According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual IV, the bible of psychologists, people with antisocial personality disorder can be described as follows:
Antisocial Personality Disorder (301.7)
No superego or conscious (no sense of right and wrong)
Willing to Lie
Not bound by Social Norms
Can be pleasant/polished/slick
Possible criminal record
Potential for Violence
Impulsive
Enjoys humiliating and demeaning others
Further, according to a website interpreting this for lay people:
"You are unbending and inflexible and cannot adjust your behavior to the needs of a particular situation, activity, or relationship."
The behavior is long-standing and is not caused by another chronic or recurrent psychiatric disorder, by a medical condition, or by substance use.
Having a personality disorder means you are not the kind of person who can adapt smoothly to the normal give-and-take of everyday life. Instead, you expect the world and people to change for you rather than being able to adjust to the requirements of different situations and relationship. You behave in a rigid and inflexible way that perpetuates vicious cycles and fulfills your worst prophecies.
Having a closed mind means that you misperceive or filter out new information that does not support your expectations. Then you act in a way that elicits just those responses from others that will make your negative expectations a reality. You generally do not take responsiblity for your own life and feelings, instead you tend to blame others. You lack sufficient coping mechanisms to be adaptive and deal with everyday problems and stressors. Having a personality disorder means that you get in the same fix over and over again and can never figure out quite why or how. Pesonality Disorders create stormy relationships and unfulfilled hopes and dreams.
Does the house GOP have a collective personality disorder?
House G.O.P. Acts to Protect Chief
November 18, 2004
By CARL HULSE
WASHINGTON, Nov. 17 - Spurred by an investigation connected
to the majority leader, House Republicans voted Wednesday
to abandon an 11-year-old party rule that required a member
of their leadership to step aside temporarily if indicted.
Meeting behind closed doors, the lawmakers agreed that a
party steering committee would review any indictments
handed up against the majority leader, Representative Tom
DeLay of Texas, or any other members of the leadership team
or committee chairmen, to determine if giving up a post was
warranted. The revision does not change the requirement
that leaders step down if convicted.
The new rule was adopted by voice vote. Its chief author,
Representative Henry Bonilla of Texas, said later that only
a handful of members had opposed it.
The Republicans' old rule was adopted in August 1993 to put
a spotlight on the legal troubles of prominent Democrats.
Mr. Bonilla said revising it had been necessary to prevent
politically inspired criminal investigations by "crackpot"
prosecutors from determining the fate of top Republicans.
"Attorneys tell me you can be indicted for just about
anything in this country, in any county or community," said
Mr. Bonilla, an ally of Mr. DeLay. "Sometimes district
attorneys who might have partisan agendas or want to read
their name in the paper could make a name for themselves by
indicting a member of the leadership, regardless of who it
may be, and therefore determine their future. And that's
not right."
Mr. DeLay said he had not instigated the change. But he
applauded it nevertheless, saying it could deprive
"political hacks" of an ability to influence the makeup of
the Republican leadership.
Republican lawmakers "fixed the rules so that Democrats
cannot use our rules against us," he said.
Mr. DeLay said he did not expect to be indicted, but added,
"This has nothing to do with whether I was going to be or
not going to be.''
The comments of Mr. DeLay and Mr. Bonilla were clearly
directed at Ronnie Earle, the district attorney in Travis
County, Tex., including Austin, who won indictments earlier
this year against three political associates of the
majority leader. The investigation by Mr. Earle, a
Democrat, involves charges of illegally using corporate
money to help Republicans win state legislative races in
2002. Those Republican victories in turn gave the state
party enough legislative muscle to win redistricting
changes that helped Congressional Republicans gain five
additional seats in Texas on Nov. 2.
Despite the indictments of his associates, Mr. DeLay has
not been called to testify, and Mr. Earle has not said
whether the congressman is a target.
Not all Republicans agreed with Wednesday's rule change,
which was adopted after some two and a half hours of
debate.
"This is a mistake," said Representative Christopher Shays
of Connecticut.
When the Republicans gained control of the House in the
elections of 1994, "we were going to be different,'' Mr.
Shays said.
But "every time we start to water down what we did in '94,"
he said, "we are basically saying the revolution is losing
its character."
Democrats and outside watchdogs bitterly criticized the
change.
"Today Republicans sold their collective soul to maintain
their grip on power," said Representative Steny H. Hoyer of
Maryland, the Democratic whip. "They unabashedly abandoned
any pretense of holding themselves to a high ethical
standard, by deciding to ignore criminal indictments of
their leaders as reason for removal from leadership posts
in the Republican Party."
Fred Wertheimer, president of Democracy 21, a group that
follows campaign finance issues, said: "With this decision,
we have gone from DeLay being judged by his peers to DeLay
being judged by his buddies. It's an absurd and ludicrous
new rule and an affront to the American people."
Republicans said Democrats had no standing to criticize
them, since House Democratic rules have no provision to
remove indicted party leaders, though they do require
indicted committee chairmen to step aside. The minority
leader, Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, said
Wednesday that her party would quickly expand the provision
to cover leadership posts as well.
"Republicans have reached a new low," Ms. Pelosi said. "It
is absolutely mind-boggling that as their first order of
business following the elections, House Republicans have
lowered the ethical standards for their leaders."
The change follows two admonitions that Mr. DeLay received
from the bipartisan House ethics committee this fall, one
involving a House floor vote, the other a fund-raiser. Mr.
DeLay has built strong loyalty in the House over the years
by helping raise campaign money and paying close attention
to the personal legislative interests of Republican
lawmakers, and the ethics committee's action angered some
of his supporters in the chamber.
Mr. DeLay and many other House Republicans have criticized
Mr. Earle's inquiry as highly partisan. "Ronnie Earle is
trying to criminalize politics," Mr. DeLay said. "I think
that is wrong."
Mr. Earle, in a statement issued by his office, said the
Republican rule change would have no effect on the
continuing investigation. But he added, "It should be
alarming to the public to see their leaders substitute
their judgment for that of the law enforcement process."
House Republicans did not dispute the idea that the change
had been brought on by the events in Texas but said most of
the majority's lawmakers had also concluded that the rule
was simply unfair.
"In my sincere opinion, it only provoked the timing" of the
change, Representative Trent Franks of Arizona said of the
Texas inquiry. "When you look at the rule, it is an
outrageous rule."
The new rule says that upon the return of an indictment
against a committee chairman, a subcommittee chairman or a
party leader, a steering committee made up of House leaders
other than the accused lawmaker will have 30 days to
recommend to the full Republican conference "what action,
if any, the conference shall take concerning said member."
Though the change had been a subject of discussion for the
last week, it was not submitted by Mr. Bonilla until right
before a Tuesday deadline that Republicans had set to offer
proposals for rules in the new Congress. Mr. Bonilla and
others said the Republican conference, including many
members elected only two weeks ago, had been insistent on
the revision.
"It is the right thing to do," said Representative John
Carter of Texas, a former judge.
