Friday, November 28, 2008

Rachel Maddow Show: Bush/Paulson/PELOSI BAILOUTS now cost $4.3 TRILLION - MORE THAN WARS, SPACE RACE, Marshall Plan, & Louisiana Purchase, COMBINED!


NANCY PELOSI and the ___DEMOCRAT___ 110th Congress, now bear JUST AS MUCH RESPONSIBILITY for the HORRIFIC, TAXPAYER FUNDED DEBACLE of the Bush/Pelosi/Paulson economic crisis and "bailout plan" as President Bush, Treasury Secretary Paulson, and other administration officials and Republican legislators do - because, almost overnight, the Pelosi/Paulson bailouts have ADDED TREMENDOUSLY to the US government DEFICITS that (along with financial markets _'DEREGULATION'_ helped CREATE THIS economic CRISIS and FINANCIAL NIGHTMARE IN THE FIRST PLACE!
And PELOSI, REID, and the Democrats ____ARE DOING NOTHING_____ to oversee Paulson's distribution of those billions - BILLIONS going ENTIRELY TO PAD THE PORTFOLIOS of Paulson's fat-cat bankers, brokers, & cronies on Wall St!

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Pelosi & Obama play "Hear No Evil, See No Evil, SPEAK No Evil" About Paulson's TRILLION DOLLAR Rip-off "BAILOUTS" - DOOMING Economic recovery...!

IN case no one is paying attention, almost 2 months after the Nancy Pelosi Congress & Harry Reid Senate authorized $700 billion, SEVEN-HUNDRED BILLION DOLLARS to be used to rescue the US economy under the tender mercies of Bush Secretary of Treasury Paulson.... Paulson has used those BILLIONS of dollars EXCLUSIVELY to PROP UP THE BIGGEST, WEALTHIEST BANKERS on Wall Stree.... TO THE TOTAL EXCLUSION OF ALL OTHER segments of the US Economy!

Mr. Paulson's Rip-Off is SO BLATANT, that after dishing out at least $250 BILLION to his friends and cronies in _selected_ firms on Wall St., Mr. Paulson has harrumphed "I'm NOT GOING TO SPEND ANY MORE of the authorized billions to rescue the economy UNTIL THE DEMOCRATS TAKE CONTROL of the Treasury (Executive branch) - on January 20th, 2009".... IMPLYING that he won't dip into those billions for his banker friends in the next 8 weeks!
Anyone believe _that_ story, we've got a bridge to sell ya!

But more to the point, the AMERICAN ECONOMY CONTINUES TO BURN, as Paulson does EXACTLY NOTHING to buttress ANY OTHER SEGMENT of the economy!
There are even reports that CHINA AUTOMAKERS may buy out GENERAL MOTORS, which would be an obvious "duh" solution for a nation (China) that is awash in billions of American dollars (from the combined US, PRIVATE Trade Deficits, AND the huge US _PUBLIC_ NATIONAL GOVERNMENT DEFICITS to foreign nations), but with nothing really worth buying with all those dollars.
http://www.agoracosmopolitan.com/home/Frontpage/2008/11/19/02867.html

The point here is, that AMERICAN VOTERS voted TO GIVE DEMOCRATS CONTROL over the US government budgets and economy (and, indeed, in presidential election, the entire executive branch of the US government), so IF Obama, Pelosi, Reid, Hoyer & co. DO NOTHING to STOP Paulson overt's LOOTING of thost BAILOUT BILLIONS, the American public will have every right to paint the BUSH-2 RECESSION as the "DEMOCRATS RECESSION" - just as Timmy McVeigh and the "hate government!" militias in the mid 1990s painted the BUSH-1 RECESSION as the fault, NOT of the _DEREGULATION_ of the Savings & Loan industry under Reagan and Bush-1, but as the fault of "TAX AND SPEND, Big Government REGULATING DEMOCRATS" !!

#1. Democrat "leadership" may give a FREE PASS to Tres.Sec. Paulson's LOOT & PLUNDER of Bailout Billions... but MARKET INVESTORS don't!

- "Market Shedding 1,000 points Nov. 18 & 19 was a market Vote of 'NO CONFIDENCE!' in Paulson's administration of bailout billions
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-fiderer/the-simple-arithmetic-of_b_145389.html
#2. Krugman: Lame-duck administration (especially Paulson at Treasury) FIDDLE while MARKETS BURN - while sitting on a $700 billion pot of gold specifically intended to rescue the ailing economy!
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/21/opinion/21krugman.html

#3. "DEMOCRAT" economists Summers, Rubin, WERE IN CAHOOTS with Phil Gramm and Alan Greenspan's "ENRON LOOPHOLE" and the even larger, far more destructive "Commodity Futures Modernization Act," "which banned any effective government regulation of the newly unleashed derivatives market" Scheer, http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20081118_change_we_can_bank_on/

#4. _REPUBLICAN_ Senator James Inhofe (possibly the most reactionary, right-wing member in all of Congress) confirms: (paraphrasing) 'Treasury Secretary Paulson INVOKED THE SPECTER of MARTIAL LAW, MASSIVE UNEMPLOYMENT, and a new DEPRESSION' to spook the Pelosi-Reid Congress into authorizing the $700 billion bailout of Wall Street in September, following the Dow Jones average spectacular, one-day, 777 point plummet that wiped out trillions of dollars of investor and pension savings.
While this particular article may be a tad on the "conspiracy" side of the story (we believe that Paulson did indeed invoke the specter of imposing MARTIAL LAW in trying to convince Speaker Pelosi to fund his bailout requests, see our previous posts), it DOES SERVE TO HIGHLIGHT _HOW LITTLE_ PAULSON has done FOR THE ECONOMY since then..!
http://www.prisonplanet.com/paulson-was-behind-bailout-martial-law-threat.html

#5. Foreclosures - THE ROOT of the current economic crisis - IGNORED by Paulson and the Bush White House, even as they pour taxpayer BILLIONS into rescuing the very banks that wrote those bad loans, encouraged appraisers to OVER-VALUE those homes, and are doing next to NOTHING to help homeowners retain those homes!!
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN1825605820081118

#6. Naomi Klein sums the above up in Plain English:
"Wall Street's Bailout is a Trillion-Dollar Crime Scene -- Why Aren't the Dems Doing Something About It?", The Nation magazine, 14 Nov. 2008:
http://www.alternet.org/workplace/107000/?page=entire

#7. Ravi Batra, reknown economist and author of "GREENSPAN's FRAUD," predicts MARKET COLLAPSE under Bush/Paulson's tender mercies.... in AUGUST of 2008!

