My brief synopsis of the Santa Monica teach-in 2/27

[BlueTarheel]

First of all, there are some incredibly passionate, optimistic intelligent people working on election reform. It was such an inspiring day. I feel so much more empowered now than before. The meeting lasted almost four hours. I’m a little tired, but I’ll type as much as I can remember for now.

If they have any of these teach-ins in your area, I highly recommend going. The speakers detailed the problems of 2000 and 2004, which was depressing, but they were also inspirational of what we can do to work for a better system for next time. There was a real sense of optimism that I haven't felt since before Nov. 2nd. To focus on creating positive change.

The church was full with quite a few people standing at the back. There were several cameras video taping, too. The audience was all ages, races, men and women. Most people were really fired up.

Bob Fitrakis was the first to speak. He went into detail about the lawsuits, Blackwell and a laundry list of all the dirty tricks that occurred Ohio. Really disgusting stuff. He was such a passionate speaker and is still fighting in Ohio. He told us that anything he said could be used against him in court. But that didn't stop him from openly discussing the abuses of Ohio's SOS. He’s a tough, smart guy.

I met him afterwards and told him I was Greek, too, and he told me that the Greek press has reached out to him and interviewed him several times. I am so happy to hear that the news is spreading to the International community more than I thought. They know that we know and that we’re doing something about it.

Maxine Waters spoke and thanked everyone for not letting this issue die and to keep on working towards election reform. She went into great detail of how the black ministers have been targeted by the right wing. I can’t remember the exact name of the group/organization but they had meetings telling them that they’ll get more gov't money if they follow their guidelines i.e. preach to their congregations that Democrats are immoral because of abortion and gay rights. (yes, my jaw hit the ground) But these funds that they promised are not budgeted anywhere. That these ministers will actually end up fighting for less money with all of the proposed domestic budget cuts. She says she’s been trying to tell these ministers this for a while now and that they need to be focusing on feeding the poor, educating children, etc. the real moral values.

Blair Bobier was great, too. He spoke about the Ohio recount and how they just didn’t follow the law. They’re now trying to get a 2nd recount and are waiting for the courts to give the okay to proceed.

They didn’t mention the new Kerry/Edwards sanctions. Any time Kerry’s name came up, it was mostly to bash him.

All the speakers spoke of how the grassroots movement was to thank for the recounts, challenges, and the awareness of the problem. They all were encouraging us to keep doing it. Keep communicating with each other and to keep spreading the news. To really get involved and to keep showing up.

The Kevin Shelley situation was mentioned briefly. Mostly that a lot of SOS's across the country may have used the HAVA funds inappropriately. They didn't say that Shelley was guilty of that, but that it was a possibility. But that what we need to do is to send the new SOS McPherson letters with suggestions of what we want in our elections.

Brad from Brad blog was there and gave a short history of how his blog evolved into what it is now. He was a great example of how one person can really spread the news and encouraged us to think of how powerful we can be with this issue if we work together. He says to check out velvetrevolution.us where they're targeting the voting machine companies demanding reform. Check out this link: http://www.velvetrevolution.us/Campaigns/DV4D/

Bev Harris was there and spoke about a ton of different issues with the machines and the owners of the Diebold, ES&S, and Triad. Her point was to educate everyone, including conservatives, too. Not to make it a partisan issue. It's an issue for every American to get involved in. To have transparent elections period.

I'm sure the streaming videos will be up soon and I recommend watching. I'll post more later.

[Emillereid]

1. Hi - I was there too. It was great! Did you stay for all of the

second panel -- Medea from Code Pink spoke, a person from Progressive democrats, a physicist from Stanford and a man from Rainbow Plus. All the campaigns are great but I think Brad is right that they all have to come together under one umbrella -- too many competing websites IMO.

[BlueTarheel]

3. Yes, I stayed for the whole thing

I had to leave soon after. But yes, Medea from Code Pink was awesome. I bought one of their shirts and signed up for their group. If she runs against Feinstein, I will get everyone I ever met to vote for her. I agree with you and Brad, too many websites. We need to connect them all somehow.

