Eyes on Target and a voting update

In response to Target's astonishing emergency contraception policy, word of a Planned Parenthood boycott of the store, and a Dan Savage (last item) column that shamed me into action, I phoned their customer care center for a chat about the policy. After having a surprisingly thorough conversation with the phone bank fellow, I heard Target's response to the issue. They are assuring customers that, while their pharmacists can cite religious reasons for not filling a prescription, it falls to the objecting pharmacist to find an alternate location for the customer. The otherworldliness of this "solution" is stunning. In many, many communities small pharmacies have been put out of business by the big box department stores, thereby making places like Walmart and Target the only game in town. But even if a woman trying to fill a prescription is lucky enough to live in pharmacy-ville, the inevitable delay -- the looks, the knowing that this pharmacist objects to her choice and the medical intervention of her doctor -- is unacceptable. For anyone who feels the same, Target can be reached at 800.440.0680 (fair warning, many layers of phone menus before an actual person takes the call).

Regarding the likelihood of voting irregularities in this latest election, still investigating the distribution of voting machines in Richmond's poorer neighborhoods. On the national front, in an examination of the role of electronic voting machines in Ohio this report from the GAO, shows that, among other things: "studies found (1) some electronic voting systems did not encrypt cast ballots or system audit logs, and it was possible to alter both without being detected; (2) it was possible to alter the files that define how a ballot looks and works so that the votes for one candidate could be recorded for a different candidate; and (3) vendors installed uncertified versions of voting system software at the local level." The report is beginning to get some blog-driven attention, but any mainstream attention in the near future seems unlikely.

On a more optimistic note, Mr. Deeds may yet go to Richmond. The race for Attorney General remains up in the air, with the two candidates separated by less than 500 votes. Deeds remains resolute and does not plan to conceed. Looks like we'll be getting a recount for Christmas.

Pat Robertson, how I loathe him

In his neverending quest to keep God, his own countenance, and idiocy on the front pages, Pat Robertson weighed in with this gem of pastorly wisdom: "I'd like to say to the good citizens of Dover: If there is a disaster in your area, don't turn to God, you just rejected Him from your city." Oh, and it goes on: "God is tolerant and loving, but we can't keep sticking our finger in His eye forever," Mr Robertson said. "If they have future problems in Dover, I recommend they call on Charles Darwin. Maybe he can help them."

I suppose the burden is now on me to come up with some pithy, yet politically relevant response to this, but you know what? Fuck that. The man is a grasping, shameless, nutjob. A dumbass of the highest order, the Reverend Dumbass, if you will. I grew up right in the buckle of the bible belt, and to those folks for whom wacky, smiling, genteel religious freaks are just the stuff of molasses-paced southern fiction -- funny, like Raising Arizona -- please take a moment to count your lucky, lucky stars. For a staggering number of people, this man's words carry very real weight. I wish I could dissect this a bit, but frankly I've spent too much of my life trying to figure out the allure, swinging from blind anger to casual dismissal and back again, never coming any closer to some sort of comfortable understanding. The old people, that I get. The sick people, alright, fear of death or pain can take anyone to some very scary places, the 700 Club among them. But there are millions of healthy, thinking people in the world who not only craft reality to "prove" the existence of an interventionist god, but see this man (who like Jim Bakker before him, actually makes Jerry Falwell look like a statesman) as the interpreter and, if you listen to him carefully, often the determiner, of that intervention. That so few of his "parishioners" see this as contradicting...ummmm...the bible is worth pointing out, but only just. This selective blindness is so pervasive, cemented so deeply into the increasingly fundamentalist world of suburban and exurban Christianity, that it feels somewhat silly to even mention it anymore.

SO people of Dover, Cease your Trembling! Rejoice! For upon you has fallen the wrath of one lonely, pathetic man from Virginia Beach, VA and his legions of followers. But as for disaster striking, and your dear community being forsaken by God, well, keep investing in holy public health and anointed emergency services and you'll be worlds ahead of most of the communities in Robertson's godfearing South.

Great day in the morning, he won

The relief in this house is palpable. Tim Kaine has won the governor's race in Virginia. I think my fella and I remain a bit bruised from the election last November because, despite the good news from the AP around 9PM, as election results trickled in we lingered over the State Bd of Elections site, obsessively refreshing until we were absolutely sure there wouldn't be some last-minute turnaround. On a more practical note, we were also monitoring the maddening (and encouraging and yet still maddening) closing of the gap between Deeds(D) and McDonnell(R) in the race for Attorney General. At this writing, it stands at McDonnell 50.04% to Deed's 49.88%. Eight districts have yet to be included in the reporting, and there is the inevitable recount. The word recount actually causes a dull pain. I suppose saying I was "bruised" after the last elections doesn't really cover it; "broken", now there's a word.

As for voting irregularities, I still plan to follow-up on the placement of voting machines in various districts within the city. Then there's this little tidbit. I think, somewhere in all of us, there lurks a conspiracy theorist; something about the way we're wired, our inclination to see patterns and ordering influence, a system-seeker that can be tapped unexpectedly. Now call me crazy, but isn't the consistent switching of candidates' names (the same candidates' names) a rather specific malfunction? After hearing this great report on the vulnerability of voting machines to, ummmm, adjustments, word of such switching is hard to ignore. Awaiting news of an official investigation. Until then, the system-seeker is stirring.

Richmond voting

This is it -- Election Day -- and I'm all aquiver. Too much caffeine despite breastfeeding: yes. The thrill of participating in representative democracy: actually, yes. The possibility that I'm going to fight the good fight against voter suppression prior to the next presidential election: damn straight.

Now perhaps there is a logical and practical explanation, but hell if I can think of one. Here's the situation. Last year, while great with child, I waited with my fella for three hours along with hundreds of other people (many of them quite elderly, or disabled, or late-for-work, or just tired) to use TWO voting machines. Now this isn't at some podunk polling place, this is the annex of city hall. Sucked, but we waited, and we voted; but a lot of folks couldn't wait. Our neighborhood at the time, while frosted at it's southern edge with a wealthy district, is predominantly poor and working class, mostly African-American. Since then we moved to a cheaper apartment in a swanky neighborhood (saving 40% on rent; 50% on utilities -- bizarre). Now when I went to vote today, what should I find but six voting machines. Perplexing. I phoned the Registrar's office and found that they use a formula based on the number of registered voters in a district to determine the minimum number of machines to place at each polling place. What remains unclear is what determines a district's ability to go above that number. Are poorer (and largely Democratic) districts less likely to have more than the minimum number of machines? I'm on the trail of answers. As exciting as voting today was (Go Kaine!), I left the swanky elementary school, in the swanky neighborhood, surrounded by swanky people who didn't have to wait in line, didn't have to be late for work, and I felt a bit sick. This is a poor city, yet half a year in this neighborhood and the poverty becomes harder to remember. This voting machine thing has me shaken back to reality and I'm going to get to the bottom of it. Perhaps it's nothing -- but these days it seems voting issues rarely come to nothing.

"One function of the income gap is that the people at the top of the heap have a hard time even seeing those at the bottom. They practically need a telescope. The pharaohs of ancient Egypt probably didn't waste a lot of time thinking about the people who built their pyramids, either. OK, so it's not that bad yet -- but it's getting that bad." Molly Ivins