Wednesday 2/9 Election Fraud, Reform, & Updates Thread

[MelissaB]

In order to organize and document I thought it would be a good idea to have a daily thread to place items related to reform, fraud, protests, and other items. This also make it easier to "catch up" when we are away from the computer for a while.

Please help us. If you see something that isn't here post it with a link to the thread and a thanks to the author. Thanks to everyone who is helping with this project.


Link to the thread from yesterday: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x320808

[L. Coyote]

1. WA: Thurston Co. Sheriff to Probe Voting by Felons by Adam Wilson

The Thurston County sheriff is investigating allegations of illegal voting in the November election, saying the effort will boost the public's confidence in the election system.
Click Here
"We're kind of breaking new ground here," said Sheriff Gary Edwards. "This issue apparently has always been there, but it has never come to the forefront before. It really is a sad state of affairs."

Edwards said Monday he has assigned a detective to investigate the number of convicted felons voting illegally, but he added sorting out the confusing system controlling felons' voting rights will be a challenge.

"It's all just as clear as mud," Edwards said.

There is no single database listing which felons have completed their sentences and had their voting rights restored by the court, Edwards noted. He said that makes knowing who can vote difficult both for officials and felons.

http://www.theolympian.com/home/news/20050208/topstories/83985.shtml

[L. Coyote]

2. Christopher Hitchens thinks the OHIO VOTE WAS STOLEN

Christopher Hitchens has a new article in Vanity Fair entitled, OHIO'S ODD NUMBER'S. The lead-in states "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."

Hitchens was never a supporter of George W. Bush per se. He was active before the 2000 election in highlighting the felons list in Florida. Generally speaking, Hitchens holds leftist political views that have evolved unpredictably over time. He has been a relentless critic of Henry Kissinger.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/2/9/1712/26186

========
On Election Fraud, Irregularity, and Reform Headlines. Over 550 links. Pass this link to non-believers!!

[L. Coyote]

3. GOP wants a retally of county votes: Discarded ballots could change result

CARRIE LEVINE Charlotte Observer 08 February 2005

Local Republicans want Mecklenburg County election officials to immediately retally election results in the wake of a ruling last week by the N.C. Supreme Court.

The ruling, on a lawsuit filed in Wake County, declared provisional ballots cast by voters in the wrong precinct illegal.

At a news conference outside county elections offices on Monday, County GOP Chairman John Aneralla said the county board has "the legal right and moral obligation" to remove those ballots from the totals, and release new results.

Another Republican, Thomas Ashcraft, a former member of the county board of elections, also asked the board to retally results

In a letter, Ashcraft said that if the new tally shows a different outcome in the county race, either Samuelson or the state attorney general could pursue legal action.

http://www.votersunite.org/article.asp?id=4813

[L. Coyote]

4. Fixing America's Broken Elections by Rep. John Conyers

The election debacles in Florida's 2000 presidential election and Ohio's 2004 election clearly demonstrate that our nation still has a long way to go in the continuing fight for electoral justice. Our nation cannot withstand deficiencies in machines and procedures that foster legitimate questions about the validity of the election outcome. Our democracy is at risk, and the time is now to move forward with election reform legislation.

Because of unprecedented discrepancies between exit poll results and election day official tallies in the 2004 election, I instructed my staff to examine whether there was any basis to theories that such discrepancies were an indicator that voting irregularities distorted official results.......

http://progressivetrail.org/articles/050208Rep.JohnConyers.shtml

[dzika]

5. "Official White House Softball Thrower", Jeff Gannon of Talon News Resigns

"Official White House Softball Thrower", Jeff Gannon of Talon News Resigns

You may remember Jeff Gannon. He works for the Talon News which has ties to GOPUSA.com. He has been criticized by Media Matters and some news outlets as having little journalism experience but continues to get press passes to the White House. He has been the "goto-Guy" for questions when Bush needed to be saved from other difficult lines of questioning during press conferences and press briefings.

This pattern was pervasive throughout the 2004 presidential campaign. Can you say "GannonGate"?

---

Tuesday, February 08, 2005

Holy crap

by John in DC



"Jeff Gannon"
EXPOSED!


Update: He just resigned.

Let me say again, holy crap.

The blogosphere has dug up some really really really creepy stuff about that pseudo-reporter with the pseudonym who the White House lets ask all the softball questions about their briefings. His pseudonym is Jeff Gannon, and well, the folks at DailyKos, and Eschaton, have been doing a little digging around on him.

