Guest blogged by Bob Fitrakis
INTRODUCTION {by Winter Patriot}: On behalf of the BradBlog and the Blogathon I am pleased and proud to introduce Dr. Robert J. Fitrakis. According to his biography at freepress.org, Dr. Fitrakis is a professor of political science and a lawyer. He served as an international election observer in the 1994 presidential elections in El Salvador and as a dual-Ward legal advisor for the Election Protection Coalition during the 2004 U.S. Presidential Election. Dr. Fitrakis is also co-editor, with Steve Rosenfeld and Harvey Wasserman, of DID GEORGE W. BUSH STEAL AMERICA’S 2004 ELECTION? This essential volume is currently available from freepress.org, as well as through The BRAD STORE.
It’s great to have Dr. Fitrakis here with us. And I think we can even call him “Bob”.
We asked all our guest bloggers to write something for us to read, or else point to something that was already written. Bob Fitrakis has pointed to a couple of recent works, both well worth reading in their entirety.
As is our custom, I’ll tempt you with a few excerpts from each.
An Open Letter to John Tanner, Chief, Voting Section, U.S. Department of Justice
July 2, 2005
An Open Letter to John Tanner, Chief, Voting Section, U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Section in response to his June 29, 2005 letter to Nick A. Soulas, Jr., Assistant Prosecuting Attorney, Civil Division, Franklin County:
Dear Mr. Tanner:
I was curious to find that you had �conducted an investigation into the November 2, 2004 general election in Franklin County, prompted by allegations that Franklin County systematically assigned fewer voting machines in polling places serving predominantly black communities as compared to its assignment of machines in predominantly white communities.�
Let me begin by suggesting the word �contrasted� would be more appropriate than �compared.� Indeed, the difference is literally black and white.
You praise the bipartisan nature of the Franklin County Board of Elections (BOE). But you fail to mention that the Director, Matt Damschroder, is the former Chair of the Franklin County Republican Party, and that J. Kenneth Blackwell, Ohio’s Secretary of State and the Co-Chair of the Bush-Cheney Re-election Committee appoints all board members as well as officers, and they serve at his pleasure. Blackwell’s actions throughout the election year were openly partisan and obviously unethical.
For example, I was at a meeting prior to the election where Mr. Damschroder informed a delegation of esteemed international election observers that he would have them arrested based on the orders of Blackwell if they crossed the 100-foot line outside the polls to observe closer to the voting site. Is that what you mean by �the spirit of cooperation?�
…
In sum, your report is inadequate and inaccurate, and reflects a heavy bias toward the Republican party.Among so much else, it ignores suspicious problems with absentee ballots, the purging of hundreds of thousands of inner city voters from registration rolls in Cincinnati and elsewhere, the illegal harassment of ex-felons, the discarding of more than 100,000 uncounted provisional and “spoiled” ballots, obvious manipulations of electronic voting and tabulation machines, and much more.
It also reflects a strong bias against revealing what really happened in Ohio: the co-chair of the state’s Bush-Cheney campaign, J. Kenneth Blackwell, in cooperation with Republican county election board executives such as Matt Damschroeder, deprived tens of thousands of Ohioans of their votes and wrongfully and illegally swung the state to George W. Bush when exit polls and a flood of supporting evidence showed voters actually preferred John Kerry.
We understand your partisan desire to make the public believe otherwise. But the record is clear and unmistakable: any fair assessment of what happened in Ohio 2004 would confirm that this election was stolen for George W. Bush.
The DNC 2004 Election Report: An indictment of incompetence
by Steven Rosenfeld and Bob Fitrakis
June 25, 2005The Democratic National Committee’s investigation into Ohio’s 2004 presidential election irregularities is the perfect postscript to the party’s ‘election protection’ efforts last fall: it is a shocking indictment of a party caught completely off-guard in its most heated presidential campaign in years, and a party that still doesn’t fully understand what happened and how to avoid a repeat in the future.
…
The DNC report is filled with omissions of that magnitude and dismissals of the work of citizen-activists who � with no help from the DNC, or Kerry campaign � fought for a fair accounting of the 2004 vote after Election Day.Consider these paragraphs from an introductory letter to the report from Donna Brazile, the chair of the DNC’s Voting Rights Institute.
“Although voters across America voiced concerns which questioned the fairness and the accuracy of the 2004 general election, President George W. Bush’s narrow victory in Ohio (a pivotal state) provided sufficient electoral votes to ensure his re-election. There was a myriad of litigation surrounding the general election in Ohio that targeted controversial conduct on the part of the Office of the Secretary of State.
