TBO;24/7 -- Reflections on a Certain Reality:Fraudulent Elections

[understandinglife]

I awaited the name change to post the following perspective until the DU administrators decided what to do regarding the request to focus the 2004 Election forum on reform.

When one seeks to reform anything, the scale of the inertia of whatever that ‘thing’ happens to be is a first order issue.

I had suggested the name “Stop Election Fraud: Reform Advocacy & Action” because the name “Election Reform Advocacy & Action” leaves a critical first order issue unspecified -- the WHY, as well as how, of fraudulent elections.

I think that unwise.

A considerable component of the inertia that ‘election reform’ must continue to uncover, analyze and alter is the reality of ELECTION FRAUD. A big component of that election fraud inertia is comprised by the crimes already perpetrated and the entrenched interests responsible for those crimes – i.e., who the criminals are as well as the criminal activities associated with tampering with vapor ballots, intentionally suppressing voters, civil rights laws violations, and more. Succeeding at election reform will entail exposing the full scale of criminal activity and essentially conducting an ‘election fraud’ literacy program for all our fellow citizens – non-trivial.

Another substantial component of the inertia is the very reason(s) certain individuals and groups perpetrated the fraud. Reform is a major threat to those individuals and groups for at least two obvious reasons: 1. jail time for those identified as knowingly perpetrating the fraud; and 2. denying them their tool of election fraud -- their most effective mechanism for keeping the “Bush neocon cabal” in power (not just the theocrats, the PNACers, but the extensively interlinked corporate interests of the Halliburton’s, various defense and security corporations, and the like).

One of the principal activities that THE BUSH OPPOSITION; 24/7 can contribute to the election reform agenda is a persistent effort to expose the extent, nature and perpetrators of the fraud and, very importantly, the linkage to those corporate and evangelical entities and, quite importantly, their lobbyists (i.e., those who will be confronting members of the 109th Congress in every way imaginable to continue to block the most meaningful election fraud-busting reform we can achieve), specifically:

1. paper all the way;

2. extensive monitoring (including groups of observers from non-US voter rights organizations) of all aspects of registering voters, voting, counting and tallying the votes; and

3. archiving ALL records (registrations, ballots and tally sheets).

Looking forward to continuing our analysis, advocacy and action on transforming the current criminally corrupt election enterprise in the USA into an enterprise that truly serves the American franchise of democracy and blunts any further attempts to overthrow our Constitution. And, anyone doubting that that is the intent of the Bush neocon cabal, should probably spend sometime studying all the background information that already exists on PNAC, emerging American theocracy, Bush’s 2004 inauguration manifesto, our illegal actions in Iraq, Bush’s bulldozing of Geneva Conventions, to get some hints as to how counter-Constitutional these folk are.


BE THE BUSH OPPOSITION; 24/7

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x300279

http://www.velvetrevolution.us/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=82

[Amaryllis]

1. All who are involved in the election action forum recognize that fraud

and the ongoing investigation, etc. is married to reform, regardless of whether fraud is included in the title. We could still ask the mods to do that if people feel strongly. Meganmonkey did make that suggestion in a follow up to her original request to consider a name change.

REgarding your comment: "One of the principal activities that THE BUSH OPPOSITION; 24/7 can contribute to the election reform agenda is a persistent effort to expose the extent, nature and perpetrators of the fraud and, very importantly, the linkage to those corporate and evangelical entities and, quite importantly, their lobbyists"
That is all very much related to election reform and I am not clear why you would think (if I am understanding you correctly) that this would not fit in the election reform forum?

THe idea, as nashua advocate stated quite clearly, is that other issues would fit in this forum as long as they related to election issues. ONe has to draw the line somewhere...this is why there are different forums with different names...

[Im with Rosey]

2. I can't post, please HELP!

I just received mass email from Barbara Boxer, I'm sure most everyone here did. Sounds like she could use our help ASAP. If she is willing to fight for us, we MUST do everything we can to help her.

Last week, more than 70,000 concerned citizens like you came together to sign my petition and demand the truth from Condoleezza Rice. Your support emboldened me during Dr. Rice's confirmation hearings to ask the tough questions that Americans deserve to have answered. I can't thank you enough, and America can't thank you enough.


Perhaps even more importantly, the groundswell of support you created forced the Republican Senate leadership to give us what we wanted -- not a rubber stamp of Dr. Rice's nomination by voice vote last Thursday before the Republicans dashed off to Inaugural parties, but nine full hours of debate on the floor of the United States Senate.


With your support, our voices are being heard -- in the halls of Congress, in the White House, and across the country. So today I ask for your support once more:


Help me add thousands more signatures to our petition to hold Condoleezza Rice accountable. Tell your friends, family, neighbors, and colleagues to sign our petition, so that when I stand up on the Senate floor Tuesday and Wednesday, I'm speaking with the power of tens of thousands of Americans behind me.


White House Chief of Staff Andy Card has attacked me as "small" for seeking the truth. But I won't allow this Administration to try to sweep the facts about our failures in Iraq and the war on terrorism under the rug. I'm taking the "advice and consent" role, granted to the Senate in the U.S. Constitution, seriously.