It's a long and sordid tale, but let me give it to you in a nutshell. Mr. Gannon's home page is JeffGannon.com. Well, JeffGannon.com is owned by a person and company that owns the following Web addresses as well:

• Hotmilitarystud.com
  
• Militaryescorts.com
  
• Militaryescortsm4m.com

And for those of you who are really straight or really clueless, "m4m" is a gay online term for men who are looking to have sex with other men, and "escort" means prostitute. And being a military escort is also against the Uniform Code of Military Justice in at least two different ways, if not more.

Now, I'm not one to judge how folks like to get their jollies (assuming no children are involved and it's consensual), but then again, I don't suck up to the family values agenda like Mr. Gannon does. I've been through Gannon's archives, and it's a horrendous accumulation of religious right suck-up pieces on gay issues. Some are concerned that perhaps it's not fair to hit him with the gay card, if he is gay. Well, take a look at some of the stories from Gannon's Talon News Service: here, here, here Talon is promoting "ex-gays," defending Bush on gay marriage, and Gannon himself writing a story defending Santorum on his man-dog-sex commments about gays. There are lots more, you get the picture.

Oh, and speaking of pictures, they found photos too.

The big issue here is whether the White House has been knowingly opening its doors to a pseudonymous male hustler (or pimp) so he'll pose softball questions to the president. If that's the case here - and in all fairness, we still need to hear from Gannon - it's not just creepy, it's outrageous and an incredible violation of the country's trust, and just as importantly, White House security. Do these people do a background check on anyone?

Just go and read it all for yourself.


Source: http://americablog.blogspot.com/2005/02/holy-crap_08.html

[understandinglife]

9. Raw Story: Proof comes out linking GOP White House "reporter"...

....with gay military escort services; Scantily-clad profile photograph traced

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/index.php?p=47


TBO;24/7

[dzika]

6. PRESS RELEASE - Date for Hearing in New Ohio Recount Case Can Now Be Set

February 8, 2005
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Press Contact

Date for Hearing in New Ohio Recount Case Can Now Be Set

"Mr. Blackwell and Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro are doing their utmost to keep the public and the proper authorities from finding out what went wrong with Ohio's presidential election and the bungled recount which followed it."

— Blair Bobier
Cobb Media Director

Columbus, OH — Green Party presidential candidate David Cobb's pending request to have the flawed recount of Ohio's presidential vote be done again, this time in conformance with state and federal law, moved a step closer to judicial resolution with the filing last week of the final necessary documents before the matter can be heard by a federal judge.

Attorneys acting on behalf of Cobb and Libertarian presidential candidate Michael Badnarik, filed a legal Memorandum on February 3, countering the "remarkable assertion" of Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell that he is not a proper party to the recount litigation and that the lawsuit filed by the presidential candidates should be dismissed.

"Mr. Blackwell and Ohio Attorney General Jim Petro are doing their utmost to keep the public and the proper authorities from finding out what went wrong with Ohio's presidential election and the bungled recount which followed it. Collectively, they have refused to testify before members of Congress and they have sought sanctions against attorneys prosecuting legitimate election claims. It is not at all surprising that they are claiming a federal court has no jurisdiction in the oversight of a federal election. It's not surprising, it's simply ridiculous," said Blair Bobier, Media Director for the Cobb-LaMarche 2004 Green Party presidential campaign.

The matter is pending in the Eastern Division of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, before Judge Edmund Sargus.

Whether the Ohio election and subsequent recount were conducted fairly and with uniform standards has become a national issue since Cobb and Badnarik first demanded the Ohio recount back in November. The recount set the stage for investigations conducted by Representative John Conyers of Michigan, rallies featuring the Reverend Jesse Jackson, and the historic challenge to Ohio's Electoral College votes on January 6, before a joint session of Congress. The issue has galvanized activists all across the country and has resulted in Congressional legislation, a well-attended national conference and the emergence of a New Voting Rights Movement.

Problems with the recount included a lack of security for the ballots and voting machines-including allegations of interference with voting machines by representatives of the Diebold and Triad corporations — and the refusal of some counties to do a full hand recount when Ohio law required them to do so. One of the most significant problems with the recount was that few of Ohio's 88 counties randomly selected sample precincts for the recount as is required by state law.


Source: http://www.votecobb.org/press/2005/feb/pr2005-02-08.php

[dzika]

7. Rove promoted to coordinate Homeland Security, National Security Councils

Rove promoted to coordinate Homeland Security, National Security Councils among others

Transcribed from CNN:

Kyra Phillips:

Politics and policy, two vastly different priorities of any Whitehorse together. Now, in building the portfolio of White Hose mover and shaker, Karl Rove.

