[lbo-talk] election fraud becomes SOP? (was No Stolen Elections!)

[John Thornton]

I think there is a greater danger in the short term in just accepting this 
election as a done deal than there is in demanding an official 
investigation, some sort of Congressional hearing. Allowing this election 
to go unchallenged just makes it all seem a normal part of the election 
process. The problem is that the individual consequences to questioning the 
outcome are going to be pretty high. Since most people already accept the 
results as valid anyone who questions this will be label a marginal figure 
from this point forward. The chances of finding enough people in positions 
of power with the courage and conviction to basically sacrifice their 
careers to prevent this from happening is about as close to zero as it can 
be. While there will be small protests without something large in scale and 
with support from a sizable group in the House and Senate nothing is going 
to happen. This sucks but unfortunately this battle is already lost before 
it has even started.

John Thornton


>I think there's a danger in calling it history too soon.  The dominant media
>and the Democratic Party have given in to -- blessed, really -- a whole new
>level of fraud, suppression, and manipulation.  2000 was pretty bad, but you
>could argue it was an anomaly and that such things as fraudulent voter purge
>lists wouldn't be used again once they were exposed.  In 2004, this kind 
>of thing
>is apparently regarded as pretty much S.O.P., and to watch the news, the 
>birds
>are chirping, the children are playing and there's nothing much to talk
>about.  So, when 2006 comes around, the Repubs. can take it to a new 
>level, and
>everyone will worry about sounding like fringey nuts then, too.  So we 
>need to
>raise a fuss now--otherwise the history books, even those we write, will not
>record it as more than ho-hum, more of the same, you know how Republicans 
>are.
>For example, around the county they're going full speed ahead on introducing
>more no-paper-trail, no-audit, proprietary software DRE 
>machines.  Jacksonville
>has a contract for them by 2006--currently they're using Optical scan
>(marksense) machines which at least have a paper ballot.
>
>Jenny Brown