For those in despair: the Republican/Democratic elephant in the room--Diebold/ES&S

How can we engage in political dialog in this country, and expect anything to come of it, when the President and Vice President, and most members of Congress, and all candidates--left, right and center--have achieved their power, or are seeking power, by means of elections that are run on 'TRADE SECRET,' PROPRIETARY programming, owned and controlled by rightwing Bushite corporations, with virtually no audit/recount controls?

This condition of privatized, non-transparent, unverifiable elections--pervasive throughout the country, and actively supported by BOTH political parties--and how it that came about, and why--is the main political discussion that should be taking place, in my opinion, because without publicly counted, transparent, verifiable elections--the bottom line of democracy--no change can take place, no reform can or will be enacted, and none of the chief orators in the debate have any legitimate power, or any prospect of legitimate power. They are self-inflated or corporate-inflated windbags.

But this is not even a topic in the national political "debate"--let alone the central topic. Virtually none of the members of Congress can prove that they were actually elected. And no one is talking about it.

The handover of our election system to rightwing Bushite corporations--chiefly Diebold and ES&S--is the "elephant in the room" when either party holds a "debate" among presidential candidates. It is the "elephant in the room" in Congress. It is the "elephant" in our living rooms, and why our rotten tomatoes can't hit the TV screen--they are diverted by the invisible "elephant." We want to thrown rotten fruit at some (or all) the candidates, at our political officials and at their idiotic corporate lapdogs talking heads, because why? Because we sense that the candidates are not seeking legitimate power--the power of the people--they are seeking to be crowned emperor. And we sense that it is all a shadowplay, a dumbshow. And that is pretty much the truth of it, with Diebold and ES&S "counting" all the votes with "trade secret" code.

What use is it for them to be discussing the war, the "surge," the "withdrawal"--or whatever their "framing" is today , when the corporate puppetmasters of our political establishment have seized (or, rather, been handed) DIRECT control over our election outcomes, one of the purposes of which was to shove this unjust war down our throats?

"Trade secret" voting counting is not the only thing wrong with our election system, by any means, but it is the democracy-killer, the show-stopper, the 'coup de gras' to an already very corrupt system in which the will of the American people had come to count for little, and now counts for nothing.

We can out fund-raise the fascists. We can out-organize them. We can beat them at GOTV. We clearly can outvote them. We are the majority! But we cannot defeat a combination of vast amounts of fascist money poured into both "D" and "R" candidacies, the war profiteering corporate news monopoly control of virtually all our public airwaves, newspapers and magazines, AND "trade secret" voting counting, that can be employed any time, almost anywhere, to put the final tweak on close primary and general elections tipping them to warmongers and fascists of either party, and to outright steal others that are crucial to fascist/corporate control of our government. It is too much. It is the 'coup de gras'--the final blow. We can win a few seats in Congress, here and there; we can keep some good representatives in power (or be permitted to--for appearances' sake); but those who control the voting machines' secret code can, will, and clearly have been shaping Congress, overall, to favor war, corporations and the very rich, and there is quite overwhelming evidence that they also kept El Stupido and his Darth Vader sidekick in the White House, in 2004. (The Repukes had to go all out to do it, but the Ohio vote suppression against black citizens and other minorities was only a secondary aspect of the stolen election, which was bottom-lined by "trade secret" vote mis-counting all over the country.)

How this non-transparent vote counting system came about--very quickly during the 2002 to 2004 period, parallel to the Iraq War (and closely related to it), fast-tracked all over the country with a $3.9 billion electronic voting boondoggle provided by the Anthrax Congress (in the same month as the IWR, October 2002)--is critically important to analyzing our situation now, with the Democratic candidate who is least representative of the American people, and the most pro-war, and the most pro-global corporate predator, already having been crowned "queen," and with labor groups and others (most recently, Wesley Clark) jumping on board in order to have some influence with the imperial monarch who is about to be installed.

This "crowning" of the designated corporate predator candidate, far in advance of the vote, by the corporate news monopolies, has been going on for some time. I first noticed it when Time magazine put Bill Clinton on the cover--when he was still relatively unknown--long before most primary votes, in 1992. I remember thinking "who the hell is this?" and why are they treating him as if he already had the nomination, and giving him this big advantage of a "presidential" Time magazine cover, before most of the voting? I also thought, 'my vote is going to be worthless.' The political establishment had chosen the winner already. (I can't recall now, but I think it was before ANY primary vote had occurred--and certainly before Clinton had made much of an impact--because I really and truly was only dimly aware of who he was, when Time magazine had put him on its cover--and I was politically active and aware.)

It actually started before that, with Reagan--under whose regime the Great Unraveling of the New Deal began, and who presided over some of the most godawful atrocities in Latin America that our government has ever been involved in.

"The Great Communicator." Right. The Greatest Liar and Fascist Murderer ever to seize power in the U.S. until Bush and Cheney. His "presidential-ness" and "aw shucks" ambience was all an act--quite literally. His personality was an illusion created by the corporate news monopolies, as cover for part 1 of a several-part corporate ruler/fascist coup. Part 2, Bush Sr., and the pummeling of Iraq to soften it up for future invasion. Part 3, Clinton, NAFTA, the FTAA, GATT, etc.--the economic triumph of the global corporate predators over American sovereignty (and other nations' and peoples' sovereignty)-- a few tech millionaires, to silence the upper middle class, but total shafting of everybody else, and critical loss of democratic power over labor and environmental regulation (and our public airwaves). Part 3, the Supreme Court coup in 2000. Part 4, egregiously unjust and unnecessary war, torture, and shredding of the U.S. Constitution, brought to you by Diebold and ES&S "trade secret" vote counting.

Let me just briefly tell WHO is now 'counting' all our votes, with "trade secret" code, by leave of our Democratic Party leadership (Howard Dean excepted--I don't think he goes along with it, but he can't fight it too openly):

DIEBOLD: Until recently, headed by Wally O'Dell, a Bush-Cheney campaign chair and major fundraiser (a Bush "Pioneer," right up there with Ken Lay), who promised in writing to "deliver Ohio's electoral votes to Bush-Cheney in 2004"; and

ES&S: A spinoff of Diebold (similar computer architecture), initially funded by rightwing billionaire Howard Ahmanson, who also gave one million dollars to the extremist 'christian' Chalcedon Foundation (which touts the death penalty for homosexuals, among other things).

