Thank you, Justice Kennedy, Chief Justice Roberts, Justice Alito, Justice Thomas and Justice Scalia. Thanks to their majority opinion in last year’s ruling on campaign finance rules, money talks a la free speech. Unfortunately, this kind of money talks and monied vote buying has ushered in a new era in which elections can be influenced if not outright bought by the side (or players) with the most money. We the people do not know where all of this money comes from, but we certainly see the effects of it through shadowy smear campaigns by pretty-named political groups. Unfortunately, accountability was thrown out with the proverbial baby and the bathwater, because these groups have an arsenal of loopholes and protections that allow them to get away with villainous exploitation of the political process through sensationalism. You have probably witnessed the results of this in last year’s midterm elections, but I wanted to share a link to a Bloomberg story that I saw shared on Facebook today. It charts the source and development of the problem since the ruling: Secret Donors Multiply in U.S. Election Spending – Bloomberg.
Tag: elections
Jason W. Ellis for SFRA Vice President, 2011-2012
Now that the Science Fiction Research Association executive committee elections for 2011-2012 are now open, I, Jason W. Ellis, am calling on each of you to vote for me as the next SFRA Vice President.
Adam Frisch, the Immediate Past President of the SFRA, posted all of the election candidates’ statements on the organization’s website here. You may read my statement for Vice President below:
I am extremely honored to be nominated as a vice presidential candidate, and I hope to continue my service to the SFRA in this position if I am elected. I have been a member of the organization since 2006. Since then, I have won the 2007 Mary Kay Bray Award, served as the organization’s publicity director beginning in 2008, served on the MKB Award committee beginning in 2008, and promoted the organization, its meetings, and its members on my science fiction scholarship blog dynamicsubspace.net.
If I am elected as vice president, I will pledge myself to the maintenance and efficient running of the organization. As vice president, I will be specifically charged with member recruitment, to which I will dedicate myself in addition to the related functions of organizational promotion and member retention with these three plans:
1) I will work cooperatively with the EC, the SFRA Review editors, the publicity director, the web director, and the membership to promote, develop, and expand the SFRA. Significant growth of the organization will be a collective effort.
2) I will work hard to invite new scholars and graduate students to join SFRA using personal invitations via in-person meetings, traditional letters, and social media. Along with this, I will guide the development of sfra.org into a useful tool for members and a point of contact for non-members, the media, and the public for all matters related to the work that we do.
3) I will poll current members about their needs that can be met by the SFRA, elicit members’ ideas regarding the development of the organization, and advocate those findings with the organization.
Given the chance, I hope to serve the organization and its members as the next vice president of the SFRA. Thank you for your consideration, and see you all in Lublin!
I look forward to continuing to serve the SFRA, and I hope that you will help me do this as the next SFRA Vice President with your vote.
SFRA Officers 2009-2010
Adam Frisch, the current Science Fiction Research Association (SFRA) President, sent out the results of the SFRA officer elections appropriately enough on Election Day, November 4. Congratulations to the winners, much respect to all the members who accepted a nomination to run for office, and many thanks to all the members who took the time to vote.
These are your new SFRA Officers for 2009-2010:
President: Lisa Yaszek
Vice President: Ritch Calvin
Treasurer: Mack Hassler
Secretary: Shelley Rodrigo
SFRA Officer Candidate Statements Now Available
Make haste and read the officer candidate statements for the upcoming SFRA elections on the official website here. The candidates for the 2009-2011 term are:
President–Jan Bogstad and Lisa Yaszek
Vice-President–Oscar De Los Santos and Ritch Calvin
Treasurer–Donald “Mack” Hassler and Patrick Sharp
Secretary–Rochelle “Shelley” Rodrigo and Ed Carmien
As you can see, this is a well-qualified group of nominees. Best of luck to all the candidates, and don’t forget to vote!
Dynamic Subspace 
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