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Electoral Politics

November 7, 2004 - 12:44pm -- jim
Electoral Politics

Michael Steinberg writes:


"The Greeks Had a Word for It"

Michael Steinberg

I don't know if the Republicans stole the election and I don't ever expect to know. Even if we do find out, the truth is unlikely to make a difference. A bunch of war criminals that can win reelection with the blood of 100,000 innocents on its hands would hardly be damaged by a mere case of electoral fraud.

November 7, 2004 - 11:47am -- jim
Analysis & Polemic
Electoral Politics

"Evidence Mounts That The Vote May Have Been Hacked"

Thom Hartmann


When I spoke with Jeff Fisher this morning (Saturday, November 06, 2004), the Democratic candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives from Florida's 16th District said he was waiting for the FBI to show up. Fisher has evidence, he says, not only that the Florida election was hacked, but of who hacked it and how. And not just this year, he said, but that these same people had previously hacked the Democratic primary race in 2002 so that Jeb Bush would not have to run against Janet Reno, who presented a real threat to Jeb, but instead against Bill McBride, who Jeb beat.

November 6, 2004 - 1:45pm -- jim
Analysis & Polemic
Electoral Politics

"Dead Party Walking"

Jeffrey St. Clair, Counterpunch>

"Mister Kurtz, he dead." — Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness

Buried in the ossuary of roadkill from the November election you will find all that remains of the once brawny Green Party, now splattered into a micro-stain on the electoral scorecard with evidence of its passing barely detectable by even the most expert political forensic scientist.


The Green Party, notorious spoiler of Democratic aspirations in 2000, not only wasn't a factor in this election; its very existence was scarcely mentioned by the press ... or by anyone else.

November 5, 2004 - 1:46pm -- nolympics
Analysis & Polemic
Electoral Politics

"The Liberal Waterloo"
(Or, Finally Some Good News from Washington!)
Slavoj Zizek, In These Times

The first reaction of progressives to Bush’s second victory was that of despair, even fear: The last four years were not just a bad dream. The nightmarish coalition of big business and fundamentalist populism will roll on, as Bush pursues his agenda with new gusto, nominating conservative judges to the Supreme Court, invading the next country after Iraq, and pushing liberalism in the United States one step closer to extinction. However, this emotional reaction is precisely what we should resist—it only bears witness to the extent liberals have succeeded in imposing their worldview upon us. If we keep a cool head and calmly analyze the results, the 2004 election appears in a totally different light.

November 5, 2004 - 9:07am -- jim
Analysis & Polemic
Electoral Politics

"Exit Polls Right, Tallies Wrong?"

Thom Hartmann, AlterNet

The hot story in the blogosphere is that the "erroneous" exit polls that showed Kerry carrying Florida and Ohio (among other states) weren't erroneous at all — it was the numbers produced by paperless voting machines that were wrong, and Kerry actually won. As more and more analysis is done of what may (or may not) be the most massive election fraud in the history of the world, however, it's critical that we keep the largest issue at the forefront at all time: Why are We The People allowing private, for-profit corporations, answerable only to their officers and boards of directors, and loyal only to agendas and politicians that will enhance their profitability, to handle our votes?

November 4, 2004 - 9:01pm -- jim
Announcements
Electoral Politics

Post Election Message

Ralph Nader

First of all, thank you so very much to the thousands of volunteers, our
Corporate Crimebusters, State, Regional and Campus Coordinators, our valiant
staff here in Washington, DC, all of our generous donors and every one of
you who voted for Nader/Camejo 2004.


Well, it should now be clear to all: the Democratic Party cannot get the job
done against the worst Republicans in a long time. So much time and money
was spent by the Democrats, only to push a message that ultimately said,
"Don't vote for George W. Bush." It's a shame.

If losing to George W. Bush
isn't the breaking point for Democrats who have been fed up for years by the
leadership in their party, then I can't imagine the indignities that they
are further willing to endure.

November 4, 2004 - 6:20pm -- jim
News
Electoral Politics

Unhappy Democrats Must Wait to Get Into Canada

David Ljunggren, Reuters

OTTAWA (Reuters) — Disgruntled Democrats seeking a safe Canadian haven
after President Bush won Tuesday's election should not pack their bags
just yet.


Canadian officials made clear on Wednesday that any U.S. citizens so fed
up with Bush that they want to make a fresh start up north would have to
stand in line like any other would-be immigrants — a wait that can take
up to a year.

November 4, 2004 - 4:25pm -- jim
Analysis & Polemic
Electoral Politics

"Kerry Won"

Greg Palast

Bush won Ohio by 136,483 votes. Typically in the United States, about 3 percent of votes cast are voided — known as “spoilage” in election jargon — because the ballots cast are inconclusive. Palast’s investigation suggests that if Ohio’s discarded ballots were counted, Kerry would have won the state. Today, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports there are a total of 247,672 votes not counted in Ohio, if you add the 92,672 discarded votes plus the 155,000 provisional ballots.

Kerry won. Here's the facts.

I know you don't want to hear it. You can't face one more hung chad. But I don't have a choice. As a journalist examining that messy sausage called American democracy, it's my job to tell you who got the most votes in the deciding states. Tuesday, in Ohio and New Mexico, it was John Kerry.

November 4, 2004 - 10:07am -- jim
Analysis & Polemic
Electoral Politics

"Election 2004: 'Sour Grapes' or Voter Fraud?"

Mike Whitney



If you believe that George Bush won last nights election "fair and
square" then forget about reading this article. If you know however
that tens of thousands of people who lined up for up to four hours at
a time in Ohio and Florida to have their vote counted, were not
standing there to endorse the aggression and suicidal policies of the
current administration then read on.


The unprecedented high turnout coupled with new registrations (that
were overwhelmingly in favor of John Kerry) suggest that there was
foul play at the voting booths. As a result, consumer investigator and
activist Bev Harris (founder of Black Box Voting) "is conducting the
largest Freedom of Information action in history. On election night,
Black Box Voting blanketed the US with the first in a series of public
records requests, to obtain internal computer logs and other documents
from 3,000 individual counties and townships."


If the Bush people are so confident in their victory let them "put up
or shut up."

November 3, 2004 - 7:37pm -- jim
Analysis & Polemic
Electoral Politics

"America Implodes"

Thiago Opperman

Well, what do people think? What are some readings of this? Somehow, it's
hard to believe that this was just a matter of there being indifference to
the options (turnout was the highest in forty years) and it's pretty
difficult to argue there was no difference between candidates. It's also
pretty difficult to say it doesn't matter.


So why is it that when faced with a rich kleptocratic lying swindler
fundamentalist and a rich technocratic opportunistic swindler aristocrat,
people chose the former? It's very hard not to gather the impression that
the American proles — the sprawlingly ugly, fat, lazy, contented, bigoted,
analphabetic, credulous, stupid, cruel, humourless wastes between the
Appalachians and the Sierra Nevada — really do prefer to have messianic,
one-eyed idiots as their rulers. But why? It's a question of serious import
to any class analysis with the slightest interest in the human material that
composes the lower class in the most advanced capitalist country.

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