Larry King Moderating 3rd Party Debate; VotePact: An Escape from Voting for "the Lesser of Two Evils"
Larry King will moderate a debate tonight featuring third-party candidates. King told the Associated Press: "They have a story to tell. It's a valid story. It's a two-party system, but not a two-party system by law." The participants will be former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson (Libertarian Party), Green Party candidate Jill Stein, former Congressman Virgil Goode (Constitution Party) and former Salt Lake City mayor Rocky Anderson (Justice Party).
Larry King will moderate a debate tonight featuring third-party candidates. King told the Associated Press: "They have a story to tell. It's a valid story. It's a two-party system, but not a two-party system by law." The participants will be former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson (Libertarian Party), Green Party candidate Jill Stein, former Congressman Virgil Goode (Constitution Party) and former Salt Lake City mayor Rocky Anderson (Justice Party).
While many voters feel bound to vote for President Obama or Romney in order to voice their disapproval of the other, even if they agree more with a third-party candidate, two independent websites -- https://www.VotePact.org and https://www.VoteBuddy.com -- advocate a strategy that allows for voting one's conscience without fear.
KENT VAN CLEAVE [email]
Founder of VoteBuddy.com, Kent Van Cleave said today: "Those who always vote for 'the lesser of two evils' have a worry-free way to vote their consciences instead.
"It's almost a joke among couples: One reluctantly votes Republican while the other dejectedly votes Democrat. Neither likes the candidate they're stuck with, they always seem to be voting against the 'greater evil'. Few voters realize there's a way out of that rut.
"Such voters don't realize they have been wasting their votes, election after election, for no good reason at all. They are canceling out each other's vote, meaning that neither has an effect on the election at all.
"Worse, their votes are interpreted as wholehearted support for the recipient candidates. Their reluctance is never communicated.
"Such couples -- or two people in any kind of trusting relationship -- can use their differences of opinion to free both their votes to support third parties, independents, or write-in candidates. They can vote out of conviction rather than out of fear. They simply agree they'll both vote against the status quo."
SAM HUSSEINI [email]
Founder of VotePact.org, Husseini is also communications director for IPA. He said today: "Authentic progressives and authentic conservatives have been consistently manipulated by the establishments of the Democratic and Republican parties. The party establishments agree on wars that are causing resentment against the U.S., trade policies that are hurting U.S. workers and exploiting third world workers, Wall Street and the Federal Reserve being kept firmly in control of the financial system, subsidies to fossil fuels industries that are destroying the environment, civil liberties violations from drone killing on down and a whole host of other issues.
"Many principled progressives and conscientious conservatives are opposed to all these things, but feel locked into voting for their 'lesser evil'. They can continue to be effectively captured by the establishment parties, or they can take an opportunity to join together and back the candidates that better reflect what they believe. Instead of canceling out each others votes, progressives and conservatives who know and trust each other can vote in pairs without helping the establishment candidate they most dislike. They would in effect be freeing their votes, syphoning them off in pairs from automatically going to the Democratic and Republican parties. This strategy increases effective voter choice and enables people to no longer be taken for granted by the party establishments -- giving them 'some place to go' and political leverage."
A nationwide consortium, the Institute for Public Accuracy (IPA) represents an unprecedented effort to bring other voices to the mass-media table often dominated by a few major think tanks. IPA works to broaden public discourse in mainstream media, while building communication with alternative media outlets and grassroots activists.
'Voters Won Big': Wisconsin Supreme Court Restores Ballot Drop Boxes
"At the very heart of our democracy is the fundamental freedom to vote," said Democratic Gov. Tony Evers. "This is a victory for our democracy."
Democracy defenders in Wisconsin celebrated on Friday after the state Supreme Court ruled that absentee ballot drop boxes can be located throughout communities for the November elections, reversing a decision from two years ago, when there was a majority of right-wing justices.
"Wisconsin voters won big today with the decision to reinstate drop boxes across the Badger State," said All Voting is Local Wisconsin state director Sam Liebert in a statement. "Drop boxes are an incredibly popular form of voting that offer greater access to the elections for those who may not be able to wait in line at the polls, particularly those with disabilities."
