Despite all the protections in place, some votes were not counted and some votes were repeatedly counted. The end result is that legal challenges of elections abound and in several states - the most publicized being Ohio - votes are being recounted.
I have documented in previous columns the kind of electronic and human fraud that permeated the elections. A German website acknowledges 3,000 links regarding the voter fraud in the U.S. Clearly, this country’s pompous demand for fair and legal elections in other countries is losing credibility.
Senator John Kerry finally added his wimpy voice to the chorus of those demanding justice in Ohio, a key battleground state. The Rev. Jesse Jackson has called on Kerry to use some of his unspent campaign money to pursue an independent recount in Ohio. That unspent stash is estimated to be about $15 million, a more than sufficient amount to wage a credible investigation into numerous election violations in the Buckeye State.
The bizarre counting of the machines in the presidential election also impacted state and local elections, sometimes even at the ballot issue level. This has serious and broad implications for which we may never to get to the bottom. But we must try, and try hard, and that goes for everyone, even those who came out as victors in a given election. Article 21 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights guarantees the right to participate in government and in free elections. What happened in Ohio can’t stay in Ohio, no more than what happened in the U.S. on November 2nd can stay in the U.S. This potential theft of a basic right will have long term and international ramifications.
The signatories of the November 3rd Call to Action had the foresight to know that all may not go well on November 2nd. Concerned groups and individuals pledged to put the spotlight on voter fraud until issues were resolved or measures put in place to resolve them in the near future. December 13th is the day the Electoral College will cast its votes in every state across the nation for the US president and vice president. Citizens are being urged to demand that these representatives join the effort to investigate voting rights violations and election irregularities “which call into the question the integrity of the 2004 election” and to help frame resolutions that protect this democratic process. In Missouri, most of us don’t know who these people are, but we should. And they should hear from us in the next week.
It doesn’t stop here. January 20th is the inauguration of a president who has stolen two elections in order to get into power and stay there. An international protest awaits George W as gets he gets sworn in and others swear at him.
All justice-loving people must take voting security seriously. We cannot afford to give up one nanometer or else we begin the slippery fall in an eroding ground of participatory democracy. We must resist the “tyranny” of which Lani Guinier speaks, that gives rise to the empire of a few and the demise of democracy for the many.
Deep Throat No Real Hero
June, 2005
Mark Felt broke his silence after 30 years to reveal that he was Deep Throat. Felt was the mysterious and anonymous source of vital information that allegedly led to the demise of President Richard Nixon. For at least the current generation, they barely have a memory of Nixon, let alone the details of Watergate. As I look deeper down the throat of the high- ranking FBI official, I believe he has a lot more ’fessing up to do.
Felt was Deputy Director of the FBI at the time when President Nixon had authorized a break-in of the offices of the Democratic Party in the Watergate building. Along with just general snooping to see what goodies could be used against the Democrats, they also did some wiretapping. The White House dirty deeds came to light when writers Bob Woodard and Carl Bernstein wrote All the President’s Men. All hell broke loose and the rest is history.
But just like the motives for Felt’s family coming forward had little to do with honor and honesty, the career agent’s motive for revealing information also needs to be scrutinized. The family now admits they did it for the money. According to insiders, Felt’s motivation to expose the White House’s criminal side, was suspect as well. He was angry that he had not been selected to succeed as Director one of the biggest criminals in the history of the FBI, the infamous J. Edgar Hoover. Felt also believed that there was too much hanky-panky going on between the agency and the White House to conduct objective and independent investigations. How hypocritical it is to pull the cover off Nixon when Mark Felt had spent a career violating people’s constitutional rights, including through covert and criminal means. Felt’s career with the FBI began in 1942 and ended in 1974, the same year that a disgraced Nixon resigned. This means that Felt served the agency during two of the darkest periods of injustice by the highest law enforcement agency in the land.
The first of those times was the McCarthy Period, when witch hunts were carried out by the FBI. The personal lives of people from actors to activists were invaded as people were brought up on charges of being Communists. The manufactured “Red Scare” ruined careers and lives. Where was Felt’s sense of integrity then?
Fast forward to the tumultuous 1960s when the anti-war movement was growing and the Black Power movement took over where the Civil Rights Movement left off. Hoover’s creation of the COINTELPRO was designed to rid our society of the radicals, regardless of their color. But black radicals, particularly groups like the Black Panther Party, felt the brunt of the program. They were jailed under false charges, exiled, beaten and killed.
Felt and his buddy, Ed Miller, were convicted for their terrorizing of the Weather Underground, a white anti-war group. They broke into the homes of members, their families and friends, causing emotional and legal havoc in their lives.Guess who came to their assistance with a pardon? None other than President Ronald Reagan, who granted them a full pardon in 1980 because they had “acted on high principle.” Yet, this kind of normal intervention by the White House became despicable to Felt only after he was passed over to be the Bureau’s Big Bully.
If Felt wants to go to his grave with a clean conscience, he needs to expose the whole cancer in the FBI, not just a skin melanoma. The use of a government agency to illegally acquire information for the sole purpose of retaliation and manipulation of domestic political adversaries is no higher principle. It is morally corrupt and unconstitutional.
The “Con” Game is Coming to Missouri
April, 2006
“If I’m doing this as a puppet for
somebody…at least I should get
paid for it…”
Ward CONnerly
Sometimes people live up to their names. I cannot write Ward’s last name without emphasizing the ‘con.” Ward CONnerly is best known for his crafty campaigns against affirmative action and he gets paid big bucks for doing it. In 1999, CONnerly told Interracial Voice magazine, “If I’m doing this as a puppet for somebody…at least I should get paid for it…”
CONnerly is bringing his bag of tricks to the Show-Me State and it is critical that a united Missouri send a strong message to the nation. We should be outraged that outsiders think they can change the state constitution without a fight from fair-minded citizens. So far, a number of Ward’s appearances have been met with protests. However, the old white guys in Columbia’s Pachyderm Club greeted him with enthusiasm at their meeting. They are part of the constituent group that Ward cronies hope will carry the day. It is part of the insidious divide-and-conquer strategy that has put key successes under CONnerly’s belt.
The
