FreedomSpeaks Official Blog

The current regime of Senators and Congressmen(women) need an attitude adjustment. I read recently that there is on OpenCongress' Blog that there is a Senator blocking the nomination of the watchdog protecting our $700 Billion bailout of the financial industry. Why would this person want to remain in secrecy? My guess is that he's got some big banking lobbyists backing him up.

The report goes on to say that Senator Jim Bunning is the one that is suspected of blocking the vote. He's quoted as saying, "I wonder why taxpayers should have to pay $50 million to a watchdog who will have nothing to watch."

Maybe someone should write this guy a letter and "encourage" him to get off his high horse and start representing the people that elected him. It's attitudes like this that upset so many Americans. He's basically said that we should just "trust" the financial community with the $700 Billion. Yeah right. I'm going to settle for some accountability and transparency.

Normally, I'm quite elated when I'm right about things (which would explain my typically 'happy' demeanor). This time, however, it's a bit different. I've been reading some numbers regarding the voter turnout for the 2008 Presidential election, an election that has lived up to the historic proportions predicted.

From what I can find, voter turnout in 2004 (George W. Bush v. John Kerry) was 125 Million (my sources are listed at the bottom). In 2008, my sources indicate the same number for voter turnout – 125 Million. This would mean that the voter turnout actually decreased due to the 6.1 million increase in eligible voters in 2008. It's of considerable note as well how I calculate the percentage. I am basing voter turnout on total eligible voters from the entire US population, regardless of voter registrations.

So while I am happy to have participated and voted in this monumental Presidential election, this data only further reinforces my notion that people still really don't care. "Transforming Civic Engagement" is one of the foundations for why I created FreedomSpeaks. Can we as a nation ever get to a voter turnout of 65% or even 75%? I can't answer that question, but I am confident FreedomSpeaks can be a significant factor in getting us there.

Sources: http://delicious.com/DotNetAllDay/turnout

For all of you that joined FreedomSpeaks and Causecast last night, thank you for making it a truly memorable event. We voted, and then we partied late into the night. And we got to watch President Elect Barack Obama give his acceptance speech on monster 10' screens. Thanks again everyone. It was great to see the people taking an interest in the political process again. I hope we can keep that momentum for future elections!