Media Contact Info: Susan Mainzer, Press Secretary, 212.973.1782
Also Through: www.jereskiforcongress.com
WHO: Robert Jereski, Democratic Party Candidate, U.S. Congress
WHAT: Debate Challenge; Announcement of Petition Signature Filing
WHERE: East Side of Manhattan and Western Queens, Part of Clinton
WHEN: July 13, 2004
The Jereski For Congress Campaign challenges Democratic incumbent, Carolyn Maloney to a series of three debates on the day they filed petitions to get on the ballot. "Now that our campaign has successfully completed the petitioning process with almost double the amount of signatures required, we are looking forward to providing voters with a full debate on the critical issues of our time". Jereski said that he was especially encouraged by the support that his campaign received from voters disappointed with Maloney's votes enabling the Bush Agenda.
Debate #1: The War in Iraq
- The Jereski campaign noted that Maloney voted for the war despite overwhelming opposition to it by her constituents. Jereski supported the 126 Democrats and 6 Republicans who voted against the war and did not trust the Bush Administration's approach.
Debate #2: Civil Liberties
- The Patriot Act is the subject of great controversy in our country. Jereski had great reservations about the constitutionality of many of its provisions and advocated against it. The incumbent voted for it.
Debate #3: Trade and the Economy
- We need to expand the debate about the impacts of neoliberal trade. Our country must improve its trade relations in order to protect against the erosion of workers' rights and job security and environmental protections which is the result of "free trade". Maloney voted for two recent free trade agreements (H.R. 2739, the United States-Singapore Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act and H.R. 2738, the United States-Chile Free Trade Agreement Implementation Act) while Jereski advocates for a more nuanced approach. Two important trade agreements will be voted on in the next congressional session.
"I have a very different vision than the incumbent on the issues most concerning our District. Our democracy requires an informed electorate and debates are a basic component of good government. I look forward to a vigorous discussion of the issues so that voters can see who better represents their values and vision in Congress ." June 12th quote from Rob Jereski.
Which Sean Bean Character Are You?
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ACT FOR CHANGE ACTIVISM UPDATE
Oppose Writing Intolerance Into Our Constitution
Rather than being a "uniter, not a divider" as he claimed during the last presidential campaign, President Bush has launched a divisive attempt to drag the Constitution right into the middle of his faltering bid for reelection. Click here to take action: http://act.actforchange.com/cgi-bin7/DM/y/eZ530FFlNw0Liq0oYM0Ab
The possibility of same-sex marriage has alarmed fundamentalists who cling to outdated views of marriage. Now Bush is trying to push through a Constitutional amendment that would define marriage as the union of a man and a woman, and would also ban most forms of civil unions as well as invalidating state and local domestic partnership laws. If enacted, it would be the first time since Prohibition that our Constitution was amended to restrict individual rights rather than to expand them. The debate over gay marriage should be allowed to proceed in the courts and in our legislative bodies without changing the Constitution. Urge your senators and representative to defend the Constitution against H.J. Res. 56, the amendment barring gay marriage and civil unions.
Nationwide "Computer Ate My Vote" Day of Action Tomorrow
The grassroots movement for election integrity will take a leap forward this Tuesday, July 13, when supporters of voter-verified paper ballots (VVPBs) rally in 24 cities nationwide. A coalition including MoveOn, True Majority, Common Cause, Working Assets, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, VerifiedVoting.org, local activist organizations and distinguished computer experts is holding a National Day of Action TOMORROW, TUESDAY, JULY 13. Click here to find events in your state: http://vevo.verifiedvoting.org/verifier/
At coordinated news events across the country, citizens like you -- representing over three million members of our coalition -- will present petitions to the chief election officials of eighteen states, including your state. We'll ask the election officials to adopt the "Pledge of Ballot Integrity," which commits them to providing voters with verifiable paper ballots this coming Election Day. That paper backup will ensure that, even if computer glitches lose or change election data, the votes will be properly counted and recounts will be possible for contested outcomes.
Interesting Comments From Blogger "Another Day In The Empire" -- Messing With Elections The Hallmark Of Fascism
As Lawrence Britt points out, sham or manipulated elections are a defining characteristic of fascism. “Sometimes elections in fascist nations are a complete sham. Other times elections are manipulated by smear campaigns against or even assassination of opposition candidates, use of legislation to control voting numbers or political district boundaries, and manipulation of the media. Fascist nations also typically use their judiciaries to manipulate or control elections.” Both Kerry and Bush are engaged in smear campaigns against each other (Bush’s handler, the vicious and mean-spirited sociopath, Karl Rove, is much better at this than Kerry’s handlers); gerrymandering is all over the map; the media is owned by monolithic transnational corporations that also own Congress (remember: Mussolini defined fascism as corporatism); as for “judiciaries to manipulate or control elections,” consider the 2000 election and the Supreme Court’s appointment of Bush.
I’ve said, ever since I became politically aware with the election of Nixon, that we live in a proto-fascist state. Under Bush, with talk of “postponing” elections (do you think, if these bastards “postpone” the election, they will actually reschedule it?), we have reached the point where proto-fascism (what Bertram Gross called “friendly fascism") will soon become full-blown, hobnailed boot in your face fascism. (See Orwell, “If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—for ever.") For now, we can argue politely or not so politely about Bushite incipient fascism, we still have a First Amendment, tottering and precarious as it is, but after the next “terrorist event” (Franks: “the free world … loses … freedom and liberty we’ve seen for a couple of hundred years in this grand experiment that we call democracy") and the cancellation of the election—they are now telling us this is what they are going to do—all bets are off. I don’t expect massive roundups and detentions in FEMA camps, but I do expect more than a few people to be “investigated,” even detained (or rather, as Bush has shown us how he will deal with “combatants,” disappeared), but life for most people will remain pretty much the same, just as it did under Hitler’s fascism. Of course, after Hitler attacked his neighbors and all hell broke loose (he went too far, even for the international bankers), the German people began to realize exactly what a parasite fascism is, feeding on the host, enslaving and eventually killing it.
The Bushcons, who will be the direct beneficiaries of a “postponed” election, plan to invade and occupy the Middle East, a decades-long project that will require a whole lot of warm bodies and “boots on the ground,” that is to say most Americans between 18-30, possibly even older (45?), to be conscripted into a militarily imposed slavery and, for thousands of them, a grimy prospect eventually resulting in death sentences (or illness; consider the Gulf War Syndrome). As I walk around downtown these days, I wonder, looking at today’s youth, so oblivious as they chat on their cell phones, how many of them will be tombstones 1-3 years down the road? It’s that serious, but few people really seem to understand what’s in store for them—the sacrifices that the Bushcons will demand in the name of neoliberalism, Big Oil, and Zionism, both Christian and Judaic. For as Tony Papert writes, the Bushcon “secret kingdom,” predicated on the apocalyptic visions of Leo Strauss’s neophytes, the fetid rantings of his nihilistic scum of the earth, “seems at last at hand, or perhaps it is already here. Something similar probably appeared to Nietzsche through the syphilitic ravings of his final days.” I’d say we have about four months to do something about it. Or emigrate.