While House Republicans were acting on the rule, Congress
continued its reorganization for 2005. House Democrats and
Senate Republicans re-elected their leadership teams for
the most part. In the only real race, Senator Elizabeth
Dole of North Carolina gained a one-vote victory over
Senator Norm Coleman of Minnesota to head the National
Republican Senatorial Committee, which provides guidance
and money for Republican candidates.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/18/politics/18house.html?ex=1101842267&ei=1&en=3a93f3d75f46f104
Thursday, November 18, 2004
Where are you not speaking up? To whom are you not listening?
If the world is our mirror, then as a group, there must be a lot of us who don't feel we are worth being heard (see "Ohio hearings show massive GOP vote manipulation", posted below). If we all insisted on speaking up as a regular practice, then maybe we couldn't be stopped from voting.
Or maybe we're not listening too well, to allow others not to be heard, to feel that it is more important to have our way in the short run, with sullen cooperation, and underground or passive resistance in the long run, than to allow a real conversation to allow everyone to be heard, and to get to the truth. In my experience, when we all everyone to be heard, we come to some surprising conclusions, which generally turn out to be workable.
So even if you're not in Ohio or Florida or New Mexico, you can still help prevent vote fraud on the internal planes. Ask your self:
Where am I not speaking up?
Who am I not listening to?
Hollis
Harvey Wasserman of www.freepress.org wonders:
Ohio hearings show massive GOP vote manipulation, but where the hell are the Democrats
& John Kerry?
November 17, 2004
Columbus, Ohio---Hour after hour the testimonies are the same: angry Ohioans telling
of vicious Republican manipulation and de facto intimidation that disenfranchised
tens of thousands and probably cost the Democrats the election.
At an African-American church on Saturday and then at the Franklin County Courthouse
Monday night, more than 700 people came to testify and witness to tales of the atrocity
that was the November 2 election.
Organized by local ad hoc groups, the hearings had a court reporter and a team of
lawyers along with other appointed witnesses. At freepress.org we will be making
the testimonies available as they're transcribed and organized, and we will present
a fuller accounting of the hearings, along with a book that includes the transcripts.
But one thing was instantly and abundantly clear: the Republican Party turned Ohio
2004 into an updated version of the Jim Crow South.
The principle overt method of vote suppression was to short-change inner city precincts
of sufficient voting machines to allow a timely balloting. In precinct after precinct,
virtually all of them predominantly black, poor, young and Democratic, the lines
stretched for two, five, eight, even eleven hours. The elderly and infirm were forced
to stand in the rain while city officials threatened to tow their cars. No chairs
or shelter were provided. Crucial signage was mysteriously missing. Thousands came
to vote, saw the long lines and left.
How many thousands? Enough to turn the election? Almost definitely.
None of this was accidental. This was a well-planned GOP attack on the right to
vote, and on Democratic candidacies. Republican Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell
was also co-chair of the Ohio campaign for Bush. A right-wing Republican was in
charge of the Franklin County Board of Elections.
They all said the election went "smoothly." By their standards they were
right. At least 68 voting machines sat in a warehouse while precinct managers called
desperately for help. Republican precinct judges and challengers harassed would-be
voters. The names of long-time activists mysteriously disappeared from registration
lists. The arsenal of dirty tricks was virtually endless.
With it the Bush/Rove team deprived countless Ohioans of their right to vote just
as surely as if they'd levied a poll tax or invoked the grandfather clause.
In the coming days we'll issue a more complete accounting of these devastating hearings.
No one who cares about democracy and fears the consequences of its destruction could
come away from them without being both infuriated and terrified.
But one thing also stood out---the complete lack of Democratic support for these
hearings or for the larger vote count movement. Nationally, it all stands in the
shadow of the complete disappearance of John Kerry, on whose nominal behalf this
was done.
A successful grassroots effort involving the Green and Libertarian Parties, among
others, has raised---in just four days---some $150,000 to force a recount of the
Ohio vote. (Ralph Nader has forced a similar recount in New Hampshire). But where
were the countless millions raised by the Democratic Party and Kerry campaign by
trusting American citizens who expected them to fight for democracy?
Right up to election day Kerry repeated his solemn vow to, in light of what happened
in Florida 2000, guarantee everyone's right to vote. But now that another highly
dubious election has occurred, where the hell is he?
Rumors are circulating that he is biding his time, waiting for the right time to
jump in. Or that the Democrats themselves have something to hide. Or that there's
a magic bullet just waiting to be fired.
Similar rumors spread about Al Gore four years ago. We're still waiting for that
fateful shot.
This election was not about apathy. Tens of thousands of smart, eager, fiercely
dedicated volunteers came out this year, desperate to rid this nation of the curse
of George W. Bush.
An escalating avalanche of evidence indicates a true vote count would have thrown
Bush out of the White House.
But once again, the Democrats have dissed the grassroots. Once again, a candidate
who promised democracy has disappeared with barely a whimper in the face of those
who would destroy it. His silence has allowed an orgy of media bloviation in homage
to a bigoted, war-crazed America that, if it won at all, took this election not
by national consensus, but by the Rovian staples of dirty tricks and voter suppression.
The upcoming Ohio recount is fraught with danger. The Republicans battled successfully
to prevent the state's voting machines from including paper trails that can be reasonably
recounted. These "black boxes" will require extreme sophistication to
be properly evaluated. Unless intensely supervised down to the last detail, the
Republicans who control these machines will turn this recount into a "proof"
that the election "went smoothly."
So a true recount will require serious additional financial resources and a very
aggressive, well-organized team. So far we hear not a peep from the mainstream Democrats.
So far, they seem utterly deaf to the cries of fury and despair from those who were
so wrongly deprived of their right to vote.
Democracy itself was lynched in Ohio on November 2, by both high and low tech means.
Our freedoms may be the ultimate victim. But where is the Democratic Party?
-------------------------
HARVEY WASSERMAN'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES is available through www.harveywasserman.com.
He is senior editor of www.freepress.org.
Or maybe we're not listening too well, to allow others not to be heard, to feel that it is more important to have our way in the short run, with sullen cooperation, and underground or passive resistance in the long run, than to allow a real conversation to allow everyone to be heard, and to get to the truth. In my experience, when we all everyone to be heard, we come to some surprising conclusions, which generally turn out to be workable.
So even if you're not in Ohio or Florida or New Mexico, you can still help prevent vote fraud on the internal planes. Ask your self:
Where am I not speaking up?
Who am I not listening to?
Hollis
Harvey Wasserman of www.freepress.org wonders:
Ohio hearings show massive GOP vote manipulation, but where the hell are the Democrats
& John Kerry?
November 17, 2004
Columbus, Ohio---Hour after hour the testimonies are the same: angry Ohioans telling
of vicious Republican manipulation and de facto intimidation that disenfranchised
tens of thousands and probably cost the Democrats the election.
At an African-American church on Saturday and then at the Franklin County Courthouse
Monday night, more than 700 people came to testify and witness to tales of the atrocity
that was the November 2 election.
Organized by local ad hoc groups, the hearings had a court reporter and a team of
lawyers along with other appointed witnesses. At freepress.org we will be making
the testimonies available as they're transcribed and organized, and we will present
a fuller accounting of the hearings, along with a book that includes the transcripts.