These are the people who "counted" 80% of the nation's votes in 2004, under a veil of corporate secrecy. These are the people who "counted" more than 80% of the nation's votes in 2006, the election that brought us an ESCALATION of the Iraq War, and $100 billion MORE in unaccountable funding of the war, in the teeth of SEVENTY PERCENT opposition to the war by the American people.

You do the math. How do you get a Congress that is the exact opposite of the American people on the matter of unjust war?

You can't just buy such a Congress, when there are free and fair elections--especially with the antiwar left (the majority) having shown the capability of matching the fascists, dollar for dollar, in small donations, and blowing the Bushites away in new Democratic voter registration (60/40, in 2004). You have to get it by stealth. And guess what? Our political establishment just happened to have a stealth vote counting system, all in place. A system that defies verification. A system in which one third of the country doesn't even have the potential for a recount, because there is no "paper trail" at all, and the rest of the states, at best, do a 1% audit (very inadequate in a "trade secret" voting system), and have big blockades in front of recounts (making them very difficult and expensive to obtain, and even then, procedures are often highly arbitrary and untrustworthy).

I repeat: This system was deliberately put in place, and fast-tracked all over the country, with the collusion of our Democratic Party leaders.

So, when they say "we don't have enough votes" in Congress to stop the war, or to impeach the criminals in the White House, they are leaving something out, that is very crucial to the composition of Congress: their collusion on the installation of extremely insecure and insider hackable voting systems, run on 'TRADE SECRET,' PROPRIETARY programming code, owned and controlled by rightwing Bushite corporations, with virtually no audit/recount controls, and their failure to warn voters of the LIKELIHOOD of election fraud, in such a system, and their placing an "Iron Curtain" over these facts and over any discussion of election fraud.

Collusion. That is what we're dealing with. Major and even treasonous betrayal of American democracy, by our own party leaders, office holders and many election officials.

I predicted that Hillary Clinton would be the nominee, loathsome as her policies are--totally out of line with the American people on the war, and also out of line with the interests and views of the American people on many other issues--because I could see the signs of this "crowning" of the corporate monarch long ago, and I knew that our corporate rulers now have the capability to directly overrule us in the primaries.

And--oddly, perhaps--that is why I am not in despair. It helps to know--or at least to make a well-informed analysis of--what's really going on, because then you can focus on what is essential, and what is doable, for long term gains in democracy, social justice, world peace and saving our poor battered planet earth.

ESSENTIAL NO. 1: Restore transparent vote counting--whatever level of it you can achieve, as quickly as possible, and, long term, 100% transparency--through activism in every local/state jurisdiction.

It is easy, and it is not expensive, to have a ballot for every vote, and to handcount every ballot at the precinct level, whatever system is used to store or convey data. In California, grass roots election reformers just got the worst Diebold shill in the state--Connie McCormack, head of Los Angeles elections--to resign her post because of the OBVIOUSNESS of the need for transparent vote counting. Almost every voter wants it. (A Zogby poll put it at 92%.) It is the bottom line of democracy. It is a no-brainer. And, when the non-transparency is exposed (by means of humongous uphill battles to overcome the corporate news media and our own party leaders' blackholing of the subject), virtually ALL Americans agree that they want vote counting that everyone can see and understand.

It is doable. It is even showing signs of snowballing, as a movement. It is the most important task that we, as a people, have ever been faced with: restoring American democracy, first of all by restoring transparent vote counting--the bottom line of democracy.

We may well have to suffer through a Hillary Clinton attack on Iran, a military Draft, the entire U.S. military permanently squatting on the Middle East at a cost of billions of dollars per week, and consolidation of all the enormous corporate gains under Bush, as well as Clinton's utilization of "unitary executive" powers (torture, spying, detention without trial, the White House writing its own laws), and possibly economic meltdown (Great Depression II), before we get our country back. I have no doubt at all that we WILL get our country. But we MUST understand that this is a long term struggle; we must learn to think beyond the next election; and we must not permit the Corporate Rulers to continue their ONLY propaganda success--demoralizing and disempowering the great, peace-minded, justice-minded American majority. They have not convinced us of anything, on the issues, but they have convinced a lot of people that we can't change anything, that we are powerless, and even that we are the minority.

We must not sink into despair because all our passionate activism, and all our many gains in getting information to the people, and organizing political rebellion, have resulted in...Hillary Clinton.

We should instead be flattered that the Corporate Rulers fear us so much, that they've gone to the lengths of installing an entire voting system, virtually everywhere in the nation, to undo our votes. The American people are a very potent force in the world--with huge potential to curtail corporate predation, and destruction of our planet, and to help create world peace. They fear us. Truly. I think they were stung by Seattle '99: 50,000 trade unionists, human rights groups, environmental groups, religious leaders and all sorts of ordinary folks marching against global corporate predator "free trade," and peacefully shutting down the "masters of the universe" at the WTO. They HAD to break it up, and slander it, with a police riot. I was there--that's what they did. And THEY haven't forgotten--though it has slipped into the river of corporate news forgetfulness.

They fear us. They do. That's the "why" of "trade secret" vote counting, which, on its face, violates the most basic requirement of democracy: transparent vote counting. That's why they did it. That's why they did it sneakily--and have gone to great lengths to keep a lid on it. They fear the collective power and will of the American people, in transparent elections.

Back just before this horrible war was started (Feb. '03), 56% of the American people opposed it. That is a significant majority. It would be a landslide in a presidential election (and believe me, it was). The antiwar majority has now grown to an unprecedented, epochal 70%, in the face of relentless, 24/7 warmongering and fascist propaganda. The American people have proven themselves to be amazingly resistant to the propaganda. That is one reason for hope. Our peoples' belief in democracy and progressive policy is very strong. It takes time for them to get information, through the clouds and clouds of disinformation, but the evidence is (in all polls, over the last several years, since before the 2004 election) that the progressive American majority has held true, and is getting even better informed and stronger, AND better organized.

Thus, the recent tactic of the Corporate Rulers of putting a "D" in front of their rotten policies--a "D" Congress yammering about "withdrawal" and voting to escalate and further fund the war; a "D" Congress giving Bush/Cheney MORE spying powers, for godssakes!

Clever. And crying about "not having enough votes." Very clever. Devious, in fact.

