Crisis Papers: Dear Howard Dean -- Why Bother?

Dear Howard Dean: Why Bother?

Ernest Partridge, Co-Editor
The Crisis Papers
December 13, 2005

Dr. Howard Dean, Chair
Democratic National Committee

Dear Dr. Dean,

Every week I get dozens of solicitations from the Democratic National Committee, from the Democratic Senate and Congressional Campaign Committees, or from various Democratic candidates and office-holders, each of them asking for contributions. “You can help us achieve victory next November,” I am told.

If by “victory” is meant a majority vote cast at the polls, then the Democrats achieved “victory” in 2000, 2002 and 2004. And yet, the Republicans remain in control of the Congress and the White House.

Small wonder! Republicans build the voting machines, Republicans write the secret software, Republicans count and compile the totals. The Republican machines allow no auditing of the vote totals they report. So Republicans have the ability to “win” elections, regardless of the will of the voters. There is compelling evidence that they have done just that.

And so, if nothing is done to end the privatization of our elections and to introduce reliable verification, the Republicans will "win" again in November 2006 and then in 2008. Today, eleven months before the mid-term election, the outcome is fore-ordained – as certain as Soviet elections under Stalin, and Iraqi elections under Saddam. For, as Stalin said, "Those who cast the votes decide nothing, those who count the votes decide everything.”

For rest of the letter, click:

http://crisispapers.org/essays-p/dean.htm

to all the requests for money from the Dem party and the Dem orgs vying for money to support their agendas.

I nearly always agree with their agendas but it seems to me a little like betting on a horse race when you know your horse won't show up. Why waste your money when you can't even get in the race, much less win it?

If the Dems and all the other Dem orgs would begin to act and sing in unison regarding the voting issue, it would not be long before all our problems would go away, at least in their present form. There would still be Repubs as there should be, and there would be obstacles, but we would have a Dem president, a Dem Congress and eventually a Dem SC.

But nothing in this world comes to the person who cuts and runs when it comes to the battles that should be fought (screaming to the rooftops the facts about the stolen elections of 2000, 02, and 04, and investigation and legislation regarding the electronic voting machine scam and con game and theft of elections) and refuses to cut and run when it comes to the battles that we should never have fought in the first place (Iraq).

Chairman I would call for a boycott of elections until the time when the results could be transparent and verifiable!

He said he was "shocked" by the findings when they came out. Yet, HE asked for this report!

What is going on?

I can imagine thinking that it would have been worth it -- but I sure don't.

That's what I told a caller soliciting donations some time ago.

When they call, I tell them what's the point of funding any democrat
when I have no faith in an election process essentially controlled by
republicans. When they write, I reply w/the same message. The
point I make is I want to support dems, I want to give them money,
but I've drawn a line now - get in front of this issue if you want my money.

sense of doom that doesn't seem to be reflected anywhere else. When will the denial end and the righteous anger begin? ...when the police (Gestapo) starts ripping middle income people out of their homes and disappearing them?

It caught my eye immediately this morning. With every day that goes by and Dean says nothing on this matter, my dread grows a wee bit more into agitation.

the possibility that the Dems' leaders are in bed with the BFEE.

took precedence over the commonweal for too many leaders in the Democratic party.

See response in the duplicate thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=5589990&mesg_id=5598231

Great writer. Wonderful summary of the situation.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/crisis/05/041_ep.html

It is truly a total throwaway of money to contribute to Democratic candidates today.

What we need instead (to restore democracy) is for people to set up funds for recounts and investigations that people can donate to and which candidates can draw money from only if their election results look suspicious and only if the candidates refuse to concede and fight until the bitter end for the offices that they won if votes were counted accurately.

And to do that we need volunteer lawyers and/or funds to make the legal requests under each state's freedom of information act to obtain the detailed vote count data that every county keeps secret now. (Gee I wonder why they're hiding the evidence that would reveal tampering.)

And to do that we need to build an election data archive for volunteers to publicly upload the data documents so any independent analysts can analyze it, which also needs funds to hire two full-time programmers. See http://electionarchive.org which is seeking funds to hire the programming staff to do it.

We CAN repair American democracy IF people will:

1. Convince candidates to stop conceding (thank you for your wonderful letter to Dean which needs to be sent to every candidate.)

2. donate the funds to create funds for post-election recounts and legal battles to obtain the data and to build a national election data archive (this has to be done quickly because it is technically not a trivial project due to the 50 separate states' election laws and the hundreds of different file formats that vote count documents are in, the need for a testing and development period, and the need to test the system with real data from prior elections prior to November 2006)

rather than throw it away by donating to candidates who have no chance to ever reach office without them.

You hit the nail on the head with this article which shows why legislation and federal investigation are out as solutions. (Too substantial a proportion of legislators were sworn in due to corrupted elections already and the ones who didn't get there via corrupted elections seem hopelessly ignorant and not cognizant of the solutions that are needed.)

Great. I would have voted for this, but missed the first 24 hours.