VillageVoice 'Case of the Ohio Recount' - DU mentioned

[KurtNYC]

In the whodunit over who won it, the true villain is slipping away
The Case of the Ohio Recount
by Rick Perlstein
December 21st, 2004 12:00 PM

...Meanwhile there have been the emotional hearings, led by ranking House Judiciary Committee member John Conyers, in which Ohio secretary of state and Bush-Cheney campaign co-chair Ken Blackwell was raked over the coals in absentia for answers to 36 questions about specific Election Day irregularities that Conyers posed to him in a now famous December 2 letter. The 36 questions are masticated endlessly in forums on democraticunderground.com—new outrages added each day, thousands of embittered idealists consuming the better part of their time in search of that elusive needle-in-haystack data point that will prove outright theft of the election. One lawyer, Cliff Arnebeck, even thinks he's found it, and has filed suit with the aim of kicking George W. Bush out of office....

http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0451/perlstein.php

[Vinnie From Indy]

1. Perlstein's Advice is the KISS OF DEATH to the Left

I think that Perlstein's message about working for '06 and backing off on investigating all aspects this last election would be a monumental strategic mistake for a number of reasons.

Firstly, his entire argument is based on the faulty premise that the left in America has the ability now to deliver any message about issues concerning civil rights, suppression or disenfranchisement to the broad public through the mainstream media. We don't! I offer as proof of my point the past record of outrageous falsehoods, smears, lies, distractions, deceptions, and elective wars perpetrated by the BushCo. Administration that have never been fairly or honestly reported by the mainstream media. If we do not PRESS the vote fraud issue concerning the last election with all of our voices and all of our effort NOW, the mainstream media will slap us to the back of the bus AGAIN and any effort we make to change the way elections are run will be laughed at by the GOP in power.

Another reason Perlstein's advice is so horribly wrong is the fact that a recent Gallup (not that I like these guys) poll indicates that around 30% of Democrats believe that the 2004 election was fixed somehow. If that number is accurate, then there are undoubtedly a significant percentage of those 30% that might be compelled or enticed to support a third party if the Democrats lay down again as they did in Florida in 2000. There is also be a significant amount of Democratic voters that will conclude their vote hasn't mattered enough for the Democrats to fight for it the last two elections why should they keep coming out to vote at all. By refusing to fight hard NOW, the Democrats could further dilute their chances of winning at any time in the future. I believe that is a very real danger.

I will agree that most of the recommendations made by Perlstein in regard to fair voting are correct and extremely important to Democrats and all liberty loving Americans, but his advice to back off this issue even a little will actually prevent us from achieving any of the goals he laid out.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

2. They WANT us to Shut up......

That's why we must get LOUDER People!! :o

[TruthIsAll]

10. The so-called Left has morphed into the Neocon Right.

Media execs like Perlstein are former Liberals who have gone over to the dark side. They are no longer true Democrats.

Their bottom line is not what is right, it's the $ on the line that is dotted.

[zann725]

13. Seems we're at the "fighting us" stage of that Gandhi quote?

Maybe we should email them on the article to remind them
..."then we win!"

[Joe Chi Minh]

3. I remember reading

what seemed a leader article on their site on the Net before the election, which was pro Bush. Someone either on DU or Salon wrote that he (the author) *is* a Repug.

[suston96]

11. Don't stop!

Two points:

First, don't stop shouting about this stolen election - that makes three in a row - 2000, 2002, 2004. They are shameless and their perfidy needs to be in the public face.

Second, somehow, get behind Jesse Jackson Jr's federalization of the electoral process.

We have 5 amendments in the US Constitution that mention the "right to vote" but none that enumerates and guarantees it.

The reason for those 5 amendments was states restricting voting rights.

Federalization will establish a uniform system and get the states away from controlling the "times, places, and manner" of elections.

The states have always wanted to keep that power for obvious reasons.

[mod mom]

4. Mr Perlstein, The election was a fraud! Civil rights were abused.

There was not equal protection under the law. What good is there in moving on to 2006 when you have the same system, same people calling the shots and full control of the media by the neocons?