�Following the election recount, the House Judiciary Democratic Staff published an exhaustive report, �Preserving Democracy: What Went Wrong in Ohio� that is replete with anecdotal evidence of numerous, serious election irregularities in the Ohio presidential election which resulted in a significant disenfranchisement of voters.�
People who put their lives on hold and went to Ohio to work for John Kerry will shake their heads. Brazile cites �a myriad of litigation� that her party and candidate fought, did not fund and sought to undermine. Moreover, the reference to the House Judiciary Committee’s Democrat Staff inquiry as �anecdotal� is an insult to voting rights activists and volunteer lawyers who conducted public hearings � at their own expense, not the DNC’s – and took sworn testimony from more than 1,000 voters who cared enough and volunteered to testify under oath and file affidavits. The hearings were anything but anecdotal; they were perhaps the largest group of people to testify under oath about elections in the history of the state. The first two hearings in Columbus occurred within two weeks of Election Day. Four other hearings in Cleveland, Cincinnati, Toledo and Warren occurred more than a month before the DNC could conduct its phone survey from the east coast.
…
[T]he biggest disappointment of the DNC report is that it gives no indication that the old-school Jim Crow abuses will be addressed and rectified, and that the newer school electronic voting machine abuses will be similarly addressed. The report portrays a statewide landscape of separate and unequal rules in election jurisdictions across the state. It says local and statewide election officials � and the private companies they hire � aren’t interested in cooperating to make the system more transparent and equitable. And the party hierarchy that commissioned this report dismisses the work of its activists and loyal volunteers who worked before and after the 2004 race for electoral justice.Is that any way to prepare for 2006 or 2008? Read the report at www.democrats.org and decide for yourself if the DNC learned the real lessons of 2004 in Ohio.
{Winter Patriot again}: Dr. Fitrakis — Bob — will be online with us early Sunday afternoon in the Eastern part of the country, late Sunday morning in the west. So you all have a while to read those articles in their entirety and think of some good comments and questions for him. And we’ve told the guest bloggers they only have to answer the best questions, so when we say “good questions”, we’re not kidding.
Having Dr Fritrakis here is awesome!
Dr. Fitrakis,
I have sent your book to Newsweek’s Jonathan Alter, and this week I e-mailed your open letter to John Tanner to the reporters from the Toledo Blade who broke the Coingate story. I received an e-mailed thanks from Mr. Eder. Who knows what might come of it?
With highest respect,
Jim Cirile
God we are in trouble with no cure in sight. With the machines they can hold America hostage for decades to come.
That is true, Armadillious. Unless the Dems speak the truth they will find themselves rendered even more irrelevant. America continue on its path towards bankruptcy and lunacy. Scott Ritter says the Dems will run Hillary in ’08, a mistake, and they will lose again. So it’s 2012 at earliest before there’s any hope, and that’s only if we arrest the Neo-Cons and dump the voting machines. But for that the Dems have to be strong enough to divorce their abusive husband (the Neo-Cons) and get a restraining order… instead of apologizing and going back home for another beating.
Yes, this is bad.
What’s even worse is that so many of my liberal friends just don’t get it. They think it all smacks of conspiracy theory. It clashes too heavily with their notion of America to accept. And that is, of course, exactly why the thugs are getting away with it.
Bless you, Dr. Fitrakis. These times have presented all of us with
a unique opportunity to play Patrick Henry and John Hancock.
You sir, are way out in front. Our descendants will honor us!
Hello! I appreciate all your thoughtful comments and am honored to be in the same struggle to preserve democracy as the others guest blogging on bradblog this weekend.
For those of you following the Sherole Eaton story in Hocking County, Ohio, I spoke with her last night and found out the Hocking County Prosecutor has called for a meeting of the Board of Elections on Monday (tomorrow, July 11). Voting rights activists have already contaced the Sheriff’s dept. regarding Lisa Swartz’s conducting of an admitted Republican fundraiser while she worked for the BOE. Activists in Hocking County plan to file theft in office and other related charges against Swartz. As most of you may know, the Hocking County BOE is under a temporary restraining order from replacing Sherole Eaton since last Tuesday thanks to Cliff Arnebeck. Cliff and I are working on a permanent injunction to have Eaton reinstated to her job with BOE since she is a whistleblower.
#4 Jim Cirile
The Dems could run a no. 2 pencil in 2008 and it wouldn’t matter because of the unauditable black box voting machines in place all over the country that control the vote!
re #6: Oh yeah! Dr. Fitrakis YOU ROCK!! We’re gonna have to put a siren on that one! Hang on just a minute!! 😉
WooHoo!! thank you thank you Dr. Fitrakis for all your amazing work!
Do you think the Repub party has a history of placing "plants" in the Dem campaigns? And if so, how could these "plants" be exposed? Also, if this is a typical practice, I wonder if the Dems also do it?
Kira #7
I think you are onto something- A few #2 pencils (ie- paper and pencil ballots) instead of black box voting machines would go a long way toward restoring the integrity of the vote. Maybe the Dems. should symbolically run a #2 pencil for President in ’08!
Dr. Fitrakis – welcome to the Blog! You are one of our TRUE American Patriots and a Hero for us who are aware.