[Jo March]

38. This is what VOTE hopes to do.

Our mission statement:

The mission of V.O.T.E is to be an action-oriented Internet-based supporter of election reform. In collaboration with other progressive groups, V.O.T.E. will provide tools and techniques for educating elected officials, the news media, and all American voters on the need for election justice.

We are working on a database that will be a centralized location for all things relating to election fraud as well as contact information for elected officials, other election reform groups, media including international, and other Dems, Progressives, Greens and Libs. We will house documents detailing election fraud as well as informaitn such as TruthIsAll's statistically analyses. We will have text of election reform bills and when they are coming for a vote.

We want to link all of these groups out there that are either working all alone or are disconnected from other groups for some reason.

We believe that we can turn hundreds of voices into hundreds of thousands!

We are working to get our website up as we are now using a Yahoo group site. In addition, I am adding information to the database every day in an attempt to get all of the data that I can in one place.

We need to work together and use the data that is scattered to the four winds.

[Frances]

2. Good summary

However, when you mentioned that people were complaining about Kerry, can you be more specific? Were they complaining that Kerry didn't address the voting irregularities or was it something else?

[BlueTarheel]

4. Kerry

Well, they said that he said he'd "report for duty" and didn't. That If he did file motions with the Green party, then they could have expedited the Ohio recount. The Greens couldn't show irreparable harm. They said that Kerry was aware of the bad numbers in Ohio. One person from the audience during the Q&A mentioned Skull & Bones. Basically anytime his name was mentioned people were like, where was he? Why didn't the Democrats stand up and fight like the Green/Libertarians did? How he had the opportunity to lead and didn't. He wasn't a topic, just mentioned randomly throughout the meeting.

[rumpel]

5. Yes, it was a good meeting. Ojai Person took detailed notes, but has some

ways to drive back. Because of parking around there, I was late, and I heard the organizers say they have to start turning people away, "there is no more space to stand", they said.
I am kind of tired, too.
But all the people in attendance were informed and are probably the core people of the movement. I wish I could have stayed and chatted with the panelists, and possibly find more DU'ers to meet.
My thought was, that we have to see to it to bring in people who have not heard or have any knowledge of these problems to these teach-ins. These meetings have to continue throughout the country, in every city.
But it's ok, we have only begun.
...and I wish to thank all of the organizers, panelists, moderator and Ms. Waters for their efforts.

[rumpel]

6. Before I forget, Bev mentioned her site being shut down, and being

pressured of giving all the IP addresses of who ever went onto her site by the feds. Later she said, she traced back and found the Ip address of, I believe, who shut her down, to be the Dept of Treasury Homeland Security something division. That there was a gag order, but now that a year has passed since, she is can talk about it.
and several others, have mentioned pressure and interference.

Also, the SOS throughout the country are ordering and buying machines, because it has to be done by 2006 according to HAVA. The problem is that these machines are preceding the adoption of standards, standards that have yet to be determined.

[Kelvin Mace]

10. Bev once again is lying through her teeth

Her site being shut down had NOTHING to do with any government action. She is just playing drama queen again to milk more money from the public.

David Allen
www.thoughtcrimes.org

[bailey77]

12. This is uncalled for. It needs to stop, David.

What Harris said was the following -- and the forum was noisy and somewhat raucous and enthusiastic, so the above poster cannot be blamed for not transcribing exactly.

The harassment and the shutdown

Harris received three cease and desist orders -- one from ES&S in Oct 2002, and two from Diebold in Sept. 2003. In Oct. 2003 she was approached with entrapment attempts which she did not fall for, but it did not matter that she didn't hit the honey pots, because in Jan. 2004 the Secret Service began investigating her.

In late Spring 2004 she was issued a gag order by the U.S. Justice Dept., and they wanted to put her in front of a federal grand jury. The premise of their investigation was racketeering, and part of what they wanted was the names and IP addresses of everyone who had visited the BlackBoxVoting.org web site.

