Wacky conspiracy theorists?

The media wants to belittle and dismiss us as wacky "conspiracy theorists" that live in the "parallel universe of the internet". The reality is that this is an issue of voter confidence. National exit polls show that when voters where asked whether they were "confident" or "not confident" that votes would be counted accurately, nearly half of all Americans said not confident.

And this lack of confidence is completely justified. We're using an electoral process that is substandard and not up to par with the procedures we ourselves insist upon for foreign elections. Our election devices are extremely insecure and fraught with problems. The companies the design the equipment and software have strong ties to one party and have a very suspect history. This equipment and software doesn't undergo even the most basic testing. The newest machines that are spreading in use provide no mechanism for verifying the vote, and attempts to change the electoral process to require a paper trail has been blocked by the leaders of the House majority. I could go on and on. The fact of the matter is that it would be completely naive to have blind trust in the results of any election that follows our current process. There's a reason why half of all Americans lack confidence that votes are counted accurately.

Hopefully in the coming days even more people will come out to make the case for changes that need to be made in our system!!!! It's sad that so many people can so easily move on.

kris

After we get this voting thingie straightened out.

...or how about urging Kerry to step down in favor of Olbermann? He's the one with guts.

the rove machine is putting that out there to stop the investigation? I do. Ridicule is his footprint.

it's one of the tools of his trade......

hang in there....be persistant...be precise...be legal.....

The suspician is completely justified. These rubes dismiss the claims of voting irregularities without even bothering to mention how insecure the machines are, how faulty the are, who runs them and who those companies have ties to, etc.

Clearly the phrases "conspiracy theory" and "time to move on" or "need to move on" are 'talking points'. The question is - how to counter this?

Here's a great article on buzzflash talking about when the repubs got into NLP.

http://www.buzzflash.com/hartmann/04/11/har04007.html

expert:
At the same time NLP was being used for therapy and to enhance communications, the dark side of the force was getting aggressive. Newt Gingrich in particular -- skilled in these techniques -- was working with Republican leaders and conservatives in the media to frame the word "liberal" as something akin to "traitor," an effort that ultimately led to his infamous "secret" memo to GOP leaders titled "Language: A Key Mechanism of Control."

that turned out to be true.

Its actually progress that they can no longer avoid talking about the
subject.

Start blogging about a mysterious memo leaked that now that * has had his turn the machines are fixed to have a dem win next round. Join right wing sites and show how * would have won more but dems slowed him down using voting machines to change the votes. We are on board, they are on board, something will have to give.

Just an idea.

and possibly innoculation

Folks most of us were not alive for Watergate, or don't remember, but in the begining nobody thought those two nobody's at the WaPO had ANYTHING

IF you can, watch All the President's Men

that the republicans insisted on removing the stipulation for a paper trail at the last minute. I wonder why they would do that? Why would anyone not want to be able to recount an election if needed. (unless they already knew what the results would be and didn't want any verification of 'the results')

Is there a way to listen to the interview again?

I think the labeling of this as a "conspiracy theory" is an important issue. Any voice of dissent could be labeled that. (And it will, if there is something to gain from it.) Perhaps this strategy should be targeted directly.

What could be a creative and effective counter-strategy?
What would be the opposite term? (Everything is fine-theory, statusquo-theory?)

Some people in the Meeting Room forum are discussing George Lakoff's books. You might take a look there and ask them.

That's a topic I'm very much interested in. I'm new to this forum, how do I navigater there?

thanks.

that was the point i was trying to make by referring to the "conspiracy theory" spin as a "swift boat" tactic. better to nip it in the bud. Maybe seriously do a press release--distribute it to the fucking press.

but "conspiracy theory" is very damning

again, the point to make is that it's not just the bloggers anymore...it's people investigating and discovering "irregularities"

*I'm* not a blogger. I haven't posted on internet forums for ages.

I'm suffering from P.I.S.S.D -- post Illection super stress disorder and since I have no health insurance, this is my theraphy;) How about "citizen journalists"?

That survey and the mere fact that so many people are very concerned about this makes it newsworthy. Somehow the MSM seems to gloss over the Nader/Cobb/Badnarik/BBV involvement to go immediately for the stuff that we all know is speculative. You should e-mail your commentary to Peter Jennings, CNN, Limbaugh, Coulter, and anyone else who has dismissed this.

Ok, if we don't let up we're going to start sites like these and then people will take us seriously...


http://zapatopi.net/afdb.html

Look around really fast. :hi:

If the internets is a "parallel universe," so is a fucking phone book; what professional in any field does not use the internets today, as resource, for communication, as phone book, bank, etc.--uh, where did we read the Times article? Is the internet conspiracy thing the DU's swift boat. Might be a good idea to point out that the "theories" don't discount the thousands of actual newspaper, magazine, etc. reports on the internets, in online VERSIONS of "legitimate" print media. Where was the bushism that put a positive spin on the internet (that time he got it right) being a valuable educational tool?

:hi:

for all the good work you guys are doing....can you make the black ribbon available as an icon? I think you just busted these sobs

how come when the blogger punched holes in the National Guard document story by CBS they were geniuses? When we point our errors that threaten democracy we are "Wacky conspiracy theorists"? (skulking with my tin foil hat on)

I listened to Michael Savage on the way home tonight. (It keeps me focused on hating them). He called us wacko conspiracy theory lunatics blah blah blah.

I love it. He had barely taken a breath before he went on to call Mark Geragos a feta eating goat herder, called for us to basically nuke Iraq because * isn't standing up like a man and fighting a real war, and that we should bomb them when they gather for funerals and we could get rid of the "scum"

And WE are wacko. After we finish taking on these election results, I am determined to get these vile hate filled bastards off the air.
He can have his free speech but it needs to be in a prison toilet in one of the many contries he has denounced. I would Abu Graib this mo fo in a minute.