Unless you rather be a slave…

It was the great Thomas Paine who said the right to vote is the “primary right by which rights are protected. To take away this right is to reduce a man to slavery, for slavery consists in being subject to the will of another.”

In six short weeks we have the power to change the world. We have it. You have it, I have it, it is ours. You need to take a moment to appreciate this right. It is not a right that people have always had. There are people in other countries by the millions who are, by Mr. Paine’s description, enslaved. Not us. We are Americans we are free to choose who we want to lead our land.

This right was given to us as a gift from our forefathers who fought for this right and even died for this right. They gave their lives so that their children and their children’s children could live in a free world. Brave people like Susan B. Anthony, John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. dedicated their lives to help ensure that every man and woman could vote. If you decided not to vote you are pissing on their graves.

You have a few days left (in PA) to register to vote. If you have not done it, do it right now. You must do it at least 30 days in advance of the election. (Oct 4.) Click here for the PA voter registration. If you are a student you need to declare residency in the state at least 30 days (Oct. 4) before the election. If you do not do that you can still vote easily by filing an absentee ballot here.

If you do not think voting is important you are wrong. It is this tragic miscalculation that the republican minority (yes, I said minority) uses to control the white house, a majority of the governorships, control of the senate and control of the House of representatives when they only account for 30% of the population.

Our time to speak has come. Do what is right for out country. The choice is yours, register and vote, or become enslaved for the next four years.

I’ll take Webster’s definition, if that’s good for you, George.

geno-cide

Pronunciation: ‘je-n&-“sId

Function: noun

Definition: the deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group.

Got that one George? Is that definition clear enough for you? Do you own a copy of Webster’s Dictionary? I’ll mail you one with a few important words high-lighted. (liar, weapon, accomplished, graft…for starters). Today the oval office page-a-day vocab builder calendar has the word “genocide.”

After weeks of media masturbation Secretary of State Colin Powell has used the word genocide to describe the crisis in the Darfur region of Sudan. Over a year has passed since the war crimes and crimes against humanity began. Sudanese troops (and government supported militias) are responsible for the displacement of 1.2 million Sudanese people and an estimated 200,000 refugees in neighboring Chad.

The crisis began as a decades old conflict between nomadic and sedentary farmers in Darfur. In 2003 an armed group, the Sudanese Liberation Army (SLA), was formed. Shortly thereafter the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), was also formed. At the end of March 2003 The government of Sudan decided that it needed to use force to bring about an end to the conflict.

Since that time the government gave free reign to militias known as Janjawid to attack the villages of the farming population. The attacks are always supported and often backed up Sudanese armed forces as paramilitaries. The Sudanese Air force is also using helicopter gun ships and MIG planes to bomb villages and kill civilians.

The human rights violations in Sudan include extrajudicial executions, deliberate killings of civilians, widespread rape, and forced displacement of citizens. The majority of the violations are being committed by the Janjawid and Sudanese army not by the opposition forces (SLA and JEM).
If the United States is in the business of regime change because of human rights violations; if we are interested in “freeing people” who live under a grossly oppressive government; why the hell does it take two-and-a-half weeks to come up with a word for it. I bet we are waiting for a UN resolution. Yeah, that must be it.

Samizdat welcomes Jamison

The Samizdat Radio show is proud to welcome the surly mammal, Jamison T. Squirrel, back into the world of columnists. If you've never run into him, you're lucky. You can get a taste of him here.

(Oh, and don't be fooled by that byline. Them words was written by Jamison.)

Balance

Some may inquire as to the bias of the Samizdat Radio folks. Yeah, we have it. Normally, in the interest of balance, we would have covered Kerry's stop in Bowling Green. However, we made the executive decision not to. Tony was working, in Pittsburgh, and he has a preternatural fear of crowds. Justin was drinking and swimming, and has a preternatural fear of heat. Besides, if you want to know what anybody said, just watch old footage from the Democratic Convention. Didn't change a thing. Not one thing. Nope.

This has been a Fairness bulletin from the Samizdat Radio Show.

Samizdat sees the Prez

Welcome, good listeners. This is Justin, reporting live from Main Street, Bowling Green, Ohio, where only DAYS ago, el Presidente drove by. Yes, Mr. George W. Bush, in his big ol' bus, drove by. I'll attempt to break down the events of that fateful Saturday:

3:30pm - First signs of protesters, no pun intended. I note how few there are, considering this is a college town. In fact, the only ones from my vantage point are three middle-aged women. At least their signs are fun.

3:45pm - Arrival of the first contingent of collegiate Bush supporters. I term them the 'Privileged White Boys for Bush' group. Imagine the stereotype those words convey, and you get the idea of what these gentlemen looked like.
3:46pm - PWBfB begin heckling the protesters. Soon after, two young men carrying a giant enormous American flag walk by. They stop directly in front of protesters, completely hiding them. I comment on the metaphor these young lads have just created. Flag-holders then spend the next 10 minutes letting the flag touch the ground, after which they fold it up improperly. Such a stunning example of patriotism.

4:30pm - A certain reporter resists the urge to play politically-themed music in the store where he is working. I-- He keeps eyeing up Bad Religion's "Let Them Eat War."

5:00pm - Flying monkeys from the land of Oz swooped in and picked off random members of the crowd.

5:30pm - We're getting close to the arrival. The tension is getting thick. The PWBfB raise the stakes of their heckling, telling the protesters to "go back to France." I note the irony of holding an American flag while cursing LaFeyette's descendents.

5:45-ish (still pm) - After hours of sheer boredom, police cars start whipping past at an alarming rate. The PWBfB start blowing their horn, happy as a self-righteous angel heralding the arrival of their false prophet.

Minutes later - A bus drives by, doing 45 (at least). From the store window, I can see a headless man with a powder-blue shirt and khakis wave to me. It was either the President, or some headless automaton used for security purposes.

That was it. After that, dozens of buses and cars whizzed by. What a bloody waste of my damn time. Crap on this, I'm out. I'm Justin, for the Samizdat Radio Show.