Carter and Baker to Co-Chair Bi-Partisan Commission on Election Reform

Carter and Baker to Co-Chair Bi-Partisan Commission on Federal Election Reform
24 March 2005

It appears that the calls for election reform have not gone unnoticed. In a press release, “Former President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State James A. Baker, III, announced today that they will co-chair a Commission on Federal Election Reform.” The newly formed bi-partisan commission will “examine the state of America's federal elections and recommend improvements.”

Carter and Baker have assembled a private, bi-partisan commission whose membership includes former Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, former House Minority Leader Bob Michel, former U.S. Representatives Lee Hamilton and Susan Molinari, university presidents, scholars and community leaders.

http://www.lightupthedarkness.org/blog/default.asp?view=plink&id=617

Thanks to KerryGoddess for posting the discussion:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x1683890#top

just asking.

Back in the Watergate era we would have referred to him as an unindicted co-conspirator.

This won't work - won't matter. Just more bs.

Surely he is familiar with Baker's history. What the hell is going on.

I can't even think about James Baker without practically busting a blood vessel.

that Baker is a moderate. Yeah, and I'm a mermaid.

That's what the media is for -- to help us see how moderate people are ... they help us see the truth...

carter know lots of moderates -- here are some of his favs: http://www.consortiumnews.com/1999/051499a.html

since it seems he lost his senate seat to very, very questionable
tactics (including gannongate involvement).

joke. It would be like putting Jimmy Hoffa on the Supreme Court.
Come to think of it, we've got worse than that now.

Et tu, Jimmy?

Then bye, bye Amerika...

And here we are.

...Venezuela situation, and what I think is this: Carter and his election center helped prevent bloodshed and chaos in Venezuela (Bush Cartel shedding the blood of Hugo Chavez and others in his administration, and a potential bloody revolution that would follow). Now it may be that he did this in order to insure the smooth flow of Venezuelan oil to the U.S., but, whatever his reasons, his presence in Venezuela and his monitoring of the recent presidential recall election there insured a smooth and democratic reaffirmation of Chavez's much challenged presidency (challenged by the right).

The Bush Cartel--having its hands full (and covered with blood) in Iraq--would just as soon have whacked Chavez (and already tried that once) but the peasant democracy there (the vast majority of the country--very poor people) would surely have rebelled. They stopped the Bush-backed coup peacefully by their sheer numbers, and then came out and voted in droves for Chavez in the recall.

The opposition--the oil elite, rich Venezuelans who want to keep all the oil money and not give any to the poor--were the ones who instigated the recall (using a provision of the new Consititution--a Constitution that Chavez had been instrumental in writing and passing). They were funded by our own government. And the Bush Cartel would have been quite happy with a fraudulent recall election (a legal coup) with some sort of dictator ending up in charge, and certainly would not have balked at wholesale slaughter of the poor peasant voters. But they probably don't really give a hoot about the Venezuelan oil elite--they just want Venezuela's oil. That's when Carter stepped in--along with hundreds of other international election monitoring groups--but the Carter name and endorsement of the election was key to its acceptance. Chavez won the recall by a big margin. The Venezuelan oil elite threw temper tantrums at Chavez's overwhelming victory, in what was probably the most closely monitored election in history. The rich own all of the media in Venezuelan which trumpeted charges of election fraud. It wouldn't wash. It just wasn't true. And the charges eventually died out.

This doesn't mean that the Bush Cartel won't try again to get rid of Chavez (who is no flaming radical, by the way--just wants some of the oil money to trickle down to the vast numbers of Venezuelan poor who lack basic medical and education services). Both Fidel Castro and Chavez himself recently stated that the Bush Cartel had put a contract out on Chavez. I'm just saying that I think Carter prevented bloodshed last year, and thus has given the poor and Chavez's supporters more time to organize (they are already quite a strong political force), and to benefit from the new services. And I think that's good. Actually, I think that the Chavez revolution (spreading the wealth around a bit, and operating a government by rule of law) would now survive the removal of Chavez (if that happens). The poor have learned to stick together, and to organize.

Their method of getting out the vote on the day of the recall election was to bang drums and pots and pans throughout their neighborhoods, early in the morning, to get people up and into the lines to vote (long lines were anticipated). I wish we had such organization and determination here in the U.S. But, actually, we did. Well, not pots and pans--but comparable methods. And they stole it anyway.

It's interesting what Carter said about our election in 2004--that our election system was so flawed and unverifiable, he could not monitor it.

The Venezuelans have an electronic voting system, but they have open source code, and a paper record of every vote (and they also use fingerprinting).

I'm not sure what Carter might think of sitting next to the Prince of Darkness (James Baker) on a commision on US elections. (Baker was THE main player in Florida 2000, and at the subsequent disgraceful performance of the Supreme Court--he is a key Bush Cartel operative.) But I wouldn't automatically write Carter off. His purpose may be the prevent bloodshed HERE.

We really are in the fourth reich unhinged and going along for a ride.....If what I saw about national campaign contributors is all accurate, Dodd of Connecticut and a group of other high level Democrats are all virtually complicit in fraud.

Forget the remaining whispers of Watergate.....Now even those who claim to stand for civil rights, have their pocket books and religion in mind this time.

Lets see....how many other sham voter rights organizations will pop up in the next two weeks? I wonder whats next on Rove's agenda.

There's going to be a war just for electoral reform and more this time, they rather like cheating everyone and staying in power.

Watching us squirm, but then again they end up being pummeled and stricken back. Thanks to many organized efforts, the official nazi-documents have been released to the public which shows the nice little comfy relationship they have had ever since WWII.

Say it ain't so Mr. Clinton, Mr. Carter, did you sell the rights we have out.