ANALYSIS: Many Bush supporters almost voted for Kerry

[Octafish]

Gee. Seems someone didn't get the message. The race came down to a commanding officer tested in combat who ALWAYS made the right choice versus a drunken coward hiding in the bowels of Alabama during Vietnam. It shouldn't have been close. -- Octafish

ANALYSIS: Many Bush supporters almost voted for Kerry

November 6, 2004
BY RON HUTCHESON
FREE PRESS WASHINGTON STAFF

WASHINGTON -- Nearly one-fourth of President George W. Bush's supporters in Tuesday's election considered voting for Sen. John Kerry, but they stuck with the president because of concerns about terrorism and moral values, postelection polls show.

Kerry's missed opportunity is just one of the nuggets that political strategists have found while combing through the rubble of the presidential campaign. Both sides are taking a hard look at postelection polls to determine what they did right and what they did wrong.

With the benefit of hindsight, it's now clear that if terrorist chief Osama bin Laden intended to hurt Bush by popping up just before the election, he failed.

Kerry made a big mistake when he dragged Vice President Dick Cheney's lesbian daughter into the third presidential debate, the studies showed.

For Democrats, one of the most frustrating findings is that 24 percent of Bush's supporters said they could've gone for Kerry.

CONTINUED...

http://www.freep.com/news/politics/analysis6e_20041106.htm

[are_we_united_yet]

1. To those people I say a resounding

I dont give a flying f#ck.

[Octafish]

8. Ignorance is Blissfield, Ohio.

Pays to have friends. Ask Katherine Harris.

[are_we_united_yet]

28. I'm not sure you intended this

But I hadn't thought of this nuance of "people almost voting for Kerry"!

:)

[Darth_Kitten]

45. What, they want a MEDAL or something?

Some soft hearted liberal to buy them a beer at a local bar? A pat on the back? A round of applause. :shrug: :eyes:

Then I guess their consciences are REALLY going to bother them when Bush & Co kicks them soundly in the quarters. Gosh, you mean I had ANOTHER option in 2004? :eyes:

[Daktari]

139. Are we supposed to believe that poll too? n/t

[kostya]

2. Good. Then Kerry should run in 2008 when he can say I told you so.

[THUNDER HANDS]

6. I doubt he'd want to run again

The race this year took a huge mental and physical toll on him. He'll be 64 or 66 years old in 2004 and I think he'll probably conclude that this was his one and only shot.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

46. I'd really want him to run again...as angry as I was on Wednesday

I've still always wanted him to be president...

[THUNDER HANDS]

57. me too

but he looked exhausted at the end of this. He wasn't in good health to begin with, coming off of cancer surgery. Another run would be very hard on him. If he wanted to, I say go for it, but I honestly don't believe he wants to try it again.

[Octafish]

9. Kerry was an outstanding nominee. The best since 1960 IMO.

Maybe he can do a Nixon and have a second Act. As longtime DUers know, I lhave been as active and faithful supporter of John Kerry as anyone on this board or in the real world. If JFK2's the nominee, I’ll support him whole-heartedly. To get there, he’ll have to prove to me and everybody else he deserves it and is willing to do what it takes to win. Seems his advisors didn't listen to me this time...

[WI_DEM]

3. So that Mary Cheney comment contributed to his narrow defeat?

God if you could just go back and do something over again.

[Octafish]

13. This alone is impossible even unto the gods...

... To undo the past.

While speaking in public, similar things have happened to me. Too often it's the result of oxygen deprivation. Thus the mouth speaks before the brain considers… Still, I believe I'd be able to remember to clobber Bush not over the lesbian question, but the combined issues of national security and law enforcement:

During the first debate (and Sneer when debating John Edwards) Bush brought up Pakistani nuclear scientist Dr. AQ Khan. Kerry SHOULD HAVE brought up how he closed down BCCI, the world's largest criminal enterprise, founded by a Pakistani and financed by Middle Eastern petrodollars -- the same bank that financed the Pakistani bomb, and Dr. Khan. Bush Senior protected the organization, as did many prominent Democrats, including Clark Clifford, and Bush Jr. banked there. This would also have made a wonderful moment to bring up James R Bath.

[Pig_Latin_Lover]

80. That's bullshit

Nobody raised an eyebrow when Edwards did it. This is pure media spin at its finest.

What they're trying to do is manipulate the public into concentrating on moral values and associating moral values with the people in charge.

Why wouldn't the Mary Cheney thing hurt Bush? Cheney is okay with a lesbian daughter and that didn't hurt HIM with the fundies? Why would that hurt Kerry?

[cubsfan forever]

82. Indeed, sir!

Where do people get these insane notions about the effect of Kerry's statement re Mary Cheney? It is simply nonsense and media spin. Anyone who buys into to this must be spending too much time watching cable news.

Professor 2

[Sara Beverley]

99. This is bullshit too. No matter what he said or did the RW was going to

vote against Kerry just to win and prove a point. Cheney's gay dauaghter was not an issue. The issue should have been Cheney's opposition to the gay marriage amendment--the same position that Kerry held. Cheney said in public that he believe people should be able to live like they want to. The wingnuts voted for a ticket where the top took us to war based on lies, mishandled the economy and the war, cost the lives of over a thousand US soldiers and 10,000 innocent Iraqi men women and children, the bottom of the ticket opposes a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, is a corporate crook, liar and smearer. The Christian right poor are pawns in the hands of the Christian right wealthy who are not Christian at all but an arm of the neocon fanatics.

[study_war_no_more]

134. morale majority are niether morale not majority

I think evangelicas should come out straight and call themselves the reborn white people so the rest of us can at least understand their nonsenese.

[GOTV]

153. I don't believe ....

... that the Mary Cheney comment would have bothered many people if the pundits didn't spent so much effort TELLING people they should be offended by it.

[underpants]

4. Fear intolerance ignorance and religous extremism

apparently it works.

to all of my fellow Americans I say from the bottom of my heart-Fuck you.

[Octafish]

14. What underpants said.

If I may add:

FUCK YOU, BUSH!

[wellstone_democrat]

58. yep, I'm with you on that thought underpants

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

65. To my fellow Americans who voted for Bush, fuck you. I thought of what

I want for my personalized plates: VOTD BLU

[girl gone mad]

92. I don't have any soft spot in my heart..

for these fools, either.

(And, btw underpants, my cat misses your signature.)

[yardwork]

122. And may I add......to all of you who thought about voting for Kerry

but panicked and voted for Bush because he scared you and lied to you -

you are ASSHOLES.

[Straight Shooter]

5. Wow, that Cheney comment was outrageous compared to "Bring it on!"

People are stupid. In an election, the proof is everywhere.

[Octafish]

25. What were they thinking? Ann Coulter knows.

The Reich-wing has no shortage of voices. One particularly omniscient NAZI of the Mighty Whorelitzer like to LABEL leading Democrats. Did I mention this is what the typical voter reads in the newspapers, sees on TV and hears on the radio all year long?

ONE LAST FLIP-FLOP

By Ann Coulter

I guess John Kerry (news - web sites) went into the primary without a plan to win the election.

Ann Coulter

The Democrats threw everything they had at this election. They ran a phony Vietnam War hero and a phony Southerner. They had middle-aged women executives at MTV hawking "Rock the Vote" to entice the most uninformed young people to vote for Kerry. They had Bruce Springsteen, Dave Matthews and New York Times darling Eminem (news - web sites). They had documentaries, books, the universities, Hollywood (and the French!) on their side.

They had liberal thugs ransacking Bush-Cheney headquarters, stealing Bush-Cheney signs and slashing the tires of Bush-Cheney get-out-the-vote vans on Election Day. In Colorado, they traded voter registrations for crack cocaine. In Ohio, they registered Mary Poppins and Dick Tracy. In South Carolina, Emily's List called Republican households and gave them incorrect information about the location of polling places.

The media campaigned heavily for Kerry with endless Abu Ghraib coverage, phony National Guard documents and, days before the election, false news reports that hundreds of tons of munitions had been looted in Iraq (news - web sites).

The Democrats' cheating never stopped. The big story of this election is the fraudulent exit polls on Election Day. Strange as it seems to me, it is well acknowledged that people are more likely to come out and vote for a winner. Early exit polls showing Kerry the clear winner could be expected to depress the vote for Bush.

Stunningly inaccurate exit polls released around noon on Election Day convinced news anchors, talking heads and even the campaigns that Kerry would win walking away. But at 9 p.m., when the first actual results began to come in, the election flipped to Bush. It was the first Kerry flip-flop that actually served the national interest.

CONTINUED IF ANYONE HAS THE STOMACH FOR IT...

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=108&ncid=742&e=9&u=/ucac/20041104/cm_ucac/onelastflipflop

[Cats Against Frist]

44. This, again, is them "reaching out."

First of all, I don't believe they want to heal anything, or they wouldn't have split it up in the first place. BUT BUT if they DID, how they hell do they think they could do it, unless they call off their attack dogs and quiet down the echo chamber that has made these idiot freepers want to kill us?

Rush, Coulter, Hannity and the rest of them, all have marching orders from the top, and their place in the GOP is as important as their Chimpanzee King. Don't listen to anything the GOP says about "cooperation" or "healing" until they get the hatemongers off the air -- or none of it will make a difference.

[Rush1184]

125. I don't know where to begin with this article...

so, lets just fax it to fox, surely they could use it.

[seemslikeadream]

7. Howard Ahmanson says "BRING IT ON"

Theonomic Reconstructionism:
One God, One Vote:

"We protect the Bill of Rights, the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence. Now, we protect the most sacred treasure we have, our secret ballot." -Diebold CEO Wally O'Dell, May 2002.


"My purpose is total integration of biblical law into our lives." -Howard Ahmanson


How does a fervent belief in the End of the World and a conviction that the Bible (King James only, thank you ma'am) is the actual revealed word of God factor into one's long-term investment strategies? A strange question to be sure, but one that must have been posed by at least a few of the eclectic crowd who believe in Theonomic Reconstructionism.

Theonomic Reconstructionism is a belief that the only true authority is God's, that allegiance to biblical laws trumps that of civic law and that the Kingdom of Heaven needs to be built on Earth before Jesus will come again. In addition to that, homosexuals should be put to death, women should be banned from civic office, apostates and heretics should be stoned to death and there is a great need for more Christian politicians.