But one thing was instantly and abundantly clear: the Republican Party turned Ohio
2004 into an updated version of the Jim Crow South.
The principle overt method of vote suppression was to short-change inner city precincts
of sufficient voting machines to allow a timely balloting. In precinct after precinct,
virtually all of them predominantly black, poor, young and Democratic, the lines
stretched for two, five, eight, even eleven hours. The elderly and infirm were forced
to stand in the rain while city officials threatened to tow their cars. No chairs
or shelter were provided. Crucial signage was mysteriously missing. Thousands came
to vote, saw the long lines and left.
How many thousands? Enough to turn the election? Almost definitely.
None of this was accidental. This was a well-planned GOP attack on the right to
vote, and on Democratic candidacies. Republican Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell
was also co-chair of the Ohio campaign for Bush. A right-wing Republican was in
charge of the Franklin County Board of Elections.
They all said the election went "smoothly." By their standards they were
right. At least 68 voting machines sat in a warehouse while precinct managers called
desperately for help. Republican precinct judges and challengers harassed would-be
voters. The names of long-time activists mysteriously disappeared from registration
lists. The arsenal of dirty tricks was virtually endless.
With it the Bush/Rove team deprived countless Ohioans of their right to vote just
as surely as if they'd levied a poll tax or invoked the grandfather clause.
In the coming days we'll issue a more complete accounting of these devastating hearings.
No one who cares about democracy and fears the consequences of its destruction could
come away from them without being both infuriated and terrified.
But one thing also stood out---the complete lack of Democratic support for these
hearings or for the larger vote count movement. Nationally, it all stands in the
shadow of the complete disappearance of John Kerry, on whose nominal behalf this
was done.
A successful grassroots effort involving the Green and Libertarian Parties, among
others, has raised---in just four days---some $150,000 to force a recount of the
Ohio vote. (Ralph Nader has forced a similar recount in New Hampshire). But where
were the countless millions raised by the Democratic Party and Kerry campaign by
trusting American citizens who expected them to fight for democracy?
Right up to election day Kerry repeated his solemn vow to, in light of what happened
in Florida 2000, guarantee everyone's right to vote. But now that another highly
dubious election has occurred, where the hell is he?
Rumors are circulating that he is biding his time, waiting for the right time to
jump in. Or that the Democrats themselves have something to hide. Or that there's
a magic bullet just waiting to be fired.
Similar rumors spread about Al Gore four years ago. We're still waiting for that
fateful shot.
This election was not about apathy. Tens of thousands of smart, eager, fiercely
dedicated volunteers came out this year, desperate to rid this nation of the curse
of George W. Bush.
An escalating avalanche of evidence indicates a true vote count would have thrown
Bush out of the White House.
But once again, the Democrats have dissed the grassroots. Once again, a candidate
who promised democracy has disappeared with barely a whimper in the face of those
who would destroy it. His silence has allowed an orgy of media bloviation in homage
to a bigoted, war-crazed America that, if it won at all, took this election not
by national consensus, but by the Rovian staples of dirty tricks and voter suppression.
The upcoming Ohio recount is fraught with danger. The Republicans battled successfully
to prevent the state's voting machines from including paper trails that can be reasonably
recounted. These "black boxes" will require extreme sophistication to
be properly evaluated. Unless intensely supervised down to the last detail, the
Republicans who control these machines will turn this recount into a "proof"
that the election "went smoothly."
So a true recount will require serious additional financial resources and a very
aggressive, well-organized team. So far we hear not a peep from the mainstream Democrats.
So far, they seem utterly deaf to the cries of fury and despair from those who were
so wrongly deprived of their right to vote.
Democracy itself was lynched in Ohio on November 2, by both high and low tech means.
Our freedoms may be the ultimate victim. But where is the Democratic Party?
-------------------------
HARVEY WASSERMAN'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES is available through www.harveywasserman.com.
He is senior editor of www.freepress.org.
Monday, November 15, 2004
I want some of what Ashcroft's smoking!
"The objective of securing the safety of Americans from crime and terror has been achieved."
John Ashcroft
"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." —George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Aug. 5, 2004
Do you suppose W was telling the truth for once?
The two top officials running the CIA's clandestine service resigned this morning, according to the Washington Post. Apparently, Porter Goss is leading a purge of anyone who is a patriot, who tried to tell the truth about the state of our intelligence, and that it was the administration's willful disregard for the truth which led to 9/11 and the war in Iraq. Do you suppose this is going to IMPROVE our intelligence gathering activities?
Osama bin Ladin has just received a fatwa authorizing him to use nuclear weapons against the US. And according to the Council on Foreign Relations, "there is ample evidence of a significant black market in nuclear materials." So he'll be able to get whatever he needs, sooner or later.
John Ashcroft
"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." —George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Aug. 5, 2004
Do you suppose W was telling the truth for once?
The two top officials running the CIA's clandestine service resigned this morning, according to the Washington Post. Apparently, Porter Goss is leading a purge of anyone who is a patriot, who tried to tell the truth about the state of our intelligence, and that it was the administration's willful disregard for the truth which led to 9/11 and the war in Iraq. Do you suppose this is going to IMPROVE our intelligence gathering activities?
Osama bin Ladin has just received a fatwa authorizing him to use nuclear weapons against the US. And according to the Council on Foreign Relations, "there is ample evidence of a significant black market in nuclear materials." So he'll be able to get whatever he needs, sooner or later.
Sunday, November 14, 2004
What YOU Can do NOW to get the truth out about our recent "election"
1) Learn what's going on:
www.nov2truth.org /a> - which has all the following links, plus lots of articles
. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has been instrumental in all litigation across the country relating to e-voting (electronic voting).
These organizations have done a lion's share of getting the word out about what is wrong in this country's electoral process.
2) Call or write your Senators and congressional representative. To find your senator, and how to contact him,her, go to . To find your representative, . (It should be , but that seems to have been down for the last 2 days.)
3) Write to your local newspapers to inform the public at large what is going on. Tell them to cover the election debacle and tell them to use the word fraud liberally.
4) Send financial donations to:
- Bev Harris' site. She is doing a world of good with her tenacious and brave work. She sent out Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to every county in the country, and that type of effort requires funds. Read Black Box Voting, by Bev Harris, available on the web, to arm yourself with the sad facts of a broken electoral process.
5) Write to John Conyers (D – Mich.), Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee on the Constitution, who has requested a Congressional Hearing on the 2004 election. Tell him you support the request and that you want him to push for the hearing to be held as soon as possible.
