Here is what we should be demanding of our candidates:

1.  Demand that your candidates do not surrender (concede) on November 8th even if the early returns suggest they can't win.  CANDIDATES should insist that ALL the votes are counted, and all election irregularities are investigated, before they concede.  Tell the people we believe in the system, and that every vote counts.  If our candidate is the likely winner, supports a complete vote count for the likely loser if they want it; this is about building the long-term trust of the people.  There should not be such a rush that the system breaks down.  We don't need expensive and flawed voting machines; we just need more people who can count.

I'm a vet, you see, so forgive me for getting excited about this.  We veterans of the all-volunteer military only signed up to get a paycheck and some help with college, and by and large we're a fairly faint-hearted group.  So thanks, thereisnospoon, for that slap in the face.  I really needed it.

I've written before, in comments, about the need to change the media ownership rules in this country.  This is my first diary entry.

In the Main Stream Media, "reporters" have become typists, "journalists" have become pundits, "pundits" have become propagandists.  Television evening news programs provide virtually no information about things that might impact our everyday lives, but instead give us the most gruesome traffic accident, the most tragic house fire, the interview with the family member asking the important question: "How do you feel about your relative being brutally murdered?"

So now what?

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