son's KINDERGARTEN teacher had plans like teaching about "tolerance for same sex parent familes." I didn't get instruction in the original 13 colonies until second grade in Phoenix, kindergartners get a "diversity bag" with everything from recipes from foreign countries to information about "same sex relationships". Now really if someone is in a gay relationship that really is their business, but now isn't the time to teach my daughter about that. For the crime of asking for a phone call so he could come pick up his son, dad was served a restraining order, barring him not just from his son's school, but this effectively disenfranchises him, unless he can get an absentee ballot, from voting as most polling places are at schools. I will probably never understand the mindset of these folks in 100 years or even on a most bizarre drug trip.
Woe! Alot here... I see no problems with free prenatal visits in the home. At least the fetuses are being watched for signs of bad development etc. and the parents don't have to shell out tons of money just to know if their child will be born healthy. But I completely disagree with all these interpretors! I think if you want any kind of service, you should learn English! That goes for the ability to drive, vote etc. The only exceptions are if you need to go to the hospital and are a tourist or someone who just came here (within two years or less). I would also have a problem with these free visits and clynics if they only catered to immigrants. That would be disgusting.
The story about the father who tried to protect his daughter and who got punished for it is absolutely sickening! How the fuck can anyone! punish someone for protecting his child from a molester! I don't care if you had the blood of Homer and the approval of the entire Hellenic military. If I had a child and you tried to molest him/her, you'd be lucky to get away with your life!
I definitely agree that if things about the family are to be taught, they should include all sorts of families and not simply heterosexual ones. But I also think that, while it's good to start at a relatively young age (i.e. not high school), Kindergarten is far too early to discuss these things. I couldn't support the father if it was a matter of faith and helping to increase intollerance, but I would support him if he said that his daughter was simply too young to learn about this. In any case, I think they went way too far in punishing him. It's good to teach diversity in general, and I see no problems with children learning about other cultures. My entire elementary, middle and most of high school consisted of America this and America that. I learned nothing about European history until my AP classes in my senior year of high school, nothing about philosophy and hardly anything about world religions until college. And even there, most of my anthropology and sociology classes focussed on America to the point that I became disinterested in the subjects and anthropology was my major! So I think it's about time that other things are taught. My only problem is in languages. While I think it should be required and is certainly a thought-enhansing thing for children to learn various languages, I don't think they should be forced to learn a specific one. For example, I was forced to learn Latin American Spanish in middle school, not even the mother language! In high school, the only options were Spanish (again the Latin American variety) and French. That's ashame!
I went ahead & looked up the free prenatal visits online. Turns out it's a program called "Healthy Start" and is intended for 1) those in cities lacking an obstetric clinic that accepts Medicaid, and 2) those in rural areas lacking access to a clinic as it may be a significant distance & possibly the family lacks transportation. On the minus side, it is an affirmative action based program, claiming the risk for "poor pregnancy outcome", i e premature and/or low birthweight babies, is "higher among African American woman". Gag I hate that term. In the first place Africa has many other than black populations, and none of them live like people here.
I have been thru rural, remote areas in Florida, Wyoming, and South Dakota. I have been in and out of Georgia by car with my dad, and he grew up in such a small town. To get to a hospital would require a drive to Augusta, the nearest big town. I understand having the program for families in these circumstances. But I object to it here because it caters largely to third world immigrants, and we really have no business bringing in immigrants without technical skills to support themselves or any children they have. At one time immigrants were turned away at Ellis Island if they looked like a high risk to remaining on any charity, they should be doing the same today.
I don't object to kids around second grade learning another language...provided that doesn't eclipse English, but I still think 5 is way too young to be learning about sexual relationships. Learning about another culture can be good, as long as it doesn't eclipse the child's learning about the society he/she inhabits.
I totally agree with this program except for the affirmative action shit. If they could get rid of that, then the rest sounds perfectly acceptable. Thank you! I'm so glad to finally find someone else who hates the term African American and who finally said that Africans are different from the people here! Most of the ones whom I've met have been very respectful, educated, spoke correctly and were curteous. I personally think that America needs to rebuild it's factories and start producing goods once again, but that it should hire it's own first and foremost.
Spongebob you may think this funny but your African-American comment made me think of a time I was in high school, and this guy tells me he's black. He sounded 'white' I guess that means no accent, or, as we out here on the west coast would say, 'boring'? Like us, in other words. But he was Swahili - I hope I'm spelling that right ... anyway, not all blacks sound like Chicago blacks, or like the ones I heard in Georgia / Florida.
In fact, on the opposite end, there were two teenagers around our neighborhood, who I had referred to as 'the two black kids' I didn't know their names, and they were the only ones sounded like what you see on BET. And they did it so well they fooled the blind guy ... all that strutting around talking about 'bling' with the accent and everything. Finally my neighbor told me they weren't black.
I'm not sure I buy the African American, or European American thing, for that matter. What part of Europe? What part of Africa? I can't trace my ancestry being adopted. I imagine many black people can't trace theirs either. Africa, like Europe, is and was a continent of nation states that lived, warred, had trade negotiations, all the things nation states do. I could see Nigerian-American or anything else, if we must hyphenate at all. Again, makes me glad I don't work for social service, it'd drive me nuts!
Ah, the sweet sounds of logic. Thank you! I completely agree. At least give a country for goodness sakes! And yes, there are certainly whites out there whose speech is just as disgracesful as some blacks and there are blacks who speak so beautifully that they should be hired to teach the rest of us!
And you now see just how fucked up America is.
lol I've said that from the beginning. It's just that people are seeing it now.