Kerry fight behind the scenes........

Just received this e-mail from my brother. He didn't have a link, but the name at the top was Betsy R. Vasquez. So for what it's worth:

Betsy R. Vasquez: 'Think
Kerry is not involved in this
fight? Think again'
Posted on Thursday, November 11 @
10:27:13 EST

Also: Fallujah = Operation
Distract From Fixed Election.

By Betsy R. Vasquez, Moderate Independent

When Senator John Kerry (D-MA) talked about
how his policy would be different in Iraq, he
kept saying, in effect, "It's the how,
stupid." He said repeatedly he would fight a
"smarter" war.

Flash forward to today. Following the
election, there was a problem apparent. The
exit polling didn't match the ballot count,
and many reasons for that began to become
apparent.

John Kerry was faced with three options. One,
fight on publicly rather than conceding and
put the nation into a media frenzied limbo.
Two, concede and go on with his life, turning
his back on his promise to his supporters to
ensure that "every vote will be counted."



Most people are assuming that John Kerry
opted for the second of these while John
Edwards, his running mate, opted for the
first, and since Kerry was the big dog, he
won out. But people who think this are
thinking in Bush terms, all or nothing,
either you are for the war or against it,
that either Senator Kerry was for recounting
the votes or he was against it.

The reality is, John Kerry has chosen a
third, much smarter course - just as he said
he would all along.

John Kerry realized that to launch a public
campaign calling the vote into question would
be disastrous. In fact, he likely realized he
would we walking right into a Bush-set
boobytrap.

In particular, during our election coverage
we talked about the pending battle of
Fallujah, about the timing of it being an
election ploy, about how it was following in
the constant Bush pattern of creating a media
event to sway the election, as he did last
time by making the run up to the Iraq
invasion come to a head exactly on election
week.

Well, the battle in Fallujah began hitting
the media hard in the week before the
election, right on cue. Of course it was
billed as the solution, the battle that - if
you just keep Bush in office - will wipe out
those insurgents and solve the problems over
there. This was yet another obvious use of
our nation's troops by President Bush as if
they were campaign volunteers rather than
nonpartisan volunteers to defend our nation.

But Fallujah, it turns out, seems to be even
more than that. Fallujah, in effect, was the
getaway car for an election heist.

Following the fiasco in Florida in 2000, Gore
was able to battle on for 30 days to try and
get a fair accounting. All the while, the
Bush camp claimed he should just stop and
give up because his delaying of what they
were saying was the inevitable end was
threatening the nation's security and
stability. They said the stock market was
suffering, the nation was unstable, and so
Gore should just give up and accept the
result as is.

This time, John Kerry had made clear he was
prepared to fight 100 times as hard and long
as Gore did if necessary. In fact, he had
solicited funds just for that eventuality so
he could battle all over the nation if
necessary to ensure that every vote was
properly counted.

Enter Fallujah. As we know - and saw on
election night, as Bush's people began
calling networks and demanding they call Ohio
for their camp - the Bush team's strategy was
to try and force all questions to be closed
ASAP. Last time, they weren't prepared for
that part. This time, they were.

Picture if John Kerry had chosen to call the
election into question. Immediately, the Bush
camp would talk about how 50,000 of our
troops are just about to launch the biggest
military operation since the invasion of
Baghdad. And, just a couple of days after the
election, it was launched.

You can imagine the arguments from the
Bushies: "How could Senator Kerry undermine
our security while our troops are in the
midst of battle." Fallujah was to be the
pressure point that would, if not stop Kerry
from uncovering all the dirt and getting a
fair election count, would at least tarnish
his name with much of the nation and, as
importantly, create something for the
right-wing dominated media to hammer away at
him on, making it seem as if he is only
caring about himself and not the nation.

It was quite a well-crafted plan. Completely
amoral, but smart.

Unfortunately for them, John Kerry was
smarter.

As Keith Olbermann of MSNBC, who has been
about the only mainstream journalist to
actually follow up on the many serious
problems with regard to the integrity of the
election, has pointed out, a concession
speech, in effect, means nothing. It is not
legally binding.

So, if you were thinking like a Bush goon,
you would expect that either Kerry would
stand up to the mischief that went on, not
conceding in the meantime, and so your booby
trap would work perfectly, or that he would
just give up and let it go, as wimpy
Democrats are prone to do.

But John Kerry chose a smarter course. Ask
yourself the question: what if John Kerry
were to do both, concede publicly but, at the
same time, look into every instance of
mischief, and see if in fact the election was
fair or fixed?

This would be a no lose situation for him.
The booby trap set up for him would become
irrelevant, as he would have done the right
thing for the nation, not putting it into
turmoil while its troops are in battle.