This investigation was confirmed by reporter George Howland of the Seattle Weekly. The agent involved was Mike Levin. Levin's email traced back to the U.S. Treasury division of Asset Forfeiture, Terrorism. The charter for the Secret Service to investigate was under the Patriot Act.

The web site was not shut down due to a government investigation, it was triggered by a Diebold cease and desist. The government investigation was a separate issue. These were part of a pattern of harassment, and Harris mentioned that Black Box Voting donated $2,000 to Fitrakis's organization to support their fight against their own harassment.

The money

Now, as for asking for money: This comment is about as inappropriate as it gets. Black Box Voting has been traveling around the country on its own dime, working with local activists. In the last six weeks they have been in (FL) Volusia County, Broward County, Palm Beach County, Miami-Dade County, (OH) Franklin County for an Ohio state-wide workshop, (CA) San Diego County, San Fransisco County, Marin County, Los Angeles County, and tonight, Riverside County.

This is done at the expense of Black Box Voting. Several fund raising events are held in connection with these citizen training workshops, and ALL THE MONEY RAISED IS KEPT BY LOCAL CITIZEN GROUPS. Black Box Voting helps to draw support for local efforts, and the funds stay with the local groups.

No other group is paying its own way to go help local citizens all over the country, and the response has been enthusiastic. Black Box Voting is also cultivating local actions in New Jersey, Illinois, and several other places, because one of the points made in the overview is that corruption begins locally, and must be cleaned up by local citizens.

Cleaning up starts locally

Without a local network of election corruption, it is impossible to implement fraud on a national level.

Black Box Voting held a three-hour workshop in San Diego on how to audit elections, using the computer logs and public records requests, and it was attended by people from all over Southern California and even an investigator from Ohio. In it, specific information and real internal records were examined for Sequoia and Diebold voting systems, and Dr. Vicki Lovegren of Cuyahoga County Ohio also presented original research into the computerized voter registration system, DIMS, used by Diebold.

The turf wars

One of the issues covered by Harris in San Diego, in her overview session is that of turf wars, which are a normal part of activism movements that are expanding quickly, as this one is. An analogy she used to show that these can be healthy, once we stop with the circular firing squad, is the starfish example.

She related a story from Japan of fishermen who thought that starfish were eating the fish. Whenever they pulled one up in their net, they cut it into five pieces, tossing the five legs back into the bay. What they did not realize was that each of the five legs regenerated into a whole new starfish.

As long as these turf wars can function like the starfish -- when people split apart, they form a whole new group -- this will be healthy for the movement, which Harris likens in complexity and seriousness to the civil rights movement and the fight against the war in Viet Nam.

The need to expand diversity in the movement

Currently, the movement involves people of similar race, political persuasion, and age, talking to themselves. (And sometimes, as evidenced in the above post, shooting at each other instead of at the target.)

What is missing is youth, minorities, and political diversity.

Minority representation, as usual, was poor, even at the Santa Monica event. There were fewer than 10 African Americans, in a county with a very heavy African American population.

Harris mentioned that Black Box Voting has a board now of seven members, with controlling interest by African American boad members. Four of the seven are black civil rights advocates, and three are voting machine experts, with representation also on the board by a Republican gun lobbyist and a Libertarian.

..................................

And speaking of guns: Let's get back to shooting at the target.

[Kelvin Mace]

14. If Bev Harris was issued a gag order

have her post the actual document. It is getting tiring having you over here shilling for her by proxy.

Bev has made up all sorts of stories about being followed, having her house broken into, people threatening to kill her. She also claims George Bush told her he was on her side.

We have documented QUITE throroughly Bev's lies and histrionics.

David Allen
www.blackboxvoting.com
www.thoughtcrimes.org

[Walt Starr]

35. I have absolutely nothing good whatsoever to say about Bev Harris

and thus will say nothing.