The long time friend, adviser, and all-around political guru to President Bush has just been named "Deputy White House Chief of Staff for Policy".
...
Well, now in his new role, Rove will coordinate the work of the National Economic Council, the Domestic Policy Council, the National Security Council, and the Homeland Security Council.

Democrats are appalled. DNC chief Terry McAuliffe calling Rove "an ideological strategist who has a history of bending the truth and using dirty tricks."

Video in Windows Media format:
http://www.edwardsdavid.com/BushVideos/cnn_rove_promoted_050209-01.wmv

[dzika]

8. BradBlog: Yang Offered Clint Curtis $1 Million for a No-Work, No-Show Job!

Blogged by Brad on 2/8/2005 @ 8:35pm PT...

Yang Offered Clint Curtis $1 Million for a No-Work, No-Show Job!

...And other details from Brad's Meeting with Clint Curtis in UT.
PLUS: Clint Curtis Answers Questions from BRAD BLOG Readers!



Regular BRAD BLOG readers know that we took the opportunity of an invitation to interview Clint Curtis live at the Freedom Cinema Festival in Park City, UT, recently to grab a few days of vacation via roadtrip on the way there and back.

Persistent (but finally waning) headcold, exhaustion, and a welcome lack of net access kept us from documenting the event in any more than scant details until now.

Some of the most notable results from the event are now still in-progress. So we're somewhat reluctant for the moment to show our hand on several of those in-progress connections made until more tangible fruit is borne from the various leads.

Holding back information from devoted readers is not something I'm entirely comfortable with. But we've learned along the way -- especially when dealing with issues of the potential magnitude of the Clint Curtis story -- that it's smarter, when in doubt, to keep cards close to the vest in such cases, even at the risk of off-putting readers.


read the entire article at BradBlog:
http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00001176.htm

DU Thread: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x321526

[dzika]

10. Senator Clinton and Senator Boxer to announce 'Count Every Vote Act'

(thanks to FreepFryer)

Senator Clinton and Senator Boxer to announce 'Count Every Vote Act'

From today's Senator Clinton mailing.

"It's time to tell those who celebrate elections and voter participation in countries around the world that we must make sure every vote is counted in elections right here at home!

That's why I am asking you to sign on now as a citizen co-sponsor of vitally important election reform legislation.

http://www.friendsofhillary.com/CountEveryVote

Next week, I will introduce the Count Every Vote Act of 2005, co-sponsored by Senator Barbara Boxer. This comprehensive election reform bill will:

• Provide a verified paper ballot for every vote cast in electronic voting machines.
  
  
• Set a uniform standard for provisional ballots, so that every qualified voter within the state will know their votes are treated equally and will be counted.
  
  
• Require the Federal Election Assistance Commission to issue standards that ensure uniform access to voting machines and election personnel in every community. It's outrageous that some people in predominantly minority communities had to wait up to 10 hours to vote, while people in other communities often voted in minutes!

In 2004, I introduced legislation similar to the Count Every Vote Act. But it never saw the light of day. I couldn't even get a hearing for my bill before the Senate Rules Committee. We can't allow this new legislation to suffer the same fate.

The Republicans who control Congress don't want to address this issue. So we've got to build grassroots momentum to make sure they don't have any choice but to act. That's why I am determined to keep moving forward -- on the Hill, with advocacy groups, and with all of you!"

http://www.friendsofhillary.com/CountEveryVote


DU Thread: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x321859

[dzika]

11. FBI checking Clermont County Ohio voting

(thanks to me b zola)

Wednesday, February 9, 2005

FBI checking Clermont County Ohio voting

By Reid Forgrave


BATAVIA - The Federal Bureau of Investigation is interviewing members of the Clermont County Board of Elections because of a Democratic Congressman's claim of vote-tampering during the presidential election.

The allegations stem from white oval-shaped stickers, about the size of an M&M, placed on fewer than 100 ballots.

Poll workers used them on Election Day to correct mistaken votes and determine intent on the optical scan ballots. Some voters, for example, marked their vote, but also etched a small mark in the space for another candidate, which threw off the machines.

Michael Brooks, a spokesman with the FBI's office in Cincinnati, confirmed Tuesday that the agency is conducting preliminary interviews with Clermont elections officials. The bureau hasn't yet decided to open a formal investigation.

The FBI is responding to a letter from Rep. John Conyers Jr., D-Mich., requesting an investigation "of vote-tampering if not outright fraud" based on recount observers' statements.


more
http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050209/NEWS01/502090415/1056

DU Thread: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x321971

[dzika]

12. Already, the states are resisting better vote-counting in U.S. elections

February 08, 2005

Already, the states are resisting better vote-counting in U.S. elections

The National Association of Secretaries of State, at a convention in Washington, D.C., just passed a resolution calling on the federal government to stop pushing the states to reform their elections.