Contact Information for John Conyers:
Washington DC E-Mail Address:
john.conyers@mail.house.gov
Washington DC Web Address:
http://www.house.gov/conyers/
Washington DC Web Mail Address:
http://www.house.gov/conyers/letstalk.htm
Washington DC Web Mail Address:
http://www.house.gov/writerep
Washington DC Address
2426 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515-2214
Phone: 202-225-5126
Fax: 202-225-0072
District Address - Detroit
Federal Building, Room 669
231 West Lafayette Boulevard
Detroit, MI 48226-2766
Phone: 313-961-5670
Fax: 313-226-2085
District Address - Southgate
DCC Building
15100 Northline Road, Suite 257
Southgate, MI 48195
Phone: 734-285-5624
Fax: 734-285-5943
Campaign Address
19512 Livernoise
Detroit, MI 48221
Phone: 313-864-3671
6) Write to George Soros and ask him to help fund litigation in Ohio and Florida to challenge the vote tallies.
c/o Open Society Institute--New York
888 7th Avenue
New York, N.Y. 10106
United States of America
Telephone: +1-212-757-2323
Fax: +1-212-974-0367
E-mail: osnews@sorosny.org
Web:
7) Write to the DNC and ask why Senator Kerry capitulated so quickly - before the information on the vote tallies was even beginning to come in. Tell them that Senator Kerry needs to take back his concession. Democratic National Committee, 430 South Capitol St SE, Washington, DC 20003. Their phone number is 202-863-8000. Their web-site is:.
8) Contact the Kerry campaign and tell them that he has done a great disservice to the American people by capitulating so quickly – before information could be gathered. Tell him to reconsider in light of all that is coming to the surface.
Contact National Headquarters
Kerry-Edwards 2004, Inc.
P.O. Box 34640
Washington, DC 20043
202-712-3000
202-712-3001 (fax)
202-336-6950 (TTY)
Stay in touch with CASE_OH@yahoogroups.com
and .
9 Finally, forward this to all of you friends, acquaintances, listservs, etc.
LOCAL EFFORTS ARE ALSO UNDERWAY. FOR EXAMPLE:
CASE Ohio is helping organize a public hearing this week regarding this year's election. www.caseohio.org
614-487-1759
614-270-5239
10) For more information, check out:
www.nov2truth.org /a> - which has all the following links, plus lots of articles
. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has been instrumental in all litigation across the country relating to e-voting (electronic voting).
These organizations have done a lion's share of getting the word out about what is wrong in this country's electoral process.
2) Call or write your Senators and congressional representative. To find your senator, and how to contact him,her, go to . To find your representative, . (It should be , but that seems to have been down for the last 2 days.)
3) Write to your local newspapers to inform the public at large what is going on. Tell them to cover the election debacle and tell them to use the word fraud liberally.
4) Send financial donations to:
- Bev Harris' site. She is doing a world of good with her tenacious and brave work. She sent out Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to every county in the country, and that type of effort requires funds. Read Black Box Voting, by Bev Harris, available on the web, to arm yourself with the sad facts of a broken electoral process.
5) Write to John Conyers (D – Mich.), Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee on the Constitution, who has requested a Congressional Hearing on the 2004 election. Tell him you support the request and that you want him to push for the hearing to be held as soon as possible.
Contact Information for John Conyers:
Washington DC E-Mail Address:
john.conyers@mail.house.gov
Washington DC Web Address:
http://www.house.gov/conyers/
Washington DC Web Mail Address:
http://www.house.gov/conyers/letstalk.htm
Washington DC Web Mail Address:
http://www.house.gov/writerep
Washington DC Address
2426 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515-2214
Phone: 202-225-5126
Fax: 202-225-0072
District Address - Detroit
Federal Building, Room 669
231 West Lafayette Boulevard
Detroit, MI 48226-2766
Phone: 313-961-5670
Fax: 313-226-2085
District Address - Southgate
DCC Building
15100 Northline Road, Suite 257
Southgate, MI 48195
Phone: 734-285-5624
Fax: 734-285-5943
Campaign Address
19512 Livernoise
Detroit, MI 48221
Phone: 313-864-3671
6) Write to George Soros and ask him to help fund litigation in Ohio and Florida to challenge the vote tallies.
c/o Open Society Institute--New York
888 7th Avenue
New York, N.Y. 10106
United States of America
Telephone: +1-212-757-2323
Fax: +1-212-974-0367
E-mail: osnews@sorosny.org
Web:
7) Write to the DNC and ask why Senator Kerry capitulated so quickly - before the information on the vote tallies was even beginning to come in. Tell them that Senator Kerry needs to take back his concession. Democratic National Committee, 430 South Capitol St SE, Washington, DC 20003. Their phone number is 202-863-8000. Their web-site is:.
8) Contact the Kerry campaign and tell them that he has done a great disservice to the American people by capitulating so quickly – before information could be gathered. Tell him to reconsider in light of all that is coming to the surface.
Contact National Headquarters
Kerry-Edwards 2004, Inc.
P.O. Box 34640
Washington, DC 20043
202-712-3000
202-712-3001 (fax)
202-336-6950 (TTY)
Stay in touch with CASE_OH@yahoogroups.com
and .
9 Finally, forward this to all of you friends, acquaintances, listservs, etc.
LOCAL EFFORTS ARE ALSO UNDERWAY. FOR EXAMPLE:
CASE Ohio is helping organize a public hearing this week regarding this year's election. www.caseohio.org
614-487-1759
614-270-5239
10) For more information, check out:
Saturday, November 13, 2004
For whom the bell tolls..
No man is an Island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were; any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.
John Donne (1572 - 1631), Meditation XVII
If you have a meditation practice, or maybe even if you don't, perhaps you've had the experience of KNOWING, absolutely knowing, that we're all one. If you know this, how can you sit by and pretend this election wasn't stolen? Now, meditation won't fix this one, not in the short run, anyway. Yes, we can imagine the White House full of white light. But right now, what you can do on a physical plane is give money to the Green Party or www.blackboxvoting.org for the challenges that MUST happen if we are to maintain our democracy.
Worst Voter Error Is Apathy toward Irregularities
By Donna Britt
The Washington Post
Friday 12 November 2004
Is anyone surprised that accusations of voter disenfranchisement and
irregularities abound after the most passionately contested presidential campaign
in memory? Is anybody stunned that the mainstream media appear largely unconcerned?
To many people's thinking, too few citizens were discouraged from voting
to matter. Those people would suggest that not nearly enough votes for John Kerry
were missed or siphoned away to overturn President Bush's win. To which I'd respond:
Excuse me -- I thought this was America.
Informed that I was writing about voter disenfranchisement, a Democratic
friend admitted, "I'm trying not to care about that." I understand. Less
than two weeks after a bruising election in a nation in which it's unfashionable
to overtly care about anything, it's annoying of me even to notice.
But citizens who insist, election after election, that each vote is
sacred and then shrug at hundreds of credible reports that honest-to-God votes were
suppressed and discouraged aren't just being hypocritical.
They're telling the millions who never vote because "it doesn't
matter anyway" that they're the smart ones.
Come on. If Republicans had lost the election, this column would be
unnecessary because Karl Rove and company would be contesting every vote. I keep
hearing from those who wonder whether Democrats are "too nice," and from
others who wonder whether efforts by the mainstream media to be "fair and balanced"
sometimes render them "neutered and less effective."
Perhaps. But the much-publicized voting-machine error that gave Bush
4,258 votes in an Ohio precinct where only 638 people cast ballots preceded a flood
of disturbing reports, ranging from the Florida voting machine that counted backward
to the North Carolina computer that eliminated votes. In Ohio's Warren County, election
officials citing "homeland security" concerns locked the doors to the
county building where votes were being counted, refusing to allow members of the
media and bipartisan observers to watch.
