Elections

OUR RIGGED ELECTIONS
By Mark Crispin Miller | 10/01/2006
http://www.washingtonspectator.com

To say that this election could go either way is not to say that the Republicans have any chance of winning it. As a civic entity responsive to the voters' will, the party's over, there being no American majority that backs it, or that ever would. Bush has left the GOP in much the same condition as Iraq, Afghanistan, the global climate, New Orleans, the Bill of Rights, our military, our economy and our national reputation. Thus the regime is reviled as hotly by conservatives as by liberals, nor do any moderates support it.

We hope you can join us for our event on Oct 9 at Busboys & Poets! Please
forward this on to your friends and colleagues in the DC area...
VotersForPeace Forum: "The Peace Voter's Dilemma"
http://www.votersforpeace.us/content.jsp?content_KEY=2060

Date: Monday, Oct 9, 2006
Time: 6:00 - 8:00pm, "Meet and Greet" @ 5:30pm
Location: Busboys & Poets, Langston Room, 14 & V St. NW
Join anti-war commentators across the political spectrum in a dialogue about

There is one thing we know. The politics of avoiding a confrontation for fear of being smeared is NOT the path to victory. This we know, that the only way to win back those of other parties who are also angry at being mislead is by demonstrating the courage of our own leadership.

SUPPORT THE LIE/DIE TV SPOTS: http://www.peaceteam.net/donations.php

And there is a movement right now, The Peace Team, growing amongst our candidates themselves to form their OWN consensus about what must be done to correct the biggest lie of all, the war and occupation without end of Iraq. These candidates agree on one fundamental truth, that our troops in Iraq must START to come home now.

Michigan's 11th Congressional Democratic Congressional Candidate, Tony Trupiano will be a guest on the Nationally Syndicated Radio Nation with Laura Flanders on Sunday night, October 1 from 9:15 until 10:00 p.m. ET. The show is heard on Air America and you can listen live by clicking here.

By Robert Parry, http://www.consortiumnews.com

George W. Bush – breaking with an earlier Republican campaign strategy for localizing congressional races – is nationalizing Election 2006 around his vision of fighting “World War III” against Islamic militants and in defense of his claim to broad presidential powers, such as the right to lock up people he deems “enemy combatants.”

In effect, Bush is gambling that the Right’s powerful media apparatus, Republican organizational advantages and the residual fear from the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks will trump the Democrats’ abilities to convince the American people that Bush’s vision represents a dire threat to the future of their democratic Republic.

http://www.salon.com

In a powerful TV ad, Iraq and Afghanistan vets attack Republicans who voted against funds for body armor. GOP, beware. Dems, wake up.

By Joe Conason

Sep. 29, 2006 | Rarely does an incumbent U.S. senator panic over the possibility that a new and little-known advocacy organization might broadcast a political attack in his home state. Yet the mere prospect of confrontation with VoteVets.org -- a political action committee organized by military veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan -- seems to have frightened Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., into launching his own preemptive attack on the group.

Dear Veteran Supporter,

Today is an important day in the election cycle as it begins the countdown of the final six weeks leading up to election day. To coincide with this, Iraq Veterans for Progress has sent our first veterans to work on campaigns. Our candidates are grateful to have our backing, as it is critically important that the public knows Iraq veterans are supporting their efforts to bring the troops home.

By Bernard Weiner, The Crisis Papers

Karl Rove&Co., feeling themselves freed from the bipartisan torture albatross
hanging around their necks as a result of having rolled the GOP-rebel
senators, are moving toward the "October suprises" they've been hinting at.

What those surprises might be range from announcing the capture or death of
Osama bin Laden to a surgical strike on Iran's fledgling nuclear program to

http://peaceispatriotic.org/peaceCandidates.html

Race in Colorado could be pivotal in Congress
Colorado Gazette - Sept. 27, 2006 - THE GAZETTE AND NEWS SERVICES
http://www.gazette.com/display.php?id=1321989&secid=1

ARVADA - In a shocking new tack, Republican congressional candidate Rick O’Donnell said Tuesday that the Bush administration has bungled the war in Iraq and the United States should change course there.

