Ellen Ratner interviews Patricia Dandonoli, President & CEO of WaterAid America, about World Toilet Day, November 19, and about the global water and sanitation crisis. (5:46)

 

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Democrats watch and react to John McCain’s concession speech at a watch party organized by the Democratic Senatorial and Congressional Campaign Committees

Revelers count down to Obama’s victory at a watch party hosted by the Democratic Senatorial and Congressional Campaign Committees

Jay Tamboli speaks with James Bamford about his new book, The Shadow Factory: The Ultra-Secret NSA from 9/11 to the Eavesdropping on America. Bamford talks about the NSA’s monitoring of communications and the lack of oversight of the NSA, the largest intelligence agency in the world. (9:24)

 

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It’s not just about getting the votes in, it’s educating the voters and telling them how to do it, said Polli Brunelli, Director of the Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP), during a briefing at the Pentagon. There are anywhere between four to six million potential absentee voters in the world, and we want them to be able to vote.

The numbers include “stateside” military- military personnel stationed in states other than the one they are registered in-, civilian Government workers overseas, and overseas military members and their families. The FVAP has set up a website, www.fvap.gov, to assist in their efforts to get all those votes counted.

But what happens after their votes are cast? FVAP has assisted in setting up expedited mail delivery of ballots, and also made sure that people are aware of the existence of the “backup ballot,” a ballot that allows a registered voter to cast a vote for Federal Offices in case their regular ballot isn’t available for them to use. The ballots are sent back to the respective states utilizing green tagged transports and are marked and tracked as a priority on regular transports.

“Absentee Voting Week” is October 12-18, 2008, and that is when a Department of Defense-wide email will be sent out, and comprehensive voting awareness and assistance programs will begin, to encourage voters to vote and return their state ballots as soon as possible. Express mail (via the United States Postal Service, through the military APO, FPO offices) will be used for returning cast ballots between the dates of October 29 and November 4, 2008.

There are also electronic alternatives available to receive a ballot, and some states will even allow a ballot to be returned that way. Arizona, for example, will allow a scanned ballot to be returned via a secure state server. Eleven states allow a voted ballot to be returned this way, and 26 states allow a voted ballot to be returned by fax (up from 17 states in 2000). It is up to the states to ensure via registration rolls that absentee ballots are on their lists and that no one is able to vote more than once.

The primary mission of FVAP is to inform and educated United States citizens of their right to vote, and to encourage all Uniformed and Overseas Citizens to participate in the elections.

“Some taxpayers shortchange the American people by nearly $300 billion, which is roughly $950 for every man, woman, and child in America,” said Senator Tom Carper (D-Del.) at a roundtable discussion to find ways to cut the tax gap. With the financial crisis continuing to drive stocks down and the impending bailout bail threatening America’s national debt levels, he said, it has become more important than ever to ensure taxes are being paid and to collect additional revenue without having to raise taxes in the next administration. The tax gap has not been examined since 2001, when more than $290 billion was not collected.

The discussion panel included the Inspector General, members of the U.S. Government Accountability Office, the National Taxpayer Advocate from the Internal Revenue Service, and members of the U.S. Treasury Department. Each panelist discussed seven ideal proposals to close the tax gap. These included the encouragement of more frequent, voluntary estimated tax payments by small businesses, the withholding of payments to noncompliant federal contractors, requiring information reporting by financial institutions about non-interest bearing accounts, reversing matching against state and local tax data, allowing voluntary withholding agreements among independent contractors and service recipients, eliminating the exception to 1099 information reporting for closely held corporations, and improvement of the IRS’s data collection infrastructure. Carper has not specifically advocated any one of these proposals and believes that “no single approach, alone, will work.” Carper encouraged the participants of the discussion to “think outside the box for new solutions.”

DNC Chair Howard Dean says that he thought John McCain appeared angry during the second presidential debate. (0:14)

In contrast to US president George Bush’s failure to conduct a press encounter at this week’s United Nations General Assembly, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took questions from the media during an hour-long press conference yesterday at UN headquarters in New York.

During the conversation, which was at times confrontational, Ahmadinejad retained a sense of relaxed composure. Though he skirted issues such as detention of dissidents, media transparency, and nuclear threats to Israel, Ahmadinejad was willing to engage on multiple, controversial topics.

Ahmadinejad spoke of his country’s willingness to allow IAEA inspectors in to Iran, and denied the possibility that Iran would preemptively attack Israel, stating that “[the world] is entering a post-nuclear” era. The president also discussed his willingness to cooperate with the Iraqi government, cautioned the West about it’s excursion in Afghanistan, and warned of the hazards of continued violence in the Middle East.

Listen to Audio File (5:06), via translation

Listen to Entire Press Conference (59:10), via translation

 

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Speaking to reporters in the Rose Garden President George W. Bush, joined by the Chairmen of the Federal Reserve Board and the Securities and Exchange Commission Ben Bernanke and Chris Cox and the Secretary of Treasury Henry Paulson, speaks about government action in financial markets. Bush explains the current economic crisis and steps that the U.S. government is taking or plans to take to restore balance, liquidity, and investor confidence to the market. (9:04)

 

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Christopher Penn from the Student Loan Network explains how the sub-prime morgage crisis rippled from  Mannie and Freddie, to financial institutions like Merrill Lynch, and insurer AIG.

Listen to Audio File (14:27)

 

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