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

PAUL KRUGMAN takes uber-Righty GEORGE WILL to woodshed, delivers THRASHING over Will LYING about causes of the GREAT DEPRESSION...



Poor Paul Krugman! The "Failed Currencies" expert hired by Arthur ("punk") Sulzberger to be the New York Times' in-house "Economic Hit Man" proved not only to be an expert on failed economies (failed currencies of course = failed economies), but turned out to be that rare bird, an ECONOMIST with a CONSCIENCE.
Over coming years Krugman would prove to be "right", as in "correct", far more often than his more well-known NYT columnist stablemates - dreadfully wrong men like WILLIAM "GIVE FALLUJAH a taste of (Hitler's) LIDICE Treatment!" SAFIRE, or THOMAS "The world is FLAT - "AMERICAN WORKERS should settle for THE SAME WAGES as HITLER's CONCENTRATION CAMP LABORERS", er, "CHINESE convict/slave-labor factories" FRIDMAN, or David "I LOVE REPUBLICAN ECONOMICS" BROOKS (just don't try to nail him on exactly why) - and no matter how prescient Krugman's predictions were, they were always buried deep in the editorial section of the Times once or twice a week.

Krugman had to suffer the "dissing" of having his own paper, the NEW YORK SLIMES, IGNORE his own rock-solid recommendations in the way the Times covered the war costs and economic stories of the past 8 years of the Bush-Cheney dreadful administration, every month providing new confirmation that Krugman was correct, and the Times' Neo-Con "TAX-CUTS FOR the WEALTHY in TIME OF WAR" war-pigs were dreadfully wrong.

Well, now that we have reached "DOW 8,000 and falling like a rock," the final weeks of 2008, and ALL of Krugman's PREDICTIONS have been BORN OUT to be true.

Sometimes satisfaction is such a fleeting creature - in the above video, Krugman DEMOLISHES liar GEORGE WILL's right-wing Talking Points that somehow "LIBERAL" economics CAUSED THE GREAT DEPRESSION.

Krugman takes WILL TO THE WOODSHED, explaining - "ECONOMIC POLICY has NOTHING to do with investment - IF you ALREADY HAVE 20 factories that are empty, laid off, and unproductive, BECAUSE THERE IS NO CONSUMER BUYING to stimilate new investment or production for those existing factories." DUH!

BUT George Will's above TEXT BOOK EXAMPLE of Right-Wing "EXPERTS" PULLING "FACTS" OUT OF THEIR ASS, is EXACTLY how the WASHINGTON POST, NEW YORK TIMES, and other "major media" LYING WHORES have been RUINING the American news industry over the past 20 years, substituting their OWN DERANGED TALKING POINTS for genuine economic & social facts.

REAL "facts" such as GEORGE W. BUSH _WRECKED_ the TEXAS STATE BUDGET SURPLUS left to him by previous Democratic Governor ANN RICHARDS. Not only did Bush WRECK Texas' DEMOCRATIC BUDGET SURPLUS back in the late 1990s, but he DID IT WHILE _SLASHING_ SOCIAL PROGRAMS _PROVEN_ to save state taxpayers in the long run!

Programs like pre-school, after-school, and health-care programs for Texas' poor and minority schoolchildren that kept those children IN SCHOOL, performing at a higher level, with higher GRADUATION RATES, OUT OF the Juvenile Criminal System, and OUT of EMERGENCY ROOMS - THOSE are the programs the ENTITLED SON of a former president SLASHED for Texas citizens in need, ON BEHALF OF THE INSANELY GREEDY Texas upper-crust right-wing millionaires!

THE RIGHT-WING press/media ARE CHRONIC LAIRS with an ANTI-AMERICAN AGENDA: an agenda that favors ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION and OUTSOURCING of US JOBS, to create a virtual WAGE-SLAVE servile UNDERCLASS here in America, so the Right-Wing Crime-lords like GEORGE WILL and DAVID BRODER and WILLIAM SAFIRE can "HARRUMPH!" as THEIR ECONOMIC and tax POLICIES TURN AMERICA into a THIRD-WORLD, GREAT DEPRESSION, poverty-wages NATION.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

The Bush-Peolis-Paulson "BAILOUT" CONTINUES to hand out BILLIONS of taxpayer dollars, to Paulson's cronies on Wall St....

In our previous rants on the abject refusal of coardly Senate Democrats to stand for ANY MODICUM of rule by law and financial accountability for the Bush-Cheney administration (and all their corporate/media/"Justice" minions who infest the US government), we only obliquely mentioned ENRON ACCOUNTING, and then as a NOW FORGOTTEN EXAMPLE of how then "Democrat" Senator Joe Lieberman QUASHED an energetic, determined, and effective ENRON INVESTIGATION in his committee, which investigation Senate Majority "Leader" TOM DASCHLE _STUPIDLY_ placed in Lieberman's committee. Lieberman's REFUSAL to INVESTIGATE ENRON's SERIAL FRAUDS - both in company accounting standards (Profit/Loss statements & other financial data, accurate valuation of subsidiaries, debts, accounts, etc.) and in the company's attempts to EXTORT CONSUMERS during the West Coast energy crisis of 2003 - simply illustrated HOW CORRUPT the DC Democrats were, prefering to take their pay and voters for granted, rather than STAND UP FOR American workers, consumers, investors, and pensioners RIPPED OFF by "ENRON ACCOUNTING" under company Chairman KEN LAY and CEO JEFF SKILLING - both close friends and supporters of the Bush-Cheney 2000 presidential campaign.

Today, the MASSIVE FRAUD PERPETRATED ON THE AMERICAN PUBLIC by ENRON's EXECUTIVES in penny-ante stuff, compared to the BUSH-PELOSI-PAULSON $700 billion _SEVEN HUNDRED BILLION_ of taxpayer dollars that Treasury Secretary Paulson is CURRENTLY HANDING OUT TO HIS FRIENDS ON WALL St. just as fast as his assistants can lay out the checks on his desk to sign.

AND, OF COURSE, the COWARDLY, CRAVEN "inside DC" SENATORS are _NOWHERE IN SIGHT_ providing OVERSIGHT to Paulson's "GET OUT OF DEBT FREE" cards to his friends and cronies at JPM, Goldman-Sachs, and other administration-friendly banking or brokerage houses.

