My heartfelt thanks to Mark, Lynne, Bev, Bob & Harvey, Ion, Greg, Richard, and all the others, for teaching me all I know about the massive and unreported fraud that is the American election process over the past 15-odd years.
At the base of KCR's memorial statue is a trenchant (and odious) phrase befitting the man who, bloody-near singlehandedly, stole an empire and an aspiration, and wrecked a world. In Humanist font, it reads:
One more detail I forgot to mention. In keeping with the man's antediluvian instincts and for his managing to set back the species and the planet some 500 millennia (he's not done yet, alas), his statue stands, for all the world to see, on its head.
The tangled trail below was ineluctably written into the narrative of this fatally-compromised republic's founding well before its official birth date in 1791. America has always been about an infinitesimal few mostly doing as they liked with it. While there have been frequent breaches of the barricades (emancipation, breaking up the trusts, women's rights, emancipation part 2 - civil rights, 60s Vietnam protests, etc.), in every instance, The Nexi (elites) simply beat a retreat to an inner redoubt so that they might live to fight again another day. In other words, whatever the agreement, it was always merely one more cynical tactic in a centuries-long strategy.
From conning the Lenape for Manhattan Island (then conned by the Anglos who turned out to be w-a-y better conners),
to conning their way across the continent, sowing death and destruction as they went,
to conning the quite deliberate and systematic destruction of a tres efficient (and clean) nationwide electric mass transit system (the better to restrict the nation to their monopolies on oil, autos and rubber),
to conning (and funding) the Nazis, Bolsheviks and Saudis into undermining their existing governments (teens & 20s).
to conning the Interstate system into existence (rinse, repeat - oil, autos, rubber, housing),
to conning humanity's almost existential demise over Cuba (against JFK's orders),
to conning us that JFK, MLK, RFK, Malcolm and Reagan were all victims of crazed "lone gunmen" (for more political assassinations, read on),
to conning The War On Drugs to fund extra-legal ops (shadow gov't, Iran-Contra, crack, ad nauseum),
to conning the media into becoming a billion-watt megaphone mouthpiece for their consumerist and martial agenda,
to conning the denial of the effects of smoking, GMO foods, climate change, debt slavery, etc.
to conning the outsourcing, offshoring, outshoring and de-unionizaton of the nation,
to conning the financial manipulations of hedge funds, mortgage derivatives, CDOs, IPOs, crop futures, liar's loans, short bets on their own "guaranteed" stocks, and the tsunami of mendacity required to con every "out-of-the-loop" buyer in the market
to conning the evisceration of the people's social safety net because "somebody's got to pay for all this" (just not us)
bringing us to the final con, and the subject of this letter to the St. Pete Times:
conning the legal imposition of electronic voting on nearly every polling booth in our fractionated land, It is now estimated that half the elections of consequence in 2010 were stolen. In governorships, state senate races and reps, all the 'winners' were Republicans. The Vegas odds are, well, Olympian or, about the same as that lottery ticket in your wallet being the $200 million winner. In the election forensics biz (reconstructing the scenes of the crimes algorithmically) this widespread pattern of anomalies is known as the red shift.
While election theft has been a one-party affair since 2000, over the years, Dems have held up their end of the election thievery game. The big difference today is that, while the Dems have been playing Space Invaders and Grand Theft Whatsis, the Repubs have been playing a game for all the marbles: How Quickly Can We Steal This Fucking Republic Without Anyone Saying Anything?
So far, so good.
I suppose the dismal message here is that we are not to be trusted with unchecked, unsupervised, unregulated, overweening power.
To the already lengthy list of well-nigh unimpeachable sources detailing this creme-de-la-crime, add one more that raises the art of election-theft forensics to a whole other level:
And for those as fascinated as I am at how easily this country hss been manipulated, for over a decade, by one really evil miscreant genius - Karl Rove - this is Mike Collins' excellent analysis of the newly-released (after it makes no-never-mind) 2004 exit poll data:
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From:
Nigel <freesense@gmail.com> Date: Wed, Oct 29, 2008 at 09:51
Subject: The Nowhere Man-In-The-Middle Nigel j Watson 10-28-08
To: Paul Tash lm spt editor <
ptash@sptimes.com>
Cc: Adam Smith lm spt <
asmith@sptimes.com>, Howard Troxler lm spt h <
htroxler@sptimes.com>, Howard Troxler lm spt <
troxler@sptimes.com>
The Nowhere Man-In-The-Middle Nigel j Watson 10-24-08 thru 10-27-08
TO: St. Petersburg Times - Paul Tash Editor, CEO and Chairman all 18pp 9,424
CC: Adam Smith; Howard Troxler 13pp 6,530
RE: Don't Count Out McCain (Too Fast) 10-23-08 4pp 2,894
http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/national/article867006.ece
"He's a real nowhere man, sitting in his nowhere land, making all his nowhere plans for nobody." (the rest does not apply. My Nowhere Man has a pernicious and misanthropic POV, and he knows precisely where he's going to. That he is nowhere to be found in my local rag is the reason for this missive)
Hi There!
You may remember me from such events as an ACLU Banquet, or three, plus a few other functions here and there. I believe we have now honored at least half your journalists by now.
I enjoyed reading this article, but was a bit puzzled to see the elision of the hands-down best argument to not "Count out McCain:" The Man-In-The-Middle. So I have a question for you folks. Was this omission due to?
Your reporter being unaware of the MIM?
Your fact-checker editors being unaware of same?
Your being aware, but unwilling to suspend disbelief; as in, no one would do THAT?
Your being in denial, thereby saving you the trouble of suspending disbelief?
Your dismissing MIMs as so much partisan conspiracy nonsense?
Your belief that your readers would not buy it?
Your desire not to upset your aging readers too much?
Your desire not to anger your Republican subscribers?
Your not wanting to send your gentle readers into the slough of despond?
Your policy to let sleeping beasts lie?
Your policy that maintaining the myth beats speaking truth to power?
Your failure to appreciate the peril posed by this dirk's-twist in the vitals of our republic?
Your reluctance to admit to the enormity of such a vast compact of complicity required for the Man-In-The-Middle to ply his craft sans likelihood of interference?
But, enough questions. Whatever your answers, you can obviously benefit from the fruits of a free-ranging, curious mind. That would be me.
My primary goal is to, as Winston once said (but, in an aspirational tense) "Give you the tools and hope you finish the job!" (he was desperate in 1940 and so am I).
Beware dismissing all this as the ravings of conspiracy paranoids. The parade of serious intellect on display here is not to be waved off lightly. Despite my own tendency to try to maintain a certain wry take on all this – a peek at chimps, in the wild, or at the zoo, betray how far our formidable forebrains lag behind our reptilian instincts to grab all we can the moment adult supervision takes a coffee break. As a species, we are not to be trusted.
My letter is lengthy, but the lie is h-u-g-e and the issue complex. I only took as long as I had to. It's not like I write to you every week, Paul. And as your butt will not allow you to take all this in at one, um, sitting, I have tried to break it up into small sessions; hope it helps. No doubt you'll farm some of it out. It's helpful that my literary style is not boring, or so my readers tell me.
