Electronic Writer

This is reprinted from Common Dreams

http://www.commondreams.org/news2004/1123-13.htm

Stealing votes in Columbus

by Richard Hayes Phillips, Ph.D.

November 23, 2004

http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2004/914

The court battles have begun in Ohio! The election is going to get messy. There are plenty of angry people who experienced abuse directly.

Read all about it . . . .

http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2004/886

Who said I was paranoid? Why would they say that?

Paranoia runs deep. Or, is it high? Well, I don’t know, really. I have never considered myself to be paranoid before, but I kinda feel that way now. I guess.

Actually, what worries me is that it might not be paranoia. In fact, I spend a great deal of time worrying that this or that were connected in some devious way. There are conspiracy theories running rampant right now, and conspiracy movies are being produced en masse, and what is even worse, is that some of them might be true.

I have always had somewhat of a fancy for conspiracies, in general–it is a natural by-product of an inquisitive mind. You learn to ask questions. You learn to find patterns. And, you look for more questions to ask. The interrelated-ness of life and living is more than just System’s theory. The patterns that tie life together so succinctly is not just Gestalt Theory. Einstein saw existence as a fabric, and that fabric is tied together like many pieces of string from the same ball of yarn.

But, what do we DO about these conspiratorial theories? I think that a better question might be to ask how do we investigate them? Having a specific process to collect information is a way out. It is active. And, it is helpful. If you are willing to share your information, then your efforts will help more people than you might now.

EMTs have this neat little trick that they do when they show up to the scene of any accident. After they make sure that the scene is safe, they immediately check the victim for some basic information (I am overexaggerating, of course–it is more complex than that, but hear me out). They take pulse, bloodpressure, and collect some basic information if the victim is conscious. The call this “establishing the base-line vitals.”

Baseline vitals are important. And, that is where we are in America–right now. We need to establish the Baseline vitals of the country. We need to check what we know, establish a snapshot image of the situation of things as they are at this very moment. And we need to track the progress–improvement, or otherwise.

How we accomplish this tracking is really where we need to begin.

[Posted with hblogger 2.0 http://www.normsoft.com/hblogger/]

This article is re-printed, in full from http://www.blackboxvoting.org/

They need help: If you are a lawyer, please contact them.

TUESDAY NOV 16 2004: Volusia County on lockdown

County election records just got put on lockdown

Dueling lawyers, election officials gnashing teeth, Votergate.tv film crew catching it all.

Here’s what happened so far:

Friday Black Box Voting investigators Andy Stephenson and Kathleen Wynne popped in to ask for some records. They were rebuffed by an elections official named Denise. Bev Harris called on the cell phone from investigations in downstate Florida, and told Volusia County Elections Supervisor Deanie Lowe that Black Box Voting would be in to pick up the Nov. 2 Freedom of Information request, or would file for a hand recount. “No, Bev, please don’t do that!” Lowe exclaimed. But this is the way it has to be, folks. Black Box Voting didn’t back down.

Monday Bev, Andy and Kathleen came in with a film crew and asked for the FOIA request. Deanie Lowe gave it over with a smile, but Harris noticed that one item, the polling place tapes, were not copies of the real ones, but instead were new printouts, done on Nov. 15, and not signed by anyone.

Harris asked to see the real ones, and they said for “privacy” reasons they can’t make copies of the signed ones. She insisted on at least viewing them (although refusing to give copies of the signatures is not legally defensible, according to Berkeley elections attorney, Lowell Finley). They said the real ones were in the County Elections warehouse. It was quittin’ time and an arrangment was made to come back this morning to review them.

Lana Hires, a Volusia County employee who gained some notoriety in an election 2000 Diebold memo, where she asked for an explanation of minus 16,022 votes for Gore, so she wouldn’t have to stand there “looking dumb” when the auditor came in, was particularly unhappy about seeing the Black Box Voting investigators in the office. She vigorously shook her head when Deanie Lowe suggested going to the warehouse.