[demobabe]

15. money clarification

you said:

"Now, as for asking for money: This comment is about as inappropriate as it gets. Black Box Voting has been traveling around the country on its own dime, working with local activists."

No, what David said was not inappropriate.

People here will remember she came on this board and solicited for donations repetitively, especially after the election when we all thought Florida could be overturned. So many folks donated thinking she was actually going to get Florida overturned, and the way Bev posted seemed to suggest she would make this happen. It was deceptive.

Randi Rhodes fundraised for her for an entire week because she thought Bev was legit. When Randi asked Bev for results and didn't get any, she read Bev the riot act on live radio.

The result is that Randi felt so burned, that she has decided to never do anything like that for any organization again. So Bev has blown that for who knows how many progressive groups.

This is where BlackBoxVoting.org's "own dime" came from.

It's actually OUR dime.

[Andy_Stephenson]

18. Hell I was in the inner circle...and to me...

it seemed as if Bev was going to try to overturn florida. I remember Lowell Findley coming to Florida and wanting to file suit. Common Cause had volunteers on the ready to go pick up the FOIA requests from the counties and bring it to us. But because of Bev's insistence that, "activists could not be trusted to pick up the FOIA's", claiming they could very well be "working for the other side". We missed the deadlines for filing. It could have happened! But because of Bev's overactive imigination and paranoia...NOTHING was done except to waste precious time and money on a trip to Florida of dubious results.

[Wilms]

21. Geeps, did I post dis-info...

It was Bev whose comments I posted.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=203&topic_id=329512#335546

[Kelvin Mace]

25. Bev's comments, lies, same thing

Bev Harris has shills here desperately trying to "rehabilitate" her disgraced name. She is now cut off from her major money sources having been repudiated not only by DU, but by Randi Rhodes, Mike Malloy and everyone else on Air America.

David Allen
www.thoughtcrimes.org

[flyarm]

34. thank you andy!! yes you are right andy!!

i was a delegate to the dem convention i housed the kerry rep here in my county..i wrote bev so many times i can't even remember how many times offering to check dumpsters around the soe offices to activate all the people on my lists who worked directly with all the kerry rallies we had here..i had hundreds of people ready to go, and never heard one word from bev..not one word!!..except to donate of which myself and many of the true blue dems here in fla did!!
we thought we needed her for the foia documents..if we had known we would have filed our own..we were taken for a ride!

she did nothing for us!

fly

[Kelvin Mace]

26. You'll notice that in the face of the truth

Bev's shills get quiet. The strategy at Bev Central is to pop over here, hype some appearnce of hers but to let the thread die if her critics begin posting.

[Andy_Stephenson]

27. Yes

Strange isn't it...

[Kelvin Mace]

16. Bev Harris preaching about splitting activists apart

is the absolute limit in hypocrisy. She PERSONALLY shattered the anti-BBV movement with her own petty and vindictive attacks on her allies and fellow activists.

Now she sends you over trying to pretend this never happened.

I swear you people are as immune to shame as Bush and company.

David Allen
www.blackboxvoting.com
www.thoughtcrimes.org

[Kelvin Mace]

19. I guess I will have to start dragging out the inconvenient truth yet agai

Harris received three cease and desist orders -- one from ES&S in Oct 2002, and two from Diebold in Sept. 2003. In Oct. 2003 she was approached with entrapment attempts which she did not fall for, but it did not matter that she didn't hit the honey pots, because in Jan. 2004 the Secret Service began investigating her.

There were never ANY entrapment attempts or honey pots outside Bev's fevered imagination. As to the SS investigating her, I'll believe it when I see evidence from someone other than Bev and her cadre.

In late Spring 2004 she was issued a gag order by the U.S. Justice Dept., and they wanted to put her in front of a federal grand jury. The premise of their investigation was racketeering, and part of what they wanted was the names and IP addresses of everyone who had visited the BlackBoxVoting.org web site.

