After seeing the latest approval ratings, it's occurred to me...

[Pacifist Patriot]

Wouldn't approval ratings for both the president and the Republican dominated congress that are in the absolute toilet make it even harder to fix the votes in the next election? No one is going to buy a below 40% approval rating getting someone re-elected. I hate that they are screwing up the country so badly, but that may be some good news. Sort of. Please. Anything.

[electropop]

1. Yeah, at some point poll numbers will be so low...

they simply can't be brushed aside. On the other hand, watch for the pukes to ban polls very soon now.

[davidgmills]

22. They won't ban them; they will own them

I suspect they do already anyway.

[trotsky]

2. They'll buy anything.

Plus disapproval for Congress doesn't automatically translate into disapproval for YOUR representative. Unfortunately.

[Pacifist Patriot]

4. Damn, and here I'm trying to have an optimistic Friday after...

a depressing Thursday. Oh well, at least Shrub isn't appearing on television tonight. I'll have to live on that high for awhile. ;)

[applegrove]

3. It was hearts & minds that stole the last elections. Not the voting

machines. And yes - that could happen again.. if they get Americans to 'look over here' rather than voting on their own best interests and rejecting extremism.

[Pacifist Patriot]

9. I still have this overwhelming feeling in the heart of my soul...

that "knows" that more people went to the polls on November 2 intending to cast a vote for John Kerry. Some couldn't wait for 8 hours, some had their votes flipped on the screen and some had their vote tabulations manipulated. I don't think so many hearts and minds were stolen. I think votes were.

Still, there were far too many idiots voting for my comfort. ;)

[applegrove]

10. Stealing hearts and minds is a much easier operation than the

vote stealing (by machine) that you describe. The nefarious do things to the emotions of people because that does not leave a physical trail of proof so much.

Look at the deal they made with the Vatican to influence the last election. Catholics were told to not give Kerry any 'rights'. Priests were given marching order to insist their believers vote on the abortion issue. It may have resulted in a few % points of Catholics voting with Bush.

The Repukes did this to numerous populations and squeaked by with a win.

For sure redistricting and long lines helped to a certain extent.

But by far it was hearts and minds and turning Kerry into a 'gay icon' and attacking his greatest strength..his war record.

It is a pattern as old as the hills for megalomaniacs.



It is like the cabals of old.

[Pacifist Patriot]

12. I have no doubt they did both.

[Amaryllis]

20. Disagree that stealing hearts and minds is easier. One tabulator hack

can move hundreds of thousands of votes in minutes. Stealing hearts and minds takes longer and is more work.

[applegrove]

21. But they have had 30 years. n/t

[helderheid]

26. actually

Stealing hearts and minds is only slightly harder than flipping votes at a central tabulation machine.

[uberotto]

5. His ratings won't matter in the 2008 election...

What they will effect is the 2006 House elections. If bush is still in the low 40's, it will make it difficult for House Repubes to get another two years. Historically, the Presidents party looses big in the House elections during a presidents second term.

As for the 2008 election, if bush's numbers are still bad, then whoever is chosen to run in 2008 will just be portrayed as the Anti-Bush Republican. The press will go along, and the sheep will, once again, line up to get sheered.

[Pacifist Patriot]

7. Oh well that I know.

I was sort of projecting back into the past. Let's say Bush had had a 27% approval rating on November 1. I believe that is what Carter's was when he left office.) I seriously doubt we'd have been here beating our heads against a wall for the last six months. If Bush had been re-elected with that, I think we'd have seen a more public outcry.

I have absolutely no doubt that the Republicans are going to HAVE to run an "anti-Bush" candidate in 2008. I'll stick my neck out and predict the lowest approval rating ever for an outgoing president. Pretty aggressive since poor Carter's was undeservedly low.

[Fly by night]

6. Since Gallup et al are now routinely oversampling Repugs, ...

... I wonder what the real approval rating would be if the opinion polling was not "adjusted" ahead of time to give Duh-bya a 10 point head start?

In the 30s, maybe?

[Pacifist Patriot]

8. Yeah, there is that pesky little issue of the definition of...

"likely voter" and other Repug tactics to skew polls.

[Mojambo]

11. They'll do the same thing they are doing with exit-polling

Just get rid of it.

Any obstacle will be removed.

[davidgmills]

23. Why get rid of it when you can buy it?

[snowbear]

13. I've been wondering....

..if they'll somehow manipulate things and make sure Suddam Hussein's trial is held during the 06 senate elections?