But at the same time, he is still just as
free to look into any voting irregularities
as he would have been had he not conceded.
Even better, he could do it without the press
going insane and the nation being kept on
tension-creating edge. All of the lawyers he
could have sent to look into things still
could be sent to look into things, and if the
election is truly called into question, he
could then, with ample justification so as to
make it legitimate, come out publicly and
retract his concession. It is the prosecutor,
also one of Kerry's previous jobs, who knows
well enough to thoroughly prepare and
investigate his case before leveling charges.
You may have a real hunch that someone is
responsible for a murder, but until you
believe you can win that case in court, you
do not make the allegation.

This is called fighting smart. And the
Bushies, in the same way they failed to plan
for the subtleties of doing battle in Iraq,
haven't even caught on yet that this is what
is occurring, that they are, in fact, being
outflanked and attacked after being tricked
into looking the other way.

And just in case you don't quite believe John
Kerry is on the case, and instead think he
just turned out to be a wimp who didn't live
up to his word, take a look at this letter
from his brother, released privately to his
supporters:

CAM KERRY'S LETTER

I am grateful to the many people who
have contacted me to express their deep
concern about questions of miscounting,
fraud, vote suppression, and other
problems on election day, especially in
Florida and Ohio. Their concern reflects
how much people care about the outcome
of this election. I want to you to know
we are not ignoring it. Election
protection lawyers are still on the job
in Ohio and Florida and in DC making
sure all the votes are counted
accurately. I have been conferring with
lawyers involved and have made them
aware of the information and concerns
people have given me. Even if the facts
don't provide a basis to change the
outcome, the information will inform the
continuing effort to protect the
integrity of our elections. If you have
specific factual information about
voting problems that could be helpful to
the lawyers doing their job, please send
it to (e-mail removed for the story)
rather than to me. The election
protection effort has been important to
me personally, and I am proud of the
17,000 lawyers around the country who
helped. It's obvious that we have a way
to go still, but their efforts helped
make a difference. Their work goes on.
Thank you, Cam Kerry

Notice that he chose to have his brother, who
is not well-known to the public, sign the
letter. As far as the public is concerned,
John Kerry has conceded at that is that.

But now you know that that is not truly the
case.

Make no mistake, he will never publicly call
the election into question unless enough
fraud turns out to truly challenge the end
result. And so, in effect, he is not at this
point contesting the election. But in
reality, he is like the DA who says, "At this
time we are not charging President Bush with
anything." Evidence first. It is the best
strategy for him personally, the best
strategy politically, and the best strategy
for the nation.

And now stepping in to help is the man who
was supposed to be the spoiler, Ralph Nader.
As the Washington Post reports (see article:
Losing by 335,000 in N.H., Nader Demands a
Recount), Nader is using New Hampshire as a
staging ground to call the Diebold
machine-recorded electronic votes into
question.

Why is he doing it in New Hampshire, which
Kerry won? Does this mean he is going after
Kerry?

Not at all. It is tactically brilliant. In
New Hampshire, any candidate can call for a
recount as long as he offers to pay for it.
And that cost in this small state is only
$2,000 dollars. So Nader is choosing to
challenge the results there, but only to make
the case that, if there turns out to be a
problem with the machines there, the votes
must be challenged everywhere.

As the WashPost reports, "We have received
reports of irregularities in the vote
reported on the AccuVote Diebold Machines in
comparison to exit polls and trends in voting
in New Hampshire," Nader wrote Secretary of
State William M. Gardner. "These
irregularities favor President George W. Bush
by 5% to 15% over what was expected."

So you see clearly he is charging that the
machines skewed in favor of President Bush.
New Hampshire was just the easiest, smartest,
and cheapest place to get a first crack at
making the case, and so opening a Pandora's
Box that will spread out across the nation.

So enjoy the non-Moderate Independent media's
coverage of Fallujah and ignoring of the
recount. But rest assured that people are on
the case, and that Kerry is taking the fight
to them - in such a smart matter they don't
even know what's hitting them. And remember,
Watergate didn't break the week after the
election. No one knew anything was even
fishy, but in the end, the devil go his due.

And on another note, the non-M/I media should
be given some credit. As one Washington Post
reporter told me, you can bet they are
looking into all of this. And, as you see
with the above Washington Post story, when
they get something concrete they are going to
print.

But it is the new media - the blogs - that
are powering this one as much as the
mainstream media.

So rest assured, and feel free to help out in
anyway you can. We are the eyes, ears, and
analysts of our nation. Support Olbermann at
MSNBC, and rest assured, Kerry is on the
case.

And lest you not realize what exactly is
going on, this today from Olbermann: "With
news this morning that the computerized
balloting in North Carolina is so thoroughly
messed up that all statewide voting may be
thrown out and a second election day
scheduled, the story continues."

