Jesse James and Elections; Robbin' Cheatin' Stealin' "Trust Me" types

[Land Shark]

Elections and Jesse James
By Paul R Lehto, Attorney at Law
[e-mail]

Jesse James was reportedly asked why he robbed banks and he replied “because that’s where they money is.” Some things are so blindingly obvious, it’s funny to be reminded.

Another obvious association would be elections and political power. Try asking your least favorite politician why he steals elections and like Jesse James he’ll say “because that’s where the power is.” Right? No?

Honesty would require us to admit that when Jesse James robs a bank, he doesn’t get to be bank president or set future vault security policy. But when someone steals an election, they get to preside over the next election and change election security.

The Peter Principle that says people get promoted by others to incompetency changes in elections to the Jesse Principle: the most competent election criminals get “promoted” and then set or influence the rules for the next elections.

But some say that to protect elections you really have to watch those VOTERS, they might steal a single lousy vote! The fact of the matter is, every election system will be attacked from every angle no different than the tax code. A good election system gives the smallest rewards for each act of cheating, and maximizes the evidence and witnesses for the same.

Similar negative attention is rarely lavished on the candidates or the fat cat political players and the long history of stealing entire elections, even though American elections feature huge incentives like control of the world’s most powerful military and the world’s largest economy, not to mention billions in contracts and millions in political races.

We’ve all seen people try to alert only their friends and thereby stuff ballot boxes during informal or online polls. Don't deny it: even within election reform organizations you can see people alerting only their friends to vote in an online poll, a way to legally distort the ballot box for the online poll. At a recent VoteTrustUSA conference in Washington DC, no official mention was given to the routine "taxation without representation" appearing on DC license plates since they have no vote allowed in Congress, only an Honorary Member. So our legislators makes laws amidst a sea of disfranchisement. Some are against this, some are for it. The critical fact is that all it takes to disfranchise people is a REASON. And political opportunism can relax the reason requirment, too.

Given the existence of cheating for fun and routine disfranchisement in Washington DC, oes this mean that when stakes are much higher like for control of the world's richest country and sole superpower that people will be much more honest? If not, then to protect our elections, everything should be open and above board and no one should enforce a Pollyanna view of human nature.

This is not a partisan issue, if anything it is an Up/Down issue. The people “down here” have a strong interest in monitoring elections that affect their lives, the fat cats in power and the media elites that bank millions in ad revenue from the fat cats and use the fat cats as “confidential” sources have a shared interest in covering up the seamier sides of how governance happens, or “how the sausage is made”. They’ll say anything to maintain “public confidence” in elections, which is to say that they will say anything to maintain public confidence in their personal power.

The only confidence that should be “maintained” is the one that results from proving through open and public counting of the vote that the correct result has been achieved. Without this, there’s no basis for confidence in election results that are unverifiable and irreproducible.

We’re entering a new age of “public confidence” – electronic elections in which vote counting is done by corporate trade secret software. This makes elections the private trade secret property of the chosen corporation of the government officials who “won” the last election. With electronic elections, nobody knows if the totals are correct, and the public can’t check.

Secret corporate vote counting takes the checks and balances of democratic elections and throws them out the window. But stolen elections look very smooth – indistinguishable in appearance from proper elections and quick in result, thus “confidence” is maintained.

No one can be trusted with secret vote counting power. The American Revolution was fought and the Constitution enshrined with distrust of power as its very foundation, often taking the form of checks and balances. Yet those who openly wonder why John Kerry won the exit polls by several million votes but lost the electronic “results” by the same margin are not allowed a meaningful right of free speech so that the public can decide.

Why can’t citizens be trusted to handle this information and decide for themselves? Who decided that We the People must take election results purely on trust of the certified reports of the folks who may have cheated their way into office? Jesse James?

Only the public can check and balance elections, because for government, “that’s where the power is.” We need at least the honesty of Jesse James in our elections coverage. Here’s a simple formula for a start: Private Ballots + Public Vote Counting = Verifiable Democracy.