Don't despair! Please don't! Our democracy was not destroyed in a day, and it will not be rebuilt in a day. It's going to take long hard work, and likely more suffering. And it's not really destroyed--it lives on in the hearts of the American people, despite every effort to extinguish our democratic laws and traditions, and our abiding desire for peacefulness, fairness and progressive policy. And don't hate, either! That is wasted emotion. Also, I think we leftists should stop beating up on the American people, and lashing them for not "taking to the streets" in protest, or for being "sheeple." The fascists, including Hillary (or Fred Thompson, if she's not a good girl), now have the power to round up anyone who protests, and put us away without a hearing. They are spying on all of us, all of the time. And they may not have all the guns, but they most certainly have the most lethal weapons and forces, and are developing awful things to greet us with, should be challenge them in that way. It will be Seattle '99, writ large--with suspension of habeas corpus and all kinds of new weaponry and "Fatherlandish" non-laws and unconstitutional powers, with which to subdue us. Seattle '99 will look like a picnic, if it comes to that.

We are not Venezuela--where tens of thousands of people poured into the streets, and defeated an attempted violent fascist coup, in 2002 (--a great turning point in South American history). We are a much bigger and more diverse country--which makes us difficult to nazify, but also difficult to organize. And, in any case, the time for that kind of protest has likely passed us by. It probably would not have worked in 2000 and 2004, but, for various reasons, it did not happen, and something quite different is going on now--the consolidation of a fascist coup that has already taken place. It may take the form of a bounce-back from extreme fascism to corporatism. They've taken us to the far edge, and have been holding us over the cliff, so that the little pullbacks from a fascist state that Hillary might implement will seem like a relief, a reprieve. We'll settle for Corporate Rule, rather than outright, naked fascism, if Corporate Rule doesn't get too bad--if most of us can still eat and live somewhere. Or it could get ugly, depending on Corporate Ruler intentions and events that our government can no longer control, or that no one can control (such as sudden collapse of the economy, or sudden collapse of earth's ecosystem).

I would never discourage peaceful street protest. It is important for witness against atrocities and injustice, to educate people, and to hearten people--both those who participate and those who see it, or hear of it. But it is limited in what it can achieve. It might temper one policy--say a war policy--but it cannot change the underlying conditions and powers that brought that policy about. We saw this in the Vietnam War, which was eventually brought to end, because of public disapproval, spurred by street protest--but not before two million people were slaughtered. And the mechanisms of unjust war remained. The war profiteers were still in place, and just bided their time--until the next war boondoggle could be manufactured.

The only thing that can fundamentally change policy is democracy--transparent vote counting, combined with lively, wide-spectrum political discussion, and strong grass roots participation.

And this is where the South American model can help us. This astonishing leftist (majorityist) revolution that is sweeping South America is based, first of all, on TRANSPARENT elections. In Venezuela, they use electronic voting, but it is an open source code system--anyone may review the code by which the votes are tabulated--and they handcount FIFTY-FIVE PERCENT of the votes, as a check on machine fraud. 55%! --as opposed to our 0% or 1%, with "trade secret" programming. The OAS, the Carter Center, EU election monitoring groups, and local citizens and civic groups have done about a decade of hard work on democratic institutions such as open, honest elections.

Secondly, this peaceful revolution is based on strong grass roots organization--something we have almost forgotten how to do, especially since the decline of the labor movement under Reagan. It appears to me that, in many South American countries, community ties are stronger than they are here. And also, in some sense, their poverty may make them better organizers then we tend to be. They don't have any money, so that HAVE TO organize. The people themselves--the votes, the numbers--are their only strength.

The third precept that I've gleaned from studying events in these countries, where the left has won the presidency (and often the national legislature as well)--Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, and Chile (and in Central America, Nicaragua)--is this: Think big!

Conceive a national program that is the best possible program for our country and our people, and stick with it. Don't compromise going in. Don't be intimidated by the health care industry, for instance. Advocate entirely dismantling it, and constructing the best system. Don't be fearful of the corporate news monopolies. Teach people to ignore their lies, and advocate a complete dismantling of these corporate news monopolies, pulling their corporate charters and/or denying them licenses to use the public airwaves, and seizing their assets for the public good. We have that right. Why not assert it as a goal? The same for the oil giants and any other corporate predator who has fucked us over. We have the right to bust monopolies and regulate commerce. That is our sovereign right as a people. Why diddle around with mere regulation? Why not bust the lot of them, and save the world and ourselves much grief?

A progressive tax (the rich pay the most, the poor pay almost nothing--we had this once, pre-Reagan). Universal health care. Free university educations (we had this once, too). Active government assistance to small business; none to big corporations. (Did you know that small business is the biggest employer in this country?). Zero pollution. Fines and confiscation for all polluters. Complete conversion to sustainable "green" energy in five years. (Yes, we can do it!) 90% reduction in the military budget, down to a true defensive posture. Big diplomatic push for worldwide nuclear disarmament. Public financing of elections. Free air time for all candidates. Make your own list.

Think big. Think "the best system." That is what rallies the grass roots--not the "least evil" in a fascist system run by manipulative, lying, traitorous powermongers and warmongers. What is the best policy, the optimum policy, the most democratic policy, for the people, for all of us?

Transparent elections. Grass roots organization. Think big. They're doing it in South America, despite decades and centuries of brutal oppression. And if they can do it, so can we.

But it requires a truthful, accurate, practical analysis of the current situation--no "rose-colored glasses"--maintaining your hope and your faith, and planning and acting for the long term good of our country and our democracy.

And next time you see that "elephant in the room," kick its butt. That makes it visible, don't ya know? (Tomatoes don't work.)

:kick:

and helps keep peoples' eyes open, and opens eyes, and helps people to keep the faith, and keep working at democracy. It takes time. We can't fix it all at once. And there are mightily powerful forces working overtime to brainwash and demoralize us. And it's not going to get fixed with one election, or even several elections. First, we have to insure transparent vote counting. THEN we have to do EVERYTHING ELSE. No one can do it alone--no office holder, no activist, no group. It has to be a collective effort. I see hopeful signs all over the place, but I also fear that a Clinton "nomination" will be crushing to many peoples' spirits, and a Clinton presidency could do as much damage as the Bush Junta, maybe even more. I want people to be prepared for it, and focus their efforts on basic democracy-building, whatever happens. We have a long term struggle ahead of us, as a country. How best to pave the way for reform and renewal? How to equip our children and future generations? What are the best tools we could give them? One of them, I know, is the most basic one: transparent vote counting. If we can just do that for them, we will be giving them a great gift, and a solid foundation.