Such gag orders come on pieces of paper. Since she is now talking about them, they aren't secret. So please have Bev post copies of these "gag orders".

This investigation was confirmed by reporter George Howland of the Seattle Weekly. The agent involved was Mike Levin. Levin's email traced back to the U.S. Treasury division of Asset Forfeiture, Terrorism. The charter for the Secret Service to investigate was under the Patriot Act.

BTW, would this be the same Seattle Weekly that Bev threatened to sue for slander?

I assume you are talking about this article:

http://www.seattleweekly.com/features/0420/040519_news_blackboxvoting.php

I don't see that the article proves anything. Bev is conveniently prohibited from making comments to the reporter by her lawyer (but doesn't shut up on her web site) and the investigator wouldn't confirm anything to the press.

As I recall in my conversations with Bev at the time, she instigated the contact with the Secret Service, then worked herself up into a state of pants-wetting panic when she had to go meet with him.

On the topic of "honey traps"a again I have first-hand information. Bev was convinced that the source of the Diebold emails (who contacted me, not Bev) was a "honey trap" She was so convinced that when I told her I had downloaded the file (after she told me not too) she told me she was going to sue me because I had "endangered" her. Only after I told her that a Wired reporter ALSO was looking at the emails and she realized she would be scooped did she change her tune.

Of course, she didn't take any risks herself. She let other people actually post the emails. The closest she ever came to the emails was posting a link to them on bbv.org, an action which did in fact get her site taken down.

Rather than remove the link and get her site back up within hours, she decided to use the incident as an excuse for a flight of fantasy where she accused everyone of being out to get her. When I finally had a chance to look into the problem it took me a single day to get the site back up.

The core of Bev's accusation of skullduggery was here poor understanding of how web sites worked.

The only real harassment going on around BBV has been instigated by Bev against fellow activists.

Every time you try to rehabilitate Bev here, I will come in to rebut the lies and remind folks of how Bev treated people who helped her and how she has been caught repeatedly in lies. I will pull emails and links to back up my case, something Bev has never done because there is NO evidence backing up her lies.

David Allen
www.blackboxvoting.com
www.thoughtcrimes.org

[Maddy McCall]

37. Bailey. Word of advice.

No one at DU gives much of a shit what the fraud Bev is up to these days.

We know her pattern: Dream up a crisis, beat the drum, and hopefully some people who aren't aware that she is a fraud will donate to her.

Bev made lots of promises. She came through on NONE of them. I guess she's sending the Bevbots BACK to DU with hopes that there may be some new members here who aren't aware that she is a fraud, who will send money to her.

Let's see: Keith Olbermann figured out that she's a fraud. Randi Rhodes figured out that she's a fraud. Most long-time DUers know that she's a fraud, and it didn't help her case when she threatened to sue DU and Skinner.

Fuck Bev Harris. She'll get what she deserves--kharma demands it.

[Stephanie]

43. what Maddy said

[greatauntoftriplets]

45. Well said, Maddy.

:thumbsup:

[Zhade]

39. Harris is a liar and a scam artist. I used to trust her.

No more. Her hypocrisy, as shown by her secretly filing a Qui Tam while accusing others (who were not) of doing the same, sickens me.

She does not belong here anymore than her freeper b**sh-supporting buddy Jim March. She is an obstacle to solving this problem now, rather than a leader in the fight.

The whole thing makes me incredibly sad - and angry.

[Fud]

41. Oh Paleez

The cia fbi or homeland security didn't shut it down. Roxanne decided not to pay for the site on her own credit card. Thats all, understand?

Why people are still falling for this bullshit is beyond me.

[Kelvin Mace]

44. And in the actual instance when the site was taken down

over Diebold's DMCA claim, the site could have been operational within a few hours, but Bev decided to turn the issue into a "crisis" and make hysterical and completely false claims.

