Did George W. Bush Steal America's 2004 Election? - By Bob Fitrakis...

[helderheid]

Did George W. Bush Steal America's 2004 Election?
By Bob Fitrakis, Steve Rosenfeld and Harvey Wasserman
The Free Press

Thursday 16 June 2005

The following text is the Introduction to the 767 page: Did George W. Bush Steal America's 2004 Election? Essential Documents.

This volume of documents is meant to provide you, the reader, with evidence necessary to make up your own mind.

Few debates have aroused more polarized ire. But too often the argument has proceeded without documentation. This volume of crucial source materials, from Ohio and elsewhere, is meant to correct that problem.

Amidst a bitterly contested vote count that resulted in unprecedented action by the Congress of the United States, here are some news accounts that followed this election, which was among the most bitterly contested in all US history:

* Despite repeated pre-election calls from officials across the nation and the world, Ohio's Republican Secretary of State, who also served as Ohio's co-chair for the Bush-Cheney campaign, refused to allow non-partisan international and United Nations observers the access they requested to monitor the Ohio vote. While such access is routinely demanded by the US government in third world nations, it was banned in the American heartland.
* A post-election headline from the Akron Beacon Journal cites a critical report by twelve prominent social scientists and statisticians, reporting: "Analysis Points to Election ‘Corruption': Group Says Chance of Exit Polls Being So Wrong in '04 Vote is One-in-959,000."
* Citing "Ohio's Odd Numbers," investigative reporter Christopher Hitchens, a Bush supporter, says in Vanity Fair: "Given what happened in that key state on Election Day 2004, both democracy and common sense cry out for a court-ordered inspection of its new voting machines."
* Paul Krugman of the New York Times writes: "It's election night, and early returns suggest trouble for the incumbent. Then, mysteriously, the vote count stops and observers from the challenger's campaign see employees of a voting-machine company, one wearing a badge that identifies him as a county official, typing instructions at computers with access to the vote-tabulating software.

Full article here:

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/061805Z.shtml

[mom cat]

1. Thnaks for the post. We can't let this story die!...nominated

[Octafish]

2. Great read. Here's Hitchen's Ohio story...

No clue as to why Hitchens would support Bushler, but he does write good:

OHIO’S ODD NUMBERS

CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS
Vanity Fair
March 2005

No conspiracy theorist, and no fan of John Kerry’s, the author nevertheless found the Ohio polling results impossible to swallow: Given what happened in that key state on Election Day 2004, both democracy and common sense cry out for a court-ordered inspection of its new voting machines

If it were not for Kenyon College, I might have missed, or skipped, the whole controversy. The place is a visiting lecturer’s dream, or the ideal of a campus-movie director in search of a setting. It is situated in wooded Ohio hills, in the small town of Gambier, about an hour’s drive from Columbus. its literary magazine, The Kenyon Review, was founded by John Crowe Ransom in 1939. Its alumni include Paul Newman, E. L. Doctorow, Jonathan Winters; Robert Lowell, Chief Justice William Rehnquist, and President Rutherford B. Hayes. The college’s origins are Episcopalian, its students well mannered and well off and predominantly white, but it is by no means Bush-Cheney territory. Arriving to speak there a few days after the presidential election, I found that the place was still buzzing. Here’s what happened in Gambier, Ohio, on decision day 2004.

The polls opened at 6:30 AM. There were only two voting machines (push-button direct-recording electronic systems) for the entire town of 2,200 (with students). The mayor, Kirk Emmert, had called the Board of Elections 10 days earlier, saying that the number of registered voters would require more than that. (He knew, as did many others, that hundreds of students had asked to register in Ohio because it was a critical “swing” state.) The mayor’s request was denied. Indeed, instead of there being extra capacity on Election Day, one of the only two machines chose to break down before lunchtime.

By the time the polls officially closed, at 7:30 that evening, the line of those waiting to vote was still way outside the Community Center and well into the parking lot. A federal judge thereupon ordered Knox County, in which Gambier is located, to comply with Ohio law, which grants the right to vote to those who have shown up in time. “Authority to Vote” cards were kindly distributed to those on line (voting is a right, not a privilege), but those on line needed more than that. By the time the 1,175 voters in the precinct had all cast their ballots, it was almost four in the morning, and many had had to wait for up to 11 hours. In the spirit of democratic carnival, pizzas and canned drinks and guitarists were on hand to improve the shining moment. TV crews showed up, and the young Americans all acted as if they had been cast by Frank Capra: cheerful and good-humored, letting older voters get to the front, catching up on laptop essays, many voting for the first time and all convinced that a long and cold wait was a small price to pay. Typical was Pippa White, who said that “even after eight hours and 15 minutes I still had energy. It lets you know how worth it this is.” Heartwarming, until you think about it.

