I am making a stand, here, now, for the 2006 Elections- our last stand?

I mean if everything seems to be looking good going into November-- and the elections dont break the one party rule head lock the repubs have, is that our last stand? If the DEMs do get the House back, and do squat. Is that your last stand?

Does Diebold, Sequoia & ES&S have an utter stranglehold on 100% of the voting machines? 100% of the votes, I doubt it. Not all of them, I think. I feel we must put up the fight of the Century for Campaign 2006. We need to generate the most turnout in modern history. We need to have a 50 state effort to push the repubs back at every front. We need national issues to act as coat-tails to help the most DEM candidates.

WE need Democratic landslides against the republican cabal.



Fund raising: start with house parties and then think bigger. We can drown out the lobby money with ten and twenty dollar contributions, if we start now. I am planning to raise at least 50 grand by this summer, & I hope to be quitting my regular job for a staffers position in a Congressional race. I will put my all into Campaign 2006, because if I dont, and we dont get the House back by just one race, it will be my fault. This is no time to leave any balls on the table, this is the time to swing at every pitch.



I'm drawing a line in the sand . . I'm making MY STAND right here . . right now.

Lets start using the DU Campaign 2006 resources. Power to the People !

ge here--

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=358

E-voting is the fly in the pudding. If they have enough precincts locked up, then we're screwed and so is america. But E-voting isn't a done deal, because ever state has not jumped on the electronic voting band wagon.

So allot of work has to be done to get the vote out, and try and convince people that still think it doesn't matter who you vote for, to take a leap of faith and vote for our candidate.

Good luck!

2006 or bust!!!!! This is not the time to want to win one race at a time, we have to win a multitude of races, all on Election Day.

Use it or lose it... vote vote vote.

busts into it! :evilgrin: :hi:

You are correct, we have to take many races or we're done this year. I've been registering voters since 1976 and will continue until the last call this year. After that if it is still rigged, I am done.

One more for the road! :toast:

Thats pretty much how I feel. '76 eh? me too. You baby Boomer you.

I voted for win. It helped make up a little for the following 2 sob's of the next 12 years. :nuke: Well, not too much, but a little.

I hope our boomer selves are loud enough to help rattle those idjuts right out of office in Nov. If not, I don't know what my next step will be, but if I hear of people disappearing I may take a permanent vacation to visit out of country friends.

I received more taped mail yesterday ( it's been over a year since the last time) and weird calls have started again. Do you ever get mail that has been taped shut? Other than if a friend has forgotten to include a picture or something and reopens it?

What would you think if it happened to you? :shrug: Just getting a few opinions. Last time out of over 50 people I asked not one had ever gotten a single piece of mail that had been taped shut. I'm at 5 never so far this time.

It's just bizarre Foger.:hi: This was a piece from the FCC. Waiting to see if I get anymore, last time it was around 8 or so pieces of seemingly random items.

:toast:

through your life with much information! :toast: :hi:

We can get a net gain of 6 Senate seats and 15+ House seats.

If you factor in the E-Voting problem, a double digit Democratid lead will result in a net gain of 25 seats. That's good.

-thusly, we must fight, to win these races bigtime. Considering Sandra OConner's comments recently.

advice? I believe we are in a huge fight, not just for our country but for the safety of this planet.

Here's the deal.

I am a bit of a pariah. I'm the lady with the 2ft x 4ft fluorescent green sign that says * lies in her yard. I'm the one with the number of the dead soldiers written in the back window of my car in big purple numbers with *4 lies* next to it. I write the LTTE asking them to contact their critters and demand they actually work for us.

I have been pleasantly surprised several times by responses I have had from people I would have expected to try to criticize or yell at me. Today I had such a great talk with the older lady at the AAA. She even admitted she believes that drugs should be legalized! She said she would never dare admit it in public because of her job though. She does admit in public that she thinks * is an idiot. It was encouraging.

But the apathy here was astounding and heartbreaking. I am coming to realize though that it may not be as much all apathy as I had believed. Sometimes people will speak to me in whispers about how they hate *. I even had a very strong woman I've known forever break down into tears when she delivered a pizza she is so terrified of what * has done.

This is small town America. I believe there may be more fear than apathy from what I am starting to see.

I can at least be angry with apathy, but what do I do with the fear I am seeing? I took that woman in my arms and told her we are trying very hard to make things right. All I could think of was to comfort her, but I couldn't reassure her because I cannot lie. We may not be able to stop them before they nuke someone and all hell breaks loose.

