Absentee Ballot protest in '06--the only way to stop WW III.

[Peace Patriot]

We must not be distracted by what the Bush junta and Israel, as its proxy, are doing. We must concentrate on the mechanism of power--our vote--which is the only way we can collectively stop this war, and restore sanity to the leadership of both countries.

We must FOCUS on un-rigging the election system by which we are being dragged, against our will, into WW III--by our own, unelected leaders, who are insane with greed and power, and Israel's rightwing leadership, who have more understandable reasons for aggression, but have made a horrible mistake by allying Israel with the despised Bush fascists and their bigoted, white supremacist supporters. This unholy alliance of the extremists in both countries is infuriating and scary. And there is only one force on earth than can pull them back from the brink, that valuable and powerful item, an American vote, which has been taken from us.

Having said that--that our prime focus must be on retrieving our power as a people, a doable thing, as I will outline below--I want to discuss this war for a moment, because the November elections will be about nothing else. And, while the new, Bushite-controlled, electronic voting systems--with TRADE SECRET, PROPRIETARY programming code, and virtually no audit/recount controls--will determine the outcome, we will be obliged, also, to listen to the pre-written election narrative, that will be used, after the election, to "explain" the results. And we need to be prepared for that, as we attempt to un-rig this election system.

EIGHTY-FOUR PERCENT of the American people oppose any U.S. participation in a widened Mideast war, according to a recent poll posted here at DU. 84%! Yet it is only a matter of weeks, maybe days, before the trumped up "Gulf of Tonkin"-type incident occurs, by which the Bush junta is going to jump into this widened war. And the Bush junta--and by extension, our country and all of us--are ALREADY participating by political support for Israel's invasion of Lebanon, and arming Israel to the teeth. With huge American opposition, and total world opposition, the only way the Bush junta could proceed with their "Project for a New American Century" (PNAC)--invasion and control of all Mideast oil fields--is through what is happening now, PNAC-Plan B: get Israel to do it.

The Bush junta has given every conceivable signal that the attack on Lebanon is preface to a widened Mideast war--the fulfillment of the PNAC agenda of invading and taking over Iraq, Syria and Iran*, and occupying the entire Middle East for its oil. The attack on Lebanon could not have occurred without their agreement and support. They hold the purse strings over Israel. They are Israel's only ally in the world. (And Israel can thank its rightwing leadership for that--not a friend in the world except the fascist buds of the Saudi sultans and the bin Ladens.)

This war alliance is an egregious violation of American democracy. We, the people, did not, and do not, agree to this. We support Israel. We do not agree to occupy the Middle East on Israel's behalf. And we most fervently do not agree to destroy our economy and send our young people to die for corporate oil predators and war profiteers--the real perps, the cold-blooded killers who do not have Israel's fear and anger, and vulnerable position, as motivations. Cold-hearted greed. That's what Israel has allied herself with--the most cold-hearted bastards on God's earth. And Israel had better watch her back. Because these buds of the Saudis will abandon Israel, in a cold minute, if they see profit in it. They will further blame Israel for all the horror. Mark my words. They are treachery itself. Israel's only safety and secure support lay with American DEMOCRACY--with the sense of fairness and justice of the American people. Not with these Bushite fascists.

Which brings me back to us, the American people--and what we agree to, and our right to determine what our government does.

Right now, the Bush junta, and its Democratic Party colluders, and Israel's rightwing leadership, are committing our lives and resources to WW III--a war we never agreed to start, in Iraq, and that we don't agree to now. It is a suicidal war. It may bring the end of the human race, and the end of life on earth. At the very least, it will mean the continued slaughter of innocent people, the ecological devastation of large swaths of the Middle East, neglect of the pending global warming disaster, and bankruptcy for the U.S. Civil disorder may follow. This is a wretched path, even short of its most dire perils.

The wisdom of the American people has not been consulted. It is being completely ignored. For those Americans who support Israeli militarism and war crimes out of fear for Israel's survival, does that seem right to you--that we are being dragged into this against our will? We have never stinted in our support for Israel, and this is the thanks we get--destruction of our democracy?

I speak to you because you, too, are voters. You, too, are victims of this rigged election system. YOU don't get the choice of peace and diplomacy. YOU don't get the choice of a new vision for the Middle East. Our toady Democratic politicians are as lacking in a positive vision as Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld are. And they are almost ALL chosen by Diebold and ES&S, two corporations with very close ties to the Bush regime and far rightwing causes.

We have got to change this--for all our sakes, for Israel's sake, for the sake of the common good of all Middle Eastern peoples, and for the sake of humanity and the fate of our planet. This narrow, puny vision of grabbing resources and "might makes right" is only possible by NOT including all of the people in policy decisions. Lack of democracy in the U.S. has CRIPPLED our vision.