Bush won the county overwhelmingly.
Much of the media dismisses anxiety over such irregularities as grousing
by poor-loser Democrats, rabid conspiracy theorists and pouters frustrated by Kerry's
lightning-quick concession. Some of it surely is.
But more people's concerns are elementary-school basic -- which isn't
coincidental since that's where many of us learned about democracy. We feel that
Americans mustn't concede the noble intentions upon which our nation was founded
to the cynical or the indifferent. We believe in our nation's sacred assurance that
every citizen's voice be heard through his or her vote.
The point isn't just which candidate won or lost. It's that we all lose
when we ignore that thousands of Americans might have been discouraged or prevented
from voting, or not had their votes count.
If it were us, we'd be screaming bloody murder.
Yesterday, Lafayette Square was the scene of a lively rally at which
dozens of upbeat, mostly older-than-25 protesters organized by ReDefeatBush.com
heard democracy-praising singers, rappers and speakers. Protester Susan Ribe, 33,
a Wheaton tax researcher, said that though she's "open-minded" to the
possibility that election results might be correct, she believes that reports of
irregularities suggest "there's the need for a serious investigation."
Election Protection, the nonpartisan coalition of civil rights organizations
that sent 25,000 poll monitors across the nation to ensure that registered voters
could cast their ballots, received hundreds of reports of Election Day abuses.
Some were from voters who said they repeatedly pressed the "Kerry"
button on their electronic voting screens, only to have "Bush" keep lighting
up. Others said that though they pushed "Kerry," they were asked to confirm
their "Bush" vote. There were calls about a Broward County, Fla., roadblock
that denied voters access to precincts in predominantly black districts, and reports
from hundreds who said they'd registered weeks before Florida's October deadline
yet weren't on the rolls.
Why aren't more Americans exercised about this issue? Maybe the problem
is who's being disenfranchised -- usually poor and minority voters. In a recent
poll of black and white adults by Harvard University professor Michael Dawson, 37
percent of white respondents said that widely publicized reports of attempts to
prevent blacks from voting in the 2000 election were a Democratic "fabrication."
More disturbingly, nearly one-quarter of whites surveyed said that if such attempts
were made, they either were "not a problem" (9 percent) or "not so
big a problem" (13 percent).
Excuse me?
Electronic, paper-trail-free voting is a danger to democracy that the
United States can, and I believe will, address. But not giving a damn about fellow
citizens' votes?
Election Protection volunteer Bernestine Singley, a Texas-based writer-lawyer
I know, was torn between elation and outrage on Nov. 2 as she monitored polls in
three Florida precincts. Inspiring to Singley were hundreds of volunteers, most
of them white, who'd traveled hundreds of miles to ensure the inclusion of minority
voters. She felt stirred by scores of young, black voters whose attitude, she says,
was, "I don't care how long I have to stand in line before I do what I came
here to do."
Singley's outrage was sparked by clearly hostile white poll workers,
and the police officer who stood -- illegally -- by a polling place door, hand on
his revolver.
Did I mention the guy who shoved her?
After watching Singley assist voters for hours, a scowling, white-haired
70-something poll worker patronizingly suggested that she was not a poll monitor.
When she replied that he knew exactly what she was doing, he rammed his chest into
hers, shoving her backward.
Pushing right back, Singley told the man, "You better get off me."
He did. Minutes later, Singley says the man told another poll worker within her
hearing: "I don't know why she thinks I know who she is. They all look alike
to me."
Excuse me -- is this 2004 or 1954?
Ironically, if all Americans did look alike -- if "black"
and "white" and "poor" and "well-to-do" didn't exist
-- outrages such as those would happen much less often.
When they did, many more Americans would fight to ensure they never
happened again.
John Donne (1572 - 1631), Meditation XVII
If you have a meditation practice, or maybe even if you don't, perhaps you've had the experience of KNOWING, absolutely knowing, that we're all one. If you know this, how can you sit by and pretend this election wasn't stolen? Now, meditation won't fix this one, not in the short run, anyway. Yes, we can imagine the White House full of white light. But right now, what you can do on a physical plane is give money to the Green Party or www.blackboxvoting.org for the challenges that MUST happen if we are to maintain our democracy.
Worst Voter Error Is Apathy toward Irregularities
By Donna Britt
The Washington Post
Friday 12 November 2004
Is anyone surprised that accusations of voter disenfranchisement and
irregularities abound after the most passionately contested presidential campaign
in memory? Is anybody stunned that the mainstream media appear largely unconcerned?
To many people's thinking, too few citizens were discouraged from voting
to matter. Those people would suggest that not nearly enough votes for John Kerry
were missed or siphoned away to overturn President Bush's win. To which I'd respond:
Excuse me -- I thought this was America.
Informed that I was writing about voter disenfranchisement, a Democratic
friend admitted, "I'm trying not to care about that." I understand. Less
than two weeks after a bruising election in a nation in which it's unfashionable
to overtly care about anything, it's annoying of me even to notice.
But citizens who insist, election after election, that each vote is
sacred and then shrug at hundreds of credible reports that honest-to-God votes were
suppressed and discouraged aren't just being hypocritical.
They're telling the millions who never vote because "it doesn't
matter anyway" that they're the smart ones.
Come on. If Republicans had lost the election, this column would be
unnecessary because Karl Rove and company would be contesting every vote. I keep
hearing from those who wonder whether Democrats are "too nice," and from
others who wonder whether efforts by the mainstream media to be "fair and balanced"
sometimes render them "neutered and less effective."
Perhaps. But the much-publicized voting-machine error that gave Bush
4,258 votes in an Ohio precinct where only 638 people cast ballots preceded a flood
of disturbing reports, ranging from the Florida voting machine that counted backward
to the North Carolina computer that eliminated votes. In Ohio's Warren County, election
officials citing "homeland security" concerns locked the doors to the
county building where votes were being counted, refusing to allow members of the
media and bipartisan observers to watch.
Bush won the county overwhelmingly.
Much of the media dismisses anxiety over such irregularities as grousing
by poor-loser Democrats, rabid conspiracy theorists and pouters frustrated by Kerry's
lightning-quick concession. Some of it surely is.
But more people's concerns are elementary-school basic -- which isn't
coincidental since that's where many of us learned about democracy. We feel that
Americans mustn't concede the noble intentions upon which our nation was founded
to the cynical or the indifferent. We believe in our nation's sacred assurance that
every citizen's voice be heard through his or her vote.
The point isn't just which candidate won or lost. It's that we all lose
when we ignore that thousands of Americans might have been discouraged or prevented
from voting, or not had their votes count.
If it were us, we'd be screaming bloody murder.
Yesterday, Lafayette Square was the scene of a lively rally at which
dozens of upbeat, mostly older-than-25 protesters organized by ReDefeatBush.com
heard democracy-praising singers, rappers and speakers. Protester Susan Ribe, 33,
a Wheaton tax researcher, said that though she's "open-minded" to the
possibility that election results might be correct, she believes that reports of
irregularities suggest "there's the need for a serious investigation."
