Thom Hartman: The Ultimate Felony Against Democracy

[freedomburns]

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1104-38.htm

The Ultimate Felony Against Democracy
by Thom Hartmann
 
The hot story in the Blogosphere is that the "erroneous" exit polls
that showed Kerry carrying Florida and Ohio (among other states) weren't erroneous at all - it was the numbers produced by paperless voting machines that were wrong, and Kerry actually won. As more and more analysis is done of what may (or may not) be the most massive election fraud in the history of the world, however, it's critical that we keep the largest issue at the forefront at all time: Why are We The People allowing private, for-profit corporations, answerable only to their officers and boards of directors, and loyal only to agendas and politicians that will enhance their profitability, to handle our votes?

Maybe Florida went for Kerry, maybe for Bush. Over time - and through the efforts of some very motivated investigative reporters - we may well find out (Bev Harris of www.blackboxvoting.org just filed what may be the largest Freedom of Information Act [FOIA} filing in history), and bloggers and investigative reporters are discovering an odd discrepancy in exit polls being largely accurate in paper-ballot states and oddly inaccurate in touch-screen electronic voting states Even raw voter analyses are showing extreme oddities in touch-screen-run Florida, and eagle-eyed bloggers are finding that news organizations are retroactively altering their exit polls to coincide with what the machines ultimately said.

But in all the discussion about voting machines, let's never forget the
concept of the commons, because this usurpation is the ultimate felony committed by conservatives this year.

At the founding of this nation, we decided that there were important
places to invest our tax (then tariff) dollars, and those were the
things that had to do with the overall "life, liberty, and the pursuit of
happiness" of all of us. Over time, these commons - in which we all
make tax investments and for which we all hold ultimate responsibility - have come to include our police and fire services; our military and defense; our roads and skyways; our air, waters and national parks; and the safety of our food and drugs.
...

It's time that the USA - like most of the rest of the world - returns
to paper ballots, counted by hand by civil servants (our employees) under the watchful eye of the party faithful. Even if it takes two weeks to count the vote, and we have to just go, until then, with the exit polls of the news agencies. It worked just fine for nearly 200 years in the USA, and it can work again.

When I lived in Germany, they took the vote the same way most of the world does - people fill in hand-marked ballots, which are hand-counted by civil servants taking a week off from their regular jobs, watched over by volunteer representatives of the political parties. It's totally clean, and easily audite. And even though it takes a week or more to count the vote (and costs nothing more than a bit of overtime pay for civil servants), the German people know the election results the night the polls close because the news media's exit polls, for two generations, have never been more than a tenth of a percent off.

We could have saved billions that have instead been handed over to
ES&S, Diebold, and other private corporations.

Or, if we must have machines, let's have them owned by local
governments, maintained and programmed by civil servants answerable to We The People, using open-source code and disconnected from modems, that produce a voter-verified printed ballot, with all results published on a precinct-by-precinct basis.

As Thomas Paine wrote at this nation's founding, "The right of voting
for representatives is the primary right by which all other rights are
protected. To take away this right is to reduce a man to slavery."

Only when We The People reclaim the commons of our vote can we again be confident in the integrity of our electoral process in the world's oldest and most powerful democratic republic.

-----
Thom Hartmann (thom at thomhartmann.com) is a Project Censored
Award-winning best-selling author and host of a nationally syndicated daily progressive talk show. www.thomhartmann .com His most recent books are "The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight," "Unequal Protection: The Rise of Corporate Dominance and the Theft of Human Rights," "We The People: A
Call To Take Back America," and "What Would Jefferson Do?: A Return To Democracy."

[opebo]

I have no trouble believing that a majority of Americans could've voted for Bush, but then again I have a very poor view of human nature.  However, I believe it is equally possible that the election was stolen.  I think it is good for the 48% of Americans that are the resistance to make an argument that Bush is illegitimate by 'democratic standards'.  Glad to see its out there!

[dougrhess]

Loopy article with no evidence. The issue isn't machine fraud, although I think the paper trail issue is important to prevent it and to ensure people trust the process. More dangerous than fraud, because it's more likely, is a machine just freaking out and giving incorrect data. In NC a machine was used improperly by some officials and 4,500 votes are now gone. Poof! Not a trace of them. Federal law should ban that from happening. 

If anything needs to be looked into it is why spoiled ballots and provisional ballots are occuring in such large numbers. And why do some ballots get counted as spoiled when it's clear what the voter's intent was (e.g., they circled the candidate's name instead of punching the card, or they did both and it is viewed as spoiled)? We use juries to send people to prison and death row. Surely some improvement in ballots can be made to reduce user error, but some quick system of human (group) judgement is needed instead of tossing things that are clearly indicitive if not by the book.

