My wife and I were at the Sunday morning Rainbow PUSH Town Hall Meeting

[GettysbergII]

on Reauthoring the 1965 Voting Rights Act & The Federally Protected Right to Vote and while Dean certainly did make those witty statements reported
(http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=1543516&mesg_id=1543516)
there was a lot more 'meat' to the meeting than just Dean cracking wise to Faux News ass lickers. Here's a few other nuggats that went unreported.

Jesse Jackson Jr did a wonderful job of historically framing the case and the need to not only renew the Voting Rights Act of 1965 but to also enact a constitutional amendment legalizing our right to vote so there will be legal grounds to contest future elections. As he pointed out there surely will be a need to and that this will be a battle that will go on every election year. He also stated he was sick of hearing "old folks" recalling the hard fought civil rights battles won in the past when they needed to get off their asses and start fighting the ones in the present. Eternal vigilance is what's called for. He also stated it time to stop supporting Democrats that vote like Republicans. He was actually the most commanding speaker there.

Jesse Jackson Sr came up with a delightful metaphor about the two party system comparing the two parties to the two tracks of the L ( Chicago subway) but that its the third rail that we're always told to watch out for that provides the juice to run the train. In keeping with this the next ten PUSH programs will deal with constitutional issues. Of course at the start of the press conference he lapsed into his used car salesman persona, shamelessly waving his son's new book at the cameras (with a big picture of Jr on the cover) throughout his introductory speech.

The most important statement I believe Dean made was to tell us to be prepared for a bombshell of a report the Democrats should be releasing in the next 10 days or so that documents the widespread voter suppression and fraud last November in Ohio particularly and the country in general.

Many other very astute voter rights advocates participated on the panel pretty much echoing the complaints and remedies you'd find here at DU in the 2004 Election Results and Discussion section (sans the Exit Poll stuff) including castgating Kerry for not challenging the vote ('pre-emptive surrender' as Penda Hair of the Advancement Project called it) and outrage at the paperless trail and rightwing owned voting machines. Dean assured everyone that the Democrats will be ready for a serious legal tussle if necesary in 2006.

For those of you who made it to DC on last January 5th & 6th, the tone and timber at Rainbow PUSH on Sunday was much the same. Even Bob Fitrakis was there to get a few words in at the Q & A session with the audience.

[LightningFlash]

1. Recommended

[nadinbrzezinski]

3. ditto

I wonder if feinstein realizes this means HER

[pacalo]

2. Wonderful!

The most important statement I believe Dean made was to tell us to be prepared for a bombshell of a report the Democrats should be releasing in the next 10 days or so that documents the widespread voter suppression and fraud last November in Ohio particularly and the country in general.

That's damn good news!

[GettysbergII]

7. Oh yeah, one other thing: Pro Democracy March August 6th in Atlanta

At the Town hall Meeting they were very strongly recruiting for people to sign the PETITION TO SUPPORT REAUTHORIZATION OF THE
VOTING RIGHTS ACT OF 1965 and to attend March and Rally in Atlanta on August 6th, 2005 to commemorate the 40TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT AND MOBILIZE TO WIN ITS EXTENSION IN 2007.

I got the idea that the Reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 will be used as a kind of lode stone throughout the the 2006 election campaigns to point attention to election fraud and suppression issues. By the way, they suggested if you're planning on attending the August March to book you hotel now as there's a couple of other major events going on in Atlanta then and if you wait til the last minute, you'll end up staying at a hotel an hour out of Atlanta.

You can sign the peteition on line here by the way.

http://advocacy.rainbowpush.org/

PETITION TO SUPPORT REAUTHORIZATION OF THE
VOTING RIGHTS ACT OF 1965

Whereas, 1965 Voting Rights Act is one of the nation’s most important civil and human rights victories leading to political empowerment and voter enfranchisement;

Whereas, key provisions of the Voting Rights Act will expire in August 2007 unless Congress acts to reauthorize them;

Whereas, efforts to make the provisions of the Act “permanent” or “nationwide” will make it vulnerable to challenge by those who want to dilute or eliminate the Voting Rights Act.

I demand that President Bush and the Congress declare their public support for REAUTHORIZING THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT and its enforcement provisions to make America a more perfect union;

I support the RAINBOW/PUSH COALITION and allied organizations joining in a COALITION OF CONSCIENCE to March and Rally in Atlanta on August 6th, 2005 to commemorate the 40TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE VOTING RIGHTS ACT AND MOBILIZE TO WIN ITS EXTENSION IN 2007.

