Please be mindful. . .

[stellanoir]

In as much it's great to have a semi and partial victory and I really do loathe peeing on the parade, especially after most here have suffered so many harrowing and thoroughly questionable defeats in recent years, please be mindful of one simple irrefutable fact.

Connecticut had lever machines. 80% of the country will vote on highly hackable DRE's in November.

The selfish short sighted sleazebuckets in charge know that to lose either house in November will result in a boat load of subpoenas, hearings, and investigations examining their blatant corruption and overt criminality.

Hate to be a downer but let's not set ourselves up for another crushing fall. Just sayin'.

I'll go put an asbestos tablecloth on my desk and crawl under it now.

[truth2power]

1. You are absolutely right, Stella...

Here in my Ohio community we have an outstanding slate of candidates at the local level.

I went to a Meet the Candidates rally recently. It was all rah rah...

As if...just getting enough Dems and Independents out to vote would ensure success. What difference does it make when we still have the same gangster (Blackwell) with his filthy hands on the electoral process?

When I ask about ensuring that this election isn't stolen, all I get is blank stares. I swear, the ability of Dems to delude themselves is beyond belief.

[stellanoir]

3. Deepest condolences on your state of residence dear.

I can't imagine how painful it must be to have born witness to what happened there in '04.

And yes the level of disconnect to this reality is truly astounding.

How many stolen elections will it take for folks to "WAKE UP !!!"

One of the most funny and optimistic friends I have and I had a discussion after the selection in '00. He said one of the most cynical though truthful things I've ever heard him say when I asked him, "what's it gonna take for people to see the truth that we have just experienced a bit of a coup?" He said with a totally uncharacteristic lack of enthusiasm, "folks won't revolt until they go hungry."

That statement haunts me a bit. Ahhh and he moved semi permanently to Asia.

[flordehinojos]

2. HELLO STELLANOIR (night star?) YOU ARE NOT RAINING ON ANYONE'S

PARADE ... DRE'S ARE A REAL DANGER TO OUR DEMOCRACY AND WE MIGHT AS WELL ALL ACKNOWLEDGE IT.

[stellanoir]

4. I do believe that

night star would be "etoile de la soir" but am just guessing.

stellanoir is a long story but I'll summarize it by goofing that though I'm mostly Celt I deeply aspire to be black. :) That's why the disenfranchisement of so many black folks irks me so.

And WHY ARE YOU YELLING SO MUCH ??? LOL

[flordehinojos]

5. i didn't know i was yelling...but evidently caps translates into that some

times. sorry for that. ...also, thanks for explaining "stellanoir". interesting. i like the name.

[stellanoir]

6. Someday perhaps I'll tell you the whole story and you

may laugh.

Yeah all caps is YELLING TOTALLY ONLINE. But you made me laugh so thanks.

[CrushTheDLC]

7. Here's my theory on the November elections......

I predict that they will NOT steal the election this time. Here's why....

1) The Chimp agenda's pretty much done anyway. Other than possibly trying to expand the war to Iran, they don't have much left to do.

2) As long as DLC pro war "Dems" remain in control of the House and Senate, there won't be any "hard left turn" in the congressional agenda, despite the people's call for such after an electoral win.

3) An election without any obvious issues of tampering and theft will cause "the masses" to lower their guard about the vulnerability of the electro-fraud machines, while the proponents can claim that we were "crying wolf" about them all along.

4) The whore media seems to be accepting of a Democratic "victory" in November as if their masters at Karl Rove Inc. have already told them it's a done deal.

As I said, it's just a theory and a cynical one at that. But a perfect scenario for this decade.

[Awsi Dooger]

8. The percentage of voters using DREs is closer to 40%, not 80%

Actually slightly over 38%, according to this PDF. Might be slightly lower now, since New Mexico has switched away from DREs to paper since this was printed. Optical scan is the most common with 41%, followed by DREs, then lever machines at 11%.

You have to scroll down a bit for the pie chart. It's a very detailed report, including the voting methods of each state: http://www.electionline.org/Portals/1/Publications/2006.annual.report.Final.pdf

[autorank]

9. Celebration "Noir" - no need for asbestos, it's bad for you anyway. TRUE

The 2006 election will turn the USA into Mexico...count on it.

Pictures at 11:00

Stella, than you for the reminder. We have to face reality here. There are "the machines" but two other items people need be aware of:

1) Centralized Voter Registration Databases...yep, you get the efficiencies of state government DP shops outsourcing to who the Hell knows who the process of streamlining the voter registration databases. Sound like Katherine Harris a go go. It is. People will show up, most likely the poor, and they will be turned away. That's worth 1-2%.

Now here is the kicker (and I'm researching this now)

2) VoterID requirements have emerged that reflect the post Reconstruction spirit...that have the effect of keeping the poor (read black, latino) out of the polling booth. Yep, life is a festival
and this one is anti democracy. 10-20% of voters lack the requisite forms of identification
needed to vote in some states. Who suffers? Who benefits?

# 1 is a wild card but it's useful to assume the worst in order to mitigate the worst. # 2 is a disaster. The Carter Backer Commission's recommendation for a VoterID program was all the cover
the folks needed to crawl out from under the rock of the CCC etc. and implement these programs.