I tend to be blunt. It's hard to know when such cut-to-the-chase candor might be construed by the reader as insensitivity or unkindness. Neither is intended. Too, you gotta admire the chutzpah of someone who uses the phrase "cut to the chase" in a 3,500 4,000 5,500 6,200-word letter. There's just a lot of chase to cut to. Also, I would warn you that my child occasionally runs off the rails (okay, a lot). Writing should be fun for both sender and receiver, yes? I also confess to tangent-creep, but sooner or later I veer back to the point. Like the cross-eyed javelin thrower, I may not set any records, but, I keep the crowd alert.
Before I tear off to the main event, due to the proximity of Election Day, I think this might be a good place to insert a few links that may help someone defend their unprovisional right to vote:
-vote THEFT 08 ELECTION PROTECTION Voter LINKS Bill Moyers Journal 10-03-08
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/10032008/profile.html
-vote THEFT 08 ELECT-PROTECT Video Your Vote blackboxvoting.org #4.54 10-09-08
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0810/S00139.htm
-vote THEFT 08 Steal Back Your Vote comic book pdf - Palast 10-06-08 24p
http://www.stealbackyourvote.org/ You can also order the print versions of these - cheap
If you decide to make up a list to place in the paper, please have your reporters remember that these measures protect the voter from those who would deny them their franchise to vote, not voters trying to vote illegally. If you think about it, the latter concept is absurd on its face: risk up to ten years in stir by illegally casting a vote for someone who, 99% of the time, s/he has never met. Do you know anyone that effing dumb? That the Regressive cabal of the Republican Party has managed to make this even a blip on the MSMedia's and public's horizon speaks volumes on the low state of our media's BS-detector and public education's civics pedagogy. Barnum has still got it going on.
The MIM is no myth or phantom. It is not an ACORN canard (on which you have frittered away a few barrels of ink lately). Nor is it a flight of fantasy dreamed up by (insert name of worst Democratic Party trickster and character-assassination operative you can think of; even Osama). I'm here to tell you that the Man-In-The-Middle is an actual, living, breathing, totally documentable and indubitable fact. But, there's no need to take a mere reader's word. How about a slew of experts?
A note of caution on experts: Identifying honest-brokers, aka "real" experts (for whom the truth is the only goal) is a job not for sissies. As if Afghanistan and Iraq II (Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld-Feith-Bremer-Negroponte---), Katrina (heckuva job…); Sub-Prime/Credit Swap Defaults (Greenspan-Bernanke-Paulson), and all the other boo-boos weren't proof enough, in most instances, plain old horse sense carries the day as often as not, eh? At the end of this you will find a link that clearly explains the perils of an overreliance on "experts," in a most entertaining way.
Back to our Nowhere Man
The links on this page may be read in almost any order. But, I've arranged things in a way that may help guide you along an intuitive path. Feel free to veer off at will. The path provides the basic breadcrumbs leading you to the criminal and treasonous (did I mention super-duper unconstitutional?) dirty work that's afoot here. You may get more out of these vidclips and articles if you approach them with an attitude of "What if all this was really true?" – but only because it is. While I encourage the reader to remain ever skeptical, her/his cynicism belongs in the cloakroom. We can also pitch the hoary old Dem/Repub thing. This is so not about that.
This nation, and every other since we came up on dry land, has witnessed humans trying to game every "system" ever devised. What we have not had up to now was the scale of today's vote-napping. Boss Tweed, Tammany, and the Daley machines all had their cemetery raids and "mislaid" ballot boxes (oddly enough, always just sufficient to do the job). On a good day they could "revive" a few thousand votes. What Karl Rove has wrought is of a magnitude never seen before. When you can roll the world's numero uno, ass-kickin' super-duperpower for four straight elections (5 if we're unlucky), you deserve an Oscar, Grammy, Tony, Nobel, and Pulitzer at the same dais, on the same day. Magnificent! 1 to 2 million votes in 2000 (a good 25% of them Jeb's handiwork), 4 to 6 US Senate seats in 2002 (regaining control), 5 to 6 million votes in 2004, and at least 3 US Senate seats in 2006, preventing a Dem working majority. Not bad, for a Nowhere Man.
Now, if his actions weren't so criminal, contemptuous, despicable, unconstitutional, misanthropic, mean-spirited, undemocratic and unlawful he'd really have done something.
If this is your deepest journey into this area of the dark human heart, you will be as entranced as is the mouse by the gently swaying Cobra. Grab some java and let's begin….
#1.34.11 means # = video clip of 1hour 34minutes 11 seconds duration
We begin with a question that never seems to have occurred to the MSM to ask.
-vote THEFT 08 WHY VOTING MACHINES (see TruVote) Steve Freeman #6.22 10-05-07
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NZqCh_0jTBQ&feature=related
Is there, as Steve says, something sinister behind our private (proprietary source code) voting machines? Maybe; maybe not. But any unraveling of this Gordian knot needs to begin with…
The Sad Tale of TruVote
The events shown in the links below are remarkable in one respect: at the time of its founder's demise, TruVote was poised to vanquish all before it (the competition). As will become clear, Athan Gibbs Sr. really did have a better mousetrap, and that presented a h-u-g-e problem for any whose aim really was to reduce the (Democratic) vote, not count it. They had already stolen two elections (2000 and 2002) and their blood was up for more. As word began to get around about Mr. Gibb's apparently foolproof (unriggable) toy, one can imagine the consternation among those who saw the very real prospect of future ill-gotten gains go a-glimmering. As Mr. Spoonamore will later tell you, "Being president is worth a lot of money!" But, you have critical faculties too. See what you make of all this "coincidence' – or tough noogies, or serendipity.
-vote THEFT 04 TruVote 2003-00-00 Athan Gibbs inventor profile circa 2003
http://www.3dpublishing.com/learningcenter/vote.html
-vote THEFT 04 TruVote 2001-00-00 MACHINE BROCHURE circa 2001.pdf
http://votingindustry.com/TabulationVendors/Other/TruVote/truvote.pdf
-vote THEFT 04 TruVote 2005-03-08 PATENT description issue date 03-08-05
http://www.truvote.com/truvote_patent.htm
-vote THEFT 04 TruVote 2007-00-00 14 Q&As components-how secure-how to use
http://www.truvote.com/FAQ.htm
-vote THEFT 04 TruVote 2007-09-19 DEMO VIDEO #2.06 (no sound) 09-19-07
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzLSMCNsvGM
-vote THEFT 04 TruVote 2001-11-23 touch-screen democracy 11-23-01
http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/stories/2001/11/26/smallb2.html
-vote THEFT 04 TruVote 2003-05-23 aligns with Microsoft 05-23-03
http://www.bizjournals.com/nashville/stories/2003/05/26/story6.html
-vote THEFT 04 TruVote 2003-12-14 Athan Gibbs Sr on a roll 12-14-03
http://www.unknownnews.net/040102comvot.html
-vote THEFT 04 TruVote 2003-12-20 Athan Gibbs Sr on a roll 12-20-03
http://gnosis.python-hosting.com/voting-project/December.2003/0306.html
-vote THEFT 04 TruVote 2004-01-20 Ohio SoE APPROVES! 01-20-04
http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-1296184/TruVote-International-Inc-Will-Demonstrate.html As you are aware, Ohio's SoE at this time was one Kenneth J. Blackwell, 2004's Katherine Harris and, like her, co-chair of the Bush/Cheney effort in his state. Bush knew that, due to his sagging popularity, a win in Ohio was a must for "four more." What must Kenny Boy (no, not that one) have thought when his state's County SoE's approved precisely the machine (by all accounts, the only machine) that would derail his scheme to deliver the 2004 vote in Ohio to George W. Bush?
