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Unfortunately, I have to work. But I'm very grateful that I can watch the webcast later--and I appreciate what it means that I will be able to. Debra Bowen has been dedicated throughout her career to open government, inclusiveness and public participation. Her opponent in the election, Bruce McPherson, and the pigs he worked for, were dedicated to the sneakiest exclusion of the public ever devised by fascists, corporatists and warmongers: electronic voting, run on TRADE SECRET, PROPRIETARY programming code, owned and controlled by Bushite corporations. Short of dropping leftists out of airplanes, torturing teachers, union leaders and the poor, slaughtering hundreds of thousands of indigenous people, and assassinating democratically elected presidents--the methods that these fascist pigs have used to destroy democracy in Latin America and other places, starting with Reagan--"trade secret" voting counting is the most grievous assault on democratic government yet devised. The point is to make everything a secret--from who George Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld are torturing in secret prisons, to who the American people have really been voting for--and against--all this time.
"Trade secret" vote counting by Bushite corporations of course combines with other methods of oppression, including our filthy campaign contribution system, and fascist monopolistic control of the news and opinion. But this invisible vote counting, and its 5% to 10% "thumb on the scales" for Republicans and other fascists, has done far worse damage to our country--materially and psychologically. For one thing, too many Americans still believe that the American people voted for George Bush in 2004 and endorsed his horrendous war. The invisible vote counters voted for him. The American people did not. But believing that they did is profoundly demoralizing and disempowering. And that profound demoralization and disempowerment has replicated itself all over this country, since the passage of the "Help America Vote for Bush Act" of 2002, in other races--for the Senate, for the House of Representatives, for Governor, for school board--where citizens worked their butts off to elect good people, and polls showed they were winning, and, suddenly, on election day, the polls were mysteriously reversed. The impacts of such reversals are many, including a WRONG interpretation of the reason for the loss--most often, that the Democratic Party has to push further to the right to win elections. SECRECY! SECRET vote counting! Unrecountable, unauditable elections. Secrecy is the heart of the matter. Secrecy is why North Americans don't know that the Reaganites colluded in the slaughter of 200,000 Mayan villagers in Guatemala--two countries away--in the 1980s. Secrecy is why we don't know who Dick Cheney met with, in spring 2001, to plan the takeover of the Iraq oil fields, before 9/11 ever happened. George Bush is spying on you and opening your mail in secret, and keeping secrets from you, including how he's spending trillions of dollars of your money. And Bruce McPherson was making decisions on Diebold, ES&S and other election theft corporations in secret, behind your back. That was what he was appointed for. That's the reason for the still secret campaign to ruin the career of his predecessor, Kevin Shelley, and remove him from office, for suing Diebold and decertifying the worst of their machines, and demanding to see their source code prior to the 2004 election. That secret "swift-boating" occurred so that these decisions will be made IN SECRET!
And Debra Bowen, more than any elected official in California, and possibly the country, is the enemy of secrecy! So it doesn't surprise me that she has issued an open invitation to everyone to attend her inauguration, and celebrate the end of the secrecy in the conduct of California's elections--and has arranged for a webcast to include those who can't come. Bruce McPherson never had an inauguration--he was appointed by that Bush Cartel/Enron shill, Arnold Schwarzenegger. But you can be sure that, whatever ceremony was conducted for that foul investiture, it was attended by Diebold lobbyists and rightwing lawyers, and not the people of California.
Open government! What a wonder! But we must never forget those who are dedicated to shutting it down, to shutting you and me out, to stealing our money and to killing people in our name. That is my point here. In our celebrations at the restoration of democracy, we must never forget how we lost it, who stole it and what their M.O. is: Secrecy!
The job of restoring democracy, in our state and in our country, is far from over. And its success is by no means assured. But here is something that you should know, that is concealed by secret vote counting: The people won many more seats in Congress than are being sworn into office, and Debra Bowen won the office of Secretary of State by far more votes than is apparent. The people outvoted the machines, but many, many votes were nevertheless purged, switched or 'disappeared.' In order to fully restore democracy, we must fully restore TRANSPARENT vote counting. Not just "paper trails." Not just slightly better audits. FULLY TRANSPARENT VOTE COUNTING. No SECRECY! And Debra Bowen taking office is a great boon to that struggle, and will have far-reaching influence toward our success nationwide. Her election deserves to be celebrated. There should be dancing in the streets!
I'll be doing a little jig at work today--in honor of this election. And I'll catch the web cast later tonight--and toast it with some nog left over from Christmas. Cheers to Debra and to everyone who helped get her elected! Onward, compadres!
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