Provisional ballots should be counted for any race on the ballot that is the same as it would be on the ballot if you were in the right precinct.  There's no reason to have people, who commute longer and longer, to be bound to once precinct. In fact, any polling place in your county or state should be able check your registration (or register you on the spot with a photograph or fingerprint ID (heck they use fingerprints for people signing up for welfare now; why not voting)) and just spit out the exact ballot for your address, as if you were in the precinct. This ain't the 1950s. 

[opebo]

Boy, this must of been what Nov. 1968 and Nov. 1972 was like.  Luckily for us, there is talk radio and the net so the media cannot railroad Bush like they did Nixon and Agnew.
P.S. Bush won fairly. 

We can still hope for a Watergate! 

Btw, Bush is much worse than Nixon.

[MODU]

Another conspiracy theory brought to you by freedomburns.

[KEmperor]

Another conspiracy theory brought to you by freedomburns.

And the letter N.  N is for Nutjob!

[shankbear]

Freedomburnout and Opebo.....the black helicopters are circling your homes at this very moment.  They know your IP address and they follow these posts.  Expect a knock at the door.  Smell the fear.  Live the fear.  Embrace the fear.

[MODU]

((Watches the "black helicopters" everyday outside his window . . . of course, working next to the Pentagon and DC, you see black helicopters every day.))

[ATFFL]

Black helicopters are sooooo last century.  We use invisible UFOs now.

[shankbear]

Tredrick, do you know where I can sell my black helicopter cloaking device.  I got mine during the Clinton Administration.  You never know.  Where are they parking the UFOs?  Area 51?  Roswell?  Crawford?

[ATFFL]

Tredrick, do you know where I can sell my black helicopter cloaking device.  I got mine during the Clinton Administration.  You never know.  Where are they parking the UFOs?  Area 51?  Roswell?  Crawford?

Istanbul is the current location of the black market.

We recently spread our UFO fleet among the various mountains of the world.  The Yeti make excellent mechanics.  WHo knew?

[MODU]

Throw this log on the fire, folks (from your friends that brought you freedomburns and shira):

"Why Americans Hate Democrats—A Dialogue: The unteachable ignorance of the red states."

"The election results reflect the decision of the right wing to cultivate and exploit ignorance in the citizenry. I suppose the good news is that 55 million Americans have evaded the ignorance-inducing machine. But 58 million have not."

"The error that progressives have consistently committed over the years is to underestimate the vitality of ignorance in America. Listen to what the red state citizens say about themselves, the songs they write, and the sermons they flock to. They know who they are—they are full of original sin and they have a taste for violence. The blue state citizens make the Rousseauvian mistake of thinking humans are essentially good, and so they never realize when they are about to be slugged from behind."

There is plenty more of where that came from in this "rant."  I guess there will always be a few blinded dolts in our society that believes this trash.  Fortunately for us, they are a minority.

[dazzleman]

Throw this log on the fire, folks (from your friends that brought you freedomburns and shira):

"Why Americans Hate Democrats—A Dialogue: The unteachable ignorance of the red states."

"The election results reflect the decision of the right wing to cultivate and exploit ignorance in the citizenry. I suppose the good news is that 55 million Americans have evaded the ignorance-inducing machine. But 58 million have not."

"The error that progressives have consistently committed over the years is to underestimate the vitality of ignorance in America. Listen to what the red state citizens say about themselves, the songs they write, and the sermons they flock to. They know who they are—they are full of original sin and they have a taste for violence. The blue state citizens make the Rousseauvian mistake of thinking humans are essentially good, and so they never realize when they are about to be slugged from behind."

There is plenty more of where that came from in this "rant."  I guess there will always be a few blinded dolts in our society that believes this trash.  Fortunately for us, they are a minority.

What a load of trash.  Realistically, there are ignorant voters on both sides.  Of the people I know, the Republicans are usually more intelligent and well-informed than the Democrats.  But I would never say that stupidity is the sole reason that somebody would vote Democratic.

I saw an interesting article today in my local paper (Connecticut Post) about the local reaction to Bush's re-election.  While this paper endorsed Bush on its editorial page, the news pages have been anti-Bush.  There was a headline that described a "shudder" that went through the region with the news of Bush's re-election (despite the fact that he got nearly 50% of the vote in my area).

In any case, a political science professor talked about how shocked some people in the area were with the president's re-election (sounds a lot like those anti-American Europeans).  He said that people he talked to expressed "disbelief that the country could be so out of step."  He said that "because these people are highly educated, they assume they know what's best for the country, and they're shocked when others don't share their agenda.  The thought would never enter their minds that they are the ones who are out of step."