AND IT ISN'T REALLY EVEN TAXPAYER DOLLARS - it is A TRILLION DOLLARS OF NEW DEBT, PILED ON the EXISTING massive TRILLIONS of DOLLARS of Bush-Cheney DEFICITS, that the cowering DC Democrats PRETEND NOT TO NOTICE.

"Populist" writer and economics advisor David Sirota has today's latest sad update on how THE COWARDLY DC DEMOCRATS, have been ENABLING the Bush administration and Paulson Dept. of Treasury, to INFLICT ANOTHER HALF-TRILLION DOLLARS of DEFICITS on teh American economy, America's working families be damned.

__ENRON ACCOUNTING, DEFICT SPENDING, and TRILLION-DOLLAR DEFICITS are TEH SIGNATURE AGENDA of the Bush-Cheney administration, and the COWARDLY Senate Democrats can DO NOTHING, BUT SIGN NEW BLANCK CHECKS on the taxpayer treasury for Bush & Paulson to dole out to their friends!

Stripping Paulson of His Remaining Power & Money
by CAF STAF, David Sirota
November 17th, 2008 -
http://www.ourfuture.org/blog-entry/2008114717/stripping-paulson-his-remaining-power-money

COWARDLY 'Democrat' Senators REWARD REPUBLICAN Senator Joe Lieberman - WITH CONTINUED CHAIR of VITAL Senate Committee...

Well, today, Tuesday Nov. 18, 2008, exactly two weeks after the presidential elections that found millions of Americans voting DEMOCRATIC to get a CHANGE, a BREAK from the radical, reactionary right-wing policies of the Bush-Republican administration - the COWARDLY, CRAVEN, CORRUPT Democrat senators VOTED TO KEEP Joe Lieberman as CHAIRMAN of the vital GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS committee.

Of course, saying a senate committee "IS VITAL" is a clear exaggeration": THERE ARE _NO_ VITAL Senate commmittees, THE ENTIRE US SENATE, Democrats & Republicans alike, is nothing but a RUBBER STAMP for the WAR PARTY, the OIL PARTY, the BIG BANKERS Party, and the Big Media "WE DON'T NEED NO STINKING democracy" party.

The COWARDLY Democrat Senators are INCAPABLE of DEMANDING that the BILLIONS of dollars of US taxpayer funds appropriated for the RECONSTRUCTION OF NEW ORLEANS after Hurricane Katrina ACTUALLY BE SPENT TO RECONSTRUCT New Orleans.

The COWARDLY Democrat Senators are INCAPABLE of OVERSEEING the VAST CORRUPTION - near GESTAPO powers of search, arrest, seizure, and indefinite incarceration - of the Bush administration's Department of "justice" in the infinitely open-ended "war on terror."

The COWARDLY Democrat Senators are INCAPABLE of OVERSEEING the "Justice Department" for VAST, CRIMINAL CORRUPTION and FRAUDULENT, PERJUROUS PROSECUTIONS - even when the victims are DEMOCRATIC elected officials!

The COWARDLY Senate Democrats CAN'T EVEN DEMAND a thorough, active, and energetic INVSTIGATION into ANTHRAX ATTACKS ON THEIR OWN MEMBERS.

And, as said above, the COWARDLY, CRAVEN, CORRUPT DC Democrat Senators are ENTIRELY INCAPABLE of BREAKING THEIR ADDICTION to Confederate-war style poltics: Addiction to the politics of CHEAP LABOR, LOW WAGES, RAPE of PENSION FUNDS and entire markets, the LOOTING of the US Treasury on behalf of the "owner class" elite...

The Cowering DC Democrat Senators CAN'T EVEN PROTECT US INDUSTRY, as DUBAI - constrained by the medieval culture that denies women freedoms taken for granted here in America - TAKES THE LEAD in SOLAR PANEL PRODUCTION.

The TREACHEROUS BETRAYALS of the _DEMOCRATS_ in the US Senate....

The cowardly, craven, arrogant, elitist Senators of the Democrat Party are set to DO IT AGAIN - piss on tens of thousands upon millions of Democratic voters, donors, activists, and hard-working Americans who want some ALTERNATIVE to the radical Right-Wing neo-slavery agenda of the reactionary Republicans - so it is time to list a quick snapshot of those _DEMOCRATIC Senator's_ world-class BETRAYALS:

#1. After getting up in the well of the US Senate to lecture Americans and the world on the dangers of the Bush administration's unconstitutional abuses of power, especially re NO-OVERSIGHT SPYING on American citizens, Senator Robert Byrd... proceeded to vote FOR the Bush administration's UNCONSTITUTIONAL, no oversight, no restrictions UNLIMITED SURVEILLANCE program. THAT is what Democrat Senators do.

#2. In 2000, MILLIONS of Democratic voters turned out to give Dem. presidential candidate (then) Vice President Al Gore, and Dem. VP candidate Senator Joe Lieberman, an OVERWHELMING 500,000+ vote MAJORITY in the national POPULAR VOTE. And despite Republican and media efforts to the contrary, the CLEAR MAJORITY of voters IN FLORIDA, voted for the Gore-Lieberman ticket. DESPITE all those MILLIONS of Americans GIVING the (very lame) Democratic ticket a CLEAR MAJORITY, the COWARDLY, CRAVEN, CORRUPT, self-centered Senate Democrats REFUSED to give - NOT EVEN ONE craven senator - a SINGLE VOTE of support to the BLACK CONGRESSIONAL CAUCUS demands for a SIMPLE Congressional INVESTIGATION into MASSIVE voter disenfranchisement of Black & minority voters in Florida by Jeb Bush/Katherine Harris Republican administration. Since the majority of Democratic senators have for decades depended on BLACK VOTERS to win in close races against Republican opponents, THIS WAS A BETRAYAL of HISTORIC, even BIBLICAL proportions.
The craven, lazy, stupid, cowering Democrat senators PREFERRED TO TAKE THEIR MARCHING ORDERS from the REPUBLICAN PARTY, and corrupt corporate media, than do what they were elected to do: REPRESENT THEIR VOTERS.

