Sunday, November 11, 2007

Protect Your Vote: Take Action Now!
Attend Bernard Fall: Memories of a Soldier-Scholar

Montgomery County Progressive Alliance Special Edition

1. Protect Your Vote: Take Action Now During the Maryland Special Session

2. Book Talk Bernard Fall: Memories of a Soldier-Scholar
7:30 PM Tuesday December 4 Please RSVP NOW!

Dorothy Fall, author of an exciting and informative biography
about her husband Bernard Fall, will discuss and sign copies of her
book at Sabang Restaurant, 2504 Ennalls Avenue, Wheaton, MD 20902

Short walk from the Wheaton Metro Stop (red line) / Accessible to all

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1. Protect Your Vote: Take Action Now During the Maryland Special Session

Call your State Senator and your State Delegate(s) 1-800-492-7122 and Gov. O'Malley 1-800-811-8336 (both toll free)


Strongly urge them to fully fund paper ballot voting. Find your State Senator and Delegate(s) using your street address: http://mdelect.net/electedofficials/

Key points to mention when calling (please use your own words):

Optically Scanned Paper Ballots are More Reliable as well as Less Expensive:
The current system is unreliable, aging and will require costly upgrades, replacements, and maintenance now that the warranty period has ended. Optical Scan can be implemented for approximately $2 million in the FY09 budget and perhaps less.

The Status Quo will Cost Maryland More Money; Changing to OpScan will Save Money:
The cost savings will be $20 million or more over the next 5 years because the new system will require approximately 80% fewer voting machines. (Please see the cost study at http://md-eic.org/fVVPR1007a.htm).

Nearly Two out of Three Marylanders Support Fully Funding Paper Ballot Voting:

Recent polling indicates 64% of Maryland voters support fully funding paper ballot voting, while only 31% oppose funding.

100% of Maryland Legislators and Gov. O'Malley Support Paper Ballot Voting:
Maryland's General Assembly passed SB392 / HB18 unanimously, mandating a switch to an optical scan voting system by 2010. Gov. O'Malley signed the bill into law, but unless it's fully funded, the bill will not take effect. Our elected officials made the right decision last Spring, and now they should complete the job.

Maryland's Switch to Paper Ballots is Part of a National Trend:

Election Day meltdowns and several prestigious studies confirm the risks of electronic "DRE" voting. After irregularities in 2004, New Mexico switched to OpScan voting in 2006. Florida is changing to OpScan next year after touch-screen "DRE" machines such as we have in Maryland "lost" 18,000 votes in a congressional race which was decided by fewer than 400 votes.

Call our elected officials. Tell them, "We can't afford proven unreliable and increasingly costly voting machines."

Ask Gov. O'Malley to guarantee funding for reliable, cost-effective paper-based voting in the Special Session: 1-800-811-8336

Ask your State Senator and Delegate(s) to vote for guaranteed full funding. Our democracy depends on it: 1-800-492-7122

Stay involved with Election Activism Efforts:
Join PDA's Clean, Fair, Transparent Elections Organizing Team. Contact: Diane@PDAmerica.org

Thanks to PDAmerica.org, SaveOurVotes.org, Md-EIC.org and other activists working to ensure our voting is reliable and secure.

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2. Book Talk Bernard Fall: Memories of a Soldier-Scholar
7:30 PM Tuesday December 4

Dorothy Fall, author of an exciting and informative biography about her husband Bernard Fall, will discuss and sign copies of her book. Please RSVP NOW!

Sabang Restaurant
2504 Ennalls Avenue
Wheaton, MD 20902


Short walk from the Wheaton Metro Stop (red line) / Accessible to all

Bernard Fall: Memories of a Soldier-Scholar (Paperback) by Dorothy Fall. Bernard Fall wrote the classics Street Without Joy and Hell in a Very Small Place, which detailed the French experience in Vietnam. One of the first (and the best-informed) Western observers to say that the United States could not win there either, he was killed in Vietnam in 1967 while accompanying a Marine platoon.

Written by his widow Dorothy, Bernard Fall: Memories of a Soldier-Scholar tells the story of this courageous and influential Frenchman, who experienced many of the major events of the twentieth century. His mother perished at Auschwitz, his father was killed by the Gestapo, and he fought in the Resistance. This book focuses on Vietnam and on two love stories. The first details Fall's love for Vietnam and his efforts to save the country from destruction and the United States from disaster. The second shows a husband and father dedicated to a cause that continuously lured him away from those he loved. Foreword by the late David Halberstam.

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