Tues. Nov-16-2004

As I am writing this, it has been two weeks to the day since the election.

Like so many others who are fortunate enough to know a good thing when we see one, on election night, one of my main internet stops was the Democratic Underground. I'm new to The DU, but
I think I can answer the question "why the DU?" already. Because its a ferment. Busy. Creative. It is Always Growing Into...Something. The people posting to it seem committed to Freedom and Rational Discourse. They discuss how to go about Fighting the Galloping GOP-Religiodal-Facsist Policies and instituting good reforms that would actually benefit US. These are items I'm engaged in too. Its never boring. Its a template for...democracy in action. Its not fascist in its structure. In short its rather rather Democratic. Its everything the far right isn't. I feel at home there.
Will that do?

Its also where you can read the news before it hits the streets.

Like so many others nowdays, I'm relying less on TV and experienced this election almost entirely via the web. On such a busy night as an election night, there's a demand on the major news feeds for the next update. Just like TV witout all that distracting chatter coming from the talking heads of the evening. I bet you get the picture. Its not too unusual to have several browser windows open at once, aye?
Hit the refresh button periodically and watch the new news take over.

Like so many of the many others posting or lurking on the DU that night, my evening started out with few shocks or surprises. Kerry was going to win. There of course would be a few rough moments as the votes came in. There always are in races "too close to call".

But that didn't last long as Kerry's numbers took a dive in the hotly contested states. Alarm bells go off.

"Wait a minute! Even with the state filled with GOP operatives who are trying to turn the election in Bush's favor. Even with a major Party Hack as Secretary of State who hasn't played fair from the git-go, doesn't our side have a whole battalion of lawyers watching and ready to duke this one out?"

There's a real flurry on the DU blogg board. And then you/I/ we started looking for answers. And the evidence so far, points to massive GOP/Rove engineered election theft.

I'm sorry and upset that America doesn't see this more clearly. But as a nation we didn't really get behind the fact that the 2000 election was essentially stolen. Nor have we been willing to look into 9-11 too deeply either. Its a sign of the times when we expect and accept corruption as being the norm in high places. For all that we doubtless are getting what we expect and even deserve.

To my way of looking at it,its either calling the results of the 2004 election, fraud. Or labelling all the all way too many "election irregularities", as nothing more than that. There's" been a whole raft of disturbing news coming out of Ohio and Florida under the heading of "Election Irregularities"...But Don't Pay It No Mind...politics as usual...etc. There is plenty of truth to the "very irregular" angle too. This election has had more than its share of that too. But to explain ALL of it in this way?

No way.

And then the rest gets brushed off by saying it comes from a bunch of tinfoilhatwearingconspiracynuts. That doesn't cut it. Take a better look at who's spearheading the drive to recount. Nader's currency may not be running high at the moment, but at least he is once again out providing another valuable Public Service to America. He's at least courageously investigating and attacking whatever passes for the Imperial McVote. He's not just sitting this one out, like some I could mention by name.

Yet so far the evidence thus far gathered hasn't been explained let alone explained away. We are waiting on our government and its functionaries to be as open and transparent as the laws that govern it says it must be. That's all fine and good, but Fat Chance. The one thing we won't do is wait. "Fuggit. Why wait on something not forthcoming? Let's do it Ourselves", seems to be the mode many are in.

No. From the appropriately engagged citizen and the interested layman (not a lawyer)in me, I say "No Way". There are just way too many unanswered questions about these irregularites.

Take Warren Ohio's walling off their vote count. This is in heavily Democrat voting Kerry Country too by the way. What's up with that? Why are so many of the irregularities in heavily Democratic districts? If there is fraud, and there sure seems to be evidence of it, doesn't the Democratic Party feel that they have a stake in this? Why the silence from the Dem High Command?

Testimony and Evidence that doesn't fit under that convienient heading of "irregular" keeps pouring in. Maybe "Highly Irregular", except maybe in these necks of the woods, that how fair is interpreted, and just how politics gets done. That I buy. No problem. Except if we catch you at it, your ass is busted Because that kind of shit is against the law...except now we have the evidenceless Diebold machines to contend with. Once you let the devil in the door...

Christ! Our system has so many twists and bends in it that it is essentially broken, actually. Personally, I don't think that under the present welter of laws that govern elections and the methods of taking the People's Vote, that there is any accurate way to tally what our will is as a nation.