#3. The craven, stupid, cowering Democrat Senators REPEATED their cowering tactics, REFUSING to hold the incoming President Bush to his "MORE BI-PARTISAN TONE IN WASHINGTON" campaign pledge: Promises made at EACH AND EVERY Campaign stop of Bush's 2000 presidential campaign, the Democrats were too lazy, stupid, and incompetent to dust off video of those repeated promises, and HOLD THE president who had just STOLEN his election (via partisan Supreme Court ruling) TO HIS OWN DAMN PROMISES. The cowering Senate Democrats once again demonstrating their preference to TAKE ORDERS from REPUBLICANS and the corporate media, to standing up for their own voters. The Democrats would not use a FILIBUSTER to BLOCK Bush partisan nominees, for years to come.

#4. The new president Bush spent the entire spring and summer of 2001 DERIDING DEMOCRATS as the party of "BIG GOVERNMENT SPENDING", incompetence, and corruption - even as he took MORE VACATIONS than ANY previous president. Again, the Democrats in Washington took NO EFFORTS to DEMAND that the corporate media hold the president to his own campaign rhetoric.

#5. The Bush-Cheney White House would DO NOTHING - they could not point to ONE SINGLE STEP THEY TOOK to DETER or make more difficult the 9-11 TERRORIST HIJACKINGS of September 11th, 2001. That incredible record of Bush administration gross incompetence and Dereliction of Duty would take several years to emerge, but while President Bush stood on the tomb, the rubble of the World Trade Center towers' wreckage in New York city, he would pledge to Americans that "I'm going to get Osama bin Laden DEAD OR ALIVE."
Yet within 6 short months of Bush's "get 'em dead or alive!" pledge, the President would say at a White House conference, "I AM NOT THAT CONCERNED ABOUT HIM [Osama bin Laden] ANY MORE"... a comment which Democrat 'leaders' had neither the means nor the inclination to express outrage over.

#6. Perhaps part of the reason the Democrat Senators were wary of speaking out against Bush administration conduct of the "war on terror" within the USA (as the Bush administration conducted it) and in Afghanistan, was because the Democrat senators themselves were SHELL-SHOCKED, victims of an ANTHRAX LETTER ATTACK on _DEMOCRATIC ONLY_ offices in the US senate, by letters filled with deadly anthrax spores that had been "weaponized" in a fine powder inserted into envelopes carrying those letters. While immediate media and administration reporting suggested that it was _ARAB TERRORISTS_ who had launched the deadly Anthrax terror attacks, it swiftly became known that the letters were mailed from US mailboxes - but despite the nation's TRILLION DOLLAR defense/intel/counter-terror/law-enforcement institutions, it quickly became evident that the FBI was botching their investigation, and had not even made a VIDEO search and seizure of all the bank, business and other security videos on those streets leading to the mailboxes from which the deadly letters had been mailed. This initial INCOMPETENCE of the Anthrax investigation was reinforced when it was learned that the ANTHRAX SPORES used in the deadly letters was NOT from foreign laboratory cultures... but had been determined, by genetic testing, to come from AMERICA's OWN BIO-WAR COMMUNITY, specifically the US Army's AMRID bio-war facility at Fort Dietrich, Maryland.
STILL the Democrats in Congress were in NO WAY able to demand or insist that the administration step up the BASIC COMPETENCE of its anthrax investigations, first blaming one scientist (Mark Hatfield), then another. The majority of critics looking at the FBI's investigation of the Anthrax attacks - ON DEMOCRAT ONLY Congressmen (when true terrorists could have SHUT DOWN the White House and Pentagon by mailing unmarked letters there) - see the FBI's "CLOSED CASE" ruling on the Anthrax investigation after the suicide of the 2nd scientist suspect to be, at best, a rush to conclusion, at worst an obstruction of basic, competent findings.

#7. The ANTHRAX ATTACKS on THE US CONGRESS - NOT, as we have just pointed out, on the White House or Defense Department, as you would expect a foreign terrorist to do - followed shortly after the 9-11 terrorist hijackings. Within weeks of the Bush administration's undeclared war and invasion of Iraq, the Bush administration would "OUT" AN ENTIRE UNDERCOVER CIA Operation, in order to SMEAR a prominent and well known war critic, former Ambassador Joe Wilson. Even preliminary investigations would reveal that Chicago Sun-Times columnist BOB NOVAK had OBTAINED HIS INFORMATION on the "undercover spy" status of Valerie Plame Wilson - war critic Joe Wilson's wife - after discussions with the Bush White House shortly after the US invasion of Iraq in March 2003. But as further details of the White House's efforts to DISCLOSE Ms. Wilson's CIA employment to the Washington press were reported, the Congressional Democrats made next to NO effort to DEMAND ANSWERS from the illegal outing. Eventually, responding to demands from the CIA itself that a criminal investigation be run, the last vestiges of an Independent Justice Department empowered an Independent Prosecutor's office to investigate the "outing", of not just an individual CIA operative, but her ENTIRE COVER ORGANIZATION, and thus EVERY CIA officer and foreign "asset" (hired local spy) who had ever been connected to that undercover operation. The campaign of Democrat Senator John Kerry REFUSED to use the issue of the "Plame outing" as a campaign issue in the 2004 presidential race; Senator Kerry REFUSING to even DEMAND A STRAIGHT ANSWER from President Bush if he had been aware of the operation within his White House to "out" Ms. Plame to the DC press corps; Kerry REFUSING to make President Bush hold to his previous pledge to FIRE and PROSECUTE anyone from within his administration who should be found to have participated in such an "outing". In fact, the Kerry administration DID NOTHING to HOLD THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION ACCOUNTABLE for ANY of its gross errors and abuses of power to that date, Senator Kerry preferring, instead of pounding on the theme of Bush administration incompetence and corruption in war contracts profiteering, to present himself as a heroic figure who would somehow "save" America. Compared to Senator Kerry's incredibly lame campaign, a SQUANDERING of the opportunity to HOLD PRESIDENT BUSH ACCOUNTABLE for his pledges, promises, and incompetence to that date, Kerry's ABANDONING Democratic voters in Ohio - almost CERTAINLY ROBBED of their popular vote majority for Kerry in that crucial swing state - is just another in the INCOMPETENT BETRAYALS by Senator Kerry's pompous, take-no-stand campaign.