Kathleen Wynne and Bev Harris showed up at the warehouse at 8:15 Tuesday morning, Nov. 16. There was Lana Hires looking especially gruff, yet surprised. She ordered them out. Well, they couldn’t see why because there she was, with a couple other people, handling the original poll tapes. You know, the ones with the signatures on them. Harris and Wynne stepped out and Volusia County officials promptly shut the door.

There was a trash bag on the porch outside the door. Harris looked into it and what do you know, but there were poll tapes in there. They came out and glared at Harris and Wynne, who drove away a small bit, and then videotaped the license plates of the two vehicles marked ‘City Council’ member. Others came out to glare and soon all doors were slammed.

So, Harris and Wynne went and parked behind a bus to see what they would do next. They pulled out some large pylons, which blocked the door. Harris decided to go look at the garbage some more while Wynne videotaped. A man who identified himself as “Pete” came out and Harris immediately wrote a public records request for the contents of the garbage bag, which also contained ballots — real ones, but not filled out.

A brief tug of war occurred, tearing the garbage bag open. Harris and Wynne then looked through it, as Pete looked on. He was quite friendly.

Black Box Voting collected various poll tapes and other information and asked if they could copy it, for the public records request. “You won’t be going anywhere,” said Pete. “The deputy is on his way.”

Yes, not one but two police cars came up and then two county elections officials, and everyone stood around discussing the merits of the “black bag” public records request.

The police finally let Harris and Wynne go, about the time the Votergate.tv film crew arrived, and everyone trooped off to the elections office. There, the plot thickened.

Black Box Voting began to compare the special printouts given in the FOIA request with the signed polling tapes from election night. Lo and behold, some were missing. By this time, Black Box Voting investigator Andy Stephenson had joined the group at Volusia County. Some polling place tapes didn’t match. In fact, in one location, precinct 215, an African-American precinct, the votes were off by hundreds, in favor of George W. Bush and other Republicans.

Hmm. Which was right? The polling tape Volusia gave to Black Box Voting, specially printed on Nov. 15, without signatures, or the ones with signatures, printed on Nov. 2, with up to 8 signatures per tape?

Well, then it became even more interesting. A Volusia employee boxed up some items from an office containing Lana Hires’ desk, which appeared to contain — you guessed it — polling place tapes. The employee took them to the back of the building and disappeared.

Then, Ellen B., a voting integrity advocate from Broward County, Florida, and Susan, from Volusia, decided now would be a good time to go through the trash at the elections office. Lo and behold, they found all kinds of memos and some polling place tapes, fresh from Volusia elections office.

So, Black Box Voting compared these with the Nov. 2 signed ones and the “special’ ones from Nov. 15 given, unsigned, finding several of the MISSING poll tapes. There they were: In the garbage.

So, Wynne went to the car and got the polling place tapes she had pulled from the warehouse garbage. My my my. There were not only discrepancies, but a polling place tape that was signed by six officials.

This was a bit disturbing, since the employees there had said that bag was destined for the shredder.

By now, a county lawyer had appeared on the scene, suddenly threatening to charge Black Box Voting extra for the time spent looking at the real stuff Volusia had withheld earlier. Other lawyers appeared, phoned, people had meetings, Lana glowered at everyone, and someone shut the door in the office holding the GEMS server.

Black Box Voting investigator Andy Stephenson then went to get the Diebold “GEMS” central server locked down. He also got the memory cards locked down and secured, much to the dismay of Lana. They were scattered around unsecured in any way before that.

Everyone agreed to convene tomorrow morning, to further audit, discuss the hand count that Black Box Voting will require of Volusia County, and of course, it is time to talk about contesting the election in Volusia.

I understand the dilemmas with Christianity–the hatred and killing that goes on in the name of “the Lord” is terrible.

My personal belief is not very dogmatic. Even after 12 years of Catholic education, and courses in Medieval Philosophy (1000 years of Catholic-dominated Theology), I believe that the Lord does not follow our individual lives. I think that He created the choices and consequences system of the world and our existence. We make our choices (say, pick what’s behind door number three), and then another set of choices are presented to us. And, we must make another set of choices (okay, this time, I’ll take door number two).