I DECLARE THAT EVERY VOTE COUNTS, AND DEMAND THAT EVERY VOTE BE COUNTED. Let this be the season of a new Pro-Democracy Movement in America.

[housewolf]

4. Thanks for your report

Appreciate hearing directly from you what went on.

[tommcintyre]

5. Any publicity is good, but are the Dems ready to fully tackle the "F" word

"...documents the widespread voter suppression and fraud last November in Ohio particularly and the country in general. <good>

...(sans the Exit Poll stuff) <questionable - are they syncing up with the Carter/Baker Election Reform Hearing <to suppress the exit poll evidence> that is coming up on June 30th? Will this mostly be about "irregularities", and NOT include evoting fraud? I think this report could be very "telling", one way or another.>

Thanks much for your report.

[LightningFlash]

6. Kerry sure didn't....

But what he failed to do, Dean doesn't seem to ignore at all. e-voting machines are a hot button subject.

I wonder if they got the letters from Bob Fitrakis that showed state troopers Blackwell had constant access to the tabulator database? :shrug:

[GettysbergII]

10. Bob presented on Saturday afternoon at the session called

Schemes of Disenfranchisement: A candid discussion regrading the voting schemes which took place in Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004 and legislation to counter the schemes. When I talked to him briefly on Sunday morning before the panel he was very proudly carrying this huge tome just published by Bob and the Free Press of critcal documents in the case for fraud in the 2004 elections in Ohio. I doubt if he was mincing any words on Saturday

[GettysbergII]

8. I think the exit poll stuff just never came up because there so much

concrete evidence of fucking over the minority vote in 2004 and 2000 and pretty much every election going back to the 1880s. I regret not asking Dean why the Democrats couldn't sponser for the 2006 election a public exit poll whose raw data would be open for all to ponder, that would be designed strictly to point to precincts/counties/states where an immediate recount was desirable.

But you are certainly right, it will be very telling one way or another. I would be shocked and dismayed if the Democratic report does not address tyhe need for a truly transparent vote counting apparatus.

[LightningFlash]

11. Exit polls are highly sensitive...

They confirmed both bias in the exit polls and fraud in the vote count, so it is not the irrefutable evidence of popular vote challenge. It could be, but the popular vote is unimportant anyway except now to show how many millions were disenfranchised that shouldn't have been.

[Peace Patriot]

15. Dear LightningFlash:

Exit polls did not confirm bias in the exit polls (as your sentence seems to say). And there has been absolutely no confirmation, or any factual foundation, for bias in the exit polls that could account for a complete flipover of a Kerry win by 3.5 million votes to a Bush win by 2.5 million votes suddenly occurring at midnight on 11/2, and in an impossible curve of variance toward Bush from east (the most variance) to west (the least). Not possible, LightningFlash.

"...it is not...irrefutable evidence." Evidence is always refutable, if the speaker is a liar (like the exit pollster Mitofsky), or Karl (we had an "invisible" get-out-the-vote campaign) Rove.

And the exit polls must be seen in the context of a mountain of evidence of hard-fact fraud in Ohio, Florida and other states, past history of election fraud (2000), and intent to defraud (Tom Delay's blockade in Congress of a paper trail for electronic voting, and the Bush Congress failing to prevent secret, proprietatry programming code in electronic voting machines, and Bush partisan ownership and control of the machines--no brainers, as to a transparent election).

Not to mention opinion polls showing dismal approval ratings for Bush over the last year--so low that Zogby said he couldn't win--now sunk to an unprecendented 35%, with 60% to 70% of Americans opposed to every major Bush policy, foreign and domestic.

WHERE is his support? WHERE did his margin of victory come from? WHO voted for him? (New voters didn't. Independent voters didn't. Nader voters didn't. Gore 2000 voters didn't. They all voted overwhelmingly for Kerry. The Democrats blew the Bushites away in new voter registration in 2004, nearly 60/40--showing great enthusiasm to oust the Bush Cartel. Karl Rove's secret, get out the vote campaign was "invisible" because Bush's margin of victory did not exist and had to be manufactured behind the electronic voting curtain.

