"The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything." – Joseph Stalin
Since art does not exist in a vacuum, I would like to place my review of Commander 'N Thief within the context of recent newsworthy events. Unfortunately, you'll have to dig hard to find coverage of them in the mainstream press.
Almost two weeks ago, the House Administration Committee unanimously decided to throw out numerous 2006 election challenges, including that of Clint Curtis. He collected hundreds of voters' sworn affidavits that point to a different reality from that indicated by the election results in Florida. Alas, none of the candidates were invited to testify and Curtis's evidence was neither examined nor evaluated.
I joined other concerned citizens in mounting a last-minute campaign (since this was snuck in under the radar) to protest this cavalier disregard of basic democratic principles. We were successful in deluging committee members' offices with faxes, e-mails, and phone calls. Unfortunately, the committee members were unmoved by this massive display of public support. The committee was made up of five Democrats and three Republicans – so much for the big changes expected after the 2006 elections.
It seems that the accurate counting of the vote is not a big priority for our elected officials in D.C. Those who have posited that there isn't a nickel's worth of difference between the two parties have fuel for their argument. Is there something in the water inside the Beltway that makes conscientious, well-meaning individuals susceptible to collective amnesia regarding their responsibility to the very people who put them in office? Why is it such an uphill battle to convince our representatives that fair elections are something that deserves more than lip service?
Commander 'N Thief, the twelfth film on election integrity that I have reviewed, is so chock full of material that it's hard to know where to start. This documentary does a great job spotlighting the 2004 election, and goes farther than the others I've seen. While it is not partisan in tone, it does not shy away from calling a spade a spade. From opening with Stalin's words on elections, it cuts directly to Greg Palast, investigative journalist and author, who baldly states,
I don't think John Kerry won. I know he won... and that they did not count the votes... This is not conspiracy theory...These are the facts. It's a question of numbers; it's a question of votes...millions of votes cast, not counted. It's not the story of the Ukraine... It's the story of the United States of America... Maybe you won't like what you hear. It should get you real energized. Get ready for the information and then get ready to do something about it.
While most of the film is spent presenting the evidence of massive, nationwide election fraud in 2004, Palast casts his eyes ahead to 2008, where he predicts more of the same, but on an even larger scale. He calculates that there were around two million votes in 2000 that were cast but never counted. That number jumped to over 3.6 million in 2004, and he anticipates five million "spoiled" votes in 2008.
The film is overflowing with data for fact-hungry viewers – charts, statistics, and technical information galore – that all add up to a pretty grim picture. Huge numbers of American citizens were systematically stripped of their votes in a way that was neither accidental nor coincidental. These voters were predominantly from minorities and lower socioeconomic levels – according to Palast, 89 percent of all uncounted votes came from minority precincts. Bob Fitrakis calls this tactic "high tech, 21st century Jim Crow."
We have all heard about the gross misallocation of voting machines. Despite predictions of massive voter turnout, Ohio's Democratic strongholds got fewer machines than they received during the primaries. Numerous machines were moved from over-crowded, urban Democratic precincts to not-crowded-at-all, suburban Republican ones. Susan Truitt of Citizens Alliance for Secure Elections went to the Franklin County BOE on the morning of Election Day to report that many precincts had long lines and a shortage of machines. Franklin County Director of the Board of Elections, Matt Damschroder, magnanimously admits in the film that their failure to get the machines to the needy precincts was "a mistake on our part."
Somehow, the very machines that were in the urban precincts during the primaries ended up sitting out the general election in a warehouse, as has been verified by their serial numbers according to election lawyer Cliff Arnebeck. The odds of the machines randomly distributing themselves in this way are astronomical: 72,500,000,000,000,000 to one. This – coupled with all of the other election anomalies, irregularities, and disparities that defied all statistical probability by swinging only one way – points to far more than a mere "mistake": rather, a well thought-out plan of vote suppression that violated basic civil rights and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
The infamous Ohio Secretary of State, Ken Blackwell, went out of his way to make sure that certain voters would find it more difficult to vote. Incorrect polling places were posted on the official SOS website; an unrealistic demand for registration on 80-bond paper was enforced based on an obscure law; voters were not allowed to vote in the wrong precinct; and provisional ballots were not counted. This all adds up to massive disenfranchisement of minority voters, who vote Democratic by overwhelming margins. As Ohio community activist Mark Dunbar states succinctly, Blackwell "chose the Republican Party over the people of Ohio."
