Thursday, November 04, 2004

1:59:22 PM    comment [] Thomas Frank, the author of What's the Matter with Kansas, was interviewed on Air America Radio this morning and explained better than I could have done how Bush won the election.  He is a one-time Republican and native Kansan who recognized the Karl Rove strategy very early. Most of middle America can be counted upon to be a "red" state in any election, even though they are voting against their own interests.  The Republican Party benefits the wealthy and powerful at the great expense of the average worker.  The 2000 election showed that the country was pretty much split 50-50.  How could Bush tip the balance in his favor?  The Republicans, knowing that Bush would not win on his abysmal record on everything, decided to focus on its conservative base.  Karl Rove announced this policy at the Republican National Convention, but had actually been working on this strategy since 2000. The Republican strategy to win another 4 years used dirty tricks, fear, lies and smear and fraud.  A recent study by PIPA (Program on International Policy Attitudes) shows that many Americans still believe Saddam Hussein was responsible for 9/11 and don’t know Bush’s real positions on many issues—when asked if they agreed with a particular position without being told who held it, most people thought that they were agreeing with Bush while they actually were agreeing with Kerry.   The main strategy, however, was playing up the emotional touchstones of social conservatism and spreading hysteria about a liberal agenda out to crush traditional values.  Over 20% of voters said that they voted based on "moral issues", a code word for anti-abortion, anti-gay rights and other socially conservative causes.  Moral values was never really discussed until some questions were brought up in the debates.  Democrats did not realize that, behind the scenes, evangelicals and conservative Catholics were being told in targeted campaign literature/ads and from the pulpits that Kerry was pro-abortion, a President Kerry would ban the bible, Kerry endorsed gay marriage and other outright lies.  Bush steered away from addressing moral values and publicly used the war on terror as his strength, but Rove and Associates were working the conservative Christians over with Bush's "morality".  The proposed amendments against flag burning and gay marriage were just organized smokescreens to appeal to social conservatives and put Kerry in the uncomfortable position of either not defending the Constitution or looking like a pinko liberal—what a Sophie’s choice.  Attack ads targeted for the battleground states and not seen in the metropolitan area appealed to the lowest base element, such as a vote for the democrat would mean an abortion mill in the local Wal-Mart or the democrat is in favor of partial birth abortions.  So, the pro-life blue collar worker who listens to Rush, Hannity and Fox News will repeatedly vote for the party that is less likely to protect his safety, job, economy and family.  He doesn't understand that he is being used.  Bush had 4 years of Republican control to make changes if he had really wanted to.  All he really wanted was to get the far right conservatives to get out the vote for him.  Now that he got it, he can go back to his real priorities--more greed and profit for the corporations and the wealthy.  One of the best ways to do it is on the backs of the volunteer army (poor and/or minority soldiers and National Guard members who were forced from decent to well paying jobs) that were sent to Iraq for oil and corporate profiteering.  Osama who? What makes this election even more disturbing is the complicity of the media.  Even now, we are told that continuing the battle would be bad for the country, to stop whining, it's just sour grapes from the losing side, Bush won fair and square.  NO HE DIDN'T AND THE MEDIA DOESN'T GET IT.  Besides dirty tricks, lying to the public, intimidation and voter suppression in democratic areas, the Republicans were successful in getting electronic voting machines with no paper trail to be used in many states including Ohio and Florida.  Ohio is home to Walden "Wally" O'Dell, the chairman of the board and chief executive of Diebold. As reported by Mother Jones in March 2004, O'Dell has given generously to Republican candidates for many years. Last September, he held a packed $1,000-per-head GOP fundraiser at his 10,800-square-foot mansion. He has been feted as a guest at President Bush's Texas ranch, joining a cadre of "Pioneers and Rangers" who have pledged to raise more than $100,000 for the Bush reelection campaign. Most memorably, O'Dell last fall penned a letter pledging his commitment "to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the President."  Omaha-based ES&S is the largest electronic voting machine company.  Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel was Chairman of ES&S when he announced his candidacy for the Senate in 1996.  Nebraska elections officials stated that machines made by Hagel's "former" company probably tallied 85 percent of the votes cast in the race.  Hagel won again in 2002, and that vote is still angrily disputed by Hagel's Democratic opponent, whose request that state elections officials conduct a hand recount of the vote was rebuffed.  BlackBoxVoting.org is an independent, non-partisan and non-profit 501(c)(3) organization that is conducting the largest Freedom of Information action in history.  At 8:30 p.m. Election Night, Black Box Voting blanketed the U.S. with the first in a series of public records requests, to obtain internal computer logs and other documents from 3,000 individual counties and townships. Networks called the election before anyone bothered to perform even the most rudimentary audit.  An earlier FOIL by Black Box Voting following a primary election in Washington State uncovered an internal audit log containing a three-hour deletion on election night; “trouble slips” revealing suspicious modem activity; and profound problems with security, including accidental disclosure of critically sensitive remote access information to poll workers, office personnel, and even, in a shocking blunder, to Black Box Voting activists. The mainstream media did not do its job is getting out the truth.  It was left up to the progressive journalists, bloggers and Air America Radio.  Unfortunately, more people watch CNN and Fox News.  The media was a major factor in Bush's election victory. How will the boy in the bubble who always had poppy or rich connections to fix his many screw-ups clean up his many new messes?  How will we take back our country? 12:08:26 PM    comment []

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