The River

Tuesday, November 30, 2004

This one goes out to all you Right Wing Christian Conservatives

Your Flag Decal Won't Get You Into Heaven Anymore

By John Prine

While digesting Reader's Digest
In the back of a dirty book store,
A plastic flag, with gum on the back,
Fell out on the floor.
Well, I picked it up and I ran outside
Slapped it on my window shield,
And if I could see old Betsy Ross
I'd tell her how good I feel.

But your flag decal won't get you
Into Heaven any more.
They're already overcrowded
From your dirty little war.
Now Jesus don't like killin'
No matter what the reason's for,
And your flag decal won't get you
Into Heaven any more.

Well, I went to the bank this morning
And the cashier he said to me,
"If you join the Christmas club
We'll give you ten of them flags for free."
Well, I didn't mess around a bit
I took him up on what he said.
And I stuck them stickers all over my car
And one on my wife's forehead.

But your flag decal won't get you
Into Heaven any more.
They're already overcrowded
From your dirty little war.
Now Jesus don't like killin'
No matter what the reason's for,
And your flag decal won't get you
Into Heaven any more.

Well, I got my window shield so filled
With flags I couldn't see.
So, I ran the car upside a curb
And right into a tree.
By the time they got a doctor down
I was already dead.
And I'll never understand why the man
Standing in the Pearly Gates said...

"But your flag decal won't get you
Into Heaven any more.
We're already overcrowded
From your dirty little war.
Now Jesus don't like killin'
No matter what the reason's for,
And your flag decal won't get you
Into Heaven any more."


Just a note before I head to the airport for my first December trip: Democratic Underground is a vibrant community of clear-eyed patriots, so check it out. In particular, I liked Petrodollar Warfare's 2cts on why the Bush administration deserves criticism.

And a question. Yo, Frank, where's that blog piece?

Later.

Monday, November 29, 2004

Resisting the 4th Reich

Do you remember the good old days, like say, a year ago, when you were scolded for throwing out the term “fascist” in relation to the Bush Administration?

Have you noticed that since the fraudulent election that it has become obvious? It’s as if suddenly everyone can drop all pretense; the game is afoot.

I found a new site today, the aptly named Resisting the 4th Reich, which pointed me to Michel Chossudovsky’s article “Is the Annexation of Canada part of Bush's Military Agenda?”

Is there a better example of how far things have gone? Or should I say, how far they are likely to go? People, I do not want to go there. I have a good imagination, health, a family, and I do not want to spend my time concentrating on this horrible trend. World War III? Fuck that.

Nor do I want to bury my head in the red Georgia clay, but you get the idea. A new way is needed. So I find myself at a loss for words. It’s time to pull back. Reassess.

Posting should remain sporadic here throughout the holidays. I’ll be traveling for business and taking some time off to spend at home with the family.

I guess there always has been an ebb and flow here at The River. I’m ebbing now. I can’t say what’s gonna happen, blogwise, after the new year. All I know is, things have changed.

Wednesday, November 24, 2004



"Figure 1: Graph showing the "red shift" between 2004 US General Election exit polls & the actual 2004 US Election results. In the data which is shown below in tabulated form, and above in graph form, we can see that 42 of the 51 states in the union swung towards George Bush while only nine swung towards Kerry.

"There has to date been no official explanation for the discrepancy."

(And in a somnambulant country, unlike, for example, Ukraine, there's little impetus for an official to go there.)

We live in interesting times

“A concerted and forceful program of election-day fraud and abuse was enacted with either the leadership or cooperation of governmental authorities.”

Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), talking not about the U.S. presidential election but the presidential runoff election in Ukraine, where he led a U.S. mission to urge fair elections.

Wednesday, November 17, 2004

Wait a minute

There's still this vote fraud issue. Fascinating stuff from Bev Harris (reprinted in full from blackboxvoting.org as a public service):

TUESDAY NOV 16 2004: Volusia County on lockdown
County election records just got put on lockdown

Dueling lawyers, election officials gnashing teeth, Votergate.tv film crew catching it all.

Here's what happened so far:

Friday Black Box Voting investigators Andy Stephenson and Kathleen Wynne popped in to ask for some records. They were rebuffed by an elections official named Denise. Bev Harris called on the cell phone from investigations in downstate Florida, and told Volusia County Elections Supervisor Deanie Lowe that Black Box Voting would be in to pick up the Nov. 2 Freedom of Information request, or would file for a hand recount. "No, Bev, please don't do that!" Lowe exclaimed. But this is the way it has to be, folks. Black Box Voting didn't back down.

Monday Bev, Andy and Kathleen came in with a film crew and asked for the FOIA request. Deanie Lowe gave it over with a smile, but Harris noticed that one item, the polling place tapes, were not copies of the real ones, but instead were new printouts, done on Nov. 15, and not signed by anyone.

Harris asked to see the real ones, and they said for "privacy" reasons they can't make copies of the signed ones. She insisted on at least viewing them (although refusing to give copies of the signatures is not legally defensible, according to Berkeley elections attorney, Lowell Finley). They said the real ones were in the County Elections warehouse. It was quittin' time and an arrangment was made to come back this morning to review them.

Lana Hires, a Volusia County employee who gained some notoriety in an election 2000 Diebold memo, where she asked for an explanation of minus 16,022 votes for Gore, so she wouldn't have to stand there "looking dumb" when the auditor came in, was particularly unhappy about seeing the Black Box Voting investigators in the office. She vigorously shook her head when Deanie Lowe suggested going to the warehouse.

Kathleen Wynne and Bev Harris showed up at the warehouse at 8:15 Tuesday morning, Nov. 16. There was Lana Hires looking especially gruff, yet surprised. She ordered them out. Well, they couldn't see why because there she was, with a couple other people, handling the original poll tapes. You know, the ones with the signatures on them. Harris and Wynne stepped out and Volusia County officials promptly shut the door.

There was a trash bag on the porch outside the door. Harris looked into it and what do you know, but there were poll tapes in there. They came out and glared at Harris and Wynne, who drove away a small bit, and then videotaped the license plates of the two vehicles marked 'City Council' member. Others came out to glare and soon all doors were slammed.

So, Harris and Wynne went and parked behind a bus to see what they would do next. They pulled out some large pylons, which blocked the door. Harris decided to go look at the garbage some more while Wynne videotaped. A man who identified himself as "Pete" came out and Harris immediately wrote a public records request for the contents of the garbage bag, which also contained ballots -- real ones, but not filled out.

A brief tug of war occurred, tearing the garbage bag open. Harris and Wynne then looked through it, as Pete looked on. He was quite friendly.

Black Box Voting collected various poll tapes and other information and asked if they could copy it, for the public records request. "You won't be going anywhere," said Pete. "The deputy is on his way."