:kick:

You see imagination is something that is not real. This thread is about reality and truth and you trying to say something with no evidence or links means you are simply someone without a brain.

JUST TODAY I NOTICED MY BANK OF AMERICA ATM NO LONGER SAYS DIEBOLD BUT SOME OTHER NAME ????BOLD OR SUCH.

ANY OF YOU NOTICE THIS?????????????

I hadn't heard of them renaming other divisions. They separated the election division off recently, possibly anticipating litigation, and likely renamed it "Premier" because of Diebold's disrepute. Just remember, though, that ES&S, which is not so well known, is a spinoff of Diebold, and is equally bad if not worse, as to close ties to far rightwing causes, and underhandedness, secrecy and lying about their voting machines.

Because Diebold has been so blatantly biased and incompetent and a party to clearly fraudulent results (e.g. GA 02), people forget about ES&S, but they are probably responsible for far more fraud and tilting of the results than Diebold, and they are, as one AR elections official has said (before resigning out of disgust), "mean-spirited" and unable to "spell," i.e. stupid and surly.

They also seem to have no regard whatever for anything except profit.

http://www.diebold.com/aboutus/history/history05.htm

See 1990, 1991, 1997.

Old machine, old name.

I'd love to see even more of your general posts as original threads.

You are always worth reading. Thanks, Peace Patriot.

Bless your heart. It's bookmarked, a pdf, and going on EFN soon.

Without this type of analysis, we're toast, as a nation, not just a party.

Anyone or any group that seeks to make elections so complex that the public cannot participate in
the process or even understand it is part of the move against democracy...pure and simple.

These are our elections, pure and simple. Public officials, including those who run elections, work for us, not the other way around...AND

Election integrity flows from the observation and analysis of election fraud...and integrity can be returned if, and only if, FRAUD is acknowledged and eliminated.

However, you are aware that, even at this late stage, the fact is if you try to bring all this shit up in a group that you will get almost no support.

The levels of denial are amazing, even now. It will be our undoing and the undoing of the Old American Republic, though I pray I am wrong.

going on. I didn't think it could get much worse than a so-called Democratic Congress, with a huge anti-war mandate, ESCALATING the war and pouring ANOTHER hundred billion dollars into the White House rat-hole, and THEN giving Bush and Cheney MORE spying powers, not to mention the new House Speaker announcing on day one that "impeachment is off the table." And if those weren't sufficient "fuck yous" to the American people and to the Democratic grass roots, they add, "we don't have enough votes" to do what's right.

I can think of a lot of explanations for these failures of the Democratic Congress--actually very good explanations, that point to good motives--and I have discussed some at DU. For instance, I suspect that Nancy Pelosi traded no impeachment of the principles (Bush, Cheney) for no attack on Iran (and possibly for getting rid of Rumsfeld). It is entirely possible that the situation in our government is very dangerous, and that it is not easy to deal with a truly stupid president and an evil vice president who have their fingers on the red button. And the spying bill might have been a retroactive immunity on spying (for Bush, Cheney) in exchange for getting rid of Gonzales. As a democrat with a small d, I despise backroom deals, but I can certainly see what the dangers might be in dealing with these ruthless, conscienceless criminals. Things are sometimes not black and white, and you have to have some compassion for political leaders who may have good hearts and may be trying to do the right thing from their own point of view--in a tight spot, in compromised or scary circumstances, with what they believe to be limited power (cuz Congress has been turned into Cheney's--and Addington's--lapdog). Pelosi could be in this category. And I don't have her responsibilities. It is easy to criticize looking from the outside in (which is NOT where an American citizen should be situated, but, alas, that is where we're all standing now), and I try to make allowances for REAL circumstances, in Washington DC, at this time, rather than holding people to ideal "knight in shining armor" standards.

I can understand nuance. I can understand fear. I can understand decades of compromise and corruption, and how hard it must be to operate in that atmosphere, if you have any modicum of virtue.

But what I CAN'T understand is 'TRADE SECRET,' PROPRIETARY programming code fast-tracked into our voting system, owned and controlled by rightwing Bushite corporations, with virtually no audit/recount controls, and our own party leaders' active support of this fascist coup, failure to oppose it (I mean, it's so unamerican, on its face), even now, with the "Ds" in charge of Congress, failure to fight it tooth and nail, failure to even warn voters about it, and their coverup of election fraud, to the point of putting an "Iron Curtain" over the subject.

I can only conclude that a certain faction in the Democratic Party leadership threw the 2004 election, and other factions and individuals, who are not so anti-democratic, are too scared of this scandal (--and it's a big one, going to the very legitimacy of our government), or are too personally scared (--of losing power, of being Diebolded--or due to blackmail), that they have shut up about it.

What I saw happen in the California state party leadership, in 2004, around Diebold issues--if it is a microcosm of the national party--was enough to tell me that our party leaders are in collusion with Diebold/ES&S and their rightwing financiers, or are scared shitless by them. We had a "knight in shining armor" Secretary of State, Kevin Shelley, who was going after Diebold. He sued them in May 2004, six months before the 2004 election, decertified their touchscreens, and demanded to see their source code. Eight months later, he was driven from office on entirely bogus corruption charges, in a Rove-like "swift-boating" (concerted effort in the corporate media combined with "frontmen" spokespeople--corrupt county election officials and Democratic state legislators). He could not do his job under these circumstances, and resigned in February 2005, and was replaced with a Republican Schwarzenegger APPOINTEE and Diebold shill (Bruce McPherson). The California state legislature is something like 2 to 1 Democratic. Yet the state party leadership bought this crap about Shelley (and it WAS crap) and helped do him in, and strongarmed other Democrats to shut them up. Shelley's vigilance is likely responsible for California not being stolen by Bush/Cheney in 2004. Kerry took the state, but I have evidence that his margin was much reduced from what it should have been, and that votes were changed to Bush that helped pad Bush's phony national majority. But even if this is not true, or even if you put it aside as not provable, the fact that Bushite corporations had the CAPABILITY to do this, and our party leadership HELPED THEM obtain and keep that capability, is enough of a humongous scandal, as it is. The capability to steal elections, undetectably, with secret vote counting is tyranny. There is no other word for it. This CAPABILITY itself is tyranny. Ask the people in Stalinist Russia--or any tyranny on earth. The FIRST condition of democracy is TRANSPARENT vote counting.