#8. Shortly after the 2004 presidential election (almost certainly put President Bush back in the White House with ANOTHER STOLEN VOTE count), the Independent Prosecutor into the "Plame outing" investigation WAS ABLE TO WIN a felony _PERJURY_ and _OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE_ ____CONVICTION____ against Vice President Cheney's own Chief of Staff, Washington DC 'super-lawyer' Lewis "Scooter" Libby. AT NO TIME did the DEMOCRAT SENATORS _follow up_ on this INCREDIBLY TOUGH prosecution, by an Independent Prosecutor SINGLE HANDED LY TAKING ON _the most powerful White House_ since at least the WWII years - a tough prosecution that obtained the PERJURY and OBSTRUCTION OF JUSTICE CONVICTION, against the sitting Vice President's own Chief of Staff, a verdict obtained by a prosecutor against a jury that openly acknowledged sympathy for the defendant, a jury and trial where everyone understood that Mr. Libby was playing 'the good soldier,' the FALL GUY, for his _SUPERIORS_ at the White House. Since Mr. Libby had concurrently been SENIOR ADVISOR TO THE PRESIDENT (while he was the Vice President's CoS), the list of his "SUPERIORS" at the White House was a short one. Namely the President, the Vice President, the President's Chief of Staff (at the time of Libby's employment Andrew Card) and the other power-figure in the Bush-Cheney White House, Bush's Political Affairs Director, Karl Rove. Yet despite the CRIMINAL CONVICTIONS of Mr. Libby, and the CLEAR TRAIL that his conduct was part of a wider White House operation to, first "out" the identity of Ms. Plame, and then to COVER UP and OBSTRUCT that Justice Department investigation into that illegal "outing", STILL the DC Democrats MADE NO EFFORT to see that JUSTICE was followed through - not even basic Congressional investigations after Democrats won control of both the House and Senate majorities in the November 2006 mid-term elections.

#9. Immediately after the 2006 mid-term elections, the Bush White House and their Attorney General, ALBERTO GONZALES, set about to PURGE the Department of Justice of ALL prosecutors, US Attorneys, and other personnel who WOULD NOT PARTICIPATE in PARTISAN PROSECUTIONS of non-Republican candidates in crucial swing-state elections. This scandal would come to be called "PURGE-GATE."
The Democrats DID hold hearings in to Purge-gate, but even though Attorney General Alberto Gonzales COMMITTED PERJURY under oath (at one point testifying that he had gone to visit then Attorney General John Ashcroft, alone in a hospital room late at night under narcotic sedation while recovering from surgery) NOT to discuss the White House's UNLIMITED SURVEILLANCE program... but three sentences later, Attorney General Gonzales was forced to admit that he was carrying papers in his hand on that very Unlimited Surveillance program for the sedated Ashcroft to sign) - the Democrats NEVER HELD THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION ACCOUNTABLE for the illegal "PURGING" of the Justice Department, and the far more illegal PARTISAN, perjurous PROSECUTIONS, and attempted (or ordered) prosecutions, of Democratic candidates, officials, or elections activists. Indeed, the most prominent victim of the PURJUROUS prosecutions of Democratic officials was ALABAMA Democratic GOVERNOR DON SIEGELMAN, likely ROBBED of his winning 2002 re-election bid by Karl Rove's Republican operatives in Alabama elections offices, and then, for having the temerity to immediately run for election all over again despite his "losing" the 2002 election, Mr. Seigelman found himself the target of a PARTISAN PROSECUTION that eventually found him guilt of... putting a campaign supporter and donor on a government health care oversight panel? BY THAT STANDARD, EVERY APPOINTEE of the ENTIRE Bush administration would be GUILTY OF CRIMINAL CORRUPTION, because the Bush administration judged its appointees SOLELY by the amounts of cash that they donated to Republican campaigns!

#10. A similar betrayal of impartial justice in America, the DC Democrats, once they became THE MAJORITY of BOTH HOUSES OF CONGRESS starting in January, 2006, WOULD DO NOTHING over the coming 2 years to ASSURE American voters nationwide that THEIR VOTES WERE COUNTED FAIRLY and accurately.

The legacy of this Democrat 'leadership' INCOMPETENCE (if not dereliction of duty to insure that THE CORE of American democracy was not "FIXED" by corrupt elections officials or privately owned machines) - would be seen in the 2008 elections, where TWO WEEKS after the November 4th voting, ALASKA residents would STILL NOT KNOW the winner of their close senate race, a shameful standard also seen in Minnesota, and elsewhere in down-ticket races. BY COMPARISON, both CANADA and INDIA hold elections, the count of which is SUPERVISED by OBSERVERS from ALL parties, and the results of which are known - on the evening of the elections.

The above is only a quick, snap-shot examination of the tactics and techniques that DEMOCRAT SENATORS USE to UNDERMINE he will of Democratic voters... a betrayal of American voters that will see the Democrats LEAVING SENATOR LEIBERMAN IN CHARGE of the crucial GOVERNMENT OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE in the US Senate, even though Senator Leiberman's QUASHING of an EFFECTIVE, ENERGETIC, and determined ENRON INVESTIGATION in that very committee led to the Democrats' own drubbing in the 2002 mid-term elections, Lieberman (and thereby the Democrats) FAILING to LINK the Bush White House to ENRON's SERIAL CORRUPTION and market frauds -

- A FAILURE to PROSECUTE FRAUD, and thus PROTECT American workers, investors, consumers, pensioners, and taxpayers, by Lieberman's committee, that would see the Democrats LOSE the majority they were handed by REPUBLICAN Senator Jim Jeffords shortly before the 2002 mid-term elections, a LOSS of Majority that would soon see former Senate Majority Leader TOM DASCHLE lose his re-election to the Senate despite his holding that crucial, powerful position on behalf of the constituents of his small state.

Monday, November 17, 2008

Cowardly 'Democrat' Senators SET TO STAB Democratic VOTERS in the BACK - YET AGAIN! - and LEAVE JOE LIEBERMAN as CHAIR of the GOVT. AFFAIRS COMMITTEE-

THE COWARDLY, CRAVEN, INCOMPETENT, Harry Reid Senate Democrats ARE OUT TO DO IT AGAIN: SNATCH DEFEAT from the jaws of Victory, and ENABLE the REACTIONARY RIGHT-WING WAR-MONGERING, TREASURY-LOOTING, GESTAPO WARTIME POWERS (unlimited spying, unlimited torture, no oversight of executive branch) agenda...

See our previous posts for the DIRE CONSEQUENCES of LEAVING THE LIEBERMAN VIPER... IN CHARGE OF A CRUCIAL Democrat Party COMMITTEE... in the process, PISSING ON tens of thousands upon MILLIONS of DEMOCRATIC VOTERS...