In short, we need Voting and Electoral reform and we need it now.

But who's to just give it to us? Certainly not the Dem's. They have altogether benefitted too much themselves by some of these lopsided unbalanced (read just plain unfair and rigged)..."procedures" like gerrymandering, a winner take all system...and a big money buys votes, system that we call a democratic system. Sure they have a more sensible Program for All of US People, but they won't be much more than administrators from here on out. The other side gets to write the rules.

Oh yes we need reform. We need it before the political party that is apparently best at fleecing US at the polls continues to do so to the point that elections will become more obviously pointless than what they have already become.

In the name of The People this needs stopped. Or what's the alternative? Wait til its too late (might be already) and this nation is ruled by only One party. Like the Communist method of rule.

This really is heading dangerously close to the edges of a rant. A rant that as I sat down to write this I disallowed myself. Here it is though, threatening to break in and take over my story.

But back my own personal story of involvement and engagement with this election season.

I felt fortunate to be catching those interpid souls that were catching the disparity between the Ohio exit poll numbers and the actual vote count. Or the observers who caught CNN change their exit poll numbers to reflect the new reality. The rest is part of contemporary history that is getting swept under the rug.

Nobody seems to want to hear the word fraud attached to elections. With as much evidence is there is starting to mount in support of the allegations, its kind of weird that so few will take what is becoming obvious to those thatare taking the time with the information, isn't it?

What impresses me is that much of this hidden but very real and impossible to discount undertow in the American political landscape is coming from the internet. History is literally and virtually being made on the net.

What amazes me is that I can that right from the start I have been able to keep abreast of the proliferation of ongoing investigations into probable vote fraud via the net. That would have been impossible in the past. In prenet days, we would have to rely solely on the various professional media sources. No longer.

By the way, before I forget to mention it somewhere...

(If I understand the situation correctly, and I may not yet, we only have a fairly narrow window to work with. This delicate period will last until the Electoral College convenes in Wash. DC Dec 11th. Also there's an extension of this that will last until Inauguration Day.

Believe me it pains me to say that surviving this period is all very much in Bush's favor. Once he stole the election and got away with it, then its survive until the Electoral College makes it "official". And then until Inauguration Day, to seal the deal. Not so hard. Especially when the major media is under specific orders...is locked down and muzzled. Now. Does it start making more sense? Its a classic case of the Big Takeover Part 2. )

The latest news on the recount and fraud investigation front is at least serving to put the American people on notice, as to how easy it is for the right "in-crew" to highjack an election. We still have wiggle room to keep it from happening again and again. Maybe.

( It may be wishful thinking but I think I detect that our Elected Representatives are more responsive now than ever to help institute much needed reforms. But then I'm such an incurable optimist.)

Meanwhile, what else do we do but to fight a despot's moves as best we can? With or without the help of people in high places. We must resist at every point. Resist while we are still a Republic. Albeit a severely weakened one. We simply must and will continue to resist George Bush and what he's Up To, even more than what he Stands For.

Actually I'm getting off story again. I need to back up just a little bit.

Let's start at the last 2 or 3 weeks leading up to the election. That's When I was begining to fret.

Fretting beyond a certain point is not good. No siree it isn't. So I decided that it would be better if I were to use some of the nifty online tools to help calculate and predict presidential elections. So I got to work watching the polls every day (guaranteed to spaz you out). Along with doing a state by state voting history research (depending on the state, spazzing and calming by turns).

Like everybody else, very soon I was only interested in the swing states.
Then it was mainly Florida and Ohio.

To further stave off the pre-election jitters, I came up with a marvellous document that charted my Prediction. I even posted this document on my web-site. But only for a week or two. (Actually I deposted it in rather a hurry. It seemed like a rather infantile pursuit akin to stargazing to tell the future. Or at least that was my take on it after the fact.) I proudly announced to anyone reading me, "Kerry Wins by 4 Electoral Votes Minimum".. But he had to take Ohio to do so. Back to Ohio. The pre-election news wasn't looking good in that state. Not that Kerry couldn't win there, but it looked to be shaping up as the next, another Florida.

The other thing I did was to feed my angst. I collected every pre-election story I ran into that showed the GOP gearing up for some dirty tricks. I'm glad that I have all this saved. The election billed as "The Most Important Election of Our Lives", and it got highjacked smoothly enough that the American people once again hardly noticed. What's up with that?

