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"In other words, we live in a democracy that depends on the ability of voters to elect honest, forward-thinking politicians, yet our voters can no longer make wise decisions about who to vote for. That's probably the most frightening statement in this entire book: The very future of our nation now is in the hands of voters who have the cognitive ability of a three-year-old. Where does a democracy go when its citizens can no longer think clearly? What happens to a democracy?" - Mike Adams, Spam Filters for Your Brain (Get the book.)

"The researchers didn't bother to ask the voters what they thought of the ad—in this case a George W. Bush campaign spot that used 9/11 imagery. Instead, they observed which parts of the voters' brains were active as they watched. Democrats responded to the 9/11 imagery with far more activity in the amygdala—the part of the brain that responds to threats and danger— than did the Republicans. The UCLA neuroscientist who conducted the scans didn't think much of the traditional methodologies used by political scientists and consultants, like focus groups, to gauge the mood of the electorate. " - Charles Barber, Comfortably Numb: How Psychiatry Is Medicating a Nation (Get the book.)

"Somehow pharma, and not traditional liberal health-care warriors, was becoming a standard-bearer for patients, who, of course, were also voters. The psychographic had lurched right. It hurt doubly that many of these propharma voters were gay voters, whose rights and interests had once been the sole domain of the liberal establishment. Kennedy was also getting a propharma message from his own constituents in Massachusetts's surging biotech industry, many of whom were pharma-based." - Greg Critser, Generation Rx: How Prescription Drugs are Altering American Lives, Minds, and Bodies (Get the book.)

"In a poll done before the 2000 presidential election, voters didn't particularly care whether or not candidates had received psychiatric treatment or were taking antidepressants. Those issues—which proved explosive in 1972, when Democratic vice presidential candidate Thomas Eagleton withdrew from the race after it was revealed that he had undergone elec-troshock therapy for depression—hold little current interest for the public." - Charles Barber, Comfortably Numb: How Psychiatry Is Medicating a Nation (Get the book.) "Instead, they observed which parts of the voters' brains were active as they watched. Democrats responded to the 9/11 imagery with far more activity in the amygdala—the part of the brain that responds to threats and danger— than did the Republicans. The UCLA neuroscientist who conducted the scans didn't think much of the traditional methodologies used by political scientists and consultants, like focus groups, to gauge the mood of the electorate. "It seemed so last century," Professor Joshua Freedman said. "Consultants were quoting Freud as if it was cutting edge." - Charles Barber, Comfortably Numb: How Psychiatry Is Medicating a Nation (Get the book.) "Only one in five voters said the press should report that a presidential candidate is taking antidepressants, placing it below spouse abuse, income tax evasion, exaggerated military or academic record, ongoing or past affair, homosexuality, cocaine and marijuana use, or a past drinking problem as an area of concern.41 In 2004, in a Rice University study of attitudes toward mental illness in the Houston area, respondents were twelve times more likely to ascribe the cause of mental illness to a brain disorder than to a character flaw." - Charles Barber, Comfortably Numb: How Psychiatry Is Medicating a Nation (Get the book.)

"It hurt doubly that many of these propharma voters were gay voters, whose rights and interests had once been the sole domain of the liberal establishment. Kennedy was also getting a propharma message from his own constituents in Massachusetts's surging biotech industry, many of whom were pharma-based. Why, even the new FDA commissioner, a young physician named David Kessler whom Kennedy liked for his antitobacco rants, seemed open to industry initiatives." - Greg Critser, Generation Rx: How Prescription Drugs are Altering American Lives, Minds, and Bodies (Get the book.)

"Instead, the analytical testing of numerous toothpaste products that uncovered this information was initiated by the Palo Alto-based American Environmental Safety Institute under California's Proposition 65, a landmark consumer health initiative statute passed by voters that requires warnings be given to consumers about the presence of hazardous chemicals in the products they purchase in California." - Samuel S. Epstein, Randall Fitzgerald, Toxic Beauty: How Cosmetics and Personal Care Products Endanger Your Health . . . And What You Can Do about It (Get the book.)

"The fact that voters had put Proposition 13 in place despite dire warnings about the consequences of lower tax revenues from established political figures was viewed as the harbinger of a new economic era. Both the enhanced zoning standards and Proposition 13 were signals of a new era when existing individual property rights would be more respected, and when one might imagine that one's real estate investments would become more valuable." - Brian Fagan, Floods, Famines, and Emperors: El Nino and the Fate of Civilizations (Get the book.) "Instead, we rely on the complete freedom of all political parties to express themselves, and we expect that common sense will ultimately prevail among voters. This good outcome is achieved by designing, and continually improving, rules for campaigns and elections. By analogy, most of the thrust of our national policies to deal with speculative bubbles should take the form of facilitating more free trade, as well as greater opportunities for people to take positions in more and freer markets." - Brian Fagan, Floods, Famines, and Emperors: El Nino and the Fate of Civilizations (Get the book.)