Since I’m from Georgia — do you know anything about our SOS Cathy Cox who (along with Meg Smothers, executive director of the League of Women Voters of Georgia) caused the implementation of 100% black boxes in our state. She has been courted by the Republicans and is running for Governor in ’06. I think she is one of those "plants" Jen mentioned.
Our League of Women’s Voters is (as far as I know) still divided over the issue.
Here’s a snip from a published article:
League still backs state’s voting system
By CARLOS CAMPOS
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 06/15/04
The head of Georgia’s League of Women Voters said Tuesday the chapter still supports the state’s electronic voting system, despite concerns among the group’s national membership over the security of such systems.
"We still absolutely, 100 percent, feel the system in Georgia is a good system," said Meg Smothers, executive director of the League of Women Voters of Georgia. Georgia is one of only two states that rely exclusively on electronic voting, using a system championed by Secretary of State Cathy Cox.
Hilarious, Steve! Really — YOU may be on to something. Let’s push that idea.
To comment #9 as to the question of "plants," I think each party gathers intelligence about the other one as do primary campaigns of candidates from the same party. What you need to know about Ohio politics is that there’s really no functioning Democratic Parties outside of the major cities and the Columbus and Cincinnati parties tend to be very moderate and "new" Democratic. For example, Denny White, the current Ohio Democratic Party Chair, was a well-know Republican businessman in the 1980s. His wealth in the trucking business was created by a unique relationship with the corrupt Teamsters out of Cleveland. One of his first tasks when he became Chair of the Franklin County Party was to purge the progressive wing of the Democratic Party. Bill Anthony, Chair of the Franklin County Dem Party now, is controlled by Denny White. He’s lazy and has had criminal problems in his past.
re #13 In other words, Dr. Fitrakis, if I am reading you right, THEY have both parties plus the machines and virtually unlimited funding, while WE have you and Harvey and a few [hundred thousand] other guys plus the truth! Should be a fair struggle, don’t you think?
To comment 11, While unfortunately I haven’t studied the Georgia situation in any detail, I do believe of course that they stole the 2002 election from Max Cleland. You may recall that the CIA’s favorits contractor, Battelle, "messed up" the exit poll formula. This preceded the shocking loss by Cleland who was 9-12 points ahead in the tracking polls.
The League of Women Voters has a very strange track record. In the mid-90s, in Ohio, the LOWV state chapter came out suddenly and strongly FOR a radioactive waste dump in the state. They also were very strong advocates initially of electronic voting in Ohio, before a grassroots surge of their membership derailed it somewhat. Much like the National Federation for the Blind who emerged in Ohio as Diebold’s biggest advocate after a $1 million settlement went their way.
In short, the Bush family and the people around them who practice dirty tricks and covert operations use nonprofits and Democrats as needed. Remember the words of Kevin Phillips, the architect of the modern Republican Party, "The Bush family can’t conduct an election without a CIA manual."
To comment 14, Thankfully, they don’t have all the Democrats. The Congressional Black Caucus, particularly Rep. John Conyers and Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. are well aware of what’s going on. Part of what works to their advantage is political socialization. The large corporate media and the Bush famiy propagandists have convinced a large amount of people that our democracy is so above reproach that no major party candidates would ever cheat.
Also, they are so sloppy and arrogant, that Harvey, myself and few thousand bradbloggers WILL bring them down. The key point is to get the mainstream Democrats to quit acting like enablers and shut the heck up about us being conspiracy theorists.
Make no mistake. Kerry knows they stole the vote in New Mexico, from the conversation he had with Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr., Cliff Arnebeck and myself.
Thanks for your answer, Bob. Yes – 2002 was the giant red flag flapping for black box cheating. You’ve given me some things in your comment to research, thanks.
We need to push the truth that unauditable black boxes are ILLEGAL because we cannot have any meaningful recounts. Are people so technically challenged that they just cannot understand that the current rhetoric in support of DREs is criminally misleading?
To Jim Cirile, thanks for sending my book around! I recently mailed your signed copy.
Harvey, Steve and I are planning a book tour of the Bay area and possible Seattle and Portland in September. This should also help get more exposure to the book, which is selling quite well off our website, but is not in major bookstores, yet.
By the way, Bob, I bought your book at the BradStore last night and anxiously await it’s arrival. I hear it is superb.
Dr. Fitrakis – speaking of Kerry. Do you have any knowledge or information of why he was and is so reluctant to raise the issue of election fraud? And obviously not just him – Dr. Dean saw firsthand how easy it is to hack the vote tabulators – yet he is so strangely silent on the subject…
Does Kerry also know that other states were stolen too?
I’ve been completely disgusted with Kerry on this issue.
His wife seems to know whats going on, but he is useless.
Back to New Mexico, why didn’t Bill Richardson do anything about it?
To comment 17, part of what the cheaters have going for them is the cultural belief in "techno-fixes." The blind faith in new technologies that will fix all our problems like punch card hanging chads.