Any suggestions from yourself, or anyone else, would be deeply appreciated. I want to get rid of Scumtorum:puke: and English (the Human Carp as another Pa. DUer KnaveRupe so nicely puts it)in the 3rd District. I don't know how much I can do when I am considered such an outsider. Scumtorum:puke: is a threat to the entire country!

I especially need more info on the voting machines being used in Pa. I lost all my bookmarks. :( The nice older ladies at the polls will be so pissed when they find out how they are being scammed! :)

In hope of peace,:hi:
v

on the machines, etc. Looks like a very well-organized PA election reform group!

-----

I was touched hearing about the woman who cried. See my post below. I think Americans are depressed, demoralized, upset, disempowered, and, above all, DISENFRANCHISED--and they need to know it! And they need to know it NOW!

Getting them writing letters and calling and visiting their county eleciton officials--to put the pressure on. DEMAND transparent elections! DEMAND to SEE how votes are counted!

Let upset people know the problem is concrete, specific, real--and fixable! It may take time, but it IS fixable!

many voters on a one on one basis since I first voted in 1976. Many have become very disillusioned and stopped voting at all even with my offers to give rides to the polls, especially after the debacle of 2004. :( :grr:

I am going to gather the info and write more LTTE, give the info directly to the poll ladies before the elections and see what happens. These women are patriots and take voting as a serious duty, as we do. They will be completely outraged when they learn that "something is rotten in Denmark" as the old saying goes.

Other than that I'm not sure if there is anything else that can be done. I missed voting one year because our county courthouse was switching over to computer files and lost me in the shuffle, several thousand people were lost. The election ladies were furious, I was livid.

I cried when my old friend left that night. She has always been one of the toughest women I've ever known! I haven't seen her since, but it would be nice to be able to see her and be able to share a laugh when * is impeached!:)

Thanks for the help and advice. :hi:

well-



Take this with a grain of salt--


Who is running against this puke? Bob Smith?

Have you ever done a "honk & Wave"? Buy some poster board and magic markers and make signs. "Bob Smith for US Senate" & "Honk for BOB". Find out where Bob is having his next public event. Be there an hour in advance with your signs, and get the folks excited and honking those horns.




In general terms-
-are there activists groups in your area?
-No? Well start one.

I know you've all heard that old line before, so if I could put into a single phrase. . .

Band Together.

Meet at least once a month. And recruit people.

That means finding all the like minded people around you. . . . . . then start hanging out with the politicians- town meetings- county meetings- etc. NEtwork your ass off.

Then take your merry BAND, pick a congressional candidate- Endorse the congressional candidate, fundraise for the congressional candidate, meet the congressional candidate.

Then take your merry BAND, pick a local candidate- Endorse the local candidate, fundraise for the local candidate, meet the local candidate.

Repeat if necessary

really just a town, imo. When I said pariah I was serious.

I intend to hammer the local papers in the area with info on English's lying CAFTA vote and any other hypocritical info about him I can dig up, but many in the area are non-thinking voters. They vote for whoever the incumbent is because he is there.

Specter, Scumtorum:puke: and English always take this area.

I plan to educate them in LTTE. I don't think the horn honking would work, not enough traffic, even on a Friday night!

I think I am going to try and run an ad in the paper and see if there are any takers to join in and help take him out of office. There may be more that care than it seems, just need someone to speak out and lead. I'm not sure I'm the one to lead, though I'm very good at speaking out, but maybe someone would show up that would be good at it. :)

Thanks for the suggestions. I will try to find other like-minded people. Hopefully there are some other than the small group of lockstep dems that have been worthless here for years. You only hear from them when they have their yearly BBQ!

:hi:

nice clothes, cars and houses. I am poor, have an old house, dress comfortable and drive a '95 T'bird. I really don't fit in very well here with the dinner dance country club crowd dems here. :)

Should I call that extreme makeover show? :shrug::rofl:

I drive a taxi for living. The 9 Essex County Freeholders now know me by sight, & first name. As well as the county SOE. Thats because I spent from may to nov. lobbying the Freeholders about buying new voting equipment.

And probably from just networking, I have meet & worked in his recent campaign, the new gov. of NJ Corzine. As well meeting 5 Town Council members in 2 towns, including a Mayor.