"The majority of voters supported Medicare, but they also believed it offered more medical coverage than it actually did. Mills worried that many citizens would be disappointed in the program—and angry at the party that gave it to them— once they discovered how little it really covered, a possibility the AMA and several Republicans were already exploiting by telling the public that Medicare would reimburse only a tiny fraction of their medical bills. In reality, it covered more than a tiny fraction—80 percent of sixty-five days a year in the hospital—but still, less than the public thought." - Shannon Brownlee, Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine Is Making Us Sicker and Poorer (Get the book.)

"They are supposed to be in their garrison locked away from the voters. But there they were, guns and all. And a bunch of ex-military commissioners—the ones that were dismissed for violence and corruption—were right there with them." "It sends a clear message of intimidation to the people," observed Brigitte, the lawyer. She took a sip of coffee and added thoughtfully, "But you know, there have been so many decades of harassment and intimidation, even where people weren't being murdered. It would be unrealistic to think it would just stop because of the election rules." - Dean Cycon, Javatrekker: Dispatches From the World of Fair Trade Coffee (Get the book.) "Jan was a first-timer in Guatemala and was very excited to talk to the voters, especially "the Indians." Jean and Adrienne were from Paris. He had done this many times in many places. "She is with me" was the extent of Jean's introduction of Adrienne. I was the lawyer/coffee roaster who had been asked to observe by the international indigenous rights community. The Ladina woman looked at me suspiciously, probably wondering what mischief I was up to with the natives." - Dean Cycon, Javatrekker: Dispatches From the World of Fair Trade Coffee (Get the book.)

"Given what actually happens, we can find a large number of distinct subsets of the eligible voters, of whom we can say that their joint voting behaviour is minimally sufficient for the winning candidate's victory; and there will be no individual who is both eligible to vote and who belongs to the intersection of these sets. Consequently, there will be no one who is both eligible to vote and whose actual voting behaviour constitutes a nasic condition of the election result. So any individual constituent would, as a rule, be correct in saying: 'My vote won't make any difference to who wins." - Michael Lockwood, The Labyrinth of Time: Introducing the Universe (Get the book.)

"The USDA finally adopts national organic standards without including the use of sludge, irradiation, or genetic engineering as approved organic practices because of the outcry from 280,000 concerned voters. 2003 Eighty-four percent of US canola acreage is planted with GMO seed. • Five major weeds develop resistance to Roundup herbicide. Arsenic, paraquat, and 2, 4-D are recommended to control resistant weeds. 2004 ?Seventy-six percent of cotton, 45 percent of corn, and 85 percent of soybean acreage in the United States is planted with genetically modified crops." - Will Allen, The War on Bugs (Get the book.)

"After marking their ballots, the voters went to another table and put their votes in a clear plastic garbage bag under the watchful eyes of the election monitors. After voting, people sat in the bleachers or went outside and peered in the windows, content to spend their day watching other people vote for the first time. I walked along the lines, my blue observador armband in clear contrast to my white shirt. Many people nodded. The whole thing seemed straightforward and fair." - Dean Cycon, Javatrekker: Dispatches From the World of Fair Trade Coffee (Get the book.)

"Although Martin's Liberal Party had lost overall seats in the 2004 federal election, the majority of voters had supported political parties with strong environmental sus-tainability positions. Despite disagreement on other hot-button issues, the Liberals, NDP, and Bloc Quebecois shared common ground on a number of environmental issues. Suzuki told the prime minister about the program, which he called Sustainability Within A Generation or SWAG. " - David Steinman, Safe Trip to Eden: Ten Steps to Save Planet Earth from the Global Warming Meltdown (Get the book.) "That unusual combination of the broad appeal among voters, my being a former legislative colleague, and David being a recognized and admired science broadcaster gave the PM a sense that SWAG was something that was intuitively correct and achievable," Fulton told me in an interview. Martin stunned both Fulton and Suzuki next, however, when he demanded copies of the SWAG publication in French and English and ordered them distributed across the government to various deputy ministers, ranging from health and environment to Natural Resources Canada." - David Steinman, Safe Trip to Eden: Ten Steps to Save Planet Earth from the Global Warming Meltdown (Get the book.) "Doing the simple math tells me that probably three-quarters of all voters want a president from either party who can energize the nation by articulating a coherent, practicable and visionary environmental policy that ties together our future sources of energy with an inspired response to the threat of global warming and our national security—what I call being a green patriot. For the growing number of Republicans who have long closeted their environ-mentalism or who desire to build for themselves a coherent conservative outlook that includes proenvironmental policies?" - David Steinman, Safe Trip to Eden: Ten Steps to Save Planet Earth from the Global Warming Meltdown (Get the book.)

