Get well, TIA! And to heal our sick country--TRANSPARENT Elections!

[Peace Patriot]

Like many here at DU, I came to DU after the 2004 election, looking for answers--I didn't think the country had re-elected this thieving, murderous junta--and I stayed on at DU because of one person, known to us all as TruthIsAll.

His statistical analysis of the 2004 election exit polls and other election number-crunching established that something was extremely wrong with that vote count, with the culprit likely being the rightwing Bushite corporations--Diebold and ES&S--who now control the tabulation of our votes in new and highly insecure and hackable electronic voting systems run on 'TRADE SECRET,' PROPRIETARY programming code, with virtually no audit/recount controls--a NON-TRANSPARENT voting system brought to you by the biggest crooks in Congress, Tom Delay and Bob Ney, who funded this election scam with the $4 billion electronic voting boondoggle called the "Help America Vote Act" during the 2001-2004 period.

The purpose of HAVA was to completely corrupt and destroy our election system, and that's what it did.

TruthIsAll demonstrated what happens when you can't recount the vote, and when votes are counted by fascist corporations behind a veil of secrecy, in collusion with the war profiteering corporate news monopolies. The news monopolies did their part by shutting down the reporting system on election night 2004, and FALSIFYING their exit polls (Kerry won) to 'FIT' the results of Diebold's and ES&S's secret formulae (Bush won).

This was not an election. This was a coup.

Everything that has happened since strongly reinforces that conclusion. We are suffering a fascist junta.

Our country is sick from humongous, unprecedented looting by this junta, and is sick in its soul with torture, mass murder, lying and greed.

Now TruthIsAll is ill and in the hospital. The war he waged for the TRUTH in the months after the election undoubtedly took its toll on him. The entire country and all of its institutions--the Democratic Party, the Republican Party, the Congress, the courts, the corporate news monopolies, individual corrupt or frightened election officials around the country, and a good portion of the leftist establishment, not only failed us, they drew an Iron Curtain down over the news of this fraudulent election system and its fraudulent results.

Fighting that kind of darkness can be sickening. It can do you in. It's no wonder TIA is ill.

Clearly we need a revolution here, such as is occurring all over Latin America--with leftist governments elected, often by big majorities, in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Venezuela and Bolivia--virtually the entire map of South America. Peru and Mexico will likely be next. And one of the keys to this remarkable revolution is TRANSPARENT elections, the result of hard work by grass roots activists, local civic groups, the OAS, EU election groups and the Carter Center.

In Chile, they just elected their first woman president, socialist Michele Batchelet, who was tortured by the US-backed dictator Pinochet. In Bolivia, they just elected their first indigenous Indian president, Evo Morales--after a grass roots uprising against Bechtel, which had privatized the water in one Bolivian city and jacked up the prices to the poor. Bolivia threw Bechtel out of their country, and elected a socialist and former coca leaf grower, Evo Morales. Brazil has as president a former steel worker, Lula da Silva, who led the third world country revolt at the World Trade Organization meeting in Cancun. And then there is Hugo Chavez, the firebrand of the continent, who is using some of Venezuela's oil revenues at long last to benefit Venezuela's vast poor population, and whose elections are among the most highly monitored in the world. These governments have common themes: ENFRANCHISEMENT of the highly oppressed and exploited, and mostly black and brown, poor of Latin America, self-determination, anti-imperialism and anti-Bush and his ugly war. And it's all happening DEMOCRATICALLY, through TRANSPARENT elections.

The revolution that is sweeping Latin America, to me, is a large-scale manifestation of TIA's passion for democracy, and for the truth, honesty, and openness that it must be based upon.

The Latin Americans are proving that you CAN restore democracy, and save your country from vicious oppression and massive theft. These countries have suffered centuries of oppression, and in modern times, continued oppression by US-based global corporations and banks, by US-trained death squads, by US-supported dictators, by assassinations and torture, and by the greed of the their own rich elites.

It CAN be done. You can create democracy. You can restore democracy. And the Latin Americans are showing the way--how to do it peacefully and democratically.

I believe that TIA's insistence on the truth is the spark for American Revolution II. I feel it burning in my heart and in my mind. Step one: We MUST restore our right to vote, and seize our election system back from the criminals who would count our votes with "TRADE SECRET" programming!

That is my healing message. It CAN be done! It's happening outside our borders, all over Latin America. And it CAN happen here, in the birthplace of modern democracy, the U.S. of A.

Rest, TIA! You've done your work. It is a beacon, still shining its brilliant light. Others can read it for themselves at: www.TruthIsAll.net .

Rest well, truth-lover! Patriot! Beautiful one! Know that you did well by us. Accept our thanks and our prayers. Heal yourself.

:patriot: :think: :applause: :pals: :hug: :grouphug: :woohoo: :grouphug: :hug: :pals: :applause: :think: :patriot:

[Mr.Green93]

1. Any word?

On how he is doing?

[goclark]

2. Are they letting him know how much we care

and are praying for him?

[Peace Patriot]

7. Yes, our messages are being conveyed to TIA!

We don't have much information, just that he is very ill and in the hospital. Several people in the DU Election Reform forum are in contact with his wife.

