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Roadmap of a Progressive Victory

By Nancy Scola, AlterNet. Posted April 3, 2007.


Why a humble campaign for felon voting rights in Rhode Island ended up being a tremendous win for all progressives.

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See more stories tagged with: progressive organizing, felon voting rights

Nancy Scola is a Brooklyn-based freelance writer. Nancy has worked on Capitol Hill and on the pre-presidential campaign of former Virginia Gov. Mark Warner, and is currently a blogger at the political blog MyDD.

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Proud to be an American
Posted by: SBK on Apr 3, 2007 2:51 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Articles like these show us how it is done! Step by step, neighbor to neighbor, social change does happen. My country makes democracy work everyday and that's awesome! And THIS is news, how a small political campaign changed the lives of 15,000 people is so much better reading than boring CNN reports of violence, profit and movie stars! May the 1.4 million disenfranchised number continue to drop, state by state, neighborhood by neighborhood.

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PS: We never convict the innocent either
Posted by: UnEasyOne on Apr 3, 2007 5:25 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Just ask any DA.
But, you say, isn't it true that 95% or more of cases are plea-bargained and 98 to 99% of the cases that go to trial result in convictions? So what? Proves we never arrest the innocent.
What about the few that get away? Well, sometimes we arrest a rich person by mistake - and they have really good lawyers. So those lousy ex cons don't deserve any kind of break - even the one time offenders. Hell, we oughta tattoo their foreheads or chop something off - just so we know - don'tcha think?

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Red State Blue State.......Rhode Island vs Texas
Posted by: picket on Apr 3, 2007 8:09 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I find this debate important and still do not understand how US Citizens can have a belief system that goes against all their own interests. [ ...Texas son GWB steals the Presidency in Florida because brother Gov Jeb tinkers with VOTING lists of presumed felons.

Felons can never vote in Florida so if your name is the same as a felon your civil rights are at risk. Visit a neighborhood and ask a few questions and mention parking tickets and warrants in the same breath as voting fraud CRIME, scare legitimate voters, how easy is that??? Innocent Blood shed and six years of misery for the majority of USA citizens, that's what.

"They" say 1 in 3 people still support GWB....Texas son, true conservative, a man, tough on crime.

The Texas Youth Commission scandal.....I wait patiently for the MSM to report..on the sexual abuse of minors in its care and the coverup.....now is that Texas Justice, conservative, tough on crime, Texas voters???

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Progressives - Don't wait for the courts!
Posted by: karma_ran_over_dogma on Apr 3, 2007 9:58 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
It seems to me that the moral of this inspiring story is, don't wait for the courts to rescue us from every bad situation! Voters (non-felons or otherwise) are not the enemy. The obvious analogy I think is with abortion rights. For all their tough talk, the loonies won't be able to convince the voters - if they couldn't do it in South Dakota, they probably can't do it anywhere. If the Supremes hadn't short-circuited the political process in '73, abortion rights would not be the votalile issue it is now.

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Progresssives want more people to vote --the opposite of rightwing Republicans (neocons)
Posted by: HughScott on Apr 3, 2007 2:34 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Progressives want voting rights for all Americans because they believe that an inclusive, broad-based democracy works best.

Conversely, rightwing Republicans (neocons) want restricted voter registration so they can determine election outcomes with divisive Karl Rove-style campaigns focused on splinter groups.

A prime example of neoconservative thinking is former UN ambassador John Bolton, not coincidentally a PNAC signatory.

In the 1980’s, Bolton participated in GOP schemes to defeat voter registration efforts by unions and black organizations. Two decades later, in July 2002, the Wall Street Journal reported Bolton’s “most memorable moment in life” came after the Supreme Court ordered a halt to the 2000 Florida recount.

Clearly elated, he strode into a Tallahassee library where the tally was still going on and boasted, “I’m with the Bush-Cheney team, and I’m here to stop the vote.” So much for democracy.

Another thing neocons have in common is their cowardly aversion to wartime military service in combat The Yale Daily News said that although Bolton supported the Vietnam War, he declined to overseas where the action was, enlisting instead in the National Guard and attending law school in 1970.

Years later, Bolton wrote in his 25th Ivy League reunion book, “I had no desire to die in a Southeast Asian rice paddy. I considered the war in Vietnam already lost.”

In 2006, Mr. War Critic sang a much different tune. Hiding behind the Stars & Stripes in his Upside Down Neocon Bushworld, Bolton called Democrats who made similar statements about Iraq “cut-and-runners,” verifying the old adage: "It takes a coward to know one."

Hugh E. Scott, Vietnam veteran and the editor of King-George.biz -- the only website with hardcopy proof of White House corruption.

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