Specifically, these state officials want Congress to dissolve the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, which is overseeing the transition to better ballots, better voting machines and new systems to prevent voter fraud.

Vote integrity now. The states say they fear the federal government is intruding on their responsibilities. The states should just shut up and get on with guaranteeing the integrity of the voting process. This work is long overdue.

Frank Warner

http://frankwarner.typepad.com/free_frank_warner/2005/02/already_the_sta.html

[Wilms]

13. NY Newsday: Longest race won by the narrowest of margins

Longest race won by the narrowest of margins

NY Newsday
BY ERROL A. COCKFIELD JR
ALBANY BUREAU CHIEF

February 9, 2005

ALBANY -- Ending the most prolonged legislative race in state history, Westchester state Sen. Nicholas Spano won re-election by the narrowest of margins yesterday, beating Democratic challenger Andrea Stewart-Cousins by 18 votes.

-snip-

She said in a statement that, "It is never easy to defeat a long-time incumbent, but the fact that we came as close as we have demonstrates the power of the issues we championed ... "

-snip/more-

<http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/state/ny-stspan094139543feb09,0,367992.story?coll=ny-statenews-headlines>

[Wilms]

14. JS OnLine: Double trouble in voter inquiry

Double trouble in voter inquiry
Some duplicate voter records defy explanation

By GREG J. BOROWSKI and TOM KERTSCHER
[e-mail]
Posted: Feb. 8, 2005

If Milwaukee election records are correct, someone named Marquis F. Murff registered at the polls Nov. 2 and voted from an address on E. Knapp St.

-snip-

Some are clearly two different people or have very common names. For example, six people named James L. Smith voted in November.

The newspaper took a sample of 300 people from that list, focusing on duplicate individuals with uncommon names. In most cases, public records checks easily confirmed that two different people were included on the list.

Some other duplications have been explained by the city as computer "glitches" from the post-election data-entry process, in which people were incorrectly assigned two votes.

-snip/more-

<http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/feb05/300147.asp>

[dzika]

15. Ironic voter fraud found in Vo race

Feb. 8, 2005, 10:48PM

Ironic voter fraud found in Vo race

By RICK CASEY

Republican legislators breathed deep sighs of relief when former state Rep. Talmadge Heflin withdrew his election challenge Monday.
...
Did GOP sandbag Africans?

But as it turns out, the hearings did turn up evidence of some election fraud, with considerable irony.

It seems that Heflin's team found a group of African-American voters in the Vo-Heflin race who, voter-registration records indicated, had moved into another legislative district, that of Democrat Rep. Scott Hochberg.

But it turned out that these voters had not moved. Someone had fraudulently filed change-of-address cards for them. Who might have done that?
...
Instead of showing Democratic fraud, the reporter said, the hearings "served up a fine public record of practices by Republicans and unknown others that would suppress their rights."


more
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/3030882

[dzika]

16. IRAQ: Thousands were unable to vote in north

09 Feb 2005 11:41:07 GMT

IRAQ: Thousands were unable to vote in north

BAGHDAD, 9 February (IRIN) - Iraq's Higher Independent Electoral Commission (HIEC) confirmed this week that threats and security fears kept most Sunni people away from the polls on 30 January, in areas around the northern city of Mosul, some 390 km northwest of the capital, Baghdad.
...
Ayar added that only 95 of the 330 polling stations were opened and that there were threats from insurgents. According to medical staff in the area more than 30 people were killed on election day and more than 70 injured were treated at the main hospital.
...
Those attending the demonstration were mainly Turkmen and Christians, carrying Iraqi flags and shouting through loudspeakers about irregularities they had allegedly seen in the north.

"It was really an offence against our rights and the government didn't do anything to cover this problem," Labiba Ahmed, a Turkmen demonstrator, told IRIN. A senior official from the HIEC told IRIN that lawyers were investigating the irregularities.


http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/IRIN/180d724de7f1da8108517b48ba6aa85c.htm

[dzika]

17. Skagit County, WA Elections may go postal

Skagit County, WA Elections may go postal

By JAMES GELUSO and BEVERLY CRICHFIELD Staff Writers


Skagit County voters could go to the polls for the last time this November.

Seeking to avoid buying costly electronic voting machines, Skagit County Auditor Norma Brummett asked the county commissioners Tuesday to allow the county to convert to vote-by-mail status.