And, even better, this from a firsthand
witness' e-mail being circulated among Kerry
supporters:

Subject: Basic report from Columbus

I worked for 3 days, including Election
Day, on the statewide voter protection
hotline run by the Ohio Democratic Party
in Columbus, Ohio. I am writing this
because the media is
inexplicablywhitewashing what happened
in Ohio, and Kerry's concession was
likewise inexplicable.

Hundreds of thousands of people were
disenfranchised in Ohio. People waited
on line for as long as 10 hours. It
appears to have only happened in
Democratic-leaning precincts,
principally (a) precincts where many
African Americans lived, and (b)
precincts near colleges.

I spoke to a young man who got on line
at 11:30 am and voted at 7 pm. When he
left at 7 pm, the line was about 150
voters longer than when he'd arrived,
which meant those people were going to
wait even longer. In fact they waited
for as much as 10 hours, and their
voting was concluded at about 3 am. The
reason this occurred was that they had 1
voting station per 1000 voters, while
the adjacent precinct had 1 voting
station per 184. Both precincts were
within the same county, and managed by
the same county board of elections. The
difference between them is that the
privileged polling place was in a rural,
solidly republican, area, while the one
with long lines was in the college town
of Gambier, OH. Lines of 4 and 5 hours
were the order of the day in many
African- American neighborhoods.

Touch screen voting machines in
Youngstown OH were registering
"George W. Bush" when people pressed
"John F. Kerry" ALL DAY LONG. This was
reported immediately after the polls
opened, and reported over and over again
throughout the day, and yet the bogus
machines were inexplicably kept in use
THROUGHOUT THE DAY.

Countless other frauds occurred, such as
postcards advising people of incorrect
polling places, registered Democrats not
receiving absentee ballots, duly
registered young voters being forced to
file provisional ballots even though
their names and signatures appeared in
the voting rolls, longtime active voting
registered voters being told they
weren't registered, bad faith challenges
by Republican "challengers" in
Democratic precincts, and on and on and
on.

I was very proud of the way so many
Ohioans fought so valiantly for their
right to vote, and would not be turned
away. Many, however, could not spend the
entire day and were afraid of losing
their jobs, due to the severe economic
depression hitting Ohio.









---
Incoming mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.788 / Virus Database: 533 - Release Date: 11/1/2004

as well as some responses from other DUers

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=2670017&mesg_id=2670017

To see Everything some of us have been trying to say in one concise motivating post. I think it is one of the best yet...

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

I like the article a lot, but a hair in it is, the letter referred to is a hoax, per this DU post:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x2675842

Just inquiring before I send any of this off any more.

.......saying ever since all of this started! I hope everyone at DU reads this and it registers in their minds what me and some others have been saying all alone! I personally am tired of all the nasty talk about Kerry around here. Kerry is a very smart man and knows what he is doing and I and many others have been saying that all alone. The way I look at it if you trust the man enough to vote for him you should still trust him even when things aren't going exactly the way we want them to. If you can't do that you shouldn't have voted for him in the first place. Even if this election isn't overturned I would be willing to bet Kerry will be a thorn in Bush's and other stupid repugs side. In fact it will be so bad they will be wishing they never heard the name Kerry. As for Edwards I strongly feel that he will continue to help Kerry come up with all the evidence they need to bring Bush and his repugs down to there knees. And you can beleive they will work to get enough evidence to have Bush impeached. As I said these idiots will regret there ever heard the name Kerry! :kick:

Audience member: We still got your back!

Thank you, man. And I assure you – you watch – I'll still have yours.

the other way as well. This is a pretty risky way to bring Bush down when BBV was hardly a blip of interest for the bamboozled much warned Dems for years.

As far as that goes I will be surprised along with anyone to see anything brilliant in this mess, and that includes the elephantine rogue cheating of the RNC and Bushco Coup Theater Group.

Hey, I already gave Bush a gift of a "mandate". Anyone who doesn't vote, automatically is indiferent to a dictatorship or liberty. Add that to the Taliban, spitefully challenged voters, voters just plain wrong and you DO have a majority for the real of the declaration of Independence.

With all the lack of honesty that goes along for this "decision for slavery" it is not surprising no one notes the simple fact. I thought we were beyond being embarassed in front of the entire human race, past present and future. No, just apathy, I suppose.

Kerry is a fighter-- but he couldn't cry "Fraud!" until he had some sort of evidence. In the meantime, he was smart enough to get the Repugs and the media off his back by conceding, though he disappointed many of his supporters. If it's determined that he does have a case, you BET he'll "unconcede"-- in a heartbeat.

Wouldn't that be great? But I'm not holding my breath-- these goons are vicious, corrupt, and relentless and I would put nothing past them... nothing.

But I'm hoping for the best.