Terry McAuliffe & Co. behaved the same way. They SUPPORTED "trade secret" vote counting, and crushed any talk of election fraud. Democrat Christopher Dodd ENGINEERED the Congressional bill (HAVA) that destroyed our election system--in collusion with the biggest crooks in the Anthrax Congress, Tom Delay and Bob Ney--and almost all the Democrats voted for it, in the same month as the Iraq War Resolution. October 2002. The IWR guaranteed unjust war; HAVA provided the means to shove that unjust war down the throats of the American people, 56% of whom opposed it, at that time, and 70% of whom oppose it now.

"TRADE SECRET" vote counting was as much a Democratic project as a Republican one. And they are STILL defending it, and STILL trying to maintain rightwing corporate control over our elections, in the current "reform" bill, HR 811.

This is what I cannot forgive. This is what tells me that--despite there being some well-meaning people in office and in the upper echelons of our party--our party leadership, as a whole, has abandoned democracy, in favor of the rule of war profiteers and global corporate predators. It's not a "mixed bag" any more. It's not a matter of "centrism" any more. It's not a matter of political "compromise" any more. It's not a matter of "the lesser of two evils" any more. We are AT tyranny. It has arrived. And our own party is collusive in it, whether out of malice or fear.

The good part, the hopeful part, is that this country is very difficult to nazify and our people have a rock bottom, unshakeable belief in democracy and social progress. And it shows--for instance, in California voters outvoting the machines, getting rid of Bruce McPherson and electing reformer Debra Bowen as Secretary of State, against a Republican tide in the state offices, and in the teeth of a corrupt state party leadership. It shows in the "impossible" grass roots movement on election fraud and election reform, that has arisen all over the country, despite the collusion of both parties, and the entire corporate media, in trying to kill it. It shows in the SEVENTY PERCENT opposition to the Iraq War among the American people, despite 24/7 warmongering and fascist propaganda in the corporate media.

I'd say don't worry about people who are still "in denial." Nourish them with a few basic facts--the "trade secret" code, the boondoggle costs of these crapass voting machines--and get them on our side for reform. The cohesion of a country with a democratic tradition, even in the best of times, in based not so much on law as it is based on faith in other people--faith that you and your countrymen and your leaders share some common beliefs. "Trade secret" vote counting, and our Democratic Party leaders' collusion in it, shatters that faith. It is very hard to take in. It is scary. People WANT to believe that democracy works, and, if we only try hard enough, the people can win. Awareness of the rigged machines can discourage voting and political activism--as they are intended to do. Have compassion for people; understand how corporate media delusions are working on them; and have faith in democracy and in the truth. One day their heads will "explode," and they'll say, "Ah, THAT'S the problem! Of course! It's so obvious!"--as has happened with many of us in the election reform movement.

I have an intelligent, well-connected friend to whom I explained "the facts of life" of our rigged voting system, a couple of years ago, and she said, "But the Democrats wouldn't let that happen, would they?"

Ah, me! What a job these Corporate Rulers have done on people. The issue is not: "would" they let it happen? The thing to understand is that they DID let it happen. And you have to work backwards from that provable fact to "why?"

And I think it's far more important that people understand the FACT that the system is non-transparent and highly riggable than that they understand and agree that this system HAS BEEN utilized, repeatedly, to steal elections (--in '02, '04 and '06). The capacity to rig elections, on a large scale, without detection, IS tyranny, whether or not it can be proved that the system created wrong outcomes. And, of course, such a system is DESIGNED to hide wrong outcomes.

Undemocratic. Unamerican. Crazily anti-common sense. Just get them on board, on the facts of the system alone, and let them think about it, and stew about it, and come to their own conclusions.

And also, I think, laying out the facts of the riggable system must be combined with a strong message of activism and hope. Some elections have shown that we can outvote the machines. The election reform movement itself--and also the huge antiwar sentiment in the country--show that people are trying very hard to think for themselves, and that we can get information to people, and overcome the "Iron Curtain" media, as well as collusive public officials who are lying to us. American democracy is, in fact, alive and well--despite every effort to kill it.

Or blinder. Unless, if they can't see them stealing it and can't see when it's gone, does that mean they never had it?

:kick:

Somewhere where additional people will see it, people who might not read DU. If it IS up somewhere, please post again and give us the link.

Thanks!!!!

Big Business and Maximizing PROFITS is too important to leave up to the whims of the voters.
Part of the scam is making the marks (us) believe that they almost won. If they just try a little harder and send in more $MONEY, they CAN win next time!
Have you really read any of the requests for contributions from the Democratic Party? Anyone who has played 3 Card Monty or been hustled by a Carney will recognize the "Patter".

Congress must appear to be almost 50/50 or the marks will wise up and run the hucksters out of town on a rail. The Cons realize this, and have rigged the game on the inside too through manipulated Primaries (DCCC). A few WINS will be allowed to keep the suckers in the game, but nothing will change.

It was decided long ago that Hillary will be the Dem nominee, so whether you vote for a Democrat or a Republican, America will get:

*MORE War for Corporate resources and profits

*MORE Corporate access to Slave Labor

*Less regulation and accountability of upper Management

*More consolidation of POWER & Profits into fewer hands

*More privatization of the Public assets or Commonwealth

*More taxpayer $Money funneled into the MIC

Americans are easy to hustle. The Rubes at a Carney Game (or any Casino) keep playing and almost winning. Since "The Reagan Democrats" and the DLC coup, the Two Party system has been a scam.

Only ONE Democratic candidate is calling them on their GAME, and he is "polling" at 3%. He is also the ONLY candidatr calling for serious and effective Election Reform. (Paper ballots publicly hand counted at the precinct.)


