Dear Howard Dean: Why Bother?

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Thu, 15 Dec 2005 05:59:55 -0800 (PST)

Dear Howard Dean: Why Bother?

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.crisispapers.org/essays-p/dean.htm

 

 

 

Dear Howard Dean: Why Bother?

 

Ernest Partridge, Co-Editor

The Crisis Papers

December 13, 2005

 

Dr. Howard Dean, Chair

Democratic National Committee

 

Dear Dr. Dean,

 

Every week I get dozens of solicitations from the

Democratic National Committee, from the Democratic Senate

and Congressional Campaign Committees, or from various

Democratic candidates and office-holders, each of them

asking for contributions. " You can help us achieve victory

next November, " I am told.

 

If by " victory " is meant a majority vote cast at the polls,

then the Democrats achieved " victory " in 2000, 2002 and 2004.

And yet, the Republicans remain in control

of the Congress and the White House.

 

Small wonder!

Republicans build the voting machines,

Republicans write the secret software,

Republicans count and compile the totals.

The Republican machines allow no auditing

of the vote totals they report.

So Republicans have the ability to " win " elections,

regardless of the will of the voters. There is

compelling evidence that they have done just that.

 

And so, if nothing is done to end the privatization

of our elections and to introduce reliable verification,the

Republicans will " win " again in November 06' and then in 08'.

Today, eleven months before the mid-term election,

the outcome is fore-ordained – as certain as Soviet

elections under Stalin, and Iraqi elections under Saddam.

 

For, as Stalin said,

" Those who cast the votes decide nothing,

those who count the votes decide everything. "

 

In the United States today, the GOP counts most of the votes,

and there are no means to verify up to 80% of those votes.

 

In view of this dreadful situation, when the Democrats

ask me for a contribution I must reply: " What's the point?

It's already been settled! What remains is an empty charade. "

 

The evidence of election fraud is overwhelming. You,

Dr. Dean, are doubtless as aware of that evidence as I am.

In fact, along with millions of fellow citizens,

I watched the video clip of you sitting at a table with

Bev Harris, as she simulated with a computer,

in just a few seconds, a " fix " of an election.

 

If I were to elaborate the evidence of fraud, space

restraints would force me to halt after I had scarcely begun,

and I would never get to other issues I wish to discuss

in this letter. Suffice it to say that several independent

statistical analyses have put the probability

of an honest 2004 election as one in several million.

 

The thirty-plus-point polling discrepancy in last month's

Ohio election reform initiatives are off the probability

scale – in effect, impossible as random error.

Attempts to explain away the 2004 exit poll errors

are risibly lame. (For example, the theory that

Republican voters were more reluctant to speak

to exit pollsters is supported by no independent evidence,

and fails to explain why this alleged phenomenon

was confined to districts with paperless e-voting machines,

and not found in paper-ballot districts).

 

Reports of machine failure and error during the 2004

election were overwhelmingly to the advantage of Bush/Cheney.

No one has come forth with a plausible explanation

of how Bush gained an additional eleven million votes

over his 2000 total. (For a " gateway " into the evidence

of voting fraud, see The Crisis Papers pages on

" Electoral Integrity " and " Election Fraud. " ).

 

The evidence of voting fraud and election theft is no secret

– it is out in the open for all to see who are willing to see.

In 2000, millions watched as Republican thugs, recruited

by Tom DeLay from Washington congressional offices,

stormed and shut down the voting recount in Miami.

The published text of the majority opinion in Bush v. Gore

that handed the 2000 election over to George Bush

is a self-refuting travesty. Books, articles and reports

by Steven Freeman, John Conyers' staff,

Fitrakis and Wasserman, Mark Crispin Miller,

and the Congressional Government Accountability Office,

to name just a few, all testify convincingly

to the vulnerability of the election process

and the illegitimacy of the election results.

 

Occasionally a virtual confession of guilt is blurted out

by a careless GOP operative. For example, as the votes

in the 2004 Presidential election were still being counted,

Republican Congressman Peter King was caught

on camera saying " It's all over but the counting.

And we'll take care of the counting. " (You can see it here).

 

There is no cogent rebuttal to this evidence of voting fraud:

there can't be, for the e-voting machines and compilers

have been designed to forbid rebuttal. The software

is secret and there is no independent record of the votes.

Accordingly, so-called " verification " is nothing more

than a re-run of the suspect tallies. Lacking substantive

evidence of the reliability of the voting and compiling

machines and software, all that remains for the defenders

of e-voting is a pathetic plea, " just trust us! "

 

That and ad hominem attacks on the skeptics:

" get over it!, " " sore losers, " " conspiracy theorists. "

The response of the mainstream media in the face of all this?