The students of Kenyon had one advantage, and they made one mistake. Their advantage was that their president, S. Georgia Nugent, told them that they could be excused from class for voting. Their mistake was to reject the paper ballots that were offered to them late in the evening, after attorneys from the Ohio Democratic Party had filed suit to speed up the voting process in this way. The ballots were being handed out (later to be counted by machine under the supervision of Knox County’s Democratic and Republican chairs) when someone yelled through the window of the Community Center, “Don’t use the paper ballots! The Republicans are going to appeal it and it won’t count!” After that, the majority chose to stick with the machines.

Across the rest of Ohio, the Capra theme was not so noticeable. Reporters and eyewitnesses told of voters who had given up after humiliating or frustrating waits, and who often cited the unwillingness of their employers to accept voting as an excuse for lateness or absence. In some way or another, these bottlenecks had a tendency to occur in working-class and, shall we just say, nonwhite precincts. So did many disputes about “provisional” ballots, the sort that are handed out when a voter can prove his or her identity but not his or her registration at that polling place. These glitches might all be attributable to inefficiency or incompetence (though Gambier had higher turnouts and much shorter lines in 1992 and 1996). Inefficiency and incompetence could also explain the other oddities of the Ohio process—from machines that redirected votes from one column to the other to machines that recorded amazing tallies for unknown fringe candidates, to machines that apparently showed that voters who waited for a long time still somehow failed to register a vote at the top of the ticket for any candidate for the presidency of these United States.

CONTINUED...

http://www.makethemaccountable.com/articles/Ohio_s_Odd_Numbers.htm

Most important: Thank you for posting the Selection 2004 story, helderheid. We need to keep this in front of Mr. and Mrs. America.

[helderheid]

7. here's another GREAT one - thanks Octafish!

http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/1970/

A Corrupted Election
Despite what you may have heard, the exit polls were right
By Steve Freeman and Josh Mitteldorf



Recall the Election Day exit polls that suggested John Kerry had won a convincing victory? The media readily dismissed those polls and little has been heard about them since.

Many Americans, however, were suspicious. Although President Bush prevailed by 3 million votes in the official, tallied vote count, exit polls had projected a margin of victory of 5 million votes for Kerry. This unexplained 8 million vote discrepancy between the election night exit polls and the official count should raise a Chinese May Day of red flags.

The U.S. voting system is more vulnerable to manipulation than most Americans realize. Technologies such as electronic voting machines provide no confirmation that votes are counted as cast, and highly partisan election officials have the power to suppress votes and otherwise distort the count.

Exit polls are highly accurate. They remove most of the sources of potential polling error by identifying actual voters and asking them immediately afterward who they had voted for.

The reliability of exit polls is so generally accepted that the Bush administration helped pay for them during recent elections in Georgia, Belarus and Ukraine. Testifying before the House Committee on International Relations Dec. 7, John Tefft, deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, explained that the Bush administration funded exit polls because they were one of the "ways that would help to expose large-scale fraud." Tefft pointed to the discrepancy between exit polls and the official vote count to argue that the Nov. 22 Ukraine election was stolen.

Much more here

http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/1970

[intheflow]

3. Kick!

:kick:

[Booster]

4. This is just plainly a no-brainer for me. I, who knows nothing, told

my best friend about a week before the election "watch, they will have voting problems in Florida and Ohio". If it was that clear to me, where the Hell are our ace investigative reporters in this country? Without them, we're all doomed to be led by the PNAC and there's nothing we can do about it. Let the revolution begin.

[helderheid]

5. I hear ya

I told everyone that Kerry would win big time if we got rid of the machines. We didn't get rid of the machines. We still need to get rid of those damn machines!

[FredStembottom]

13. I refused to watch election night returns

Campaigned my heart out for Kerry but went media-black on election night.

We, here in Minnesota, had a preview of the whole thing when Walter Mondale replaced poor Paul Wellstone to run against Norm Coleman. Mondale was about to receive the sympathy vote of all time (along with his traditional respect from Minnesotans) and was clearly ahead when....WTF?.....it all flipped in the dead of night. After we had gone to bed.

So.....I just KNEW what was gonna happen and I didn't watch one single return on election night 2004. I went to bed fully confident of the "results"......(but was crushed by it anyways when I got up the next day.) :cry:

I think it hurt more because it was _2nd_ confirmation to me that we don't control our own fate anymore.

Having grown up with a good Minnesota public education (that used to include lots of history of the down-trodden rising up), I used to have a love of the IDEA of America that bordered on a "Jefferson Smith" level of awe. And while I had long before lost that kind of complete naivete', those 2 elections proved to me that we have a shadow government. One that consists of men who wipe their asses with my beloved American constitution.

There is no room for shadow governments in my America.

