Assassins of Democracy, Votergate 2004 Continues
By Anthony Wade
December 28, 2004
Democracy has been under attack for four years now. The first shot was fired four years ago by a partisan Supreme Court who thwarted the will of the people to anoint their man, George W. Bush, President. The memories faded during the first Bush administration as 9-11 took center stage and captured the attention of a nation. Four years passed however and nothing changed. The assassins came back, realizing nothing had been done to prevent another attack upon our democracy.
Realizing they needed to win two of the big three states in order for the Bush reign to continue, the GOP took aim at Florida and Ohio, where they had their operatives firmly entrenched. Amazingly, Florida went to Bush by a seemingly improbable margin, with the heavily democratic south Florida, adding 175,000 votes to the Bush tally to push the idea of a recount out of the mainstream. Ohio however, became a bit muddier than they had hoped. Never worry though; the state of Ohio was in the hands of this year's Katherine Harris, Kenneth Blackwell. You remember Harris? She was the Secretary of State in Florida in 2000, and the state Chair of the Bush campaign, a ridiculous conflict of interest. Her reward for assassinating democracy on 2000? A trip to the Congress in 2002, proving that crime does not only pay, but it pays quite well.
Fast forward to 2004, and the state Chair of the Bush campaign in Ohio, is again the Secretary of State, highlighting only one of the failures from 2000 that was not addressed. Blackwell, who has now become the poster boy for election fraud and blatant disregard for democracy, has proven to be even more brazen then Harris, before him. We have all heard the stories already about how Blackwell delayed any attempts at a fair recount by stalling the certification of the results until the last minute. We have heard how he thumbed his nose at Congress, ignoring 36 questions posed to him by John Conyers of the Judicial Committee. Just last week, we heard how he had his lackey, the republican State Attorney General say that any attempt to compel Blackwell to answer for his transgressions under oath would be viewed as "harassment".
Not content with verbal threats which belie his guilt, Blackwell persisted this week by requesting a protective order to prevent him from being interviewed in relation to a lawsuit filed challenging the Presidential vote. Did you get that America? The man responsible for overseeing the election process in the state of Ohio does not want to be questioned in a lawsuit about that election. The same man is also the Chair for the Bush reelection campaign, a conflict of interest I am sure he does not want to have to answer to. Hmmm, I wonder why?
The lawsuit was filed by 37 voters who have cited fraud in the elections. They have specifically cited machine shortages in minority districts which created obscenely long lines and various machine errors. These items specifically fall under the purview of the Secretary of State, the aforementioned Ken Blackwell. The obvious reason for Blackwell wanting to avoid coming clean under oath is that if his office shorted minority districts while having higher machine to voter ratios in traditionally GOP districts, well, we have a word for that in America. That word is fraud. Under the National Voter Registration Act that would mean a trip to prison for five years instead of Congress, or the Governor's House, as it has been reported awaits Blackwell for his assassination duties.
Blackwell is not alone though. This week also saw the Ohio GOP state lawmakers begin to try and make recounts a thing of the past. The GOP lawmakers and Blackwell are seeking to restrict who can ask for a recount and to make it far more expensive to seek one, under the guise of an "election reform bill". This state has seen a slew of inappropriate machine allocations, 10 hour lines to vote, pre-punched ballots, thousands of extra votes awarded, cheat sheets for recounting, voter suppression, voter intimidation, machines with the default apparently set for Bush, and many, many other irregularities, and the best the GOP can come up with for "election reform" is to make recounts more limited and more expensive. Once you figure out how to steal the election, the next logical step is to make it harder to be caught. Larry Long, the Executive Director of the County Commissioners Association of Ohio actually said, "Neither candidate has any chance of winning, so what's the point?" Allow me to educate the Executive Director. The POINT, is that democracy is safe. The POINT, is that every vote gets counted. The POINT, is that people like you do not get to ask ridiculously stupid questions in the light of massive, state-wide fraud. That is the POINT.