-vote THEFT 04 TruVote 2004-03-14 founder's auto crash – first draft 03-14-04
http://www.wheresthepaper.org/Tennessean03_14GibbsObit.htm
-vote THEFT 04 TruVote 2004-03-19 founder's 'accidental' death - details 03-19-04
http://onlinejournal.com/evoting/031904Fitrakis/031904fitrakis.html
-vote THEFT 04 TruVote 2004-03-18 tragic story of Athan Gibbs Sr #5.07 2007
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8ewsDxXQD4
For a few years, TruVote drifted, unsure of itself and sans the white-hot passion of its founder, even as Diebold, ES&S and the others, burrowed deep into the wallets and – more importantly – the transparency of the several states' voting systems; full steam ahead on the good ship USS HAVA. As they were all selling the same dysfunctional crap, uh, equipment, most SoEs went for price and hoped for the best.
Apparently, the company was sold and relocated to Salt Lake City in 2006 or 2007. While my resources are limited (Google), I could find no record of TruVote International selling a single machine to anyone. This might be a job for an investigative journalist. Why, you might even have one or two hanging around your very building! This seems really fishy to me, a little like those French brothers a few years back whose garage was burned beyond salvage, along with their 100-miles-per-gallon prototype electric/alcohol car with all it's plans and research info. They had presented it in public, for the first time, a month or so before. Call me cynical and, uh, throw in undependable too.
-vote THEFT 04 TruVote 2006-05-18 back in business, maybe 05-18-06
http://votingindustry.com/TabulationVendors/Other/TruVote/truvote.htm
-vote THEFT 04 TruVote 2006-07-09 CEO Larry Holmstrom 801 712-2499 07-09-06
http://www.bbvforums.org/forums/messages/172/32944.html
-vote THEFT 04 TruVote 2007-00-00 International HOME PAGE 2007
http://www.truvote.com/
-vote THEFT 04 TruVote 2008-02-08 EAC's new guidelines pose HIGHER $$ BARRIER
http://74.125.45.104/search?q=cache:K4_f0tqU75oJ:www.eac.gov/News/docs/2008-meetings-truvote.doc/attachment_download/file+TRUVOTE&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=26&gl=us
This last may also mean that in the four year's since Mr. Gibb's death, the market had been sewn up by other players, and we know how loathe civil servants are to change anything until they absolutely, positively have to. And yes, I know enough to have little doubt that Mr. Rove would not let a little homicide prevent him from achieving his "whatever it takes" goals.
I've thought about Mr. Rove a lot since Molly (Ivins) gave us all a head's-up in the mid '90s. She feared for the nation if he got within spitting distance of the Oval. Guess she nailed that one. The closest figure I can compare him to is Rasputin, with, I hope, the same end result for both he and the cause he has championed. Though I'm pretty sure the only real cause for him is the con. Everything else is just collateral damage. The man is quite full of himself. He actually believes he's accomplished something with his life.
So, how're we doing? Still think these are just the ravings of conspiracy nutbags? Just because you're paranoid, doesn't mean nobody's out to get you, eh?
So, how about this fella? See if you think he's just another raver too (though he does get a tad testy, now and then – you might too if you'd been shouting "PAPER BALLOTS!!" from the rooftops for the past decade)?
-vote THEFT 00 Stephen Spoonamore CURRICULUM VITAE
http://www.linkedin.com/in/spoonamore
-vote THEFT 05 Stephen Spoonamore on hacking part 8 #4.48 11-17-05
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xIZLizSnGc&feature=related
-vote THEFT 06 Stephen Spoonamore PAPER BALLOTS! part 8 #3.03 10-15-06
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jy1sz-xBxf8&feature=related
-vote THEFT 08 Stephen Spoonamore on MIMs part 9 #4.50 09-11-08
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lrFkRHrRDI&feature=related
But Mr. Spoonamore is just the warm-up act. He's got his subject down cold, but there are folks around who can give us the big picture. Who's pulling the strings? How many moves ahead are they? How sub is their rosa? And so on.
Here are a few more latter-day Paul Reveres leading the charge on this issue, upon which every other issue in a functioning democracy is based – no fair vote; no freedom:
The scope of the assault on the bedrock foundation of this democracy is sustained, focused, subterranean, pervasive, anti-democratic, pernicious and totally inhumane (not that human beings appear to have been even a passing consideration in any of this crowd's calculations).
Put simply, there has never been such a Herculean effort to rustle the most powerful perch on the planet, by a range of almost casual sociopathic behaviour, both outrageous and breathtaking, and unique in the brief 217-year history of this republic (if we can keep it). This is no 6-boxes-of-ballots-in-the-Pedernales retail type of operation; industrial-strength swiping, more like it.
The next group of articles and clips limn well the 4-corners assault on our democracy. They define in bas-relief the Fascist/Theocrat cabal determined to steal their way to limitless power at any cost, by any means, fair or foul, since finding themselves coming up short on anything approximating a level field of battle.
As these items make clear, they realize that they must steal just one more - #5 – in order to run the table and complete America's turn to a police state/Theocracy; not that there's a whole lot of difference. They may also realize that, should Obama's sea-change tsunami wash them away like so much political detritus, the brand they have co-opted and metastasized is now a burnt out husk; not quite dead, but certainly breathing funny (thought I heard a rattle). There are h-u-g-e changes coming in political alignment in the good old USA, that's for sure. Ditto Capitalism; the notion. And, thanks to Old Karl's machinations, ditto as well to kleptocratic and predatory Capitalism and the unsustainable, non-negotiable credit-kiting racket known as the American way of life. Thanks for the memories, King Karl!
So, do they risk the outcry (even the densest of citizenry may figure out "they wuz robbed" if McCain prevails), and tie things up in the courts (again)? Keep a sharp eye out for a "terr'ism"? Attack somebody – in person or by proxy? Trot out the lovely pieces of the police state – so painstakingly assembled over the past decade – and declare you-know-what? Outsource a brace of assassinations, creating yet one more instant constitutional "disaster" on which to capitalize (and btw, extending Dubya's reign while it all gets sorted out – Norm Ornstein of AEI has been the lone tribune on our perilous laws of succession, to no avail so far).
And what will they do in the interregnum (11/5 thru 1/20 – 77 fun-filled days brought to you by the gang of Happy Warriors who make war, make love, then, what the hell, make more war))? That's the problem trying to pull off a Rove in a country as individualistic as this one. Whether trying to run it, or trying to overthrow it, there're still those 300,000,000 damn cats to herd.