Election Protection, the nonpartisan coalition of civil rights organizations
that sent 25,000 poll monitors across the nation to ensure that registered voters
could cast their ballots, received hundreds of reports of Election Day abuses.
Some were from voters who said they repeatedly pressed the "Kerry"
button on their electronic voting screens, only to have "Bush" keep lighting
up. Others said that though they pushed "Kerry," they were asked to confirm
their "Bush" vote. There were calls about a Broward County, Fla., roadblock
that denied voters access to precincts in predominantly black districts, and reports
from hundreds who said they'd registered weeks before Florida's October deadline
yet weren't on the rolls.
Why aren't more Americans exercised about this issue? Maybe the problem
is who's being disenfranchised -- usually poor and minority voters. In a recent
poll of black and white adults by Harvard University professor Michael Dawson, 37
percent of white respondents said that widely publicized reports of attempts to
prevent blacks from voting in the 2000 election were a Democratic "fabrication."
More disturbingly, nearly one-quarter of whites surveyed said that if such attempts
were made, they either were "not a problem" (9 percent) or "not so
big a problem" (13 percent).
Excuse me?
Electronic, paper-trail-free voting is a danger to democracy that the
United States can, and I believe will, address. But not giving a damn about fellow
citizens' votes?
Election Protection volunteer Bernestine Singley, a Texas-based writer-lawyer
I know, was torn between elation and outrage on Nov. 2 as she monitored polls in
three Florida precincts. Inspiring to Singley were hundreds of volunteers, most
of them white, who'd traveled hundreds of miles to ensure the inclusion of minority
voters. She felt stirred by scores of young, black voters whose attitude, she says,
was, "I don't care how long I have to stand in line before I do what I came
here to do."
Singley's outrage was sparked by clearly hostile white poll workers,
and the police officer who stood -- illegally -- by a polling place door, hand on
his revolver.
Did I mention the guy who shoved her?
After watching Singley assist voters for hours, a scowling, white-haired
70-something poll worker patronizingly suggested that she was not a poll monitor.
When she replied that he knew exactly what she was doing, he rammed his chest into
hers, shoving her backward.
Pushing right back, Singley told the man, "You better get off me."
He did. Minutes later, Singley says the man told another poll worker within her
hearing: "I don't know why she thinks I know who she is. They all look alike
to me."
Excuse me -- is this 2004 or 1954?
Ironically, if all Americans did look alike -- if "black"
and "white" and "poor" and "well-to-do" didn't exist
-- outrages such as those would happen much less often.
When they did, many more Americans would fight to ensure they never
happened again.
Back in the US, Back in the US, Back in the USSR
Remember the Beatles' White Album? Remember the song, "Back in the USSR"?
Flew in from Miami Beach BOAC
Didn't get to bed last night
On the way the paper bag was on my knee
Man, I had a dreadful flight
I'm back in the USSR
You don't know how luck you are, boys
Back in the US
Back in the US
Back in the USSR
My Dad gave me that album as a "get well" present when I was 9, and I always wondered what John and Paul were saying there. Were they intimating that the US and USSR were more alike than different?
Well, now I know.
"The people who cast the votes do not decide an election, the people who count the votes do."
Joseph Stalin
We helped end the USSR. Who will help us end this regime?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
KERRY WON OHIO
JUST COUNT THE BALLOTS AT THE BACK OF THE BUS
In These Times
Friday, November 12, 2004
Most voters in Ohio chose Kerry. Here's how the votes vanished.
By Greg Palast
This February, Ken Blackwell, Ohio's Secretary of State, told his
State Senate President, "The possibility of a close election with
punch cards as the state's primary voting device invites a Florida-
like calamity." Blackwell, co-chair of Bush-Cheney reelection
campaign, wasn't warning his fellow Republican of disaster, but
boasting of an opportunity to bring in Ohio for Team Bush no matter
what the voters wanted. And most voters in Ohio wanted JFK, not GWB.
But their choice won't count because their votes won't be counted.
The ballots that add up to a majority for John Kerry in Ohio -- and
in New Mexico -- are locked up in two Republican hidey-
holes: "spoiled" ballots and "provisional" ballots.
OHIO SPOILED ROTTEN
American democracy has a dark little secret. In a typical
presidential election, two million ballots are simply chucked in the
garbage, marked "spoiled" and not counted. A dive into the electoral
dumpster reveals something special about these votes left to rot. In
a careful county-by-county, precinct-by-precinct analysis of the
Florida 2000 race, the US Civil Rights Commission discovered that
54% of the votes in the spoilage bin were cast by African-Americans.
And Florida, Heaven help us, is typical. Nationwide, the number of
Black votes "disappeared" into the spoiled pile is approximately one
million. The other million in the no-count pit come mainly from
Hispanic, Native-American and poor white precincts, a decidedly
Democratic demographic.
Ohio Republicans, simultaneously in charge of both the Bush-Cheney
get-out-the-vote drive and the state's vote-counting rules, doggedly
and systematically insured the spoilage pile would be as high as the
White House.
Vote spoilage comes in two flavors. There are "overvotes" -- too
many punches in the cards -- and "undervotes." Here we find the
hanging, dimpled and "pregnant" chads created by old, dysfunctional
punch card machines, in which the bit of paper covering the hole
doesn't fall out, but hangs on. Machines can't read these, but we
humans, who know a hole when we see one, have no problem reading
these cards ... if allowed to. This is how Katherine Harris defeated
Al Gore, by halting the hand count of the spoiled punch cards not,
as is generally believed, by halting a "recount."
Whose chads are left hanging? In Florida in 2000 federal
investigators determined that Black voters' ballots spoiled 900%
more often than white voters, mainly due to punch card error. Ohio
Republicans found those racial odds quite attractive. The state was
the only one of fifty to refuse to eliminate or fix these vote-
eating machines, even in the face of a lawsuit by the ACLU.
Apparently, the Ohio Republicans like what the ACLU found. The civil
rights group's expert testimony concluded that Ohio's cussed
insistence on forcing 73% of its electorate to use punch card
machines had an "overwhelming" racial bias, voiding votes mostly in
Black precincts. Blackwell doesn't disagree; and he hopes to fix the
machinery ... sometime after George Bush's next inauguration. In the
meantime, the state's Attorney General Jim Petro, a Republican,
strategically postponed the trial date of the ACLU case until after
the election.
Fixing a punch card machine is cheap and easy. If Ohio simply placed
a card-reading machine in each polling station, as Michigan did this
year, voters could have checked to ensure their vote would tally. If
not, they would have gotten another card.
Blackwell knows that. He also knows that if those reading machines
had been installed, almost all the 93,000 spoiled votes,
overwhelmingly Democratic, would have closed the gap on George
Bush's lead of 136,000 votes.
JIM CROW'S PROVISIONAL BALLOT
Add to the spoiled ballots a second group of uncounted votes,
the 'provisional' ballots, and -- voila! -- the White House would
have turned Democrat blue.
But that won't happen because of the peculiar way provisional
ballots are counted or, more often, not counted. Introduced by
federal law in 2002, the provisional ballot was designed especially
for voters of color. Proposed by the Congressional Black Caucus to
save the rights of those wrongly scrubbed from voter rolls, it was,
in Republican-controlled swing states, twisted into a back-of-the-
bus ballot unlikely to be tallied.