[helderheid]

17. I absolutely agree

and am the type of person to take a step back and try to see what positive could come of all this - I was politically aware but not really awake until after 9/11. I became more awake to the fact tht our media was truly for "entertainment purposes only", I actually got off my ass and registered to vote, and I volunteered time and money to a campaign. I know I am not alone. This stolen election and the DSM is waking up many, many, many more. Our system has been decaying for a long time, but it has never been so corrupt - perhaps it had to get this bad to wake up enough people for a complete overhaul?

[Imagevision]

6. Sad day for America on election fraud

[ooglymoogly]

8. kicked and nominated

[assclown_bush]

9. It just boggles the mind...

To even ponder the idea that the President of the United States and his handlers would steal an election. But I believe they did. Twice. Still, it just boggles the mind.

Is the United States of America no different than a Latin American Banana Republic?

:shrug:

[helderheid]

10. a lot richer

but yea

[dogday]

11. What are the odds that Zoogby, The Polls, and The Odds-Makers

could all be wrong. What exactly are those odds, anyone know? Because that right there should tell you, something was changed during the elections for sure.....

[helderheid]

12. you should ask TIA in 2004 election results forum

also check this out

http://udpc.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=15

[Name removed]

25. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[LightningFlash]

14. But who cares about this, it's "old news".

Just like the amazing downing street minutes so ferments the corporate media.

[Botany]

15. In one case the computer got tired and had to switch votes to *

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1232294

These are evil lying shits ........ I saw it with my own eyes ..... I heard it
with my own ears ..... see my post w/ the link in the thread.

Ohio went huge to Kerry .......

Funny #s in 2000 republican Morrow county went 67% to Bush
in 2004 that same county went 60% for Bush ..... a 7% drop in core
support in a "clean county" i.e. unrigged yet bush picks up more support
from the magical Exurb voters, rural voters, and fundies.

We registered more than 500,000 first time anti bush voters here ....
we have lost God knows how many jobs and some very republican
suburbs had a large % of anti bush voters .......

Greene County 3 or 4 Precincts with 2 all black schools Wilberforce and
Central State had 3,800 registered voters and produced 50 votes?

We have to hammer the truth THE ELECTION WAS STOLEN then
1. Paper trail voting that can be verified
2. Link all repubs to bush, his war, and his crimes
3. We have to manage the message and not let the owned media
do it.
4. In '06 say the impeachment word during the campaign.
5. Make the repugs defend the indefensible

[no_hypocrisy]

16. Does the Pope shit in the Vatican?

[helderheid]

60. I can't verify that for certain

;)

[goclark]

68. This Pope was Installed by Bush IMO

[AuntiBush]

18. You'd have to be a FOOL not to know 2000/2004 Elections Were Rigged!

Stolen!
Americans were Robbed!
Constitution was Ripped to Shreds.

You'd have to be a blind-fool, filled w/hatred and that equates to pure, unadultered Anti-Un-American!

[Name removed]

24. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[helderheid]

27. I do believe you are the one who is "out of touch"

First, the 2004 election results forum on Democratic Underground is a great place to check out. Read anything and everything by "TruthIsAll":

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=203


More interesting links:

http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/1970/
http://www.VelvetRevolution.us#020505 <-- video
http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=%2218%2C181+votes%22&ei=UTF-8&fr=FP-tab-web-t&fl=0&x=wrt

20 Amazing Facts About Voting in the USA

Did you know....

1.80% of all votes in America are counted by only two companies: Diebold and ES&S.

http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diebold

2.There is no federal agency with regulatory authority or oversight of the U.S. voting machine industry.

http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0916-04.htm
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html

3.The vice-president of Diebold and the president of ES&S are brothers.

http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/private_company.html
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html

4.The chairman and CEO of Diebold is a major Bush campaign organizer and donor who wrote in 2003 that he was “committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year.”

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/07/28/sunday/main632436.shtml
http://www.wishtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1647886

5.Republican Senator Chuck Hagel used to be chairman of ES&S. He became Senator based on votes counted by ES&S machines.

http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/columns/2004/03/03_200.html
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/031004Fitrakis/031004fitrakis. .html

6.Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, long-connected with the Bush family, was recently caught lying about his ownership of ES&S by the Senate Ethics Committee.

http://www.blackboxvoting.com/modules.php?name=News&file=articl le&sid=26
http://www.blackboxvoting.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=26 www.hillnews.com/news/012903/hagel.aspx http://www.onlisareinsradar.com/archives/000896.php

7.Senator Chuck Hagel was on a short list of George W. Bush’s vice-presidential candidates.

http://www.businessweek.com/2000/00_28/b3689130.htm http://theindependent.com/stories/052700/new_hagel27.html

8.ES&S is the largest voting machine manufacturer in the U.S. and counts almost 60% of all U.S. votes.

http://www.essvote.com/HTML/about/about.html
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html

9.Diebold’s new touch screen voting machines have no paper trail of any votes. In other words, there is no way to verify that the data coming out of the machine is the same as what was legitimately put in by voters.