Also, my Dad was a Teamster in Detroit and my brother worked at Jimmy Hoffa’s old local. When thugs with names like Jimmy "The Weasel" took the union ballot box in the back room, destroy all the paper and come out an announce that Dominic "Fats" Corrado won the vote with 80% — everyone knew they were cheating.
People don’t seem to comprehend the basic lack of transparency when private companies secretly count the vote with proprietary software. The biggest voting rights activists I meet are computer programmers. THEY get it.
Do we have ANY technically savvy judges who GET it?
About Kerry — he was briefed about our theory that they were stealing votes across the nation and that the exit polls were accurate, within +/- .02%.
Attorneys and people within the Kerry campaign have told him me that he was worried about remaining "viable" in the 2008 election. He was also concerned that if he challenged in Ohio, even if it turned out he won, he would have been a "minoritarian" president, who did not get the a majority of the popular vote.
The events in Fallujah that occurred right after the Nov. election further was perceived to be boxing him politically — you know, the ususal, "with our boys in harm’s way, Kerry’s dividing the country…"
Also, Kerry’s key attorney in Ohio, Huffheimer, works for a well-known Republican law firm of the Ohio’s Taft family. I’m not sure he was providing Mr. Kerry with the most up-to-date material that was being gathered on the ground through the Election Protection Coalition.
He did say about New Mexico that "every place they use those machines, I lost regardless of Democratic or Republican registration." I think he was referring to the DRE’s in that state.
About judges — There are subpoenas about to come out from a county prosecutor in Cuyahoga County (Cleveland) which are allowed by a judge. I guess that judge gets it. These concern illegalities during the Ohio recount.
The problem isn’t the judges in Ohio’s major cities, it’s that most of the blatant stealing, in my opinion, occurred in Republican controlled counties — small, rural, white, southeastern Ohio counties like Butler, Warren, Miami and Clarmont.
We have people in these counties who have talked to us, and would like to testify, but only if they’re under subpoena and are protected. So, in Ohio, the problem isn’t so much judges, but with the willingness of prosecutors to investigate and bring charges.
I actually think most Ohio judges would get it, if the case got before them.
In the Moss v. Bush case, we were dealing with the Ohio Supreme Court and the judges never allowed us to put our evidence forward.
Kerry is an idiot, what does it matter if he’s viable if the machines are rigged.
I agree with you about Max Cleland. Does Cleland agree with you? If yes, how could Kerry be cought off guard if one of his best friends was robbed with the help of these machines?
Thanks for being here and for all that you do.
Re: #16 – Simple and naive questions: *Why* do the Democrats enable criminal behavior? *Why* if Kerry knows they stole the vote in New Mexico, doesn’t he say so? Why would Dean sign on to a nothing, diversionary report like the one that the DNC came up with? (What could that report have been other than an attempt to bury the issue?)
Is it they are worried that the whole phony corporate money drenched political system, of which they are a part, will come tumbling down? Is it simple denial? Are they guilty of shenanigans, too? Are they afraid that the voters will react negatively because *they* are in denial?
None of these seem to really make complete sense to me. It seems that if we knew the reason, it would be a major practical step toward our goal of fair elections.
(I wrote this before the other Kerry comments — slow connection — but it seems to me a more widespread problem for the Democrats than just Kerry. A stolen election with this kind of reaction — an actual complicity in a coverup — I just can’t get it to compute in my head.)
Alison wrote: "what does it matter if he’s viable if the machines are rigged"
Exactly. Or even more: in my view, as long as the machines are rigged, none of them are viable.
** just my opinion of course but nobody’s ever disproved it! **
I understand it has been *proved* that votes were rigged against Howard Dean in the Dem Primary and that’s why Kerry ran. Is this true, to your knowledge, Bob?
Good morning Bob!
You ARE my hero and I believe a true national treasure. I admire your tireless work for justice and fair elections, and thank you for helping Sherole Eaton!
I very much enjoyed reading your letter to John Tanner, especially this para:
"We understand your partisan desire to make the public believe otherwise. But the record is clear and unmistakable: any fair assessment of what happened in Ohio 2004 would confirm that this election was stolen for George W. Bush."
As I’ve mentioned to you, I do not support federal vote-counting reform legislation at this point as I see it as a coverup truthfully. How can we have meaningful reform if we do not have a clear admission and assessment of problems that ocurred? If the feds do anything, they should investigate thoroughly (as Rep. Conyers has done) and put criminals in jail in what had to be the worst run election of all time, especially in Ohio, regardless of what Blackwell claims to the contrary!!
I do support renewal of the Voting Rights Act at the federal level, however. What is your feel or insight as to how GW Bush will proceed? Will he support or not?
THANKS AGAIN BOB — FOR ALL YOU DO!!! You are certainly a bright and shining example of why it is all of us must continue the fight — the RIGHT FIGHT.
Hi Kat! Welcome.
