Stolen elections and tapped phones--Dems keep their cool--Don't want..

to lose that Centrist vote by standing up for something that is essential for the survival of democracy in this Country. What hope is there if the elected Democrats can't get an angry unified voice over these life and death issues?

Maybe we need to bribe them to act, like the Republicans do?

they'll remain silent

hope where people believe in democracy, peace and progress--which I am convinced is the case with the great majority of Americans.* The question is "WHY are the Democrats silent--and/or, as you say, disunified--on the stolen elections and on massive presidential lawbreaking?"

It is a strategic question, in my view, for the many of us who still believe in democracy, peace and progress. It is not a Democrat-bashing question. We NEED TO KNOW the reason for this. If it's corruption--say, on the $4 billion electronic voting boondoggle--that's one thing. But if it's COLLUSION--say, by Bilderberg operatives like Christopher Dodd (i.e., controlling American elections, for the purpose, say, of war profiteering)--that's quite another thing.

The 2004 election was stolen long before Nov. 2, 2004. It was stolen during the 2001-2004 period, as TOM DELAY's "Help America Vote Act" (HAVA) was implemented--the one without the "paper trail," and with no audit/recount controls on the new, untested electronic voting systems; the one permitting 'TRADE SECRET," PROPRIETARY programming code controlled by Bushite corporations (Diebold and ES&S, ready to pocket billions), and with no controls on lavish lobbying and "revolving door" employment (election officials purchasing electronic voting machines, then going to work for the company). Etc. Etc. A wholly fraudulent and NON-TRANSPARENT election SYSTEM was put in place, that went nationwide for the first time, on Nov. 2, 2004.

Are the Democrats INSANE? Hardly a peep out of them. And Democratic local/state election officials jumping right on board, for UNVERIFIABLE, NON-TRANSPARENT, EASILY HACKABLE election systems peddled by major Bush donors, campaign chairs and billionaire funders of far rightwing causes.

A head-scratcher, for sure. Did Kerry know? Did Dodd or Terry McAuliffe lie to him? (And why didn't he look into it for himself?) Can our Dem Party leaders be THAT stupid? THAT ignorant? THAT incurious about how Republican corporations were counting our votes?

Is it just SOME of the Dem leaders, hoodwinking and strongarming others?

WHAT has gone on here? And WHO are the culprits--the ones we need to send packing?

You ask, "what hope is there?," if Democratic leaders are silent, or disunified, on these FUNDAMENTAL violations of democracy. But our hopes and dreams for democracy, peace and progress were OBVIOUSLY not safe in their hands, and should not be entrusted to them now. WE are the sovereign people of this country. WE must implement our hopes and dreams for democracy, peace and progress OURSELVES. And Priority #1 in that mandate--given us by Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and the other Founders of this Republic--is ELECTION REFORM. Ridding ourselves of non-transparent elections. Restoring our right to vote. Throwing Diebold and ES&S election theft machines into 'Boston Harbor' NOW!

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On the spying matter--I have been amazed at our party leaders' failure to throw absolute shit-fits on a number of issues. These include: Bush's invention of a "preemptive strike" policy for the US waging war, in a rather unnoticed speech at West Point in 2002. The Bush junta's invention of its own laws for torture and for the status and treatment of POWs ("enemy combatants"). The practice of "no bid contracts" to friends of the Vice President. The disappearance of, oh, a trillion dollars in Iraq? And secrecy, in general, on all matters. This list of course includes the installation of Bushite-controlled voting machines. And it now includes the latest outrage: massive illegal spying on Americans, with no reason for it to be illegal (warrants easily granted, even after the fact).

Everything but the V-P's theft are the precedents that Hitler set up in Germany, to take over the country. These are the "alarm bells" of fascist dictatorship. Count 'em: 1. Preemptive war. 2. Torture. 3. The status and treatment of prisoners. 4. Inventing your own laws by fiat; Secrecy. 5. Fraudulent elections. 6. Spying on your fellow citizens--a state of paranoia, aimed at leftists and democrats.