In another abuse of the system, white Republican men in suits went into black wards to "challenge" and intimidate voters by casting aspersions on them and their legitimacy. In addition, thousands of minority voters were notified by phone or mail that they would be arrested at the polls if they had served time, were on probation, had warrants out on them, or had outstanding traffic tickets. Voters, standing in line for hours in the rain, were threatened that their cars would be towed, adding insult to injury.
One particularly insidious and distasteful disenfranchisement ruse involved black soldiers overseas. Greg Palast tells this story in the film, which also appears in his book, Armed Madhouse, recently updated and reissued. The RNC sent the servicemen first class letters carefully stamped, "Do not forward." Because the soldiers were away serving their country, they were obviously not home to receive these letters, which were subsequently returned to the RNC as requested. Their names were then referred to the state Republican Party chairman, who reported that these individuals apparently no longer lived at their listed addresses, using the returned mail as proof. On Election Day, when the servicemen voted from overseas on their military ballots, they had no idea that their votes would be thrown out by an invisible, illegal, and immoral challenge. These servicemen and women were deemed good enough to fight and die for their country, but not to exercise their right to vote. How do we expect to export democracy when it is evidently in such short supply here at home?
Chellie Pingree of Common Cause sums up the situation succinctly. She says,
"They're really trying to make it harder for certain people to vote in this country and that is so unpatriotic and anti-American and goes against the grain of what we have to do to be a strong nation that we have to fight that at every turn."
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote, "When you have excluded the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth." Peter Peckarsky, a lawyer who argued on behalf of Ohio voters before their state Supreme Court, says that looking at all of the anomalies and inconsistencies, there is
"no logical explanation consistent with an honest election. There is plenty of explanation consistent with a gross deprivation of civil rights and some type of dishonesty or corruption of the vote count."
Bob Fitrakis freely admits that cheating in elections is certainly nothing new, but by using machines with secret proprietary software run by a few private corporations, we make it all but certain that people will cheat and no one will know. Until the perpetrators get prosecuted for vote fraud and are sent to jail, the temptation to manipulate our elections offers very big rewards without much risk.
There are many culprits responsible for the public ignorance of what's befallen our elections. There is the silence of the press, the agenda of the voting machine corporations and their lobbyists, the elected officials who have gotten stuck in a mess of their own creation, and the basic trusting nature of the American people. It is awful and scary to think that officials would rather prop up an unworkable system than admit they made a mistake. Hubris and greed are bringing down our country like no external enemy could. As Abraham Lincoln presciently observed, "Americans will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed them ourselves."
Joan Brunwasser is a co-founder of Citizens for Election Reform (CER) which exists for the sole purpose of raising the public awareness of the critical need for election reform. We aim to restore fair, accurate, transparent, secure elections where votes are cast in private and counted in public. Electronic (computerized) voting systems are simply antithetical to democratic principles.
CER set up a lending library to achieve the widespread distribution of the DVD Invisible Ballots: A temptation for electronic vote fraud. Within eighteen months, the project had distributed over 3200 copies across the country and beyond. CER now concentrates on group showings, OpEd pieces, articles, reviews, interviews, discussion sessions, networking, conferences, anything that promotes awareness of this critical problem. Joan has been Election Integrity Editor for OpEdNews since December, 2005.
Excellent Article Needs Widest Internet Distribution
Thank you for this excellent article. Can you arrange through Bob Dahl or some other way to have a campaign to distribute this article widely on the Internet? I know having it on OpEd is wide distribution--I mean make it ubiquitous. I will send emails with a link to some other Sites hoping that will help. Christie Mayo
by
Christie (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 143 comments)
on Sunday, May 20, 2007 at 4:44:42 AM
Call it "election fraud," not "voting fraud." The difference is crucial.
"Voting fraud," alleged voting by ineligible individuals, is the smokescreen issue that Rove and the GOP is stirring up. It is an excuse to keep democratic voters from the ballot box -- the scam that's behind the US Attorney firings.
"Election fraud" is "wholesale" fraud, via DRE voting machines, compilers, etc. -- the sort of thing that you are dealing with here. I.e., the reason that the GOP won in 2000, 2002, and 2004.
Rove, etc., are counting on the public confusing the two.
So be sure to note the difference and keep the labels straight.
by
Ernest Partridge (96 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 11 comments)
on Sunday, May 20, 2007 at 7:10:22 AM
the way it was explained to me is that VOTER fraud (dead people voting, people voting twice) is what Rove and Co. have alleged in order to ram through restrictive measures like voter ID. it is actually extremely rare and there have been few prosecutions despite Administration zeal. All people have to do is scratch the surface of the current US Attorney firings to see fake voter fraud (and its fallout) running the engine of the Department of Justice.