Yes, not one but two police cars came up and then two county elections officials, and everyone stood around discussing the merits of the "black bag" public records request.

The police finally let Harris and Wynne go, about the time the Votergate.tv film crew arrived, and everyone trooped off to the elections office. There, the plot thickened.

Black Box Voting began to compare the special printouts given in the FOIA request with the signed polling tapes from election night. Lo and behold, some were missing. By this time, Black Box Voting investigator Andy Stephenson had joined the group at Volusia County. Some polling place tapes didn't match. In fact, in one location, precinct 215, an African-American precinct, the votes were off by hundreds, in favor of George W. Bush and other Republicans.

Hmm. Which was right? The polling tape Volusia gave to Black Box Voting, specially printed on Nov. 15, without signatures, or the ones with signatures, printed on Nov. 2, with up to 8 signatures per tape?

Well, then it became even more interesting. A Volusia employee boxed up some items from an office containing Lana Hires' desk, which appeared to contain -- you guessed it -- polling place tapes. The employee took them to the back of the building and disappeared.

Then, Ellen B., a voting integrity advocate from Broward County, Florida, and Susan, from Volusia, decided now would be a good time to go through the trash at the elections office. Lo and behold, they found all kinds of memos and some polling place tapes, fresh from Volusia elections office.

So, Black Box Voting compared these with the Nov. 2 signed ones and the "special' ones from Nov. 15 given, unsigned, finding several of the MISSING poll tapes. There they were: In the garbage.

So, Wynne went to the car and got the polling place tapes she had pulled from the warehouse garbage. My my my. There were not only discrepancies, but a polling place tape that was signed by six officials.

This was a bit disturbing, since the employees there had said that bag was destined for the shredder.

By now, a county lawyer had appeared on the scene, suddenly threatening to charge Black Box Voting extra for the time spent looking at the real stuff Volusia had withheld earlier. Other lawyers appeared, phoned, people had meetings, Lana glowered at everyone, and someone shut the door in the office holding the GEMS server.

Black Box Voting investigator Andy Stephenson then went to get the Diebold "GEMS" central server locked down. He also got the memory cards locked down and secured, much to the dismay of Lana. They were scattered around unsecured in any way before that.

Everyone agreed to convene tomorrow morning, to further audit, discuss the hand count that Black Box Voting will require of Volusia County, and of course, it is time to talk about contesting the election in Volusia.


I'll wake up in the morning and read about 50 of our soldiers dying in five days...and will automatically wonder how many Iraqi children died during those same five days, and then I will think about what I did over the past five days and feel completely ashamed and guilty that I have so much and they had so little...yet still we took it away.

"When nothing's what you've got, Nothing means a lot." Still, we take it away from them.

Why? Why? Can anybody out there tell me WHY this is happening? Does George W. Bush have THAT MUCH POWER?

How could we give power to a murderer? Why aren't we out in the streets? Where is everybody?

--

elaine in Petaluma

A BUZZFLASH READER CONTRIBUTION


800 Civilians Feared Dead in Fallujah

”our estimate of 800 civilians is likely to be too low.” -- Red Cross Official.

Tuesday, November 16, 2004

The "F" word

To hell with vote fraud. I wish more people could see what an important lynch pin it is for the propaganda ministers -- the will of the people is not only subverted, it is then presented to U.S. citizens and to good people everywhere as a monstrous lie -- but the more important question is: how to confront fascism?

I recognize every answer to that will be different and personal, but I hope we can all come up with good answers, of which only we ourselves can be the judge.

The brilliant, fine human being Dr Helen Caldicott, Australian paediatrician, nuclear disarmament activist and head of the Nuclear Policy Research Institute in Washington, answers that question with a little truth-telling: by uttering the "F" word.

"They [the Bush administration] have been able to con the American people with their extremely brilliant propaganda and brainwashing, with the help of the media ... they consistently lie. On the whole the American people don't really understand the dynamics of the right at all. They don't know that Bush et al want to go into Iran next and that they want to dominate the world militarily and that they want to put weapons in space.

"I don't think they [the American public] understand. It is a mandate for Bush to do absolutely anything he wants. I know people don't like me using this word but they're fascists."


Like many of us, Caldicott worked hard to get Kerry elected. She doesn't mention the likely possibility that he was elected, but I hope some day she and the world understand that the American people supported Kerry, even though he hardly stood up to the neocon agenda -- whether through either professional cowardice or something resembling collusion is academic, particularly at this point. In a tightly controlled system, he was the only choice for removing Bush. And that, propaganda notwithstanding, was the will of the people.

Caldicott:

Early on election day she was convinced Democratic challenger John Kerry would win but reality soon set in.

"This is what I've been afraid of and I actually can't believe it's happening," she said. "The voter turnout was so high, which should have supported Kerry. [indeed it did, imho -- ed. emphasis mine.]

"I don't think I've ever felt so personally, politically devastated in my life and that includes when [former president Ronald] Reagan won a second term of office - which was pretty devastating for me as I was so heavily involved in the anti-nuclear movement in those days.

"But this is worse, these people are much worse than the Reagan people."


Finally, here are some fine words on today's subject: Living Under Fascism

Monday, November 15, 2004

Vote fraud must read

(I repeat: Mainstream media is failing while bloggers do the diligent work of democracy)

Sorry for the numbers. This is a long and comprehensive report, so please stay with me -- it offers what I believe to be a strong case that election tampering took place, and I want to carefully establish the facts. I think it may be the first deep examination inside the numbers of a given state -- not just speculation -- but real data collection and questionable results put to the test.

[read bombshell report by ignatzmouse]

Democracy is coming to the USA

Release date still to be determined

A couple more election-theft-related links from Rigorous Intuition (did I mention it's one of the best sites on the net?).

The first is from Chuck Herrin, who does computer security stuff. He shows you how easy it is to hack the Diebold tabulation computers. Note, this means hacking is done at a more central, and hence more believable, location.

He concludes:

Would you trust your bank account balance if their systems were this easy to hack? As a result of my hands on testing, I have absolutely no faith that my vote was counted or will be in future elections where this software is used. It is simply too easy to change! Any motivated insider or Hacker of moderate skill can change hundreds of thousands of votes with very little effort and almost no chance of being caught.

The best part is that if anyone tries to question the results, you can ridicule them and call them sore losers! Conspiracy theorists! But won’t this be caught in a recount? Check this out - with the new machines, YOU CAN’T DO A RECOUNT! There’s no paper trail. It’s the perfect crime.

This is the democracy we’re exporting to the rest of the world.


The other is from Jeff by way of Buzzflash. It's The Unexplained Exit Poll Discrepancy, by Dr Steven Freeman of the University of Pennsylvania. Go read. Dr. Freeman knows how to say "bullshit" in a more measured and statistically sound way than I do.