Not content to philosophize about such things, the TR movement sprang into action. Funded by billionaires such as Howard Ahmanson and the Coors and Hunt families, Reconstructionists formed think tanks such as the Chalcedon Institute and the Rutherford Institute (the friendly guys that funded Paula Jones' lawsuit against Clinton) to give the Christian Right a philosophical base to draw from, and political action committees to finance their elections.

....

According to the Reconstructionists, Jesus would do what Howard Ahmanson did. Ahmanson inherited his money from his father, owner of Home Savings & Loan (during the S&L scandal of the Reagan years, Home's investors, mostly small family investments, lost over $150 million dollars. No one went to jail). In addition to funding PACs and think tanks, Howard Jr. parlayed his fortune into the majority stock of a business called American Information Systems (AIS) started by two enterprising brothers, Todd and Bob Urosevich. AIS later merged with Business Records Corporation (BRC) and became Election Systems & Solutions (ES&S). ES&S is the number one provider of touch-screen voting machines. Their website claims that their products were used in collecting 56% of the national vote in the last presidential elections.

Todd Urosevich is now Vice President of ES&S. Strangely enough, brother Bob moved on to head the second largest computerized vote-counting business, Global Election Systems, recently purchased by ATM and security giant Diebold. (They now have both the Ohio and Georgia contracts.) In a round table swap of incestuous patronage the previous executives of Global moved on to head the third largest vote-counting company in the nation, Advanced Voting Systems. Combined, these three corporations will process nearly 80% of the next nationwide elections.


more
http://www.tabletnewspaper.com/politics/73_tftgk.html

:hi:

[Octafish]

29. Theonomics.

Pass the Loot.

Thanks, seemslikeadream! The Truth shall set them free. Too bad so many of these turds couldn't tell the First Amendment from a talking ass on the ground. Speaking of Donkeys, I wonder why they didn't bring this up, oh, say in 2002? DU did.

Voting Machine Companies Come Under Scrutiny

EXCERPT...

According to U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel's (R-NE) press office, in 1995 Hagel resigned as CEO of American Information Systems (AIS), the voting machine company that counted the votes in his first Senatorial election in 1996. In January 1996 Hagel resigned as president of McCarthy & Company, part of the McCarthy Group that are one of the current owners of Election Systems and Software (ES&S), which itself resulted from the merger of AIS and Business RecordsCorporation. According to Bev Harris, Hagel is still an investor in the McCarthy Group. ES&S is now the largest voting machine company in America and one of its largest owners is the ultra-conservative Omaha World-Herald Company. 

SNIP...

ES&S claims to have counted 56% of the vote in the last four presidential elections. Bob and Todd Urosevich founded its predecessor AIS in the 1980's. Bob is now president of Diebold-Global, while brother Todd is a vice president at ES&S. Business Records Corp. which was merged with AIS to become ES&S, was partially owned by Cronus, a company that seems to have a lot of connections to the infamous Hunt brothers from Texas, as well as other individuals and entities, including  Rothschild, Inc.. Right wing Republicans Howard Ahmanson (who financed AIS) and Nelson Bunker Hunt have both heavily contributed to The Chalcedon Institute, an organization that mandates Christian "dominion" over the world.

Sequoia Voting Systems appears to be the second largest voting machine company, accounting for about 1/3 of the voting machine market. As of May 2002, Sequoia was purchased by Great Britain's De La Rue from Ireland's Jefferson Smurfit Group, who retain a 15% share. Smurfit was just bought by Madison Dearborn Partners, a private equity investment firm. De La Rue owns 20% of the Great Britain's national lottery. In 1995 the Security and Exchange Commission filed charges against four employees of Sequoia, alleging that they inflated revenue and pre-tax profits. In 1999 the Justice Department filed federal charges against employees of Sequoia alleging that during a 10-year period $8 million in bribes were paid out. Louisiana's Commissioner of Elections Jerry Fowler had run up some big gambling debts in Atlantic City, according to reporter Daniel Hopsicker. In all, 22 people were indicted, 9 plead guilty. Fowler went to jail, but Pasquale "Rocco" Ricci of New Jersey got one year of home detention.

Advanced Voting Solutions is the new name of another voting company, Shoup Voting Solutions. Their current top management, Howard Van Pelt and Larry Ensminger, were executives for Diebold-Global until last year. Officers of Shoup Voting Machine Co. were indicted for allegedly bribing politicians in Tampa, Florida in 1971, according to the San Francisco Business Times. Ransom Shoup was convicted in 1979 of conspiracy and obstruction of justice related to an FBI inquiry into a lever machine-counted election in Philadelphia.  Shoup got a three-year suspended sentence. Meanwhile, Philadelphia has bought new voting machines from Danaher-Guardian, which appears to only sell voting machines formerly known as the  "Shouptronic." 

Danaher-Guardian is owned by billionaire brothers Steven M. and Mitchell P. Rales, who were described by columnist Jack Anderson in 1988 as "a pair of corporate raiders out of Washington DC." Again, Danaher-Guardian appears to only sell formerly Shouptronic voting machines.

CONTINUED...

http://www.ecotalk.org/PressRelease.htm

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[underpants]

12. They are looking in the wrong direction for terrorists

Oklahoma City
Atlanta Olympics

Not from outside sources but in fact from one of their own "moral" religous fanatics.

[tblue37]

23. Well, you might be amused to know that

although I have lived in Kansas since 1970, I am quite liberal--and my last name is actually "Blue"! Therefore, I will assume you "F-You!" does not apple to me.

[Mizmoon]

38. I thought that my "red people" specification

would have made it clear I didn't mean Kerry voters in Red States. I meant the mass Bush voters in places like Kansas who are worried about terrorism when they haven't even left Kingman County in the last 6 months.

Eh, what I meant to say was ... uhh ... sorry if my first post was unclear- I didn't mean you :P

[Old and In the Way]

11. Obviously, we haven't suffered enough yet.

We'll see how strong the "moral values" card is over the next 4 years. This is about as shaky a reason as I can think of to vote for a Party. Talk about an ambiguous, relative term. That can't run on their tangible record: economy or foreign policy. So let the wackjobs take over the government...

I suspect that we'll see a move to change the constitutional requirements for 2 term limits within the next 2 years, too. In 4 more years, they'll be 20MM true believers and the rest will have come to their senses. Only then can we close the chapter on this country's Dark Ages.

[Octafish]

20. Remember those whose sacrifice made it possible for us to be free.

The men and women who fought World War II -- on the battlefield and at home are largely Democratic. In four years the Greatest Generation will be mush smaller. The craven GOP turd Grover Norquist said “Good riddance” to them. So we must educate and convert the youth. Perhaps Bush’s draft will help convince those who didn’t vote to pull away from the Xbox.

[depakid]

15. That had to have been one of the stupidest articles

I'v read yet. I'll cut the guy some slack, though. he's obviously depressed and needed to meet a deadline.

[maryallen]

24. Post-Election Analysis is driving me CRAZY:

They're all analyzing a LIE.
The election was STOLEN; it was a FRAUD!

Talk about Orwellian ...

[leftchick]

32. I have not watched tv since Tuesday night.

I take that back, I have been watching many shows on HGTV but absolutely NO "news" whatsoever. I just can't take the blatant lies anymore.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

78. Same here

I've finally and completely given up on the American media. I'l get my news from the BBC,

The Food Channel's good, too...........

[liberalcanuck]

124. I feel the same way leftchick. I'm taking a little break. I'm a Canadian

living here in GA (where progressive change is truly feared) where Kerry was soundly whooped -- no surprise to anyone here I'm sure. Even without creative manipulation of the vote totals I'm sure * would have won here pretty handily judging from the disheartening amount of bumperstickers I saw for their side. There are more than enough religious zealots here pushing *'s agenda, even in A.A. churches!

I'm still reading the major headlines -- but watching the pundits has become an exceptionally unbearable experience. I've been living and breathing politics like so many on this site from before they stole it from Gore 'til now. I'm taking some time to recharge and then get back to work! I appreciate all the research that everyone is doing and the passion that we all share for getting a forward thinking Democrat (I hope there will still be some of those with all this talk of soul searching and shifting to the center) in the white house.

[SmokingJacket]

103. Me too: AAAAAAGHGHHGHGHGH!

What IS WITH all this ass covering?

Making up semi-plausible stories about why they won?

Shit.

[Octafish]

31. The point is Kerry didn't get his message across.

If he had been able to make his case -- the job of a Free Press in our democracy -- the election wouldn't have been close.

[bullimiami]

34. octa the election wasnt close.

was 4 or 5 percent kerry advantage not enough for you. do you think maybe 10 or 50 percent would be enough. give me a break. if kerry would have had 90% of the votes they would have rigged it for a bush win and spun out the same shit.

[Old and In the Way]

35. How many times did CNN broadcast the 1st 30 seconds of a

Kerry/Edwards speech then cut to Bush or "breaking news" on Laci Peterson or Kobe Bryant? How many times did CNN understate the size of Kerry crowds by a factor of 10X? How much time did the cable news networks give the Swift Boat Liars to smear Kerry endlessly, but never question Bush's non-existant "service" while in TANG?

They are indeed the unindicted co-conspirators in the taking down of our democracy.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

16. They're lying.

"I almost voted for Kerry but" == "I am a lifelong Democrat but"

[ribrepin]

72. I was just about to post the same thing

[Merlin]

17. I sensed it too that Kerry was not closing the sale.

Unfortunately John has always been a great critic, but not so good at outlining a coherent, positive vision for the future.

I do think he lost it in the last few days when Stolen Honor was being played endlessly on PAX, Osama resurfaced to make Bush look presidential, and it seemed the Bush commercials were way more devastating than the Kerry spots.

But then, that's just Monday morning quarterbacking. All-in-all, he ran a pretty good campaign.

My one major beef is the failure during April and May and June to answer the merciless fussilade of character assassinating attacks on him. Evidently, I now learn, that was because they didn't want to use up their money because they didn't know if they could raise more. But Kerry himself never made an appeal to raise money to answer these attacks. He would have raised tens of millions, as we now know. It was a tragic error. True enough, it was not a knockout blow. But it planted seeds of serious doubt that never went away.