VOTE fraud (or election fraud) is what's really going on with voters being disenfranchised - either kept from the polls or having their votes thrown out or 'miscounted' - in large numbers to achieve a partisan voting result.
in either case, "Commander 'N Thief" deals with the latter, widespread phenomenon, as opposed to the former tactic, used largely as distraction and as an excuse for restrictions on voting that unduly affect minorities, the poor, the elderly.
Joan
by
Joan Brunwasser (139 articles, 3422 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 597 comments)
on Sunday, May 20, 2007 at 8:12:42 AM
I don't know what more proof one needs that our elections are a farce and that those in power want anything but fair elections other than the fact that since the disaster of the 2000 elections we still don't have a uniformed, verifiable, tamper-proof system of voting. Third-World countries have better systems than this so-called cradle of democracy.
Pundits tell us who we're voting for as they marginalize those candidates that truly resonate by calling them "far this or that", "fringe", "kooks" and such. The fact that the evidence Palast has isn't in the MSM is another example of the smoke-screen put up by the powers that be to keep the public in the dark about the farce.
The solutions are there but they also come with peril. Those that have had the strangle-hold on power are not likely to let the people take it away without many casualties being inflicted. This isn't just a fight to get our country back, it's a fight for our lives.
by
Mr M (4 articles, 0 quicklinks, 12 diaries, 1425 comments)
on Sunday, May 20, 2007 at 10:17:14 AM
"I don't think John Kerry won. I know he won..." Greg Palast is a liar and a crackpot. His arguments were destroyed from the get-go. No wonder he usually hides his tuckus outside the country most of the time.
by
Scott (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 489 comments)
on Sunday, May 20, 2007 at 6:31:53 PM
You are so far off base on this one. I've been reading Greg Palast for a few years. He proves what he says. He has copies of documents and pictures that have never been refuted. I'd guess that you are one who's crawled out from under a rovian butt, somewhere. Read the paperback and find out about 500 of the 'missing' rove-to-doj e-mails. They were inadvertently sent to a "progressive" site. TOO funny, as well as pretty stupid on the part of some rove people, maybe even Karl himself. The world as well as the American people need to wake up to what Greg Palast says. Stop listening to those from "right-wing-nutsylvania." Did you tick me off?? YOU bet!
by
Pat Herrick (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 154 comments)
on Monday, May 21, 2007 at 12:22:02 PM
Greg Palast, investigative journalist and author, who baldly states, "I don't think John Kerry won. I know he won... and that they did not count the votes... This is not conspiracy theory..."
Joan: Professor Emeritus Peter Bagnolo, here. In my lifetime I have learned one thing, From long before David's conspiracy to to abandon Uriah so he could marry Uriah's wife Bathsheba, to Jesus' prosecution, to Kennedy's murder by the CIA funded by the Arms and oil industries because he would not agree to attack Viet Nam, to The Bushite decision in 1999 to attack Iraq if Bush won, and verified in 2000 February, as attested by everyone associated with them including Paul O'Neil-Everything under the Sun which ever has happened on Planet Earth except Acts of God, have been planned and therefore conspired. Anyone who thinks otherwise is an unenlightened, tool or dupe of the Tripartites. The Bushite family business, The Carlyle Group made up of Neo-cons military/oil, and former dictators and the Bin Ladin's and other Saudi's has profied $15,000,000,000 since the war began, at least in reportable income.
On second thought, the Creation was no accident as Einstein attested and I as a cultural anthropologist, in all of my studies, can firmly concur with, so even Acts of the Good God are well planned. As Einstein said to Niels Bohr, concerning the quantum as Chaos, "God ,Does not Shoot Dice with The Universe!" Nor does man with anything he touches.
You are on target, and to repeat Woody Allen's comment, I also, "...am busy writing the non-fiction version of the Warren Report..."
In that case it was the Dems, demurring from further investigation because they still had the presidency and the Military Industrial Complex would have it's war, as they planned all along. Blaming on the "Mafia" killed two stones with one bird.
How do I get a copy? Also where do I order "Invisible Ballots?"
Great article, by the way. I left a comment to one who called Greg a liar, and was so incensed that I forgot the kudos to you. Sorry.
Patricia Herrick
Gold Creek, Montana
an 80 year old activist
by
Pat Herrick (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 154 comments)
on Monday, May 21, 2007 at 12:35:01 PM
IF YOU DENY THIS IS A FREE COUNTRY, I'LL BEAT YOU UP!