Friday, November 12, 2004

Mainstream media rife with conspiracy theories

While bloggers perform diligent work of democracy.

Get this. The New York Times is investigating voting anomalies in Florida, where Bush won the state’s 25 electoral votes.

Citizens have noted a "surprising pattern" in Florida's results showing inexplicable gains for President Bush in Democratic counties that used optical-scan voting systems.

But rather than take an interest in examining data, the nation’s paper of record veers wildly into conspiracy territory. They claim that prior to the election, thousands of Democrats colluded in a scheme to re-elect Bush, even going so far as to openly talk with each other about which presidential candidate should get their vote. Then, on Nov. 2, they hatched their plot.

It’s a murky world of pure speculation, but so far the newspaper continues to assert it as a likely explanation.

The paper went on to discredit exit polls, dismissing them out of hand in favor of their conspiracy theory. Even so, exit polls are traditionally accurate in countries all over the world and are regularly used to verify clean elections.

One young NYT reporter bemoaned the depths to which the paper had sunk. “We can’t look at the data. We can’t talk to Bev Harris or blackboxvoting.org. Greg Palast kicks our ass regularly. And now we have blogs!”

He threw up his hands in utter despair. “These people at the top here. Man. They are so far out there. They have really drunk the kool-aid. I never thought my own newspaper would sink into crazy theories – even with reality staring it in the face.”

He went on, “I mean, look at this from Tom Zeller Jr.’s piece:

In a breathless cycle of hey-check-this-out, the theories - along with their visual aids - were distributed by e-mail messages containing links to popular Web sites and Web logs, or blogs, where other eager readers diligently passed them along.

“Can you imagine that kind of readership? Enthused about what you produced? Engaged? Thinking about what is happening in the world, not just regurgitating? And they are using visual aids, crunching numbers, seeking, arguing and correcting each other.”

And they are speaking their minds. They’re nothing like these crazies here.

I dunno. It’s just so much more…real.”

Thursday, November 11, 2004

"America Will Eat You"

By Greg Brown

There's only so many times you can eat that
rubber food
'Till You're gonna say, Well, I'm eating it.
I guess it must be good
There's only so many times you can sit
and watch tv--
Stay detached and think it's stupid
and that you're somehow free

Oh, America will eat you
Oh, America will eat you…up.

There's only so many times you can be
treated like dirt at the airport or the bank
'Til you're gonna say, Yeah, you're right
I'm a bum I'm a dog I'm a roach
Thank you Thank you Thanks
Only so many times you can see some slick
jerk rave about God
'Til you're gonna give it up and go to sleep
and slip into a pod—

Oh, America will eat you
Oh, America will eat you…up.

We're tempting little morsels on the
corporation's fork
If we show up with the right bits and bytes,
they'll fatten us like pork
And America will stretch her maw and show
us her white teeth
It's only when it's much too late we see
the cancer underneath

Oh, America will eat you
Oh, America will eat you…up.

Everything has a number
We all must drink our cup
All I ask is to know when my number's up
Looking at these corpses talk
and laugh it up on tv
All I want is to never have to ask,
Lord, which corpse is me?

Oh, America will eat you
Oh, America will eat you…up.

Wednesday, November 10, 2004

The American Taliban

Got the below email today. Copy and paste it to start your own e-mail activism.

UPDATE: This is two years old. See Cyndy's comment below.
--

President Bush has announced his plan to select Dr. W. David Hager to head up the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee. The committee has not met for more than two years, during which time its charter lapsed. As a result, the Bush Administration is tasked with filling all eleven positions with new members. This position does not require Congressional approval. The FDA's Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee makes crucial decisions on matters relating to drugs used in the practice of obstetrics, gynecology and related specialties, including hormone therapy, contraception, treatment for infertility, and medical alternatives to surgical procedures for sterilization and pregnancy termination.

Dr. Hager, the author of "As Jesus Cared for Women: Restoring Women Then and Now." The book blends biblical accounts of Christ healing Women with case studies from Hager's practice. His views of reproductive health care are far outside the mainstream for reproductive technology. Dr. Hager is a practicing OB/GYN who describes himself as "pro-life" and refuses to prescribe contraceptives to unmarried women. In the book Dr.Hager wrote with his wife, entitled "Stress and the Woman's Body," he suggests that women who suffer from premenstrual syndrome should seek help from reading the bible and praying. As an editor and contributing author of "The Reproduction Revolution: A Christian Appraisal of Sexuality Reproductive Technologies and the Family," Dr. Hager appears to have endorsed the medically inaccurate assertion that the common birth control pill is an abortifacient.

We are concerned that Dr. Hager's strong religious beliefs may color his assessment of technologies that are necessary to protect women's lives to preserve and promote women's health. Hager's track record of using religious beliefs to guide his medical decision-making makes him a dangerous and inappropriate candidate to serve as chair of this committee. Critical drug public policy and research must not be held hostage by antiabortion politics. Members of this important panel should be appointed on the basis of science and medicine, rather than politics and religion. American women deserve no less. There is something you can do. Below is a statement to be sent to the White House, opposing the placement of Hager.

(Link to a TIMES article on this topic:
link)

(1) Please copy and paste (DON'T forward) the entire email into a fresh email; then sign your name below. After you sign, SEND THIS TO EVERY PERSON YOU KNOW WHO IS CONCERNED ABOUT WOMEN'S RIGHTS.

(2) Every 10th person who signs the list (i.e., #10, #20, #30, etc.) - please forward the entire e-mail to president@whitehouse.gov

We oppose the appointment of Dr. W. David Hager to the FDA Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee. Mixing religion and medicine is unacceptable in a policy-making position. Using the FDA to promote a political agenda is inappropriate and seriously threatens women's health. Members of this important panel should be appointed on the basis of science and medicine, rather than politics and religion.

American women deserve no less.

It's who counts the votes


This article explains, as far as possible, the nuts and bolts of how 99% of the counties in the USA incredibly delegate the "counting" of our votes to a few private companies, who "count" the votes in secret.

---

(excerpt)

Although I was ill on Election Day, I knew I had to go to the county clerk’s office to observe “counting” of the vote. It is, after all, the only “counting” open to the public. What I saw in Chicago, however, only made me more nauseous.

The only “vote count” the press or public can observe in Chicago is what is projected on screens. The opening screen read: ES&S Automatic Election Returns, Release 35, Under License to the City of Chicago, Serial No. 0004, Copyright 1987.

Carl Zimmerman, technical supervisor for the clerk’s office, said that the computer that ran the system was in the back, “in the ES&S room,” he said.

At 7 p.m., Jonathan Lin, a worker on the county clerk’s computer staff, came out and turned on the monitors on the 6th floor, where the City of Chicago votes were tallied and displayed. Behind him was Rick Thurman, an ES&S technician, checking the first results.