[MissWaverly]

14. Nope

If you remember correctly, Jeb attributed Bush's win in 2000 to the
direct intervention of the Virgin of Guadalupe, I asked my neighbor, a devout Catholic, if it was a miracle that my voting machine defaulted to Bush 5 times in the 04 election.

[MontageOfFreedom]

15. It was due to the machines.

Nobody convinced that many voters to vote for bush, a large portion was pure fraud. The rest were brainwashed.

Indeed it has come to that.

[MissWaverly]

17. I agree with you

there's just too many fake incidents since 2000
There was the capture of Sadaam that was "recreated"
There were the interrogations at GITMO that were "faked" for visitors
There was the fake pulling down of Sadaam's statue, small crowd
carefully screened
There were fake WMD's, & biological weapons
The FBI is investigating fake Republican campaign contributions in OH
There was a fake terror alert in Warren County, OH in the 04 election
There was the fake riot by men in suits to stop recount FL '00
There were fake Secret Service throwing out Dems at townhall mtg
There were the fake allegations by Swift Boaters on Kerry war record
There were the fake memos on GWB's war service, real ones disappeared
There was the fake reporter/with fake name in WH press room 2 years
There were the fake tax cuts where they were sucking our pension money from social security to run the country
I probably forgot some of the other fakes

What we have here is a climate of deception

[MontageOfFreedom]

18. And it all frames the truth: This administration is FAKE. Period. n/t

[MissWaverly]

19. What a great punch line

no text is right, nothing to see here, move along

[MontageOfFreedom]

29. Exactly. Pay no attention to the wizard of oz....n/t

[MissWaverly]

32. sadly GWB comes closest to being the Wizard

the total fraud

[snowbear]

16. Can I ask a dumb question..

:shrug:

Can anyone advise.. what.. if anything.. is occurring right now to ensure a paper trail (receipts) for electronic voting machines?

If not by the 2006 elections.. at least by the next presidential election.

It was an issue several months prior to the '04 rip-off election, and all I ever heard was "there simply isn't time" to change the devices.

WHY is this topic ever in the news.. or do I just miss it when it's discussed?

~ Are any Democratic Senators fighting like HELL to ensure all voting machines will have a paper trail by '06 or '08?

Thanks for any info guyz! ~~~ :hug:

[howmad1]

31. Dumb Question

Believe it or not, things are being done. Go to:
http://www.verifiedvoting.org for a pretty comprehensive overview on both a state and federal level as to what efforts are underway. Very encouraging.:-)

[garybeck]

24. it doesn't matter if people buy it

they will cook the approval numbers. lie about the exit polls. lie about the results. fill the airwaves with lies. that's why we have restore integrity to our election system. they do everything they do, with no concern for whether or not people believe it.

[candice]

25. John Zogby: "The election of this President defied history and logic"

because a majority of the public disapproved of the direction the country was heading in and Bush's performance as President during his Supreme Court appointed term.
Go figure. Without Jeb in Florida, Blackwell in Ohio, and whoever was orchestrating the dirty tricks in Nevada and New Mexico, we'd have a President elected by the people and one that cared about the best interests of people and the country. As my Representative said at a townhall meeting last week, in this Congress, whatever industry wanted, industry got.

[vince3]

27. These lousy approval ratings...

...tell us that he lost six months ago. There is no way he got 50.8% of the vote.

[kster]

28. Even the hackers

will be embarrassed to hack it for them.

[Bill Bored]

30. Harder to fix a less-close election but

they could just give up little and keep their majorities if they want.
Remember they won't have the POTUS race to worry about, so they can REALLY concentrate on Congress this time!

Also, any of a number of events could occur between now and then to provide them with political cover. Look at how they milked 9/11!

[Carolab]

33. Never fear. They'll fake it just like they did last time.

Remember how his approval ratings were supposedly going up before the election? Remember how they used the "bin Laden" tape to justify it?

It was just media manipulation.

All they have to do is stage another event to scare the shit out of Amurcans. Then they can just declare martial law and that will be the end of EVERYTHING.

So you can just stop worrying your pretty little heads about all that, cuz they'll find a way to PREVENT us all from fair elections from here on out, unless WE take charge of this situation and NOW!

I suggest we WRITE IN OUR CHOICES. I have started a thread on this but I am not getting a lot of cooperation.

Personally, I don't see how they can stop us from WRITING IN OUR CHOICES, FORCING THEM TO COUNT OUR VOTES MANUALLY.