Mr. Palast reported to those gathered how the 2008 race had already been decided for the Republican candidate. "You don't have to steal votes if you can prevent them from ever being cast. And the Republicans have eliminated six million registered Democrats from the lists of those eligible and previously registered to vote." Among the strategies to which he was referring were "caging" (Google it), stripping from the rolls those folks whose names were the same as or sufficiently similar to the names of felons, being prepared to - in Democratic-leaning, African-American and Hispanic dominant precincts - challenge those who did show up, and reduce, in those precincts, the voting equipment, so as to make exercising one's franchise an exercise in frustration. It was all to intimidation.

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What the discussion boiled most predominantly down to concerned John McCain and Senator Obama. Senator Clinton seemed to be the unnoticed washing instructions tag on a garment. Scheer made it clear he supported Obama because of the Illinois senator's basic integrity, his desire to raise the level of discussion to issues, as opposed to divisive side-tracking gotcha ambushes, his cool-headed contemplative approach to complex issues, and because he genuinely does want to bring the country together.

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Mr. Welch, as he readily acknowledged, had not actually interviewed Senator McCain, en route to writing the book on McCain. Rather, he had been on the campaign trail, following the senator.

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During the Q&A, I was at last successful catching the attention of the moderator, Mr. John F. Kimberling. My first note was to Palast's points: In 2004, and in 2006, I was a resident in Florida's infamous 13th district, Katherine Harris's district, and how, in 2006 especially, Republican Vern Buchanan won the congressional race by a handful of votes, in spite of how approximately 18,000 cast ballots from Democratic-leaning precincts had mysteriously been lost. That handled, I went on to report how John McCain has, since 2001, voted AGAINST EVERY senate bill and amendment intended to extend equipment funding for the active military ground troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, and those amendments and bills that would extend funding for VA medical services and facilities to our military veterans. (McCain's most recent non-support of vets is his me-too Bush administration's opposition - on the basis it is "too costly" - to Senator Jim Webb's GI Bill update of the one passed in 1944. Webb's bill, co-sponsored by Republicans Hagel and Warner, and by himself and Democratic Senator Lautenberg, would provide full tuition, books and a living stipend.) See below for the list of bills and amendments, with senate.gov URL attribution, the 57%-missed-voting-McCain has opposed.

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Almost as a chorus, the panel softly remarked, either "I didn't know that," or "I wasn't aware of that." Following the panel's discussion, I personally placed in Mr. Palast's hand the paper upon which I'd printed all the data that none of the so-called "experts" had been the least cognizant about. He folded the pages, slipped them into his brief case, and thanked me.

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Here's the point folks: Regardless which end of the political (also includes religious) continuum you're closest to, do NOT rely on the pundits and self-anointed "authorities" to provide you with much beyond their general, and all too often, wholly under-researched and documented, opinions. Ya gotta do some work yourself. And today, with the Internet, it's all soooo easy and fast.

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Do yourself and our American form of government a favor: 1.) open a blank Word (.doc) or Word Perfect (.wpd) document. Then scroll-highlight, to "copy," just the list of McCain's votes on the amendments and bills below. Then transfer the copied section to your blank document. Next, print it, and keep it handy. Then, whenever you hear anyone try to tell someone why he or she supports the senior senator from the Grand Canyon State, pull out that sheet and remark, "Really? Were you aware of how McCain actually voted?" It will not be your "opinion" in your hands, it will be FACT; simple, unadorned, unspun and unspinable, from the United States' Senate voting tally, FACT!

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Of course, you can also include in your response the remarks made by Senator McCain's fellow Republicans about McCain's inability to maintain a temperate composure whenever he feels his perspective on an issue might be being challenged. You can bring into the discussion the senator's recent comments on equal pay for women, "If women want to earn more money, they just need to get more education," and how it misses the point entirely: that, as the Lilly Ledbetter case illustrated, too often corporate America does violate Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and illegally discriminates, and the level of education the victim had had absolutely nothing to do with it. Or, you might reflect on how John McCain was an international interventionist who viewed the answer to every international confrontation as "rogue-state regime change," and that just maybe "bomb, bomb, bomb . . . bomb, bomb Iran" and "Fifty years, what's wrong with a hundred years [in Iraq]" were Freudian slips that revealed a tad more than he'd have wished the public might discern was his true orientation.

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