Unlike the real thing, these ballots are counted only by the whimsy
and rules of a state's top elections official; and in Ohio, that
gives a virtually ballot veto to Secretary of State Blackwell.
Mr. Blackwell has a few rules to make sure a large proportion of
provisional ballots won't be counted. For the first time in memory,
the Secretary of State has banned counting ballots cast in
the "wrong" precinct, though all neighborhoods share the same
President.
Over 155,000 Ohio voters were shunted to these second-class ballots.
The election-shifting bulge in provisional ballots (more than 3% of
the electorate) was the direct result of the national Republican
strategy that targeted African-American precincts for mass
challenges on election day.
This is the first time in four decades that a political party has
systematically barred -- in this case successfully -- hundreds of
thousands of Black voters from access to the voting booth. While
investigating for BBC Television, we obtained three dozen of the
Republican Party's confidential "caging" lists, their title for
spreadsheets listing names and addresses of voters they intended to
block on any pretext.
We found that every single address of the thousands on these
Republican hit lists was located in Black-majority precincts. You
might find that nasty and racist. It may also be a crime.
Before 1965, Jim Crow laws in the Deep South did not bar Blacks from
voting. Rather, the segregationist game was played by applying minor
technical voting requirements only to African-Americans. That year,
Congress voted to make profiling and impeding minority voters, even
with a legal pretext, a criminal offence under the Voting Rights
Act.
But that didn't stop the Republicans of '04. Their legally
questionable mass challenge to Black voters is not some low-level
dirty tricks operation of local party hacks. Emails we obtained show
the lists were copied directly to the Republican National
Committee's chief of research and to the director of a state
campaign.
Many challenges center on changes of address. On one Republican
caging list, 50 addresses changed from Jacksonville to overseas,
African-American soldiers shipped Over There.
You don't have to guess the preferences registered on the
provisional ballots. Republicans went on a challenging rampage,
while Democrats pledged to hold to the tradition of letting voters
vote.
Blackwell has said he will count all the "valid" provisional
ballots. However, his rigid regulations, like the new guess-your-
precinct rule, are rigged to knock out enough voters to keep Bush's
skinny lead alive. Other pre-election maneuvers by Republican
officials -- late and improbably large purges of voter rolls,
rejection of registrations -- maximized the use of provisional
ballots which will never be counted. For example, a voter wrongly
tagged an ineligible "felon" voter (and there's plenty in that
category, mostly African-Americans), will lose their ballot even
though they are wrongly identified.
KERRY BLACKS OUT
It was heartening that, during his campaign, John Kerry broke the
political omerta that seems to prohibit public mention of the color
of votes not counted in America. "Don't tell us that in the
strongest democracy on earth a million disenfranchised African
Americans is the best we can do." The Senator promised the NAACP
convention, "This November, we're going to make sure that every
single vote is counted."
But this week, Kerry became the first presidential candidate in
history to break a campaign promise after losing an election. The
Senator waited less than 24 hours to abandon more than a quarter
million Ohio voters still waiting for their provisional and chad-
spoiled ballots to be counted.
While disappointing, I can understand the cold calculus against
taking the fight to the end. To count the ballots, Kerry's lawyers
would, first, have to demand a hand reading of the punch cards.
Blackwell, armed with the Supreme Court's Bush v. Gore diktat, would
undoubtedly pull a "Kate Harris" by halting or restricting a hand
count. Most daunting, Kerry's team would also, as one state attorney
general pointed out to me, have to litigate each and every rejected
provisional ballot in court. This would entail locating up to a
hundred thousand voters to testify to their right to the vote, with
Blackwell challenging each with a holster full of regulations from
the old Jim Crow handbook.
Given the odds and the cost to his political career, Kerry bent, not
to the will of the people, but to the will to power of the Ohio
Republican machine.
We have yet to total here the votes lost in missing absentee
ballots, in eyebrow-raising touch screen tallies, in purges of legal
voters from registries and other games played in swing states. But
why dwell on these things? Our betters in the political and media
elite have told us to get over it, move on.
To the victors go the spoils of electoral class war. As Ohio's
politically ambitious Secretary of State brags on his own
website, "Last time I checked," Blackwell said, "Katherine Harris
wasn't in a soup line, she's in Congress."
NEW MEXICO GOES KERRY - BUT WHO'S COUNTING?
Why single out Ohio? So it also went in New Mexico where ballots of
Hispanic voters (two-to-one Kerry supporters) spoil at a rate five
times that of white voters. Add in the astounding 13,000 provisional
ballots in the Enchanted State -- handed out "like candy" to
Hispanic, not white, voters according to a director of the Catholic
Church's get-out-the-vote drive -- and Kerry wins New Mexico. Just
count up the votes ... but that won't happen.
Flew in from Miami Beach BOAC
Didn't get to bed last night
On the way the paper bag was on my knee
Man, I had a dreadful flight
I'm back in the USSR
You don't know how luck you are, boys
Back in the US
Back in the US
Back in the USSR
My Dad gave me that album as a "get well" present when I was 9, and I always wondered what John and Paul were saying there. Were they intimating that the US and USSR were more alike than different?
Well, now I know.
"The people who cast the votes do not decide an election, the people who count the votes do."
Joseph Stalin
We helped end the USSR. Who will help us end this regime?
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
KERRY WON OHIO
JUST COUNT THE BALLOTS AT THE BACK OF THE BUS
In These Times
Friday, November 12, 2004
Most voters in Ohio chose Kerry. Here's how the votes vanished.
By Greg Palast
This February, Ken Blackwell, Ohio's Secretary of State, told his
State Senate President, "The possibility of a close election with
punch cards as the state's primary voting device invites a Florida-
like calamity." Blackwell, co-chair of Bush-Cheney reelection
campaign, wasn't warning his fellow Republican of disaster, but
boasting of an opportunity to bring in Ohio for Team Bush no matter
what the voters wanted. And most voters in Ohio wanted JFK, not GWB.
But their choice won't count because their votes won't be counted.
The ballots that add up to a majority for John Kerry in Ohio -- and
in New Mexico -- are locked up in two Republican hidey-
holes: "spoiled" ballots and "provisional" ballots.
OHIO SPOILED ROTTEN
American democracy has a dark little secret. In a typical
presidential election, two million ballots are simply chucked in the
garbage, marked "spoiled" and not counted. A dive into the electoral
dumpster reveals something special about these votes left to rot. In
a careful county-by-county, precinct-by-precinct analysis of the
Florida 2000 race, the US Civil Rights Commission discovered that
54% of the votes in the spoilage bin were cast by African-Americans.
And Florida, Heaven help us, is typical. Nationwide, the number of
Black votes "disappeared" into the spoiled pile is approximately one
million. The other million in the no-count pit come mainly from
Hispanic, Native-American and poor white precincts, a decidedly
Democratic demographic.
Ohio Republicans, simultaneously in charge of both the Bush-Cheney
get-out-the-vote drive and the state's vote-counting rules, doggedly
and systematically insured the spoilage pile would be as high as the
White House.