“What we’re doing right now isn’t working. That’s a failure of leadership from our president, from our secretary of defense and from our generals, ” O’Donnell said during a debate with Democrat Ed Perlmutter. The two are vying to represent Colorado’s 7th Congressional District, one of the most closely watched races in the nation.

Former Army Lieutenant and candidate for Congress in Vermont, Dennis Morrisseau, today called for the arrest of President Bush and Vice President Cheney by the American military "if necessary" to prevent an unauthorized attack upon the nation of Iran.
The antiwar Vietnam vet is a Republican, but he has won approval from the State of Vermont to run on the ballot line “Impeach Bush Now,” rather than Democrat or Republican.

Published on Tuesday, September 19, 2006 by The Nation
by John Nichols

The Sunday Washington Post headline said it all. Echoing a theme that is finally being picked up by print and broadcast media that for too long has neglected the dramatic problems with this country's systems for casting and counting votes, the newspaper's front page announced: "Major Problems At Polls Feared: Some Officials Say Voting Law Changes And New Technology Will Cause Trouble."

Following a disastrous election day in Maryland that was defined by human blunders, technical glitches, long lines and long delays in vote counting so severe that some contests remain unresolved almost a week after the balloting, the Post declared that, "An overhaul in how states and localities record votes and administer elections since the Florida recount battle six years ago has created conditions that could trigger a repeat -- this time on a national scale -- of last week's Election Day debacle in the Maryland suburbs, election experts said."

No fooling!

By Hans Johnson
In These Times
Monday 18 September 2006

Citing extremism, more GOPers are joining the Democrats.

A trend of local, below-the-radar party-switches is undercutting Republicans as they face the sternest challenge in a decade to one-party control of Congress and several state legislatures. Such party-switching by elected officials often indicates that the label they are shedding has lost appeal and foreshadows poor performance at the polls.

By Ann Imse
Rocky Mountain News
Friday 15 September 2006

Attorney fears fraud, says state "headed for train wreck" in November.

Voting on computer screens is so vulnerable to massive fraud that Colorado's November election is "headed for a train wreck," says an attorney who is seeking to have the equipment barred at trial next week.

An expert would need just 2 minutes to reprogram and distort votes on a Diebold, one of four brands of computerized voting systems attacked in the suit, says attorney Paul Hultin. His firm, Wheeler Trigg Kennedy, has taken on the case pro bono for a group of 13 citizens of various political stripes.

t r u t h o u t | Press Release
Thursday 14 September 2006

Researchers reveal "extremely serious" vulnerabilities in e-voting machines.

In a paper published on the Web today, a group of Princeton computer scientists said they created demonstration vote-stealing software that can be installed within a minute on a common electronic voting machine. The software can fraudulently change vote counts without being detected.

Published on Wednesday, September 13, 2006 by The Nation
by John Nichols

Press reports on the primary victory of Minnesota Democratic U.S. House candidate Keith Ellison make note of the fact that he is now likely to become the first Muslim elected to Congress. But Ellison is also likely to become one of the most left-leaning members of the next House.

The Ellison victory was one of several for anti-war Democrats seeking open seats. Others came in in New York, where City Council member Yvette Clarke won a fierce fight for a Brooklyn seat once held by Shirley Chisholm, and in Maryland, where John Sarbanes, the son of retiring Senator Paul Sarbanes, led in a crowded House race. In Maryland's highest-profile race, however, former NAACP head Kweisi Mfume, who was outspoken in his opposition to the war, lost to the decidely more cautious Representative Ben Cardin by a 46-38 margin.

In another Maryland race, activist Donna Edwards was in a virtual tie this morning with Representative Al Wynn, with a substantial number of votes still to be counted. During the campaign Edwards billed Wynn "the Joe Lieberman of Maryland" because of the Democratic incumbent's many votes in favor of Bush administration initiatives.