These are people I've waited on when I worked at the Country Club. They were usually not exactly rude, but made it clear I should feel less than.

Hell, I'll do it Foger. As I've told others - what have you got to lose?! And this is the battle of our lifetime!

I'll start hunting them down, er, looking them up this week.

Thanks for all of your help and advice! :hug:

Congressional election. But how do you get it?

I think that, if the Democratic Party leadership was TELLING the American people that we DON'T HAVE transparent elections, but that massive turnout can overcome the potential fraud--and INVOLVE people in overcoming the fraud--we could generate the turnout we need. Tell them the truth. They all know it in their hearts. That's why half of them don't vote--and even when they DO vote, as they did in huge numbers in 2004, the result is more fascism.

So we have a very big handicap as to voter turnout--the SILENCE of the Democratic Party leadership. Those who aren't collusive with Diebold and ES&S and the war machine are either fearful of speaking out, or are lying to people (by their silence) out of fear that, if they tell people the truth, they won't vote (and won't donate). I think just the opposite will happen. People are HUNGRY for the truth--and they want to know how to help. Think of all those ornery people who know it's rigged and won't vote, and haven't been voting for a long time, because of past disillusionments. Imagine awakening all those ornery cusses with a plan to overpower these newfangled, even worse election systems--by sheer numbers.

But without the Democratic Party breaking its silence on this, some people are just going to figure it's business as usual, and we won't get our fraud-busting edge. (We almost got it in 2004, with an historic turnout, and with the great majority of independent voters, new voters and former Nader voters voting for Kerry; he won by (my est.) 4%-5%, but it wasn't enough to overcome the electronic tweak combined with the brutal vote suppression in Ohio, voter purges in Florida, and other fraud. He needed a 6%-10% margin of victory, just to win.)

What incentive do all those new Democratic and pro-Democratic independent voters, and former Nader voters, have now--considering not only the quick foldup of the Democrats on election night in '04, and their continued silence, denial, fear, collusion or whatever it is, about Bushites counting all the votes behind a veil of secrecy? Not much! They need INCENTIVE--and overcoming the fraud is a good one.

We have to break this syndrome of the disillusioned voter. They go to the trouble to vote, and nothing changes. The war profiteering corporate news monopolies then paint the Democrats/leftists/progressives as "losers," and voters lose hope that their kind of candidates can win. They become demoralized and disempowered. Even if they keep voting, they can't budge auntie or grandpa or their friends at work to go and vote. People say, "What's the use? It's all rigged." And they are correct, BUT.... in fact, we CAN overcome the fraud with numbers, in some cases anyway, and if only they knew this, they would have an incentive to vote, and the voters who urge others to vote would have something to say to the non-voters to motivate them.

ALSO, and VERY IMPORTANT: WHEN we lose--and I think that is very likely in '06, given the electronic voting circumstances--people will KNOW WHY, and this will, a) keep them from being demoralized and disempowered (because knowing the reasons for things DOES help--it gets your mind working on SOLUTIONS); and b) create a constituency for getting rid of these machines and restoring transparent elections.

I worry about Americans. I think many are depressed--and not enough have gotten the word as to WHY the country is going downhill so fast. They NEED to know why--and that it is fixable, or, at least, the first step toward fixing things is very specific and doable. Americans HATE problems that are not fixable. We are a very practical, get-it-done kind of people. Throw a malaise at them--or corporate-created illusions of masses of rightwing nutso, Bush-worshipping, so-called "christians"--and many just throw up their hands. What can they do--if their fellow Americans have gone insane? Or, what can they do, if the Bush fascists have all the power?

But give them a SEEABLE, DOABLE project--proving the voting machines can be beaten--and just watch them go to it. They will! And there is also nothing like a game aimed at "beating the odds" to interest many Americans.

I'm even sitting here fantasizing a gambling game--at post-election parties (as the returns come in, through the Diebold-ES&S/AP/Edison-Mitofsky/local news affiliate filter), where people bet on what the Bushite candidate's Diebold percentage is going to be, vs, say, the pre-election polls (or the exit polls if they are trustworthy--that is, non-Edison/Mitofsky). And as they laugh at the Bushites--who can't win honest elections--they plan their campaign against Diebold/ES&S.