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0225-05.htm
http://www.itworld.com/Tech/2987/041020evotestates/pfindex.html

10.Diebold also makes ATMs, checkout scanners, and ticket machines, all of which log each transaction and can generate a paper trail.

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0225-05.htm
http://www.diebold.com/solutions/default.htm

11.Diebold is based in Ohio. http://www.diebold.com/aboutus/ataglance/default.htm

12.Diebold employed 5 convicted felons as senior managers and developers to help write the central compiler computer code that counted
50% of the votes in 30 states.

http://www.wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,61640,00.html
http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/10/301469.shtml

13.Jeff Dean, Diebold’s Senior Vice-President and senior programmer on Diebold’s central compiler code, was convicted of 23 counts of felony theft in the first degree.

http://www.chuckherrin.com/HackthevoteFAQ.htm#how
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/bbv_chapter-8.pdf

14.Diebold Senior Vice-President Jeff Dean was convicted of planting back doors in his software and using a “high degree of sophistication” to evade detection over a period of 2 years.

http://www.chuckherrin.com/HackthevoteFAQ.htm#how
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/bbv_chapter-8.pdf

15.None of the international election observers were allowed in the polls in Ohio.

http://www.globalexchange.org/update/press/2638.html
http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/10/26/loc_elexoh.html

16.California banned the use of Diebold machines because the security was so bad. Despite Diebold’s claims that the audit logs could not be hacked, a chimpanzee was able to do it. (See the movie here http://blackboxvoting.org/baxter/baxterVPR.mov .)

http://wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,63298,00.html http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4874190

17.30% of all U.S. votes are carried out on unverifiable touch screen voting machines with no paper trail.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/07/28/sunday/main632436.shtml

18.All - not some - but all the voting machine errors detected and reported in Florida went in favor of Bush or Republican candidates.

http://www.wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,65757,00.html
http://www.rise4news.net/extravotes.html
http://www.ilcaonline.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News& ;file=article&sid=950
http://www.ilcaonline.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News& ;file=article&sid=950 http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0411/S00227.htm

19.The governor of the state of Florida, Jeb Bush, is the President’s brother.

http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/news/local/7628725.htm
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10544-2004Oct29.html

20.Serious voting anomalies in Florida - again always favoring Bush - have been mathematically demonstrated and experts are recommending further investigation.

http://www.computerworld.com/governmenttopics/government/policy/sto ory/0,10801,97614,00.html
http://www.uscountvotes.org/

[Name removed]

29. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[helderheid]

31. I talked to Republicans who were willing to vote for Bozo the Clown

over Bush. This isn't about rehashing the past - this is about ensuring a fair shot in 2006 and 2008. If we don't fix the problem, we'll remain voiceless and fucked. The election was stolen. If the last bit of links weren't enough (and I highly doubt you're a speed reader and managed to go through it all), here's some more. I'll keep supplying it to you as long as you need it.

TruthIsAll (1000+ posts) Sat May-07-05 04:30 PM
Original message
Our Evidence vs. Their Evidence

Edited on Sat May-07-05 05:22 PM by TruthIsAll
OUR EVIDENCE

We know Kerry led the pre-election state polls.
We know Kerry led the pre-election national polls.

We know Kerry led the post-election state exit polls, 51-48%.
We know Kerry led the post-election national exit poll, 51-48%

We know documented voting machine “glitches” favored Bush 99% of the time.

We know the media and E-M will not release detailed raw precinct data.
We know Blackwell refused to testify before Conyers.
We know Mitofsky refused to testify before Conyers.

We know that there were over 21 million new voters.
We know Kerry won the vast majority (57-62%) of new voters.

We know there were 3 million former Nader voters.
We kknow Kerry won Nader voters by 71%-21% over Bush.

We know Party ID averaged 39% Dem/35% Rep/26% Independent in the prior three elections.
We know Party ID was 38/35/27 for the first 13047 National Exit Poll respondents.
We know it was changed to 37/37/24 for the final 613 in the 13660 Final.

We know Kerry, like Gore, won the female vote 54/46% up until the final 660 respondents.
We know it was changed to 51% in the 13660 Final.

We know Bush 2000 voters represented an IMPOSSIBLE 43% of the 2004 electorate in the final 13660 Exit poll.
We know it was changed from 41% in the first 13047
We know that Bush had 50.456 mm votes in 2000.
We know that about 3.5% of them have since died.
We know, therefore, that the Bush percentage could not have been higher than 39.8% (48.69/122.26).
We know that with the 39.8/40.2% weighting, Kerry won by 52.4-46.7%, or SEVEN million votes.