Vote spoilage comes in two flavors. There are "overvotes" -- too
many punches in the cards -- and "undervotes." Here we find the
hanging, dimpled and "pregnant" chads created by old, dysfunctional
punch card machines, in which the bit of paper covering the hole
doesn't fall out, but hangs on. Machines can't read these, but we
humans, who know a hole when we see one, have no problem reading
these cards ... if allowed to. This is how Katherine Harris defeated
Al Gore, by halting the hand count of the spoiled punch cards not,
as is generally believed, by halting a "recount."
Whose chads are left hanging? In Florida in 2000 federal
investigators determined that Black voters' ballots spoiled 900%
more often than white voters, mainly due to punch card error. Ohio
Republicans found those racial odds quite attractive. The state was
the only one of fifty to refuse to eliminate or fix these vote-
eating machines, even in the face of a lawsuit by the ACLU.
Apparently, the Ohio Republicans like what the ACLU found. The civil
rights group's expert testimony concluded that Ohio's cussed
insistence on forcing 73% of its electorate to use punch card
machines had an "overwhelming" racial bias, voiding votes mostly in
Black precincts. Blackwell doesn't disagree; and he hopes to fix the
machinery ... sometime after George Bush's next inauguration. In the
meantime, the state's Attorney General Jim Petro, a Republican,
strategically postponed the trial date of the ACLU case until after
the election.
Fixing a punch card machine is cheap and easy. If Ohio simply placed
a card-reading machine in each polling station, as Michigan did this
year, voters could have checked to ensure their vote would tally. If
not, they would have gotten another card.
Blackwell knows that. He also knows that if those reading machines
had been installed, almost all the 93,000 spoiled votes,
overwhelmingly Democratic, would have closed the gap on George
Bush's lead of 136,000 votes.
JIM CROW'S PROVISIONAL BALLOT
Add to the spoiled ballots a second group of uncounted votes,
the 'provisional' ballots, and -- voila! -- the White House would
have turned Democrat blue.
But that won't happen because of the peculiar way provisional
ballots are counted or, more often, not counted. Introduced by
federal law in 2002, the provisional ballot was designed especially
for voters of color. Proposed by the Congressional Black Caucus to
save the rights of those wrongly scrubbed from voter rolls, it was,
in Republican-controlled swing states, twisted into a back-of-the-
bus ballot unlikely to be tallied.
Unlike the real thing, these ballots are counted only by the whimsy
and rules of a state's top elections official; and in Ohio, that
gives a virtually ballot veto to Secretary of State Blackwell.
Mr. Blackwell has a few rules to make sure a large proportion of
provisional ballots won't be counted. For the first time in memory,
the Secretary of State has banned counting ballots cast in
the "wrong" precinct, though all neighborhoods share the same
President.
Over 155,000 Ohio voters were shunted to these second-class ballots.
The election-shifting bulge in provisional ballots (more than 3% of
the electorate) was the direct result of the national Republican
strategy that targeted African-American precincts for mass
challenges on election day.
This is the first time in four decades that a political party has
systematically barred -- in this case successfully -- hundreds of
thousands of Black voters from access to the voting booth. While
investigating for BBC Television, we obtained three dozen of the
Republican Party's confidential "caging" lists, their title for
spreadsheets listing names and addresses of voters they intended to
block on any pretext.
We found that every single address of the thousands on these
Republican hit lists was located in Black-majority precincts. You
might find that nasty and racist. It may also be a crime.
Before 1965, Jim Crow laws in the Deep South did not bar Blacks from
voting. Rather, the segregationist game was played by applying minor
technical voting requirements only to African-Americans. That year,
Congress voted to make profiling and impeding minority voters, even
with a legal pretext, a criminal offence under the Voting Rights
Act.
But that didn't stop the Republicans of '04. Their legally
questionable mass challenge to Black voters is not some low-level
dirty tricks operation of local party hacks. Emails we obtained show
the lists were copied directly to the Republican National
Committee's chief of research and to the director of a state
campaign.
Many challenges center on changes of address. On one Republican
caging list, 50 addresses changed from Jacksonville to overseas,
African-American soldiers shipped Over There.
You don't have to guess the preferences registered on the
provisional ballots. Republicans went on a challenging rampage,
while Democrats pledged to hold to the tradition of letting voters
vote.
Blackwell has said he will count all the "valid" provisional
ballots. However, his rigid regulations, like the new guess-your-
precinct rule, are rigged to knock out enough voters to keep Bush's
skinny lead alive. Other pre-election maneuvers by Republican
officials -- late and improbably large purges of voter rolls,
rejection of registrations -- maximized the use of provisional
ballots which will never be counted. For example, a voter wrongly
tagged an ineligible "felon" voter (and there's plenty in that
category, mostly African-Americans), will lose their ballot even
though they are wrongly identified.
KERRY BLACKS OUT
It was heartening that, during his campaign, John Kerry broke the
political omerta that seems to prohibit public mention of the color
of votes not counted in America. "Don't tell us that in the
strongest democracy on earth a million disenfranchised African
Americans is the best we can do." The Senator promised the NAACP
convention, "This November, we're going to make sure that every
single vote is counted."
But this week, Kerry became the first presidential candidate in
history to break a campaign promise after losing an election. The
Senator waited less than 24 hours to abandon more than a quarter
million Ohio voters still waiting for their provisional and chad-
spoiled ballots to be counted.
While disappointing, I can understand the cold calculus against
taking the fight to the end. To count the ballots, Kerry's lawyers
would, first, have to demand a hand reading of the punch cards.
Blackwell, armed with the Supreme Court's Bush v. Gore diktat, would
undoubtedly pull a "Kate Harris" by halting or restricting a hand
count. Most daunting, Kerry's team would also, as one state attorney
general pointed out to me, have to litigate each and every rejected
provisional ballot in court. This would entail locating up to a
hundred thousand voters to testify to their right to the vote, with
Blackwell challenging each with a holster full of regulations from
the old Jim Crow handbook.
Given the odds and the cost to his political career, Kerry bent, not
to the will of the people, but to the will to power of the Ohio
Republican machine.
We have yet to total here the votes lost in missing absentee
ballots, in eyebrow-raising touch screen tallies, in purges of legal
voters from registries and other games played in swing states. But
why dwell on these things? Our betters in the political and media
elite have told us to get over it, move on.
To the victors go the spoils of electoral class war. As Ohio's
politically ambitious Secretary of State brags on his own
website, "Last time I checked," Blackwell said, "Katherine Harris
wasn't in a soup line, she's in Congress."
NEW MEXICO GOES KERRY - BUT WHO'S COUNTING?
Why single out Ohio? So it also went in New Mexico where ballots of
Hispanic voters (two-to-one Kerry supporters) spoil at a rate five
times that of white voters. Add in the astounding 13,000 provisional
ballots in the Enchanted State -- handed out "like candy" to
Hispanic, not white, voters according to a director of the Catholic
Church's get-out-the-vote drive -- and Kerry wins New Mexico. Just
count up the votes ... but that won't happen.
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