And, while we have heard SOME objections, from SOME Democratic leaders, on SOME of these policies, those objections have amounted to nothing. Hot air. No unified voice. No effective strategy against them. And not that many voices against them. Half the Democratic Party--including many powerful leaders--seem to APPROVE of them.

These are the sort of policies that the Democrats should be burning Washington DC to the ground to get reversed. The Democrats themselves, as a body, should be at the Supreme Court petitioning for relief from Executive Dictatorship. They should be shouting it from the rooftops.

And all we hear are fine speeches from some, a few whimpers here and there, and DEAFENING silence. Or--what may be worse--the mere usage of some peripheral aspects of these issues to make political "talking points" in this political charade we call democracy, overseen and managed by war profiteering corporate news monopolies (who were themselves directly collusive in the 2004 stolen election, by DOCTORING their exit polls, late on election day, on everybody's TV screens, to 'fit" the results of Diebold's and ES&S's secret formulae).

What we have here is a fascist junta, with about half the Democratic Party leadership PREFERRING this junta to democracy. And I can only presume that the Dem Party leaders who are not even speaking against these fascist policies--let alone creating a united front to oppose them--are acting this way primarily because they themselves have been falsely elected. This totally non-transparent election system is keeping THEM in power, too. Other motives may be fear (a big one, I think), or greed (say, long term corruption--such as being hog-tied to the war profiteers--so that they really don't care any more; pork for their district or state is all they care about).

We should not permit this compromised, corrupt leadership (some of it) to be the caretakers of our hopes and dreams. We made a big mistake in presuming that they were such caretakers--and in being oblivious, inactive and un-vigilant about Lord Acton's truth: "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

We now have to backtrack to the BEGINNING: Our right to vote. And start all over again.

We need to find out which of our own leaders sold our birthright away--or, the level of individual or collective guilt involved--and, WHEN we restore our right to vote, vote them out, along with the fascists. We need NEW leaders. But, before we can find them and elect them, WE, THE PEOPLE, NEED TO *BE* THE LEADERS. That's democracy. That's what it's all about. And we're right back at the beginning of it.

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*(Note: I am convinced that the majority of Americans believe in democracy, peace and progress. I won't go into my proofs, but trust me, I can establish it beyond a doubt. I think that Americans are surprisingly well informed, and VERY anti-Bush and Bush policy (including war policy), but are suffering from corporate news brainwashing, in the sense that they don't REALIZE they are the MAJORITY, and they therefore feel depressed and disempowered. They thus fell easy prey to the illusion that was created that Bush won the election. And the disinformation-machine is so pervasive that it sometimes takes Americans a long time to get the word on something. Our system of communication--the communication among real Americans, real patriots, the real majority--is almost literally word-of-mouth--bolstered these days, of course, by the internet. Tom Paine would be proud of us! But we shouldn't underestimate this "depression and disempowerment" syndrome. People DO know that something is very wrong. But many don't yet know what it is--a fraudulent election SYSTEM--and that it is FIXABLE. Difficult, but DOABLE.)

that the majority of Americans believe in democracy, peace and progress.

I'd like to see your proofs.

I'm also uncovinced that people know (or care) that something is very wrong. I also don't think that our fraudulent election SYSTEM--is either FIXABLE or DOABLE.

It's a structural problem that goes well beyond electronic voting machines. You'd need constitutional amendments- among other things- that would reverse Buckley v. Valeo (the key campaign "finance" case that legalized bribery).

..."EASILY HACKABLE election systems".

...I think we realy need to start thinking about playing by the new rules (wink wink). The old rules are, as our esteemed Attorney General Abu Gonzales so accurately coined, ...Quaint"

...So it has taken 3 or 4 election cycles to establish that he/she who cheats best wins. If this is the "new America" we need to embrace the options open to us don't you think?