KRUGMAN: MEDIA MUST NOT VALIDATE SUSPECT BUSH WIN

[DeepModem Mom]

OP-ED COLUMNIST
Voting and Counting
By PAUL KRUGMAN

Published: October 22, 2004

....Last week I described Greg Palast's work on the 2000 election, reported recently in Harper's, which conclusively shows that Florida was thrown to Mr. Bush by a combination of factors that disenfranchised black voters. These included a defective felon list, which wrongly struck thousands of people from the voter rolls, and defective voting machines, which disproportionately failed to record votes in poor, black districts.

One might have expected Florida's government to fix these problems during the intervening four years. But most of those wrongly denied voting rights in 2000 still haven't had those rights restored - and the replacement of punch-card machines has created new problems.

After the 2000 debacle, a task force appointed by Gov. Jeb Bush recommended that the state adopt a robust voting technology that would greatly reduce the number of spoiled ballots and provide a paper trail for recounts: paper ballots read by optical scanners that alert voters to problems. This system is in use in some affluent, mainly white Florida counties.

But Governor Bush ignored this recommendation, just as he ignored state officials who urged him to "pull the plug" on a new felon list - which was quickly discredited once a judge forced the state to make it public - just days before he ordered the list put into effect. Instead, much of the state will vote using touch-screen machines that are unreliable and subject to hacking, and leave no paper trail. Mr. Palast estimates that this will disenfranchise 27,000 voters - disproportionately poor and black.

A lot can change in 11 days, and Mr. Bush may yet win convincingly. But we must not repeat the mistake of 2000 by refusing to acknowledge the possibility that a narrow Bush win, especially if it depends on Florida, rests on the systematic disenfranchisement of minority voters. AND THE MEDIA MUST NOT TREAT SUCH A SUSPECT WIN AS A VALIDATION OF SKEWED REPORTING THAT HAS CONSISTENTLY OVERSTATED MR. BUSH'S POPULAR SUPPORT....

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/22/opinion/22krugman.html?hp


Note: The Kerry campaign, I believe, is preparing for a suspect Bush win; the DNC needs to prepare. We need to prepare, too -- MoveOn, websites, organizations, colleges and universities, etc. How do we plan, and prepare, for the frightening possibility of a second stolen election?

[Skittles]

1. oh but they WILL

you can GUARANTEE IT; I believe the difference is KERRY WILL FIGHT BACK.

[Demit]

2. Yes! Fool us once-----we won't get fooled again!

[papau]

3. I suspect real violence from the left if a suspect win - the right faked

violence in 2000.

But the right are not the folks that have been to war.

Look in Congress and the Vets are almost all Dem.

This could, and most likely will, get real if a a suspect GOP win

:-(

[enough]

4. At this point, I am not expecting "violence from the left."

I AM expecting, and expecting to participate in, a concerted effort to keep the facts of the situation out in the open and to keep unrelenting citizen pressure on the media, the courts, and elected officials to bring about an honest outcome.

I hope there is no violence from the left, which would be the least useful of all possible responses to a second stolen election.

[papau]

5. In 63, 64, 65, and 66 SDS sold"the least useful of all possible responses

idea - and those folks are in their 50's and 60's now.

I doubt they will wait for a four year discussion that is ignored by the media this time round. (Present company not included in this thought, of course!)

:-)

[Tansy_Gold]

9. If there is violence, it will come from the right.

They will defend any coup staged by their leader. He has given them the right to carry military-style weapons again. And they are so hopped up on video versions of violence that I believe they will ultimately jump into the fray with enthusiasm -- and it will carry them along.

IIRC (but it could be urban myth) the First Civil War began as a picnic game: Washingtonians set out to watch the battle at Bull Run, expecting to see a rout of the rebels and a return to normalcy by the next afternoon. I also think that's one reason why so little of the visual images of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan have come to the television screens of the faithful: the booshies know how images of destruction stir the nationalistic fervor (it's working magnificently over there) and they don't want the locals here to peak too soon.

They control the airwaves, and if/when the fighting starts, they will control the propaganda of who is a rebel and who is a loyal American.


Tansy Gold, hope for the best, prepare for the worst

[nostamj]

6. MASSIVE TURNOUT

is the best strategy. didn't I read that Clinton will campaign there? if anyone can bring out those voters in HUGE numbers...

(i hope my repub parents in FL just STAY HOME)

[Junkdrawer]

10. Ditto that, Nostamj...

Because most states will use a mixed-bag of equipment, a high turnout that breaks for Kerry will:

1.) Help dilute BBV rigging elsewhere

2.) Make any BBV rigging stick out like a sore thumb

This is why Rove is running an exclusively negative campaign: they HAVE to suppress turnout. It's also why I fear an election morning "incident".

[Triana]

7. Well, you KNOW they will...

...and they will INvalidate a Kerry win UNLESS it's a huge landslide.

[Polemonium]

8. Man we need more Krugman's in the world -

First, we plan to do everything we can to win. We watch them like hawks, and GOTV. If it's close we demand that democracy be honored.

[DeepModem Mom]

13. Well said, Pol -- Krugman "demands that democracy be honored"...

and the word for such a person is "patriot."

[Arkana]

11. Oh of course

We know that if it's anything but a landslide that the Bush cabal will swing into action. The difference is that Kerry won't lie down and die like Al Gore.

[DeepModem Mom]

12. Adding GD link: Krugman says Kerry must not be magnanimous in victory...

but must "expose and dismantle this machine"; says he will be impeached, probably immediately. The post is from madfloridian --

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x2527051