"Just got home from the Rainbow Coalition rally featuring Jesse Jackson, Tubbs and others at the Riffe Center in Columbus Ohio."
(from me:)
I just came home from this too.
One thing on this board that ticks me off is that we all don't know eachother personally; the speakers identified some people from certain
counties, but somebody should have asked for the "commongroundcommonsense.org" people to stand up. I would have liked to meet you. That is the kind of thing that would happen in the sixties...
Also, although I love the band that led in, they played a really long time, as though there were no speakers with anything more important to
say than that we should keep going. (The rally was scheduled for 1:30;
it was past 2:30 at least before the band let anybody speak.) I am a
musician, but even I was irritated after a while. It meant that not
every speaker got to speak, buses from Cleveland had to leave before the end, and there were absolutely no questions and answers. Some of those we talked to in the lobby had some new information:
This might be on another post, but I found out that my voting precinct
in Akron had over six percent of rejected votes. These were punch-card
ballots. There were many precincts with more than three percent. We are thinking of going door to door in Cleveland to ask residents in one precinct where Blackwell said there were ZERO votes and certified it, if anyone there voted, and would be willing to testify. (I have felt that most of the focus has been on Columbus in any lawsuits, so this would be very useful.)
One minister there had a copy of a legal document from 2001 that was
served on George W. Bush that said he was in violation of the law, etc., all carefully signed and sealed and delivered, but ignored. I wished that I had the exact numbers and name of the document. The Supreme Court in 2000 and 2001 was covering up much more than election results.
There was so much unity at the rally. Everyone was glad to see the Green Party and Cobb; everyone was glad to see the Progressive Democrats; everyone was glad to see Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs-Jones (who pointed to a stupid article by the Cleveland Plain Dealer); everyone was glad to see the Rev. Jesse Jackson; everyone was glad to see many other individuals and groups, such as Fitrakis of the freepress.org and Arnebeck of Common Cause, etc. The main points to me were:
1. Call; E-Mail; Visit; every Democrat Senator and ask them to stand
with Conyers on January 6th. It is easy to find phone numbers and
websites, but they gave these too.
2. Get on a bus (or car, plane, etc.) and if at all possible, go to
Washington D.C. on January 6th.
3. Do any other kind of volunteering you can to help find out vote fraud.
4. Call, E-Mail, every friend and associate you know about these things, and tell them what you know about this, because the media has blacked out coverage of vote fraud.
quote from kitkat65:
"The important things for me to pass on to you are these:
"They asked us to go to the Progressive Democrats web page
www.pdamerica.org
"and go to the Action Alert page which is this
http://capwiz.com/pdamerica/mail/oneclick_compose/?aler..>http://capwiz.com/pdamerica/mail/oneclick_compose/?aler...
"you can compose a message that will be passed on to
Russell Feingold, Senator
Patrick Leahy, Senator
Tom Harkin, Senator
Patty Murray, Senator
Richard Durbin, Senator
John F Kerry, Senator
"They asked us to go to call the Senate Hotline at 202/224-3121
to ask them to investigate the vote. “Light up those boards!” they said.
"Points of note:
"Cobb, Tubbs, Fitrakis, Arnebeck and Jackson all spoke most of it saying that this is one of the most important times in our history, that we can’t let something like this go - not now, not ever. There is beauty in the struggle. Jesse listed all the voting irregularities that we pretty much now know by heart now. There are other rallies in San Francisco and somewhere else I now forget (sorry) that are being held to show their support for our fight in Ohio. I was hoping Fitrakis and Arnebeck would give some hot, juicy, updated news on the investigation front but it was more like outraged rhetoric from Fitrakis - hmmm, I’m wondering if he plans on running for office someday.
"Dagmar Celeste, former first lady of Ohio (husband was governor in the 70s) spoke of her experience with voter fraud. For some reason they lost badly in the Toledo area which then was home of Diebold. Go figure."
(from me:)
Jesse Jackson also asked the whole audience to repeat after him some of the statistics, to help fix these in our minds, so that if anybody asks us, we can give them facts right away! The supporting rallies today (Jan 3rd) were in Boston (where the person from the Progressive Democrats was from) and also San Francisco. Fitrakis and Arnebeck did have some hot news, but, as I said before, the band at the beginning spent all of the time for all of the speakers, so they couldn't say much. Fitrakis was very impressive... given only a few minutes to speak. (Of course, today people expect politicians to be as distant and unemotional as Kerry,but, Kerry was not there of course.) I talked to Fitrakis after the rally, and told him how I appreciated all his work. He spoke very calmly to me; when I told him about our discussions on commongroundcommonsense he told me how much they appreciate all the work that we are doing there,and that he looks in at it! He also acted as though he had read my posts, asking what my name is, etc. Dagmar Celeste gave a wonderful speech just before Jesse Jackson came in. The voter fraud her husband experienced in 1978 was in Dayton, not Toledo, where Diebold had vote scanners. Her husband, a Democrat, lost in a heavily Democrat black neighborhood there where he had been projected to win. (Dayton is near Xenia, Ohio, the home now of Triad.) She said that, at the time, something seemed very fishy, and now she realizes that Diebold could change results of punch-card scanners. .
quote from kitkat65:
"Ohio senator, Teresa Fedor, said that this was an extremely important
issue and hoped that her colleagues on the Hill will find the courage to stand up. Too bad she’s not a U.S. senator, eh? I believe she’s the one that said a huge spotlight needs to be shone on this because that’s when all the cockroaches go running.