"Wisconsin voters should have more options, and drop boxes are a secure and easy way to increase civic participation and ensure voters have another safe, secure, and accessible way to cast their ballot," Liebert added.
Common Cause Wisconsin co-chair Penny Bernard Schaber, whose group joined an amicus brief to the court in May, also welcomed the ruling, saying that "reinstating the use of secure ballot drop boxes is good for all of us in Wisconsin."
"It is especially good for individual voters who have mobility issues and time constraints that make it difficult for them to go into and out of a polling place or an election clerk's office," the former Democratic state representative similarly stressed. "Secure ballot drop boxes are a necessary and safe way to return our ballots."
Congressman Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) declared: "This is huge news for democracy! Making it easier for folks to vote is a good thing."
Common Cause Wisconsin pointed out that "voter drop boxes have been used since before 2016 and in 2020-21, during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of drop boxes was expanded to 570 located in 66 of Wisconsin's 72 counties. The expanded number of drop boxes, authorized by the bipartisan Wisconsin Elections Commission (WEC), offered voters a more convenient and safe way to ensure that their absentee ballots could be returned in time to be counted, in part because of the uncertainty of timely delivery of ballots by the U.S. Postal Service."
Justice Ann Walsh Bradley wrote in the majority opinion that "our decision today does not force or require that any municipal clerks use drop boxes. It merely acknowledges what Wis. Stat. § 6.87(4)(b)1. has always meant: that clerks may lawfully utilize secure drop boxes in an exercise of their statutorily-conferred discretion."
She was joined by the other three liberals, including Justice Janet Protasiewicz, whose election last year ended right-wing control of the court. Wisconsinites are preparing for a similar electoral battle next year, when Walsh Bradley plans to retire.
The court earlier this week agreed to take up a pair of high-profile abortion cases. Late last year, the liberal majority threw out Wisconsin's legislative maps, which were rigged to favor Republicans. Democratic Gov. Tony Evers signed new maps in February.
Applauding the ruling on Friday, Evers said that the court "affirmed what we've been saying all along: Drop box voting is safe, secure, and legal, and local clerks should be empowered to make decisions that make sense for their local communities."
"At the very heart of our democracy is the fundamental freedom to vote," he continued. "This is a victory for our democracy. And we're going to keep fighting to ensure that every eligible voter can cast their ballot safely, securely, and as easily as possible to make sure their voices are heard."
The decision comes as Wisconsin is expected to play a key role in this year's contest for the White House. Democratic President Joe Biden, who is now seeking reelection and campaigning in Wisconsin on Friday, won the state by about 20,000 votes in 2020, when he beat former President Donald Trump, now the presumptive Republican nominee.
'Disturbing Milestone': Israeli Settler Attacks in West Bank Surpass 1,000 Since October 7
"While a few individuals have been detained, no civilian or soldier has been prosecuted in connection with any of these 1,000 attacks," said a coalition of aid agencies.
A coalition of aid agencies on Friday implored the international community to take concrete, punitive action against the Israeli government and settlers after the number of settler attacks in the occupied West Bank since October 7 surpassed 1,000.
The Association of International Development Agencies (AIDA), a group of international organizations working in the occupied Palestinian territories, said in a statement that the rate of settler attacks on Palestinians in the West Bank has doubled since the same time last year, from an average of two per day to four.
"At least 10 people, including two children, have been killed during these attacks, and at least 234 have been injured, including 20 children. Since 7 October, 1,260 people, including 600 children, have been forcibly displaced amid settler violence and movement restrictions. The displaced households are from 20 herding and Bedouin communities throughout Area C of the West Bank. As one survivor of settler violence explained, 'No place is safe here.'"
"Settler violence is premeditated and orchestrated by organized groups from known outposts and settlements, with the support of Israel's government, including local and regional settlement councils," the group added, noting the limited sanctions that the United States and the European Union have imposed on individual settlers "have failed to reduce the frequency of attacks."
"While a few individuals have been detained, no civilian or soldier has been prosecuted in connection with any of these 1,000 attacks," AIDA said. "Reports indicate that some illegal outpost farms operated by sanctioned settlers—many of whom have been reported to be at the center of multiple violent incidents—have received hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of material support from the Israeli Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Settlements, the Settlement Administration in the Ministry of Defense, and through local and regional settlement councils."