Thurman seemed surprised when I asked him if he worked for ES&S. He said that the company had about 6 engineers running the computer in the back room. He then checked himself, saying he had said too much.

Later I asked Lin who was actually operating the computer that was generating the results being shown on the monitors. “ES&S is running the mainframe for all of this,” Lin said pointing to the television displays.

In the press room in the back I noticed stacks of boxes containing “Votamatic” voting machines and “pre-punched” ballots printed by ES&S of Addison, Texas, for the different precincts in Cook County. In the rear hallway behind the press room was the ES&S room. Only ES&S personnel were allowed into the room.

When I poked around in the hallway and peeked into the ES&S room an armed marshal and ES&S employee quickly appeared. In no condition for a confrontation, I made myself scarce.

I met a couple reporters from CLTV, a local cable channel of WGN. One of the reporters asked about my interest in the Chicago tallies. I said I was interested to see how a private company runs the elections in Chicago.

Seemingly unaware of how ES&S operates elections in Cook County, I explained the basics. “I’ve observed elections across Europe,” I added, “from France and Germany to Serbia and Holland. Everywhere in Europe voting is done on paper ballots that are counted by the citizens -- except Holland.”

Obviously uncomfortable with this discussion the reporter responded, “I’m glad I’m not in Serbia. I don’t mind if a machine counts the votes.”

Prove It On Paper

Before the election, the major media was all atwitter about the possibility of vote count disputes. After the election, the story was reduced to one issue -- Ohio provisional ballots. Kerry played along, taking cover in this one barely examined vote question to concede without a fight.

But we don't need Kerry. Never did. He needed us however. As does any leader who in theory is a public representative. Time for the public to represent.

While the major media shifts on que to other matters, it's time for the public to demand: Prove It On Paper

excerpt:[check out the graphs at this link]

Hey, fellow Americans! How 'bout them elections?

Have you been hearing people trying to console themselves with such platitudes as "we'll just have to work harder!' or "Next time around we'll include more people in our coalition" or "We need to talk about spirituality more: it's what middle Americans care about more than anything." Baloney! Millions of Americans, sick to death of Bush, stood in line for hours in the cold and gave Kerry a victory. But in the crucial states of Ohio, Florida, and New Mexico, the substantial leads by Kerry in the exit polls turned into Bush victories when the votes came out of the touchscreen, paperless voting machines.

-- cross-posted to American Samizdat --


The News Shift from Florida to Fallujah

By Danny Schechter, Guerilla News Network

What the TV "coverage" covers up

One minute, we are still debating election returns in Ohio and Florida. And then, in a flash, the story largely disappears and the subject changes. Quickly, we have moved on as the news media converges on Fallujah to report on, and in the view of many, support what may be the bloodiest chapter to date of the Iraq war.

Media coverage lurches from event to event, and from spectacle to spectacle as a substance deficit disorder hyperactively drives the news agenda. No sooner are we focused on one major story, than another intrudes to change the subject and insure that there is no time for follow-up, much less thoughtful processing.

In some cases, this is the natural disorder of news, but in many others, there are hidden hands shifting the agenda in a conscious effort not simply to influence what we think, but control what we think about.

[more]

note: media-savy rulers time military offensives for maximum domestic benefit. The election is over, the psyops continue.

Relax. No Doom. Watch TV.

Inspector Lohmann's "Panic Induction Stress State Of National Unity Alert Logo [PISSONUAL]" chart (see graphic at right) reminds us that now that the "election" is over, no one seems very concerned about a terrorist attack. There's no feeling of threat being communicated through the media. No hype, no videos, no concern at all. Official threat level at the middle-range "elevated." It had been at orange -- "high" -- since August.

It's such transparent manipulation that there are numerous parodies out there, but Lohmann's is one of the best takeoffs because it skewers the whole they-who-rule, propaganda-minister mindset, not just the gimmick.

It was just after the November 3 concession by Kerry that Lohmann changed the PISSONUAL chart to white, the "Halleiluia" level. That would be the highest, or should I say "most high," level.

Yeah, "watch TV" for further instructions. That way you'll know we've switched from "fear month" to "hate week." For you conservatives, it's now more than okay to hate liberals. For you liberals, hate back, because look how much the masses hate you.

The fear has kept millions from questioning the Iraq war; the hate will keep millions more from questioning the election.

You didn't think you were being victimized by psyops only through the Department of Homeland Security, did you?

Tuesday, November 09, 2004

Springsteen's post election song?

By way of Jimmy Cliff...

Trapped

Seems like I'm caught up
in your trap again

Seems like I'll be
wearing the same
old chains

Good will conquer
Evil

And the truth will
set me free

And I know some
day I will find
the key

I know
somewhere I will
find the key

Seems like I've
been playing your
game way too long

Seems the game
I've played has
made you strong

When the game is
over

I won't walk out the
loser

I know I'll walk
out of here again

I know someday
I'll walk out of
here again

Well now I'm
Trapped
OOh yeah
Trapped
OOh Yeah
Trapped

Leading bloggers turn timid after election

Tom Tomorrow:

The "stolen election" argument was a loser in 2000 when the election pretty clearly was stolen. Without a smoking gun, preferably with Karl Rove's fingerprints on it, I just don't think it's going anywhere this year.

Are you kidding me? There’s so much smoke around this election that it’s obvious democracy has been torched, and you sit on your hands?

Atrios:

If people want this issue to be taken seriously they need to stop thinking that any of the information floating around right now - and yes, I've seen it all multiple times - provides proof of any such thing.

As Mark Crispin Miller says, “our touch-screen electronic voting machines have no paper trail and are manufactured by companies owned by Bush Republicans,” but you can’t take it seriously yet?

By the way, I've yet to see proof that Bush won, but that hasn't stopped the media from crowning him.

Eighty percent of the vote is counted by Republican companies, but let’s wait for something we can nail them with before we say anything. It would be funny if it wasn’t so absurd.

And Bartcop too is taking a “wait and see” attitude.

If nothing is done about the vote machines, any talk about strategies for 2006 and 2008 is just that, talk, just like all the talk leading up to this election that ignored the fundamental issue of vote integrity. That is the ONLY issue that matters right now regarding this election. That is the fight, and it's now, not later.

Rigorous Intuition asks:

Do you know what's happening in the Ukraine, America? Tens of thousands are in the streets of Kiev, protesting alleged election fraud:

[yes, it is just alleged, but they aren’t sitting worrying about how smart they appear on the net]

Vote results from Ukraine's Central Election Commission showed Yushchenko trailing Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych in last Sunday's race, but final results have not been announced and Yushchenko's supporters want a re-count. Yushchenko backers claim he won 300,000 more votes than Yanukovych. Some exit polls also put Yushchenko in the lead.