[Julien Sorel]

53. My inbox was full of

requests for money just about every day. I got them from the DNC, from Wes Clark, from Kerry, Edwards, Dean, Bill Clinton -- I must have gotten over 100 requests for money during that time period.

[lancdem]

54. I agree

Kerry didn't close the sale with many voters who were unsatisfied with Bush.

[Kurovski]

104. Oh, and the fraud was a problem too.

I wonder which was the greater? Hmmm?

Let me pull the lint from my belly-button and stare at it till December and maybe I'll figure it out.

[Octafish]

115. A Garbage Spewing Gatling Gun

Turd Blossom fired on all cylinders 24/7. Roger Ailes did what Rupert Murdoch, Rev. Moon, Richard Melon Scaife and the rest of the BFEE told him to do, repeating the Smear Boat Liars, the flip-flop lies, the do-nothing Senate record, the lesbian daughter remark and everything else they could think up or find -- as long as it stuck to Kerry. They did the same thing to Dukakis. I expected Kerry's team to be able to handle it. Obviously, there are some things money can't buy.

[lefthandedskyhook]

137. Actually, I think money did buy it

That Gatling gun was built over the course of 40 years with untold dollars focused solely on power accumulation. It is that entire machine we are up against, not just media outlet control, or issue framing, or voting machine fraud. We really can't expect any human being to stand up to that kind of force without a comparable support network. Our network must be developed into a viable adversary, or our candidates are doomed.

Here's one way to fight: If you look at what happened (and is still happening) to Sinclair broadcasting you will see the power of consumer and stockholder outrage. Right now our money is much more powerful than our votes. I am no economist, but it seems that if we can channel public outrage into a truly massive consumer revolt, we can begin to starve the beast before it finishes us off. I think that the public will become more and more angry in the near future as oppression and failures increase. For the moment we still have some freedom on the internet; let's use it to organize a movement and hit them where it matters (economically). All it will take is a unified front.

[goclark]

18. We did one thing wrong folks

We underestimated their bold ability for dirty tricks with the votes.

We did not lose! We won!

They stole this election!!!!!!!

Look at the post about FRAUD.
Now what the news, nothing said about it on the whore stations.
If you didn't know better, all is quiet and serene on the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy Front.

[bullimiami]

36. go clark exactly

we thought we knew how dirty they were but they surprised us again.

shame on us i guess.

i thought, an act of faith i suppose, that kerry had contingencies and expectations of what might go wrong and ways to deal with it, and a plan to fight to the last. scorched earth? whatever. we didnt start this and we didnt cheat.

im still clinging to the straw that they are not done. :( its more like half a straw.

[Auntie Bush]

79. Not only was there NO news about a possible FRAUD ...but

they had an interview with some guy/expert that said they found that the electronic machines went very well :puke: and we worry-worts worried for naught. So stop worrying everyone ...the election went smoothly! (Just like he war in Iraq!)

[teryang]

19. Many republicans did vote for Kerry

One of my colleagues is an active Republican politician. He contributes hundreds of dollars for various local republican campaigns. He voted for Kerry. He believes bushco is a threat to the Bill of Rights and despises the Patriot Act. He told me of all his republican acquaintences and contacts, which includes scores of lawyers, (federal) law enforcement officers, and judges, he only knew one who voted for chimp. I know who that is too. When I told him his secretaries voted for chimp, he flipped. My secretary who is a republican voted for Kerry.

[Octafish]

60. That's what make the election results so obviously false.

Here in Michigan, former Gov. William Milliken, a good Republican -- one who believes in the Constitution and that all men and women are equal before the law -- publicly endorsed Kerry. The Detroit News, a bastion of hatred for anything progressive or remotely Liberal, refused to endorse the crazy monkey. My neighbors I suspected of ratting me out to Aschroft voted for John Kerry and had signs in their yards for our guy. While we're blue, the numbers don't add up as a Kerry landslide in the Great Lakes state. Yet, they should.

Robert Parry is a real journo:

Evidence of a Second Bush Coup?

By Robert Parry
November 6, 2004

Theoretically at least, it is conceivable that sophisticated CIA-style computer hacking – known as “cyber-warfare” – could have let George W. Bush’s campaign transform a three-percentage-point defeat, as measured by exit polls, into an official victory of about the same margin.

Whether such a scheme is feasible, however, is another matter, since it would require penetration of hundreds of local computer systems across the country, presumably from a single remote location. The known CIA successes in cyber-war have come from targeting a specific bank account or from shutting down an adversary’s computer system, not from altering data simultaneously in a large number of computers.

To achieve that kind of result, cyber-war experts say, a preprogrammed “kernel of brain” would have to be inserted into election computers beforehand or teams of hackers would be needed to penetrate the lightly protected systems, targeting touch-screen systems without a paper backup for verifying the numbers.

Though there's still no proof of such a cyber-attack, suspicions are growing that the U.S. presidential election results were manipulated to some degree. Voting analyses of some precincts in Florida and Ohio have found surprisingly high percentages for Bush. Others have noted that the large turnout among young voters and the obvious enthusiasm of John Kerry’s voters would have suggested a better showing for the Democrat.

Exit Polls

But the most perplexing fact is that exit polls into the evening of Nov. 2 showed Kerry rolling to a clear victory nationally and carrying most of the battleground states, including Florida and Ohio, whose totals would have ensured Kerry’s victory in the Electoral College.

Significantly, polls also showed Republicans carrying the bulk of the tight Senate races. However, when the official results were tallied, the presidential exit polls proved wrong while the Senate polls proved right.

CONTINUED...

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2004/110604.html

[ignatius 2]

108. Three of my co-workers who voted for Dumbass last time voted for

Kerry and 2 Bushies did not even vote. Al Gore won the popular vote by 500,000. After 4 years of bush's miserable record I find it im ossible to believe that many if any of Gore's constituency voted for Bush. Out of our little office of 14,12 repugs and 2 dems, 5 repugsor 48% DID NOT VOTE for Bush.I am in Indiana in the banking industry..strong republican country and 48% of the repugs in my office did not vote for Bush.

I have to believe that this was a very accurate sampling, believe me the 2 who did not vote were rabid Bushies the first 2 years. I think the cost of the war(money always motivates them more than dead babies) is what changed their minds.

No, something happened bigtime..the polls that have been so accurate for so many years are now not worth a damn if they are in states with electronic voting machines. BULLSHIT

[bleedingheart]

21. screw them...when they have no jobs I will only laugh at their vote

[Mend]

26. And when they have no health care or social security

I will say screw them

[Octafish]

62. And when they are bankrupted.

I will say, "I TOLD you so."

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

66. ...and when they need cures for illnesses that stem cell research may

hold promises for I say double fuck you!

[savistocate]

145. IF only they were the ONLY ONES to receive

the repercussions outcomes losses.

That editing tallies at central computer is just too easy for do anything to win & in control RWers to pass up. There is no conscience constraint ethics exhibited at any level WH, Congress, State govs. why would this pattern be any different in this election.

[mountainvue]

75. Yeah, but the thing is

some of us may no longer have jobs either.

[Mz Pip]

22. Thanks folks

We really appreciate "almost." :crazy:

HOpe you like your brave new world.

MzPip
:dem:

[Octafish]

64. We DEMs need to communicate better.

Especially our candidates. We know the media aren't with us, so We the People need to speak up and out. Good DUers do so, now, certainly. From this story, however, we can see the message doesn't always get through to the second- and third-tier removed from DU. Until we have a Free Press, we must continue to make the case for our side. Otherwise, the percentage of misinformed morons for the crazy monkey will increase. And that is wrong.

[Kurovski]

106. Candidates communicate perfectly well on Air America.

Dig it.

[Octafish]

112. How many people does Air America reach?

I don't hear it on the radio in my car.

It's not on the TV.

I have to use a computer to get it.

That restricts its "reach."

Kapisch?

[Kurovski]

131. Yes.

Randi Rhodes has higher numbers than CNN and some other cable news channel (MSNBC?) combined. We can write news outlets and let them know we'd tune in if they were a little closer to Randi.

Keep talking about Air America with friends, I have contacted Air America and asked them, in what way can we help to broaden their reach? I'll share any response I recieve.

I see on DU that people are cancelling newspapers, perhaps it IS time to starve the beast. Re-subscribe to more honest--even if plainly partisan--sources. The Nation, Salon, etc. . Let the paper know why you are dumping them.

While the Washington Times may be able to operate without making a profit, not every paper has a crazy-assed sugar daddy shoveling cash into it.

[theHandpuppet]

27. Okay, this doesn't make sense to me...

Why do RW "moral values" voting Christians fear terrorism? Oh ye of little faith! Isn't prayer supposed to protect them? Won't their faith in God protect them? Why have such an obsessive fear of bodily death if you truly believe the moment you die you will find yourself in a glorious heavenly kingdom at the right hand of God? Certainly seems that the very folks who -- according to their own rules -- should display the least fear are the ones who are the most terrified.

[Octafish]

90. Excellent and most telling observation: 'They of little faith.'

One of my Muslim friends says his Faith gives him the ability to sustain the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. These inbred louts who support the crazy monkey must not listen to the same voice. It's also sad their eyes can't see Satan.

Karen Hughes calls Pat Robertson a liar

HUGHES on CNN:

Judy, I cannot imagine that that conversation would ever take place. I've never heard the president say anything of the sort.... So I can't imagine whether he misunderstood, or what happened. But I'm certain that the president did not say that remark.

PAT ROBERTSON on CNN:

I had deep misgivings about this war. Deep misgivings. And I was trying to say, Mr. President, you better prepare the American people for casualties. Oh, no, we're not going to have any casualties. Well, I said, you know, it's the way it's going to be.

SOURCE:

http://toughenough.org/2004/10/karen-hughes-calls-pat-robertson-liar.html

[bullimiami]

30. ron you stupid bitch

they did not. you could just as correctly say monkeys flew out of a bunch of democrats butts and pushed the bush button before they could stop them

really. dont be a gullible dumbass. the kerry supporters voted for kerry and the machines which bush and rove rigged changed the votes. that is fraud and they should be in jail.

