Which brings me back to the news of the day. Hundreds of sworn affidavits from legitimate voters lent their voices to the clamor in favor of at least reexamining the Curtis-Feeney race (FL-24). And yet, for inexplicable and unacceptable reasons, the House Committee unanimously rejected his election challenge on the basis of insufficient evidence. What kind of evidence does Congress propose that we supply in order to prove fraud? And, with paperless electronic voting machines, how would we go about obtaining that evidence?
Exit polls, which, over the years, have been used successfully in thousands of elections here and abroad, suddenly no longer work here. Sworn affidavits are deemed insufficient. We have entered an Orwellian world where oil corporations write energy bills and health care is hostage to insurance companies. Our votes have gone down the rabbit hole of the ubiquitous black box and it will be a hard and long fight to get them back. Are you mad yet? What are you prepared to do about it? And, if you're not mad enough yet to do something, have you seriously considered the possibility that by the time you get motivated, it might be too late?
Commander 'N Thief covers a topic that should be on every citizen's mind. It should be the focus of conversation at dinner tables, web forums, coffee klatches, grocery store lines, everywhere and anywhere. Buy a copy of this film. Pass it around. Arrange a showing for friends and neighbors. Examine the evidence. Dispute it, if you can. And spread the word. As Brad "BradBlog" Friedman has so often said, we need to "be the media." Someone's got to do it.
Democracy depends on freedom of speech. The more full-bodied the debate, the more robust our system of government. Dissent, debate, checks and balances – all of these were part and parcel of the American way for the last 200 years. But, the gross abdication of responsibility by the press to inform the public, the erosion of free speech, and the outsourcing of our voting to private corporations spell nothing less than the abandonment of "government of the people, by the people, for the people".
While I have never considered myself a Republican, I no longer consider myself a Democrat either. I have become, simply, a concerned citizen who prizes true democracy above all partisan divisions. Any person, particularly any elected official, who opposes or does not act to restore transparent elections – where we vote in private, with the votes counted in public with full citizen oversight – is standing in the way of democratic principles. No "faith-based voting"!* No "faith- based counting"!** If we are all in agreement on that, then we should be doing everything in our power to remove these officials from office and disentangle ourselves from the tentacles of democracy-devouring electronic voting machines. Our battered elections and the national psyche have reached the breaking point.
The evidence provided here and elsewhere points to a Republican Party leadership that seems to have decided that it can no longer win elections based on its merits or the popularity of its platform. It is willing to do whatever it takes to assure success. Since 2000, a few of those deadly strategies have included creative gerrymandering, as well as voter intimidation, purging, challenges and lockdowns at the precincts barring citizen oversight. All you Republicans out there, are you committed to victory at any cost?
Anything that purposely keeps legitimate voters from voting and their votes from being counted is vote fraud and totally unacceptable. Anyone who is guilty of this should be prosecuted and jailed. Democracy is too fragile to withstand sustained attacks of this nature and voters need confidence that their votes are secure and safeguarded. We are about as far from that as it is possible to be and the foundation of our freedom is being seriously undermined. Our votes are our voices and ignoring them renders us mute and democracy missing in action.
Lest you feel that the news can't possibly get any grimmer on the electronic voting scene, scope out this article from last October's Sunday Times. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/newspapers/sunday_times/ireland/article665068.ece
"DUTCH hackers who last week breached the security of electronic-voting machines say they can detect which way a person has voted from 25 metres away. Using a receiver the hackers say they can pick up "accidental" radio transmissions from the machines that provide a unique fingerprint for each candidate."
If you feel 100% confident that such a thing could not occur on this side of the Atlantic, you simply haven't been paying attention. In that case, I have some intriguing investment opportunities to discuss with you.
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*Bob Fitrakis, as seen in Commander 'N Thief
**Cliff Arnebeck, as seen in Commander 'N Thief
Here's the link to the film's website: http://www.commander-n-thief.com/
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