”Unlike other candidates, I am not funded by those corporate interests.
I owe them no loyalty, and they have no influence over me or my policies.” ---Dennis Kucinich

Everybody knows that the dice are loaded
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed
Everybody knows that the war is over
Everybody knows the good guys lost
Everybody knows the fight was fixed
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich
That's how it goes
Everybody knows
Everybody knows that the boat is leaking
Everybody knows that the captain lied
Everybody got this broken feeling
Like their father or their dog just died

Everybody talking to their pockets
Everybody wants a box of chocolates
And a long stem rose
Everybody knows

Everybody knows that you love me baby
Everybody knows that you really do
Everybody knows that you've been faithful
Ah give or take a night or two
Everybody knows you've been discreet
But there were so many people you just had to meet
Without your clothes
And everybody knows

Everybody knows, everybody knows
That's how it goes
Everybody knows

Everybody knows, everybody knows
That's how it goes
Everybody knows

And everybody knows that it's now or never
Everybody knows that it's me or you
And everybody knows that you live forever
Ah when you've done a line or two
Everybody knows the deal is rotten
Old Black Joe's still pickin' cotton
For your ribbons and bows
And everybody knows

And everybody knows that the Plague is coming
Everybody knows that it's moving fast
Everybody knows that the naked man and woman
Are just a shining artifact of the past
Everybody knows the scene is dead
But there's gonna be a meter on your bed
That will disclose
What everybody knows

And everybody knows that you're in trouble
Everybody knows what you've been through
From the bloody cross on top of Calvary
To the beach of Malibu
Everybody knows it's coming apart
Take one last look at this Sacred Heart
Before it blows
And everybody knows

Everybody knows, everybody knows
That's how it goes
Everybody knows

Oh everybody knows, everybody knows
That's how it goes
Everybody knows

Everybody knows
----Leonard Cohen

what's going on--who have the time and the access to information, to figure it out--have an obligation to also recognize and analyze, and promulgate the signs of hope, and there are many. If you just think back a few years, to the atmosphere in this country during the invasion and then leading up to, and just after, the 2004 (s)election--I think of it as this impenetrable black cloud hanging over the nation--things have changed. They really have. For one thing, I think that the great, peace-minded, justice-minded American majority that was always there, but was fooled into believing that it was the minority, is waking up to that delusion.

I hear anecdote after anecdote of people who have zero or only one or two acquaintances who are nutso deluded or nazi Bushites. They are in fact a rare breed. Yet the corporate media is almost all pitched at them. And considering how many people most individuals know--in their workplace, at home, in their neighborhood, on the street, in various groups they may belong to--and even taking into consideration that these anecdotes may mostly be coming from the liberal-minded--it means that there are hundreds of progressive Americans for every Bushite. And I think people are beginning to realize this.

I think--and have always said--we should concentrate on informing and empowering those hundreds, and stop being so obsessive about the MINORITY rabid Bushites, who already hog the corporate media. It's good to counter them, but that work can suck you into the delusion that THEY are "the American people," these dinosauric Bushites--which is simply not true. And there is far more proof than just anecdotes. I won't go into it all, but it was very important to me to understand whether most Americans had gone nuts and/or were sickened by brainwashing, and thus needed to be educated and de-programmed, or whether something else was going on--systematic disenfranchisement of the progressive majority. I've done a study of it, and I am very much convinced of the latter--systematic disenfranchisement, and demoralization of not just the majority, but the vast majority. The solution, therefore, is RE-enfranchisement, as the no. 1 priority.

How to empower, how to hearten, how to get the majority organized, how to give the majority a voice, and above all, how to get the majority's votes COUNTED!

The situation is very bad, and we have to take some fundamental steps to even begin to correct it. Transparent vote counting has been taken away from us. We MUST restore it--however we can (most doable at the state/local level, I think). And we also need to look to models of success--like Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Argentina, and the leftist movement that has swept most of the continent of South America. If THEY can do it--after so much fascist domination, and U.S./Corporate interference--so can we. Truly. We tend to be too isolated and insular.

Tell people WHAT TO DO, not what to lament. Or put your lamentations in a perspective of action and hope. At one time, we had NO democracy in the world. Now we have models and traditions, and some new lively democracies that are really kicking corporate butt and taking names. And the democratic tradition in this country is very strong, indeed, with a long history of progressive movements--the original revolution against England (and monarchical government), the anti-slavery movement, the labor movement, the anti-"robber baron" movement, the women's movement, the civil rights movement and all the many rather amazing progressive movements of the 1960s, including the antiwar movement. None of these struggles were easy. And none of them were instantly successful. It took years of suffering, and years of hard work.

And even if things get very dark, indeed--and there is certainly that potential--we must remember that other people have suffered hellish darkness, and have given birth to liberation movements in the dimmest of hovels and prisons. Freedom, justice, peace, tolerance, connectedness with other people, and joy are their common themes. And then one day these hopes, these prayers, these abiding desires of the human heart, burst into bloom and become beautiful and real, and accepted as commonly held beliefs and policies.

One model that keeps recurring to me is the extreme domination of the Roman Catholic Church over all of Europe in the Dark and Middle Ages--not just in property and power and riches, and corruption, not just in its monolithic organization, not just in its usurpation of the power to "crown" kings, not just in its monopolization of literacy, books and learning, not just its special privileges in every legal system, not just in its power to raise armies for murderous Crusades, and not just in its filthy sexism, and its violations of everything Jesus ever taught, but inside, into the very souls of human beings, where it reigned as the condemner of souls to eternal damnation, and placed its own dogmatic prison bars around the human soul and mind.

Total domination--like our global corporate predators today. And, like then, many people couldn't "see out" of that given context--total Church domination not just of their bodies but also of their minds. It was the most complete tyranny ever devised by powermongering men. You lived with it. You accommodated to it. Sometimes you fought it. Many people suffered death, and worse, fighting it, trying to develop independent, objective information and thinking processes. And there were many attempted subversions of this paternalistic brutality--for instance, in the Troubadour movement, and the promulgation of the Arthurian legends, in development of the sciences, such as astronomy, and in all the arts, and also among tradesmen and the mercantile class (practical people--highly skilled builders, craftspeople and travelers, who saw the value of a secular outlook). People who objected to Church tyranny did what they could, and hoped for the best.

And guess what? They won, in the end--starting about the time of Renaissance, and into the Enlightenment, which lead straight to today, and our Constitutional amendment separating church and state, and all our freedoms, and all of our progressive beliefs in the ability of the human race to improve itself.

This Corporate Ruler tyranny won't last as long as that of the Catholic Church. It is already on very shaky ground and teetering, for one thing because it has gone too far, and exposed itself to view (with Bushitism and "trade secret" vote counting, and this horrible war), and, for another, it is based on consumerism and greed, and has no other ideology--its "conservative" blather points are an empty sack; and, finally, because it is destroying the planet--literally--and, if nothing else, the disruptions of our planetary ecosystem will bring it down.

