It Is
Time To Stand Up For
Democracy; This is not about
party. It's about country.
By
Anthony Wade
December 25, 2004
Four
years ago this country stood
at the crossroads of
democracy. The new president
had been appointed, by a
partial Supreme Court,
instead of elected by the
will of the people. In early
January, Congress was in
session to accept the
electors. Congressperson
after Congressperson stood
up for democracy and said
they objected to the
election, due to the obvious
appearance of rampant fraud.
Due to government rules, the
Vice President at the time,
Al Gore, presided over the
session and had to ask if
there was one Senator who
would be willing to stand up
and object with them. There
was not one Senator that day
brave enough to simply do
their job and stand up for
democracy, not one.
Four
years later we find
ourselves at these
crossroads again. Seemingly,
our entire democracy is
teetering on a precipice,
ready to fall toward
fascism. The fraud that is
apparent in the 2004
election puts the 2000
election to shame. Rigged
machines, cheat sheets for
recounts, widespread
minority vote suppression,
and outright thuggery are
not only apparent, they are
being documented, thanks to
the courageous work of John
Conyers and his refusal to
bow to the powers that be
and truly represent the
people who elected him to do
so. So, here we stand, on
that precipice on Christmas
Eve, a few weeks away from
redemption. On January 6th,
2005, Congress will convene
as they did four years ago
and it will be time again to
see if there is anyone left
in the Senate who is willing
to stand up for democracy.
Just one will do.
It
appears that there will be
at least 13 members of
Congress who will boldly
stand up and say the
obvious, that this election
is not valid. The rules
state however, that there
must be at least one Senator
to join them in their
objection. Just one. The
pro-Bush mainstream media
has done their level best to
pretend Votergate 2004 is
not happening. We have hours
on end to pontificate about
Scott and Lacey, or the
election fraud in the
Ukraine, but no coverage of
the Congressional hearings
that cut to the very heart
of our republic. It is a
sham, and it is a shame.
Regardless, they cannot
continue forever. On January
6th, 2005, they
will not only have to report
it, but explain where they
have been for two months on
the most important story in
modern political history.
We are
not talking about sore
losers, or wild-eyed
conspiracy theories. We are
talking about willful,
purposeful attempts to
defraud the nation. We are
talking about statistical
improbabilities. We are
talking about voter
suppression on a grand
scale. Votergate 2004
started out silently enough,
people noticing anomalies
here and there. As it grew
though there became the
obvious feeling that
something far more egregious
was going on. The Secretary
of State for Ohio was also
the State Chair for the
reelection of George W.
Bush, a clear conflict of
interest. Mr. Blackwell made
his intentions known early
on, before the election,
when he tried to use an
archaic 1800’s law to
discount voter registrations
due to paper weight. While
that attempt to suppress was
thrown out of court,
Blackwell persisted.
Democratic precincts were
purposefully understaffed,
and provided with fewer
machines than comparable
republican precincts. The
purpose was clear. To cast a
vote in a pro-Bush area
would be a 15 minute
excursion. To cast a vote a
minority district however,
would be a nightmare. At
this link you will see a
brief documentary, taken on
Election Day, from various
precincts that experienced
this mass voter suppression:
http://460design.net/ohio/
Watching this video leaves
you no doubt that the plans
of Ken Blackwell worked
quite well on Election Day.
This is not how democracy is
supposed to work. Someone
needs to answer for this,
and that someone is Ken
Blackwell. Not content with
disenfranchising votes, Mr.
Blackwell has continued to
stonewall Congress and delay
any fair opportunity to
investigate these problems.
He has never responded to 36
questions asked of him by
Congressman Conyers and has
instead had the gall to
pretend that he can dictate
to Congress. This has all
led to depositions being
served this week to Bush,
Cheney, Karl Rove and Ken
Blackwell, compelling them
to give testimony under oath
to their knowledge of these
matters.
What is
the response from Kenneth
Blackwell? In his
consistently weaselesque
manner, he had the Ohio
State Attorney General’s
Office, which is republican,
say that any attempt to put
Blackwell under oath would
be “harassment”. For those
of you, who do not speak the
dialect of the weasel, allow
me to translate. “Any
attempt to get Mr. Blackwell
to tell the truth, will not
be tolerated”. There can be
no doubt at this point that
Kenneth Blackwell is a liar
and he is trying desperately
to cover up the fraud that
he and his office
perpetrated. If there was no
fraud, then he would not be
as resistant, it really is
that simple.
Moving
beyond the pre-election day
fraud/voter suppression and
the post election day cover
up attempts, we also have
apparent fraud within the
recount process as well. In
Fairfield County, we had the
3% test sample not match the
official vote totals, which
demands a full recount under
Ohio law. Blackwell however
decided to simply suspend
and scrap that recount and
restart it another day. The
Green Party members of the
recount were ejected from
the building while the
republican faction was
allowed to stay. In Summit
County observers were not
allowed close enough to
actually observe the recount
and threatened with
expulsion if they even spoke
with the counting teams. In
Medina County the selection
of the counties to recount
were not randomly selected
and instead were chosen
because they had already
been recounted for another
contest. In Cuyahoga County
witnesses’ state that the
order of the ballots were
nowhere near random, clearly
implying that the ballots
had been handled prior to
the recount. In Huron County
the punchcard tabulator test
was only observed by
republican witnesses, the
day before the recount was
to actually start. Lastly,
in Henry and Fulton
Counties, it was discovered
that the Triad Company can
reprogram voting machines
using remote connection,
which calls the entire
process into question
(source – Common Dreams News
Center).
This
last issue has prompted
Congressman Conyers to write
a letter to Triad demanding
they answer questions
related to their remote
control of the election
machines. All of these
circumstances have led to
electors in at least five
states to call for a
congressional investigation
of voting violations during
the Nov. 2 election for
president. It seems that a
great many people have taken
notice of Votergate, even if
the mainstream media still
blacks it out. People from
all over this country have
stood up for democracy, and
you can too. It is
imperative that we let our
Senators know that it is
time for them to stand up
for democracy or be held to
account when they are up for
reelection. You can contact
them by phone,
via the Congressional
switchboard:
202-224-3121 or 800-839-5276.
Just ask for your Senators.
Doing a simple web search
will also get you their
email, which is another
great way to get the point
across that we expect no
less from our elected
officials than to protect
our right to vote fairly. We
also need to call and write
our media and tell them that
if they persist in ignoring
the theft of democracy that
they too can be held to
account by a simple boycott.
This country stands at the
crossroads again. In two
weeks it appears that there
will be 13 brave
Congresspersons who will
take a stand for democracy.
We need just one Senator to
stand up. Just one. One
Senator who can put aside
the business as usual
politics and simply stand up
for the American people and
the sanctity of their vote.
One Senator to carefully
back us away from the
precipice. I have heard
people on the right cry
foul. I have heard them
scream sore losers and I
would say to them now, save
it. This is not about party,
it is about country.
Anthony Wade is
co-administrator of
a website
devoted to educating the
populace to the ongoing lies
of President George W. Bush
and seeking his removal from
office. He is a 37-year-old
independent writer from New
York with political
commentary articles seen on
multiple websites. A
Christian progressive and
professional Rehabilitation
Counselor working with the
poor and disabled, Mr. Wade
believes that you can have
faith and hold elected
officials accountable for
lies and excess.
Anthony Wade’s Archive:
http://www.opednews.com/archiveswadeanthony.htm
Email Anthony:
takebacktheus@gmail.com
