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Best editorial ever: OHIO: Ground Zero (full text w. permission)

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Liberty Belle Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Dec-06-04 04:30 PM
Original message
Best editorial ever: OHIO: Ground Zero (full text w. permission)
Ohio -- Ground Zero: Full Text with permission of Iconoclast


All--

Please read and forward this incredibly patriotic, stirring editorial on voting fraud from the Lone Star Iconoclast, which the editor has given permission to me to forward and post freely. This is the newspaper in Crawford, Texas, that received hateful retaliation after it endorsed Kerry for president. Republicans canceled their subscriptions, so progressives around the world responded by taking out new subscriptions.

Now, this courageous editor has written a passionate editorial declaring Ohio the new ground zero for the survival of democracy, and further declares that all Americans must pitch in to "to take back what has been stolen, for this theft carries the stain of treason."

OPINION OF THE PUBLISHERS

OHIO -- GROUND ZERO

The spirit of freedom is essential to the American character.
Some experience it with but a mere twinkle in the eye, while others wear it like a chip on their shoulder.
Yet there are those who choose to reject the spirit of democracy for myopic greedier pastures. They would discard the creation of Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin as immaterial and no longer relevant in a world being redefined by a neo-conservative mold in which Americans act ccording to government policy, speak according to government propaganda, and think as the government dictates.
During the month of December, Ohio has become ground zero, where rests the survival of democracy as we know it, for this will be the test of whether America will stand for an election riddled with irregularities.
The test will determine if the true spirit of honest elections will continue to exist in America or if honesty, like respect and cooperation, has become a dinosaur.
although the battleground in Ohio might be described as one of abstraction, lacking the smoke-filled sea of asbestos and lead that was ever present at ground zero in New York, its pungency is just as caustic because this battle will determine whether democracy will gasp its last or reign as an icon of truth.
Although some Ohioans might applaud Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell's fascist sorcery to make impossible a manual recount in time for the Electoral College elite to cast their votes, citizens of the United States from coast to coast condemn it.
Take heed. This is not merely an election issue isolated to the state of Ohio.
Ohio is not an island.
That state's decisive posture on the Electoral Colelge makes this a national referendum.
Those championing honest elections look upon slimy efforts to disintegrate the ghost of freedom as abhorrent. Many are joining forces through rallies, marches, and protests to educate America of the potential flight of truth. At the same time, they are extending their voices into Ohio as they descend upon ground zero to attempt to clean up the mess created by election irregularities that are too numerous to even remotely be considered accidental.
The Iconoclast applauds the initiatives of the freedom-fighters who with substantial courage are standing up for rights that would normally be taken for granted. We encourage others to pitch in and help, to be heard, to take back what has bene stolen, for this theft carries the stain of treason.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson is one among thousands seeking the truth. "We want to know how deep this pattern goes," Jackson said. "We have been continuing to pursue the outcome of the election with disturbing findings...We want a ufll investigation of these irregularities," he said Sunday.
The time is now to draw a line in the sand--to give not one inch, one millimeter, one vote toward the cause of skewing this electoin. This recount, no matter the outcome, conducted properly, is a necessity for democracy to prevail. Without it, America can never trust another election.

-- Written by W. Leon Smith and Don M. Fisher

http://iconoclast-texas.com/Columns/Editorial/editorial...



E-mail from the editor verifying permission:

You have our permission to distribute it as you wish. Thanks for the compliment.

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henslee Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Dec-06-04 04:39 PM
Response to Original message
1. Bravo.
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tommcintyre Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Dec-06-04 05:14 PM
Response to Original message
2. I'm going to use it in the National Media Blaster..
as both the letter to the media and the "email to friends" letter encouraging them to ask the media to "Please Investigate the Vote".

I'm thinking of this subject line for the media:
Please Investigate the Vote - Show Courage - Like the Crawford Newspaper

And for the "email to friends" letter:
Tell the media to Investigate the Vote - Like the Crawford Newspaper

Any other suggestions?


http://www.independentmediasource.com/voteintegrity.htm
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Liberty Belle Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Dec-07-04 01:16 AM
Response to Reply #2
3. Great! Here's another post to include
This info posted earlier by Angry Girl (Nightweed) is a real eye-opener for most people. The biggest missing link in mainstream media coverage has been the scandalous criminal history and strong GOP ties of the voting machine company's owners and executives. Tell the media to ask voting officials and GOP leaders why they entrusted our precious voting rights to criminals convicted of bribery, and suborning public officials, and computer crimes?
--Liberty Belle

Amazing Facts About Voting in the USA


Please feel free to distribute the following
facts about voting in the United States.