"Another problem is politicians' need for quick results to impress the voters and statistical evidence of improvement. This has led schools into a tests-and-targets culture with a fierce focus on standards of achievement. Elementary schools in the USA, for instance, are dominated by the No Child Left Behind legislation, while in the UK millions of pounds have been poured into 'National Strategies' for literacy and numeracy. Parents generally welcome the focus on the Three Rs, since they know how important these basic skills are to their children." - Sue Palmer, Toxic Childhood: How the Modern World is Damaging Our Children and What We Can Do About it (Get the book.)

"We see it in the way we vote for politicians who are short-term thinkers and have only the short-term entitlement interests of voters in mind, rather than the long-term interests of the country. We see this in our food products, where people are buying products that fill them up immediately and taste good immediately, regardless of what they do to their bodies and health. Of course, we see it in the cosmetic industry, where people are buying products to cover up the signs of disease and enhance their outward appearance rather than address their inward health." - Mike Adams, Spam Filters for Your Brain (Get the book.) "That's probably the most frightening statement in this entire book: The very future of our nation now is in the hands of voters who have the cognitive ability of a three-year-old. Where does a democracy go when its citizens can no longer think clearly? What happens to a democracy? The very foundation of this country is based on the assumption that people can be rational, and they can vote for representatives who have the best interests of the country in mind." - Mike Adams, Spam Filters for Your Brain (Get the book.)

"The transfer of power is, to be sure, an abdication by Congress of its central constitutional duty: to make laws. Congress was expected to make decisions even if difficult or controversial but making those decisions invites public criticism and diminishes re-election prospects. The politician's lust for permanent office and power has won out over constitutional sensibilities. The incumbent politician's desire for control over his or her political destiny has created an overwhelming incentive for the transfer to administrative agencies of broad jurisdiction and powers." - Jonathan W. Emord, The Rise of Tyranny (Get the book.)

"Democracy cannot survive if the people in power cannot think clearly and the people who put them in power, the voters, operate just on emotion, reaction and brainwashing. So, it is people like you who really represent the positive future of our society, and I hope that you benefit from this information, and put it to good use to create a better and more positive world for us all. So, thank you for allowing me the opportunity to share these thoughts with you in this book." - Mike Adams, Spam Filters for Your Brain (Get the book.)

"Databases of phone numbers allowed campaigners for the major candidates to call or send text messages to potential voters, and facilitated grassroots political networking. The campaigners were also better able to keep tabs on one another, monitor the polls, and keep a lookout for fraud or intimidation. Young people hired to observe the election stations could use cell phones to call in for support in case of any trouble. Mobile phones also helped make vote counting fairer and more transparent." - Alex Steffen, Worldchanging: A User's Guide for the 21st Century (Get the book.)

"Recent elections have seen a slow shift toward the center-right, as the national desire to integrate into the global economy draws more voters toward candidates promising jobs and money. Ex-combatants have settled down, many forming coffee cooperatives, such as Santa Anita la Union. Rigoberta may run for president of Guatemala, which shows how indigenous politics have continued to evolve and strengthen. She still wont let me kiss her. 6 Tracking the Death Train MEXICO/EL SALVADOR, 2OO5 For the coffee farmers of the Americas, 2000 was not the New Millennium, it was the Perfect Storm." - Dean Cycon, Javatrekker: Dispatches From the World of Fair Trade Coffee (Get the book.)

"Although the book focuses more on "traditional" voting-based actions, such as petitioning and mobilizing underserved voters, than on conquering new media, it does provide additional tips and resources to tie on-the-ground action to online action. There are also a few pithy reminders of things we too often forget, like this statement from Al Gore: "Voting is how we come together, as Americans and as believers in self-rule. There is no greater or more profound right of citizenship. Take it from this veteran of a close and controversial election: The process matters." - Alex Steffen, Worldchanging: A User's Guide for the 21st Century (Get the book.)

"Pulled between voters and the pharmaceutical industry, in 2000 it passed a law permitting "reimportation" of drugs from Canada but stipulated that the secretary of Health and Human Services, with the advice of the FDA, had to certify the practice was safe. Right on cue, the secretary (then Donna Shalala) said she could not give that assurance. In the Bush administration, Tommy Thompson did likewise, sounding the same dire warning that drugs from Canada might somehow turn to poison just by crossing the border. But voters weren't buying it, and Congress was not off the hook." - Marcia Angell, M.D., The Truth About the Drug Companies: How They Deceive Us and What to Do About It (Get the book.)

"As the primary shoppers and the largest block of voters in the United States, women can shift the balance of power and change the face of the future. "We are the ones we have been waiting for," as the poet June Jordan said, and as Alice Walker affirmed in the title of her recent book. "It is the best of times," Walker wrote, "because we have entered a period, if we can bring ourselves to pay attention, of great clarity as to cause and effect."2 We know now that the environment is us — it is our wombs, our breast milk and our families." - Stacy Malkan, Not Just a Pretty Face: The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry (Get the book.)

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