But, this isn’t the only place I disagree with the Church. For example, I don’t think that we should be forced to choose between Pro-life and Pro-Choice. There is actually a logical fallacy there—the concepts are unfairly dichotomized. And, the worst thing of it all is that the Christian idiots don’t know that the first premise of their entire argument (that God breathes life into the a fetus at the point of conception) was written as a trailer bill to a longer philosophical treatise. Or, if they know it, they are not letting on . . . .

In the Middle Ages (mid 1400’s), there was a Philosophical battle between St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Augustine. The Church (all Christians at the time–they had not split yet) had originally adopted St. Augustine’s philosophies around 300AD, and those theories dominated Church Theology unchallenged until the Mid-1400’s. St. Thomas Aquinas crafted an alternative philosophy that ultimately won favor and replaced St. Augustine’s philosophy as the official perspective of the Church.

To make his theories align with the book of Genesis, St. Thomas Aquinas arbitrarily chose the point of conception as the moment when God animated a baby. In China, and in the Middle East (and ancient Greece, for that matter), doctors were already aware that a baby’s heart did not start beating until later in the pregnancy. But, in medieval Europe, that information was not available. Perhaps he made his decisions based upon the currently available medical knowledge. At the time, the Church was also hanging people who did not publicly agree with their philosophy. Aquinas was already treading on thin ground publishing his works. So, fear could have been involved with his decision-making process, as well.

The reality is that St. Thomas Aquinas selected that moment as part of his philosophy. He could have easily chosen the first breath, the first heart beat, and if the information we have now was available, the moment a fetus is “viable outside of the womb.” Consequently, all of the major church schisms in the church (with the exception of some Orthodox Christian churches) occurred after this event, and the archetypal modern Christian inherited his or her Pro-Life values from this nearly 600 year old attached legislation.

So, while I believe in God, I know the entire Pro-Life stance to be a farce based upon personal beliefs. If everyone were to say that they believe this to be true, there really wouldn’t be any substance for their legislation. But, alas, that is not what we have. Instead, we have millions of people masquerading that they know the truth about God and Life, and everything else they profess to KNOW. In actuality, they are mere puppets to a handful of medieval church Theologians.

For those of us who are working our way through the election woes and making it day-by-day, this is a link that might accelerate the “healing” process.

http://www.fuckthesouth.com/

Just a little warning. The name of the site is indicative of the level of language that is part of the entire, one-sided discourse. It is a rant, and it is hilarious.

At first, I thought the idea behind www.sorryeverybody.com was a great idea, and I thought it was cute. But, the Website has much greater implications than I realized. There is this cumulative effect of seeing person after person asking for forgiveness from the rest of the World. Person after person was asking for compassion, and help, and forgiveness from mother earth, our allies, and from other countries around the globe.

The disturbing part, for me at least, is that there some of the messages have an edge that slices deeper than just losing the election.

• “2 paychecks, 50+ hours of work, and only 1 vote.”
  
• “Sorry that the youth of America failed the youth of the World.”
• “Dear World, We’re sorry . We tried. Please forgive us. Love, Pennsylvania”
  
• “Sorry world, I wish I had a safer place to play, too.” (from a child)
• “Sorry We’re Stupid”
  
• “Dear World, I am sorry, too. I wish my vote had counted. –The Next Generation”
• “RIP Democracy: 1776 – 2004”
• “A little less than half of my neighbors and I would like to apologize for failing you. –Ohio”

After 10 pages filled with pictures, I realized that I was on the brink of tears. Deeper than that, the idea behind the Website struck a chord that resonated deeply within me. A few more pages of pictures, and I was sobbing terribly.

I want forgiveness from the world, too. I am ashamed of the actions of my country. If left unguided, I know that the ship that is our world will continue on the wrong course. My leader is Captain Ahab chasing after the white whale, and he doesn’t care if he kills us all to get it.

Dear World,

Please forgive me, too. I am not leaving America. They need me here–even if they don’t know it. And, I am staying to help.