While we're musing, my bet is Rove will see how it's going in the Eastern and earlier-closing Midwest swing states. If the gap's too wide to bridge without causing massive civil unrest, they may close down the MIMs in the Chattanooga RNC and the White House basement and live to fight again another day. As the Pacific states are well beyond their cyber-grasp, the main chance to steal it must lie in "adjusting" the Mountain and later-closing Midwest states, while "tweaking" some more Eastern states.
As you read/watch these, you might want to keep the barf bag handy.
-vote THEFT 08 SECRET & MASSIVE Amy (3 vids-scroll down) #50.00 10-09-08
http://www.democracynow.org/shows/2008/10/9
-vote THEFT 08 BUSH HIJACKS Justice IN ORDER TO HIJACK ELECTIONS 04-15-08
http://www.alternet.org/democracy/82348/
-vote THEFT 08 FLA MUGS LOWV & CAGES WITH 'CRAZY BOX' 04-28-08
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/28/us/politics/28voting.html?_r=1&hp&oref=login
-vote THEFT 08 TEN WAYS the FASCISTS are STEALING OHIO 09-09-08
http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2008/3201
-vote THEFT 08 MIMS to STEAL ELECTION PAPER BALLOTS!! #4.22 09-11-08
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nyhe5U4t6oY
-vote THEFT 08 FASCISTS TARGET DEM DONORS 10-03-08
http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_3825.shtml
-vote THEFT 08 FASCIST ATTACKS ON DEM VOTERS 10-11-08
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/10/11-4
-vote THEFT 08 EARLY-VOTING CHAOS Mark Crispin Miller w Amy #20.00 10-22-08
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/10/22/votes
-vote THEFT 08 CONFUSION re Moyers' Miller interview # first 3mins 10-24-08
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/10242008/watch.html
There now, kind of like a colonic, aren't they?
Like Ira & George and Ace, one might ask, how long has this been going on? (1927,1975) The very determined attorney under the next link has a pretty good idea. He's so het up over it that he's dun gone and filed a lawsuit against our favorite Prince, Karl Rove. It's almost 40 minutes, but well worth your time. The next clip down's only 5 minutes. After that, you're on your own. It's goes deep and disgusting
-vote THEFT 04 OHIO - AFTER ROVE will the truth catch up in time #38.30 10-04-08
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gv4kRG9ne_g&feature=related
-vote THEFT 04 'Uncounted' - Exit Poll Discrepancies DOCU #4.59 2008
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLaQnvJ8myE&feature=related
vote THEFT 04 DOCU 'Uncounted' the movie Google Video CLIPS 2007
http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=uncounted+the+movie&hl=en&emb=0&aq=0&oq=UNCOUNTED#q=uncountedthemovie&hl=en&emb=0&start=0
vote THEFT 04 DOCU 'Uncounted' the movie YouTube CLIPS 2007
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=uncountedthemovie&search_type=&aq=f
While there is some duplication among this group of clips, they all expose different bits and pieces of the labyrinthine tapestry woven by the Rovian mind. The advantage of the 8-part-type clips is that you can squeeze the viewing into small chinks of time during your busy day, while never losing your place. This is one interesting dude.
-vote THEFT 05 Stephen Spoonamore on hacking 8-part #27.43 11-17-05
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=spoonamore+2005&search_type=&aq=f
-vote THEFT 06 Stephen Spoonamore (upper left) 1-part #27.43 10-15-06
http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=spoonamore&hl=en&emb=0&aq=f#q=spoonamore&hl=en&emb=0&aq=f&dur=3
-vote THEFT 06 Stephen Spoonamore on hacking 8-part #26.16 10-15-06
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=velvet+spoonamore&search_type=&aq=f
-vote THEFT 08 Stephen Spoonamore on hacking 10-part #39.25 09-11-08
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=spoonamore+2008&search_type=&aq=f
-vote THEFT 08 Stephen Spoonamore on hacking 1 -part #39.25 09-11-08
http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=spoonamore&hl=en&emb=0&aq=f#q=spoonamore&hl=en&emb=0&aq=f&dur=3
There are even a few sites out there that handicap the races based on whether or not the well-fed Mr. Rove does, or does not, do his thing – fascinatin' stuff. Cynical? You betcha! But no country for democratic longevity:
-vote THEFT 08 MONTE CARLO ELECTORAL PROJECTION (scroll down) electionfraudblog as of 10-23-08 http://electionfraudblog.com/category/04-election/#top
And putting aside the disastrous results of the last four of the Bush regime (as we fondly recall those halcyon days of the first four), what future calamities might Turd Blossom (Dubya's pet name for Rove) inflict on our already beggared and decrepit nation if he has his sinister, reptilian way with us again in '08?
For openers, how about replacing the well-nigh unflappable, horse-sense-saddled (though he needs to change a few advisors or get more into the mix) and intellectually-afflicted Senator Obama with the 80% dead (actuarially and prognostically), none-too-bright (the pre-senile thingie ain't helping) and hair-trigger choleric, John McCain?
Vote 08 McCAIN MEDICAL RECORDS - WHY NOT RELEASED #4.49 09-2008
http://bravenewfilms.org/blog/53611-over-2-200-doctors-agree-john-mccain-should-release-his-medical-records
vote 08 McCAIN - CURSING (think: it's 3AM and the phone rings...) #1.45 200_
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwTKM_u-7j4&feature=related
vote 08 McCAIN's RAGE Michael Kinsley piece & video #4.21 10-09-08
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/10/09/report-mccain-exploded-wi_n_133242.html
Karl's kind of guy, you think? More, say you? Dive in, say I.
Vote 08 McCAIN's HOT HEAD - 835 VIDEOS
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=McCain+temper&search_type=&aq=f
But, the truth is that McCain, who is likely to do a "Harrison" – died in office of pneumonia, less than a month after taking the oath in February, 1841 – departing this orb and perhaps taking the last gasp of the real Republican Party with him, much as William Henry Harrison did for the Whigs (and I don't mean the White House Iraq Group).
But, waiting in the wings is much more than a shapely Miss Half-Baked Alaska. While her brand of rough-cut fantasy is scary enough, it's worse than you think. Ms. Alaska is a devotee of the most extreme form of religious fundamentalism America has to offer. Among its many other charms is the neat little theory of "headship." The males really like this part of Christianist theosophy; being king ain't a bad gig. In effect, the guy rules the roost; what he says goes, and don't even think about crossing him. Which brings us to Todd Palin, by all accounts one Helluva guy and handy to have on your side in a knife fight.
So, why should we care about Todd, baby? Because, given Ms. Palin's belief system, she must defer to her hubby in all things great or small. Still not there yet, eh? Then just close your eyes (I agree that makes it tough to read) and imagine if Todd Palin ran the USA the way he has obviously run Juneau. I am not making this up. This is myocardial infarction serious.
