Mokka mit Schlag » Politics

Major Owens’ retirement has opened a seat in New York’s 11th Congressional District, which covers a large swath of central Brooklyn. This is an unusual and diverse district. However it’s also a staunchly Democratic one, so Tuesday’s primary will almost certainly decide the winner of the general election. Four candidates are contesting it–Chris Owens, Yvette Clarke, Carl Andrews, and David Yassky. In much of the country, any one of these people would be considered a left-wing liberal commie, but three of them would likely change their politics to fit their district. Only one of the four stands out as a committed progressive who wants to oppose the status quo rather than become a part of it. That candidate is Chris Owens, and he gets my unqualified endorsement.
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It’s no secret that in what passes for a political spectrum in this country I qualify as a left-wing radical. Therefore it’s no surprise that I’m supporting Jonathan Tasini for Senate. Nonetheless, there’s good reason for less radical Democrats to support him too. In short, Hilary must be stopped.
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Tuesday is primary day in New York, and it’s an interesting one. Local term limits, combined with extreme dissatisfaction with incumbents at all levels of government have led to an unusual number of contested elections. Furthermore the continued implosion of the New York State Republican party means that a lot of offices are going to be decided on Tuesday. Registered Democrats should be sure to get out and vote.

The first election is for U.S. Senate, and here the choice is an easy one for all progressives and libertarians: Jonathan Tasini. Tasini’s a labor activist and former National Writer’s Union president with a long record of commitment to progressive causes. He’s been directly involved in protecting the rights of writers and readers from the copyright englobulators of the corporate media. He’s a staunch opponent of the Iraq war, and can be counted on to oppose the national security state that’s been imposed on us by successive administrations, both Democrat and Republican.
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For a quick project I’m working on, I’m looking for the complete voting records of the U.S. Senate, ideally going back about 20 years. All I’ve found online so far are individual records for particular senators. What I’m looking for are the complete records for all senators on all bills in a reasonably computerized format; e.g. tab-delimited text or a spreadsheet. (XML would be even cooler, but I don’t really expect that. I can convert the data into XML if I have to.) It needs to contain senator names, party affiliations, and votes on individual bills. I also need to know whether each bill was a roll-call vote or not. Surely this is available somewhere? Any suggestions?

I hear on the radio that despite high gas prices the roads are going to be clogged and Americans are expected to drive 1% more than last year this holiday weekend, which gets me thinking: do we really need to do this? It’s a holiday. Why does every holiday inevitably involve getting in our cars and going somewhere? Why do we want to spend the holiday stuck in traffic? What if we stayed home for a change? What if we spent some time experimenting with where we can go without the almighty automobile? Perhaps in the spirit of Buy Nothing Day (the Friday after Thanksgiving) we should pick the Saturday before Memorial Day and declare it Drive Nowhere Day. The goal should be not merely to stay home, but to travel without personal automobile.
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Gee, after years of marching in goose step with multiple administrations to gut the Constitution and take away our rights, Congress finally decides to take a stand when the president starts coming after them. Cue Martin Niemöller.