So, if Dems don't take the house or senate, then what?

I guess we all just sit and stew while Bush makes the finishing touches on his coup.

Depressing to think about but a definite possibility.
Better make an emergency pack to live on just in case.

(Don't think three day's water supply will do it though)

I have a bad feeling about the next election.

Just get out the vote.

I don't. I think that Democrats could score several victories.

People are starting to turn against Jackass and the Republican establishment also. I have a feeling that we could regain a lot of lost territory.
Ringo

I've never seen that here before.

Sorry. I call Bush 'Jackass'. I should have made that clear.
Ringo

And welcome to DU.

:hi:

:) Thanks!

Every time we're well ahead in the polls.
Every time we "lose".
Every time ** does something terrible with his "man date".
He's even starting to scare the Republicans.

Look what the GOP has done to a once great country. Getting rid of the GOP is like a de-licing.

yes

find ourselves back in the time of 1938.....

As fucked up as the REpigs are....if we lose, then this country deserves to rot in hell!

The classic working class against the elitists.

But I'll be dead by then.

I WANT TO SEE JUSTICE SERVED!

It's 2006 or BUST!

PS. I'm going door to door canvasing 50 miles away in another district on Sunday (my district is true blue already); trying to get another Dem seated in OUR house!

I'm gonna talk some sense into these folks! That, or get Shot!

<sarcasm>Takes one to know one, you latte-sipping limousine lib'ral!</sarcasm>

Or, like the rich Corporate yuppies (House/Senate Republicans) versus the common man (Democrats)
Ringo

If a majority of Americans are too lazy to become activist enough to force a change and hold corrupt politicians accountable, then we end up with a truly fascist police state. We are almost there.

If the "disinterested," the ones who feel that a)politics doesn't affect their daily lives, b)just too bothersome to pay attention to what is going on, or c) what's the use? Politicians are going to do what they want, anyway...do not become the "interested and active, then this country is lost. And, if Americans aren't interested in taking their country back this fall, I will quit tilting at windmills, find a quiet, out of the way place, and hope that I can live in blissful ignorance forever.

If the Dems win, things will change.

If the Dems lose, it will become obvious to even the most rabid wingnut that the game is fixed and the electoral system a sham. The ramifications of that are pretty horrible to contemplate but may include any or all of the following: mass protest, local and general strike, insurrection, revolution, civil war.

A Dem victory in November is our best hope of a peaceful transition to the post-Bush world. If the scum hang onto power, then I fear for all of us.

Apply to the Canadian government for permission to move there. I don't think I can take much more of this.

work to see we do take at least one house.

And, even though we might kneejerk hate Republicans, there are still a few decent ones around-- if you've got some of the better ones, work with them if they win. The goal isn't to destroy the Republican Party (fat chance of that anyway) but to bring some sanity back to the country before we lose it all.

A definite possibility? Please, tell me why.

House, senate, presidency.

Worst case we should pick up seats just not enough.

would be to retake one chamber, and to gain enough in the other so that the Repubs can't run roughshod over the country anymore.

Pretty much just wait for the Abramoff scandal and hookergate to set in(next year or so) and within a year of the 06 midterms, the Dems will have the house through a quorum majority. Even if we lose seats in 06, there'll probably be enough Repugs resigining at once to giv3e the Dems the House. Of course this is really hopeful thinking, but I think justice will come no matter what.

Fate has it in store for us

It's a good bet that we'll lose the midterms--or not make significant gains--even if Bush sinks to 10%, and Congress to 5% approval ratings. Bushite corporations have gained control of the vote tabulation with 'TRADE SECRET,' PROPRIETARY programming code and virtually no audit/recount controls. That was Tom Delay's and Bob Ney's most foul piece of legislation--the "Hack America's Vote Act--in the Anthrax Congress. And if the electronic advantage to Bushites and warmongers fails to overcome the Democratic advantage in numbers and overwhelming public support--as CAN happen (it happened in 2004)--they will pull more Ohio tactics--purges of black and other Democratic voters, shorting of precincts, 10 hour voting lines, unfair challenges of voters and outright intimidation.