If we thought Shrub's Fundy-lite theosophy created carnage and consternation in the countryside, with Todd (and Sarah as cheerleader, her old job) we'd get the gen-yoo-wine Dobson-Kennedy-Robertson deal. The only advice that comes to mind in such an eventuality is, "Duck!" We might even see an exodus to the secular havens of Burma and Zimbabwe.
vote 08 MEET PRESIDENT PALIN'S 'First Dude' ('headship' reigns supreme) 09-16-08
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2008/09/16/todd_palin/ Only in America
One thing that is abundantly clear in this piece is that the reporter is unaware of the concept of "headship," else he would have mentioned it, eh? That's too bad for the reader, as it would have provided a basis for perspective of the gist and focus of the article. It's no help when even the Anchorage Daily News columnist is "puzzled." – and Palin's his beat! Gotta watch them thar experts, right? Maybe they're just emblematic of the general dumbing-down of the press corps in these troubled times.
All of which brings us to the likelihood of our Bobsled-Buckin', Canis lupus tundrarum-terminating (Arctic Wolf) Snow Queen's descending (sorry, that's how they see it) to the Oval. I'm not making that up either. And this columnist, unlike the previous one, appears to have done his homework. The regression analysis here is as ineluctable as it is dismal.
Vote 08 PALIN how likely is a 'PRESIDENT' PALIN? 09-08-08
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jerome-karabel/the-vice-presidency-how-c_b_124942.html
So it doesn't look good for a continuance of even the rough-and-ready rule of John McCain. Actuarially, we're far more likely to see a severe wrenching of our government to the Right – as in, The Dominionist Right - and an ever more :faith-filled" view of the world - just what we need.
But it gets worse. There is more to all this conniving than the mere pilfer of a presidency. If these were Alex Jones, breathless, sky-is-falling conspiracy spinners, one could take them all with a grain of salf. But these are serious minds, applying their considerable intellect to some really undeniable or explainable facts. Moyers, for one, doesn't suffer dunces or pretenders.
-vote THEFT 08 WHY PALIN? - CHILLING! Mark Crispin Miller talk #47.21 09-24-08
http://electionfraudblog.com/category/04-election/#top
-vote THEFT 08 THEOCRACY Mark Crispin Miller PAPER BALLOTS! #17.04 10-17-08
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/10172008/watch3.html
If this ever comes to pass, folks like yours truly will soon become persona non face. If you don't happen to be crazy about Jesus, what might be your options?
A condo in Vancouver (B.C.) comes to mind, but maybe it won't make much difference:
-MexAmeriCana SPP.gov - the STEALTH INTEGRATION of NORTH AMERICA #13.07
http://www.eon3.net/pages/main.html
The above is a work in progress forced on you by the NeoCon, globalist, kleptocratic cabal who would own everything, everywhere, for no reason save avarice.
And it's all because Karl Rove doesn't play well with others.
But the perfect storm for Karl may not end in a Rapture in the Oval, but rather in his busily preparing for all the time he will spend defending himself in the dock for high crimes against his countrymen and humanity, not to mention the planet itself, which may take awhile to recover from all the slings and arrows inflicted by the army of freebooting kleptos set loose on everything not nailed down. But for Mssr. Rove, we would not have suffered one moment of the PygmyPrez in residence at 1600 Pennsylvania. It is painful to contemplate what the destructive will of just one human has denied us all. Karl had just better hope that gal doesn't win in Vermont. If not, Bugliosi will have to begin the long arc of justice.
Or maybe the Current Occupant will throw himself into the breach once more:
-vote THEFT 08 COUP WILL THE ELECTION BE CANCELLED? 08-01-07
http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_2255.shtml
-vote THEFT 08 DARK SCENARIOS Mark Crispin Miller interview #28.44 10-04-08
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHAaZQqOQHw&feature=related
Does Karl Rove have the cojones to steal 10 to 15 million votes (it took a piddling 5-6 million to cuckold Kerry)? As I write this, Obama's internals are almost forcing Rove – should he decide to attempt a Topkapi - to conduct highway robbery on Main Street, with bazookas at high noon)? I do know Karl is making micrometrical calculations of his odds, even as the O-Man raises the stakes by the day. Interesting times, these - with knobs on.
If we make it through this cold, dark and narrow place, there are some fundamental (punny) changes that would go a long way to prevent a recurrence of our current: fix.
My personal opinion is that we should have begun the conversation on what to propose at a 2nd ConCon (Constitutional Convention) around the time we started one in earnest on the successor to The League of Nations– 1946. But then, as Winnie once phrased it, America always does the right thing, but only after exhausting every other possibility. Such a dialogue might have denied a future Rovian hijack of the republic. It still can.
By the way, if you do decide to put some meaningful resources into this ziggurat of a story, you will find, alas, that you are one of the very, very few (McClatchy, SFGate, a few others) in the MSM press, magazines, radio or TV that is actually reporting the truth on this – part of my compact of complicity (my axes of alliteration actually mean something). If you ever decide to pursue the issue, I'll be more than happy to give you a CD containing all the sites I rely on to keep me up-to-date in this area. Who knows, you guys may start a cottage industry on the real MainStream Media news. Too bad the lion's share of that real news will have to come from independent news sources.
These three will get you started:
`vote THEFT 00 02 04 06 08 VIDEO BLOG RoveCyberGate Velvet Revolution.us
http://www.velvetrevolution.us/prosecute_rove/
`vote THEFT 00 02 04 06 08 VIDEO ARCHIVES & DOCUs Brasschecktv.com
http://www.brasschecktv.com/index.php?call=category&id=16
`vote THEFT 00 02 04 06 08 VIDEO ARCHIVES EON Library (will auto-play one after another)
http://www.eon3.net/pages/main.html
For in-depth analysis of the cyber-prestidigitation part of the Rove Rig Machine, try these:
`Black Box Voting.ORG Bev Harris http://blackboxvoting.org/
`The Landes Report Lynn Landes http://thelandesreport.com/VotingSecurity.htm
For a blow-by-blow of bads in the run-up to the bedlam we will most surely see on E-D (especially in Pinellas), go here. While Black Box Voting.com appears to have a Libertarian bent (says Dems are equally guilty of "flipping" votes as Repubs – not true - yet), they serve the useful purpose of acting as a repository for more trustworthy (balanced) reportage.
`Black Box Voting.com LIB Election Day Fiascos
http://blackboxvoting.com/s9/index.php?/categories/10-Election-Day-Fiascos
And, of course, who you gonna call regarding our own local, lovable and conniving, wannabe-made-men in Tallahassee? Who else? PAMBUSTERS! (Pam Haengel). Her handy cell is 727 244-9064. Don't expect an actual person to pick up, but she'll get back to you in a jiffy – right after she puts out this little fire over here. This gal may actually be as busy as Becky Steele.
And yes, I had noticed that most of my heroes lately have been women; makes me feel a little like Opus (I'll never be the man my mother was). I'd consider placing my gender on the endangered species list, but only after January 20th.
P.S. If all the above is old news to you, please let me know the search terms I might enter on your site to bring forth the geyser of data you have imparted to your readers (of whom I am one, but somehow missed). My guess is that, like my search for "winter soldier 2007" in the New York Times, it will be slim pickings indeed. (Okay, I cheated. I got 31,476 results under "voting fraud," not voter fraud – a 99.999% fallacy, After flipping through 5-6 pages, I failed to notice a single account of the issues I raise here (only the distracters), with one exception: Mexico. That was indeed stolen by the methods outlined here.
