tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2424131704277823220.post870181588642082140..comments2023-09-23T11:16:00.352+02:00Comments on The Franco-American Flophouse has moved: Perceptions of an Overseas VoterVictoria FERAUGEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16319699673885400472noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2424131704277823220.post-71307781537470228962012-09-01T09:24:26.097+02:002012-09-01T09:24:26.097+02:00Hi Charles,
You are correct. I posted this piece...Hi Charles,<br /><br />You are correct. I posted this piece over at Isaac Brock and heard some amazing tales of bureaucracy and other impediments to voting. The Overseas Vote Foundation says that it should be easier this year with the new rules but....<br /><br />I gave it a try this year and was pleasantly surprised but that was just one state and one set of local election officials. Can't speak to the other 49.<br /><br />What was your experience?<br /><br />Victoria<br /><br />Victoria FERAUGEhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16319699673885400472noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2424131704277823220.post-84032141877257984062012-09-01T07:54:25.730+02:002012-09-01T07:54:25.730+02:00I think you underestimate the difficulties of peop...I think you underestimate the difficulties of people both registering and requesting their absentee ballots--and then the third hurdle of getting it filled in and mailed on time. <br />CEJhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14080778566145093851noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2424131704277823220.post-5330967249715390452012-03-18T21:33:51.453+01:002012-03-18T21:33:51.453+01:00Hello,
I have just discovered your FlopHouse thro...Hello,<br /><br />I have just discovered your FlopHouse through AARO. It is most interesting. I haven't read everything yet, but just this page is great.Pat Lnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2424131704277823220.post-3062446383490289712012-02-27T17:24:57.451+01:002012-02-27T17:24:57.451+01:00Thank you very much, Ellen. I think you're ri...Thank you very much, Ellen. I think you're right about the Congress folks. Oh what a cold shower that was to go check out those websites....Victoria FERAUGEhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16319699673885400472noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2424131704277823220.post-1554378310885195052012-02-26T22:51:16.979+01:002012-02-26T22:51:16.979+01:00@jay dee said...
Here is where I go to watch PBS ...@jay dee said...<br /><br />Here is where I go to watch PBS Newshour nightly. You can not stream the Full broadcast, as that is restricted to the US, but you can watch each of the individual segments.<br /><br />http://www.pbs.org/newshour/<br /><br />@Victoria... Understand the time issues with keeping up with US news, and that is why years ago, I started the podcast route. If a program doesn't have a podcast (but most I want to listen to do now), I stream the program, record it, and make my own podcast out of it.<br /><br />I listen to a lot of varied things, like NPRs All Things Considered, or Morning Edition, PRIs the World, Car talk, This American life, RadioLab, Freshair, Left,Right &Center, Talk of the Nation, etc, etc, etc.... <br /><br />If time is limited, and I want comprehensive discussion on subjects from all sides with civility and out over talk and bluster, than KCRWs "To the Point" with Warren Olney is the very best anywhere in the media universe. I highly recommend it. He is the best moderator going, bar none<br /><br />Here is the link...<br /><br />http://www.kcrw.com/news/programs/tp<br /><br />I download every show to listen to later. After years of listening, I am still uncertain of his politics, and that is just the way it should be!Just Menoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2424131704277823220.post-59115102426008708872012-02-26T20:42:58.844+01:002012-02-26T20:42:58.844+01:00Your post has been linked to the AARO facebook pag...Your post has been linked to the AARO facebook page.<br />I have taken it a step further and sent the link to the blogpost to my senator and congressman. (I say my senator, because I just can't bring myself to write to the other guy.)<br />I'm sure the AARO link will bring you more readers, not so sure about the congress people.Ellen Lebellehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01929639076042070115noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2424131704277823220.post-87998612173381201892012-02-26T20:31:20.521+01:002012-02-26T20:31:20.521+01:00@jay dee - that is a very good suggest. It's ...@jay dee - that is a very good suggest. It's very chilling to arrive at these sites and realize that they don't recognize the civilian constituents abroad. I left with a very poor impression of both "my" senators.<br /><br />I went looking for more stats about overseas voters and came up with this resource which is just amazing. It's called the United States Elections Project and it gives eligible overseas voter information by state. Really well done. It appears that Washington has fewer than 200,000 but nonetheless it is in good company with lots of other states with well over 100,000 and some with nearly half a million (400-500,000)<br /><br />http://elections.gmu.edu/Turnout_2010G.htmlVictoria FERAUGEhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16319699673885400472noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2424131704277823220.post-61803420089049829832012-02-26T16:46:51.886+01:002012-02-26T16:46:51.886+01:00For Eric and Victoria: Federal law specifies wher...For Eric and Victoria: Federal law specifies where an overseas may register to vote. It's not a pick-and-choose beauty contest.