Federal law will require an electronic voting machine at every poll site beginning in 2006. But with 46 poll sites, and the machines costing around $5,000 each, Brummett said she would rather shut down the poll sites and require everyone to mail in their ballots.
...
The Republican and Democratic parties are sharply divided about vote-by-mail.

Chris Vance, state GOP party chairman, said the state party is opposed to all-mail elections.
...
Local Democrats say they favor vote-by-mail. They say they're worried that the newly required electronic voting machines won't be as accurate as the traditional paper ballots.

Congress has mandated that all counties must provide electronic voting at the polls by 2006.


http://www.skagitvalleyherald.com/articles/2005/02/09/news/news01.txt

[dzika]

18. More BushCo Math: Iraqi Elections Pop Quiz

February 9, 2005

More BushCo Math: Iraqi Elections Pop Quiz

I passed fourth grade math. I remember adding up numbers into the millions. Subtraction would sometimes confuse me - especially if there were a lot of zeroes in the top number but I caught on pretty quick. I’ve even been known to call on my adding/subtracting skills since fourth grade. For the life of me though, I can’t figure out what’s happening with the Iraqi elections.


Here’s the problem: What was the turnout percentage in the Iraqi election?

We’ve been fed breathless and uncorroborated reports that about 8 million votes have been cast. We’ve heard numbers as high as 72% (freedom!), which got backed down to 57% (still good, still good), and which the corporate media helpfully rounded to 60% (better! Of course that means that Kerry got 50% of the vote in November, but that’s another story.) So how hard can this be?

Well, like any fourth grader knows, to do math, you have to know what you know and what you’re being asked. Does “percentage of Iraqis who voted” mean percentage of registered voters or percentage of eligible voters? In the US we go with eligible voters, but there’s no need to impose our kind of democracy on Iraq. We’re not pushy. We can go with registered voters. Still, no matter what you decide, it’s hard to get a firm figure.

We’ve heard that there are 14 million eligible voters:

Iraq has a population of more than 25 million people, but 40 percent of them are under the age of 14 (in the United States, 20 percent of the population is 14 or younger). This young population leaves just 14 million Iraqis eligible — and 1.2 million of them live outside the country.

But according to Howie Kurtz, via dKos, the number of eligible voters is 18 million:

Howard Kurtz at least looked into the Iraqi numbers. In a Tuesday column, he observed that “the 14 million figure is the number of registered Iraqis, while turnout is usually calculated using the number of eligible voters. The number of adults in Iraq is probably closer to 18 million,” which would lower the turnout figure to 45% (if, indeed, the 8 million number holds up).

D’oh! This is more complicated than Social Security. Let’s split the difference, assume a great deal of information not in evidence and say that the turnout was 50%. And if elections ended with the voting, we’d be all set. Haul out the aircraft carrier, hang the banner and make the speech. But, as Stalin is said to have told us, it’s not who votes that counts, it’s the people who count the votes. And that is something the current administration has learned well, which brings us to Part Two of our problem: The Recountening.

With allegedly 3.3 million, supposedly half, of the votes counted and reports leaking out that Sistani’s Iraqi United Alliance is holding a wide lead and putting Allawi’s team in a distant third behind the indominatable Kurds, the Iraqi election commission has announced that there are 300 boxes of ballots that need to be investigated. In a democracy voting irregularities can not stand. Now look at those boxes. They’d have to hold fifty thousand ballots each to begin to make a difference and they’re the size of the containers I use to store my sweaters. But every vote should count so rock on, Iraqi election commission. What’s troubling is this bit of news released today:

The commission doesn’t want to seem as if it’s favoring one party over another, and as a result it won’t release any more partial tallies of the votes, Ayar said.

Reporting partial tallies is tantamount to favoring a party? Does anyone else feel BushCo’s clammy hand of Information=Opinion on this? Poor Iraq probably didn’t see this coming, although we could have told them that when it comes to election results BushCo isn’t so much about the freedom thing as he is the secret, unauditable ballot counted by loyal party members. Live and learn.

The next numbers we’ll hear out of Iraq will be the official results. The math won’t be tough to check, but thanks to our jolly corporate media, BushCo’s not being required to show his work.


source: http://www.reachm.com/amstreet/archives/2005/02/09/more-bushco-math-iraqi-elections-pop-quiz/

[dzika]

19. The Big CON: "Religious Right" as Bush's "Base!"

February 9, 2005

The Big CON: "Religious Right" as Bush's "Base!"

Here are the Indisputable FACTS.