If Edwards pulls out a victory, it will be a very big deal.

But Ellison's win is nothing to sneeze at.

What the Minnesota Democrat did right is instructive.

By Kimberly Hefling
The Associated Press
Tuesday 12 September 2006

Washington - Any other time you'd expect Rep. Curt Weldon to be an unwavering supporter of President Bush's Iraq policy. After all, just this summer the Pennsylvania Republican was saying the jury remains out on whether Iraq still holds weapons of mass destruction.

But Weldon, vice chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, is desperate to hold onto his seat in the Philadelphia suburbs. He is sounding more like a Democrat and the increasing number of dissident Republicans who are talking about a timetable for bringing the troops home.

By Paul Harris
The Guardian UK
Thursday 07 September 2006

The debacle surrounding the Republican victory in 2000 demonstrated to the world that America's electoral process is wide open to abuse.
But as Paul Harris discovers, the system has actually worsened since then.

One person, one vote. Count the totals. The one with the most wins. The beauty of democracy is its simplicity and its inherent fairness. It equalises everyone, even as it empowers everyone. What could go wrong? In America, it turns out, quite a lot.

The Associated Press
Friday 08 September 2006

Columbus, Ohio - A judge ordered Ohio's county elections boards on Thursday to preserve ballots from the 2004 presidential election, a move activists hope will help prove accusations of fraud.

Federal law requires the counties to keep the ballots for 22 months after the election, which was this week.

The ruling came in a lawsuit filed by plaintiffs including the Ohio Voter Rights Alliance for Democracy and the head of a Columbus neighborhood association that accuses Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell of depriving many blacks of the right to vote in 2004 by distributing fewer voting machines per person in black neighborhoods.

Published on Friday, September 9, 2006 by Find Law
by John W. Dean

The latest orchestrated war-speak from Bush Administration officials, as they ramp up their oratory for the mid-term election, has recast Islamic militants and terrorists as "Islamic fascists." Thus, as we approach the five-year mark since terrorists attacked Americans on our own soil, the Administration is redefining the enemy - once again.

We have gone from the non sequitur of the "war on terrorism" (A war on "the use of violence and threats to intimidate or coerce for political purposes"?) to the neologism of the "war on Islamic fascists." Or, depending on the speaker, on "Islamofascism." Why the new rhetoric?

The answer is simple: Pure politics. Republicans, for good reason, are worried about losing control of Congress. (For less than rational reasons, many Americans believe Republicans are more effective than Democrats in fighting terrorists.) Should Republicans lose control of Congress, or either chamber, of course, it will mean the effective end of the Bush/Cheney presidency -- with the remaining two years of the presidency likely to be consumed by investigations into the activities of the prior six.

The Associated Press
Thursday, 07 September 2006

Bridgeport, Connecticut - The owner of DataUSA Inc., a company that conducted political polls for the campaigns of President George W. Bush, US Sen. Joe Lieberman and other candidates, pleaded guilty to fraud for making up survey and poll results.

Tracy Costin pleaded guilty Wednesday to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Costin, 46, faces a maximum of five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 when she is sentenced Nov. 30.

Published on Thursday, September 7, 2006 by the Associated Press
by Shannon McCaffrey

MACON, Georgia - President Bush's once-solid relationship with Southern women is on the rocks. "I think history will show him to be the worst president since Ulysses S. Grant," said Barbara Knight, a self-described Republican since birth and the mother of three. "He's been an embarrassment." In the heart of Dixie, comparisons to Grant, a symbol of the Union, is the worst sort of insult, especially from a Macon woman who voted for Bush in 2000 but turned away in 2004.

In recent years, Southern women have been some of Bush's biggest fans, defying the traditional gender gap in which women have preferred Democrats to Republicans.