[OKthatsIT]

5. The Village Voice has gone wimpy and rightie on us

If this were 1968, they would have wanted everyone in the streets. Like so many in the media, The Voice is no different, they are like SHEEP!

[nashville_brook]

6. i think the whole purpose of pearlstein's article is to use the word,

"picayune." adj : (informal terms) small and of little importance; "a fiddling sum of money"; "a footling gesture"; "our worries are lilliputian compared with those of countries that are at war"; "a little (or small) matter"; "Mickey Mouse regulations"; "a dispute over niggling details"; "limited to petty enterprises"; "piffling efforts"; "giving a police officer a free meal may be against the law, but it seems to be a picayune infraction"

from the article:
But the charges producing the greatest heat online often turn out to have the most innocent explanations. The recount isn't amounting to much, either. Last week the Franklin County Board of Elections did discover one extra vote for Kerry—offset by the extra vote they found for Bush. The irregularities volunteers have pointed to in the recount process itself are often picayune.

just another way of saying protecting our vote and our democracy is killing the troops.

yeah, bush hit the Trifecta. bastards. i never cease to be amazed at the lengths to which the alternative media (Villiage Voice, Nashville Scene) goes to blitz the right flank of the BIG stories of the day! come on guys! grab the brass ring you bunch of freaking cowards!

[nashville_brook]

7. this shaves my ass

"What's wrong with this picture? These people should be working together, not fighting each other. None seems to know what a coordinated, disciplined, long-term progressive strategy on election infrastructure would look like; certainly, no one seems to be working toward one.
Which is exactly what Karl Rove would be doing, if he were a progressive."

WE ARE working together -- Pearlstein is the one not on the bus. He is literally whining that we aren't playing as crooked a game as the Repugs. We are working our asses off to reveal, reform, and recount -- and he's off in LA LA LAND looking for his fat white bald guy in shining armor. grow the fuck up and learn a little about politics. it's about power, my friend and this is the last little bit of power we have.

[info being]

9. I like your quote:

"Looking for his fat white bald guy in shining armor."

[Vinnie From Indy]

15. kick n/t

[MellowOne]

8. What's everybody afraid of?

I can't believe how wimpy the media is. This should be a HUGE story for an investigative reporter! But they just sit back and watch it happen even when they know it's a major story.

[Iceburg]

12. they are afraid of "numeracy" ... very few people have the

intelligence to understand the universal language of mathematics, in particular those who choose professions that depend on word-smithing and or on telegenic looks.

Face it, to understand the dirty tricks of this and past elections you have to feel somewhat comfortable with the relationships between numbers. Example: the 3rd party votes to the mathematically inclined are nothing less than what cigarette butts and a book of matches left at a crime scene with no body found are to a CSI. How many cigarette butts, what brand, what info if any are on the match cover etc. These are significant clues to someone who specializes in forensic criminology.

The mere fact that there is a lack of randomness, and strong correlations between what should be unrelated variables within many aspects of the data results is a HUGE clue to be followed by statisticians forensic-inclined applied mathematicians.

We must be patient ... it takes time to identify the clues and even longer to interpret them, and even longer to present them in such a way that even the lay people understand.

[Mandate My Ass]

14. An embittered idealist checking in here

Geez, I think elections should be fair, open, reliable and that as a result the person who takes office is actually the one who got most of the votes no matter how long it takes. Sheesh, how dare I.

The whores continue to parrot the line that incontestable, iron-clad proof of fraud is the only thing that matters or is necessary to take any kind of action or even speak up. Meanwhile, institutionalized racist disenfranchisement, which has only grown more widespread and blatant since Selection 2000, is of no concern.

While Perlstein brings up some salient points, he quickly minimizes or discounts them by disparaging those working on the myriad of distubing voting problems by describing them as rabid, shoot-from-the-hip tin-foilers and tail chasers.

It sounds to me as though he is working really hard to convince his audience that activism makes one irrelevant. As if sitting down and shutting up ever got anything done in this country. :spank: