Fold/Spindle/Mutilate 2.1

Progressive American voters, still downcast over the results of the presidential election — as well as an election system gravely impaired by the antiquated Electoral College, fraud-inviting electronic machines, and rampant political abuses — can take vicarious pleasure these days from Ukrainian democracy. Throughout the presidential campaign in the former Soviet republic, opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko struggled against a government-controlled media and election machinery that heavily favored his opponent, Viktor Yanukovych, the handpicked successor to the country’s corrupt and thuggish president, Leonid Kuchma. But when Yushchenko was denied victory in the Nov. 21 election, after widespread fraud, the opposition leader and his supporters did not fade away — they took to the streets and refused to accept the official version of the election.

But it’s not over.

The legitimacy of our democratic process is an issue more important than Mr. Kerry’s future or the results of 2004. That legitimacy has been called into question repeatedly over the past few weeks, and doubts will linger as long as credible indications of error, negligence, disenfranchisement and fraud are not addressed.

We would like to believe that voting irregularities were identified and corrected, that participants fulfilled their duties appropriately, that the machines performed reliably and that the total discrepancy between voter intention and recorded results was less than the margin of victory in relevant contests.

But that conclusion must be reached on the basis of evidence, not blind faith. My own observations as a volunteer poll watcher in Florida do not give perfect confidence.

As many experts had warned, the electronic voting machines used across the country were vulnerable to glitches and possible tampering, including the over-recording of votes and the “disappearance” of valid votes.

We experienced a troubling number of memory card failures where I was based in Volusia County, for example, and we tried to minimize the disruption to voters even though data security was compromised. In Franklin County, Ohio, a machine error resulted in an extra 4,000 votes for President Bush. In Guilford County, N.C., a machine error cost Mr. Kerry 22,000 votes. Similar problems were experienced in Nebraska, Indiana and other states. These glitches that we know about have reportedly been fixed, though a re-vote is necessary in a different North Carolina county.

Disturbingly, several Web sites have demonstrated the ease of hacking into the AccuVote TS machines made by Diebold Election Systems, the company that for $2.6 million recently settled a lawsuit by California over voting machine problems. Another major manufacturer of electronic voting machines, Election Systems & Software, has also been subject to criticism for machine breakdowns and vulnerability. There is no evidence of fraud, but neither manufacturer has assuaged widespread concerns about inappropriate partisanship and unreliability.

Thirty-six years later, NBC war correspondent Kevin Sites, embedded with the U.S. Marines in Fallujah, wrote in his November 10 blog: “The Marines are operating with liberal rules of engagement.” Sites heard Staff Sgt. Sam Mortimer radio that “everything to the west is weapons free.” Weapons Free, explained Sites, “means the Marines can shoot whatever they see – it’s all considered hostile.” On November 13, Sites videotaped a U.S. Marine killing an unarmed, wounded Iraqi in a Fallujah mosque.

During the U.S. attack on Fallujah, dubbed “Operation Phantom Fury,” Associated Press photographer Bilal Hussein saw U.S. soldiers “open fire on the houses.” Hussein also reported seeing U.S. helicopters fire on and kill people, including a family of five, who tried to cross the river.

During his inaugural address in 1963, the then Alabama governor, George Wallace, took to the steps of the State Capitol and made a promise. Standing on the spot where Jefferson Davis had declared an independent Southern Confederacy just over 100 years before, he pledged: “In the name of the greatest people that ever trod this earth, I draw the line in the dust and toss the gauntlet before the feet of tyranny and I say: Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever.”

Monday it looked as if he might get his wish, after a referendum in the state appeared likely to keep segregation-era wording requiring separate schools for “white and colored children” in its Constitution as well as references to the poll taxes once imposed to disenfranchise blacks. A narrow margin of 1,850 votes out of 1.38 million, or 0.13 percent, in a referendum on Nov. 2 meant the state was obliged to hold a recount, which started Monday. The recount may not be complete until next week, but with no accusations of electoral fraud or any other irregularities, nobody Monday night expected the result to change.

The ballot initiative sought to remove the most objectionable elements of the state’s Constitution that remain, even though they have been overridden by more recent civil rights legislation. They include passages such as: “Separate schools shall be provided for white and colored children, and no child of either race shall be permitted to attend a school of the other race.”

And: “To avoid confusion and disorder and to promote effective and economical planning for education, the legislature may authorize the parents or guardians of minors, who desire that such minors shall attend schools provided for their own race.”

Ohio is this election year’s Florida. The vote in Ohio decided the presidential race, but it was marred by intolerable, and often partisan, irregularities and discrepancies. U.S. citizens have as much reason as those in Kiev to be concerned that the fix was in. Consider:

In Ohio, a court just ruled there can’t be a recount yet, because the vote is not yet counted. It’s three weeks after the election, and Ohio still hasn’t counted the votes and certified the election. Some 93,000 overvotes and undervotes are not counted; 155,000 provisional ballots are only now being counted. Absentee ballots cast in the two days prior to the election haven’t been counted.

Ohio determines the election, but the state has not yet counted the vote. That outrage is made intolerable by the fact that the secretary of state in charge of this operation, Ken Blackwell, holds — like Katherine Harris of Florida’s fiasco in 2000 — a dual role: secretary of state with control over voting procedures and co-chair of George Bush’s Ohio campaign. Blackwell should recuse himself so that a thorough investigation, count and recount of Ohio’s vote can be made.

Just what we need for treasury secretary: the banking industry’s errand boy. The man who helped bring us Enron.

According to The Washington Post, President Bush wants a new economic team. Can’t imagine why. Oh, here it is. It’s “part of Bush’s preparation for sending Congress an ambitious second-term domestic agenda.” He wants someone “who can better relate to Congress and be more effective in dealing with financial markets and television interviewers.”

There you have it — Phil’s perfect for the job. Mr. Charm. And he knows how to talk those seniors into getting rid of Social Security. He’s in practice. He’s been back here in Texas lobbying to make it legal to sell “dead peasant” life insurance to the Teacher Retirement System.

Startled by the look on her face, I turned to the TV, expecting to see the Red Skull with his boot on the neck of Captain America – but it was only George Bush, smirking and chortling and kissing members of his cabinet on the lips. “No, honey,” I said, “that’s only the president. That’s George Bush.”

“Well, okay,” she said, with a shudder. Then, squenching her eyes shut and pursing her lips, she muttered – “But I’m gonna call him Stinky.”

I don’t know which is more appalling – that millions of comatose adults flock to theaters to pay homage to Spongebob Squarepants while the world goes to hell around them, or that a single 8-year-old, familiar with the stark, good-versus-evil battles waged by Spiderman, Captain Marvel and the entire battalion of Ninja Rangers could take one look at George Bush and instantly recognize a villian.

The embassy says a bomb was discovered on a flight inside Iraq on 22 November. It shows that insurgents have been able to penetrate the stringent security at Baghdad airport. The embassy says its own staff have been advised against taking commercial planes.

The warning is in sharp contrast to more optimistic statements from US military commanders after the capture of Fallujah in which they have spoken of “breaking the back of the insurgency”.

The embassy says that the road between Baghdad and the international airport, perhaps the most important highway in the country, is now too dangerous to use. The advice says starkly: “With effect from 28 November, the British embassy ceased all movements on the Baghdad International airport road.”

The airport road is littered with evidence of previous attacks: the twisted cars used by suicide bombers and craters from roadside bombs.

There are no safe havens. Since March, 14 British civilians have been killed. Not only have insurgents proved capable of putting a bomb on a plane, but on 14 October two suicide bombers entered the heavily fortified Green Zone and blew themselves up, killing five people and injuring many more.

Danger levels in the capital are also increasing; some of the resistance fighters who were previously in Fallujah have taken refuge in Baghdad. They may wish to launch spectacular attacks to offset the fall of Fallujah, which had been the de facto capital of the insurgents.

‘Muslims do not hate our freedom, but rather they hate
our policies [the report says]. The overwhelming majority voice their
objections to what they see as one-sided support in favor of Israel and
against Palestinian rights, and the long-standing, even increasing,
support for what Muslims collectively see as tyrannies, most notably
Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Pakistan and the Gulf states. Thus, when
American public diplomacy talks about bringing democracy to Islamic
societies, this is seen as no more than self-serving hypocrisy.’

“Voter fraud in the Ukraine? Give me a break.

“It has been a month now and we still don’t have a clear count of the votes for our own presidential race from the state of Ohio.

“For those who may have forgotten, Ohio supposedly assured George W. Bush a second term in the White House – only the most important job on the planet.

“The morning after the election, we were told Bush was ahead of John Kerry in that state’s unofficial count by 139,000 votes, or 2.5%.

“At the time there were 155,000 uncounted provisional ballots and an unknown number of overseas ballots, but Kerry concluded they would not produce enough of a margin to erase his deficit, so he promptly conceded.

“At the same time, given the bitter Democratic memories of the 2000 Florida fiasco, he assured his supporters he would fight to have every vote properly counted this time.

Dean Baker is economist and co-director at the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) in Washington, DC.

In the wake of his election victory , President Bush said that cutting Social Security will be at the top of his second-term agenda. He supports a proposal from his Social Security commission that hits workers with large cuts in their Social Security benefits. The proposed cuts are phased in over time, but an average wage earner who is 20 today will see their total Social Security benefits cut by close to $160,000 over their retirement. They will have the option of trying to retrieve a small portion of these cuts by seeking higher returns in the stock market, with the additional risk this implies.

Virtually everyone agrees that Social Security is a great system. It provides tens of millions of workers with a guaranteed, core retirement income. It also provides disability insurance to people during their working years. In addition, it provides survivors’ insurance to the children of workers who die at an early age.

Drawing from testimonies gathered at public hearings concluding Monday at the Columbus courthouse, a coalition of voter advocacy groups including People for the American Way, Common Cause Ohio, Citizens Alliance for a Fair Election (CASE Ohio) and The League of Pissed-Off Voters contend that state election practices suppressed voters in lower-income precincts and violated constitutional law guaranteeing all US citizens the right to vote.

Common Cause Ohio, a democracy advocacy organization, rests its federal complaint against the Franklin County Board of Elections on the 14th amendment guarantee to equal protection and the 1965 Voting Rights Act declaring federal protection against racially discriminatory electoral practices. Grounding their suit in the public testimonies as well as county records of Election Day procedures, Common Cause intends to challenge this election and push forward more astringent electoral legislation.

Current Ohio code is fraught with advisories and guidelines, but many decisions remain up to the discretion of local officials. For instance, in 1992, when e-voting replaced paper ballots in Franklin county, guidelines advising that polling locations provide one voting machine per 100 registered precinct resident were issued. Yet, no laws regulate or enforce this advisory and witnesses at the public hearings said that at some polling places 160 to 200 voters used each machine.

“German law in this area is leading the world,” Peter Weiss, vice president of the New York-based Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), a human rights group, was quoted as saying in Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper’s Tuesday edition.

According to the group, German law allows war criminals to be investigated wherever they may be living.

Those to be named in the case to be filed at Germany’s Federal Prosecutors Office include Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, former Central Intelligence Agency chief George Tenet and eight other officials.

The third-party candidates, who already have requested a recount in Ohio, won few votes in both states. But a Cobb spokesman said they were concerned that reports of Election Day problems at the states’ polls were being ignored.

President Bush won both states. Cobb spokesman Blair Bobier said a “527″ organization called the Help America Recount Fund, which is affiliated with the National Ballot Integrity Project, is paying for the recounts.

Meanwhile, Jesse L. Jackson was in Ohio over the weekend to lend his support to the Buckeye State’s impending recount.