The essence of Democracy is not elections but government “of the people, by the people, and for the people.” Unfortunately, with e-voting governments are no longer interested in proving that they have earned their authority from the people.

We the People, the rank and file of all political parties, should ask ourselves if we believe that any past generations have sacrificed for a real representative democracy or if any future generations would like one. If so, does the living generation today have the right to let verifiable democracy slip away?

---Paul Lehto 4/25/06

[aquart]

1. Willie Sutton, not Jesse James.

And Jesse kinda preferred trains. He always got in trouble robbing banks.

As for Jesse's honesty, he may have been the first spin doctor, dropping a pre-written press release-- with a blank space for the amount stolen--at at least one of his robberies.

[Land Shark]

2. Jesse's history is colorful and it is disputed, thanks for adding info

[aquart]

7. What's disputed?

Other than whether he spent four months in Chicago in 1875 trying to kill either Allan or William Pinkerton?

Personally, I totally believe the story that he dressed up as a woman to make a getaway once.

[Land Shark]

11. there's some debate for example about whether he actually said

the quote in question, so it's "reportedly". There's debate about whether he died when they usually say he did, and one guy claimed to be Jesse James lived to be a ripe old age. DNA tests seemed to deny this, however, but I'd have to double check that. His history is somewhat disputed as to whether he was a modern day Robin Hood or not. He did do a bunch of "gigs" in front of large numbers of people.

[autorank]

3. Jessee robbed banks and trains; Northfield MN Bank

http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/old_west/24809

n March of 1868, the James brothers and Younger brothers robbed the banking house of Nimrod & Cin in Russellville, Kentucky. In 1869, they robbed a Richmond, Missouri Bank. That same year they robbed the Daviess Savings Bank at Gallatin, Missouri. On April 29, 1872, five men, including the James, robbed a bank in Columbia, Kentucky.


The following year, a disastrous robbery attempt at Northfield, Minnesota, resulted in many of those in the James gang losing their lives. Unlike many of their previous escapades, this time the citizens fought back. As they approached the bank, several citizens thought they looked suspicious and alarmed the sheriff. The outlaws rode up and down the street firing randomly to try to get people to stay away while they robbed the bank. Inside the bank, the three tellers resisted handing over the money. One even escaped out the bank. Outside many were fighting the other gang members. The owner of a nearby hardware store killed gang member William Stiles. Henry M. Wheeler, a medical student, killed Clel Miller. He also wounded Bob Younger. The remaining robbers rode away, getting absolutely nothing for their efforts.

Hundreds of volunteers joined posses to go after the gang. Stiles was most familiar with the territory and he was dead. They were also short on horses. Two men had to share one horse. They were cornered at Medalia, Minnesota, where they shot their way out of a gunfight. During this fight, another gang member was killed and three more were wounded. They were jailed at

[bleever]

4. And Northfield, MN still celebrates "Defeat of Jesse James Days".

Someday we'll be celebrating "Defeat of Electronic Vote Theft Days".

Though I hope we come up with a catchier name.

[aquart]

6. I said he didn't do well with banks.

[autorank]

9. The thread is about stealing elections. And that happens on a grand

scale. The crimes are far worse than those of any other criminals in this country, past or present, because the results are simply devastating. The failure to address health care needs, environmental dangers, and threats to our security result in illness and death on a major scale here and abroad.

That's what this is about. They steal the elections and then they ruin the country, people get hurt.

[aquart]

10. Which is why it really helps to make sure your quotes are correct.

[bleever]

5. Private Ballots + Public Vote Counting = Verifiable Democracy.

That's the essence, right there.

Honest elections are made of private voting and public counting. Anything else is not an honest election.

[kster]

8. Your putting out some great threads

keep them coming, I enjoy reading them.

Private Ballots + Public Vote Counting = Verifiable Democracy.


:thumbsup: .........

[Land Shark]

12. Thank you kster and bleever and autocrank and aquart