Reply #20: His statement is absurd nonsense in every respect but this... [View All]

...the DNC/Howard Dean have NOT done enough to get rid of Bushite-controlled electronic voting machines, run on TRADE SECRET, PROPRIETARY programming code--code so secret that not even our secretaries of state are permitted to review it (--an outrageous situation!)--and a host of other old and new Republican vote-stealing and vote-suppression tactics.

Greg Palast estimates FOUR MILLION black, poor and other Democratic voters purged from voting rolls, or otherwise suppressed (unfair rates of spoilage, challenges and worthless "provisional" ballots, etc.), without even getting into the matter of easy, undetectable electronic vote stealing. How much electronic vote-stealing was there--in the primaries, to determine who can run, and the general election? We can't know. Isn't that a fine how-do-you-do? WE. CAN'T. KNOW.

Our win would have been MUCH BIGGER without these NON-TRANSPARENT and easily riggable conditions, and continued massive vote suppression. And Congress, as a consequence, would much better reflect the majority of Americans than it does now. EVEN WITH a 30-some seat Dem majority in the House, and Dem control of Senate committees, does this Congress truly reflect the SEVENTY PERCENT of the American people who oppose the war on Iraq and other Bush policy? Most of the Democrats' opposition to the Iraq War has been tepid, at best. Most of them are "corporatists," and hog-tied to military spending. And, critically, there is a contingent of "Bushite Democrats"--like those who voted for torture and suspension of habeas corpus a few weeks ago--who comprise a block of "swing votes" to protect fascist executive power and prevent real reform.

I have frankly been appalled at the MIND-BOGGLING SILENCE of the Democratic leadership on SECRET corporate vote counting--by corporations with very close ties to the Bush Junta and far rightwing causes, no less. Dean said a few things prior to the election. But not much. He did say election reform is a priority--the day AFTER these elections!

And I do NOT expect this Congress to enact serious election reform. I think the Senate will gut it, or veto it. So where does that leave us? We, the People, have to restore transparent vote counting ourselves. (--and I think the huge Absentee Ballot revolt against the machines this time indicates that voters are conscious of the problem and want it fixed; they were voting by AB to try to get around the rigged electronics; this big AB voter rebellion can be used at the local level for a backdoor strategy to achieve transparent vote counting--demand that AB votes be handcounted, and the results posted BEFORE any electronics are used--get that going, locally, and it will snowball).

So, on this matter--and this matter alone--Carville is right (about RNC vs DNC). The Republicans have been a lot swifter at vote stealing than the Democrats have been at election reform, and that failure very much CURTAILED our win.

Carville, of course, doesn't mention this matter at all. He's just your typical, spoiled "rich bitch" DLC-type "political consultant." Head full of the smog of power. Face all over the war profiteering corporate news monopoly TV. Lost touch with ordinary people, and with any notion of what democracy is all about, a lo-o-ong time ago. A parasite.

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*(An unrelated factor is that only one third of the Senate was up for reelection, while the entire House was up--obviously making it much harder to change the political makeup of the Senate in one election. But I think the Dem win in the House should have been quite a bit bigger--and much further to the left--and would have been, but for secret Bushite vote counting and other disgusting proclivities of the fascist party.)