You can read a discussion of the whole incident here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=1993788&mesg_id=2000755&page=

[Stephanie]

42. Hi!

Can you please tell me the names of the board members, their pertinent info, and whether they have any personal ties to Bev Harris? I'd like to know who has responsibility for the funds that were raised for BBV after the election, when Randi Rhodes made a call for donations on her show. Who accounts for that money, and where is it reported? Thanks!

[Maddy McCall]

36. Bullshit! Bev is just hoping by coming up with yet another crisis

...that people will continue to fund her. Again, I'm waiting to see her IRS filing, and I hope others will do the same.

She's a fraud with a capital F. I hope everyone here is wise enough not to play into her hand YET again.

[Zhade]

40. It's all about the $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

The worst part is that the problem is real, and she's a fake. Hence, people will think the problem is fake, too!

[emlev]

7. Thanks for the report! I'm glad it was so full!

The Oakland one was not full, and I kept thinking about all you DUers who wanted to be there but couldn't, wishing you were filling the seats.

Also pleased to hear about the diversity in Santa Monica. The Oakland one was very white. Much work to be done.

[Helga Scow Stern]

8. Here's another report:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x335611

[tommcintyre]

9. Thanks for the report, it's great to have multiple views of the same event

[AtLiberty]

11. Any media?

[bailey77]

13. There was significant media at the San Diego events

In fact, Channel 6 news (Fox, an independent-minded affiliate) aired a strong 6-minute presentation on the issue, which included two clips of the chimpanzee hacking the Diebold system, which is used in San Diego.

That clip can be found at http://www.blackboxvoting.org, in the forums - document archive - videos

NBC also showed up for the San Diego event. Local TV and a small local magazine did interviews, and part of that centered on Black Box Voting's decision to audit San Diego in more depth, due to their obstructiveness in providing public records.

San Diego had a write in candidate -- Donna Frye -- who garnered 165,000 write in votes and won the mayor's race. Her victory was overturned due to a technicality (a couple thousand voters wrote in her name but did not ALSO fill in the bubble). San Diego local officials are now trying to change the law to prevent write-in candidates.

[Peace Patriot]

17. Hey, Blue Tarheel, thanks so much for the report! And thanks for...

...GOING! Your report is greatly appreciated! I desperately wanted to go to the Oakland event and could not do it. Santa Monica was out of the question. I've been anxious for reports and have been luxuriating in them today. Thank you! Thank you!

You wrote:

"The Kevin Shelley situation was mentioned briefly. Mostly that a lot of SOS's across the country may have used the HAVA funds inappropriately. They didn't say that Shelley was guilty of that, but that it was a possibility."

Sounds like nobody chimed in, "Yeah, but ONLY ONE of them got destroyed by the political establishment--the one who sued Diebold!"

I wish somebody had said that.

"...that it was a possibility." --that about sums it up. A man's entire life ruined--and his superb work on behalf of the voters--by phony, unproven charges in a media witch hunt led by a crap rag newspaper, the SF Chron--and Diebold and paperless voting advocate (Dem) Connie McCormack (L.A. elections chief).

I wish somebody there had known more about it, and had spoken up.

"But that what we need to do is to send the new SOS McPherson letters with suggestions of what we want in our elections."

He has not been approved yet by the Legislature (as far as I know). There have to be hearings. We need to do more than "send suggestions." We need to get on our legislators to ask tough questions (about both e-voting and redistricting), to act to protect Shelley's reforms and build on them, and to get some good legislation going. I want to see Diebold and ES&S thrown out of our state. They are criminals. For instance.

THERE's a suggestion!

-----

"...there are some incredibly passionate, optimistic intelligent people working on election reform. It was such an inspiring day."

So glad to hear it. Wish I could've been there.

Thanks again!

-----

Something I want to ask you--and others who were able to attend:

WHAT DO YOU FEEL NOW ABOUT WHAT OUR NEXT ACTIONS SHOULD BE?

In California?

Nationally?

What feels most urgent to you? What would be most effective?

What sense did you get from these speakers, about "what next"?