Not to be outdone, Blackwell also weighed in with this gem, "It's (a recount) too inviting for mischief". Too inviting for mischief??? From the sound of the testimony coming out of your state Mr. Blackwell, the mischief occurred prior to the election, during the election, and during the alleged recount. The mischief also seems Mr. Blackwell, to have originated from your office, at your behest. If you truly had nothing to hide, you would answer the questions asked of you by Congress. If you truly had nothing to hide, you would testify, as to your actions in this "mischief". If you truly had nothing to hide, you would stop wasting our time with self-serving, sanctimonious nonsense and ensure the inviolability of democracy. Of course, I do not expect you to do that, which means you have something to hide. Don't make those reservations for the Governor's mansion just yet Ken.
These assassins have had help though. This column has long bemoaned the sordid state of the media, which is becoming more and more centralized and governmental. It became obvious in the run-up to the election as there could not be enough stories about the Swiftboat Veterans for Lies, and cable news shows had stacked GOP panels where people like Pat Buchanan and Ben Ginsberg were propped up as "analysts". The media sell-out however became obvious to us when Votergate 2004 first made headlines on the Internet. The silence was surreal. Even as exit polling was used to discredit the Ukrainian elections, the only mainstream media personality to even acknowledge the story existed was Keith Olbermann. Some had suggested that there was no story but after sworn affidavits, and Congressional Hearings no one can seriously make that assertion now. Last week however, all doubt was laid aside as John Conyers called the bluff of the collective media. Realizing that it would be quite interesting to see the raw data from the exit polls on Election Day, Conyers requested of Warren Mitofsky, who owns the data, that it be released Mitofsky begged off, laying the quagmire at the feet of the networks, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, and FOX. A spokesperson for the media groups quickly said, ehh, no thanks! The party line was that they were still analyzing the data and don't want to release it until they are done.
Excuse me, Congressman Conyers did not ask for the analysis, he asked for the data, period. For those of you, who may not have been following this angle, let me take you back to Election Day. Exit polling showed an imminent Kerry landslide. It was so certain that respected pollster John Zogby actually called the election for Kerry, with 311 electoral votes! Word was that Bush was despondent. Suddenly, Karl Rove started planting the seed that the exit polling was skewed and did not take into consideration enough Bush voters. Lo and behold, when the final tallies came in, Bush won.
Here are the facts on exit polling. It has been long considered one of the more reliable polls, because it asks questions about an action already taken, a vote, as opposed to a future action, who you may vote for. It has been used reliably for decades. It was the tool used to determine that the Ukrainian elections had been defrauded. Even GOP mouthpiece Dick Morris was quoted as saying there was no way the exit polls were that wrong. Here is the kicker though. The two states that had computer voting machines AND a verifiable paper trail saw the final results match the exit polling within one percentage point. In all of the other states that had computer voting machines and NO paper trail, the discrepancies rose to between 5 and 15 percent, and ALWAYS in favor of Bush. What a coincidence! Ohio alone had a 6.7 percent swing. A recent PhD professor did a statistical analysis which put the odds of just the swings in Ohio, Florida, and Pennsylvania, at 250 million to one.
Now, when the networks realized that their exit polls were not matching the results, they adjusted the data, to take into consideration the vote tallies. CNN was busted for this, as they changed their data overnight, but some had saved the original data screen shots from the website. Once the data is adjusted, it becomes meaningless. Adjusting the data to match the end results is in essence, covering up the true data. This is why Congressman Conyers requested the original data. We do not need it analyzed or adjusted again. The response of the media is disingenuous, and should be taken at face value for what it is, complicity with the theft of this election. It is further proof that they have indeed blacked out the Votergate 2004 story on purpose. They are now officially an accomplice to the assassination of democracy.
I have heard from operatives on the right that this is all "conspiracy theory". The use of the term is meant as a pejorative, to discredit anyone who supports such a notion. In reality though, the only part I really took issue with was the word "theory". This is changing though. As more and more testimony comes in and the assassins keep scrambling for cover it is becoming obvious that the theory is crystallizing. When you have a man as compromised as Blackwell, seeking a legal way to not tell the truth, it appears obvious that we have moved beyond the realm of theory. When you see all mainstream media blackout such an important story and then refuse Congress to keep their exit poll data secret until after the inauguration, the land of theory has been left behind. As for conspiracy, it doesn't bother me either. Most assassinations are conspiratorial by nature.
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.
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