What should we expect from a Diebold/ES&S Congress & President?

Can we expect the will of the people to be implemented? (--the people, who are 60/40 or MORE anti-Bush, and have been on all issues for several years, and on Bush himself all this year, with weak numbers before that--so weak that Zogby said he could not win in 2004; and reflected in other stats, such as a 60/40 blowout Democratic success in new voter registration in 2004).

Can we expect protection of our rights, as guaranteed by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and expressed in the Declaration of Independence?

Can we expect an end to the war we never wanted? (--58% opposed to the Iraq war way back before the invasion, in Feb. '03).

Can we expect an end to the torturing of prisoners? (--63% opposed to it "under any circumstances" - May '04).

Can we expect an appointment for head of the Justice Department of someone who loves justice and not torture?

Can we expect appointment to the Supreme Court of judges who believe in the Constitution and the rule of law?

Need I go on?

Control of the tabulation of our votes by wingnut-connected, pro-Bush corporations--Diebold and ES&S--using "TRADE SECRET," PROPRIETARY programming code--code so secret that not even our secretaries of state are permitted to review it--with virtually no audit/recount controls, guarantees continuation of this fascist junta. ES&S was initially funded by Howard Ahmanson, who also gave one million dollars to the 5th Century-minded Chalcedon Foundation--the scariest group in this country, from what I can see. ES&S is a spinoff of Diebold, who had a CEO, until last month, who is a Bush "Pioneer" donor and was chair of the Bush/Cheney campaign in Ohio (and pledged in writing to "deliver" Ohio to Bush).

These are the people counting out votes--in secret.

What can we expect from this?

For one thing, we can expect that a huge 60/40 or BETTER progressive American MAJORITY will continue to be flipped over into 60/40 or worse pro-Bush votes in Congress, reflective of the country's MINORITY, as just occurred.

For another, we can expect that a huge 60/40 predicted win for election reform initiatives in Ohio will be flipped over into 60/40 LOSSES for those initiatives on "election" day--as recently occurred*.

For a third, we can expect a certain percentage of so-called Democratic representatives to be corrupt, collusive, deliberately ignorant or fearful--on critically important issues, INCLUDING the non-transparency of our elections, and the unverifiability of election results.

And for a fourth, we can expect that those corrupt, collusive, deliberately ignorant or fearful Democrats will continue to run the Party, and will continue to lend their support to the fascists, despite anything that the more honest Democrats try to do to dislodge them.

And for a fifth, we can expect denial all around--even from the more honest faction of Democrats who seem to find nothing at all wrong, or out of order, about far rightwing Bushite corporations counting all our votes inside black boxes to which only employees of these wingnut corporations have access.

I'm saying "the emperor has no clothes." And I'm saying it to our Democratic leaders. Our election SYSTEM is fraudulent. And THAT is why you have no power and cannot represent the MAJORITY of the people in this country.

This is not a side issue. This is THE issue. We have lost our right to vote. And our Democratic Party leaders have been SILENT about it. Everything else--this show they recently put on in Congress, for instance--is a charade. I don't doubt the sincerity of some--I DO doubt the basis on which our government is currently based: non-transparent, unverifiable, ILLEGITIMATE elections.

You have no clothes, all you in Congress and in the White House. You are naked. You are illegitimate. And you have no right to be making or implementing our laws.

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* www.tmsfeatures.com/tmsfeatures/subcategory.jsp?file=20051124ctnbk-a.txt&catid=1824&code=ctnbk

Your facts are in the way of the cheerleading band of strategerists that just came out from their little holes to let us know that if we just donate, work harder...
I just thought that your sobering, factual post makes a nice contrast to the claptrap I've just been reading....Well said.

advantage to Republicans and Scab Democrats by sheer numbers, in some instances. I don't at all mean to discourage voting. I think our motto should be "Help us overcome the fraud--Vote!" I think our strategy should be based on truth and on reality. It's much better for people to know the odds--than to suffer feelings of discouragement and demoralization afterward, thinking they lost--and that other voters have gone nuts.

We cannot go on with this fraudulent election system. It is the means by which our country is being destroyed. We MUST tackle it in every way possible--and, even though the election reform movement is still in its infancy, we are already scoring successes (in No. Carolina, Florida, New York, California, New Mexico and other places).

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Some resources:

www.votersunite.org (MythBreakers - easy primer on electronic voting)
www.verfiedvoting.org (great activist site)
www.UScountvotes.org (monitoring of '06 and '08 elections)
www.freepress.org
www.TruthIsAll.net
www.solarbus.org/election/index.shtml (fab compendium of all election info)
Sign the petition (Russ Holt, HR 550, great bill-has 169 sponsors): http://www.rushholt.com/petition.html
Amaryllis (Diebold, ES&S lavish lobbying of election officials - Beverly Hilton, Aug. '05)
www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x380340

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I also think Kerry could have overcome the fraud IF he had been anti-war and more principled on issues like torture and universal health care. I'm pretty sure the electronic fraud in 2004 had to be done with pre-programmed percentages, that Kerry was beating those percentages, and that's why they went to Plan B: Ohio--overt, risky suppression of black and other Democratic votes. Ergo: Another way to beat them is to go way left! --which is more in line with the MAJORITY!

If you think B*sh cheated -and I do - all it showed was the guy was capable of shaving 2 or 3 points in a SINGLE close election in a few states. It also showed just how dumb the democrats were trusting "someone else" to perform "exit polling" (and it was very flawed) and then just withhold the key data. I really think they did not understand the concept.

Pretty stupid.

Not so this time. A generic democrat has an average 10 point (plus) lead right now - pretty hard to shave 10 points. But much more than that, this is not a single election (ie president). The prize is in the hundreds of individual elections - house seat by house seat and those senate seats up this year. How could one even begin thinking of rigging on that scale??

I do not have a high regard for the gop tactics, they were lucky they didn't get caught, and mostly because the democrats failed so miserably. Hopefully they learned the lesson the hard way - I can still hear Kerry's words - "we have xx,ooo's of attorneys on the ground" - remember?? All those lawyers and not ONE smart enough to hire a pollster (of our own) to check the exit results - I mean, incredibly stupid.

This will be one of the very first "even"(probably better than even) fights we have had in almost six years this November. And this one we cannot afford to lose.

But I think we are all smarter now.

Joe