About Kerry and the Dems — The political game usually involves the Democrats registering as many people as possible with the Republicans trying to suppress the vote in the major urban areas.
I’m sure there’s some cheating by Dems, but they’re really not that good at it. And neither were the Republicans prior to the rise of the Bush family that has long-standing connections to the CIA, and have a long history of rigging elections in the Third World. "Benign" operations.
Couple this with Karl Rove’s willingness to do anything to win.
Consider this: somebody connected to the U.S. military industrial complex sent U.S.-made anthrax to major media figures and to the Democratic Senate leadership in 2001. Also, more than a few people are still wondering whether or not Wellstone and Carnahan were murdered.
Anyone who would send a trillion spores per gram Ames-strain silica-impregnated anthrax to the U.S. Senate scares the hell out opponents.
I mainly think the ones who know are scared, the rest tend to put their political careers before the good of the country, like Kerry. And, they’re comfortable in their job as a gutless, spineless and soulless permanent minority party.
Oh god, #32, your assessment of Kerry is just soooo different from my gut feeling about him — that is before he conceded. Well — some of us wonder if his family had been threatened. Before the election he PROMISED sincerely, that EVERY vote would be counted and then before all votes were counted … HE CONCEDED! It was all so peculiar. (Always a red flag when things don’t add up.)
About Dean’s primary — While I don’t have any info on vote rigging of the primary, we do know the following. Former Senator Toricelli was involved in moving large amounts of money into early primary states to defeat Dean on behalf of Kerry. The media clearly were out to sabotage Dean with the use of a directional mic as opposed to a ambient mic, when they publicized the "scream."
The pro-corporate, pro-NAFTA Democratic Party establishment did not want Dean as the candidate. Having two parties that are so similar on the major issues of the day, including authorization of force against Iraq obviously makes one wonder whether or not the cheating is elitist and on both sides.
Also, not that I want to cut into this hour with you Bob, but there’s a very important interview with Bill Israel (friend of Rove’s) broadcasting now and it would be worth the time to check it out, the second part anyway. You can do so here:
http://www.ibcradio.com/CMN.htm
Thanks Bob for all your support of The Brad Show! We LOVE you around here!!
HI Kira!! Thanks for being such an angel!!
🙂
Hi Kat! Thanks for your kind words. Having recently talked with Rev. Jackson and Rep. Jackson Jr., their great fear is that the Bush administration will recommend national application of the Voting Rights Act. If the act is applied throughout the nation, the Supreme Court will then declare it unconstitutional, since there are many government entities with no minorities to protect and law like that have been struck down in the past. You can’t compel a government entity to engage in activity when they are not guilty of any discrimination.
I also think Bush may attempt to go after yoting rights groups like the NAACP and Acorn and claimt the real problem is their "criminal" activity in registering voters.
This is the direction indicated by W’s former lawyer, Thor Hearne.
in comment #32 the good doctor wrote:
Really? In my opinion, anyone who is still wondering what happened to Paul Wellstone should read Very Special Agents, by the excellent Canadian blogger Jeff Wells.
Yes, I constantly worry about you, Rep. Conyers and others who are standing up and speaking out – we’ve seen enough to know we’re dealing with a very ruthless bunch.
Do you think there’s any chance K. Blackwell will ever be charged with any wrongdoing? or did they cover their bases so competely that he’ll get away with everything?
Bob-
You have my admiration and thanks that there are people like you in this country trying to bring truth to power, regardless of political or personal risk. I have to admit though, that reading your articles, following this thread and watching the political scene, in general, leaves me less than optimistic that there is any viable challenger to the contemptible Republican/Neocon (and even the Democratic Party Establishment) out there that we can look to in the near future to bail out the sinking ship of our democracy. Is there any real hope you can point to that we are not in for a LONG assault on our democracy and on any true two-party (let alone multi-party) system?
Dr. Fritakis, we apologize for having a radio show going while you’re here blogging with us — the show was supposed to have aired last night, and it did, but there were a lot of technical problems and most of us didn’t hear most of it. So now we’re trying to catch it on the re-brad-cast and keep blogging with you at the same time…
The thing is: we can catch the radio show later from the archives but we can’t ask you any more questions after you’re gone. ;-(
Here’s a different kind of question: The Free Press has gained an enormous amount of respect in certain corners of the internet [ahem] … Have you seen a similar increase in support on the ground in Ohio?
About Blackwell — I think there is a chance that he could be charged criminally one day. First of all, he’s unleashing far-right wing theo-fascist forces in Ohio. This is upsetting the traditionally conservative, but somewhat socially moderate Ohio Republican Party and Republican newspapers like the Columbus Dispatch are questioning of the impact of Paster Rod Parsley (Blackwell’s co-hort) and his more than a thousand "Patriotic Pastors" who are endorsing candidates directly from the pulpit.