In the Ukraine, when election results conflict with exit polls, it's grounds for belief a fraud was perpetuated. While in the United States, when results reverse exit polls only in battleground states, even outside the margin of error, and only in favour of Bush, it's the fault of bloggers for disseminating "erroneous" data which "confused" voters.

One more. Super Stevens, who comments on blogs but does not play a lefty blogger on TV, or the Internet:

Folks, the exit polls were correct. You have been conditioned to accept a polling margin of error of 4%. What you don't know or understand is that "exit polling" is much different and it has a margin of error of 0.1% to .3%. I’m not kidding.

The main difference is that with exit polling you are asking someone who has already voted - how they just voted. With the other type of polling, you have to estimate/guess at how many members/what percentage of each party will show up to vote. This can and will throw off the polling results. For example, the fox pollsters would question 38 republicans for every 30 democrats. They assumed that more republicans would actually vote. This is the major factor that accounts for the +/- 4% margin of error. One other factor that was mentioned would be that pollsters weren’t calling cell phones.

Both of these variance factors are eliminated in exit polls.

So you see there is huge difference between polls taken in anticipation of the vote versus polls taken by the actual voters immediately after they voted.

[Disclaimer: I sure as hell didn't do anything about the vote machines, other than posting articles on it periodically on my blog. I'm as guilty as anyone for not getting off my ass more, but c'mon, now is no time to worry about whether you sound "shrill."]



Over 5,000 people hit the streets in San Francisco the night of November 3 to protest the re-election of the worst president in living memory. The demonstration was sponsored by Not in Our Name and included the participation of the ANSWER Coalition and many others.

-- www.indybay.org

Monday, November 08, 2004

Iraq, vote fraud, justice -- connecting the dots


"Our military has brought justice to the enemy, and honor to America." -- Bush press conference, November 3, 2004



AP / Pablo Martinez Monsivais
President Bush answers questions during a press conference Nov. 3 at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building of the White House.



George W. Bush is a certifiably insane, messianic mass murderer. This is how he describes Iraq, where U.S. forces are now bombing and occupying hospitals and massacring civilians.

But for a fascist on a crusade, it’s called “justice.”

This man just stole the White House, and his mania is going to destroy this country. And many a capitalist and corporatist has been putting big money into this far right coup on America for many years, unconcerned. They’ll come out alright, regardless.

No need to worry about little people concepts like freedom and democracy, that’s a marketing ploy for suckers. No need to worry about the foundations of civilized behavior, because we’re producing profits, and according to the cult of capitalism, profits are good. Prisons are profitable, poisons in food are profitable, unnecessary and harmful drugs are profitable, and war is very profitable.

Seek redress at the ballot box?

Not any more. The social progress of the 60s was all well and good, but sooner or later it becomes a hinderance on corporate profits. So rich men with the money to create in every sector of society set to work. Consolidate and snap up media properties to make sure rabble never see the truth. Fund charitable organizations to siphon off activists into compromising activities. Allow only a far right party and a defanged centrist party. Sell the far right party as power trip to the confused, the lost, the stunted, and the frightened. Tell your most ardent cult members they are doing God’s work. Use the centrist party as a foil, and demonize them for those that need an enemy within as well as without.

Most importantly, control the ballot box. It can be done, once you own the press. After all, who will tell the people?

The New York Times? Nah, they got your back.

On November 6, no doubt feeling pressure due to the rumors on the Internets, The New York Times acknowledged some vote problems in Ohio. It was, of course, a typical blind-man-in-a-room-full-of-deaf-people piece. The paper finds the story one of those ex-a-gerr-a-tions.

The story starts with this bombshell:

An electronic voting machine in hotly contested Ohio added 3,893 votes to President Bush's tally in a suburban Columbus precinct, even though there are just 800 voters there.

But an official called it "some kind of hiccup" and that was good enough for the NYT. Move along. Nothing to see here.

Here is the money quote, the one to assure readers that everything is OK:

The problem, first reported by The Columbus Dispatch, is one of many election night glitches that have surfaced in several states. But all problems so far fall into a class described by Doug Chapin, director of the Election Reform Information Project, as "no big and lots of littles," with no discernible effect on the outcome.

No biggie. Thought we’d mention it, but no discernible effect here. Not much of a story, and besides we have better things to do. The New York Times: All the News That’s Fit to Truncate.

What really caught my eye was the organization they used to throw cold water on the issue; despite my interest in DRE, I’d never heard of the Election Reform Information Project. The name has that bland sound of many an initiative in the so-called public interest. You know, like gutting pollution controls and calling it the "Clean Air Act." So who were they? I consulted my friend Google.

They are funded by the Pew Charitable Trust, which, understandably, claims on its web site to be independent, non-profit and to serve the public interest.

I decided to see what others say about them.

I found a Christian evangelical site that which noted:

The [Pew] trusts have various avenues for grants including Public policy, culture, education, health and human services, environment, and Religion. The statements which are Reconstructionist in nature, state: "The Religion program seeks to advance a deeper understanding of religion's contribution to the ideas, beliefs, morals and institutions that shape culture and society, and to help people of faith improve their efforts to make a greater contribution to contemporary public life...

Uh oh. Religion in “institutions.” Would that be like government institutions? Like the executive branch of the Federal Government?

I searched again and found something about the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.

The Forum - which was established in 2000 through a grant from the Trusts to Georgetown University - plans to continue building on its work in religion and domestic policy while significantly expanding its efforts in religion and world affairs, including U.S. foreign policy.

Religion in foreign policy? That sounds way too familiar, and not good at all.

I learned that Luis Lugo was appointed director of the Forum in January, 2004. Also, it seems The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life is a partner with The Center for Public Justice, which studies the influence of religion in politics and public life.

Justice, huh. And Bush just used the word in relation to his war of aggression. Code to the religious movement fundies?

On its web site, the Center for Public Justice highlighted a Lugo essay, quote:

“In this important essay, Luis Lugo argues that governments and churches should be 'equal partners' in assisting the poor and needy. Each has its own distinctive contribution to make and both are needed if the poor are to receive the justice and mercy they require.”

Churches don’t need the government to do good works. And besides, there’s that quaint notion of separation of Church and State. And I wonder if this reference to “justice and mercy” is anything like Bush’s use of the term “justice.” Not good.

It appears “justice” is much on the mind on the aptly named center.

We at the Center are committed to public service that responds to God's call to do justice in local, national, and international affairs.

We believe Christians should contribute to the renewal of political life.

We want to encourage officeholders and citizens to take their civic responsibilities seriously.

We envision a republic where government is competent, leaders are trustworthy, and civic society is thriving.

Our mission is to equip citizens, develop leaders, and shape policy in pursuit of our purpose to serve God, advance justice, and transform public life.