It has been well-documented by Nov. 2nd's accurate exit polls that only 17.16% of voters who went to the polls voted for Bush on the basis of so-called "moral" issues. (Derived thusly: 22% voted prmarily of the basis of "values," and 78% of those who did so voted for Bush... for a total of 17.16% voters who voted for "values" from the standpoint of REPRESSING liberties. The emainder voted for Kerry, having **defending** personal liberties as *their* most important issue.) That means that 82.64% of those who voted for Bush -- FOR BUSH! -- not voters *overall* -- voted for him for OTHER reasons than "values" being foremost. For them, if "values" were an issue for some, they took back burner osition to such RELEVANT issues and the war and the economy. Thus, the control-freakish bigots who voted for Bush were **outnumbered** by those who voted for him based upon *relevant* issues by a ratio of about SIX to ONE.

(Bush can consider himself very lucky that 82.84% of his voters actually were obtuse enough to vote for him based on ANY issues, considering what a proven dishonest and thug-employing warmonger that he is.) (It's like the "Mirror" in the UK correctly asked: "How can 59,000,000+ Americans be so DUMB?")

That's the KINDEST possible cut to the bigots. But another aspect to the reality of all of this comes from factoring in the voters who went for Kerry... virtually NONE of whom (obviously) did so in hopes of seeing the above repressive agendas being supported.

Let's use these total vote tallies (which each have probably increased a bit since they were reported, but the percentages would not have changed)...

Bush 59,459,785
Kerry 55,949,407
Nader 400,706

...and omit Nader, since I haven't seen exit polls regarding how "moral"-issues-voters related to voting for him. If I could include those votes in this analysis, though, it probably would be even WORSE for the bigots, since Nader supporters tend to siphon off
more would-be Democratic votes than Republican ones. So that's
a point worth remembering.

17.16% of Bush's vote comes to 10,203,299, using the above tallies. 0% of bigots voting for Kerry, of course, is zilch, numbers-wise. So -- without factoring in the lukewarm morons who were eligible to vote, but *didn't*, that means that out of a total of 115,409,192 votes actually cast for Bush & Kerry on Nov. 2nd, only a mere 8.84% were cast by neocon/RRR cult-type "values" voters; voters who had NO regard for some of out most important personal liberties.

*Then* it REALLY goes downhill fast for those pathetic bigots!

Those who **didn't** vote, even though they were eligible to, no dobt included some passive sympathizers to the RRR cult's agendas. But, for however more of those there may have been, those bigots were of the HARMLESS variety that are of no concern at all for fair-minded and egalitarian defenders of human rights. Why? Because for a person to pose ANY kind of threat to human rights, they must in SOME respect be *activists* in that manner.

Consider the fact that pretty much the EASIEST way to be an activist in the most *minimal* degree these days is to VOTE. Why? Because recently it has become universally possible, in America, to vote by mail, or ahead of time in person, or via absentee ballot. So when a person doesn't even make THAT minimal an effort to support agendas that interest them, then they have proven their passivity on these issues. So the percentages of bigots among those voters doesn't matter, since **passive** bigots are not the sort of bigots that anyone needs to be concerned with.

(For example -- there probably still are countless thousand, and maybe even a million or more, closet racists living in America who used to be segregationists, up until THEIR loathsome agenda became extinct, 40 years ago. By being **closet** racists, they are harmless. No one cares about a person's *thoughts.* What counts is the way he ACTS toward others.

I've been unable to find an exact figure for the percentage of eligible voters that didn't get to the polls, but extrapolating from the figures cited in this article...

http://usinfo.state.gov/dhr/Archive/2004/Oct/27-717452.html

...it must have been very close to 44%. That gives us a total of around 206,087,824 total eligible voters: both the ones who went to the polls, and the 90,678,632 or so who weren't sufficiently motivated by any of the isues, either real or misperceived, to bother to vote.

Again -- there is no reason for pro-human rights activists to be concerned about the eligible voters who didn't vote, because such lukewarm people don't do human rights any harm, nor do they do the forces of bigotry any good. Their like the neutrons in an atom; they add mass/bulk/volume to the population, but when it comes to these issues, they do little or nothing else.

So we have a total 90,678,632 lukewarm people who proved that bigoted agendas have such LITTLE importance to them that they couldn't even be bothered with voting for the candidate most likely to have alligned himself with those issues.

Of the U.S. electorate eligible to vote on Nov. 2, 2004, we thus have a total of only 10,203,299 out of 206,087,824 who supported bigoted agendas by voting for Buth with that being the foremost reason for casting that vote. That's only a mere 5%.