Also, Blackwell was desperate and sloppy on Election night. While I believe there was some high-tech cyber-vote-rigging, some of it in Warren County looks like good old-fashioned ballot stuffing. It was done under the guise of a homeland security "lockdown" where every independent observer and media person was locked out of watching the vote counting process.
I think there are many Deep Throats in Ohio who just need to come forward.
Yes, they (Rove) have already begun the mis-information campaign to smear the NAACP and Acorn! Despicable!
Please explain to me how the Voting Rights Act is now applied. I want to make sure I have my understanding of the Act clear in my communications! National application of it versus…?
Thanks.
How do we spur on the Deep Throats? Any ideas? 6 or 7 of us could possibly help out.
Is there any hope?
The nature of their corruption is so widespread that I believe, in the near future, if we stay committed, it will unravel quickly. The tactics of Rove have been used against the likes of Sen. McCain. They don’t have any real friends. W’s poll numbers are at an all-time low. They thought they would be done with the election after Kerry conceded. People like you and I have created a movement and alternative ways of communicating.
Not only do I have hope — I enjoy defending democracy and exposing corruption. We do not fear these people. It is our democracy and I’m absolutely convinced we will take it back because many people inside the government know exactly the nature of the Bush family corruption and Rove’s evil.
The leaks will come and the cry will build to remove the president. This will further cripple him politically and create even more space for us to restore basic voting transparency and re-establish trust in our democracy.
In a few minutes I will have to switch gears — or hats, or something — and take on a hosting job somewhere else … but before I start concentrating on please don’t read my thread, I want to extend a hearty thank you to Dr. Fitrakis, not only for participating in our humble Blogathon but also — especially — for everything else you do for our democracy!
Thanks Winter, you are correct! No disrespect meant to Mr. Bob. The interview can be accessed in the archives on Monday, or sometime thereafter! But there are many of us here who are great at multitasking!! 😉
Wow. I’ve learned so much just in this short time Dr. Fitrakis! What an awesome treat to have you here, willing to take time out of your busy schedule on a Sunday afternoon to answer questions! Many thanks and many blessings to you!
About Free Press support in Ohio — last night we held our first of monthly "salons" at the Free Press office. Our office has become a place where other voting rights groups, activists and artists hang out and do their work. We are trying to build a political and social justice movement and things are happening.
The biggest movement in Columbus is the campaign to encourage Democrats to "Get a Spine!" We believe it is working on our local state legislature. They recently tabled House Bill 3, a horrible voting reform bill that would allow the state to suppress votes legally and would have outlawed any challenge to an election in Ohio.
We live in a conservative area, and it’s always been a struggle for the Free Press to be accepted in suburban areas or by cautious storekeepers. For instance, the local Wild Oats health food store just banned us from setting out our publication. Nevertheless, our national reputation has had a positive impact locally.
Echo Jen #48
God Bless you, Dr. Bob Fitrakis. Keep up the good work and keep the faith. Your comment #45 is heartening. We all need to become Thomas Paine clones.
Visit The Whispering Campaign !
Ditto to Winter Patriot’s #46- thanks to Dr Fitrakis for his involvement here and for everything he is doing for our country. Thanks also to you Winter Patriot for the INCREDIBLE job of multitasking you are doing here with even more INCREDIBLE results!
I should say, Dr. Bob. My apologies.
I’d like to take this opportunity to ask if you will, one day, consider a serious run for president?
You’ve got my support!
FITRAKIS FOR PRESIDENT! Maybe we can team you up with Brad — a Fitrakis-Friedman ticket!
re #52 I’d vote for ’em!
TWICE!! 😉
OK, before I sign off — about the Voting Rights Act — the act is a national act but only applies to certain states and areas that had a pattern and practice of abusing voter rights during the civil rights era: intimidating black voters and not allowing them to register to vote.
This mainly happened in the deep south.
Some states don’t have many blacks in their population or a history of repressing them as voters. If the Voting Rights Act was made national, it would likely be ruled unconstitutional because it would require these states or local governments who had no voter suppression history to comply to an unnecessary federal mandate.
Rep. Jackson Jr. in the short run is trying to get a law passed that would establish national voting standards — that would stop voter suppression. In the long run, he insists correctly, that we need a constitutional amendment ensuring our right to vote.
Thanks everyone for participating in the blogathon! It was fun! Great conversation. see you! Bob
Thank you, Bob — LIBERAL HUGS & KISSES!!
Thankyou for your work, Bob.
THANKS Bob!
WE DO NOT CONCEDE!!
I know Bob Fitrakis is gone now, but I just wanted to add re: my #27 and all the remarks about the Democrats — We all are wondering about and berating their "spineless" reaction to evident election fraud, but it is much more than that. In rolling over (or whatever the hell they are doing), they are implicitly condoning the loss of representative democracy which is much more serious than simple spinelessness. We shouldn’t let them just ride on the spineless charge.
Have those in the elite class of corporate/government/media really gotten to the point where, to them, elections are irrelevant – maybe even "quaint"?