At FACSNet, I learned of Lugo's participation in a forum in Washington, D.C. called "God & Politics: Religion and the 2004 Elections." Dr. Lugo discussed the latest research from the Pew Forum and the potential implications for the 2004 election.

This seems rather precient, pegging the religion implications of the November election, considering it was September. Did you see the moral values hype coming two months ago?

Then I found something at Christianity Today that pegged Pew as closely tied to the right wing, or at least not inclined to side with the public, web site verbiage notwithstanding.

Wonks for Christ

At Civitas, grad students learn to think Christianly about public life.

Civitas is sponsored by the Pew Charitable Trust, which cooperates with the Center for Public Justice, the Brookings Institution, and the American Enterprise Institute (AEI).


AEI. Rabid righties. Featured scholar on their page right now? Neocon Richard Perle.

So it began looking like the Election Reform Information Project was set up by connected insiders to debunk real advocates for vote integrity such as Bev Harris, Dr. Menlo, Cyndy, me.

And here is the NYT running point for them, allowing a release valve for the story while dismissing it with a bought-off "non-partisan" organization.

I looked some more and I found further ties between Pew Charitable Trusts and the Bush Administration.

Someone of a different religious bent – neoliberalism – has a site up about Pew. What’s interesting is the site author has figures on the millions that the Pew Trust has invested in energy companies, which is not surprising, considering the trust was founded with oil industry money.

Digging some more, I found a story from 1997 claiming
“Pew moves to set U.S. energy deregulation agenda.”

The article says a Pew-funded group was responsible for helping to get a bill passed that allowed California utilities to stick consumers with the “stranded costs” of some of their mistakes, like defunct nuclear power facilities.

In California, legislators passed a bill in August 1996 that holds all electricity customers responsible for "stranded costs" incurred by the three big private utilities (Pacific Gas and Electric Co., Southern California Edison, and San Diego Gas and Electric Co.) through investments in nuclear power plants and other uneconomic electric generation projects. Many environmentalists and energy analysts hold NRDC, which is funded by the Pew-backed Energy Foundation, responsible for the bailout bill because its leading negotiator, Ralph Cavanagh, refused to fight the utilities' demand that consumers pay off their stranded costs.

The article goes on to talk about activists’ struggles with Pew on the bailout issue:

Grassroots energy activists say they are hoping that NET's [the Pew-funded National Environmental Trust] promise to include the bailout message in its campaign is a sign that the corporate-minded Pew, and other key funders such as the Energy Foundation, will start to fight the utilities on stranded costs or at least help out groups that are trying to do so.

"I'm not ecstatic, but it seems to me that most groups there said 'Stop the bailout' must be part of any education campaign," USPIRG's Aurilio told the Bay Guardian. "I don't think they [NET and Pew] can avoid putting that into the campaign."

But some activists fighting stranded costs said they felt cautious in expressing optimism, because NET, which is rapidly gaining power as a well-funded and influential organization, is a creation of Pew, whose money comes from and is invested in such dirty industries as oil, mining, and paper (see "Pulling Strings," 10/8/97). Pew tends to finance projects and organizations that are friendly to corporate interests.


And those would be the same corporate interests who want us to shut up about the Iraq war and the stolen election. The interests that fund non-governmental organizations to funnel grassroots activity into a dead end of compromise and ineffectiveness. The interests that own the major media outlets. The interests that are increasingly relegating democracy to the status of inconvenient but necessary charade.

You can read about it The New York Times, provided you supplement with your own research.

--

UPDATE:

Email Update from Pew Charitable Trust:

"Effective January 1, 2004, The Pew Charitable Trusts transformed from a foundation into a newly independent non-profit organization. The Trusts will now have a greater ability to fulfill its core mission--informing the public with credible, fact-based research on key issues of the day, advancing policy solutions when the case for change is compelling, and supporting America's civic life and communities.

This change in status allowed us to move from a .com site to a .org site. Would you kindly update any links on your Web site to reflect our new address--www.pewtrusts.org"

Chris Cappo
Public Affairs Temp
The Pew Charitable Trusts


should read: The Trusts will now have a greater ability to fulfill its core mission -- misinforming the public with credible-sounding, fact-esque research on key issues of the day, advancing policy solutions when the case for change to a theocracy is compelling, and supporting America's civic life and communities.

Mental exercise

Imagine if George Soros announced that he was buying Diebold and ES&S. Imagine the reaction from Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, William Safire, and the rest of the sorry crew on the right. Think they'd still poo poo the possibilities for voter fraud inherent in these machines?

These two PRIVATE companies are responsible for counting 80 percent of the PUBLIC vote, according to this Online Journal article.

A reminder: Kerry won

And what we need now is a democratic underground.

From Bev Harris on the DU Forum:

I was tipped off by a person very high up in TV that the news has been locked down tight, and there will be no TV coverage of the real problems with voting on Nov. 2. Even the journalists are pretty horrified. My source said they've also been forbidden to talk about it even on their own time, and he was calling from somewhere else. He was trying to figure out how to get the real news out on vote fraud.

This is a person I've worked with off and on for nearly two years, and the voice was so somber it really bothered me.

At any rate -- and perhaps, especially important due to the tipoff above, there are things you can do to take back America.

====================

We have a different list for lawyers, computer people, statisticians. But if you are a regular person like most of us, and want to help, here's what to do.


[Click here for Bev's advice.]


Friday, November 05, 2004

Sham

Jesus H., are we like GW himself, a blind man in a room full of deaf people? Can't we see that the moral values story is a smokescreen, no different than the "forged" TANG memo? Never mind the truth under your nose, whatya think about the Red States? How do you reach those idiots who vote on gay marriage and abortion? You don't, for pity's sake. They are a MINORITY and the party that wants to exploit them can have them. Period. Need I remind you that Clinton carried Georgia?

Just as GWB was surely AWOL, the election was definitely stolen. Just as the authenticity of the Killian memo had no bearing on the facts, the ridiculous "it's all about moral values" story has no bearing on the truth. They are both classic misdirection.

As R.P. McMurphy tells his insane asylum friend in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest: "Cigarette's aren't important, Cheswick!"

Ahem, anyway, now that that's off my chest, I recommend the pointer Cyndy gave me: Diebold, Electronic Voting and the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy.

Thank you. And diety, non-diety, spirit or just general vibe help us.


The Ultimate Felony Against Democracy

by Thom Hartmann, commondreams.org

(excerpt)

Most important, though, the rallying cry of the emerging "honest vote" movement must become: Get Corporations Out Of Our Vote!

Why have we let corporations into our polling places, locations so sacred to democracy that in many states even international election monitors and reporters are banned? Why are we allowing corporations to exclusively handle our vote, in a secret and totally invisible way? Particularly a private corporation founded, in one case, by a family that believes the Bible should replace the Constitution; in another case run by one of Ohio's top Republicans; and in another case partly owned by Saudi investors?