An "X" factor could be the 80 million or so NON-eligible voters living in America. Exit polls showed that the **younger** voters who were old enough and who *did* vote tended to support Kerry by around 56% to 44%. And the voters over 65 tended to support Bush in higher percentages than average, but there are fewer of those than of younger voters. But there's no real way to come up with figures for how NON-eligible voters **might** have voted if their viewpoints could be considered, so we're forced either to ignore them, or simply figure that they were fairly evenly split, as was the case for the election... which went 51% bush, 49% Kerry, and less than 1% Nader.

BOTTOM LINE: Of the American electorate eligible to vote, only a mere 5% are active supporters of the RRR cult's heinous agendas against human rights and personal liberties. FIVE PERCENT. That's a ratio of 20-1 of people who either support human rights actively or for whom opposition to them is of a low enough priority that they didn't even bother to support those loathsome agendas against safe & leagl abortion-upon-request and **equal** rights for gays by voting for Bush.

VERY heartening!!

There is NO mandate for Bush that can be ascribed to the Religious Radical Right, and it is ludicrous for him to consider those hateful loons to be his "base." Only 5% of America's eligible voters supported him on that basis!

19 out of every 20 of America's 206 million eligible voters either are opposed to the loathsome agendas of the RRR cult, or are not sufficiently interested in them to even minimally support them!

Out of that, the only bad news is this: A glass of drinking water that's comprised of 5% arsenic would be deadly poisonous. And that is pecisely the danger currently posed to personal freedom in America by the hateful and control-freakish RRR cult as it exists today.

More than ever before, thinking, sensible, and egalitarian Americans need to work HARD to OPPOSE the loathsome RRR cult on all fronts, and **remove** that poisonous threat to out personal liberties. STARTING with **vigorous** and vocal opposition to any Anti-Choice/anti-liberties U.S. Supreme court nominees.

We CAN make America a Bigotry-Free Zone. The arsenic CAN be filtered out! Especially when 95% of the population is comprised of human rights activists and apathetic people who pose no oppo-sition to doing that.

And we MUST do so. Starting today!!!

-- Craig Chilton

(from an email message)

[dzika]

20. Speech by John Edwards given in New Hampshire on 2/5/2005

02/05/2005

Speech by John Edwards given in New Hampshire on 2/5/2005

ALERT - In the days leading up to the elections for DNC Chair (Feb. 12, 2005), the White House and the RNC will continue to launch a full out attack on the Democratic Party. The basis of this attack will be that the Democrats do not have values.

SOLUTION - Take a minute to read the most recent speech by John Edwards. It is a brilliant example of how Progressives can speak about values.


"C-SPAN: Road to the White House 2008"

Watch the video in Real Media format: (38 minutes)
http://www.oneamericacommittee.com/20050205-new-hampshire.ram



This past weekend, John Edwards visited New Hampshire to speak about the Democratic Party's core beliefs and some of the issues that he will be working on - combating poverty, strengthening the value of work, and creating the opportunity to succeed for all Americans. He got a great response and his speech is getting rave reviews.

Remarks By Senator Edwards
100 Club Dinner
New Hampshire
02/05/2005

It is so great to be here with you tonight. I want to say thank you for all of your hard work over the last two years. You have a new Governor and a new hope for New Hampshire's families.

John Kerry and I are so grateful for all that you did for the campaign. You won back New Hampshire. You were the first state in the country to turn the page—to turn a red state blue. And I know that New Hampshire will always lead the way with your primary and your commitment to change this country.

I want to say a personal thank you to all of you for your prayers and well wishes for Elizabeth. She's doing well. My wife and I are blessed to have the support of loving friends and family and the best health care in the world. We are so thankful for it. But we must keep up our fight so that every family gets the same chance that we've had.

And to just give you an idea of how strong she is let me tell you what she said the day after we left Boston. She said, "Let's go public right now. If we can help one woman go early to see her doctor, then that would make this worth it." Thanks to all of you we're not in this alone and we're so grateful and blessed to have you standing with us.

You know all these political experts out there question what you and I and the Democratic Party believe in. They say that we don't believe in anything. That we don't stand for anything. Well, tonight I want to talk about what we believe.

(continued...)

Read the entire speech here:
http://www.oneamericacommittee.com/100-club.asp

Watch the speech in Real Media format here (38 minutes):
http://www.oneamericacommittee.com/20050205-new-hampshire.ram

[Wilms]

21. Measure would put felons on path to voting rights

OMAHA WORLD-HERALD

Published Monday, February 7, 2005

Measure would put felons on path to voting rights

BY LESLIE REED

WORLD-HERALD BUREAU

LINCOLN - After his release from prison in 1986, Steve Pochop found God and got his life on track.

