Amusing to see the loony left were whining about a stolen election before it even took place.

Democrats can't conceive of an honest election, because they'd never hold one themselves.

And Arkin's wrong. The majority of the military votes Republican. Not necessarily because they like Republicans, but because they recognize that the scat-flinging monkeycrats bring nothing to the table.

I appreciate the way you've presented the Military Times issue - but I'd like to say that the battle over Rumsfeld probably hasn't suppressed a badly-needed debate. The debate wouldn't have happened either way.
Maybe it will now, tho.

Will our votes matter....?

Stephanopouls and Dick Cheney this past Sunday:
http://www.abcnews.go.com/ThisWeek/story?id=2629168&page=3

STEPHANOPOULOS: It seems like the public has turned against it right now.

CHENEY: It may not be popular with the public. It doesn't matter in the sense that we have to continue the mission and do what we think it right, and that's exactly what we're doing. We're not running for office, we're doing what we think it right.

The man actually said it...are minister's permitted to say whuss? The man doesn't care about what we think anyway, well, they already proved that during and after the two previous general elections!

I suspect many soldiers serving today feel much the same way as my dad would have and vent thier feelings in a similar way.

Posted by: c l

We have a new breed of American today C1, I don't know if today's soldiers would conduct themselves as your dad once did; time brings about a change.

We have soldiers who write into this and other blogs, some write directly from the warzone; how do they have time to do that. I enjoyed Jim Lehrer on (NPR) Public Radio today, many Marines called in and shared their opinions. I understand how many of them have time to blog now, I heard it firsthand, oops!

I sense that the military is as divided as the public is over this so-called war, and it would appear that military men are eager to share their opinions.

Some soldiers got what they wanted, Bush and somebody to beat up.

Some soldiers went into the military for economic reasons.

The latter group it would appear are not as happy about the fact of being in a war.

Rumsfeld is happy with the generals, the generals are happy with Rumsfeld. The president will give the generals anything they ask for, but they don't ask for more men. Innocents are being slaughtered everyday in Iraq, so I don't give a rat's ass whether it's the generals or Rumsfeld who are incompetents or suckups.

You happiness with generals whose 'purity' prevents them from speaking out in times when their country has enabled and does not prevent carnage may be patriotic, but it's morally contemptible.

--exporting jobs. outsourcing, downsizing, selling American companies to internationals that move them overseas and give manufacturing jobs to the lowest bidders w/o healthcare or retirement options....--

I was watching the "Simpsons" last night and in this episode Mr. Burns decided to move the power plant to India. As he was making this announcement to the employees Lenny shouted "Does this mean are jobs are in jeapordy?". Mr. Burns answers "No no, your jobs are absolutely safe, they'll just be done by Indian workers making 5% of what I pay you." Later I was thinking about that statement and it made me realize that in the process of outsourcing, corporate execs really do not see the pain and harm they are causing this nation. We used to believe that this nation needed to remain self sufficient. Today we make only a fraction of the steel we use, few if any of the textiles we wear, and soon other valued skills will move overseas. If this nation ever had to fight another world war, our sources of overseas resources and jobs could possibly be cut off. The search for profits has replaced the search for security and prosperity by our nations execs. We can vote out politicians who we disagree with but what can we do about these companies and execs who put profits before country? I'm not saying we should bring all jobs home, just that we need, as a nation, to consider the ramifications of moving our jobs and thus our skills overseas. Just imagine if we stopped growing our own food because it can be grown cheaper overseas. The security implications of that would be easily understood. Its time for this nation through its elected officials to do a study of the effects of exporting jobs and skills overseas and put in place subsidies and other incentives to keep jobs and skills that are of national concern here in America. Its also time for we as Americans to target certain companies that put profit before patriotism and boycott their goods. Anyone have a link to a good site that is compiling this sort of information?

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HOW THEY STOLE THE MID-TERM ELECTION

by Greg Palast
for The Guardian (UK), Comment
Monday November 6, 2006

Here's how the 2006 mid-term election was stolen.

Note the past tense. And I'm not kidding.

And shoot me for saying this, but it won't be stolen by jerking with the touch-screen machines (though they'll do their nasty part). While progressives panic over the viral spread of suspect computer black boxes, the Karl Rove-bots have been tunneling into the vote vaults through entirely different means.

For six years now, our investigations team, at first on assignment for BBC TV and the Guardian, has been digging into the nitty-gritty of the gaming of US elections. We've found that November 7, 2006 is a day that will live in infamy. Four and a half million votes have been shoplifted. Here's how they'll do it, in three easy steps:

Theft #1: Registrations gone with the wind.