[Octafish]

127. Much of what goes on is hidden. Ruppert says let's go OPERATIONAL.

Of course Ron's unaware. He's a mainstream, brainwashed journalist. If he gets smart, he's done for. People actually think this is a democracy. Not since 22 November 1963.

The BFEE are NAZIs who work in secret. To beat them, we need to shine the light of day on their cockroachy asses. Not to sound too negative, here's a plan from Michael Ruppert:

SNAP OUT OF IT!

* The Day to Forget the November 2nd Election Forever is November 3rd

* The Rest of the World Fights the Empire With Money -
What We Should Have Been Doing Here All Along

* Now is the Time to Attack on the Fronts Where We
Have Real Power

by Michael C. Ruppert

November 5, 2004 1900 PDT (FTW) - The rest of the world has known for some time that it is pointless to oppose this Empire either militarily or electorally. They haven't the resources for the former and are legally barred from the latter. I think it's time the American people adopted the same philosophy. We are, after all, legally barred from inspecting electronic voting machines. The rest of the world has been fighting with money and public relations because these tactics work and work well. This is a lesson that American activists and true patriots should have learned four years ago. Now the tempo of battle will increase just as surely as the stakes have been raised both globally and domestically for us all.

While everyone waits for the administration's first move a Rubicon has been crossed and there is no turning back. America will fight for oil wherever it feels the need.

Now the real Fourth World War begins. Sorry to disappoint all the scriptwriters and futurists who were thinking exclusively in terms of bombs, plagues, famine etc. The first weapons of mass destruction in this war will be economic and they will be devastating beyond imagination.

I feel good now, three days after the election. It was much easier for me to recover than most because FTW and its readers had less invested in the election than most. But I am not so glib or cavalier as to overlook the massive disillusionment that weighs like a wet blanket on all who had hoped that their prodigious efforts might oust the Neo-cons.

The biggest blessing today is that the disillusionment is so deep, so fundamental, that at last people who have bound themselves to ineffective political strategies may rethink their deeper core beliefs; their beliefs about what America was supposed to be versus what it has become. They will redraw their maps. Perhaps with that process - painful as it might be - will also come a willingness to abandon strategies which no longer work for entirely different ones that do. In order for that to happen, however, those on the left, as well as those conservative and libertarian voices who wanted to return a degree of sanity to the Republican party, will have to admit that America is not America anymore.

CONTINUED...

http://fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/110504_snap_out.shtml

[hatrack]

33. Well, that's nice. Too late now, guys.

Enjoy your wars.

[Octafish]

83. Huffington: DEMs focused on the middle, missed the Big Picture.

Of course the BFEE cheated. It's in their nature. They are NAZIs. But we could've made it impossible for them to cheat by winning a big chunk of the GOP voting independents and moderate pukes -- not the "undecided 4-percent" whozits that Shrum and Begala and Carville and the rest of the "It's the economy, stupid" crowd heaped attention on. The battle really was over national security. THAT should have been Kerry's strong suit.

Arianna Huffington: Anatomy Of A Crushing Political Defeat

By: Arianna Huffington
Published: Nov 4, 2004

This election was not stolen. It was lost by the Kerry campaign.

The reason it's so important to make this crystal clear — even as Kerry's concession speech is still ringing in our ears — is that to the victors go not only the spoils but the explanations. And the Republicans are framing their victory as the triumph of conservative moral values and the wedge cultural issues they exploited throughout the campaign.

But it wasn't gay marriage that did the Democrats in; it was the fatal decision to make the pursuit of undecided voters the overarching strategy of the Kerry campaign.

This meant that at every turn the campaign chose caution over boldness so as not to offend the undecideds who, as a group, long to be soothed and reassured rather than challenged and inspired.

The fixation on undecided voters turned a campaign that should have been about big ideas, big decisions, and the very, very big differences between the worldviews of John Kerry and George Bush — both on national security and domestic priorities — into a narrow trench war fought over ludicrous non-issues like whether Kerry had bled enough to warrant a Purple Heart.

CONTINUED...

http://www.yubanet.com/artman/publish/article_14973.shtml

[Old and In the Way]

37. Ironic....the guy works for the Free Press.

More lies to cover the fraWdulent election.

[Octafish]

81. FraWd is right.

Since 1980, most reporters have been afraid for their jobs, let alone lives.

Too Little, Too Late

By Robert Parry
November 3, 2004

George W. Bush’s electoral victory is chilling proof that the conservatives have achieved dominance over the flow of information to the American people and that even a well-run Democratic campaign stands virtually no chance for national success without major changes in how the news media operates.

It is not an exaggeration to say today that the most powerful nation on earth is in the grip of an ideological administration – backed by a vast network of right-wing think tanks, media outlets and attack groups – that can neutralize any political enemy with smears, such as the Swift boat ads against John Kerry’s war record, or convince large numbers of people that clearly false notions are true, like Saddam Hussein’s link to the Sept. 11 attacks.

The outcome of Election 2004 also highlights perhaps the greatest failure of the Democratic/liberal side in American politics: a refusal to invest in the development of a comparable system for distributing information that can counter the Right’s potent media infrastructure. Democrats and liberals have refused to learn from the lessons of the Republican/conservative success.

The history is this: For the past quarter century, the Right has spent billions of dollars to build a vertically integrated media apparatus – reaching from the powerhouse Fox News cable network through hard-line conservative newspapers and magazines to talk radio networks to book publishing to well-funded Internet operations and right-wing bloggers.

Using this infrastructure, the conservatives can put any number of “themes” into play that will instantaneously reach tens of millions of Americans through a variety of outlets, whose messages then reinforce each other in the public’s mind.

CONTINUED...

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2004/110304.html

[FizzFuzz]

121. I agree with Parry--the RW media monster has got to be our focus

creating our own media infrastructure. How can anyone, no matter how good their campaign is, counter the non-stop spewing of sensationalistic and simplistic lies, that owns most of the airwaves?

It felt like being in the corner with Muhammad Ali pummeling away, and that's just little old me feeling that way. How Kerry, Edwards and the campaign felt I can't imagine. It was too much to parry without similar constant press and free press. Much as I love Arianna Huffington, I disagree that the loss was due to Kerry's poor campaign, but to the fact that no one could put up a winning defense against such non-stop spewing sewage, not without owning every outlet, like the RW does.

Buying up some major media outlets and BBV are the two priorities we have to set, IMHO.

[Only Me]

39. Dupe- Sorry

[Only Me]

40. Terrorism isn't my biggest concern. nt

[Octafish]

84. Great. Seems you're smarter than the average American voter.

The typical schmuck in Bumpuck has been hearing 24/7 for more than three years that Osama or Saddam are the same thing and they both hate us for our freedom and are working night and day to kill us. The intellectuals Tom Ridge and John Ashcan say so, too.

I'm glad you see through the lies. Did you know Bush was warned about a 9-11 attack in July 2001 -- before he received the CIA briefing "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in the U.S."?

Why would Osama bin Laden want to kill Dubya, his former business partner?

By James Hatfield

July 3, 2001—There may be fireworks in Genoa, Italy, this month, too.

A plot by Saudi master terrorist, Osama bin Laden, to assassinate Dubya during the July 20 economic summit of world leaders, was uncovered after dozens of suspected Islamic militants linked to bin Laden's international terror network were arrested in Frankfurt, Germany, and Milan, Italy, in April.

German intelligence services have stated that bin Laden is covertly financing neo-Nazi skinhead groups throughout Europe to launch another terrorist attack at a high-profile American target—his first since the bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen last October.

According to counter-terrorism experts quoted in Germany's largest newspaper, the attack on Dubya might be a James Bond-like aerial strike in the form of remote-controlled airplanes packed with plastic explosives.

Why would Osama bi Laden want to kill, Dubya, his former business partner?

CONTINUED...

http://www.onlinejournal.com/Special_Reports/Hatfield-R-091901/hatfield-r-091901.html

PS: The fellah who wrote this also wrote "Fortunate Son," the biography that had the inside dirt on Smirko McCokestroke. He was "suicided" a couple weeks after this war published.

[GoBlue]

41. I'd rather be Dead than Red. Go Blue.

[Octafish]

86. Me too. But best of all is to be alive and winning.

Let's clobber these turds with the Truth. Here's how:

Top Priority: Media Infrastructure

By Robert Parry
November 4, 2004

As liberals and Democrats sort through what went wrong in Election 2004, they should put at the top of their list the dangerous imbalance that now exists in the national news media.

Over the past quarter century, the conservatives/Republicans have built a huge, permanent media machine – a vertically integrated structure that puts out the conservative message on TV, with newspapers, through magazines, over radio stations, in books and via the Internet.

Through all these forms of communication, in large cities and small towns, the Right’s media is there for its listeners, readers and viewers every day, year round, not just during election cycles. Its impact is especially important in rural areas that don’t have easy access to the variety of media found in urban centers.

Indeed, the conservative media’s role in firming up rural America as a “red” Republican bastion is often overlooked. The incendiary rhetoric on conservative talk radio has been a major factor in convincing millions of these Americans that “liberals” are demons who hate their country and love killing babies.

Meanwhile, trying to position itself in the center, the mainstream or corporate media keeps tacking rightward to avoid offending conservatives, who aggressively trash individual reporters and news organizations if they are deemed to show any traces of liberalism.

Most notably, the major mainstream news outlets – including the New York Times and the Washington Post – bent to George W. Bush’s will when he was marching the country to war in Iraq in late 2002 and early 2003. But even earlier – during Bill Clinton’s administration in the 1990s and Al Gore’s presidential campaign in 2000 – the supposedly “liberal” mainstream press led the attacks on the Democrats.

CONTINUED...

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2004/110404.html

[bcoylepa]

42. three words - swift boats liars

these guys - with a wink and a nod from bush & co - and tons of free air time from a complicit media in the beginning - made Kerry damaged goods to many people. despicable and shameful!

[Octafish]

87. Bingo! Bingo! Bingo!

John Kerry's strong suit was his credentials as a leader. In combat, he always did the right thing. In peace, he always did the right thing. Bush, OTOH, is a coward on both counts.