Kerry’s behavior in conceding so early and failing to follow up
on the election fraud was very puzzling. If somebody had
simply shown some leadership we could have had ten million
people in the streets. Instead we had shock and confusion.
Kerry pulled his punches before the election too: he allowed
Bush to tease him about the $87 billion and never offered the
simple explanation that he voted for a tax-funded bill and
against the deficit-funded bill–nor did he point out that Bush
threatened to VETO the $87 billion.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,...100777,00.html
Kerry also allowed Bush to paint himself as strong on terrorism,
and never made an issue of Bush’s complete failure to heed
warnings from 11 countries and three FBI field offices before
9/11. Gore would have implemented Richard Clarke’s plan to
"roll back" al Qaeda, and 9/11 never would have happened.
Why didn’t Kerry say so?
Kerry’s self-sabotaging I can explain only with an extremely
wild-ass theory:
1. Mike Ruppert is right and the world is running out of oil
2. Iraq is all about the oil. The Democrats know this and
3. The Democrats don’t have the ruthlessness to seize the oil
but they agree it needs to be done and so for the good of the
country they’ll let the Republicans do the dirty work.
Re: Paul Wellstone, check out the Amazon.com page on Dr.
James Fetzer’s book about the Wellstone crash. According to
that page, 69% of Minnesotans blamed the crash on a GOP
conspiracy.
The first reader review of the book is by Dr. David Ray Griffin
the theologian and epstemologist who is well known for his
books about 9/11.
Actually, PetGoat, I think that is a pretty good theory.
It still makes the Dems spineless and subservient — and, really, clueless, as are the Republicans, unable the think outside the very limited and apparently opaque "box" of present cumulative concentration of power, governing class, and corporate/government political structure as it has developed since WWII (on a global scale). Their life is in that box, and that’s a big problem.
There are much more creative ways to look at Peak Oil, and I think we all agree here on Brad Blog that the ideals of our nation are overdue for resurgence in the cause of human dignity and liberty in the world that will be emerging, and damned if we will let people ignore them.
I think it is dawning on a lot of people that this is *our* fight.
There were many puzzling Kerry moments during the campaign. Why didn’t he defend himself against the swifties earlier and more effectively? Why didn’t he knock Bush out during the debates when he appeared to have Bush on the ropes. Why did he seem to just miss again and again on various issues, not quite hitting the main point.
On the election, I think he did the right thing. I still think, in fact I’m even more convinced, that had he disputed the election, he had no chance, given the situation in the courts. And then the issue would have died right there.
This way, it’s not about him. It’s about the election process itself and we can see that it still has legs, now more than six months later.
Kerry did the right thing by keeping out of the election controversey. If Kerry has a talent as a leader, that may be it. He knows when to step out of the picture and let other folks do their thing. I mean that seriously. The stolen election issue is better off not being attached to the success or failure of Kerry’s candidacy.
Phil, my "gut" agrees with you. It’s so easy to feel like the "woman scorned." It’s just that I haven’t seen him doing anything to help fix our broken voting system. Maybe his hands ARE tied and he has to work behind the scenes. The fact that his wife has publicly spoken out about the obvious thievery makes me wonder if she is a safe mouthpiece.
There is so much manipulation of words, thoughts and opinion stemming from eye-of-newt gingrich who turned a psychological healing tool (NLP) into a razor-sharp weapon for the dark side of neoCon corruption. They are constantly flooding airwaves and all areas of public discourse with disinfo and they are ALWAYS attempting to drive a wedge between all other groups who are NOT neoCons. Their goal is to keep us divided and hating our own.
If you don’t believe me, read Thom Hartmann’s articles on the subject, since he was personally acquainted with the people involved and a student of NLP himself.
Here’s a good place to start:
BuzzFlash Article by Thom Hartmann
November 4, 2004
During the 1988 presidential campaign, Republican partisans began employing an unusually skillful use of language and advertising technique. The Willie Horton ads, for example, used an old NeuroLinguistic Programming (NLP) technique of "Anchoring via Submodalities," linking Dukakis, at an unconscious level in the viewer’s mind, to Willie Horton by the use of color versus black-and-white footage, and background sound. After a few exposures to these psy-ops ads, people would "feel" Willie Horton when they "saw" Dukakis.
It was no accident. Toward the end of that campaign, I was presenting at an NLP conference in New York, and a colleague mentioned to me how the GOP had hired one of our mutual acquaintances to advise them on the tools of persuasion. "He’s gone over to the dark side," my friend said sadly.
… At the same time NLP was being used for therapy and to enhance communications, the dark side of the force was getting aggressive. Newt Gingrich in particular — skilled in these techniques — was working with Republican leaders and conservatives in the media to frame the word "liberal" as something akin to "traitor," an effort that ultimately led to his infamous "secret" memo to GOP leaders titled "Language: A Key Mechanism of Control."