Those of you who think this way--support Israel, even when she's wrong--may fear that Americans will withdraw support from Israel, if we are given a choice. That is never going to happen. The U.S. and Israel are tied together forever, by the Holocaust that Jews suffered and that Americans helped bring to an end. We and the Europeans (however conflicted they are at the moment, over Israel's recent actions) are forever tied to the horrors our civilization inflicted on the Jews for a thousand years preceding the Holocaust. But let us not be tied to each other in death and destruction. Let us be tied to each other in healing and forgiveness, and faith in the future. Let us help create something better!

To get there, we must re-enfranchise the American people, and we must do it quickly. Here's the plan.

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MASSIVE CITIZEN PROTEST AGAINST THE RIGGED MACHINES: Vote by Absentee Ballot!

If everyone who despises the Bush regime, and who wants peace and a new vision for the Middle East--65% to 70% of the American people--votes by Absentee Ballot this fall, boycotting the rigged, Bushite-controlled electronic voting machines, we can bring this rigged election down in one fell swoop.

We must flood our corrupt election officials with MOUNTAINS and MOUNTAINS of paper ballots and force them to deal with it. This citizen rebellion is already in progress. It's up to 50% in Los Angeles. It started with individual citizens trying to find a way to get their vote COUNTED. If enough people do it, these rigged voting machines will be rendered obsolete--they will sit idle, gathering dust, because nobody will vote on them--and the corrupt fools who purchased them will be scrambling around trying to explain the peoples' "Vote of No Confidence" in their election theft system.

A massive AB vote will create the CONDITIONS for reform. It won't give us an accurate vote count in November--that is not possible--but it CAN result in sufficient LIGHT on the election system, and pressure, to achieve TRANSPARENT, VERIFIABLE elections by '08. It will also assist challenges to suspicious results in '06, by providing a paper record of the vote, where there isn't one, by providing yet more paper evidence to compare to electronic totals, and, further, by generating much more scrutiny of the vote counting. If even 50% or 60% of the people, nationwide, switch to AB voting, you can be sure it will cause crisis and comment. It would be a great big monkey-wrench in the system. Local/state officials would be in a panic. Reporters would be anxious to cover it (if not their corporate bosses).

Also, if enough people do it, we will have the clout to make further demands--for instance, that they hand-count the AB votes, and announce the count BEFORE any electronics are used. Indeed, the system would be just about reformed right there. Paper ballots, hand-counted, giving pre-electronics totals.

Right now, they mostly just scan the AB votes right into the rigged electronics. AB voting is therefore not "safe." But it IS *NON-COOPERATION*! It's the Montgomery bus boycott, Gandhi's salt tax protest, and the Boston Tea Party all wrapped up in one. We still vote--which we MUST do--but we BOYCOTT THE MACHINES!

It's easy. Everybody can do it. It's a maximum participation protest--against the rigged election system, and "things as they are". A war we didn't want. Tax cuts for the rich. And all the crime we have been witness to. It turns voting into an active, positive PROTEST, rather than a passive, despairing act. It will help turnout--more people will vote if they see a positive protest happening. It gives the disempowered, demoralized, DISENFRANCHISED American majority a VOICE.

We cannot reform anything, we cannot achieve peace, and we cannot empower leaders who will act for the common good, if our elections are being rigged. The Bushites deliberately set up this election theft capability, and we know they have used it in '02 and '04. We cannot reform it in the normal ways--not quickly anyway--because the corruption was so quickly entrenched, and involves Democrats as well. There is a conspiracy of silence about it among our political leadership. So we, the people, must act. This is a lawful action, and if we do it massively, we will prevail. We will restore democracy in the U.S. And, for those torn up by the Lebanon controversy, I guarantee you that the collective wisdom of the American people will be a lot better for Israel than the road to Armageddon that the Bush Cartel is taking it down.

Bust the Machines--Vote Absentee!


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*(Note on Iran: The U.S. and Israel destroyed Iran's democracy in 1954, and installed the horrible Shah, who inflicted the Iranian people with 25 years of torture and oppression. WE drove the Iranians (who are Persians, not Arabs) into the arms of the mullahs. WE did it! And this may be the key to peace, to a new vision for the Middle East, and to a Mideast cultural and even environmental renaissance. An apology to the Iranian people is in order. It would be a bold, startling, dramatic initiative--that Israel could undertake on its own, as a break from the Bushites. The world would be overjoyed at such an initiative, and Israel would make billions of new friends overnight. It might proceed along the lines of the South African model--a formal Truth and Reconciliation Commission, or something new and unique, tailored to the Middle East. What I further envision resulting from this is an alliance of Mideast countries including Israel to throw the Bush Cartel out of the region. Not the U.S. (which will always have an interest in, and support, Israel)--but the Bush Cartel, the external greed factor, the most ill-intentioned war profiteers since Hitler (and, indeed, who supported Hitler). Israel has allowed itself to be caught on the wrong side of the class war, and the wrong side of history. It MUST extricate itself from this horrible alliance with the Bushites. And something dramatic is definitely needed to accomplish that.)