Given all of the above--all these facts--THEN you look at the exit polls, and you see...guess what? KERRY WON THE EXIT POLLS, TOO! And--the exit poll data COULD NOT HAVE turned into a pumpkin at midnight and put Cinderella-Bush back into the White House. NOT POSSIBLE.

The TV news monopolies CHANGED the exit polls--ALTERED the data on everybody's TV screens, which had been showing a Kerry win all day long, by ADJUSTING the exit polls to FIT the "official tally," creating the ILLUSION that Bush won the exit polls, and denying the American public strong evidence of fraud.

Sorry to yell--but I get tired of people discussing the exit polls OUT OF CONTEXT. They do not stand alone. Their impossible final numbers do not stand alone. Their impossible east coast skew to Bush does not stand alone. These things CONFIRM everything else we know!

What we don't have are the "smoking computer hacks" and the naked perps--but I guarantee you that they exist, and WILL BE KNOWN.

(And, as a matter of fact, some of the "smoking hacks" were visible--88 out of 86 reported incidents of touchscreens changing Kerry votes to Bush votes, and numerous other such anomalies, virtually all favoring Bush. But guess where these "hacks" are now? --either removed after the fact, or lurking (and still smoking!) within the secret, proprietary programming information that is held as "trade secrets" by Bush-partisan companies, and that the American public is not permitted to review--just as we, our experts and our Congress people are not permitted to review Edison-Mitofsky's raw exit poll data to this day!)

[tommcintyre]

13. I hope you are right, that will really help us out if Dean, etc. FULLY

get behind this.

[autorank]

9. GettysbergII. Thank you. Here's Jackson at the 1/6/05 DC Rally

This is just great. I'm thrilled to hear this about the 10 day time line. It's OK if they don't use the exit polling evidence now, as implied, because that's the slam dunk (why so many "visitors" show up here to slam us and others on it).

I was at the DC Rally and I can say that Jackson was just great. He gave an extended speech, told us that Boxer had agreed to "stand up" and then left to go "lobby" on the hill. I'm sure he was responsible for the 12 Senators debating with Boxer. I'd love to have been in the room watching him work.

I have the very strong belief that had Boxer failed to challenge Ohio, our party would have begun a rapid failure. While white America was not keyed into the issue, black Americans certainly were. The House delegation going to the Senate was a whose who of black political leadership. They carried with them the proud history of the House challengers from 2000. A second slam of the door would have just killed us.

Here are some pictures from the Lafayette Rally and the March. It was a great day.

PICS FROM DC RALLY 1/6/2005 W/JACKSON AND OTHERS

Contact the DNC and Give 'em Hell About NOT Acting on Election Fraud

NEW LEADERS FOR A NEW DEMOCRATIC PARTY

KICK Recommend :kick:

[GettysbergII]

12. Great pics, autorank! There'll always be a lump in my throat when

I recall January 5th and 6th. Every Senator's and Representatives office that we visted on the 5th had the phones ringing off the hooks with calls to challenege the vote in Ohio. Then when Jackson announced in Lafeyette Park that Boxer and others (at first he said I believe seven senators0 were going to challenge the Ohio vote) it was like a great weight lifting from our shoulders. As Jackson Junior said on Sunday, that battle will never be over, but had we failed to challenge on the 6th I think the DNC would be singing a DLC tune right now.

I was there with the Illinois contingent:

[paineinthearse]

14. We ARE the new media

The best news is LOCAL. Thank you for reporting your first-hand experience!

[feelthebreeze]

16. Seeing those pictures brings back strong memories ...

I was there too. I still feel the outrage flow from me at the lack of awareness and apathy shown by our American populace. I didn't think I could ever forgive my fellow Americans for not showing up and demanding this country back. But I pledged to fight with all those patriots who surrounded me in the park that day. The outrage at what has occurred to my country and my democracy has never needed rekindling since that moment Senator Boxer stood and saved the legacy of right for the history books. I cannot save this country or It's promise of representative Democracy single handedly. I have had to accept that. I need that over pampered giant to wake and change it. Our numbers still grow and people are slowly becoming aware of the urgent need to get involved and change this disaster that was allowed to happen. It was this day that my moniker of feelthebreeze was made. It is still blowing and dammit I still feel it gaining strength. I am honored to share the struggle with such good, fine people who are sacrificing time and energy daily just to do the courageous thing and save this Country for all of us. I know we don't hear it enough, so I will say it: thank you.

[feelthebreeze]

17. kick and nominated...