Hey, did you know that the Smear Boat admiral got a $40 million contract from Bush for his client? Some things money can't buy, but an admiral isn't one of them.

http://www.misleader.org/daily_mislead/read.asp?fn=df08312004.html

BTW: A hearty welcome to DU, bcoylepa!

[ixion]

43. to them, terrorism and moral values means

spreading terrorism and killing people in the name moral values. :eyes:

[Octafish]

88. As long as it's not abortion, murder ain't murder if Bush does it.

Bush Genocide Tops Two Hundred Thousand

The invasion of Iraq in March 2003 by coalition forces has lead to the death of at least 100,000 civilians, reveals the first scientific study to examine the issue.

The majority of these deaths, which are in addition those normally expected from natural causes, illness and accidents, have been among women and children, finds the study, released early by The Lancet on Thursday.

The most common cause of death is as a direct result of violence, mostly caused by coalition air strikes, reveals the study of almost 1000 households scattered across Iraq. And the risk of violent death just after the invasion was 58 times greater than before the war. The overall risk of death was 1.5 times more after the invasion than before.

The figure of 100,000 is based on "conservative assumptions", notes Les Roberts at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, US, who led the study.

That estimate excludes Falluja, a hotspot for violence. If the data from this town is included, the study points to about 200,000 excess deaths since the outbreak of war.

SOURCE: The Lancet (no time to find original resource right now). Here's where I got it:

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/vine/showthread.php?s=c4dd7b0ed26a7b013b67e5ad1e5b6b6d&p=5494773

[Gregorian]

47. Same people who didn't mind concentration camps.

They would have voted IF their lives had been threatened (ie, if gas prices went up). But since it was just the Iraqis, they didn't care. Because two men getting married was far more disturbing. $2 per gallon diesel is upsetting. But that's because of the media. And that is because of a petroleum based lifestyle. Shame on the media. Shame on the petroleum addicts. Had they given airtime to the important things in life, the american people would have known the real story. Had Americans decided to limit their useage of gasoline, and actually think before consuming, we would not have the problems we are experiencing. Get your petroleum fix, every day. You want it. You need it. Just be lazy.

It boils down to the fact that the television in the corner of the room, is the only reality midwesterners know. And they believe whatever it says. If it told them to jump off a cliff, they'd do it.

[Octafish]

89. 'If it's not on TV, it's not real.' So where are the NAZIs?

You hit the nail on the head, Gregorian. Most people get their information exclusively from television. Half or more of the country doesn't read a newspaper. Half the country doesn't even read a book a year. The ignorance is mind-blowing.

Speaking of scary concentration camps:



America 2004 Is Germany 1930

Norman D. Livergood

We who live in the post-World War II period possess an immensely valuable symbol, even if we don't understand it or use it effectively: the example of Nazi Germany.

The 2004 election revealed that American citizens are as intellectually and morally incompetent as the Germans in 1930. Such incompetence and ignorance always lead to tyranny. The United States is exactly at the same point in national degradation as the German nation in the 1930s when Hitler assumed absolute power and began his regime of mass murder and war crimes against the people of the world.

We've been conditioned to see Germany under Hitler as an unquestionably horrible example of dictatorial tyranny and inhuman barbarity--and to see our present American culture as completely opposite to that of Nazi Germany. And we like to think that if a tyranny such as that in Germany under the Nazi regime were present and growing in America we'd unquestionably be able to see it.

So it's a shock when we realize: most people living in Nazi Germany didn't see the tyranny! They thought it was the best time of their lives!

CONTINUED (great web site, too)...

http://www.hermes-press.com/germany1930.htm

[wildeyed]

48. Sorry, this is true in my limited experience.

I spent allot of time talking to moderate repukes and conservative leaning indies. They did not like Bush nor agree with most of his policies, but they voted for him anyway.

I think we can go on and on about what Kerry did an did not do right, but basically, he was not southern.

[Octafish]

113. Yeh. Kerry comes across as a Boston Brahmin.

That's how the media labeled him way back when. He did little to change that perception, unfortunately. Many DUers counseled him and the campaign to create a meta-message that would resonate with the masses, particularly the salt-of-the-earth. Unfortunately, the best the million-dollar consultants could come up with was "The Real Deal."

Dean talked about pickup trucks and rebel flags and got roasted. Still, the good doctor was on to something there. When Dale Earnhardt, Jr. invited his crew to see Fahrenheit 9-11 was another opportunity to make some inroads.

BTW: My advice was to nuke Bush with the Truth. From BCCI to its connections with the bin Laden and bin Mahfouz clans to 9-11. Sen. Kerry did bring the stuff up in the primaries. But in the general election his camp said, "No, uh, thanks. It's the economy, stupid."

[Redleg]

49. "Concerns about moral values." That's good.

The article should say "concerns about one or two specific moral values" and complete indifference to other moral values, such as a war based on lies in which 100,000s of civilians have been killed.

[Octafish]

151. Behold Ralph Reed -- Superturd of the BFEE

Ralph Reed's Other Cheek

The man who mobilized the religious right puts his conservative connections to work for business.

Peter Stone
November/December 2004 Issue

When the casino-rich Coushatta tribe of Louisiana began a lobbying blitz in 2001 to block three other tribes from opening competing casinos, they hired two of Washington's top influence brokers, lobbyist Jack Abramoff and public relations whiz Michael Scanlon. But Abramoff and Scanlon -- who are now at the center of a Washington scandal sparked by the multimillion-dollar fees they charged several tribal clients -- knew that to win any lobbying campaign in the South, they needed help mobilizing social and religious conservatives. So they turned to one of the best-known names on the religious right: Ralph Reed. Since his departure as head of the Christian Coalition in 1997, Reed has emerged as a highly sought-after corporate consultant, putting his organizing skills and political connections to work for business interests -- even those that conflict with his followers' conservative beliefs.

On the casino issue, Scanlon's company, Capitol Campaign Strategies, paid Reed to help assemble anti-gambling coalitions in Louisiana and Texas. Among other things, those coalitions backed a lawsuit filed by Texas' attorney general that early in 2002 succeeded in shutting down two Texas casinos that posed competition to the Coushattas' highly lucrative operation.

Reed says he has not wavered from his anti-gambling convictions and points out that his company was paid by Scanlon's firm, not the tribe. "We have never been retained by a casino to serve their interests," he says. But antigambling activists say that argument doesn't wash. "When you get paid big money, it's got to be gambling money," says Tom Grey, a Methodist minister who runs the National Coalition Against Legalized Gambling. "Ralph Reed with all his sophistication should have known where the money came from."

The gambling work is just one instance in which Reed has used his credentials with the religious right to further his clients' business agendas. Since its founding in 1997, his consulting firm, Century Strategies, has racked up millions in fees from companies including Enron, Microsoft, Verizon, and other Fortune 100 companies, according to sources familiar with its client list.

CONTINUED...

http://www.motherjones.com/news/outfront/2004/11/10_400.html

[MAlibdem]

50. To me, this is encouraging

Bush's greatest strength was always the fact that he performed competently (at least in the eyes of many/the media) on september 11 and in the days that followed. The fact that he was able to keep enough of his support from erroding on this fact gives me hope for this country. We can win, and we can win big...and we would have with those 24%. Let's get those 24% and another 15-20% that we get out as new voters next time around.

[okieinpain]

51. funny, this is so they can say they never really trusted bush, when

the shit goes to hell.


funny shit.

[Octafish]

98. Interesting take. Built-in excuse in order to avoid liability.

Perhaps the DEMs decided to leave the GOP to simmer in their own juices. Once the oil runs out, the New Depression will make 1929 look like Happy Days.

[Zero Gravitas]

52. Actually thats encouraging

I had such a conversation with an almost Kerry voter who voted Chimp in the end. This guy thinks Bush is a "dumbass" but he is a known quantity. He just wasn't sure what Kerry would do that was different from shithead. Sounds amazing to us on DU for sure, but to this guy at least, Kerry just didn't quite go the last 10% to convince him that he wouldn't be just as bad as what we already have.

THe fact that 25% of Chimp voters are reachable shows that we will have a chance to exploit Bush's failures starting in 2006.

[demothinker]

56. Exactly! So people need to stop saying "SO WHAT!" and "F* THEM!"

This means our "failure" wasn't as dramatic as some people are making it seem, and gives us hope for the future. Granted, they screwed up this election, but yelling about them and at them won't help now. We know that they were close, we need to find the way to push them over the edge for next time.

[Joe Turner]

61. Excellent Point

"THe fact that 25% of Chimp voters are reachable shows that we will have a chance to exploit Bush's failures starting in 2006."

And with the Chimp still at the helm as he steers America into even greater declines we are in good position to pick up seats in Congress and the presidency in 2008.

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

68. * put out the wedge issues and Rove put out fliers saying the Dems

were going to ban the Bible; that's what got a lot of the fundies out there en masse. That's another part of the puzzle.

[rfkrocks]

55. And now comes the requirement that they "service" the rich

they better lube up because Shrub is going to give them economic "deliverance"- not the Christian type-the Ned Beatty type

[Octafish]

100. Yeah. 'Bend over.' Typecasting. Sheesh -- the Overclass.

The Origins of the Overclass

By Steve Kangas

The wealthy have always used many methods to accumulate wealth, but it was not until the mid-1970s that these methods coalesced into a superbly organized, cohesive and efficient machine. After 1975, it became greater than the sum of its parts, a smooth flowing organization of advocacy groups, lobbyists, think tanks, conservative foundations, and PR firms that hurtled the richest 1 percent into the stratosphere.

The origins of this machine, interestingly enough, can be traced back to the CIA. This is not to say the machine is a formal CIA operation, complete with code name and signed documents. (Although such evidence may yet surface — and previously unthinkable domestic operations such as MK-ULTRA, CHAOS and MOCKINGBIRD show this to be a distinct possibility.) But what we do know already indicts the CIA strongly enough. Its principle creators were Irving Kristol, Paul Weyrich, William Simon, Richard Mellon Scaife, Frank Shakespeare, William F. Buckley, Jr., the Rockefeller family, and more. Almost all the machine's creators had CIA backgrounds.