[BlueTarheel]

20. hi Peace Patriot

I think that the most urgent thing is to get the info out there. I’ve been online since Nov 3rd discovering election fraud and learned so much more yesterday. I didn’t think I could be shocked anymore, but I was wrong. I think we need to tell people this info with a way to actually get involved and do something. I try to tell the people I work with about it and most feel that they’re powerless. It’s like so what can I do? Also, people I know don’t want to actually think that the election could be stolen. I get a lot “No one would do that!” kind of responses. I do what I can by sending emails, petitions and faxes. Most of my address book doesn’t respond. When they do, they say thank you for keeping me in the loop. I think there is so much fear about this topic, too. That’s why I was so happy with yesterday. I really wasn’t sure if I’d walk out of there feeling depressed and thinking “if onlys” all day. There was such a strong emphasis on what we can do and to reach out to others. This has happened and let’s change it for next time. I can’t remember which speaker said this, but they said that the gov’t right now wants you to feel cynical. They want you to drop it and feel like you can’t do anything. But instead we should be active and not give up.

The media is the biggest problem in my opinion. I think in response to that we need to get more people educated with the facts and somehow connect the dots between us and all the other websites and activist groups. I think people in these other cities feel isolated like they’re the only ones that experienced the fraud and suppression. There was a speaker that was in Reno, NV on election day and said the problems were so great, they had to have been planned. She’s the first person I’ve heard mention Reno. Before I found DU, I didn’t know anyone else was talking about fraud. DU and other sites have provided a springboard of info to carry to the people I interact with in my physical life. It was so comforting to find DU and connect with other people and say “me too.” I think there is a lot of power in that.

I think we also need to really get republicans, greens, independents, etc. more involved. Republicans like Chuch Herrin (another Tarheel :headbang: ) are great examples of presenting this as a threat to democracy period. Doesn’t matter who benefited, we all lost when our votes became invisible. When it’s presented that way, I think the news will spread faster. Another speaker mentioned that, too. That the “divide and conquer” tactic is in full use right now. Change it from Democrats v. Republicans to Americans v. stolen elections.

If you don't know of Chuck Herrin, check him out here www.chuckherrin.com.

[Peace Patriot]

23. Thanks for the detailed response! I have to agree with you, and with...

...whatever speaker(s) said it--the need to change from it being Dems vs. Repubs, to Americans vs. stolen elections. I've had my problems with this. It was REPUBLICANS who stole our election and our vote, and committed massive fraud, not Democrats. (Some Dems collusive, but they didn't massively cheat and break the law and spit on minority voters to win.) BUT, as someone on another thread pointed out, many Republicans hate the BushCons and what they've done to their party. I know for a fact many Republicans voted for Kerry. So I need to distinguish between BushCons and Republicans, obviously.

Interesting tale, about Reno, NV. I've had that sense, too--that a lot of people feel isolated, and many feel depressed and helpless.

But I also feel that election fraud/election reform is much like the movement against the WTO prior to Seattle '99. I mean, who would've thought there were 50,000 people going to march in Seattle against the WTO?--the news monopolies breathed not a word about it. But it was building up slowly over several years--with a lot of activists involved--and then seemed to just burst onto the national scene, and now EVERYBODY knows about the scam of "global free trade."

And it's also like the truth about the Iraq war and WMDs. It took a full year for the grass roots information network to get the facts known. Now EVERYBODY knows them. And THAT resulted--was one of the main reasons for--Bush losing this election.

So NOW we have to get the word out on how it is that he's still in the White House and the Bush Cartel is still in charge (and destroying our country).

It's going to take time. But is WILL happen, and IS happening.

I also agree with your comment that people don't know what to DO about it. So they bury their heads in the sand and don't want to hear it (some do). And this where we activists come in. The obvious thing to do is election reform--and the obvious and most effective place to do it is at the local/state level. (Congress aint't gonna do squat, is my opinion--BushCon dominated Congress.)

And Americans are very practical people, who want to know what to DO, and how to solve a problem, and get on with it and DO it.