We know the 2000 election was stolen - by Bush in Florida where 175,000 punch cards (70% of them Gore votes) were spoiled.
We know SCOTUS stopped the recount and voted 5-4 for Bush.

We know the 2002 election was stolen (ask Max Cleland).

We know that the National Exit Poll MoE is under 1%.
We know because we checked the NEP margin of error table.
We know because we did the simple MoE calculation.
We know that Kerry won the Natioanl Poll by over 3%, 51-48%.
We know the odds are astronomical that the deviation was triple the MoE.

We know that 42 of 50 states deviated from the exit polls to Bush. We know that includes ALL 22 states in the Eastern Time Zone.

We know that 16 states deviated beyond the exit poll MoE for Bush, and none did for Kerry.

We know that touch screen voting machines became widely used in 2004.

We know that Republicans fought against paper ballots for Diebold and ESS touch screens.

We know that ALL Diebold ATMs provide a paper receipt.

We know that the deviation trend from the exit polls to the vote was approaching ZERO until 2000, when there was a dramatic reversal.

We know that scores of newspapers which supported Bush in 2000 supported Kerry in 2004.

We know that Kerry won the Ohio Exit Poll, by at least 51-48%.

We know the media will not report in any of the above.


THEIR EVIDENCE:
Something we don't know.
The rBr hypothesis: Bush voters were reluctant to speak to exit pollsters.

But..
We know that many Republican voters deserted Bush for Kerry.
We know there were hardly any Gore Democrats who voted for Bush.

Ladies and Gentleman of the Jury:
Have you reached a verdict?

Jim Lampley: The Biggest Story of Our Lives


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/theblog/archive/2005/05/biggest-story-of-our-live.html for full article:

Tandalayo_Scheisskopf (1000+ posts) Tue May-10-05 12:35 PM
Original message
Jim Lampley: The Biggest Story of Our Lives


At 5:00 p.m. Eastern time on Election Day, I checked the sportsbook odds in Las Vegas and via the offshore bookmakers to see the odds as of that moment on the Presidential election. John Kerry was a two-to-one favorite. You can look it up.


People who have lived in the sports world as I have, bettors in particular, have a feel for what I am about to say about this: these people are extremely scientific in their assessments. These people understand which information to trust and which indicators to consult in determining where to place a dividing line to influence bets, and they are not in the business of being completely wrong. Oddsmakers consulted exit polling and knew what it meant and acknowledged in their oddsmaking at that moment that John Kerry was winning the election.


And he most certainly was, at least if the votes had been fairly and legally counted. What happened instead was the biggest crime in the history of the nation, and the collective media silence which has followed is the greatest fourth-estate failure ever on our soil.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/theblog/archive/2005/05/biggest-story-of-our-live.html

This is Jim Lampley, the sportscaster, people. This should give you some idea on how deeply this story has drilled into our collective consciousness. Mr. Lampley is not known as a tin-foil-hatter, although I am sure someone will now try to tar him with that brush.

TruthIsAll (1000+ posts) Wed May-11-05 12:06 PM
Original message

TIA constraint: 2004 Votes = G+B+N+New, or New = 122.26-49.21-48.69-3.21



Total 2004 votes = Returning 2000 voters + New Voters

Total 2004 votes = Gore + Bush + Nader + New voters

New = 122.26-49.21-48.69-3.21

New = 21.15 (minimum)

Kerry won 57-60% of New voters.

Total Kerry vote = K = .9*Gore + .1*Bush + .7*Nader + .57*New
Total Bush vote = B = .1*Gore + .9*Bush + .2*Nader + .41*New

You do the math..

[Name removed]

33. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[helderheid]

34. Oh my God another non reader

Stick your head back in the sand. Nothing to see here!

[Aflac]

38. I know about the conspiracy though I watch Penn and Teller's BULLSHIT

[MelissaB]

76. Aww....now this is too bad.

[LittleClarkie]

44. He was trying to show you figures

I don't think it's particularly healthy to shut one's mind off to even reading something that doesn't fit ones worldview. That's what freepers do.

More information will help us formulate that winning strategy, not less. And I'm not entirely sure that Clinton is who we want if we want to win. She will be even more divisive than Kerry, regardless of her merits.

[helderheid]

46. almost right

"she" was trying to show you figures. :)

[Senior citizen]

45. Everything we post is propaganda that you won't read?

All the links and documentation we provide are just propaganda that you won't read?

Obviously you're not here to take part in discussions, so why are you here, Aflac?

[helderheid]

47. Sell us insurance?

Sorry, it was obvious, I know. :)

[LittleClarkie]

50. How does one formulate a "winning strategy"

if one is unwilling to take the blinders off and look at the world as a whole.

It would be different to read and dismiss. But to not even read what doesn't fit one's worldview is entirely too freeper-like for me.

Not calling our friend a freeper. Just our friend's behavior. Unhealthy, I say.