During the 1970s, these men would take the propaganda and operational techniques they had learned in the Cold War and apply them to the Class War. Therefore it is no surprise that the American version of the machine bears an uncanny resemblance to the foreign versions designed to fight communism. The CIA's expert and comprehensive organization of the business class would succeed beyond their wildest dreams. In 1975, the richest 1 percent owned 22 percent of America’s wealth. By 1992, they would nearly double that, to 42 percent — the highest level of inequality in the 20th century.

How did this alliance start? The CIA has always recruited the nation’s elite: millionaire businessmen, Wall Street brokers, members of the national news media, and Ivy League scholars. During World War II, General "Wild Bill" Donovan became chief of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the forerunner of the CIA. Donovan recruited so exclusively from the nation’s rich and powerful that members eventually came to joke that "OSS" stood for "Oh, so social!"

Another early elite was Allen Dulles, who served as Director of the CIA from 1953 to 1961. Dulles was a senior partner at the Wall Street firm of Sullivan and Cromwell, which represented the Rockefeller empire and other mammoth trusts, corporations and cartels. He was also a board member of the J. Henry Schroeder Bank, with offices in Wall Street, London, Zurich and Hamburg. His financial interests across the world would become a conflict of interest when he became head of the CIA. Like Donavan, he would recruit exclusively from society’s elite.

CONTINUED...

http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/L-overclass.html

SOURCE:

http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/tenets.htm

The guy that wrote this was found "suicided" outside Richard Mellon Scaife's offices.

[mzmolly]

59. Let me break this down. People voted for Bush out of FEAR but were

afraid to admit that.

Osama and Bush, they need eachother. We've known that all along.

Now, if only Richard Clark had come out with his book in October.

[Octafish]

116. The media ignored the Truth. They spread the Big Lie.

What was needed were the phrases that would stick to Smirko. Kerry's best chance to do so were the debates, when all amurka would have their 560 million blue eyes upon the crazy monkey and could have watched him faint like a little pet goat. Instead, we got prepositional phrase after prepositional phrase, four-point plans that went on and on, and no one who was up for grabs remembered anything except Kerry outed the lesbian Coors drinker.

[kwolf68]

63. How many Kerry supporters were thinking of voting *

This makes no sense. Even his minions gave it some thought, yet at the end of the day * gets 3 million more votes, despite having a 44% approval rating, despite the calls of indies going Kerry 2 to 1, despite the fact Gore got more votes in 2000 and the country "appeared" to be much more against * this go around.

We need more. The idle election frauds of 3,000 votes here or a few thousand there won't make it.

I have watched TV news all the last two days and there has been NOTHING on any fraud. I'm trying to figure out if this is just a leftwing conspiracy movement or if this thing was really stolen.

Stories like this indicate that Bush should have not won, let alone get 3 mill + over Kerry.

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

67. Is this writer of the article rubbing our loss in? Fuck him! Ignorance won

in 2004. Republicans should pat themselves on the back; they've just set the US back G-d knows how many years.

[amazona]

69. almost only counts in horseshoes

They still have blood on their hands.

[Octafish]

95. You got that pegged right. There's a lot of blood on their hands.

Bush knew all about Bin Laden and hijacked airliners and he didn't say a word to the American people. The little turd hid in Crawford.

CIA briefing memo exposes Bush lies on 9/11

By Barry Grey
12 April 2004

The declassification and release of the president’s daily brief (PDB) for August 6, 2001, coming on the heels of National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice’s appearance before the commission appointed to investigate the events of September 11, has thoroughly exposed the official version of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington as a tissue of lies.

Whatever shred of credibility remained for the Bush administration’s claims that it had no prior warnings of an attack by Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network on the US mainland has been shattered by the publication of the CIA memo, entitled “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US.”

SNIP...

When the existence of the August 2001 PDB was first revealed in May of 2002, White House officials, first and foremost, Condoleezza Rice, dismissed it as irrelevant. Rice declared at the time that the memo dealt entirely with possible terrorist attacks outside the US. She was, as is now proven, lying then, and, as even a cursory examination of her sworn testimony last week before the 9/11 panel shows, she is lying still.

For nearly two years the White House refused to release the document, given to President Bush more than a month before the hijack-bombings of the World Trade Center and Pentagon. It only agreed to do so in the wake of the controversy sparked by the testimony last month of Bush’s former counter-terrorism chief, Richard Clarke, who told the 9/11 panel that the Bush administration took no serious action in response to multiple warnings of an impending, massive attack within the US by Al Qaeda, and then exploited the death of nearly 3,000 people on September 11, 2001 to implement an agenda for invading and occupying Iraq that had preoccupied Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and company from the outset of the Bush administration.

The content of the August 6, 2001 PDB makes clear why the administration was so reluctant to release the document. It is a clear and stark warning that Al Qaeda is actively preparing an attack within the US, that its previous attacks on US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania show that it has the capability to do so, and that a likely method of attack involves the hijacking of one or more US commercial aircraft.

CONTINUED...

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2004/apr2004/pdb-a12.shtml

[VegasWolf]

70. BULLSHIT. I have many Republican friends that think they voted

for Kerry. Who knows how the "voting machines" tabulated
their votes!

[Octafish]

96. Agreed. The BFEE cheated. It's what they do. They are NAZIs.

Of course they stole votes. That's the only way Bushes get elected.

My point in posting the article is to talk about the motivations driving the Smirk's supporters. There are many people whose minds are filled exclusively by the slime coming out of the tv set.

BTW: Here's a typically excellent report from Madsen on 2004 vote theft:

Electronic Voting

Grand Theft Election: Karl Rove's turd droppings all over this one

By Wayne Madsen
Online Journal Contributing Writer

November 5, 2004—Karl Rove, the political sorcerer who is called "Turd Blossom" by his political master, George W. Bush, has his nasty fingerprints all over the 2004 Election in a scam that can best be called "Grand Theft Election."

There was something very wrong in Ohio, which Bush claims he won handily. Not only had the head of computer voting machine maker Diebold and Ohio's Republican establishment of Governor Bob Taft and Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell conspired to suppress registration and voter turnout in heavily Democratic precincts, but the Ohio Secretary of State’s web site was only reporting results from nine counties as of 11:30 a.m. on November 3, just three hours before John Kerry conceded the election to Bush. Totaling the results from the nine counties (Fayette, Fairfield, Geauga, Jefferson, Portage, Mahoning, Trumbull, Richland, and Washington), John Kerry was clearly ahead. A tenth county, Columbiana, suspiciously showed up as "NO RESULTS."

The totals from the 8 Ohio counties reported on the Secretary of State web site were: BUSH 267,771, KERRY 294,648.

There has to be a way for those of us who voted for Kerry and Edwards to sue Diebold Chief Executive Walden O'Dell and Diebold board member W.R. Timken for conspiring to deliver Ohio's electoral votes to Bush. O'Dell and Timken are also top fundraisers for Bush, so-called "Pioneers." O'Dell told the Cleveland Plain Dealer in 2003 that he was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year."

The fact that Diebold machines were used in the Ohio rip-off should make O'Dell and Timken the subjects of criminal investigations. Of course, that will not happen in a GOP vassal state like Ohio. But why not a civil suit by those of us nationwide who voted for Kerry and had our presidency stolen from us as a result of racketeering and corrupt practices by a cabal of Republicans and fat cat corporate types? In a civil suit, through the process of discovery, O'Dell's and Timken's emails, letters, and other records could be ordered open by a judge. They could also be deposed as witnesses before plaintiffs' attorneys.

CONTINUED...

http://onlinejournal.com/evoting/110504Madsen/110504madsen.html

[peekaloo]

71. more horseshit from a Bu$h enabling media whore

[Octafish]

97. The Detroit Free Press endorsed John Kerry.

But, yeah. The Mass Media have done the GOPs work since 22 November 1963 -- including the Free Press.

[DELUSIONAL]

73. I wonder if this "news" isn't just another way to mask the vote theft?

Somehow this analysis just doesn't ring true.

People in vast numbers just do not stand out in the rain and then oops at the very last minute decide to vote for bush.

This could be the newest meme from Rove.

I don't trust the corporate media.

[Octafish]

144. Very likely "noise." Where's the coverage of Ohio problems?

I don't trust most corporate media, either. They've been bastards for 41 years, near. Regarding the 2004 election, why isn't THIS covered?

Ohio Whitewash

Basic report from Columbus

November 4, 2004

From a lawyer who was in there in Ohio.  A database of voter irregularities is reportedly being assembled, and hopefully there will be web sites devoted to documenting what really happened.

I worked for 3 days, including Election Day, on the statewide voter protection hotline run by the Ohio Democratic Party in Columbus, Ohio.   I am writing this because the media is inexplicably whitewashing what  happened in Ohio, and Kerry's concession was likewise inexplicable.  Hundreds of thousands of people were disenfranchised in Ohio.

People waited on line for as long as 10 hours. It appears to have only happened in Democratic-leaning precincts, principally (a) precincts where many African Americans lived, and (b) precincts near colleges. I spoke to a young man who got on line at 11:30 am and voted at 7 pm. When he left at 7 pm, the line was about 150 voters longer than when he'd arrived, which meant those people were going to wait even longer. In fact they waited for as much as 10 hours, and their voting was concluded at about 3 am. The reason this occurred was that they had 1 voting station per 1000 voters, while the adjacent precinct had 1 voting station per 184. Both precincts were within the same county, and managed by the same county board of elections. The difference between them is that the privileged polling place was in a rural, solidly Republican, area, while the one with long  lines was in the college town of Gambier, OH.

Lines of 4 and 5 hours were the order of the day in many African-American neighborhoods.

Touch screen voting machines in Youngstown OH were registering "George W. Bush" when people pressed "John F. Kerry" ALL DAY LONG. This was reported immediately after the polls opened, and reported over and over again throughout the day, and yet the bogus machines were inexplicably kept in use THROUGHOUT THE DAY.

CONTINUED...

http://www.spectrumz.com/z/fair_use/2004/11_04.html

[mountainvue]

74. Many Bush supporters did

vote for Kerry.
Investigate voter fraud.