--so, maybe, simplest of all things, A PETITION, listing all reforms needed (and some of why) aimed at state legislators, or county supes; or even a PETITION to local media (please cover this vital issue)(you stupid, corrupt lapdogs!)(ahem...)

--and work on up from that; get a good legislator to sponsor a bill, to fix whatever's wrong with your state election system

--get involved at the SoS level, find out about purchase of electronics, how to influence that process; how to expose failures of electronic systems; fight for state to resist HAVA money bribes, and get people writing letters, calling and attending gov't meetings.

I just learned of a good election rule in my own county--that the votes are tallied at the PRECINCT LEVEL and are posted LOCALLY before the scanning machines are ever hooked up to the central tabulators. Lord, if we had that everywhere, we'd have almost solved the problem. (Am I right? Seems like I'm right. Correct me if I'm wrong.) And obviously I need to thank our local elections supe for that, and help build up a support network, so that she doesn't get attacked and replaced (as just happened to our SoS).

Speaker: "...they said that the gov’t right now wants you to feel cynical."

Wow! Is THAT true! A very simple observation, but profoundly TRUE.

Think about THAT: every time you give in to feeling depressed about all this, feeling powerless and isolated, you are GIVING IN TO THE BUSH CARTEL!

Ha! A great insight!

Well, thank you, BlueTarheel, for your insights. It's really been a help. I feel like I was almost with you there. How I wish I could've been!

[BlueTarheel]

22. about Shelley

I believe that was the first questioned asked during the Q&A. I think it was Ian Masters answering and he sort of went around the question. Then the next person was about to ask a question and most of the audience stopped him saying "you didn't answer the question, answer it." That's when Bev mentioned the HAVA funds and other SOS's. I think that panel in particular just wasn't fully informed on him.

[corbett]

24. Thanx!

I was intensely curious how the session went.

[Peace Patriot]

28. Kick for more reports and discussion. n/t

[pauldp]

29. Kick ! Thank you. n/t

[Helga Scow Stern]

30. Meet-ups for action in California:

This looks promising. I will try to go to the meeting in SB and see what Nunez says. He is one of those who has been more supportive of Shelley.

************************************

Here's an opportunity for you to ask questions of our State's Democratic leaders:



Jon mentioned a statewide conference call at this Wednesday's Progressive Coalition Meetup. California for Democracy has arranged for the new Speaker of the CA State Assembly, Fabian Nunez, to address all DFA meet-ups statewide on a conference call March 2nd. The Speaker will talk about the Governor and ways the grassroots can fight the Bush/Schwarzenegger agenda in their own backyards. Fabian has been coordinating specific anti-Arnold legislation and actions for the grassroots to take with folks like documentarian Robert Greenwald and Arianna Huffington. In Santa Barbara, we'll also be hearing live from Hannah-Beth Jackson about her new statewide organization, and we'll connect these ideas for activism with our local progressive groups.



So far there are 23 Meetups in California participating in the conference call, including:



Santa Barbara Progressive Coalition
San Luis Obispo
DFA-LA
Fresno
Oakland DFA
Palm Springs / Coachella
San Francisco 4 Democracy
Santa Cruz
San Mateo County
LA / South Bay
DFA Temecula
Walnut Creek
Silicon Valley
Valley for Democracy
Sacramento
Thousand Oaks
San Jose



The Speaker will answer 3 or 4 pre-selected questions from Meetups across the State. If you have a question, please submit it to me ([e-mail]) by Tuesday at 9pm, and I'll submit all the questions from our Meetup to the hosts of the conference call.



Thank you,

Susan

[Peace Patriot]

31. GO HERE to help us out with formulating questions for the new...

...CA Assembly Speaker. Help needed today:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x336394

[Helga Scow Stern]

32. Very important action submitted by JunkYardDogg:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x336599

[JunkYardDogg]

33. Rove Booked "Great White" to Play there

But they didn't show up

Boy, is Rove Pissed