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Of course, he has only done what all of us should be doing: counting every goddamned vote, documenting every goddamned scrap of paper, ballot, punchcard, numbers on punchards, tape, memory card, security seal, sign-in sheet, ballot box, wires in and out of machines, transport of paper and machines, action of officials, workers present in polling places and around central tallying centers, and central electronic tabulators--anything and everything that occurs around the sacred and precious act of voting, the foundation of our democracy.
I've read some of Phillips' preliminary analyses, here at DU and at his web site, and was amazed to learn of the blank, unnumbered punchcards in Ohio, that, if you slid them into the wrong tallying device, at the wrong precinct, changed what was a Kerry vote to a Bush vote, because of the position of the punched holes visa vis the tally device. Mind-boggling, the lengths these Bushites went to, to steal that election (2004). I think they had multiple back up plans--the nearly completely non-transparent, newly installed electronic voting systems nationwide, and this special Republican people-machine in Ohio, probably with a backup in Florida, where 'sieg-heiling' Bushite true believers were in position to do whatever they were told to do, and whatever was necessary to bend Ohio to Bush, just in case the promises of the tech wizards at Diebold, ES&S and Sequoia didn't pan out. But I do think it took both. I think they left nothing to chance, and had to go all out to reverse a Kerry landslide.
I am greatly looking forward to reading Phillips' book. I don't know how to express thanks for something like this. I'm sure it was done selflessly, with no thought of reward, with reward being almost inconceivable in this "Iron Curtained" country, and at tremendous sacrifice, and with fear creeping up his neck now and then How can you know, in such an investigation, whose ire you might earn and what such ruthless and conscienceless people might do?
Like the kid who got the photos out of Abu Ghraib, and like Sibel Edmonds, and like Lt. Ehren Watada, and Capt. James Yee, and the Wilson's, and the military jag lawyers, and the generals who refuse to nuke Iran, and Cindy Sheehan, and so many other American heroes, Phillips' just kept the faith that the truth will out, that the truth will prevail, and that our battered, near dead democracy will rise again. I'm sure that's all he had, at some moments. Faith in the truth. Faith in the American people.
So let's at least give him what reward we can--when the American Peoples' Post-Bush Junta Congressional Medal of Honor is what is merited--and buy his book, to help defray several years of expenses, and lost income, and to say "Thank you!"
Thank you, Richard! And those who helped you as well! Keep the faith!
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