It might interest you to know that two months prior to that 2006 election, Mexico's Board of Elections, breaking a few Mexican election statutes, shipped their entire voter database to – I am not making this up (sorry to keep saying this, but my imagination is no match for the reality that surrounds me) – DBT Choicepoint in Atlanta. The records came back to Mexico City about a week later and performed just as six years previously in Florida 2000.. It was vital to the oil men running the USA that Calderon attain power as Obrador had promised to start sending Pemex oil to places other than our own, sweet selves; that, and he had a problem with our usual rape of his nation's resources. Can't have that, now, can we?
This link will give you the bare bones, but they're about 18 months behind Greg Palast who was kicking around the Mexican precincts 48 hours after the deed was done (can't find the bookmark, sorry). But it's all for naught. Peak Oil will arrive in Ole Mexico in spades by 2010. They've been on a gentle downward curve for at least 5 years (even using the old Saudi trick of pumping in seawater to boost wellhead pressure hasn't worked). At present rates, Pemex's production will fall by 15-20% by 2012. Mexico accounts for about 15% of our oil imports today.
http://www.projectcensored.org/top-stories/articles/18-mexicos-stolen-election/
Kunstler is right. We may very well follow any old Tom, Dick & Schicklgruber if he'll promise not to interfere with our comfortable lives, leave us alone and just take care of it. Oh, and while you're at it, feel free to help yourself to what's left of our civil liberties. We'd cheer you on, but, our faces will be buried in our flat-screen home cinemas.
Now that I've made BFs and drinking buddies of everyone at the Times, my work is done here. My pitiful attempt to make amends is… FLASH HUMOR! (I know, BFD, but I'm on a budget)
# PALIN's INTERACTIVE OVAL (about 2 dozen toggles) http://www.palinaspresident.us/
(doubtful you'll find them all – click when you see a cursor hand, not an arrow – open the door 4x, click twice each time-it's a blast! – the windows and portraits are fun too - don't let the boss see… D'oh! I forgot.)
!vote THEFT 00 FL How the Bush Stole Florida l & ll - Dave Counts 2001
http://www.toostupidtobepresident.com/shockwave/the_bush.htm
`Too Stupid To be President http://www.toostupidtobepresident.com/ lots more, like…
`Uncle Dick's Precious http://www.toostupidtobepresident.com/shockwave/precious.htm
!vote THEFT 00 FL Grand Theft America – Eric Blumrich flashvid (noisy) #2.44 2002
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8gcJOhCHWRQ
This is not a LTE. I won't be offended if you choose not to print this. I wouldn't. However, please feel free to use any/all of my research, once you've verified its accuracy. I further hope you will make this required reading for any of your staff that may have occasion to report on this issue. At least one newsroom will possess the facts, though truth to tell, It would not surprise me if I never see a line of text in the SPT on any of the issues bruited here. Nobody ever got rich telling the American people the truth. You have a First Amendment right to ignore or dismiss even an Everest of evidence. But, that is the problem, isn't it?
Don't get me wrong, I love you guys (most of the time), but you're not doing your job; namely, telling the people what they need to know. Are you? The biggest crime in the history of this nation, and you've got your knickers in a twist over ACORN, of all things. Do you guys have even the foggiest as to how unthreatening to the republic (or your grandma) these folks are? You'd be more productive having a hissy over the deferred maintenance on Aung San Suu Kyi's house.
Here's the real skinny on that scam:
-vote THEFT 08 FAUX - THE TRUTH ABOUT ACORN 10-11-08
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2008/10/10
Then we have the folks whose sole job is sow as much confusion as possible. I'd like to think it's they who are confused, but more likely they're just certain. This one is as right as he can be – always. He is hardly ever confused by the facts. Being a hater helps too. They're easy to spot. They're the ones interrupting the answer of another, raising their voices to dominate on the "decibel uber alles" theory of bully colloquy. That's John - a treat to watch in small doses.
-vote THEFT 08 FAUX - SPINNER 'Stealing Elections' - John Fund (WSJ) 2008
http://www.booktv.org/program.aspx?ProgramId=9938&SectionName=Politics&PlayMedia=No
Every word in Mr. Fund's book is a lie. It's not a perversion of the facts. It is not misleading, nor is it even misguided. It is a lie, because everything I know about this guy yells propagandist. But, if he can turn a mind here, or a mind there, he's earned his pay. Pathetic.
And for a blazing example of the dire straits in which the 4th Estate finds itself (much of it beyond its control – now we know how all those scribes must have felt hearing of Johann's signing events in 1455), one need go no further than this imported voter fraud problem – hot stuff, straight off their wires and into a slot (from your cross-creek rivals, no less). I'm guessing not a man-jack up there in Nashville has a clue as to what's in this piece, or even who the bad guys are. All I really know is that they've managed to clean up their own voter fraud so well that they apparently must look elsewhere to find the little bit that is left. They won't find any in the Volunteer State, but only because Karl only cares about swing states.
I sure the hell hope there's more than Publius waiting down the road, because otherwise we're all going to be in really deep doggie-doo. Amy can't do it all by herself.
-vote THEFT 08 FAUX - THE ACORN LIE EVEN COVERS UP REAL FRAUD 10-11-08
http://www.bizjournals.com/prnewswire/press_releases/District_of_Columbia/2008/10/11/CLSA007 And either Buddy, too, is clueless, or he knows exactly what the ACORN smear is all about)
By the way, Adam's courtesy cc is by dint of his byline on the subject piece. The copy to Howard, whom I absolutely revere (it's also an adorable photo), is because, over the years, for all the other stuff on which he has been dead-on target, he has exhibited a high disdain for all theories that lead down the path where this missive irresistibly leads the open and critical mind (which describes Howard's on most issues, just not this one).
Howard had me at lovable gadfly and smart-ass-shibboleth-skewer. Give the man a raise; even if you can't afford it.
-Laurie Anderson - Only An Expert bush-protest pop video #7.57 live tour 07-2007
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIT5X46aJcY&feature=related
Paul, as a courtesy, I plan to try to find someone to publish this. It took me far more time than I thought, but a thing worth doing is worth doing well. While I'm fairly sure this is not your cup of tea, it seems a shame have it just sitting on my hard drive. I will hold off until midday Wednesday before sending it elsewhere. Feel free to use the info to inform your readers. As usual, you may use my original scribbling with attribution.
Sorry this turned out to be so windy. Hope you enjoyed reading it.
Take Care,
NjW 10-24 thru 10-27-08
P.S. The fates are against me. I finished up around 0230 this morning (28th). My alleged schedule upon arising? remove paper from door, tinkle, glance at above-the-fold heds on first and second sections, make coffee, sip coffee gently while reviewing this, by now near-novella, for fact and flow, hit Send, go do all the other stuff left to lie fallow over the past 3 days.
Simple, n'est pas? But your star columnist, crafty rascal that he is, had other plans for me. On my deathbed, friends and family will ponder my dying words "But, how did he know"?
Great column, as usual, but anybody can write a mere 700-odd words. It takes real prolixity to rattle on for 6k, or more. Okay, much more.