Saturday, November 15, 2008

Maddow to President-elect Obama & Dem Leaders: "Leave Sen Lieberman IN HIS COMMITTEE CHAIR, you'll DESERVE his backstabbing Witch-hunt Investigations"

(Sorry, Rachel, for the unflattering lead frame from this video..
we here at d.n.usa have no video-editing skills!)


Thank god for YouTube!
The worst aspect of America's "uber-consumer, material girl, conspicuous consumption, instant gratification" culture, is that no matter how many THOUSANDS of facts you can compile - common sense facts, for example, that while "red state" Right-Wing Republican politicians such as Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin moan and cry about "SOCIALIZED big government Democrat policies," it is RURAL, "RED" Republican STATES that are nine times out of ten NET FEDERAL TAX-DOLLAR RECIPIENTS - that is, the more they bleat about "Moral Values", the more likely they are to be WELFARE QUEENS! -

- Despite the abundance of thousands of such FACTS that the ENTIRE Right-Wing agenda is made up of LIES and DISTORTIONS (see Al Franken demolish Rush Limbaugh's use of made-up statistics on minimum wage) - UNLESS AMERICANS SEE SOMETHING ON THEIR TV, or SPLASHED ALL OVER THE FRONT-PAGES (and _only_ the front pages) of their newsstand newspaper - it SIMPLY DOESN'T COUNT!

SUCH is the case with JOE LIEBERMAN, the hypocrite & treacherous former 2000 Democratic vice presidential candidate who today chairs the Democrat majority Senate Government Affairs Oversight Committee. Not only has Senator Lieberman treacherously run against and defeated DEMOCRATIC Party Senate candidate Ned Lamont for his current job (if you or I did that, it would mean that we were no longer a part of the Democratic Party, and would not be eligible to CHAIR a COMMITTEE in the Democratic Senate caucus), but Mr. Lieberman has spent the entire past years of 2007 and 2008 up to the November 4 elections CAMPAIGNING FOR John McCain, the _REPUBLICAN_ candidate for president!

Fortunately, MSNBC news/commentary show host RACHEL MADDOW deconstructs Lieberman's amazing, arrogant, entitled gall and in-your-face treachery, and because of the miracle of YouTube, we can show you Mr. Lieberman's treacherous DUPLICITY, IN HIS OWN WORDS.

More importantly, Ms. Maddow has a message for President-Elect Barack Obama (paraphrasing):
"President-elect Obama, IF you talk the Democrat senate leadership in to leaving Lieberman astride his COMMITTEE CHAIRMANSHIP, you can BE ASSURED that Lieberman will at some time in the future _START INVESTIGATING YOUR ADMINISTRATION."_


This is a GUARANTEED OUTCOME, because the "independent" Senator from Connecticut has already demonstrated that, ON THE IMPORTANT ISSUES OF WAR, Republican DEFICIT SPENDING, DEREGULATION, insider crony corruption, and even criminal misconduct from within the offices of government, HE IS SOLIDLY IN THE POCKET of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, John McCain, and the Neo-Con "GUT AMERICA's SOCIAL PROGRAMS, RUN UP GOVERNMENT DEFICTS by GIVING TAX CUTS TO THE WEALTHY" agenda.

(Which, Democrat and corporate media FAILURE to highlight it or not, has been THE BEDROCK FOUNDATION and SIGNATURE AGENDA of the Bush/Cheney/GOP reactionary, radical right-wing since at least the years that George W. Bush was governor of Texas, see Molly Ivins & Lou Dubose's book, "Shrub."
Written before the 2000 election, "Shrub" highlighted how Texas Gov. Bush had SQUANDERED the TEXAS STATE BUDGET SURPLUS left to him by his predecessor, Democratic Governor Ann Richards. Not only did Gov. Bush and his Republicans turn Texas' budget surplus TO ASHES, but they did it.... while SLASHING existing social programs that had PAID FOR THEMSELVES, for example pre-school and after-school education programs PROVEN to IMPROVE the GRADUATION RATES, and REDUCE the DROP-OUT and JUVENILE CRIME RATES, of Texas school children and teenagers!)

In short, out of a misguided sense of bipartisanship (or even "compassion") for the treacherous and very dangerous Senator Joe Lieberman, President-elect Obama WOULD BE NURSING A VIPER in his own robes if Lieberman were to continue on as the very powerful CHAIRMAN of the Senate Government Affairs Committee.

-------------------------------------

Fortunately, the great investigative reporter ROBERT PARRY (who, against considerable "major media" (corporate) obstructionist efforts of his editors, publishers, and the DC "conventional wisdom" news networks, broke the Iran-Contra scandal to America's and the Congress' attention) has the details of President Clinton practically sobbing to anyone who would listen to him, about RELENTLESS REPUBLICAN INVESTIGATIONS in to HIS administration, early in 1993 and 1994 - INVESTIGATIONS BROUGHT ABOUT, Parry informs us, because Clinton SWEPT ON-GOING CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIONS into REPUBLICAN abuses of power from the Bush-1/Reagan years UNDER THE RUG and right out of official Washington - thereby ALLOWING the Republicans and their right-wing media to GO FROM THE DEFENSIVE, TO THE OFFENSIVE, against the very Democratic president who had virtually (by dismissing those on-going investigations) given them sweeping pardons!
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2007/100307.html

note 2: By 1995, the Right-Wing media's ability to blame THE BUSH-1 RECESSION - brought about by Reagan/Bush-1 DEFICIT SPENDING and DEREGULATION (and connected insider crony LOOTING of America's Savings & Loans) was in full roar. Timmy McVeigh, an honorably (but involuntarily) discharged US Army Gulf War combat decorated veteran, started plotting to blow up US federal government targets, because after his involuntary discharge, he was UNABLE TO FIND A JOB in up-state New York... and rather than blame the DEREGULATION/DEFICIT/insider-looting policies of the Republican administration, Right-Wing HATE RADIO talk show hosts, such as G. Gordon Liddy, Oliver North, and others, WERE BLAMING "TAX & SPEND DEMOCRATS" in general, and the CLINTON ADMINISTRATION IN PARTICULAR, for the MASSIVE UNEMPLOYMENT, and gut-wrenching FEDERAL GOVERNMENT DEFICITS of the BUSh-1 RECESSION. The BUSH-1 RECESSION was still in effect THREE FULL YEARS into the Clinton 1st-term White House, when Tim McVeigh's right-wing militia bomb went off, killing 168 government workers children at the Murrah federal government building in downtown Oklahmoa City on April 19th, 1995.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oklahoma_City_bombing
William Edelen, cited in the "HATE RADIO" link above, distills this serious and dangerous threat posed to the Democratic administration and American people alike, should the Democratic senators GIVE Senator Lieberman A SOAP-BOX to WHIP UP Right-Wing faux Outrage over the coming years:
http://secweb.infidels.org/?kiosk=articles&id=710

"Any person with an I.Q. above three can figure out that this kind of violent talk, with God and the bible thrown in, is the fertilizer for the next Oklahoma bombing, abortion clinic murder, Columbine massacre, Jewish center bloodbath, or a Matthew Shepherd being tied to a fence on a freezing night and beaten to death."