[daleo]

76. Another dodge to cover up the vote fraud

Next we will hear that many people forgot that they actually voted for Bush, when asked 3 minutes later at an exit poll and instead thought they voted for Kerry.

Another one we will hear (if we haven't already) is that bunches of people who voted for Bush were ashamed to admit it to the exit poller, and claimed to have voted for Kerry.

There will be all sorts of inventive excuses hauled out to explain away the obvious fraud. I am still waiting for the claim that it was a miracle.

[Octafish]

94. It was the will of Allah... and Halliburton.

The Bush-Saudi Connection

By Michelle Mairesse

Ancestral Voices

EXCERPT...

Spiked Investigations

In February 1995, when he was appointed chief of the F.B.I.'s counter-terrorism section in Washington, John O’Neill immediately assembled and coordinated a team to capture Ramzi Yousef, who was en route from Pakistan to Afghanistan. Yousef was strongly suspected of planning and directing the World Trade Center bombing in 1993.

In three days, the kingpin of the World Trade Center bombing was in custody, and O’Neill went on to accumulate damning evidence against the 1993 World Trade bombers that led to their conviction in American courts. For the next six years, John O’Neill tirelessly investigated terrorist strikes against Americans and American interests in Saudi Arabia, East Africa, and Yemen, often encountering American officials’ roadblocks on the way. Even in 1996, after Jamal Ahmed al-Fadl turned himself in at the American Embassy in Eritrea and divulged details of bin Laden’s and al Qaeda’s organization and operations, the State Department refused to list al Qaeda as a terrorist organization.

In February 1998, bin Laden assembled a number of terrorist groups, including Islamic Jihad, and issued a fierce fatwa calling for the deaths of all Americans. On August 7, 1998, 226 people died in the simultaneous bombing of American embassies in Tanzania and Kenya. Investigators blamed bin Laden for the attacks. On August 20, 1998, President Clinton amended Executive Order 12947 to add Osama bin Laden and his key associates to the list of terrorists, thus blocking their US assets--including property and bank accounts--and prohibiting all U.S. financial transactions with them. The United States conducted a missile attack against bin Laden's facilities in Afghanistan.

On October 12, 2000, two suicide bombers ignited their boatload of explosives next to the USS Cole, an American destroyer refueling in Aden, off the coast of Yemen. The blast killed seventeen sailors and wounded thirty-nine others. O’Neill and his crack investigating team were dispatched to Yemen and hit a stone wall. He had hoped satellite intercepts of phone calls between an al Qaeda operative in Aden and Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan would lead him to the mastermind of the Cole attack, but the American ambassador and the Yemeni officials blocked the investigation at every turn.

O’Neill resigned from the F.B.I. in July 2001 and signed on as security chief for the World Trade Center in September. He died in the WTC attack on September 11, 2001.

CONTINUED ...

http://www.hermes-press.com/BushSaud.htm

[Daisey Mae]

77. Bull Sh_tttttt !!!!!!

The election was a fraud....and they know it and they are making up stories to try and fit the facts which show clearly the fraud present.....They will be charged, found guilty and Hung by their skinny lying necks....OOPS sorry I was just dreaming......Sorry!

[Octafish]

93. We've had the same dream.

My nightmare has been recurring daily since November 22, 1963.

This official FBI document shows Poppy Bush was involved in the Kennedy assassination -- apparently as a witness:



This official FBI document shows a "Mr. George Bush of the Central Intelligence Agency" helped clear the anti-Castro Cubans of involvment in the President's murder. Gee. They're among the top suspects...



SOURCE:

http://www.internetpirate.com/bush.htm

[high density]

85. Yet another lame excuse to cover up the fraud.

What a bunch of crap. I can't believe I'm sitting in America right now reading this stuff.

[Octafish]

91. So help spread some Truth.

Of course the BFEE cheated. They are NAZIs. That is what they do. So, if you know of fraud, tell people about it.

This article was posted to help shed some light on what the thought processes were of those idiots brainwashed by TV and the rest of the mass media into voting for the crazy monkey.

[Carl Brennan]

101. I think we are beginning to realize what its like to live in a 3rd World

country.

[Octafish]

109. Since 22 November 1963.

The Reich wing stealing this election is no surprise. It's just one way they employ to keep power. I had hoped there would be sufficient numbers of people supporting our horse to eliminate the possibility of them being able to get away with another theft. Then again, they stop at nothing to achieve their aims. Here's what one of the chief turds of the BFEE said regarding democracy:

"The issues are much too important for the Chilean voters to be left to decide for themselves." -- Henry Kissinger

Source:

http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Kissinger/HKissinger.html

So, if these turds don't like it when the Chilean people vote in a leader, what's to stop them from rigging an election -- or changing the government of the United States? The law? The Constitution?

[Carl Brennan]

135. I remember that quote. I've wondered what Kissassinger

had to do with the Letelier murder.

[Kurovski]

102. "freep" is in the URL.

This is horseshit lifted directly from WH talking points.

More lazy journalists.

[Octafish]

110. What sharp little eyes you have. In this case it's shorthand...

... for Detroit Free Press. It's a newspaper started in 1831 as the Democratic Free Press & Michigan Intelligencer. I don't know when the fuck they shortened it.

BTW: The paper endorsed Kerry this year.

[Kurovski]

133. If the fraud charges get rolling

please let us know if the editorial board carries through on its endorsement by speaking out.

My sharp little eyes might miss it. :-)

[progressivebydesign]

105. Any doubt left that OBL is on the CIA/NSA payroll? nt

[Octafish]

114. From waay back. A pre-9-11 history...

Osama Bin Ladin:
Marketing Terrorism

Yael Shahar, ICT
Aug 22 1998

If he were using the same methods to run a huge software empire, we would laud Osama bin Ladin as a clever capitalist; we would envy him his marketing savvy, or jealously deride him for his riches. However, Osama bin Ladin is not in the software business; his business is international terrorism. Bin Ladin is the prototype of a new breed of terrorist, the private entrepreneur who puts modern enterprise at the service of a world-wide network of terrorists. He makes effective use of all the tried and true methods of marketing, management, privatization and advertising.

Osama bin Ladin is one of 53 children of Saudi construction magnate Muhammad Awad bin Ladin. His mother was reportedly a Palestinian, and the least favored of his father’s ten wives. The elder bin Ladin moved to Saudi Arabia from Yemen and amassed a fortune. Most of this money came from a number of successful construction and contracting companies. Today, the bin Ladin family fortune is estimated at $5 billion, of which Osama has access to an estimated $300 million. He tends to see himself as the model businessman, a graduate of Riyadh University’s management and economics department. The only difference is, his product is war.

The education of a Mujahedin

Bin Ladin entered on his current path of holy warrior in 1979. That was the year Soviet troops invaded Afghanistan. Osama moved his business to Afghanistan--several hundred loyal workmen, some heavy construction tools--and set out to liberate the land from the infidel invader. Recognizing at once that the Afghans were lacking both infrastructure and manpower to fight a protracted conflict, he set about solving both problems at once. The first step was to set up an organized program of conscription. He advertised all over the Arab world for young Muslims to come to fight in Afghanistan. He paid for their transportation to Afghanistan, and set up facilities to train them. The Afghan government donated land and resources, while bin Ladin brought in experts from all over the world on guerilla warfare, sabotage, and covert operations. Within a little over a year he had thousands of volunteers in training in his private bootcamps.

Superpower vs. superpower

But the war in Afghanistan was not a tribal hill feud; it was the stage for one of the last major stand-offs between the two superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union. The Americans at that time had the same goals as bin Ladin’s mujahedin--the ousting of Soviet troops from Afghanistan. In what was hailed at the time as one of its most successful covert operations, America’s Central Intelligence Agency launched a $500 million-per-year campaign to arm and train the impoverished and outgunned mujahedin guerrillas to fight the Soviet Union. The most promising guerilla leaders were sought out and “sponsored” by the CIA. U.S. official sources are understandably vague on the question of whether Osama bin Ladin was one of the CIA’s “chosen” at that time. Bin Ladin’s group was one of seven main mujahedin factions. It is estimated that a significant quantity of high tech American weapons, including “stinger” anti-aircraft missiles, made their way into his arsenal. The majority of them are reported to be still there.

What is certain is that the CIA plan was wildly successful. The mujahedin vanquished the Soviet Union in ten years of savage fighting. What had begun as a fragmented army of tribal warriors ended up a well-organized and equipped modern army--one capable of beating a super power. The departing Soviet troops left behind an Afghanistan with a huge arsenal of sophisticated weapons and thousands of seasoned Islamic warriors from a variety of countries.

CONTINUED...

http://www.ict.org.il/articles/bin-ladin7.htm

[Carl Brennan]

136. When did OBL go off the CIA payroll???? Or did he ever?

The implications of this are huge.


An FOIA to get this information, or would the Bushboy say national security is at stake?

[leesa]

107. I doubt this is true. I'll bet they DID vote for Kerry but are one of the

many justifications for Bush "win". No thinking person would geve a rat's ass whether Kerry mentioned Cheney's daughter in the debate. This is pure BS.

[Octafish]

150. One in four Nevadans who backed Democrat Reid also voted for Bush

I don't think one comment through the election, either, leesa. Misinformed voters did. If we'd gotten that 25-percent, it would be too close to steal via Diebold, Uroseviches, etc. -- Octafish

One in four Nevadans who backed Democrat Reid also voted for Bush

By Scott Sonner

(AP) -- One-fourth of the Nevadans who voted overwhelmingly to re-elect Democratic U.S. Sen. Harry Reid also backed President Bush, a trend that doomed John Kerry’s hopes in rural counties and will color both parties’ future election strategies.

“I believe rural Nevada carried President Bush to victory,” said Republican U.S. Rep. Jim Gibbons, who won a fifth term in Nevada’s sprawling 2nd District that covers many of the so-called “cow counties.”

Democrats made significant gains in GOP-dominated Washoe County, where Kerry did far better than Vice President Al Gore did four years ago and where Reid prevailed for the first time en route to capturing a career-best nine of Nevada’s 17 counties and 61 percent of the vote statewide.

But any success they had persuading moderate Republicans in Reno-Sparks to break ranks to vote for Kerry was more than offset by conservative Democrats and others in rural Nevada who helped re-elect the president.