As FAIR (Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting) notes, Newt wrote, "Often we search hard for words to help us define our opponents. … Apply these [words] to the opponent, their record, proposals and their party.
"Decay… failure (fail)… collapse(ing)… deeper… crisis… urgent(cy)… destructive… destroy… sick… pathetic… lie… liberal… they/them… unionized bureaucracy… ‘compassion’ is not enough… betray… consequences… limit(s)… shallow… traitors… sensationalists…endanger… coercion… hypocrisy… radical… threaten… devour… waste… corruption… incompetent… permissive attitudes… destructive… impose… self-serving… greed… ideological… insecure… anti-(issue): flag, family, child, jobs… pessimistic… excuses… intolerant… stagnation… welfare… corrupt… selfish… insensitive… status quo… mandate(s)… taxes… spend(ing)… shame… disgrace… punish (poor…)… bizarre… cynicism… cheat… steal… abuse of power… machine… bosses… obsolete… criminal rights… red tape… patronage." [snip] MORE
It’s hard to do, since we are faced with such an overwhelming flood of disinfo, misinfo and attacks from all angles, but we (as the non-neoCon group) must keep in mind the psychological manipulation aimed at us on a daily basis.
My opinion is that we must use all our our energy against the known neoCon Corporatists in order to bring down the Beast. As that happens, the other Players will be exposed and then we will know for sure who they are.
I guess I’m trying to make this point — let’s don’t waste our precious energy railing at puffs of smoke but attack the real perpetrators relentlessly, like a hive of hornets.
Kira and Phil– You are probably right that in any battle you should concentrate your forces.
Nevertheless, I think the mainstream Dems have been given more than enough benefit of the doubt and have proved greatly lacking. The DNC didn’t *have* to come up with that elections report that ignored the massive evidence of fraud. I see it as complicity in attempting to bury the truth. (It won’t be buried because of us.)
I believe Kerry’s quick and abject concession was…a quick and abject concession. He didn’t have to do it. He could have stood up for the disenfranchised voters. He could have fought for fair elections. It would have been a boon. I simply disagree with others who think he had no choice but to concede. Of course, the neocon hysteria machine would have gone to work, but so what? That is the tactic of the enemy we have to deal with. People want honest and forceful leadership, particularly at a time when there is so little. I truly believe Kerry missed an opportunity of a lifetime.
As I said some time ago here, in my experience, when you think someone is just waiting for the right moment….the moment never comes. When you see a true, honest, courageous leader, embrace him or her and don’t bother about the others. Just my opinion.
By the way and parenthetically in ancient history…When I was a young anti-war activist in 1971, Kerry’s testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hugely and profoundly affected me. What I would have given for the eloquence and focus of Mr. Kerry! I still believe that his words and the spark he gave to the Vietnam Veterans against the War was what gave the final blow to any remaining enthusiastic support for the war. His famous line is so appropriate now: ""How do you ask a soldier to be the last person to die for a lie?" Nothing Mr. Kerry does can take away that moment. It was a moment of courage – exactly the kind of high human and clear moral drama we need now.
And now, YOU’RE probably right, Arry. It’s such a big can of worms. I believe the streets would have filled up similar to those in the Ukraine if Kerry had stuck to his guns – I really do.
Anyway – my main point is to remember how the neoCons use "divide and conquer" against us. I think we need to force our Senators & Representatives to represent OUR desires. We can only do that by insisting over & over again and letting them know we aren’t buying the phoney Voting Rights group or their disinfo.
Thanks for your always intelligent posts — and those of PetGoat, too. Great input.
Phil, you can defend John Kerry if you like. But I can’t tolerate having gone to Florida at my own expense to serve as a poll watcher, where I observed unfair allocation of voting machines and vote flipping from Kerry to Bush at my precinct, to learn in the next 24 hours that the same things had happened all over Flordia and Ohio, to have Kerry concede the next day in the face of 57,000 complaints from voters about irregularities…AND THEN TO HAVE KERRY’S PEOPLE ASK ME FOR MONEY ABOUT ONCE A WEEK EVER SINCE TO HELP HIM SELL HIS POLITICAL IDEAS WITHOUT HIS ONCE MENTIONING ELECTION FRAUD!
Would you contribute to someone who had let you down like that?
Let me also respond to Kira, who said the streets would have filled up as in the Ukraine if Kerry had fought the good fight.
Well…what was the outcome in the Ukraine? The Supreme Court ordered a new election, and the right guy won. That is, the guy who really won the first time.
Would our Supreme Court have ordered a new election? Probably not. No, make that definitely not. But the issue would have been out front, the mainstream media would have assigned investigative reporters to Ohio and Florida, and all the collateral stuff (Clint Curtis, Ray Lemme, etc.) would have come out. I’m willing to bet impeachment proceedings against Bush for election fraud would have already begun by now.
Do we sacrifice democracy for peace in the streets?