On January 1, 2006, while America slept off New Year's Eve hangovers, a new federal law crept out of the swamps that has devoured 1.9 million votes, overwhelmingly those of African-Americans and Hispanics. The vote-snatching statute is a cankerous codicil slipped into the 2002 Help America Vote Act -- strategically timed to go into effect in this mid-term year. It requires every state to reject new would-be voters whose identity can't be verified against a state verification database.

Sounds arcane and not too threatening. But look at the numbers and you won't feel so fine. About 24.3 million Americans attempt to register or re-register each year. The New York University Law School's Brennan Center told me that, under the new law, Republican Secretaries of State began the year by blocking about one in three new voters.

How? To begin with, Mr. Bush's Social Security Administration has failed to verify 47% of registrants. After appeals and new attempts to register, US Elections Assistance Agency statistics indicate 1.9 million would-be voters will still find themselves barred from the ballot on Tuesday.

But don't worry: those holding passports from their ski vacations to Switzerland are doing just fine. And that's the point. It's not the number of voters rejected, it's their color. For example, California's Republican Secretary of State Bruce McPherson figured out how to block 40% of registrants, mostly Hispanics. In a rare counter-move, Los Angeles, with a Hispanic mayor, contacted these citizens, "verified" them and got almost every single one back on the rolls. But throughout the rest of the West, new Hispanics remain victims of the "José Crow" treatment.

In hotly contested Ohio, Kenneth Blackwell, Secretary of State and the Republican's candidate for Governor, remains voter-rejection champ -- partly by keeping the rejection criteria a complete secret.

Theft #2: Turned Away - the ID game

A legion of pimple-faced Republicans with Blackberries loaded with lists of new voters is assigned to challenge citizens in heavily Black and Hispanic(i.e. Democratic) precincts to demand photo ID that perfectly matches registration data.

Sounds benign, but it's not. The federal HAVA law and complex new ID requirements in states like New Mexico will easily allow the GOP squads to triple the number of voters turned away. Rather than deny using these voter suppression tactics, Republican spokesmen are claiming they are "protecting the integrity of the vote."

I've heard that before. In 2004, we got our hands on fifty confidential internal memos from the files of the Republican National Committee. Attached to these were some pretty strange spreadsheets. They called them "caging lists" -- and it wasn't about zoo feeding times. They were lists (70,000 for Florida alone) of new Black and Jewish voters -- a very Democratic demographic -- to challenge on Election Day. The GOP did so with a vengeance: In 2004, for the first time in half a century, more than 3.5 million voters were challenged on Election Day. Worse, nearly half lost their vote: 300,000 were turned away for wrong ID; 1.1 million were allowed a "provisional" ballot -- which was then simply tossed out.

Tomorrow, new federal ID requirements and a dozen new state show-me-your-ID laws will permit the GOP challenge campaign to triple their 300,000 record to nearly one million voters blocked.

Theft #3: Votes Spoiled Rotten

The nasty little secret of US elections is that three million ballots are cast in national elections but not counted -- 3,600,380 not counted in 2004 according to US Election Commission stats. These are votes lost because a punch card didn't punch (its chad got "hung"), a stray mark voided a paper ballot and other machinery glitches.

Officials call it "spoilage." I call it, "inaugurating Republicans." Why? According to statisticians working with the US Civil Rights Commission, the chance your vote will "spoil" this way is 900% higher for Black folk and 500% higher for Hispanics than for white voters. When we do the arithmetic, we find that well over half of all votes spoiled or "blank" are cast by voters of color. On balance, this spoilage game produces a million-vote edge for the GOP.

That's where the Black Boxes come into play. Forget about Karl Rove messing with the software to change your vote. Rather, the big losses occur when computers crash, fail to start or simply don't respond to your touch. They are the new spoilage machines of choice with, statistically, the same racial bias as the old vote-snatching lever machines. (Funny, but paper ballots with in-precinct scanners don't go rotten on Black voters. Maybe that's why Republican Secretaries of State have installed so few of them.)

So Let's Add it Up

Two million legitimate voters will be turned away because of wrongly rejected or purged registrations.

Add another one million voters challenged and turned away for "improper ID."

Then add yet another million for Democratic votes "spoiled" by busted black boxes and by bad ballots.

And let's not forget to include the one million "provisional" ballots which will never get counted. Based on the experience of 2004, we know that, overwhelmingly, minority voters are the ones shunted to these baloney ballots.

And there's one more group of votes that won't be counted: absentee ballots challenged and discarded. Elections Assistance Agency data tell us a half million of these absentee votes will go down the drain.