Of all the violations of the commons - all of the crimes against We The People and against democracy in our great and historic republic - this is the greatest. Our vote is too important to outsource to private corporations.

It's time that the USA - like most of the rest of the world - returns to paper ballots, counted by hand by civil servants (our employees) under the watchful eye of the party faithful. Even if it takes two weeks to count the vote, and we have to just go, until then, with the exit polls of the news agencies. It worked just fine for nearly 200 years in the USA, and it can work again.

Democracy, such as it is

Consumerism is what emerges when we are duped into having desires that we would not normally have. -- saw it on Yule's blog

I remember during one of the debates when President Bush said the Iraqis long for elections. I said to myself, disbelieving, “you mean they want *this*?”

Can you imagine going through another one of these? We have been viciously fucked over by the corporate media and the corporate plutocracy. The Democrats, who put up a weak pretend fight, are merely the strawman enablers of the whole charade.

As soon as John fuck you Kerry conceded, the media immediately pounced on the 65 million who voted for the democrat and the millions more who were too disgusted by the fake show to begin with. It’s almost like a feeding frenzy, this moral values bullshit. And it’s one big mind fuck to be sure.

Basically, we are being told to bow down to the cult. Wait, check that. The RELIGIOUS cult. It exists, but despite this propaganda onslaught, it is most definitely a minority. That should be relatively simple to work out – 60 percent of the eligible voters voted, roughly half went to Kerry and of the remaining 30 percent, I’m guessing maybe half of them are in the religious wing of the Bush cult.

Need I go into what the cult stands for? We all know. It’s ugly, it’s fascist, it’s predatory. And that’s what the media is pleased to call “moral.”

I caught a few minutes of CNN last night. I have cut out almost all TV and all the “news” shows, but my need to know what people are watching gets the better of me, and so I turn on the 24-hour cable news networks for a quick peek a few times a week. Paula Zahn was interviewing New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson. I can’t compare the last four years, but my God! She was practically channeling Bush and Rove. The smirk was there. The contempt. The obvious satisfaction in the election’s correct outcome.

Poor Bill. So reasonable. Trying to talk with someone with no interest in what he was saying. “Damnit, Bill, I have my script and I will not come off it,” Zahn all but said. “you democrats are losers, out of step, history. You better get in line with the awesome power of BushCult.”

So I switch over to Fox. Remember, I’m supposed to be engaged in a democratic act here, relying on the press to inform me, a citizen. It’s Bill O’Reilly. Oh, the sneer, it was out in full hubris. What is it with news consumers that they love sneers and smirks? (I know, I know, something about hate being a palliative for the powerless).

Anyway, haha, are you ready? Are you laughing with me yet? O’Reilly is talking about Hillary Clinton and the chances of her running for prez in 2008. It must be like a ghost limb. You just finished putting on your 2004 charade and you can’t quite believe it’s over, so, absurdly, you reach for 2008, four fucking years from now, when, quite possibly, we’ll all be dead. (sorry, but don’t you think gallows humor helps at this point?).

What’s truly funny, and how we manage to laugh here in a Red State, is later when we were getting ready for bed, Leigh said “what are Rush and Hannity going to complain about now? Hillary?” And I told her, yep, guess what I just watched on Fox?

She has a good point, though. And a lot has already been said about how the Repubs now have a second-term president and both houses of congress, and therefore have enough rope to hang themselves good and proper and no one to blame but themselves.

Wait, what am I saying? Accountability? That would still require a non-corporate press, and if we had one, Bush would have already been impeached. Instead, they are busy greasing the skids for a one-party, warmongering dictatorship. They say it’s a moral values revolution.

And, as we know from the Suskind article, if the Orwellian motherfuckers say it, it’s true. It’s the “reality” we have to deal with. Unable to comprehend, unwilling to fight, the Democrats are rolling over.

Even though I’ve spent some time here recently saying that I don’t believe the vote reflects a majority or plurality or mandate or whatever bullshit the media is bandying about, I do recognize that “the story” is that we are a one-party theocracy. Because, as of now, every democratic institution has failed: the in-name-only two-party system, the press, the integrity of the vote.

As Harry has been saying, it’s now time to get radical. Corporate personhood is one place to start. And how about the Federal Reserve? Our money is controlled by a private corporation. These private bankers can print money in an unrestricted fashion; there is no tying it to a gold standard. They can then lend it to the U.S. government at interest, throwing the government and the populace into their debt.

Do we really want to talk about power and the ability to create reality? From what I’ve heard, JFK did. Apparently one reason he was assassinated was that he wanted to wrest control of the Federal Reserve from private interests.

Thursday, November 04, 2004


KERRY WON... HERE ARE THE FACTS.

by Greg Palast (American hero)

I know you don't want to hear it. You can't face one more hung chad. But I don't have a choice. As a journalist examining that messy sausage called American democracy, it's my job to tell you who got the most votes in the deciding states. Tuesday, in Ohio and New Mexico, it was John Kerry.

[more]


In other words, Americans REJECTED Bush, his values and a theocratic state. THAT is the story.

What does Greg personally feel about all this? His note at the end of the article: I used to write a column for the Guardian papers in London. Several friends have asked me if I will again leave the country. In light of the failure—a second time—to count all the votes, that won't be necessary. My country has left me.

What to do?

Open Vote Initiative

via Ben

Election theft

gbreez is on this story. See her post on the Christian Reconstructionists who own the voting machines. (What did I just say about the "moral values" story serving the makers of the machines?)

Cyndy mirrored the Gentle Breezes post on Samizdat and has a great post on her site called Dynamics of Deception

Finally, gbreez speaks for me in her post I believe that the Presidency has been STOLEN

excerpt:

I BELIEVE THE WAR AGAINST THE BU$HCO MACHINE HAS JUST STARTED.

I REFUSE TO BELIEVE THAT MY COUNTRY IS MADE UP OVER OVER 50% MORONS WITHOUT AN OUNCE OF MORALITY OR INTELLIGENCE AMONG THEM.

I WILL NOT GIVE UP THIS FIGHT, MAKE NICE WITH THE REPUBLICANS OR GIVE ONE INCH TO THIS FACADE OF A GOVERNMENT THAT IS JUST A BIG BUSINESS WHICH IS OUT TO FUCK THIS COUNTRY.

I BELIEVE IN DEMOCRACY WHICH MY GOVERNMENT DOES NOT SO THEY HAVE TO GO.

LETS WORK ON IMPEACHING THE PRESIDENT AS A TRAITOR, BECAUSE HE IS ONE AND SHOULD BE PUNISHED FOR SELLING THIS COUNTRY OUT.