During the full Senate debate over Condoleezza Rice's nomination tomorrow, I intend to take the floor, joined by many other of my Democratic colleagues, to express my frustration about Dr. Rice's lack of candor during the confirmation hearings -- her unwillingness to level with the American people about the misleading statements she made about aluminum tubes, mushroom clouds, and connections between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda to try to justify the war in Iraq.


Condoleezza Rice refused to come clean about the actual number of trained Iraqi forces on the ground. And perhaps even more disturbingly, she refused to tell us why she personally intervened to kill an anti-torture provision in a recent intelligence bill.


I refuse to let these misstatements, misjudgments, and poor decisions go unanswered. So I ask you one last time, before the Senate debate Tuesday and final vote on Wednesday, to tell everyone you know about our petition. Help me find thousands more Americans who are willing to sign our petition and stand with us.


I can't thank you enough for everything you've done over this past week. Now, in these final 48 hours before the vote on Dr. Rice's nomination, I ask for your help once more. Join me as we continue to fight for what's right -- because the process of democracy is as important as the outcome.


In Friendship,





Barbara Boxer
U.S. Senator



P.S. After forwarding our petition to everyone you know, be sure to call or email your Senators and encourage them to join us in Tuesday's debate. Americans deserve a full and open debate about Dr. Rice's confirmation, as well as the important issues like Iraq, the war on terrorism, and the use of torture that underlie her nomination.

[understandinglife]

3. For those reading this thread, here is the link to the petition:

http://ga4.org/campaign/ricehearings

And, "Im With Rosey", I'll post a request in the DU General forum given that this one is now focused on election issues.

Thanks for the 'heads-up'!



BE THE BUSH OPPOSITION; 24/7

[understandinglife]

4. Already posted in the DU General and Here; here are the links:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3000141

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x302797

Peace.


"Bush Owns It; Let's Purge It - Now"

[rdmccur]

5. Kick!

[Peace Patriot]

6. “Stop Election Fraud: Reform Advocacy & Action”!

Yup.

How can you reform anything if nothing's wrong?

Usually, the scandal comes out first, shocks everybody, gets aired, THEN come the calls for reform. This is backasswards.

And when you have your asswards back, you've got real trouble.

[hootinholler]

7. In my view,

There really are 2 issues here.
Election Reform
Impeaching Bush, which the reasons for that are oh so much more than meere election fraWd.

They are sympathetic to each other, but proving the need for election reform doesn't necessarily prove the need for impeachment. Likewise, proving the need for impeachment doesn't necessarily prove the need for election reform.

The same group of people need to be mobilized for either to occur. This is because without the people behind the effort demanding exactly what we want *and* accepting no substitute, it will fail because of power issues.

Thus, the effort needs to be non-partisan, so that we can appeal to the morality of the vast majority of good citizens.

So does all that happen here or in 2 forums?

-Hoot

[understandinglife]

8. I'm suggesting motivating synergy. An increasing number of 'good...

....citizens' will recognize that invalid elections cripple the democracy and the infrastructures of our society and are recognizing that Bush's policies are illegitimate, illegal.

Some will come to recognize the destabilizing nature of invalid elections sooner than others.

Some will come to the realization of Bush's illegal activities and their implications sooner than others.

But, to effect the necessary reforms we have zero chance of succeeding without criminally indicting Bush and as many of his collaborators (within government as well as in private enterprise) as possible. They have every motivation to block any attempt to reform the election system because each of them knows that the day that one of them is not in a position to grant Presidential pardons they are all going down hard.

Their crimes against humanity; their lies to the people and Congress of the USA; their systematic disenfranchisement of our fellow citizens are just the beginnings of the 'rap sheets' for these perps, i.e., 'Watergate' and associated activities are hardly worthy of a footnote in comparison.

So, it's my perspective that we will never get to the necessary legislation and other reforms of our voting system as long as the Bush neocon cabal remains in power. That's why, in my totally non-expert opinion, I think naming a group here at DU "Election Reform" is equivalent to placing the 'cart' several miles in front of the 'horse.'

We must focus on the crimes -- exposing them and persecuting them. With that as the motivational basis, all 'good citizens' irrespective of political party, will rally to the necessary Constitutional amendment and other legislative actions required to enable us to prevent those who pervert our election process for their unpatriotic, criminal purposes from destroying our American franchise of democracy and the Constitution on which it is based.

Peace.

TBO;24/7

[RaulVB]

9. Correct

Your efforts are very important. The clarification of our goals and a deeper understanding about the impossibility of "reforming" the system without prosecuting the criminals first has to be acknowledged.

Fraud has taken place in the last 3 American "elections."

Simple and sad, but true.

[hootinholler]

10. It was pointed out there is another avenue...

In this post. I kinda like the idea. The same way Prohibition was ended.

-Hoot

Edit to fix link.

[understandinglife]

11. That is an excellent strategy, but it will require a substantial ....

...."election fraud literacy program" to educate our fellow citizens why both a reformed voting system needs to be adopted, nation-wide; and why a Constitutional ammendment detailing each citizen's voting rights needs to be adopted.

I intend to use the link you provided in several items of correspondence I'm now preparing.

Peace.


TBO;24/7

[understandinglife]

12. Well, our poll is showing a majority of responders ....

...prefering an explicit reference to election fraud in the name of our forum. At ~ 415pm PST today, I'll forward the results of the poll to the DU administrators.

Peace.

TBO;24/7