[Conker]

78. Those facts are pretty scary.

The facts clearly weigh the Repubs with an unfair advantage.

[LittleClarkie]

53. I don't give a damn that he's a rich punk kid living a dream

if he were a competent rich punk kid. If he weren't a puppet who'd been hyjacked by the likes of Rummy and Cheney and Bolton and Wolfgowitz. I didn't dislike his father as much as I dislike him. His father was a rich punk as well, but at least he was an adult.

[helderheid]

58. The troll has been run outta town!

Awww, gee I was having fun with him! ;)

[Twist_U_Up]

19. John Bonifaz relentless throughout

John Bonifaz is a treasured jem we all must embrace.

http://nostolendemocracy.typepad.com/blog/2005/01/john_bonifaz_re.html

On December 13, 2004, in the state capitol of Ohio, we witnessed a crime – a crime against democracy, a crime against the right to vote, a crime against our Constitution. On that day, Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell presided over a meeting over a group of individuals who claimed to have won the right to serve as presidential electors for the State of Ohio in the Electoral College. Mr. Blackwell and that group gathered while a recount began of the votes cast in Ohio for President of the United States.

Mr. Blackwell has done everything in his power to push through a slate of electors based on an untested, initial count. In enacting its recount law, the Ohio legislature ensured that a proper counting of all the votes could include a recount. As candidates for the office of President of the United States, David Cobb and Michael Badnarik exercised their right under the law and sought a recount.

Mr. Blackwell had no right to convene a meeting of the Electoral College in Ohio while a recount was underway. And individuals who ran as candidates for presidential electors had no right to cast votes in the Electoral College in Ohio while a recount was underway.

[helderheid]

20. that was the same guy that did the afterdowningstreet.com right?

[Twist_U_Up]

21. Yes it is

http://pdamerica.org/photos/displayimage.php?album=random&cat=2&pos=-97

[helderheid]

26. doing good things, he!

Does he ever post here?

[Aflac]

22. Kerry was a horrible canidate from the Northeast

Seriously Kerry let his one advantage in the election be taken from him by some swiftboat veterens. Bush won 51% of America's vote even though his current poll numbers are what America truly thinks of him. Get it together Richardson or Hillary or both in 08 Serious canidates unlike the Miserable cast of 04

[helderheid]

28. NO ONE could have beaten * with those fucking machines.

[Catherine Vincent]

35. You stink!

[Aflac]

37. And We have Bush as a President good Job!!!

[Catherine Vincent]

62. And I was right. I thought I smelled something FWeeperish.

[helderheid]

36. the current poll numbers are part of the smoking gun!!!

So were the poll numbers the day of the "election"! So were the EXIT polls!!!

www.exitpollz.org

http://velvetrevolution.us/Content/ElectoralReform/Video/Illegit_Election_2004-20-256.wmv

[LittleClarkie]

42. Kerry was a wonderfully qualified candidate with lousy PR

that didn't build up his strengths because they thought people wouldn't understand the intricacies of BCCI and Iran Contra. He was probably one of the most qualified men we've nominated in a while.

He couldn't do it himself. He needed Dems on the TV who'd done their homework. He needed a press that wasn't fighting against him getting his message out. He needed the kind of grassroots in 50 states that Gov. Dean is working on. He needed a party that could help him.

The party as a whole needs to put itself back together if it's ever going to be able to field a candidate and have that candidate win. I've no interest in watching the Clinton family and the Bush family, with their own organizations, play ping pong with the presidency.

That's why I scream and cry and shout about unity. Criticism is good, but the divisive primary season crud needs to stop.

[helderheid]

43. Kerry won :)

[LittleClarkie]

48. That thought, my dear, is the one thing that keeps me sane

some days.

Karen Hughes was RIGHT.

And that's the ironic bit with our non-reading friend. If we are right, than we DID have a winning strategy, and we are now backpedalling away from it in the interest of something "different."

How another Clinton be "different" I don't know.

And until about 2007, I don't much care.

[helderheid]

49. that's the thing

We did win, had a winning strategy, got the kids out voting, so now to wonder what "we" did wrong is crazy! The only thing "we" did wrong (and that only includes dems in power) is allowed for those fekking voting machines running software designed by corporations that had a vested interest in Bush winning to count our votes!!

[wisteria]

66. Disagree!!

KERRY WAS A GOOD CANDIDATE!EVEN WITH ALL THE CORRUPTION AND DISENFRANCHISEMENT GOING ON HE CAME SO CLOSE.
You are also giving the SBV to much credit. The election was close, but the more I read the more I come to believe Kerry had this election with the votes in Ohio. Many things were going on to ensure this election was thrown to Bush.
You know what, you sound an awful lot like a repub trying to discredit Kerry and push Hillary. Humm.............

[darkism]

23. Everybody knows it was stolen, so that makes it OK.

Just using the MSM excuse for the DSM...

See how ridiculous it sounds?

Down With The Thief!

[Aflac]

30. Those Machines elected CLINTON twice

[helderheid]

32. touch screen paperless voting machines?

[LightningFlash]

39. Clinton was elected by fraud, that makes it okay in his mind. n/t

[helderheid]

as I stated before

I only got my apathetic ass registered to vote 2.5 years ago so this is the only election I paid such close attention to. It was stolen.

[wisteria]

69. Different time and different opponents.

Clinton won against Bush 1 because the economy and Bush broke a promise not to raise taxes. Clinton, won the second time because the Republican party was not united behind one candidate-Dole. There was Buchanan running along with Ross Perroue (sp). That split the repub votes. Clinton got lucky in many respects. Kerry had a rough race with a slick, sneaky opponent who was the incumbent and a war president to boot. That Bush was actually a bad president didn't matter to people, and his campaign staff knew how good Kerry was so they pulled out all the tricks and didn't stop at corruption and disenfranchisement in order to ensure a win for there guy.

[DefenseLawyer]

70. How is it that folks

of a certain political persuasion can find a way to blame Bill Clinton in any situation? By the way, while I don't know with certainty, my guess would be there wasn't a single touchscreen voting machine in America in 1992.

[bleever]

40. Kick!

:)

[helderheid]

41. hi bleever!

:hi:

[bleever]

52. Hi helderheid!

We must have posted the Fitrakis preface at the same time in different forums. But mine didn't attract any flying monkeys. Congrats!

:)

[Senior citizen]

51. Fitrakis in San Diego @ Church of the Brethren tonight.

Thanks for posting this, helderheid! I just want to be sure that everyone in the San Diego area knows that Bob Fitrakis will be speaking tonight, 7 to 9 p.m. at the above-named church, 3850 Westgate Place in San Diego. Driving instructions are Home Avenue to Gateway Drive, Right on 39th. I'm not sure of the bus route. The event is sponsored by Activist San Diego, VOTERR, and SD Alliance for Clean Elections, and the suggested donation is $3 to $5.

I assume that his new book, "Did George W. Bush Steal America's 2004 Election? Essential Documents" will be available for purchase -- it has a preface by Rev. Jesse Jackson and includes the Conyers Report.

[helderheid]

59. Oh I am green with envy!

Wish I could be there!

[PATRICK]

54. The easy common sense answer

One could demand any burden of evidence(and dissenters in the past have used far fewer and shouted fraud very loudly) and it is evident at the very least the GOP made widespread and treasonous efforts to suppress and manipulate the vote with every shady scheme in the book, locally, nationally and by state. The denial of a fair campaign forum could have been pursued by looking at the attempt to influence the debate by remote control(Bush's bulge guide and media cheerleaders).

The intention was fraud. The details were numerous, pervasive and damning.

The poster child of the whole system though was the new touchscreen machines. In essence unaccountable. Owned and controlled by the GOP. And even so showed weighted failures and glitches openly for which the most important thing was to deny anyone questioning the blatant untrustworthiness of such an outrageous system.

There was fraud. They acted like they had things to hide and hid them. Their attempts to project fraud outward were petty and in themselves suspicious. And the underground invisible things triggered fraud alerts on a thermonuclear scale not just in exit polls but common sense observations refuted only by convenient but improbable fantasies starting from the a priori statement "Bush 'won' therefore there is no fraud." The King of the hill theory of "democracy".

Everything smells of fraud. The small things give lots of evidence. The large picture points to much much more. In between though, where the countable ballots(minus the lost and including the tampered, the phony) languish in a muddy heap, no one can reverse the election by a recount(maybe). \

Again the a priori statement that Kerry signed onto: "if you can't win a recount, can't find enough massive ballot evidence there is no fraud challenge." In a circular argument fraud wins because it wins and if it wins there is no fraud to investigate.

This criminally insane argument rules the MSM better than any possible brainwashing method available to post Gitmo man.

"I saw you break into that store!"
"But you didn't see me take the money."
"But you have the money!"
"Yes, the money is now mine. You say so. So how can you say I stole it?"

Oh, that would play real well in every law question now, wouldn't it?

[helderheid]

56. excellent assessment!

[helderheid]

57. Great DU created video that touches on all the disenfranchisment

you describe...

http://velvetrevolution.us/Content/ElectoralReform/Video/Illegit_Election_2004-20-256.wmv

"It's all over but the counting, and we'll take care of the counting."
-New York Congressman Pete King (R)

[understandinglife]

55. Yes.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4173.htm


WE THE PEOPLE .... WILL NEVER FORGET

"... we sent our young people into harm's way without leveling with the American people." - Congresswoman Pelosi before Congress, 16 June 2005

Peace.


www.missionnotaccomplished.us - Impeachment of Bush and Cheney; indictment and prosecution of all members of the Bush regime who participated in the deception, should be campaign promises of any candidate worthy of our vote in the 2006 Congressional elections.