<br /><br />As noted in the article, the websites of members of Congress have never (in my experience) offered their overseas constituents a way of submitting both their overseas AND voting addresses on the same form. Phone numbers are rejected unless the conform to the US pattern. <br /><br />One suggestion I have made in recent years is that for Overseas Americans Week, the door-knockers should put at or near the top of their list the idea of redesigning their websites to enable overseas citizens to get recognition more easily from Representatives and Senators. At the very least, members of the Americans Abroad caucus should do so. <br /><br />Any U.S. citizen being solicited for campaign donations to a member of Congress (or the Executive!) running for re-election should insist, before giving a dime that their website reflects their international constituency. At a re-election fund-raiser earlier this year, I raised this question with a senator's staffers, but to my knowledge nothing has budged on the incumbent's website. Sad. Pass the hat to overseas constituents, and then ignore them on your website.<br /><br />To Just Me: How do you get PBS Newshour? I've tried to, very unsuccessfully, on the Web. Maybe I'm not tech-savvy enough….jay deenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2424131704277823220.post-1650797654644968242012-02-26T09:19:24.225+01:002012-02-26T09:19:24.225+01:00@Eric - Now that would be one hell of an idea. Le...@Eric - Now that would be one hell of an idea. Let's just pick a state that needs voters and ask if we can all be residents there for voting purposes. <br /><br />@Just Me - You bet, I'll cross post over at Isaac Brock.<br /><br />Staying informed even in an Internet age is harder then it looks. I'm with Eric, it takes time and if you have a full-time job it's not easy to explain to your French employer why you are reading the New York Times instead of doing productive work. :-) Podcast are a good idea, Marvin, and one I hadn't thought of.<br /><br />I think Eric is right though that many expat issues are of little or no interest to local people and arise because of legislation that gets bundled into other legislation and passed without anyone thinking for one minute how this might effect 6 million citizens abroad. Because either we don't exist (it's not true that there are that many American abroad!) or we are "temporary."<br /><br />On my side I woke up the other day to the fact that I was merely glancing over issues like Social Security or the health care debate. Why? Well, I don't qualify for either of those things and I won't be seeing any benefit from them so why should care if the Republicans kill them? <br /><br />That was not well done of me. So I'm going to try to do better, try to have more empathy for homelanders and their issues provided that I see some reciprocity. If I don't see that and I continue to read misleading and downright obnoxious characterizations of Americans abroad then I will simply vote my very narrow interests and that means the most anti-tax, anti-government, Far Right lunatics I can find on the ballot who are against FATCA and citizenship-based taxation. :-)Victoria FERAUGEhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16319699673885400472noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2424131704277823220.post-53929767939523810442012-02-26T07:46:48.082+01:002012-02-26T07:46:48.082+01:00Good post. Hope you share it over at Isaac Brock ...Good post. Hope you share it over at Isaac Brock too. There are getting to be more and more new readers who would benefit from this. Thanks for your thoughtful comments. <br /><br />BTW, I like to think I stay pretty well informed about what is going on back in the States. But then, I am a news junkie. My wife streams KUOW all the time for Seattle news, and I have my cross section of NRP, PRI, BBC and ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corp) podcast programs I listen to, plus PBS newshour is a regular. My MP3 player and ear buds are always in when I am out in the garden, or working on the house. I like to think that I listen to enough cross section of stories and opinion to understand the issues. Although, I must admit, Rush Limbaugh is not a podcast I download! <br /><br />I have a couple very right wing conservative T-party Real American acquaintances that send me all the right wing chain emails that I have fun debunking, and I do have long debates on issues, but generally it is a waste of my time. My wife asks why do I bother, and I say because it hones my skills and is entertaining. However, when going up against folks with certainty and true believers, you should have no illusions that anything you say to counter their perceptions of truth will ever matter. They are into broad characterizations and not interested in a view from another room. But I stay in touch so I don't get caught in a bubble of my own making.Just Menoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2424131704277823220.post-79577716679615810642012-02-25T21:50:27.252+01:002012-02-25T21:50:27.252+01:00Sometimes political groups float the idea of tryin...Sometimes political groups float the idea of trying to convince a large number of their supporters to move to one not-very-populated state in order to swing the local elections and get lots of their preferred candidates into state and even national political offices. E.g. libertarians have the Free State Project. I remember reading both gay marriage proponents and opponents discussing similar ideas. Maybe we should all find a state with extremely lax residency laws and "move" there.<br /><br />My real trouble is keeping informed in the first place. In HK I can keep up with politics without turning it into a full-time job: read the paper before breakfast, skim the LegCo bills and the court lists once a week to see if anything egregious is going on. If I wanted to keep up with Bay Area politics or even state-wide politics it would be an analogous level of effort. But so much of the stuff that affects us as American expats is at a federal level, where there's way too much going on and too many crazy riders tagged onto the ends of bills at the last minute.Erichttp://notlearningcantonese.posterous.comnoreply@blogger.com