[papau]

3. TIA is a hero - may he rest and get well soon - he is in my payers

:patriot: :think: :applause:

:pals: :hug: :grouphug:

:grouphug: :hug: :pals:

:applause: :think: :patriot:

[Vidar]

4. Adding my hope and prayers.

[GardeningGal]

5. Get well soon TIA. n/t

[Peace Patriot]

6. It CAN be done! And here are some resources to do it with!

The best and most hopeful scenario is grass roots movements across the country in every state/local jurisdiction DEMANDING transparent, open, recountable elections. This is already happening. Fights for clean elections are going on all over the country. The election reform movement, although still in its infancy, has scored some victories, especially as to greatly raising awareness on this priority #1 issue. Power over election systems still resides at the state/local level, where ordinary people still have some influence.

But we may have only a short-term window of opportunity to do it this way. The fascists are already attacking state power over elections, in lawsuits in Pennsylvania (see resources below), and HAVA itself was an assault on state power--although, contrary to popular belief, it did NOT mandate electronic voting; it merely FUNDED it, to the tune of $4 billion, in order to CORRUPT the election system and its officials. States/local jurisdictions can still revert to all paper ballots hand-counted at the precinct level the old-fashioned way (or with a mail-in voting system like Oregon's). We STILL have that power.

Another route--less hopeful--is to convince the next war/corporate Democrat who is foisted upon as our candidate for president (probably Hillary) that democracy is a good thing and that transparent elections are an essential of good government. We might then be able to achieve election transparency, all at once, on a national basis, through a Congressional bill, such as Rush Holt's HR 550. I do believe that the fascist powers may put Hillary or someone like her in the White House for four years, to take the blame for Bush's colossal financial and foreign policy disasters, to put down the food riots, etc., to get a military Draft, and to consolidate some of the corporate looting gains (also, someone who will not likely investigate them in any serious way). If we stay focused on the priority #1 need for transparent elections, and avoid fractiousness (i.e., Germany in the early 1930s, and the shattering of the center/left), we might be able to turn things around this way, with a national law.

A third important point: This fraudulent election system CAN be defeated by an overwhelming turnout of voters determined to beat the fraud. But we must be honest with people, tell them the TRUTH, and involve them in overcoming the rigged machines. The election fraudsters have to be careful not to be too obvious, which might jeopardize their long term interest in this riggable voting system. Basically, I think they put their thumb on the scales, giving Bushites and warmongers a percentage advantage. But it's not so easy for them to increase that advantage on election day. (I believe that's why the very blatant, visible vote suppression in Ohio and some other places was needed in 2004--in addition to the riggable machines. Kerry's win was bigger than they expected.) (This also means that we have to monitor and fight vote suppression, on top of everything else.)

Finally, we must think LONG TERM. Representative government may lose once again in '06, or the left may not win as many seats as it rightfully should in these circumstances (huge disagreement between the majority of Americans and the Bushites). We need to MONITOR these elections carefully, gather evidence, and build the case against non-transparent electronic voting. www.UScountvotes.org and other organizations are doing just that, and need our support.

Also, the Democratic Party should be pressured to conduct INDEPENDENT exit polls--badly, badly needed. (The corporate news monopoly exit polls cannot be trusted.) And it's the least our Democratic Party leadership can do for us--considering their failure to protect our right to vote (for whatever reasons of fear, corruption or insanity).

Some resources:

www.votersunite.org (MythBreakers - easy primer on electronic voting--one of the myths is that HAVA requires electronic voting; it does not.)
www.verfiedvoting.org (great activist site)
www.UScountvotes.org (monitoring of '06 and '08 elections)
www.solarbus.org/election/index.shtml (fab compendium of all election info)
www.freepress.org (devoted to election reform)
www.bradblog.com (also great, and devoted to election reform)
www.TruthIsAll.net (analysis of the 2004 election)
Sign the petition (Russ Holt, HR 550, great bill-has 169 sponsors). http://www.rushholt.com/petition.html
www.debrabowen.com (Calif Senator running for Sec of State to reform election system)
www.votepa.us (well-organized local group of citizen activists in Pennsylvania, where important legal issues are at stake, including state's rights over election systems)

Also of interest:

Bob Koehler (-- four recent election reform initiatives in Ohio, predicted to win by 60/40 votes, flipped over, on election day, into 60/40 LOSSES!--the biggest flipover we've seen yet; the election theft machines and their masters are now dictating election policy!)
www.tmsfeatures.com/tmsfeatures/subcategory.jsp?file=20051124ctnbk-a.txt&catid=1824&code=ctnbk

Amaryllis (Diebold, ES&S, Sequoia lavish lobbying of election officials - Beverly Hilton, Aug. '05)
www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x380340

-----------------

Throw Diebold, ES&S and all election theft machines into 'Boston Harbor' NOW!

:think: :patriot: :woohoo: :patriot: :think:

[ladjf]

9. Another good post. Further, perhaps in the upcoming elections

we might consider replacing the timid Democrats with some who are more willing to openly fight for our Country.

[ladjf]

8. Outstanding post. All must read it. Thank you.