[corbett]

61. Kickin' For The Truth!

[lfairban]

63. The view from Ohio.

This is from Grandview Heights, in Columbus, Ohio. Our experience was typical, we only waited about an hour to vote. As you know, in many places it was much worse.

[helderheid]

64. thanks for the pic!

I heard about that - the video I posted in post 57 shows the lines that lasted hours and hours.

[Melissa G]

71. kickin for truth!

[Nothing Without Hope]

65. We all know it was stolen. Good to have the documentation gathered for

those who keep saying "you've got no proof."

Fitrakis and his colleagues have been in the middle of these investigations from the start. They've made their work cumulative - now it's a resource that cannot be ignored.

[Conker]

80. We have the proof, but how do we prevent it from happening again?

It's already tough getting the truth out there about Iraq.I just hope the stolen election documentation doesn't get dismissed by the media like the DSM is.

[Nothing Without Hope]

81. We just have to BE the media - keep pushing. The truth is on our side

The American public wants free, fair elections - we have to keep up the process of getting the truth to them. There are cracks in the stonewall of silence. We ARE making a difference.

[helderheid]

82. I hope we have time before the 2006 elections - VOTE ABSENTEE WITH A PAPER

BALLOT!

[lfairban]

84. How about this?

From:

Bob Fitrakis

How Blackwell and Petro Saved Bush’s Brain: And the rise of the right wing juggernaut in Ohio
April 27, 2005

"Meanwhile, a bi-partisan Ohio coalition is pushing for a statewide vote on three constitutional amendments to guarantee that the kinds of irregularities, fraud and theft that defined Ohio 2004 can never happen again, and that the next Buckeye State election and vote count might actually be fair and honest. Led by former Republican Ohio Supreme Court Justice Andy Douglas, former chairman of the Ohio Democratic Party Paul Tipps, Ohio State political science professor emeritus Herb Asher and the Ohio Civil Service Employees Association president Ron Alexander, the campaign is hoping to put three constitutional amendments on the November 2006 ballot.

One amendment would remove the Secretary of State from any role in administering statewide elections. This would outlaw the kind of conflict of interest that tainted Ohio in 2004, when Blackwell worked as co-chair of the Bush-Cheney campaign while controlling the state’s vote count, a dual role many believe he used to wrongly hand Ohio – and the presidency – to George W. Bush.

A second amendment would create a new five-member redistricting commission. Two members from each major party and one independent would take responsibility for drawing up the congressional districts now being controlled by partisan legislatures.

A third amendment would restrict a new Ohio law allowing corporations to give up to $10,000 directly to political candidates. The law was rammed through by Ohio Republicans in an attempt to give wealthy donors a dominant position over labor unions and grassroots groups in future political campaigns.

This attempt by many of Ohio’s respected political elders to restore balance, dignity and reliability to the state’s elections may be the opening salvo of widespread revulsion against Ohio’s evangelical right-wing corruption and abuse that gave the 2004 election to George W. Bush. "


http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/3/2005/1116

[Conker]

88. Were those amendments passed yet?

[kittenpants]

67. holy frijoles!

this is insane. I worked the elections in Columbus & knew we had won it. This could be proof.

[BrklynLiberal]

72. Of course it was stolen!! That twit will never be MY president!!

[Melissa G]

73. kick!

[byronius]

74. It was surreal to attend the CA Secretary of State Diebold meeting.

If you see it in person, it's like being in a science-fiction movie.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=378741&mesg_id=378741

[MelissaB]

75. Bob Fitrakis talked about this last week. He isn't being exactly trutful.

Links: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x377215#377222

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x377215#377222

[Oversea Visitor]

77. Steak it once

Steal it twice

2000 election and Gore dont know how Americans can let him get away with that.

Now come 2004 got even worse

OMG Jeb 2008 Good Luck to you guys.

[helderheid]

79. Thanks! Maybe the foreign media is the answer

Just as it was with DSM

[Oversea Visitor]

86. Dont put your hope too high

Sad facts is the era of corporation has arrive. The MNC is very very strong. MNC is Multi National Corporations.

[autorank]

83. KICK Outstanding post...this is ground zero in the * conspiracy!

:kick:

[helderheid]

85. Interview with Laura Flanders yesterday on AAR here's the MP3

Here is the interview in which Fitrakis says Blackwell had access to the central tabulation machines during the election:

http://wanderingstar.com/design/bobfitrakisAAR.mp3

This is from the Laura Flander's interview

[knowbody0]

87. KICK

[AzDar]

89. VERY interesting...almost the Coroner's report on the death of Democracy.