Things happen faster--way, way faster--in our era. Europe in the Dark/Middle Ages had no electricity, no gas-powered vehicles, no telephones, no telegraphs, virtually no printing, no newspapers, almost no means of communication except word of mouth, virtually no schools (not even the rich were literate, and only Church clerics were educated), with every journey being perilous, and taking l-o-ong periods of time and maximum effort. Those are some of the chief reasons it took so long for a serious intellectual and political rebellion to get under way.

Today, although our much, much faster communications and travel further bad globalisation, they also quicken ideas and provide us with the means for a much faster-paced rebellion, which actually started, in this country, with the Seattle '99 protests, and has grown, exponentially, as to public awareness, with every Bushite outrage. They've gone too far. That's why they're likely to pull back a bit, with Queen Hillary, consolidate and bide their time. That's why they are seeking control of the internet. And, of course, that's why they've installed "trade secret" vote counting--to forestall the rebellion that is growing every day in peoples' hearts and minds against the REAL culprits, global corporations. More and more people can "see" who the tyrants are, and more and more people can penetrate their myths--which are much like the Church's myths about its "lineage" back to St. Peter, and absolute spiritual authority--speaking FOR God--and power to consign people to Heaven or Hell, and the Creator consisting of two men and a dove, and all the rest.

Think about the myth of "corporate personhood," and the myth that you have to pay obeisance to big corporations because they "create jobs." And the myth that corporations run things more efficiently than government servants who are accountable to the people. What a whopper that is! And the myth that global warming is a weather cycle, and not corporate-made. And the myth that we have to spend trillions of dollars on war materials and systems of killing and domination in order to be "safe." All these myths are falling--just like the Church's myths began to fall during the Renaissance and the rise of humanism (in part inspired by the rediscovery of ancient Greek and Roman texts, obtained through business travel--and, also, alas, from the Crusades*--many of them preserved by the highly advanced and educated Islamic cultures).

If you look at what is happening in South America today--which is all about busting the myths of the global corporate predators--as parallel to the Reformation, which all was about busting the myths of the Roman Catholic Church, we can anticipate a rapid decline in the power of U.S.-based global corporations. They may look like the "masters of the universe," inside this corporate enclosure called the United States, but they are in fact very vulnerable. When the myths start falling, decline of the institution is already happening.

We can help that process along by knocking out one of their most brittle and exposable pillars of power--"trade secret" vote counting (parallel to the Reformation's attack on the Church selling "indulgences" and "saint's relics"--such a fraud!). That is a worthy task all by itself, and a great gift to future generations. And we need to think what to replace these horrible corporate monsters with. What is the best economic/political system we can aim for?

---------------

*(It's interesting to note what the ultimate impact of the Crusades was. This sickening spectacle of rape, pillage and massacre, sanctioned by the Church, got back to Europe in the knights and soldiers, and cooks and blacksmiths and tentmakers and seamstresses, and all the entourage, who witnessed it, and the then-superior culture of the Islamics also began to penetrate into Europe, via stories, manuscripts, new products, scientific and medical knowledge, and travel. It took a while, but all of this ultimately transformed European culture for the better, and in fact held all the seeds of future democracies and enlightened government policy. Let's hope that Bush's "Crusade" has a similar impact--revulsion at war, desire for learning, and re-commitment to enlightened policy.)

The ONE SINGLE issue that almost ALL Americans (92%) are united on is:
FREE, FAIR, & TRANSPARENT ELECTIONS
and yet this ISSUE gets no play in DC or in our Media.

(who are the 7% that don't want fair elections? Our professional politicians?)

Of course, the Republicans have been programmed to believe that the Democrats are cheating, but we should be able to use this to help reform the system.

The problem is that the people who benefit most from a rigged system are the same ones we need to represent us. Even if we turn out with pitchforks & torches, at some point, the Legislaters must write the legislation. (A Large Pizza goes IN he oven. A small mud pie comes out.)

At this point, all anyone can do is spread the word and support candidates who pledge to fix this problem. So far, that eliminates everyone except Dennis Kucinich.

Here is what the MAJORITY of Americans (Democrats AND Republicans) want from OUR government!



”Unlike other candidates, I am not funded by those corporate interests.
I owe them no loyalty, and they have no influence over me or my policies.” ---Dennis Kucinich

battle with my fellow and sister leftists who call the American people "sheeple." I think they are demoralized, disempowered, mystified as to why our democracy is not working, and systematically and deliberately disenfranchised, but they are not "sheeple." They have shown themselves to be amazingly resistant to the relentless, 24/7 warmongering and fascist propaganda that they are subjected to, and have been consistently opposed to Bush policy, over a long period of time, on all issues, way up into the 80% to 90% range, on some matters.

My favorite stat on this issue is that, at the same time that 50% of Americans believed that Saddam had WMDs, and/or had something to do with 9/11, FIFTY-SIX PERCENT opposed the invasion of Iraq (Feb. '03). Think about it. That 56% HAD to include some people who believed the propaganda, but they were still trying to think for themselves, and concluded that the WMDs were not worth going to war over, and that Saddam's part in 9/11 was also too minor to justify war. I love this group of Americans, who suffered some brainwashing, but who didn't trust Bush, and whose common sense and independent judgement overcame the brainwashing. I also of course love all the people (half the population) who were antiwar from the beginning. But you have to admire the extra struggle that 6% went through, to sort things out and come to their own conclusions. And it has now grown to about 30%, who have changed their minds on it--for a whopping, unprecedented 70% antiwar majority.

And I'm not all that concerned about the 30% who still believe these lies, and support Bush as if he were the goddamned Pope. We've always had a loony rightwing minority in this country. It's part of our Puritan DNA. It's the thinking Americans--the vast majority--that I am concerned about--their loss of the power of the vote, and demoralization. We need to focus all our efforts on THEM, and let the loonies and their corporate promoters howl at the moon.

I lifted them from Alternet article by Jim Hightower in December 2005 (2-1/2 years ago!)
The numbers are undoubtedly more favorable today.

"Americans might not call themselves progressive -- but there they are. On the populist, pocketbook issues that are rooted in our nation's core values of fairness and justice, there's a progressive super-majority. It flourishes in red states as well as blue, cutting through the establishment's false dichotomy of liberal/ conservative."