Monday, November 10, 2008

President-elect Obama's BIGGEST CHALLENGE: Right-Wing HATE RADIO in the Heartland...


This is not the "Red States" election map from the 2004 Kerry campaign - it is the "RED COUNTIES" election map from the 2008 Obama victory this past November 4th!
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/election/2008/
It is indeed true that the above election cartograph/map is NOT weighted for population or electoral votes... in fact, those weighted maps (and the far more familiar state results map, for the vast majority of "winner take all" states) are at the same web-site) but that RED, RED, RED COUNTIES MAP conveys an extremely important lesson for the Obama campaign and Democrats in the coming years: THOSE RURAL COUNTIES are DOMINATED by RIGHT-WING media, specifically TV and Radio, and especially RIGHT-WING HATE RADIO.

No matter the Obama victory landslide and popular vote margin: RIGHT-WING HATE-RADIO was able to IMPEACH a SITTING US PRESIDENT (Bill Clinton); ROB the sitting Vice President and popular-vote winner of the 2000 election of his electoral victory (Al Gore robbed by massive disenfranchisement in Florida); a sitting Democratic governor (Don Siegelman of Alabama) not only ROBBED of his election win, but then prosecuted and IMPRISONED for - putting a supporter on a government commission?? - THE POWER of the RIGHT-WING MEDIA to DRAG DOWN DEMOCRATS should NEVER BE UNDERESTIMATED, they have the SCALPS of a DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENT, a Democratic VICE-PRESIDENT, a DEMOCRATIC GOVERNOR, and at least TWO Democratic Senators (Vietnam War combat Veteran Max Cleland in Georgia in 2002, and Vietnam veteran Tom Daschle in South Dakota in 2004) to their credit.
EVEN MORE AMAZING, the RURAL STATES are 9 times out of 10 (only one or two exceptions) NET federal TAX RECIPIENTS - BUT the message of "DEMOCRATS" in genearl, and "OBAMA IS A SOCIALIST!" in particular, are VERY POWERFUL THEMES being POUNDED by the Right-Wing media - DESPITE that NET TAX DOLLAR RECIPIENT status of the RURAL, "red" states!

Indeed - ALASKA, home to Gov. Sarah Palin, the MOST VOCIFEROUS DEMAGOGUE of the "Democrats are SOCIALISTS!" message this year - is THE MOST SOCIALIZED, SUBSIDIZED STATE IN AMERICA!

This amazing factoid - that the RIGHT-WING MEDIA is EXCELLENT at INVERTING REALITY, ACCUSING Democrats of "being Socialists" WHILE BENEFITING from SOCIALIZED REDISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH from urban to rural counties - WILL RESULT in the "DEATH OF 1,000 CUTS" to the incoming Obama administration, IF they take NO MEASURES to address that Right-Wing, rural media (radio & TV) juggernaut.

NO MATTER HOW WELL the Obama campaign ADDRESSES OTHER ISSUES - ENERGY, THE ECONOMY, the war-on-terror, health care, education, national infrastructure, etc. - the RIGHT-WING MEDIA in the "rural red states" is ALMOST UNOPPOSED and will ROB the credit for any Obama admin. successes, and AMPLIFY the BLAME for any shortcomings - The DEATH OF 1,000 CUTS, just ask Al Gore, Bill Clinton, Max Cleland, Don Siegelman, or dozens of other Democratic candidates and leaders.

Sunday, November 9, 2008

CNN live countdown to Obama victory, Grant Park, Chicago

CBS anchor Katie Couric declares Election Win for Obama, Nov. 4, 2008...

An excellent vignette from CBS election night reporting; the moment at 11 pm Eastern time, when the polls closed at 8 pm Pacific time, when CBS news and other networks were able to call ("project") an ELECTION VICTORY for the Obama campaign, based on Obama winning Pennsylvania and Ohio hours earlier, and clearly dominating in the California, Washington, Oregon, and Hawaii voting to that hour.
As Bob Scheiffer explains, within his own lifetime he had attended all segregated schools, and by the time he graduated from high school, he had never been at school with a Black student!


Keith Olbermann, who did so much to FOCUS America's media attention on the absurdities, hypocrisies, and race-baiting of the McCain campaign, Olbermann's voice cracks with emotion as he calls the Election Victory for Obama:

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Barack Obama WINS ELECTION 2008! Will be America's 44th PRESIDENT!


Senator Obama's PRESIDENT-ELECT VICTORY SPEECH! -
(OOPS! This is Obama's Jan. 2008 IOWA, first-campaign-victory speech.
We apologize for the error, and will post the Nov. 4 Chicago speech as soon as it is available... but as Obama says, "THIS is the moment when it ALL BEGAN!"

Sunday, November 2, 2008

As good as it is, the Democratic Barack Obama campaign COULD HAVE SHARPENED the expose of Republican misrule & McCain campaign...

AS GOOD AS IT IS, Obama's campaign has fallen WAY SHORT of HIGHLIGHTING JUST HOW ATROCIOUS the Republican agenda & campaigns are....!!

#1 REPUBS WANT TO KILL Soc Security!!
Americans LOVE Social Security, Right-Wing FEARMONGERING over its imminent demise to the contrary. And AMERICANS SAVED Social Security from "Privatization" - almost DESPITE the cowering Congressional Democrat's lame support.