I WILL NEVER EVER UNITE BEHIND THIS PRESIDENT OR SUPPORT HIM IN HIS EFFORT TO DESTROY MY BELOVED COUNTRY.

The Truth About the Youth Vote

Under 30 turnout up more than nine percent.

The media is claiming the youth vote never materialized. NEVER accept their "truths."

What really went down

Exit polling accurately predicted the results in most states with very little error. Where there were discrepancies, they were significant in the +5 percent range, and always favored Bush. -- source


Exit polling gave Kerry the win. Zogby predicted a Kerry win.

Do NOT listen to the media. They can make up any story they want and find people who will back it up. This moral values crap is bullshit, like everything else you see in the media. What they are saying is America loves war and hates gays. That is bullshit. Only 30 percent of the public, if that, voted for Bush. AT LEAST half of those didn't vote FOR anything Bush has done; they voted AGAINST a liberal who would raise their taxes and institute socialized medicine. Had nothing to do with gays. And many simply voted for Bush because they confuse an American impulse to do good in the world with the president. In other words, they think Bush really is trying to stop terrorism. That he really is trying to bring democracy and freedom to the Middle East.

I mean, that’s a value, ya know. Who doesn’t share the value that you don’t take innocent life as a means of political expression? The fact is, they just don’t know and can’t see that their government is itself terrorist. That their government is against democracy and freedom.

Think about this. Without electronic voting machines (motto: in cyberspace, no one can hear you vote) giving an extra five percent to Bush, you would not now be wondering why most Americans are evangelical homophobes. Sure, you'd know they are out there, but you wouldn't feel like they are in control of the country. So it's these machines that ARE in control, and it suits their makers to tell this fundamentalist, fascist story through the media.

All I’m saying is, and I know almost no one will hear it, is fuck these media narratives. NEVER start with their memes. They have no connection with reality. They make up something that sounds right to them. I’m sorry, but the most immoral administration in U.S. history was not elected by people sharing its values. Anyone in the media parroting this shit is a pathetic shill, an entertainer looking for the latest bullshit that will misdirect, disinform, and most assuredly, disenfranchise. It’s the media, stupid.

Electronic voting cannot be trusted.

There was no moral values referendum.

There is no war on terrorism.

Wednesday, November 03, 2004

Kerry concedes

Fuck!

Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.

Did that adequately express what everybody (meaning 99.9 percent of this site’s readers) is feeling?

Of course the vote was fixed. People are ignorant, but they aren’t THAT ignorant.

Kerry was no great prize, but he wasn’t right wing fundamentalist nutjob. Damnit.

No way all that energy, new voters, etc. generated more homophobic, religious crusade fucktards at the polls than it did Americans pissed off at Bush’s hideous four years.

Right? (tell me I’m right)

My plan? A step at a time. First Oregon or Washington, then Western Canada.

It’s been very touching the way Eleanor has shown an interest in the election. A few days ago she asked me to set up a voting booth in her room. I put a quilt across the footboard of Audrey’s bed and the middle of Eleanor’s. Eleanor made sure I put a small baby blanket over the “voting booth” opening that I had created, because she knew that ballots are secret. She set up two square, empty tissue boxes inside, next to two step stools. Next to the boxes were pieces of felt. She pointed out which box was Bush’s and which was Kerry’s and instructed me to put a piece of felt into the appropriate box .

So we had a mock election. I had to point out to Eleanor that she needed to verify that I was who I said I was. She made a sign-in sheet and pretended to check my ID before I went in the booth. I voted Kerry. So did Leigh and Eleanor and Audrey. It wasn’t even close in our household.

I talked with my wife on the phone a few minutes ago. She gave me the news, that Kerry had conceded in what was, sadly, a close election. She said that when she dropped Eleanor and Audrey off at school this morning, Eleanor had said she hoped the man we voted for would win.

Somehow, he didn’t.

I weep for my country.

Farce (fars) n. : See American electoral process

Daily Kos: LIARS! All exit polls matched results except OH and FL

The American Street: is this thing on?

BlackBoxVoting.org: Voting without auditing. (Are we insane?)


(leaving aside the whole two-party corporate lock on the system for the time being)

Uhm, about the exit polls...


Television networks proceed cautiously with rebuilt exit polling system

DAVID BAUDER, AP Television Writer

Wednesday, November 3, 2004

(11-03) 02:35 PST NEW YORK (AP) --

(excerpt)

Before polls had closed, the exit poll information that had once been available only to a privileged few was racing around the Internet. Television reporters tried, with varying degrees of success, not to reflect that information so as not to influence voters.

Those early numbers looked so positive for Kerry that Fox News Channel analyst Jim Pinkerton, at 3:30 p.m. EST, said, "I think it looks good for angry Democrats."

And on evening news programs, some correspondents subtly telegraphed the polls. NBC's David Gregory said Bush "appeared subdued," while Moran noted the president had expressed a "rare sense of doubt."

Later on Fox, analysts talked openly about how some actual results contradicted exit polls numbers.


Ah, yes, the *actual* results. Right. I completely trust the *actual* results.

more

Rigorous Intuition: Virtual Despotism

One of the best blogs on the Internets.

Monday, November 01, 2004

BuzzFlash Interviews Gore Vidal on Election Eve

BuzzFlash: I sometimes joke that this election is a referendum on whether the republic as we know it will endure. I believe that our nation is actually at a crossroads between the fantasists versus the realists –- that there’s a struggle between faith and reason. What do you think, if any, is the symbolic significance of the election?

Gore Vidal: I think it’s more bedrock than that, such as who gets to appoint judges. If [under Bush], the litmus test for a judge is Roe v. Wade and they ought to be anti-black -- you see the NAACP has been under questioning from the Department of Justice, wondering about contributions to it and so on -- I mean, look, we’re up against despotism. And whatever rhetoric they want to use and say, oh, we’re not despots, we’re good Americans -- well, everybody says that. But they’re not. They are the enemy. And they have targeted the American people. They don’t like them. They don’t care anything about them. They’re interested in corporate America. They’re interested in Halliburton and their companies. They’re interested in making money. And they hate the people who stand for the old republic. They just don’t like them. And that’s the division here. And I think that’s why Bush will fall in the long run, but how long a run it’s going to be, I do not predict.

BuzzFlash: The best example of the Republican "target" on America is their own admission that the Republicans want to suppress the vote, especially among African Americans in certain states and districts.

Gore Vidal: Oh, they’re not just suppressing African American voters. The old Jewish ladies in Miami, Florida, have been made to stand for four hours in the sun, having a heatstroke, while they’re being given their ballots or their registration papers, or whatever it is. No, no –- this is a war on all the people, all the time. I mean, if we had a responsible media, we’d know something about it, but we don’t.

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