Sunday 2/27 Election Fraud, Reform, & Updates Thread

Dear Supporter -

As we've been teasing for some time, our first massive mobilization effort for Electoral Reform -- VR's "Divestiture for Democracy" campaign -- is now officially underway!





On February 21st (President's Day) VR sent a letter to all nine of the major American Voting Machine companies asking them to do the right thing for our country by publicly announcing -- immediately -- their commitment to include voter-verified paper-ballots with every vote cast on their machines, to open their hardware and secret software for inspection by non-partisan individuals, and a number of other important actions which we feel will begin to help restore confidence in our electoral system.

We have asked these companies to publicly commit to these important changes within 60 days, or VR and our Affiliates and all of our collective members will fight back with one of the few weapons we have left - our pocketbooks!

If they do so, we will broadly recognize their efforts. If, however, these companies, who now privately run the most important public element of democracy -- the way that votes are counted -- choose against doing the right and patriotic thing for our country, we will have no choice but to call on all of our members and affiliates to launch a massive campaign of divestiture and boycott of these companies and their clients.

As well, we will begin a public education campaign via ad buys in the media to help highlight the evil that we feel these companies represent by keeping the way that votes are counted a shameful secret in America.

Full information about this exciting new campaign (of the people, by the people and for the people!) including the letter which VR sent last week to the Voting Machine companies is available at:

http://www.VelvetRevolution.us/Campaigns/DV4D

But now we need YOU!


...Please stop by the above link as soon as you can, and click the link to "SEND AN EMAIL TO THE COMPANIES!" so the voices of American voters will finally be heard LOUD and CLEAR! Let them hear from you!

We will begin our full PR blitz to get the word out about this campaign on Monday but wanted to give VR Members a heads up! So, let's start making some noise!

Please...Sign the letter (it takes less than a minute!) forward this email, and let's begin taking our democracy back...NOW!

And so begins the revolution!

Brad Friedman
Co-Founder, VELVET REVOLUTION
http://www.VelvetRevolution.us
For more info on VR's Divestiture for Democracy campaign,
Contact: DV4D@VelvetRevolution.us

Press Release
Source: Newsweek


NEWSWEEK: Putin to Bush: 'We Didn't Criticize You When You Fired Those Reporters at CBS'
Sunday February 27, 12:34 pm ET


NEW YORK, Feb. 27 /PRNewswire/ -- When George W. Bush confronted Vladimir Putin last week about the freedom of the press in Russia, Senior White House Correspondent Richard Wolffe reports, Putin shot back with an attack of his own: "We didn't criticize you when you fired those reporters at CBS." Details of the meeting, which included just the two presidents and their translators inside the historic castle that overlooks the Slovak capital of Bratislava, are reported in the March 7 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, February 28).
(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20050227/NYSU002 )

It's not clear how well Putin understands the controversy that led to the dismissal of four CBS journalists over the discredited report on Bush's National Guard service. Yet it's all too clear how Putin sees the relationship between Bush and the American media -- just like his own. Bush's aides have long feared that former KGB officers in Putin's inner circle are painting a twisted picture of U.S. policy. So Bush explained how he had no power to fire American journalists. It made little difference, Wolffe writes.

When the two presidents emerged for their joint press conference, one Russian reporter repeated Putin's language about journalists getting fired. Bush (already hot after an earlier question about his spying on U.S. citizens) asked the reporter if he felt free. "They obviously planted the question," said one of Bush's senior aides.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/7037620/site/newsweek/

(Read Newsweek's news releases at http://www.Newsweek.com.
Click "Pressroom.")