-Tim

I apologize for my temporary lapse in entries. It is the birthday-time of the year for me, and I will be incognito for a couple of days celebrating the last 365 days, and the next 365 days.

In the meantime, I have an amazing link for you. It is our apologies to the world. Real people giving their apologies to the world. Half of us ARE TRULY SORRY! Go to the gallery and see the faces and the messages of those who feel compelled to apologize for the actions of our leaders (the leaders who are not representing the wishes of the people).

http://www.sorryeverybody.com/

Entries will be spotty (at best) for the next couple of days. I will be back weilding my mighty pen in full strength by Monday.

[My note: The author of this letter is an amazing America. You will always be welcome on my blog. ]

I have not been able to confirm the author of this letter

Written by a woman in New York. Think it echoes what most of us in New York

think and feel about the state of our country. After the letter was

published, the woman started receiving death threats.

Letter To The Red States:

Sorry, I try not to deluge people with my ramblings. But I had to write this

and, having written it, had to send it. Even though I don’t know anyone I

can send it to (without alienating my Republican in-laws, who are the only

“middle country” people I know.)

I am writing this letter to the people in the red states in the middle of

the country — the people who voted for George W. Bush. I am writing this

letter because I don’t think we know each other.

So I’ll make an introduction. I am a New Yorker who voted for John Kerry. I

used to live in California, and if I still lived there, I would vote for

Kerry. I used to live in Washington, DC, and if I still lived there, I would

vote for Kerry. Kerry won in all three of those regions.

Maybe you want to know more about me. Or maybe not; maybe you think you know

me already. You think I am some anti-American anarchist because I dislike

George W. Bush. You think that I am immoral and anti-family, because I

support women’s reproductive freedom and gay rights. You think that I am

dangerous, and even evil, because I do not abide by your religious beliefs.

Maybe you are content to think that, to write me off as a “liberal” — the

dreaded “L” word — and rejoice that your candidate has triumphed over evil,

immoral, anti-American, anti-family people like me. But maybe you are still

curious. So here goes: this is who I am.

I am a New Yorker. I was here, in my apartment downtown, on September 11th.

I watched the Towers burn from the roof of my building. I went inside so

that I couldn’t see them when they fell. I had friends who were inside. I

have a friend who still has nightmares about watching people jump and fall

from the Towers. He will never be the same. How many people like him do you

know? People that can’t sit in a restaurant without plotting an escape

route, in case it blows up?

I am a worker. I work across the street from the Citigroup Center, which the

government told us is a “target” of terrorism. Later, we found out they were

relaying very old information, but it was already too late. They had given

me bad dreams again. The subway stop near my office was crowded with

bomb-sniffing dogs, policemen in heavy protective gear, soldiers. Now, every

time I enter or exit my office, all of my possessions are X-rayed to make

sure I don’t have any weapons. How often are you stopped by a soldier with a

bomb-sniffing dog outside your office?

I am a neighbor. I have a neighbor who is a 9/11 widow. She has two

children. My husband does odd jobs for her now, like building bookshelves.

Things her husband should do. He uses her husband’s tools, and the two

little girls tell him, “Those are our daddy’s tools.” How many 9/11 widows

and orphans do you know? How often do you fill in for their dead loved ones?

I am a taxpayer. I worked my butt off to get where I did, and so did my

parents. My parents saved and borrowed and sent me to college. I worked my

way through graduate school. I won a full tuition scholarship to law school.

All for the privilege of working 2,600 hours last year. That works out to a

50 hour week, every week, without any vacation days at all. I get to work by

9 am and rarely leave before 9 pm. I eat dinner at my office much more often

than I eat dinner at home. My husband and I paid over $70,000 in federal

income tax last year. At some point in the future, we will have to pay much

more — once this country faces its deficit and the impossible burden of

Social Security. In fact, the areas of the country that supported Kerry —

New York, California, Illinois, Massachusetts — they are the financial

centers of the nation. They are the tax base of this country. How much did

you pay, Kansas? How much did you contribute to this government you support,

Alabama? How much of this war in Iraq did you pay for?