In retrospect, all this excercise accomplished was to increase my pre-election build-up jitters. Under the aegis of "getting active really is better than fretting", I jumped at a chance to work phone banks and walk precincts for the local Democrat candidate of choice for California State Assembly, Lori Saldãna.

And this from an Oregonian with Green party affiliation that runs a Nobody for President Campaign! Hey why not? What I am is a dissaffected Democrat. Or so I have been told.

This by the way has almost certainly been my personal highlight for this election. Lori is worth the effort. She is both Caring with a Capital "C". And COMPETENT. (Born and Raised in the San Diego area.She knows its needs...College Professor...with an impressive environmental record.)

And I vote by absentee ballot in another state! Actually with her environmental record, I would like to clone her and take her back and introduce her to my home state of Oregon. Eugene needs her.

For some reason I don't totally comprehend, being that I am a foreigner in the San Diego area, the Republicans considered her seat up for grabs and through a campaign funded by the big tobacco companies went for a smear campaign. Lori had to fight. We were absolutely NEEDED to help get the vote out for her. The race was close and she won! Under some of the other woeful tidings that this last election engendered, this really has to be the highlight.

I have found that in the last two weeks I have needed some form of highlight. For the likes of me, the news has dismal overall. Being that I had found myself on the (Under)Ground Floor of this ultra experiment in operating a democratic establishment, I, as are others, fairly well informed as to any Election Theft news. News that is either Real, Potentially Real or Partly to Wholly Imagined....or...Various blends of all, some or "None of the Above", heh heh.

Hey don't look at me. I didn't make it this way. I merely contribute to it in a modest way. You'd have to dig a little deeper than me to come up with "The Father of All Lies". Even Real News has a Place in the Web of Deception. That's the media gamut. I'll be darned if it isn'thow the news falls out. Pick a slot. They will fill it.

Once again I digress.
The first week after the election can maybe be best described as "shocked inaction" accompanied by my attention rivited to the news coming in from the election fraud and other irregularities front. This sufficed for a week. I did manage to reactivate our newletter and get a DissAssociated Press Release out. Past that, what I did was read...and rant at what I read.

At the begining of week 2...with the clock a'ticking, I read and then responded to something Bev Harris posted on the DU. It was a general call for assistance. She outlined ways that assistance could be proffered on several fronts. One point she had things to say on, is- Be Your Own Media. That's just about what I'm working on, so I signed up to do that.

In other words, putting this broadsheet campaign together is in direct response to her plea to get active. And that's that.

In closing I'd like to say that I'm looking forward to physically passing this broadsheet out myself as I am in seeing it- if it serves you well, being proliferated throughout America. With persisitence, you help and a little luck, I just might be able to walk the streets of unfamilair cities, leaving an election theft info broadsheet behind.

Given the media brownout this latest coup move by the Bush Administration has as its intended chilling effect on reporterage, it will only be those attempts to Run the Media Blocade, that will bring home the news. By our individual efforts to call attention to the very real news surrounding the fraud investigation...well it can't hurt.

I include Bev's bit she posted on the DU that got me going on this. Its entitled-

Don’t expect to see vote burglary on TV. To get the message out fast, you’re going to have to become the underground railroad. Do it now. Take pictures of each other doing it. Have house parties to show others how to do it. Here’s how to “be the media.”

BE YOUR OWN REPORTER: We will send you new information as we get it. We need your e-mail to get you on the list, so if a friend sent this to you, please shoot an email to crew@blackboxvoting.org to sign up.

Spread the information we send you to every blog, listserv, forum you know and throughout your personal network. Talk about it at work and to people you meet everywhere, lots, quickly, all the time.

SELF SERVE SOUND BITES: Frequent, very short messages to immediately increase public awareness. Assume you won’t see it on TV.
Put vote fraud related messages on:
- Yard signs
- Car windows
- Write them on duct tape and wear them
- Print REMOVABLE stickers and stick them on things:
- Bathroom door at the gas station.
- On telephone poles in the dead of night
- At bus stops
- On the back of bus seats
- Stick them into your junk mail and send it back via return mail
- Slip them into menus at restaurants
- Leave them in books at the bookstore
- Share new self serve sound bite ideas with us and we’ll send them out with new messages.