Too bad for you, Paul, but, at risk of rendering this project moot and irrelevant, I have a few trenchant (but loving) observations on Howard's latest (my deadline is now apparently Election Day). Fear not. I'll be brief. (wild applause, raspberries and hurled objects; not all of them soft).
Dear Howard, NjW 10-28-08 4pp 2,894 words
Re: It's more than 'my side wins, or else' http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/elections/article876473.ece
While your column today is in your usual witty and breezy style, I'll take issue with your casual abuse of the facts and attempt to be even-handed where the subject literally cries out for journalistic exposure of the most trenchant variety. While you author an opinion piece, this does not give you license to misrepresent the facts, or elide them altogether.
It is clear to me (from this and your many previous columns on the subject) you have not researched this issue beyond the usual wave-top coverage of the corporate media (MSM). Please don't misunderstand my motives. It is only fair that you know who I am.
After much palaver back and forth with my fellow humans over the past 3-score and 6 years, I can honestly say I know of no one more open-minded, less partisan, less likely to rush to judgment, willing and able to follow the facts wherever they lead, and to embrace the results as true until given new, credible and verifiable (by me) information that may cause me to modify what I'm already pretty sure of. My approach to ensuring nobody's blowing smoke at me is to first dig out the honest brokers on an issue. When you find one, you'll find that they know others of their ilk – easy. I then fence out the panderers, propagandists, hidden agenda ideologues, conflict-of-interest crowd, pretenders, the scholastically sloppy, and so on. I look for those who know their subject cold and have the courage to always speak truth to power.
It helps that I am fair-minded to a fault, unreligious, unpolitical, conservative and liberal (often both simultaneously), always the most progressive person in the room (or stadium), determinedly non-partisan – except in cleaving to the "right thing" whenever and if that becomes apparent – and accepting reason as my only "god." (else, what's the point of all those smarts if we are to suspend them anytime another human with their own agenda tells us to?) I am also loyal, obedient, thrifty, brave….
You might also like to know that, after observing Senator Obama since mid-2007, I joined his Tampa campaign after the Iowa primary in January (got him 12 sheets of volunteer sign-ups at his first rally at the SPT Forum). Obama's rhetorical "pivot" (it's like everyone discovers a "new" word) to the right after winning the Dem nomination, didn't bother me (to quote the candidate himself, "just words"), but his treasonous vote for the FISA "uncriminalization" bill was grounds for divorce. It did not help his brief with me that it was a Harvard-trained, Constitutional law professor who committed such perfidy. I consider myself a student of civil liberties, yet even I knew what Obama's intellectually honest vote should have been. After his "Aye" on the criminal bailout mugging (I dubbed it Grand Theft USA), I had to ask myself just how much change the Senator was really up for?
After you have read through the above with an open mind, I wonder if you will still equate the above mass of facts (perhaps 10-15% of more than a decade's research) with your present habit of skipping through the fields of Rovian skullduggery, only to arrive at the conclusion that "…attacks… …mounted by each of our major parties for its own gain."? Only one side has mounted a full-court press to steal the nation. Are you trying to be "fair"? And if being "fair" affords the grossly more unfair side journalistic cover (yours, in this case), then what are you really doing? Helping the guys who are busily chewing away at the foundations with everything they've got?
"…both sides are laying the groundwork for challenges to the system if they lose". Quite true, but you again damn both sides equally, implying a parity (read legitimacy) that works solely to the benefit of the bad guys. Only one side is trying to gain unfair advantage over the other here. The truth is that the Republican (actually, the Crypto-Fascists who have hijacked the GOP brand) focus is on "protecting" a ginned up and totally bogus smokescreen in order to cuckold the less wary – reader and journalist alike – into doing what you have done for them in this piece: camouflaging their true intentions. Check out Ron Paul's site – also read this:
Neo-CONNED! SPEECH Rep. Ron Paul, M.D. (TX) #51min 07-10-03
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4156174553630131591
TEXT http://www.house.gov/paul/congrec/congrec2003/cr071003.htm
From ACORN "threats" to "cheaters" (trying to vote ahead of when they're supposed to, so let's hector and bully them into voting on Election Day, when they will likely discover that a Republican SoE has only managed to rustle up half the usual voting machines for their precinct – BTW, the "early" voting was perfectly legal). The Election Protection folks' (overwhelmingly non-partisan) legal efforts are defending against genuine, 24-caret, voter suppression efforts by hackers, neo-brownshirts (no proof yet, but there is every reason to think that the blackshirts of Erik Prince's Blackwater will prove to have been involved in suppression down the road).
That said, you might get the idea that I am defending Democrats. That would be due to my not having explained what makes me go; why I have taken the considerable time to lay out the case for the real fraud being perpetrated on this nation: bad behaviour.
Do Dems behave badly? They sure do, just not right now; not this week, and not in this election the only culprits in this election are the Fascists running the GOP (into the ground, I might add; perhaps terminally). It's hard to go after folks who aren't doing anything illegal at the moment. To do so, you have to get into a Tom Cruise movie, or something.
So, you can wait around for Dem bads, or go dig up Richard J. Daley and give him hell for stealing Illinois into JFK's column in 1960. But, then we might also want to send 'round some roses with a thank-you note for delaying Tricky Dick's dark spirit from pervading the Oval long enough for LBJ and MLK to finally do something for the oppressed blacks in a racist 60s America. Can you imagine Nixon and Martin Luther working together on civil rights? How many vetoes would it have taken Nixon to kill the breakneck pace of the 98th and 99th Congresses, including the Civil Rights Act, The Voting Rights Act, and a slew of others by the most productive Congresses in the nation's history?
It doesn't make it right, but at least something really good came of it.
Can you name me one unalloyed benefit that has come out of Rove's saddling us with the Frat-Boy King for the past, utterly miserable (because he is) 8 years? And don't even mention Part D.
When you equate real wrongdoing with the faux variety (concocted by the real criminals), you give cover to the crooks and let down your readers who look to you for entertainment, but also have, I think you'll agree, an expectation that you'll at least try to avoid misleading them, and level with them if a guess is just a guess. Maybe even admit an error upon learning of it.
When you publish "…there are still Democrats today who don't believe they lost in 2004", in effect, you reinforce the "Sore Loserman" trope. In actual fact – beyond any doubt – some 5 to 6 million votes in that election were disappeared, uncounted, caged, lost, destroyed "inadvertently" and basically cast but not counted. About half of those (which means about 25%) were electronically "flipped." Sadly, it's all 100% verified, except for the info currently being denied by the many Rove (so far, unindicted) co-conspirators who will go to prison if they divulge their neck-deep complicity. The subpoenas are served (and being studiously avoided – wonder why?) and all these lawless thugs and traitors need not ask for whom the clock ticks; it tocks for them.
Even your entertaining opinion should have some relationship to the truth, eh?
As for 2000, watch the documentary, "Unprecedented" (on a site above). Or, read Palast's Best Democracy Money Can Buy. Top drawer is Jeff Toobin's Too Close To Call. See what you think after that little lot. Once again, save your time if you think it's all a pack of lies. If your cup is full on this issue, even a drop more water will only result in your cup running over. If you are able to empty your cup a little (place to one side what you think you know, you may then get a grasp of the monstrous fraud perpetrated on this nation by Karl Christian Rove.