I am a liberal. The funny part is, liberals have this reputation for living

in Never-Neverland, being idealists, not being sensible. But let me tell you

how I see the world: I see America as one nation in a world of nations.

Therefore, I think we should try to get along with other nations. I see that

gay people exist. Therefore, I think they should be allowed to exist, and be

treated the same as other people. I see ways in which women are not allowed

to control their own bodies. Therefore, I think we should give women more

control over their bodies. I see that people have awful diseases. Therefore,

I think we should enable scientists to try to cure them. I see that we have

a Constitution. Therefore, I think it should be upheld. I see that there

were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Therefore, I think that Iraq

was not an imminent danger to me. It seems so pragmatic to me. How do you

see the world? Do you really think voting against gay marriage will keep

people from being gay? Would you really prefer that people continue to die

from Parkinson’s disease? Do you really not care about the Constitutional

rights of political detainees? Would you really have supported the war if

you knew the truth, or would you have wanted to spend more of our money on

health care, job training, terrorism preparedness?

I am an American. I have an American flag flying outside my home. I love my

home more than anything. I love that I grew up right outside New York City.

I first went to the Statue of Liberty with my 5th grade class, and my mom

and dad took me to the Empire State Building when I was 8. I love taking the

subway to Yankee Stadium. I loved living in Washington DC and going on dates

to the Lincoln Memorial. It is because I love this country so much that I

argue with my political opponents as much I do.

I am not safe. I never feel safe. My in-laws live in a small town in Ohio,

and that town has received more federal funding, per capita, for terrorism

preparedness than New York City has. I take subways and buses every day. I

work in a skyscraper across the street from a “target.” I have emergency

supplies and a spare pair of sneakers in my desk, in case something happens

while I’m at work. Do you? How many times a month do you worry that your

subway is going to blow up? When you hear sirens on the street, do you run

to the window to make sure everything is okay? When you hear an airplane, do

you flinch? Do you dread beautiful, blue-skied September days? I don’t know

a single New Yorker who doesn’t spend the month of September on tip-toes,

superstitiously praying for rain so we don’t have to relive that beautiful,

blue-skied day.

I am lonely. I feel that we, as a nation, have alienated all our friends and

further provoked our enemies. I feel unprotected. Most of all I feel

alienated from my fellow citizens, because I don’t understand what you are

thinking. You voted for a man who started a war in Iraq for no reason,

against the wishes of the entire world. You voted for a man whose lack of

foresight and inability to plan has led to massive insurgencies in Iraq,

where weapons are disappearing into the hands of terrorists. You voted for a

man who let Osama Bin Laden escape into the hills of Afghanistan so that he

could start that war in Iraq. You voted for a man who doesn’t want to let

people love who they want to love; doesn’t want to let doctors cure their

patients; doesn’t want to let women rule their destinies. I don’t understand

why you voted for this man. For me, it is not enough that he is personable;

it is not enough that he seems like one of the guys. Why did you vote for

him? Why did you elect a man that lied to us in order to convince us to go

to war? (Ten years ago you were incensed when our president lied about his

sex life; you thought it was an impeachable offense.) Why did you elect a

leader who thinks that strength cannot include diplomacy or international

cooperation? Why did you elect a man who did nothing except run away and hide

on September 11?

Most of all, I am terrified. I mean daily, I am afraid that I will not

survive this. I am afraid that I will lose my husband, that I will never

have children, that I will never grow old and watch the sunset in a backyard

of my own. I am afraid that my career — which should end with a triumphant

and good-natured roast at a retirement party in 2035 — will be cut short by

an attack on me and my colleagues, as we sit sending emails and making phone

calls one ordinary afternoon. Is your life at stake? Are you terrified?

I don’t think you are. I don’t think you realize what you have done. And if

anything happens to me or the people I love, I blame you. I wanted you to

know that.

“From what we get, we can make a living; what we give, however, makes a

life.” – Arthur Ashe