Damail, where is your evidence? Don't you realize you haven't proved anything if you just call someone a liar without evidence?
This is typical of you neocons. I remember your ilk from the Joe McCarthy movement of the 1950's. You claim to be the most fervent supporters of democracy and freedom while desecrating their very essence. Your position is "This is a free country and if you say it's not, or anything else I don't like, I'll beat your up and throw you in jail. That, plus verbal abuse in place of any evidence, pretty much sums up what your ilk is like!
Robert Halfhill, 66 year old activist
by
rhalfhill (3 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 285 comments)
on Monday, May 21, 2007 at 4:01:37 PM
If Kerry won, why did not he fight for his victory? Election fraud was and is obvious, but it cannot be proven or disproven. It has to be USED. Kerry was aimed to lose. From the start, from those unfortunate staged debates, from pampering Bush, from avoiding the issue of Catholicism, from the Dem Party Convention where Clintoninans dominated, it went on and on until he quickly conceded without a fight. He knew the machine but he did not care. It was his part of the bargain and he abandoned the US people the same way Gore abandoned them in the Y2001. It is a pattern.
It is said that even to die with honor is easier than to live with one. Kerry sold his honor. He also sold us. Being a smart man he does not have a luxury or proclaiming innocence. He is a sellout. We need to know that. No matter what Bush team did ( and we only can envy such vehemence and efficiency in the service of a master), Bush did not win. Kerry lost.
by
Mark Sashine (51 articles, 19 quicklinks, 244 diaries, 3453 comments)
on Tuesday, May 22, 2007 at 7:04:40 AM
Thank you so much, that is a very nice review and I have received a lot of good feedback from it.
I was intervied on KPFT-FM in Houston on Sunday night and one of the co-hosts read a portion of your review.
I really appreciate all the nice things you said about Commander 'N Thief. One week ago Today(well Monday) I signed with a producers rep. named Page Ostrow, of Ostrow and Company in LA, and I sent a link to her office and asked that it be forwarded to her in Cannes. She is there now with 4 or 5 projects, including Commander 'N Thief, and working the foreign distribution market for my project.
Again and again Thank you!
Take Care, Tom
Joan,
Please feel free to use my comments if you would like. Yes I have had several people order DVD's starting very shortly after your review came out. I am, of course, glad people are buying it (as will be my land lord at the beginning of next month) and I hope they share it around. I am also hopeful that Page Ostrow will have success with the distribution, it seems that when people realize what is going on from whatever source they get mad enough to do something. When I started this I never thought I ended up with a producers rep or...I don't know--I was hoping someone like move-on would sell it, but this is kinda wild.
Take Care, Tom
by
Joan Brunwasser (139 articles, 3422 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 597 comments)
on Tuesday, May 22, 2007 at 2:11:47 PM
It would be interesting to have a listing/summary review of the many documentaries you have seen, or at any rate the best of them, together with running times.
My friends in the 911 movement in Edinburgh have just compressed 8 and a half hours onto one dvd (including 25 mins from BBC world service announcing 22 minutes early that Building 7 had come down!!).
Maybe I could ask them to prepare a compilation of VoteTheft films if you could provide a guide, their URLs??
Just a thought for when you have the time,
all for now, cheers,
Keith
[Incidentally a woman activist in the Electoral Reform Society is challenging the Executive's desire to organise the Council elections on the Internet, saying that is ultra vires of their mandate to organise by postal vote. ]
by
Joan Brunwasser (139 articles, 3422 quicklinks, 3 diaries, 597 comments)
on Tuesday, May 22, 2007 at 6:30:15 PM
"'I'll beat you up and throw you in jail...'" Halfhill, there's another lie. I never said anything about beating you up if you don't agree with my opinion. Palast's assertions are based on little snippets of info that are stretched into laughable conclusions. He thinks all the examples of "spoilage" are Kerry votes that are tossed for no good reason, and he offers no proof whatsoever that anchors that into place. He tried to prove these ridiculous theories on the Michael Medved show two weeks after the 2004 election, and Medved cleaned his clock without even breaking a sweat.
My favorite moment: Palast mumbled something about how not all the military ballots for Ohio were counted. When Medved pointed out that military voters favored Bush over Kerry 70-30 and that would have increased Bush's lead, Palast had no comeback. It was delicious.
by
Scott (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 489 comments)
on Tuesday, May 22, 2007 at 11:24:15 PM
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