After 2004, I had great fantasies of Michael Moore leading a band of "Indians" to Boston Harbor and dumping some of these !@#$% machines into the water--with cameras rolling. I sent the idea to him. No response--very, very disappointing. But that's what's needed--that spirit, the spirit of rebellion, the spirit of mischief, the spirit of "the game's afoot!" and we're all in this together, this great majority of good Americans who can't get their votes counted or their will enforced.

-------

That's one problem. The other is a potential plague of Ohio's--voters purged from the rolls, forced to vote provisionally, shorted on precincts and voting machines, and subjected to other vote suppression and intimidation. Greg Palast estimated that one million black voters were purged from the voting rolls in 2004. And, once again, the Democratic Party's failure of leadership on this matter is a huge handicap. The party snubbed the Congressional Black Caucus challenge of Ohio, and has basically ignored the Conyers report--and the GAO report--and all the evidence. How can we prepare for more Bushite vote suppression, if the Dem Party isn't on it--and really hot under the collar about it, with lawyers ready?

-------

One BIG NEED--and something the Democratic Party can do, if they won't do anything else to insure our right to vote--is INDEPENDENT EXIT POLLS. Badly, badly needed. Edison-Mitofksy is corrupt--and pulled the dirtiest journalistic crime ever, in 2004 (FALSIFYING the exit poll numbers on election night 2004). We desperately need SOME way to verify these elections.

At the least, we must be set up to gather evidence. I will never agree that our democracy ends in November 2006--or that all hope for transparent elections is gone at that point--no matter what happens. As long as the states/counties hold Constitutional power over election systems, there is still hope. It may be a long slog--but this is an historic fight for American democracy, and it must continue. We will suffer setbacks and lose battles, but we must and will win in the end.

So we need number crunchers, people who will retrieve vote tabulation evidence, people who will closely monitor, take notes and photograph/video polling place activities, the machines and central tabulators, and the behavior of election officials. Edison-Mitofsky has promised never to let us see their real exit poll numbers again--but there may be other exit pollsters out there in '06, whose feeds to news channels need to monitored and images captured. UScountvotes.org is setting up to do some of this work.

---------

Well, I'm tired for now--but I will come back here. I think we really need to face this problem of highly riggable Bushite controlled vote tabulation--for '06 and beyond. We haven't been able to fix it yet--on the whole. The election reform movement--for all its successes--is still in its infancy. So we really, in all good faith as citizens, need to warn people and we need to get them involved in overcoming it and fixing it.

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

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.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 and ES&S election theft machines into 'Boston Harbor' NOW!

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

in 2004 have been completely disillusioned by what happened Peace. I'm not sure we will ever see such a turnout ever again. I'm not trying to be pessimistic, but too many feel as if they just did not matter.

I hope we can turn it around and more indictments in Ohio will show that things were rigged. This might encourage them to try again. But without the corporate media screaming it loud many will never know it was another theft of an election.

I just hope the apathy has not grown too monumental. People get tired of hoping for change that never seems to come and give up after awhile. I hear too often - "It won't/doesn't matter anyway." :(

I love the Election Harbor idea! But could we throw all the repuke politicos in also?! That would be tremendously satisfying and fun!:evilgrin:

:hi:

A winner!

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

:applause: :applause: :applause:

fighting Bush. Whether its protesting the war or being a low level staffer in the Kerry campaign I always find it satisfying. Seriously, this feels great.

If I wasnt part of the resistance, I would be watching CATV and probably drinking too much. And I might start smokin pot again. And fire up a TV dinner. And do some more drugs. After a while my Kidneys will start fail.

Smoke pouring out of your ears
Eyes spinning in their sockets
Nervous twitches
Head spinning wildly, doing 360's on your shoulders
Un restrained drooling
Muscle Spasms
Uncontrollable Flatulence
Is this Bio Weapon Chemical Poisoning ??
No
It is an Allergic reaction to Religious Extremist Dominionist BushReich Totalitarianism

good fight left in me!

Let's get 'em! :toast: :smoke: :patriot:

US Corporate/CIA has done everything it could possibly do to kill representative government in South America--assassinations and coups of democratically elected presidents and other officials, death squads, installation of horrible dictators, torture, corruption on a huge scale, heinous World Bank loans (aimed at stealing natural resources and creating sweatshops/slave labor), you name it--for half a century. And what is the result? The most remarkable, profound, historic revolution that has ever occurred since the ones led by Washington, Jefferson & Co. here, and by Simon Bolivar there. Virtually the entire map of South America has gone "blue" over the last several years, with socialist/leftist governments swept to power, often by big majorities, in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Venezuela and Bolivia. Peru will likely be next. And the revolution is moving north--Mexico will likely elect the leftist mayor of Mexico City as president this year.