By Sibel Edmonds & William Weaver
http://nswbc.org/Op%20Ed/ClintonOpEd-Aug28-06.htm

Recent surveys measuring public opinion and confidence in congress all arrived at the same conclusion: over seventy percent of Americans have lost faith and confidence in the United States Congress. The public no longer trusts this body of politicians who were elected to represent the people and the peoples’ interests. Instead, they now view these “representatives” as servants of special interest groups, corporations and high-powered lobbyists. Americans are tired of watching and listening to elected officials who refrain from taking a strong stand on crucial issues, and who almost never state their positions with conviction and sincerity. In the eyes of the nation these senators and representatives are nothing more than programmed publicity puppets, competing for face time in the media. Common adjectives used by our citizens to describe these officials clearly reflect their sentiments: “spineless,” “phony,” “corrupt,” “out of touch,” “timid,” “all show and no substance,” and the list goes on. Why have we Americans lost confidence and faith in those elected? Where and when did we go wrong; or perhaps more correctly, they go wrong? What have these representatives done, or, failed to do, that arouses such anger and loathing in the very same constituents who voted them into office?

Update: Jonathan Tasini, Candidate for U.S. Senate vs. Hillary Clinton
will join us to talk about the various issues including Iraq and Health
Care which he is emphasizing in his primary election efforts

Building Bridges: Your Community and Labor Report
Produced by Mimi Rosenberg and Ken Nash
Monday, August 28, 2006, 7 - 8 pm EST,
over WBAI Radio 99.5 FM
or streaming live at http://www.wbai.org

By Guernica

Jonathan Tasini isn't expecting a miracle. The candidate who would take on political giant Hillary Clinton for her adamant pro-war stance is not expecting to repeat what Lamont pulled off in Connecticut; he admits he just doesn't have the money. And yet he is proud his poll numbers were recently as high as 13% and climbing. Make no mistake: on the issues, he feels, he's got Hillary's number all the way. But Ms. Clinton refuses to debate him. Editorials in both The New York Post and The New York Times, in a rare moment of agreement, demanded a debate be held. As one of Tasini's staffers blogged two weeks before the primary: "Ms. Clinton is in absolutely no danger of losing the primary. Her aversion to debating Mr. Tasini has to do with the prime focus of his campaign: her vote four years ago to authorize President Bush to go to war with Iraq."

A Former War Backer, GOP Congressman Calls for Timetable
By Anushka Asthana, Washington Post

Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.), once an ardent supporter of the war in
Iraq, said yesterday that the Bush administration should set a time frame
for withdrawing U.S. troops. He added that most of the withdrawal could take
place next year.

Shays, who faces a tough reelection campaign because of his previous support

By Jeff Cohen

The cover story in the new issue of TIME, the flagship publication of the Time Warner media empire, informs readers that Hillary Clinton has "virtually nonexistent opposition for her senate seat."

Hold that phrase in your head. Because at another outpost of the Time Warner empire, decisions have been made that help ensure Sen.
Clinton will have "virtually nonexistent opposition."

By OSHRAT CARMIEL, Staff Writer
The Bergen Record
Friday,August 25, 2006
E-mail: carmiel@northjersey.com

Speaking before an audience of Iraq war dissenters and presidential critics, Rep. Steve Rothman, D-Fair Lawn, pledged to support an inquiry into the possible impeachment of President Bush over the war in Iraq.

That offers a critical reason, Rothman told his applauding audience in Edgewater on Wednesday night, to elect Democrats in November.

Check out today’s NY Times editorial pressing Hillary Clinton to debate Jonathan. It’s time she stopped ducking the question. Please call her office at 212-213-3717 to say that you want to hear her debate Jonathan on the issues. We will not let this go. She must debate. Democracy demands it The Times editorial is linked below.

Hillary Clinton’s Low Profile
http://www.nytimes.com/pages/opinion/index.html

A message from Charles W. Sanders:

ACTION PAGE: http://www.charleswsanders.org/petitions/pnum262.php

On Friday, August 18th, I filed the necessary nominating petition signatures to compete for the Democratic party nomination for the U.S. House in the 3rd District of OH. Due to the sudden and unexpected withdrawal of our candidate, it has been determined that there must be a special election on September 15 to fill the election vacancy