"Obama was mentioned."
(from me:)
Obama was mentioned by Cliff Arnebeck. Others did not feel that Obama
would be ready to take on this burden; that the senior Senators should
do it, but I think that, given almost no time to speak, Arnebeck was
hinting at something. Remember that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a
young man, very new to the civil rights movement, when he was asked to
lead some rallies, mainly because nobody had yet formed any grudges
against him? I think that Senator Obama would be such a leader... if he decides to stand with Congressman Conyers on Jan 6th.
quote from kitkat65:
"And, I wish I could remember who said it - a lot was said today so I’m overloaded - but someone gave this wonderful analogy that in these dark times, those of us that stand up and fight for this issue are the
beacons of light. I want to say Celeste but I can’t for sure.
"A prayer was said for Shirley Chisolm and Bob Matsui."
(from me:)
Dagmar Celeste did indeed say that we must be beacons of light. She gave a spiritual speech. And several, including her, and also the Rev. Jesse Jackson, said the Truth shall make us free. Jesse Jackson asked
everybody to hold hands for the prayer for Shirley Chisolm and Bob
Matsui; the entire hall reached across aisles to do that. (By the way,
almost all the seats were filled in the entire hall: ground floor,
mezzanine, and balcony.)
I've already mentioned some bummer moments, but the first one I had was on entering the building, when my signs (not on sticks) were taken away from me by a state trooper. There were people with signs in the theatre,and cameras focused on them, but it looked like nobody else cared to bring signs, when in reality we had these examples of freedom of speech taken away from us. (The people who brought signs either brought them under their coats, or were part of Rainbow-Push and therefore not prevented, or part of another group that was not prevented.) Bill Moss was not a bummer for me; some may not like him personally, but he had a really good point: where were all those people in the Democrat Party in Columbus? They didn't send staff, or even a memo of encouragement. Jesse Jackson stepped in and reminded him that most of the elected officials in Columbus were being sworn in today, but that still does not explain why there were no other encouraging letters etc. We all stand together,but it must not be forgotten that it is most important for those who call themselves Democrat to stand strongly with us at this most important time. My only bummer (other than the lack of signs), as I said before, is that everything has been centered on Columbus, from lawsuits to meetings, and so much more discovery of evidence needs to be done across the state of Ohio; I thought that all the people of Columbus were most gracious to host this rally, but I would also like to see them come
to other parts of the state too. If you want info on LaRouche and the
"Students for a Democratic Society" in the 1960s go to Wikopedia; they
have a lot of energy, but focused in unhelpful directions. If you want a better analysis of Bush's economic policies, go to Michael Moore's
source: Greg Palast, at www.GregPalast.com who is a reporter for the BBC.
The LaRouche group wasn't singing a hymn, but a 60's protest song. (I
would have liked some other people to sing some songs too, other than
the long gig by the band at the beginning.) The hip-hop was very well
done (and I am supposedly a generation too old to appreciate it); a
poetic plea for people to get on the bus to Washington D.C., with facts about the vote fraud woven into the lyrics. The hip-hop artist was handing out free CD demos of it afterwards. (I got two, because I
contributed to the bus... he was accepting no funds for himself.) The
title of the CD is: "Freedom Winter - Get Up On the Bus!!!"
quote from kitkat65:
"Bummer moments were:
"Letting Bill Moss near a microphone. Sorry, but sometimes I think he’s off his nut. He was on the school board here in Columbus and my
impression was that he picked fights with people over issues and got
real petulant when things didn’t go his way. Unfortunately, he took THIS moment to badmouth a lot of people from our Mayor Coleman and Mary Joe Kilroy (old nemesis from school board days) who is now Franklin County Commissioner to our buddy John Kerry. Personally, I could have done without the attacks especially since we need to stand together now more than ever.
"And the LaRouche folks were there. Huh? No, they didn’t speak, there
were just people there handing out literature, which when I looked at it contains the word fascist at least five times in the titles and subheads alone. Okay I don’t know a WHOLE lot about the guy but I vaguely remember him as being a bit of an extremist way back when. And when I googled him, I found out that protesting LaRouche folks broke Al Franken’s glasses at a Dean rally. How dare they do that to my Al!. But their big contribution to the rally was to stand in the back and start singing what sounded like a hymn, which caused momentary confusion on the stage but they were drowned out by the hip-hop musician rapping about ... I don’t know really I had to leave at this point since I had been there for three hours and really needed food. I ran into the LaRouche folks outside the theater still singing handing out pamphlet.
"The Capitol Theatre holds approximately 860 sears and it was nearly
full, minus 50 or so. I saw quite a few video cameras but couldn’t tell where they were from. Maybe we’ll be on the news, maybe we won’t.
Apparently, there were people there from Toledo, Cincinatti, Cleveland
and Chicago.
"I also have a flyer from the We Do Not Concede Coalition. They are
having a fundraiser Tuesday night to pay for busses to D.C. But if you
want to go to D.C. they’re saying $200 will pay for one person, busfare and hotel. $2,000 will pay for one bus and no one will be turned away for lack of funds. If you want a phone number privately e-mail me and I will get it to you."
(from me:)
... a lot of people have given away bus rides... this week is _critical_.
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