Today a handful of heroes will attempt to safeguard the voting process by standing up to those who oppose fair and transparent elections. In solidarity with our brothers and sisters fighting for democracy abroad, it is our patriotic duty to protect the integrity of the vote here in the United States.
CSPAN Historic Coverage 1PM EST:The Senators that stand up today will be heroes. For the others, there will be no 2006, or 2008 - the party's over. You're on candid camera. So save yourselves, Senators - oppose the electoral results from Florida, Nevada, New Mexico and Ohio. We are watching!
VIDEO - Fahrenheit 911 Joint session of the 2001 House of Representatives and Senate certified the election results, officially annointing George Bush as President. Read Michael Moore's open letter to the US Senate "Just One Senator":
"C'mon Senators! Especially you Democrats. Here is your one shining moment of courage. Will you allow the gavel to come down on our black members of Congress once again? Or will you stand up for their right to object?
We will all be watching."
Why contest the election? Short answer. Medium answer. Long answer. 45 reasons.
US Voting Integrity Project: HOW YOU CAN HELP
MSNBC - Keith Olbermann: More than a dozen representatives and half a dozen senators will formally challenge the Electoral College slate from Ohio. Senate signatory could be Barbara Boxer. Barbara Boxer: Wont confirm or deny that she will be signatory.
Associated Press, via Bradblog: 24 House Democrats urged colleagues via letter to challenge the Electoral votes. Some of the Representatives who signed the letter are John Conyers, Jr, Stephanie Tubbs Jones, Jesse Jackson, Jr., Maxine Waters, Lynn Woolsey, Bernard Sanders, Barbara Lee, and Barney Frank.
Where's Kerry? Senator Kerry is on a 13-day fact-finding trip through the Middle East. "Kerry arrived in Amman, Jordan, yesterday and has planned a hectic itinerary, with stops scheduled in Iraq, Kuwait, Syria, Egypt, Israel, and the West Bank." He did send me (and 3 million others) an email saying that "I will not be taking part in a formal protest of the Ohio electors."
So is Kerry protesting by not taking part, or is he not taking part in the formal protest? Such lovely ambigous phrasing!
Kerry Video here: "I am going to fight for national standards for federal elections. Standards that have both transparency and accountability in our voting systems. Its unacceptable, in the United States of America, that people still dont have full confidence in the integrity of the voting process."
Final Report on Ohio election problems "Preserving Democracy: What Went Wrong in Ohio?" by the House Judiciary Democrats. The report is the basis for Representative John Conyers (D-Mich) to contest the Ohio electoral results on Thursday.
"We have found numerous, serious election irregularities in the Ohio presidential election, which resulted in a significant disenfranchisement of voters. Cumulatively, these irregularities, which affected hundreds of thousand of votes and voters in Ohio, raise grave doubts regarding whether it can be said the Ohio electors selected on December 13, 2004, were chosen in a manner that conforms to Ohio law, let alone federal requirements and constitutional standards."
Media Whites Out Vote Fraud: Mainstream media - A conspiracy of silence. Jesse Jackson comments in the Chicago SunTimes.
What happens then? Can this change the election?
"Electors have already met in the various states to vote, but that vote will not be opened until Thursday, January 6th. If Conyers' protest is matched by the protest of at least one single senator, then the House and Senate retire to their respective chambers for a maximum of two hours to debate the legitimacy of the Ohio (and, possibly, other) electoral slates. After two hours, with a maximum of 5 minutes for any member to speak, a vote is taken. If both the House and the Senate vote by majority to sustain the challenge, then the presidential vote goes to the House of Representatives, where each state has a single vote.
Given that Republicans control both the House and Senate, and a majority of states were "red" in this past election, even if a senator joins Conyers it won't change the outcome of this election, unless between now and Thursday such massive, credible evidence of election-changing vote fraud is presented that even Republicans will agree that the election was stolen.
But - vitally - it will put the issues of vote fraud in America on the table in a way that even the mainstream media can no longer ignore. And it may lead to getting private, Republican-affiliated corporations out of handling our votes in secret, and to other electoral reforms such as IRV and public financing of elections."
As you recall from our ELECTIONS 2004 coverage, there were only a handful of blogs such as BradBlog and BE THE MEDIA that covered the extensive vote fraud in the 2004 US Presidential election. Corporate media blacked out coverage, and at the time, patriots like grandmother Bev Harris and the late, great Andy Stephenson of Black Box Voting were considered "tin-foil hat" conspiracy theorists.
1st annual American Patriot Awards!
