Last chance!!!

Today is the last day of our fourth quarter fundraiser and your last chance to enter the drawing for a set of two signed photomosaic posters of President Obama. We’ve spent the week making the case for your financial support. Now it’s up to you to decide if you’re willing to be part of supporting what we do here.

Details about the drawing and how you can contribute after the jump.

Another superb candidate for the State Supreme Court in Michigan

Connie Marie Kelley is currently a judge in the Wayne County Circuit Court. She was endorsed and nominated by the Michigan Democratic Party for the Michigan Supreme Court along with Bridget Mary McCormack (interview HERE) and Shelia Johnson (interview HERE.)

Like the other two MDP-endorsed candidates for the state’s highest court, Judge Kelley comes from a background that makes her unique suited and qualified to be a state Supreme Court justice. She has spent her career advocating for clients as an attorney and making the justice system more accessible for those who use it as a judge. She has represented a wide variety of clients including victims of domestic violence, those who have experienced discrimination, and workers who have been treated unfairly by their employers. In her personal life, she has seen the impact that drug abuse can have on families and has used that experience to help young people find other paths, serving as a mentor and teacher to young people from urban areas.

The full interview is after the jump.

This is hard work – your support helps make it possible

With Election Day right around the corner, things are in full swing at Eclectablog. In addition to our daily drumbeat to re-elect President Obama and to do everything in our power to keep Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan as far from the reins of power as possible, we’re also bringing you information about the candidates and ballot initiatives that will appear on the ballot. These are rehashes of articles others have written — these are interviews done by us and analysis by us — the type of original content you’ve come to expect from Eclectablog.

Some of the exciting things coming up this week and information on how to make a contribution to help us keep things going after the jump.

We’ve seen this type of thing before..

Reader Greg S. sent me a link to this astonishingly creepy video from a group that calls themselves “im2moro” (“I’m tomorrow”, get it?) It has a bunch of teenagers imploring adult voters to vote to preserve conservative values by electing conservative politicians. But it goes way beyond that. It’s so over the top that it reminds me of the type of propaganda you’d expect from the Third Reich Nazis, brainwashing children into a passionate and unquestioning nationalism.

The video and commentary after the jump.

Oops, we did it again

I’ll keep the blah, blah to a minimum today. You know why we’re doing this: blogging doesn’t pay much and we have expenses to pay. We’ve already made a lot of improvements but, as yesterday showed, when we get slammed by traffic, the servers we’re on still struggle to keep up. At one point yesterday, this piece was getting over 500 hits per minute and the server said “screw it” and shut down. Poor thing. The next step for us will cost money.

So, that’s why we come to you four times a year to ask you to ask for your help. Every little bit helps. If you get value from what we do at Eclectablog, please consider making a donation. Details are after the jump.

Dude totally got Bidened…

The epic performance last night by Vice President Joe Biden is destined to go down in history as one of the finest debate showings ever. Three things conspired against Congressman Paul Ryan: the truth, a debate opponent well prepared with facts and a ‘tude, and a debate moderator that was skilled and educated enough not to put up with any bullshit. This perfect storm left Ryan flopping on the beach like a fish, mouth gawping for air, completely knocked out of his zone.

It’s not easy to debate someone who tells lie after lie after lie. You risk spending your entire time refuting the lies without ever getting your own message out. Last night, Joe Biden taught us how to do it. He started out grinning whenever Ryan lied. By the end, he was openly laughing and, in what was almost like a live-tweeting of his own debate, responded in the background to each lie that rolled out of Ryan’s mouth with a refutation so that, when it was his own turn, he could actually deliver his message.

Much more after the jump.

Think of it as an investment

Hi, folks. Thanks for your patience as we make our way though fundraiser week. I listen to Michigan Public Radio every morning and realized that we’re running competing fundraising drives this week. Ironically, judging by the Alexa scores — a rating system for website traffic — Eclectablog actually gets more traffic than MichiganRadio.org.

Here’s the thing: you don’t have to donate a lot of money to help out. If a significant number of our regular readers were to kick in $5 or $10, it would go a long way toward paying our bills.

Details about how to donate and about the prizes you can win for donating after the jump.

OFA: grassroots organizing powerhouse. Again.

The Obama campaign released numbers today about how effective their ground game in swing states has been in two specific areas: voter registration and early voting. How effective have they been?

In a word: VERY.

Details after the jump.

It took some doing but Mitt’s just the man for the job!

Mitt Romney has been accused of flip-flopping on pretty much every single major policy position and issue that has been discussed in the presidential election. Abortion. Taxing the rich. Budget policy. Health insurance reform. Raising taxes on the middle class. You name a major issue and Mitt Romney has taken both sides at some point in the past decade.

What’s lost in this discussion is the fact that, by doing so, Mitt Romney hasn’t just appeased everyone. He’s also pissed off everyone. For every issue that is important to any particular group, he hasn’t just sided WITH you; he’s sided AGAINST you.

Much more after the jump.

People talk…

Today is Day Three of our week-long fundraiser at Eclectablog. We’re asking those of you who get some value from what we do here to contribute just a small amount back to help us keep the lights on and buy us the occasional beer.

I have asked some friends of the blog to share why they think what we do here is worth supporting and the response was phenomenal. Today I’d like to share them with you (after the jump.)

“He who votes decides nothing; he who counts the votes decides everything” – Joseph Stalin

Last March in Wellington, Florida, City Council candidate Al Paglia was declared the winner only to learn later that the voting machines used to tally the vote had reversed his votes with his opponent’s and he was subsequently informed he had actually NOT been elected.

More on this and other voting machine-related news after the jump.