WV Secretary of State should Educate rather than Supress voters

In a recent ad, which I personally heard on 58 Live (WCHS) during the Sportsline program, WV Secretary of State Betty Ireland was touting the "three ways" a college student who lives away from home can vote in the general election. According to Ireland, students need to either:

1. Vote early in their home county.
2. Vote by mail via absentee ballot.
3. Vote in their local precinct on Nov. 4.

Secretary Ireland leaves out an important fourth option. WV students can choose to register to vote using their mailing address at school. I phoned the Secretary of State's office on Friday, and was informed by Special Assistant Jason Williams that the Secretary's ad was "accurate in that it truthfully represented the facts as they related to the specific topic that the ad addresses." I pointed out that students were already being informed in WV and other nearby states that they might lose their financial aid if they register away from their parents' address, and that the Secretary's ad smelled of partisan politics. The Special Assistant responded that "the Secretary cannot promote college students running around all willy-nilly registering to vote where they may or may not have a permanent address." Willy-nilly, indeed. If McCain were going to benefit from those registrations, I bet they'd have no problem with it. Secretary Ireland swore an oath to uphold the Constitution of the State of WV, and she has a responsibility to educate and inform voters of ALL of their options, not just the ones that benefit her party.

PDWV Unveils New Logo

A big shout out to PDWV member One Citizen for putting together a beautiful new graphic logo for us. We'll be using this one from here on out, hopefully. Please feel free to use the comments section to give OC his props.

Better use of McCain's Time

I heard John McCain in Wisconsin today say that he couldn't wait to introduce Sarah Palin to Washington (rooaad triip!) I also heard him say that he couldn't wait to introduce her to pork-barrel spenders and lobbyists. I know he meant that she was with him in being all maverick-y (strong emphasis on "icky"), but he should try to recall a few things. I know it's hard, but this is America and we can do anything we set our minds to because John McCain was a POW.

Though she may need an official introduction to pork-barrel spenders (except for the indicted ones from her home state, Stevens and Young), she knows them well already. As we've heard before Palin was very successful at getting earmarks/pork for her hometown of Wasilla. She even remarked in her own handwriting that they "did well" during one session of Congress.

As for introducing her to lobbyists - already handled. She hired a firm to lobby Congress for those precious earmarks they "did well" on.

He doesn't even have to travel very far to introduce her to lobbyists - only as far as the Straight Talk Express (they save on gas that way). The McCain campaign has more lobbyists on staff than any other campaign.

That John McCain...he just always finds some way to take care of the small things. The good news is that he doesn't have to waste time on all this. He and Palin can quickly get back the job at hand: lying to the American public.

McCain Forgets Just How Rich He Is

From MSNBC:

Days after he cracked that being rich in the U.S. meant earning at least $5 million a year, Republican presidential candidate John McCain acknowledged that he wasn't sure how many houses he and his wealthy wife actually own.

"I think — I'll have my staff get to you," McCain responded to a question posed by Politico, according to a story Thursday on the publication's Web site. "It's condominiums where — I'll have them get to you."

Later, the McCain campaign told Politico that McCain and his wife, Cindy, have at least four in three states, Arizona, California and Virginia. Newsweek recently estimated the two owned at least seven properties.

How are the Republicans getting away with declaring Obama an elitist?

Minimah: Not In It to Win It?

Charleston Daily Mail - News - W.Va. GOP nominee says he's willing to quit race

In a seemingly chivalrous move, GOP candidate for WV Secretary of State Charles Minimah graciously volunteered to withdraw from the race and allow incumbent Betty Ireland to have his spot on the ballot. Ireland previously decided not to seek re-election citing the need to care for her elderly parents. After Ireland's parents both recently passed away, Minimah had an apparent change of heart, stating in a news release on Monday that he believes, "Betty represents West Virginia's best option to keep the state's election division moving in a positive direction."

Unfortunately for Minimah, and perhaps for the GOP, the deadline to withdraw was Friday.

If he wants to be a gentleman, he could just tell everyone to vote for Natalie Tennant. Oh, wait, he sort of just did, didn't he?

REMINDER: PDWV Platfomr Meeting

This is just reminder that the PDWV Democratic Platform meeting is tomorrow. The details are below. I hope to see a good representation of progressives at the event to push our issues. If you cannot make it to the meeting, but there is an issue that is pressing in your mind, please feel free to contact me by email or by phone. The information is at the bottom of this email.

PDWV Democratic Platform Meeting
2:00-4:30pm
South Charleston Public Library
312 4th Ave
South Charleston, WV 25303
(The meeting room is to the left as you go into the foyer of the library before you actually get into the main library itself. There should be a sign.)

This has the potential to be a big event in a couple of ways. First, this is an opportunity to have our voices heard by the Democratic Platform Committee (WV's representative on the DNC Platform Committee hopes to be at the event and definitely wants a report before the committee meetings.) Never before has the platform been open in this way. It's an opportunity we should take. Second, this event could be really good exposure for PDWV. It will help "put us on the radar" of local Democrats and Democratic leaders.

Hope to see you there!

A Quick Comment About Gas Prices

For almost 2 weeks, gas at the station I usually use has been $4.099/gallon. Now, crude production (via OCS or ANWR) hasn't increased and no new refineries have come online in the last couple of days, but prices are now $3.999/gallon.
Some have been saying for weeks that oil speculators have been at least part of the problem with rising gas prices. Since some lawmakers in Washington have been talking for the last week about putting more effort into controlling speculation the price of gas has gone down. Now this is not necessarily direct causation, but it could be.
Are speculators backing off crude with reports that Washington plans to monitor more fervently? Is this the reason prices are going down? Does that validate the argument that speculators (like Rep. Shelly Moore-Capito's (R-WV) husband) are a large cause of recent price spikes?