Total silence.

The response of the Democratic Party?

Total silence.

 

The response of the media and the Party to the GAO report

validating the concerns of the critics?

More silence.

Why!?

Admittedly, with total GOP control of the executive and

congressional branches in Washington, federal investigation

and legislation are, for the moment, out of the question.

But elections are administered on the state and municipal

levels where, in many cases, the Democrats are in control.

 

So I ask again:

Where are the criminal investigations?

Where are the civil lawsuits, e.g.,

by Max Cleland in Georgia, Walter Mondale in Minnesota,

Al Gore in Florida, John Kerry in Ohio?

Why is appropriate state-level legislation

not proposed and enacted by Democratic majorities?

 

Why is the national Democratic Party NOT Publicizing

the GAO report?

I am told that some Democratic politicians are concerned

that if the Party raises a ruckus about voting fraud,

the Democratic base will be discouraged

and will stay at home on election day.

 

Well, so what?

If the fix is in on election day, what difference

does it make whether or not the voters go to the polls?

Why bother to close the gate after the horse has been stolen?

We also hear that the crime of stealing a national election

is so enormous that the GOP wouldn't dare to attempt it.

 

Why would they not? Computer experts have shown us

that the theft of a national election can be carried out

by very few individuals: the programmers who write

the secret software and a few centralized hackers

working in " real time " as the returns start to come in.

We are also told that they can do this

without leaving any trace of their crimes.

 

Might the perpetrators be deterred by moral qualms

or loyalty to our political institutions?

Get Real!

We are speaking here of a pack of scoundrels

who have lied to the public in order to launch

an illegal war costing tens of thousands of innocent lives,

who have openly violated treaties and condoned war crimes,

who have suspended the civil liberties

guaranteed by the Bill of Rights,

who have absconded with the national treasury

and have put our children and their children

in permanent hock, who have sullied the good name

and reputation of the United States before the community

of nations. In the face of such manifest evil,

stolen elections are moral chump change.

 

And consider in addition the stakes faced by these traitors:

billions of dollars from the public treasury " appropriated "

into private accounts and massive tax breaks for Bush's

" haves and have-mores " while the rest of us face

an increased tax burden and a slash in public services.

 

And for many now in the Bush administration and in the

Congress, defeat in the 2006 and 2008 elections would bring

Congressional and Justice Department investigations and

indictments followed by hard time in the federal slammer.

 

In the face of all this, who can doubt that, if given

the opportunity, they would fix elections in order to keep

their ill-gotten booty and their immunity from prosecution?

And it is abundantly clear that they have this opportunity.

 

When the defenders of e-voting bother to respond

to these concerns, they are heard to demand:

" Where's the evidence of this alleged fraud? "

As noted above, we have the evidence, compelling at least,

and many believe, conclusive. But such demands

radically misconceive the correct burden of proof.

Private citizens and organizations should not have

to take upon themselves the obligation to prove

their franchise either secure or fraudulent.

The free citizens of an authentic democracy have the right

to a secure and verifiable vote, and it is the proper task

of the criminal justice system to secure that right.

 

So there you have it, Dr. Dean. A massive and ongoing crime

is being committed against our democracy

– a democracy which has now, in effect, been set aside

and shut down. A democracy which can only be restored

if we the people rise up and take it back.

 

Where, in this coming struggle, is the Democratic Party?

Is it an ally of the people

and a defender of our Constitution?

Or is it an accomplice to the crime?

The American people are entitled to an answer.

 

Continuing silence by the Democratic party is, in effect,

an answer. But it is not the answer to which

the free citizens of a democracy are entitled.

 

Respectfully,

 

Ernest Partridge, Ph.D,

Co-Editor, The Crisis Papers.

http://www.crisispapers.org

 

End

 

 

 

 

 

Shake off all the fears of servile prejudices,

under which weak minds are servilely crouched.

Fix reason firmly in her seat, and call on

her tribunal for every fact, every opinion.

Question with boldness even the existence of a God;

because, if there be one, he must

More Approve of the Homage of Reason than that

of Blindfolded Fear: ~ Thomas Jefferson

 

The corporate grip on opinion in the United States

is one of the wonders of the Western world.

No First World country has ever managed

to eliminate so entirely from its media

all objectivity - much less dissent ~ Gore Vidal

 

 

End