"Foreign governments must act now to stop this illegal appropriation by taking meaningful measures to hold the Israeli government and perpetrators of these attacks to account."
AIDA urged the international community to "adopt new restrictive measures which go beyond individual settlers to target identified organizations and state entities who promote violence and/or take part in attacks on Palestinian civilians and civilian infrastructure."
The group also argued that the far-right Israeli government "should be held accountable for the repeated and evidence-based allegations that the military and other state authorities are tolerating, enabling, and at times participating in settler violence."
A Human Rights Watch report published in April found that the Israeli military "either took part in or did not protect Palestinians from violent settler attacks in the West Bank that have displaced people from 20 communities and have entirely uprooted at least seven communities" since October 7.
AIDA's statement came days after the Israeli government announced the seizure of nearly five square miles of land in the West Bank—Israel's largest land grab in the occupied Palestinian territory in more than three decades.
Sally Abi Khalil, Middle East and North Africa director for Oxfam International—an AIDA member—said Friday that settler attacks in the West Bank have reached a "disturbing milestone."
"In a context where outpost legalization is being fast-tracked, and Israel is stealing more and more land," said Khalil, "foreign governments must act now to stop this illegal appropriation by taking meaningful measures to hold the Israeli government and perpetrators of these attacks to account."
'I Was Beaten Day and Night': Freed Gaza Detainees Allege Torture by Israeli Forces
"Our eyes were blindfolded, our hands and feet shackled, and they set dogs on us."
Palestinians recently released from detention by Israeli forces alleged in newly released interviews that they were subjected to various forms of torture during their time in prison, including frequent beatings and sleep deprivation.
"I was beaten day and night," 37-year-old Mahmud al-Zaanin, toldAgence France-Presse from his bed at Gaza's Kamal Adwan Hospital. "Our eyes were blindfolded, our hands and feet shackled, and they set dogs on us."
Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank have been detained en masse, often without charge, since Israel launched its latest assault on the Gaza Strip following a deadly Hamas-led attack on October 7. Addameer, a Palestinian human rights organization, estimates that 54 Palestinians—the majority of them from Gaza—have died in Israeli prisons since October "due to torture, inhumane detention conditions, systematic abuse, and deliberate attacks."
AFP spoke to some of the dozens of recently freed Palestinian detainees who were taken to Kamal Adwan Hospital following their release from Israeli prisons on June 11.
One man, identified as Zaanin, said he was denied access to the bathroom and medical treatment and deprived of sleep. Another man told the news agency that his "hands were injured from electric torture" and that he witnessed "more than 30 prisoners with amputated legs, some with both legs missing, and some with both eyes missing."
Whistleblower accounts from Israel's notorious Sde Teiman prison camp in the Negev desert have alleged that Israeli doctors have amputated the limbs of detainees due to injuries caused by handcuffing—"a routine event," according to one doctor's testimony.
"Our detainees have been subjected to all kinds of torture behind bars."
The treatment described by freed Palestinian detainees constitutes a grievous violation of international humanitarian law.
One recently released Palestinian man told AFP that "some young men died from excess beatings and dog attacks." AFP noted that the man showed "scars on his arms which he said were from dog bites." According to the Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, the Israeli military has used trained police dogs to "systematically attack Palestinian civilians during military operations in the Gaza Strip."
Earlier this week, as Common Dreamsreported, the director of what was once Gaza's main hospital said he was tortured by Israeli forces during his seven months in prison. Muhammad Abu Salmiya said he, like so many other Palestinian detainees, was held without charge.
"Our detainees have been subjected to all kinds of torture behind bars," Abu Salmiya said. "There was almost daily torture."
Alice Jill Edwards, the United Nations' special rapporteur on torture, said in May that she "received allegations of individuals being beaten, kept in cells blindfolded and handcuffed for excessive periods, deprived of sleep, and threatened with physical and sexual violence."
She noted at the time that it appears "no effective measures have been taken by the Israeli authorities to investigate these allegations."
"The Israeli authorities must investigate all complaints and reports of torture or ill-treatment promptly, impartially, effectively, and transparently," said Edwards. "Those responsible at all levels, including commanders, must be held accountable, while victims have a right to reparation and compensation."