To get a better handle on who this quantum-miscreant really is, tuck into Bush's Brain by Moore & Slater.. For a Wiki primer, go hereà http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Rove
The few lines below, from today's piece are to illustrate a point. The portions in bold are the work of one man: Karl Rove Your confusion on this issue is by design and perpetrated by folks way more cunning than thee and me. But the fellow at the con – in both senses of that word – is only Karl Rove.
If you think about it, why did we see "…a sharp rise (in "anomalies") in recent years…"? What changed in those years? Were there long lines at the polls, throughout the nation, only in Democratic strongholds in swing states in the 90s? 80s? 70s? Did we have a series of "miraculous" reversals of fortune; always to the advantage of the GOP? Other than Truman-Dewey in 1948, can you recall any pattern of anomalies like those we have seen in the Nulls (2001-2009)?
Why are "Democrats alleging voter-suppression efforts"? Don't we know for sure? Why has no reporter gotten to the bottom of these "allegations"? Lazy journalists? Early-retired fallout? See no evil, hear…?
This year, John McCain accused the voter-registration group ACORN of "destroying the fabric of our democracy." How, exactly, are a bunch of dedicated older registration workers and homeless folks pulling this off? If they're this effective at bringing down America, why don't we buff them up and stop-loss them to our latest bogus war?
You get the point. All of this is designed to divide us, get us at each other's throats, sow suspicion, manufacture as many canards and hoaxes as possible, and, in general, create so much din and confusion so as to make most sane people throw up their hands and go have a beer (which it would be an honor to buy you someday).
There are going to be problems on Election Day. There always have been. You can't count 80-million, 100-million of anything without problems. FACT: In 2006, India's 325 million voters cast paper ballots. They were tallied by hand – like most of the world's democracies – in 3 days – do you think the world's only super-duperpower could manage to count one-third the voters in one-third the time? Then again, maybe there are forces for whom that's the last thing they want.
There's a certain margin of error in the system. The problem with the 2000 election was that the actual margin of votes fell inside that margin of error. That's just life. It wasn't a flaw in our democracy. FACT: Al Gore won Florida by over 300,000 votes – all the votes were never recounted – stopped the first time by Katherine Harris – restarted by the Florida Supremes for a second time – stopped finally by Bush v. Gore.
Here's hoping that the result on Nov. 4 is decisive, one way or the other, up and down the ballot — a nice, "clean" result. FACT: Why do we not have a fair process that allows us to have a transparent and accurate way to recount a close vote? Why must it be a landslide before we can be sure the guy/gal with the most votes is the one who takes office? Why are you resigned to settle for less?
But if there isn't, then we will just have to figure it out. It will be better to approach that job with a spirit of practicality and goodwill, instead of a spirit of, "The election is illegitimate unless my side wins." FACT: Only one side holds such a philosophy. After all, there's nothing to lose by trying to win by guile after one has lost on merit, is there?
Useless words, maybe. Our country is polarized (mission accomplished, Karl), and the modern attack rhetoric (again, one-sided – Google H R Halderman & Lee Atwater) does not lend itself to cooperation (they are not at all interested in cooperation). Still, I would rather lose an election than win by willfully destroying faith in the democracy itself. (And don't the Crypto-Fascists love that – let's hear it for capitulation!)
Howard, words look harsh in print. Without body language or tone of voice to blend a picture of outright loathing, earnest concern, condescension, schadenfreude or empathy for the situation or individual, it's harder to ferret out motive, especially ulterior, on the page.
I have no problem with the opinions of others, especially yours. You are a valuable voice in our community. But, this letter (book, tome, novella, whatever – be kind) is all about fact. As Daniel Patrick Moynihan once famously said, you have a right to any you like with the former, but you don't get to pick and choose among the latter.
My hope is that you and the Times will study up and use this as a database to tell your gentle readers the plain facts on this most important issue.
And there is one other issue that you might want to think about.
I don't consider myself an intellectual. My one saving grace is to recognize bullshit when I encounter it; my skeptic detector never rests. So, why is it that, in essence, a guy with Google and an average G-2 can winkle out the truth of the matter, while the Times and your own sweet self get it wrong year after year?
Your business, it's now crystal-clear, in its present form is going the way of the dodo bird, buggy whip and, with luck, the alleged Republican Party (the Fascist one, maybe the real party of Lincoln, Buckley and Rockefeller as well)). I suggest you go out with your freak flag high, as Jimi put it. Go out in a blaze of glory by reporting the real news, not the ad separators most of it is now.
I can guide you – and the Times - to a host of reliable, fact-based sources, a significant % of which you're probably unaware. In fact, you'll probably pay less to reprint many of these than the mostly sterile and formulaic pap you now recycle from the MSM likes of the AP (they make the SPT's fact-checkers look good and Google's AdSense looms larger in their rearview mirror every day), WaPo, and other wires. The exceptions remain the NYT and McClatchy. While shadows of their former selves, neither has long to run. McClatchy's luster is the afterglow from the bevy of top people they picked up in the merger with Knight-Ridder. The Old Grey Lady's commitment to superior journalistic standards is under attack. The barbarians are well past the gate (on the board, with muted influence, but gaining strength), and in fact are in the parlor waiting for the master of the house to retire so they can rape his daughter unhindered. Arthur Jr.'s pledge to the family (Sulzbergers) to maintain the NYT's traditionally high journalistic standards is costing the Times dearly and he is coming under increased criticism that he justify the astronomical ducats going to his star-power: Krugman, Dowd, Friedman, etc. Too, the Times and Rupert's toy are among the few U.S. institutions to maintain bureaus worthy of that term around the globe and with sufficient staff to go deep when required; and the Times does it across the board, not just mainly business. Arthur Jr. also misallocated millions in stock buybacks; and a brand-spanking new HQ on Double-Fifth Avenue hasn't helped the cash-flow thingie either. Those millions might have been better spent in diversifying the family biz in the late 90s, for the same techno-tsunami you are witnessing up close and personal.
`media New York Times BLEEDS PRINTERS INK 10-05-08 http://nymag.com/news/media/51015/
I can also probably provide you with a POV that is probably in short supply in your newsroom and institution. Nothing formal, but feel free to give me a buzz anytime (I prefer actual talking when something is being pondered by two or more – the typing process – e-mail - gets in the way of interactive/responsive colloquy). I'm pretty sure that you will hear a POV from me that you had not thought about a good 50% of the time. And no, I have no idea where that comes from. I just accept it.
Your paper might do well to mirror Robyn's approach to civil liberties. There isn't much I find to quarrel with in her conclusions on that subject, and it's due to her unerring ability to avoid playing to her own, often strongly-held, prejudices and withholding judgment until all the facts are in. As Nat Hentoff once said in his sterling piece on Robyn awhile back, Robyn is a true civil libertarian.
The great institution that is the St. Petersburg Times still has in it the ability to be a true clarion for the people.
Take Care my friend,
NjW
Nigel Watson freethinker
727.493.1990 freesense@Gmail.com
There is no greater disaster than greed.
– Lao-tzu
