June 19, 2007
Thom Hartman
c/o KPOJ Radio
4949 SW Macadam Ave.
Portland, OR 97239
Subject: Election Integrity
You have often had Bev Harris on your show, and refer to her as a “good friend”. If you get a chance, you have to ask her why she has come out against Keith Olbermann and his analysis of the GOP use of “voter fraud” to suppress the minority vote.
This is the Olbermann commentary on Gonzalez:
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/050807A.shtmlThis is her response to that commentary—
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ShowMeTheVote/message/119Re: The Olbermann piece
I have to say this. It contains spin and is propaganda-laden, but since the specific propaganda tactics are pushing the Democrat platform, it seems that no one wants to review Olbermann's conclusions with very much rigor.
I saw it on TV last night and frankly, it just about made me gag.
He tucked a blatantly racist comment in there that only a myopic white liberal could love. Something about a threat to clamp down on voter fraud being an intimidation tactic for African American voters. What bullshit. And this implies exactly WHAT about Black Americans??? An obvious ploy to get white liberals heatedly Democratic, but exploitive and insulting to the black community, what else is new.
A classic example of taking a situation with Republican abuse of power and tucking in skillful editorializing to induce listeners/readers to draw additional conclusions that support the political strategies of the Democratic Party. One does not necessarily track to the next.
Members of the Democratic Party have explicitly told me they view election reform as a "gold mine issue" meaning: It raises funds. There is an intense and often inappropriate effort to control the issues and steer the issues toward Democratic Platform agendas.
Those involve, by the way, continuing the techno-berserko methodology that has us in so much hot water to begin with.
Sorry about the rant, but when I heard Olbermann last night, I literally couldn't sleep. Maybe it's because I spent so many years writing publicity talking points. I recognized the propaganda tactics the moment I heard them, and was sickened to see precisely the same mind-manipulation methodologies being used on the left as we have seen used by the right.
Never forget that the Constitution has no place for political parties who wish to insert themselves and their platform between you and your voting rights. Your relationship with your voting rights is direct, and all the two parties are doing is getting in the way and taking people's eyes off the ball.
Bev Harris
Founder - Black Box Voting
This sounds like your typical regurgitation of the Rove meme that “voter fraud” is the same thing as election integrity problems with unauditable voting machines. These are two separate and distinct issues, with Republicans being the current party of voter suppression, and both parties being equal opportunity offenders in surrendering our election process to private corporations. The real irony is that Democrats who go along with this program have mostly wound up victimizing other Democrats. The “Democrat” Party thinks this issue is a fundraiser? I wish. As a local Dem activist I can attest that it’s damned hard to get party higher-ups to pay serious attention to it.
I hope you’ll take the opportunity to confront her about this sometime.
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