This is a revolution that cannot be assassinated. It is unstoppable. And one of the keys to it is TRANSPARENT elections--the result of years of work by grass roots groups, civic groups, the OAS, EU election groups, and the Carter Center.

Think of what the South Americans have gone through at the hands of the US! The new president of Chile, its first woman president, socialist Michele Batchelet, was tortured by the US-backed dictator Pinochet. Now she's president of the country! Similar stories throughout So. America. They never gave up.

The same fascist forces that victimized So. and Central America are now bent upon turning US into cannon fodder and slave laborers--our own US-based corporations, our own military-industrial war machine, led by the Bush junta criminals, with all too evident collusion by some of the Democratic Party leadership.

Who knows what we may have to suffer before this is over. But the thing to remember is this: democracy is a hard idea to kill. Modern democracy was born here, on these shores, in this great country. We may have made horrendous mistakes as a country, and committed great crimes, but we have always tried to correct our course BECAUSE we are a democracy, and THROUGH the mechanisms of democracy, voting and free speech. Democracy is deeply rooted here. It will not be easily dislodged. It is in a crippled state, to be sure. For one thing, we are reduced nearly to word-of-mouth communication--given our lack of a free press (wholly dominated and monopolized by war profiteers)--with the internet as a sort of new "committees of correspondence" (a la Tom Paine). So it may take time to restore our sovereignty as a people and our right to vote. But I have no doubt that we will.

Another thing that people need to understand is that WE are now at the vortex of evil in the world--our gov't seized by heinous war mongers and thieves. And WE are the primary targets. That is WHY they have taken our right to vote away. We are in a unique position--and have unique power as a sovereign people--to overthrow these fascists and to get them off the backs of everybody else. We alone have the power to literally dismantle corporate giants, pull their charters and seize their assets for the public good. We have that legal power--in theory. And we have more easily implemented powers of regulation. Again, this is WHY they have taken away our right to vote.

We now have a window of opportunity to get it back--at the state/local level. While we should of course participate in the '06 election, and do whatever we can to elect good people despite Diebold/ES&S's thumb on the scales, our PRIORITY should be RESTORING TRANSPARENT ELECTIONS, a longer term project. So '06 may be more a matter of gathering evidence in an organized way--not just to challenge election results, but to challenge and change the election SYSTEM.

UScountvotes.org is one good resource. They are preparing to gather and analyse statistics. www.votersunite.org is also excellent--they are monitoring paper trails around the country--and have an excellent pamphlet, MythBreakers, on electronic voting. One of the myths is that HAVA mandates electronic voting. It does not!

HUGS TO YOU, VICKISS AND FOGERROX and to all true patriots and lovers of peace and justice!

:patriot: :pals: :hug: :grouphug:

least one house of congress in 2006, the US in big, big trouble. I have volunteered to campaign for Chris Murphy, who is running against Nancy Johnson in my district. I'll also be in D.C. on April 6,7 to lobby for Rush Holt's voting bill. It is important get a huge turnout in November to make it as hard as possible for election fraud to take place.

Keep up the good work.

we really feel.

Vickess-- by going to Town council, & County legislature, and state Legislature, meetings- you let elected officials know about the real world. . . . our world. SO Trucking-- knows this and he is walking the talk. This is how Senator Boxer got off her ass and protested the Ohio electors in Jan of 2004.

On that day, folks like Andy Stephenson, Janet & Dusty were in Boxers office, talking to aides. Thats how it got done. PEOPLE lobbying thier reps.

good to hear from ya Truckin--

Great ideas. Keep 'em coming.

Peace,

IL

:)

I will NEVER vote repuke.

But I will not compromise any longer.

Give me a reason to vote FOR someone, not against the repukes like last.

Don't marginalize us. Don't take our vote for granted.

Don't tell us to "hold our noses and vote in spite of what we believe and want".

No more.

You don't succeed in convincing us why we should vote FOR somebody, then you only have yourselves to blame.

Put in Hillary, Zell, Biden, Daschel, LIEberman - count me out.

Sorry, if you don't like it.