[??????????]

FreeDUMBburnout wins the crapweasel award of the week!

[J. J.]

That "crapweasel award" should be shared by FreeDUMBburnout and bopeepo.  These guys are obviously not in touch with reality. 

This is the problem with the Loony Left; they can't face reality and can't understand why even the bulk of Democrats don't take them seriously.

[Giant Saguaro]

Funny.

Actually, the aliens wanted Bush back in and used a mind control device from space to influence the people into voting for him. Right? lol! Ah, the American version of the loony left.

[freedomburns]

If you win by cheating, you only hurt yourself.

And this kind of cheating always gets found out.

A bigger scandel than watergate is coming in about three years.  Remember you heard it here first.


freedomburns

[opebo]

That "crapweasel award" should be shared by FreeDUMBburnout and bopeepo.  These guys are obviously not in touch with reality. 

My position has always been that America is ruled by religious fanatics - there are more of them than there are sane people.  That's reality, not a conspiracy theory.  No black helicopters involved, just a lot of very ordinary monsters right next door.  I saw those pod people every day back in Missouri, walking around just like anyone - but of course very different inside.

However cheating is also a possibility - none of us knows whether or to what extent it took place.

[Giant Saguaro]

Okay, to be ever so slightly blunt: There's a term in psychology called negative attribution. It's basically when you blame factors well beyond your control because you suck and don't want to admit it. Even if it's not someone's else's fault, which it frequently is not. This is a case in point. Now positive attribution, on the other hand, is when you sit down and say, okay, we've got issues here, we're out of favor with the American people, so let's talk about correcting them.

It seems to me that the positive attribution would be a more helpful mindset for the Dems and leftists than the counterpart. Blaming the vast right wing conpiracy and cooking up theories about voting irregularies, which are absurd, will not help for 2008 when it comes around.

[zorkpolitics]

It is already a urban legend that the exit polls were correct and showed a Kerry win and therefor the election was stolen by electronic voting machines.
But go check for yourself, the final exit poll results that include all voters, not just early voters can be found on the CCN web pages.
http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/pages/results/epolls/

Here is a comparision of the Bush exit poll to actual results:
                    Final Exit poll                    Actual result
OH                   51%                                 51%
PA                    48%                                 49%
FL                     51%                                 52%
IA                     50%                                 50%

There was no significant descrepency.

The whole DU, DailyKos, Left-wing conspiracy theory that the election was stolen is based on early exit polls before everyone voted, why should anyone be surprised those incomplete polls were inacurate?

[© tweed]

It is already a urban legend that the exit polls were correct and showed a Kerry win and therefor the election was stolen by electronic voting machines.
But go check for yourself, the final exit poll results that include all voters, not just early voters can be found on the CCN web pages.
http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/pages/results/epolls/

Here is a comparision of the Bush exit poll to actual results:
                    Final Exit poll                    Actual result
OH                   51%                                 51%
PA                    48%                                 49%
FL                     51%                                 52%
IA                     50%                                 50%

There was no significant descrepency.

The whole DU, DailyKos, Left-wing conspiracy theory that the election was stolen is based on early exit polls before everyone voted, why should anyone be surprised those incomplete polls were inacurate?

Those are reweighted to the actual results, in fairness to the conspiracists

[opebo]

Okay, to be ever so slightly blunt: There's a term in psychology called negative attribution. It's basically when you blame factors well beyond your control because you suck and don't want to admit it. Even if it's not someone's else's fault, which it frequently is not. This is a case in point. Now positive attribution, on the other hand, is when you sit down and say, okay, we've got issues here, we're out of favor with the American people, so let's talk about correcting them.

One should never abandon ones principles just to appeal to the mob. 

[patrick1]

And what principles do you have Opebo?  You offer nothing except an intense hatred of all things religious.  Your rhethoric is getting very repetitive and boring.

[Andrew]

I don't believe that this election was stolen, because I think that the assumption has to be that it was legitimate--unless and until solid evidence to the contrary surfaces (as in 2000).

That said, I think that it is just as foolish to contend that there is no chance of a stolen election as it is to contend that this election must have been stolen.

Clearly, this election COULD have been stolen.  Just as clearly, nobody has proven that it WAS.

[KEmperor]

I don't believe that this election was stolen, because I think that the assumption has to be that it was legitimate--unless and until solid evidence to the contrary surfaces (as in 2000).

That said, I think that it is just as foolish to contend that there is no chance of a stolen election as it is to contend that this election must have been stolen.

Clearly, this election COULD have been stolen.  Just as clearly, nobody has proven that it WAS.

Do you realize how hard it is to prove a negative?