WHY The Obama campaign has gone SOFT on this issue is... AMAZING?! THERE ARE one THOUSAND video clips of Bush, Cheney, McCain, and other Republicans TRYING TO DESTROY Social Security, by trying to PRIVATIZE it, which would have DONE THE SAME DAMN THINGS to SocSecurity that WRECKED the Stock Market, forcing "Heck'uva job Bushie" to RUN TO CONGRESS _BEGGING_ for ONE TRILLION TAX-PAYER DOLLARS to BAIL OUT Bush, Paulson and (former Halliburton CEO) Cheney's CRONIES on Wall St....
(Don't forget, Mr. Cheney's entire fortune is based on his Halliburton STOCK OPTIONS.)


#2. POUNDING McCain's "NO!" votes AGAINST VETERANS CARE, and SPECIFICALLY SAY that McCain is a DAMN HYPOCRITE to say "I SUPPORT THE TROOPS!" when he MOST CERTAINLY DOES NOT. this is a _major shortcoming_ of all the Democrats, failing to POUND this issue - down McCain's and Republican party throats.

#3. Obama campaign failure to POUND McCain's REJECTION OF FARM BILL votes down McCain's ENTITLED, multi-millionaire, hypocrite throat...

AMERICANS _LOVE_ SOCIALISM in Agricultural policy.. it is called our CHEAP FOOD national policy, and EVERYONE loves it - consumers in cities AND rural states (who benefit from low priced food even if their region has a drought, for example), small family farmers, and even LARGE CORPORATE FARMS, - EVERYONE LOVES America's CHEAP FOOD SOCIALIZED, SUBSIDIZED AGRICULTURE, but of course Republicans love the benefit of CHEAP ag, but vote against it in cases of idiots like Bush & McCain, and CAMPAIGN AGAINST it in terms of PRETENDING that "SUBSIDIES" don't equal "Socialism."

#4. Obama campaign has FAILED to POUND Bush, McCain, GOP attempts to REDUCE REGULATION on POISONS IN OUR WATER SUPPLY.
MERCURY!
ARSENIC!
LEAD !!
Bush, Cheney, McCain, and the ENTIRE GOP crew, want to allow FAR HIGHER LIMITS on these TOXIC substances in our water supply and/or air we breathe - substances KNOWN TO RETARD BRAIN DEVELOPMENT IN BABIES. (Not to mention substances known to contribute to pre-natal and poor pregnancy conditions - the Alpha & Omega of Right-Wing claims to "moral superiority" based on their anti-abortion stances.)

#5. Health Care... Obama campaign COULD HAVE _POUNDED_ McCain on Health care, but it is TOUGH to go after a former POW on all the MILLIONS of dollars his health care have cost... and more specifically, how NO, NO, NO Private Insurer would EVER have taken McCain's insurance, had he not had GOVERNMENT insurance, and/or been WEALTHY.

BUT the Obama campaign COULD have POUNDED the theme that AMERICA's HEALTH CARE COSTS have TRIPLED these last few years under Bush, Cheney, McCain, and Republican misrule.

#6. GEORGE W. BUSH LOVES ARAB OIL DICATORS !!!
can anyone IMAGINE the ads the GOP, Bush, Cheney, McCain, and Repubs would be running, IF Barack Obama had been KISSING ARAB DICTATORS who fund WAHABI, "HATE THE INDOLENT WEST!" DICTATORS ???!!!

There are HUNDREDS of Pictures of Bush holding hands, kissing, and LAUGHING with Arab OIL DICTATORS who can EXECUTE WOMEN for having an affair !!


Oh yeah..
#7. Bush & cheney TRYING TO SELL US PORTS to the VERY ARAB OIL DICTATORS who FUND WAHABI "HATE THE WEST!" schools in Pakistan, Indonesia, and throughout the Muslim World !!

Though FAR from complete - we haven't included DICK CHENEY's HALLIBURTON PORTFOLIO GOING UP with every Billion-dollar NO BID CONTRACT he gave his "former" country; or Bush's corrupt Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson using ONE TRILLION TAXPAYER DOLLARS to bail out HIS OWN $500 million portfolio AT GOLDMAN-SACHS, or how Bush, Cheney, McCain, & crew have HELPED CORPORATIONS LOOT worker PENSION FUNDS (which was EXACTLY the theme of the _1980s_ movie "Wall Street" with Michael Douglas and Martin Sheen)...

Saturday, November 1, 2008

At long last! A HACKER, VOTE-STEALING voting-machine IS IMPOUNDED by a state elections supervisor.

http://coloradoindependent.com/13187/adams-county-quarantines-machine-that-switched-candidates-vote
Electronic-voting fraud activists BradBlog.com posts a story written in the Colorado Independent newspaper that a county clerk in Colorado has finally done the right thing for the voters by removing a touch-screen voting machine from service, and quarantining it, after it was discovered to be flipping votes from one candidate to another. The failed machine in this case was a Diebold Accu-Vote, a frequent flipper.

As reported by the Colorado Independent (Hat-tip VoterAction.org)...

An electronic voting machine in Adams County repeatedly failed to accept a vote for a Democratic state Senate candidate — instead registering the vote for her Republican opponent — at an early voting site last week and has been removed from service, the Aurora Sentinel reports Wednesday. Adams County Clerk and Recorder Karen Long told the newspaper the error doesn’t reflect wider problems in the county’s voting systems, but the candidate said the incident could lead to a lawsuit.

“I always just trusted the machines, and it opened my eyes,” said state Rep. Mary Hodge. “The way it works now, I’m told … is that those votes throw it to Mr. Hadfield that we’ll probably have a lawsuit and a court decision. We’ll have to wait and see.”

Hodge, the Democratic nominee, faces Republican Robert John Hadfield in the race to represent state Senate District 25.
...
“I have quarantined the machine,” Long told the newspaper. “It’s removed and it’s sealed up and it’s in a bag.” She said she is awaiting instructions from the secretary of state’s office.


Long is to be lauded for being the first election official in the country so far during the general election (that we're aware of) to have taken the correct action in such a vote-flipping case. And now that Hodge's eyes are "opened" we hope that both she and her Republican opponent, Hadfield will stand up for their voters by signing the StandingForVoters.org "no concessions" pledge immediately!

Late last night VelvetRevolution.us (a non-partisan, non-profit election watchdog co-founded by The BRAD BLOG) issued a press release calling on election officials to not recalibrate systems mid-election, but rather remove and impound them, and offer voters paper ballots as needed instead. The complete press release is posted at the end of this article.