The Battle Creek, Neb., native and his wife, Vickie, settled down to raise a family and build a ministry in Florence, Ala.

But he couldn't vote.

Nebraska and Alabama are among nine states that do not automatically restore voting rights when felons finish their sentences, according to Margaret Love, a former U.S. pardons attorney who has researched the issue.

-snip/more-

<http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_pg=528&u_xid=947&u_sid=1330032>

[dzika]

22. The Road to Fascism crosses at the Road to the Polls

February 9, 2005

The Road to Fascism crosses at the Road to the Polls

There's a lot of hullabaloo on the Internets recently about America's slide from democracy to fascism. I've been on an extended surf that I'd like to share with you. First I found this on Metafilter. Which led me to this, which is pretty much an evidentiary portal for the claim that the great American experiment is coming to a disturbing and ignominious twilight. Then there's this article from THE AMERICAN CONSERVATIVE, yep a CONSERVATIVE publication, that lays out the case and draws parallels to the growth of fascist thought in pre-Nazi Germany.

I'll wait a minute for you to peruse.

Okay, caught up now? Check out this piece by Paul Craig Roberts, who, aside from being the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury during the Reagan administration, was also a columnist for The Wall Street Journal and a contributing editor for the National Review. If there's a more convincing conservative pedigree than that, I can't imagine it. Paul's concerned.

Sheila Sample's credentials aren't quite as impressive as Roberts', but she still asks a compelling question: what the hell is going on here? My favorite part is where she quotes “uber-conservative” columnist Adam Yoshida as saying that conservatives should embrace social welfare programs for the pragmatic reason that if you keep the poor happy they won't rise up against you. When I read that I thought, surely that's not what he said, so I followed the link she provided and damn if she's not right. Yoshida says, I and I quote:

So, what are we to do? There's no point in cutting them off from their benefits, doing that will simply rouse them from their stupor and get more of them to the polls on Election Day. Rather, we should consider maintaining (or even increasing) their benefits while, at the exact same time, making it harder for them to vote (I recommend modern and simple literacy tests for this purpose.

From my extensive time spent examining present and future members of our underclass, I'mquite convinced that a series of simple language and math questions would be enough to discourage them from voting).

Of course, it might cost us some extra money in the short-term to keep the dregs relatively happy and silent but, in the long term, it will be a great investment, as fewer of them vote and therefore allow us to make up for the money spent by electing wiser governments which will allow for faster economic growth.

So, if I understand this, conservatives should keep the “dregs” happy long enough to disenfranchise them with literacy tests (obviously the Voting Rights Act of 1965 will need to be repealed). This, of course will be no big deal because we have No Child Left Behind, which makes it the law of the land that “underperforming schools” shall have federal monies withheld from them. If we can overlook for a moment that “underperforming schools” tend to serve the “dregs” and the “underclass” that Mr. Yoshida speaks of so glibly then we should all be able to avoid those little pangs of conscience. What happened to the land of opportunity that I was sold as a child? Men like Mr. Yoshida would write off the underprivileged, make it law to deny them means to better themselves and then, based upon their governmentally enforced underclass status, disenfranchise them from voting. You can read the rest of this garbage here.

Look, I don't want a welfare state. I recall a time when I earning $6.50 an hour with a wife and a baby and I stood behind a woman in the grocery store who paid for her groceries with a wad of food stamps wearing a $300 leather coat. But I can't stomach that there are actually people espousing the creation and maintenance of an underclass simply because it's convenient for the furtherance of their political agenda.

So are we sliding toward fascism? I hope not, but at the moment I can't make a case against it.


Source: http://www.oceansidenevada.com/blog/_archives/2005/2/9/311616.html

[Wilms]

23. Committee Evaluating 2004 Voting Annoyed by No-Shows

Common Dreams

Committee Evaluating 2004 Voting Annoyed by No-Shows

Published on Wednesday, February 9, 2005 by the Associated Press

by Malia Rulon

WASHINGTON - Members of a new federal voting commission meeting Wednesday to review problems with the 2004 election denounced the secretaries of state from Ohio and Florida, two states at the epicenter of complaints, for failing to show up.

-snip-

Ney, whose committee oversees election issues, said he would continue to push for Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell and his Florida counterpart, Glenda Hood, to appear the Election Assistance Commission. Elections chiefs from four other states were to testify later Wednesday.

-snip-

"In our 'fast food' and 'real time' society, it is easy to expect a quick fix to any given problem. Elections are complex and dynamic events that require years of advance planning and careful thought," the commission said.

-snip/more-

<http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0209-10.htm>