And tell your friends, because their TV won't....

http://nightweed.com/usavotefacts.html


Did you know....
1. 80% of all votes in America are counted by only two companies: Diebold and ES&S.
http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/04280...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diebold



2. There is no federal agency with regulatory authority or oversight of the U.S. voting machine industry.
http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0916-04.htm

http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/04280...



3. The vice-president of Diebold and the president of ES&S are brothers.
http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/private_company.h...

http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/04280...



4. The chairman and CEO of Diebold is a major Bush campaign organizer and donor who wrote in 2003 that he was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year."
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/07/28/sunday/main63...

http://www.wishtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1647886



5. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel used to be chairman of ES&S. He became Senator based on votes counted by ES&S machines.
http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/columns/2004/03/0...

http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/031004Fitrakis/031...



6. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, long-connected with the Bush family, was recently caught lying about his ownership of ES&S by the Senate Ethics Committee.
http://www.blackboxvoting.com/modules.php?name=News&fil...

http://www.hillnews.com/news/012903/hagel.aspx

http://www.onlisareinsradar.com/archives/000896.php



7. Senator Chuck Hagel was on a short list of George W. Bush's vice-presidential candidates.
http://www.businessweek.com/2000/00_28/b3689130.htm

http://theindependent.com/stories/052700/new_hagel27.ht...



8. ES&S is the largest voting machine manufacturer in the U.S. and counts almost 60% of all U.S. votes.
http://www.essvote.com/HTML/about/about.html

http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/04280...



9. Diebold's new touch screen voting machines have no paper trail of any votes. In other words, there is no way to verify that the data coming out of the machine is the same as what was legitimately put in by voters.
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0225-05.htm

http://www.itworld.com/Tech/2987/041020evotestates/pfin...



10. Diebold also makes ATMs, checkout scanners, and ticket machines, all of which log each transaction and can generate a paper trail.
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0225-05.htm

http://www.diebold.com/solutions/default.htm



11. Diebold is based in Ohio.
http://www.diebold.com/aboutus/ataglance/default.htm



12. Diebold employed 5 convicted felons as senior managers and developers to help write the central compiler computer code that counted 50% of the votes in 30 states.
http://www.wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,61640,00.html

http://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/10/301469.shtml



13. Jeff Dean, Diebold's Senior Vice-President and senior programmer on Diebold's central compiler code, was convicted of 23 counts of felony theft in the first degree.
http://www.chuckherrin.com/HackthevoteFAQ.htm#how

http://www.blackboxvoting.org/bbv_chapter-8.pdf



14. Diebold Senior Vice-President Jeff Dean was convicted of planting back doors in his software and using a "high degree of sophistication" to evade detection over a period of 2 years.
http://www.chuckherrin.com/HackthevoteFAQ.htm#how

http://www.blackboxvoting.org/bbv_chapter-8.pdf



15. None of the international election observers were allowed in the polls in Ohio.
http://www.globalexchange.org/update/press/2638.html

http://www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/10/26/loc_elexoh....



16. California banned the use of Diebold machines because the security was so bad. Despite Diebold's claims that the audit logs could not be hacked, a chimpanzee was able to do it! (See the movie here <http://blackboxvoting.org/baxter/baxterVPR.mov >.)
http://wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,63298,00.html

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4874190



17. 30% of all U.S. votes are carried out on unverifiable touch screen voting machines with no paper trail.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/07/28/sunday/main63...



18. All -- not some -- but all the voting machine errors detected and reported in Florida went in favor of Bush or Republican candidates.
http://www.wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,65757,00.html

http://www.yuricareport.com/ElectionAftermath04/ThreeRe...

http://www.rise4news.net/extravotes.html

http://www.ilcaonline.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=N...

http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0411/S00227.htm



19. The governor of the state of Florida, Jeb Bush, is the President's brother.
http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/news/local/7...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10544-20...



20. Serious voting anomalies in Florida -- again always favoring Bush -- have been mathematically demonstrated and experts are recommending further investigation.
http://www.yuricareport.com/ElectionAftermath04/ThreeRe...

http://www.computerworld.com/governmenttopics/governmen...

http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/tens_of_thousands...

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1106-30.htm

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2004/110904.html

http://uscountvotes.org /




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Eloriel Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Dec-07-04 12:10 PM
Response to Original message
4. This was already posted
but it's worth another read.

:kick:
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texpatriot2004 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Dec-07-04 12:13 PM
Response to Original message
5. I love the Iconoclast...they tell it like it is!
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