“When we were canvassing rural Nevada, we heard that a lot — a ‘no’ for Kerry and a ‘yes’ for Reid,” said Mary Conelly, Reid’s state director.

CONTINUED...

http://www.rgj.com/news/stories/html/2004/11/05/84640.php?sp1=rgj&sp2=News&sp3=Local+News&sp5=RGJ.com&sp6=news&sp7=local_news

[antonialee839]

111. Yeah, and I almost voted for Bush

Not a freaking chance in hell. There was no almost about this election, just like the so called "undecided voter". Give me a flippin break.

[enki23]

117. oh, bullshit

i don't buy that bs for a minute. they "could have gone for kerry" had he been anti-abortion, pro-tax cuts for the wealthy, pro-war against the world. you know the fucking drill.

[Gyre]

118. Bullshit!

These scum were just looking for an excuse (any excuse) to vote for their soft and cuddly, psychopathic, death-worshiping chimp. If they can tease us, afterwards, and they get us to say (Oh no! We coulda had some freepers vote us in!) so much the better.

It's a long fucking way from "considering" a candidate to voting for him. Shit, I've considered various deviant sexual acts my German Shepard could have with the chimp (against his will of course), but I wasn't going to send him to the WH to see if he could pull it off!

Gyre

[Divine Discontent]

119. bushco

heard several young men claim there main reason for voting was the gay marriage bans.... made me SICK. they played right into rove's hands, little cretons. buttttttttttttttt, I know several people myself who voted for shrubya last time, and voted for kerry this time, with a ringing endorsement over the shrub.... soooooo, what the HECK happened... voter fraud seems so unbelievable, but sometimes what seems implausible is the most likely.



God, please don't let this be end.

[xequals]

120. Bob Shrum. 0 for 8. Says it all. /eom

[bklyncowgirl]

123. This is part of the puzzle

I think we're all looking at bits and pieces of the puzzle in order to come up a single theory for why we lost and why we at least on the surface appear to be out of step with a big part of the country.

There is no single theory. Voter fraud (which I believe occured) worked because the margins were close enough for them to get away with it.

Why were the margins so close? Because the Democrats refuse to acknowledge the power of the Republican echo chamber and the succepability of the American people to a simple message pounded home over and over again.

"Global Test"
"Dick Cheney's daughter is a lesbian. He's a bad man"
"Flip Flopper"
"Kerry faked his war record"
"Kerry spat on veterans who returned from Vietnam"
"Tax and spend"
"Liberal"

We seem to think that the average American is going to be able to sift through the nuances and find the truth. The fact is that even people who are interested and committed to our cause don't have the time or the energy to get it all. I was talking to a very pro-Kerry coworker the other day about Mary Cheney. She had no idea that MS Cheney had worked for Coors as an outreach person to the gay community. This is an informed, individual, folks. Imagine what the people who don't read the New York Times are getting.

We did not get our message through. We did not attack Bush on his credibility and quite frankly, Kerry let Bush clobber him on things that he should have cleared up immediately.

[Octafish]

130. Excellent analysis.

Thank you, Brooklyn CG! I very much appreciate you putting it into words that we all can understand. Would you mind if I failed to avert my eyes in order to plagiarize?

On the subject of democracy and a free press -- the only business actually named in the Constitution, my thoughts on the subject (from a recent GD thread I can no longer find):

Those in the know have been battling these NAZIs since Dallas. They don't give up and neither should we.

Still, I can't believe that half the electorate (or whatever the un-Diebold tabulated number is) would support a psychotic idiot who:

* Lied to start a war for oil.
* Did nothing to protect America when warned that Osama was going to strike.
* Looted the national treasury for the benefit of his cronies.
* Considers golf and vacation “hard work.”
* Hijacked religiosity and then used his false piety to smear his opponent as a phony war hero.

That even ONE American can still vote for the little turd from Crawford knowing any of that is unbelievable. And that is why we need our own VLWC — to counter the propaganda and constant media brainwashing.

WE the People have to do it. The Democratic leadership certainly isn’t willing to pick up the mic and call a traitor a traitor or an idiot an idiot. My feeling is they want to, but are afraid of what would happen to them and their families.

People from both parties who’ve said stuff or exhibited backbone have suffered. Remember Edwin Meese’s son was killed in a wild car chase through Washington and James Baker’s son was a suicide. Of course, we must remember Paul Wellstone and John Kennedy, Jr. Only through a Free Press can the people coming of age know them, as well.

What I suggest we do is play by our own rules, our own information system. Then, we use it to call Bush out for what he is: A treasonous ghoul who wants to be king of the earth. They have a name for such a person in the Bible. The exorcist we need is called the TRUTH.

The Truth is something you know about. Peace to you and yours! And keep up the good fight!

[vinny9698]

126. Go after the non voters

Comparing this the a Super Bowl we only lost by a field goal with biased referees, the so called liberal media not calling the out right lies told by the republicans. We had the best man, good coaching, just need to fine tune our message and get after the non voters, it will be easier to recruit non voters to our cause then convert true believers to our cause.

[Iris]

128. Can someone provide a link to this that's not related to free republic?

Unless, of course, it is a free republic article.

[Octafish]

129. LMAO. It's 'DETROIT FREE PRESS'

Freep for short.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

132. "Almost" doesn't count except in horseshoes and hand grenades, eh?

[johnnyrocket]

138. 25% What the FUCK!!!!!! GODDAMMIT!!

Stupid morons. They choose poorly.

[fortyfeetunder]

140. Textbook case: Lack of Critical Thinking

When tomorrow's people read about the elections of 2000 and 2004, they will debate why the Americans who voted for Bush had a massive lack of critical and objective thinking.

It's perplexing because Bush Sr. had a Persian Gulf War, economy was in the toilet and general voter malaise. And Clinton did not won by a mandate either in 1992.

If people said they were for Bush because of morality (that is he hasn't been caught with another woman, he does not tolerate gays, and advocates saving embryos and fetuses) what kind of morality is it that would lead a nation into conflict under false pretenses? Delay the investigation of one of the worst foreign attacks on American soil? Abuse prisoners and violate international treaties (to name a few)?

If the voting records show there was a legitimate win, tomorrow's historians will be scratching their heads. It appears to be selective morality.....

[Octafish]

146. Brainwashing America

Agree with you fortyfeetunder. The (non-e-vote stealing) election was 'Selective Morality' for the 75 percent solid pro-Smirky. The rest who voted for him were hypnotized by thoughts and emotions that may not register on their conscious awareness. Unfortunately, our horse was not able to pierce their mental cocoons.

Here's a nice overview on the subject reported a ways back from Hermes-Press:

Brainwashing America

By Norman D. Livergood

The puppet Bush regime is using new, aggressive forms of brainwashing to change the very way Americans think and feel. This is the psychological dimension of the "High Cabal's" general onslaught against American workers, just as the "war on terrorism" is the military dimension and corporate crime and tax cuts for the rich comprise the economic dimension.

We are living under the beginning stages of a military dictatorship in precisely the same way that 1930s Germans suffered under the Nazi regime. As in the case of Nazi Germany, state-sponsored propaganda (brainwashing) is a vital part of the Bush regime's strategy.

New propaganda slogans are being overtly and subliminally implanted by Bush and his gang through their speeches and actions:

* dissent is treason
* Constitutional liberties are less important than security
* the "war on terrorism" excuses any attack on civil liberties
* the Bush administration has the right and the duty to bring about "regime change" in any nation it chooses
* the economy is basically sound
* only a few bad apples are found in the corporate barrel, which requires no new oversight laws
* if Bush and Cheney say they're not guilty of corporate crimes, then believe it and shut up.

CONTINUED...

http://www.hermes-press.com/brainwash1.htm

[really annoyed]

141. I Didn't

I put my fears and self-interests aside and voted for Kerry.

And now, I seem to be regretting it. It seems some liberals want to forgo their "fringe" to win the South.

Like I mentioned before, ignore your "fringe," and see how much of a party you have left.

Conservative Christians only make up a small portion of the population? You didn't see Bush ignoring them, because they make up a large part of his voting base.

[Logansquare]

142. Fear really DOES work as a motivator

Guess we'll have to change the last line of the Star Spangled Banner in order to reflect the new chicken-livered, trembling-in-our-boots America.

[jeffgad]

143. It's the Stupid, Stupid.

[Octafish]

149. Ignorance isn't the same as stupid. But they're not mutually exclusive.

Voting Without the Facts

By BOB HERBERT
Published: November 8, 2004

The so-called values issue, at least as it's being popularly tossed around, is overrated.

Last week's election was extremely close and a modest shift in any number of factors might have changed the outcome. If the weather had been better in Ohio. ...If the wait to get into the voting booth hadn't been so ungodly long in certain Democratic precincts. ... Or maybe if those younger voters had actually voted. ...

I think a case could be made that ignorance played at least as big a role in the election's outcome as values. A recent survey by the Program on International Policy Attitudes at the University of Maryland found that nearly 70 percent of President Bush's supporters believe the U.S. has come up with "clear evidence" that Saddam Hussein was working closely with Al Qaeda. A third of the president's supporters believe weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq. And more than a third believe that a substantial majority of world opinion supported the U.S.-led invasion.

This is scary. How do you make a rational political pitch to people who have put that part of their brain on hold? No wonder Bush won.

CONTINUED...

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/08/opinion/08herbert.htm

BTW: A hearty welcome to DU, jeffgad.

EDIT: Forgot da welcome.

[Drunkkkkkkkkman]

147. Close counts only in horseshoes nt

[Octafish]

148. Good one! Also works in politics!

When it's close, it's easier to steal an election.

Remember in 2000, they had to leave a paper trail: 5-4.

This year, Diebold etc. fudged the numbers: 51-49.

The point of posting this was to shed a little light on the fact that a quarter (24-percent, close enough) of the drunken coke-whore's supporters considered Kerry, but didn't vote for him. I was hoping DUers might find the information of interest and use.

BTW: A hearty welcome to DU, JCashFan! The man in black was great - no doubt about it.

[leftist.]

152. Every time I think I might be coming out of my depression ...

... I read some shit like this and it just fucking kills me! I still can't believe the little douchebag won.