This article DEMOLISHES the fallacy propagated by the DLC that "a liberal" can't win in a RED state, so we must keep running Republican-Lites. BULLSHIT!!!! A well funded Economic Populist running on a platform of Economic Justice can WIN in ANY state.

The link posted above doesn't work anymore.
Try this one:
http://alternet.org/story/29788/

I have been blown away by the intelligence and eloquence of various DU contributors; just today I posted a somewhat embarrassingly fawning appreciation of Nance Greggs. Well, et tu, Peace Patriot.

is and has been a very strong liberal since she joined the Democratic Party. Aside from Kuninich Hill is possibly the most liberal of all the candidates running. She spent her early legal years fighting for children's advocacy, despite a Yale Law degree which would have afforded her any number of lucrative positions. She has been a consistent monitor for the rights of children. In addition, she has been a notably agressive senator for the state of New York, investigating and exposing the Bush administration cover-up of the pollution following 9/11 and many other serious Bush aberrations. Hillary has been pilloried by the right-wing for over 16 years now. For many dems the propaganda has merged into our subconsciousness. That does not mean, however, that we do not need to return immediately to paper ballots and strict enforcement of two party count of all ballots. Our democracy is being compromised. Why should we have to wait until 2012? By then it will be too late if Rove has anything to say about it. If Hillary wins or loses is not the question. The question is who was chosen by the American people. W never was and look at the disaster that has followed. Quite bluntly, We the People know best.

--is that it has convinced people all too many people on our side that she is actually liberal. Anybody who takes money from health insurance companies, supports the PATRIOT Act, favors outsourcing and the ongoing process of media consolidation, wants a permanent presence in Iraq and a continuation of the prison-industrial complex War on Some Drugs is not a liberal in any meaningful sense of the word. Being pro-reproductive rights and pro-Social Security and being in favor of some environmental legislation doesn't change that.

Also, without a media that is an actual check on government abuses, We the People will never know best. Not when 30% of us think that Saddam had something to do with 9-11. That could change with more media diversity, but the latter is something that Clinton is unequivocally against. If she favors it, why is she taking money from Rupert Murdoch?

I am considering supporting Paul as the only way out of the tethered candidates, although I would have supported Clark.

I wonder if anyone ever considered that this government has never been able to accomplish anything of worth on a national scale within one day. How millions of people actually believe that a national election can be perfectly completed in one day has always been intriguing.

corporate predator policies are murderous, poisonous and anti-democratic.

I did not say that Hillary is the front-runner because of Diebold. That would be non-sensical--there haven't been any primaries yet. But that does not mean that she cannot be, and will not be, Diebolded into office. Also, the one possibly good thing I know about Hillary is that she was one of only two U.S. Senators who voted against the "Help America Vote Act"--her and Schumer. Although I think it is very unlikely that she voted against it out of her devotion to democracy--and most likely, she voted against it out of fear of offending New York voters, who are very attached to their old, reliable and virtually unriggable lever voting machines--still, the fact remains that she DID vote against it, for whatever hope that may give us that election reform might have an edge under her imperial regime.*

Why is she the front-runner? I don't presume to know all the reasons why, but I think some of the reasons include: a) poorly informed women who think her sex will prompt her to provide more protection for women's rights (note: I'm a woman)--I think this is delusional--women are the all-time economic losers in global corporate predation ("free trade"), and global corporate predation is Hillary's game; b) poorly informed people of either sex who remember Bill's bubble and long for that prosperity to return (ain't gonna happen); c) the Israel lobby--very important in NY politics, and she panders to it; d) the war profiteers and global corporate predators need a fallback candidate, and I think she's it--she will help them consolidate their enormous gains under the Bush Junta, while throwing a few little sops to the American people to try to stop a growing grass roots leftist (majorityist) movement, thus, the war profiteering corporate news monopolies are "crowning" her now.

*Her vote on HAVA, and the small hope it gives me that election reform might be made a little easier with Queen Hillary, does not mean that she will not be Diebolded into the nomination and the White House. In fact, it may have been a clever--and possibly Machiavellian move--to vote against it, knowing that Diebold /ES&S had a firm grip on Congress and the Democratic Party, and their election theft bill would be passed overwhelmingly. Thus, she can claim that she was not a party to the throwing of the 2004 election and rigging of our vote counting system. This vote of hers does not gel with her other votes and policies, which are overwhelmingly pro-global corporate predator and war profiteer. That is why I don't trust it.

The damage that has been done by the Bush Junta and its Democratic Party colluders--and Hillary is a major colluder with this regime--has been near fatal to our Constitution, our civil rights, and our economy, and may well have been the fatal blow to the earth's ecosystem. I have heard no warning from her to voters about Bushite control of the vote count with "trade secret" code, no disavowal of torture, indefinite detention without trial, unjust war, "signing statements," the "unitary executive," domestic spying by the military and others, nor of any of the horrors we have seen. Hillary is not running for president--she is running for emperor. This is true of every other presidential candidate except Kucinich, and possibly Edwards, although I'm not at all sure of him. This is simply not acceptable. It will be shoved down our throats--the expansion of the imperial presidency--but it is not acceptable. It is horrible. I see nothing in her policies to allay my fears about CONTINUED presidential wars, fascist economic policy, further loss of civil rights, and highly likely economic and ecological collapse. She is not a leader. She is a corporate FOLLOWER, bought and paid for.

parents, teachers, leaders, reverends and we really wanted it to be what they told us it was - a great nation with people rights. The traitors who have turned it into a tool for world dominance for a few operate on many levels.

Now, I consider it an act of ignorant traitorism to say we are going to clean/ start cleaning it all up with the next election.

I'be been burglarized, mugged, cheated in this life - but no crime is as bad for me as the crime of reality that we don't really have a vote.

Changing reality - they succeeded - millions of Americans have not seen through it yet.

Therefore, I can't get in to campaigning and it is painful.

Yes, Pelosi and Reid are trying to wheel-deal with the worst criminals any nation has known because of the insiduous duplicity.

But, when a person slowly accepts that Democrats (in near mass) did nothing about the voting machines (0 protests, virtually 0 investigations, 0 accusations, 0 accounting) - you can sink into despair or you can join the citizens who did dig and expose.

We have a problem with our representatives.
We have a problem with the press.
We have powerful people who have stolen our money and are manipulating and orchestrating a world takeover with serf control and we as the serfs.

Thank you. We have to get this thread 'spread'.