This is the reality. All our votes are being tabulated behind a veil of secrecy by private corporations with deep ties to the Republican Party and rightwing causes. Further, the Bushites are so dirty they cannot afford to be ousted from either house of Congress.

However, IF we regard this election as a stepping stone toward recovery of our democracy--and refuse to be demoralized by a temporary defeat--then we can and will win in the end.

It's also possible that the Bushite election theft corporations will back off, in order to preserve their new power over vote tabulation for the future--that is, in order to scuttle the amazing growth of the grass roots election reform movement. We must not be fooled by this, if it happens. We must be relentless in our demand for transparent elections.

Another possibility is a "terrorist" attack of some kind to interfere with the midterms. These criminals have stripped our country of all the competent and honest people in our intelligence services, have broken the back of our emergency services, and have utterly failed at the most bottom-line security measures (such as port security). They outed an entire CIA WMD counter-proliferation network for political reasons, and to cover up other crimes! For all we know, they could be in collusion with "terrorists," and it's arguably true that they are terrorists themselves. They've slaughtered tens of thousands of innocent people in Iraq and have tortured many more.

We don't know what will happen. That is the mode of fascist government--creating and manipulating fear.

But barring a Diebold/ES&S strategic stand-down--or the other unknowns that are possible under fascist rule--the Bushites clearly hold the power to rig another election, and are holding onto that power with tooth and claw wherever it is challenged.

So, what do we do if we lose in '06? Give up? Leave the country? Bury our heads in the sand? Become yet more disempowered and demoralized--and disenfranchised? Call other Americans 'sheeple' and other wrongful names? Whimper?

You want to give up on the greatest democracy in the history of the world?

Naw! We're not going to do that. We're going to fight back. And here's how...

We are going to MONITOR the '06 elections. We are going to have people in every precinct and in every centralized vote counting location WATCHING and RECORDING everything they do. We are going to have statisticians and lawyers ready to challenge all suspicious results. We are going to fight for recounts, and where there is no paper trail--and thus no recount possible--we are going to ask why, very loudly. We are going to GATHER EVIDENCE. We are going to document everything that happens, including every time one of these unreliable, insecure, hackable, crapass voting machines or central tabulators breaks down. We are going to IGNORE the war profiteering corporate news monopoly exit polls--and conduct INDEPENDENT exit polls, if we can get the Democratic Party or SOMEBODY to fund them, or if we can get it organized some other way. Clean exit polls are the best way to verify elections and check for fraud. We are going to MAKE THE CASE for getting rid of these election theft machines in every state and local venue in the country. We are going to oust corrupt election officials, and FORCE our state/local governments to provide TRANSPARENT elections.

And if we can't do all this THIS time, we are going to START doing it, and set it up well for NEXT time, in 2008.

This is a long term fight we are in, for our country, and for our sovereignty as a people. It is a very big country--with a great variety of peoples and governments--and not easy to Nazify. We also have the advantage that the Bush junta is mainly into looting us blind. Their Nazi features are more scare tactics than anything else, in my opinion (from close observation of them, for considerable time). If they were Nazis, they would be building up a great military-industrial base. They are not doing so. If anything, they're UNDOING the great military-industrial state that we once were. They are bleeding us, not organizing us into goose-stepping cadres. And, in any case, they're not convincing anybody. That's clear. The vast majority of Americans want to be rid of them, and have wanted that for some time (since before the Iraq invasion). We just have to figure out HOW--and I think the HOW became crystal clear after the Diebold/ES&S election of 2004. We not only have the specific mechanism of our sovereignty to repair--our right to vote--we also have to realize the parts played by the war profiteering corporate news monopolies and collusive, corrupt and/or fearful Democratic leaders in our loss of transparent elections.

The corporate news monopolies not only facilitated Bush/Cheney lies and "swiftboating" tactics, and they not only failed to inform people of the new non-transparency and Bushite control of the election system, they FACILITATED the stolen election in 2004, by DOCTORING their "consortium" exit polls to 'FIT' the results of Diebold/ES&S's secret vote tabulation software--in order to hide the truth from the American people that Kerry won the exit polls by a 3% margin--major evidence of election fraud. Remember, Kerry was winning all day long until late in the day, then suddenly--impossibly--it turned around, and Bush was winning? THAT's what happened. They FALSIFIED the exit polls to MATCH NON-TRANSPARENT "official results." Exit polls are used worldwide as a check against fraud--especially in non-transparent conditions. Not here. Here they were used to confirm non-transparent and highly suspicious results.

As for our other leaders: The next time an election official or Democratic leader gives you a blank stare when you ask why we have elections controlled by private Bushite corporations with "TRADE SECRET" programming code, spit in their eye. Really. There is no excuse. As for the news monopolies, just ignore them. Pay no attention to their rap, or to who they say won. Go on your way. You know better. Do a demo at your county election official's HOUSE. Embarrass, harass, haunt and bedevil them. Don't be rude. Just be firm. And get that election data and documentation to one of the groups below--or to your own organized election reform group.

We WILL win in the end! Believe me! And then we will have a reform movement in this country that will scare the bejeebers out of the corporate pigs who have done this to us. THAT is going to be fun!

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SOME RESOURCES FOR AMERICAN REVOLUTION II:

Hopeful signs - latest news:

California voters sue the state over Diebold:
www.VoterAction.org is suing the state of California and 18 Calif county registrars on behalf of 25 California voter/plaintiffs, on the illegal Diebold "certification" by Schwarzenegger appointee Bruce McPherson.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2180496
Seven of these counties just promised the judge they would use PAPER BALLOTS, and were dismissed from this lawsuit (4/27/06).
http://kcbs.com/pages/29285.php
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2249205

Maryland rejects Diebold:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x418263

Florida - anti-trust accusations against Diebold, ES&S and Sequoia, re: heroic Florida election official Ion Sancho:
(FLA AG subpoenas the companies)
http://www.computerworld.com/governmenttopics/government/legalissues/story/0,10801,110192,00.html
http://www.tbo.com/news/politics/MGBKSY8W8LE.html
(info & discussion)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2183630

Utah county clerk fights back!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x419226

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More resources for American Revolution II:

www.votersunite.org (MythBreakers - easy primer on electronic voting--one of the myths is that HAVA requires electronic voting; it does not.)
www.UScountvotes.org (statistical monitoring of '06 and '08 elections--they need donations)

(Activist sites with links to state activist groups or info)
www.votetrustusa.org (news of this great movement from around the country)
www.votersunited.org (good general info, and state links)
www.verifiedvoting.org (great activist site)
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)* :patriot: :applause: :patriot:
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)
Provisions of the PA lawsuit:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x423739

The Voter Confidence Resolution
http://tinyurl.com/rlnr2 (“We Do Not Consent”)
http://guvwurld.blogspot.com (GuvWurld blog main page)
http://tinyurl.com/amryg (Voter Confidence Resolution

www.debrabowen.com (Calif Senator running for Sec of State to reform election system)
www.johnbonifaz.com (running for Massachusetts Sec of State on strong election reform and antiwar platform)

*Some tributes to TruthIsAll, who is very ill:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x417007
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x417231
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x675477

Congressional bills:

Russ Holt's HR 550 requires a real paper ballot, bans secret software in "voting machines", and has more than 170 co-sponsors, but the audit required is too weak, it promotes electronic voting and centralized power, and the secret software might be permitted to continue in the central tabulators (the bill is not clear). To sign the HR 550 petition: http://www.rushholt.com/petition.html
At lot of discussion at DU of the loopholes/pitfalls in HR 550:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x422926
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x421136
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=422967&mesg_id=422967
(Note: Senate Bill-SB 330 and House-HR704 simply require a "voter verified paper audit trail" (VVPAT), which may be best for the moment.)


Also of interest:

Michael Collins (Autorank)'s searing election reform article for New Zealand's Scoop.com
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x971363

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! Title: "Poll Shock" 11/24/05)
http://commonwonders.com/archives/col321.htm

Bob Koehler's latest: "Trust us: Take this box and stuff it" (3/16/06)
http://commonwonders.com/archives/col337.htm
More Koehler:
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

HOWARD DEAN remarks on electronic voting machines 04/06
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x994507

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

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

-----------

"That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it." --Thomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence

I might even pour out the glass of hemlock I keep in the refrigerator.

I guess I will have to move to Holland like my ancestors did.