Driving this massive suppression of the vote are sophisticated challenge operations. And here I must note that the Democrats have no national challenge campaign. That's morally laudable; electorally suicidal.

Add it all up -- all those Democratic-leaning votes rejected, barred and spoiled -- and the Republican Party begins Election Day with a 4.5 million-vote thumb on the vote-tally scale.

So, what are you going to do about it? May I suggest you ... steal back your vote.

It's true you can't win with 51% of the vote anymore. So just get over it. The regime's sneak attack via vote suppression will only net them 4.5 million votes, about 5% of the total. You should be able to beat that blindfolded. If you can't get 55%, then you're just a bunch of crybaby pussycats who don't deserve to win back America.

********
Greg Palast is the author of the New York Times bestseller, "ARMED MADHOUSE."

For specific advice on How to Steal Back Your Vote, go to http://www.gregpalast.com/steal-back-your-vote

Catch Greg Palast on Election Night on the new Mike Malloy Show on many Air America affiliates.

how can the country heal when the preemptive actions of this current corrupt government include spewing hatred out as a way of directing the populations decisions as they destroy the citizens from within?

exporting jobs.

outsourcing, downsizing, selling American companies to internationals that move them overseas and give manufacturing jobs to the lowest bidders w/o healthcare or retirement options....

importing managers from foreign countries into the United States at 2/3 salary of a US manager and move the US manager a couple of time until they quit....

the current corrupt govnernment was built on hatred and polarization....

making liberal the same kinda swear word as negrah, homo sexxuah, wimmens libbahs, unionists, muck rakers....and dickinsonians....

your president, corrupt executive branch and complicit congress have moved us back into pre child labor union law mentality and destroyed the middle class....

Leave It To Beaver and I Love Lucy are dead....

and so are your hopes and dreams if you don't punt these losers through the goal posts of life.

My dad joined the Army as an underaged soldier in WWII, fought in Korea and Vietnam and retired as a Command Sgt. Major. He so strongly believed that those in uniform should steer clear of politics that he did not even vote until he retired. He did have opinions, though, and did not hesitate to share them with his family and fellow soldiers. I know how he would have felt about the present situation and am relieved that he is no longer here to see his beloved Army commanded with such dazzling incompetence. He would not have shared his thoughts with "civilians", but he'd have had plenty to say about our Secretary of Defense. I suspect many soldiers serving today feel much the same way as my dad would have and vent thier feelings in a similar way.

We can expect subterfuge, lying, law breaking and a "whatever it takes to get the job done" mentality from the Bush adminstration.

Sully,

You are correct, however, someone has to take the high ground and try to bring about meaningful change, and bring civility back to America.

I am all for a new Party in America that will reflect the diversity in the nation, but in the interim all I can do is hope that the Democrats, if they acede to power will take the country into a different direction.

You all love to hear yourselves talk. That's all I have to say after reading these comments. That's it.

Kate,

Perhaps you simply don't have anything to say then, however, what we are engaging in is referred to as civil discourse in written form; we can't actually hear each other. For some of us, civil discourse is the the preferred method. I learn a lot from reading and hearing what other think or believe.

And what are you doing, given that innocent people are being wounded, maimed and slaughtered on a daily basis in another part of the world as a result of the actions of our government?

Have you registered anyone to vote? Have you done anything to try to sway America's agenda or the President? He has heard from me on several occasions; however, as Dick Cheney stated yesterday, my opinion really does not matter to them.

Pretty sad in a Representative form of Government isn't it? So what do you want, revolution?

You all love to hear yourselves talk. That's all I have to say after reading these comments. That's it.

Rev wrote:
--Factually, I hope that if the Democrats can wrest power away from the Republicans, that they will take the high ground and put the needs of the ones who are dying needlessly and the nation first.--

It should also be remembered that the republicans under Reagan handled a democratic Congress that prohibited funding of the Nicaraguan contras by breaking laws and selling Iran missles and the money for those missles going to the contras (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran-Contra_Affair). Ask Ollie North, he broke laws and is proud of it. That is the mentality America will be facing when the republicans loose congress. We can expect subterfuge, lying, law breaking and a "whatever it takes to get the job done" mentality from the Bush adminstration.

Presidence demands that Congress, the media and the American public keep their eyes open and keep this administration as honest as we can. They have already proven they are prepared to break laws (e.g., FISA) even with a republican congress. We should not expect them to be humbled by a democratic Congress, just more emboldened to break even more laws.

As for the Military Times editorial, its about time they caught up with the rest of us who have been saying from the beginning that Rummy was a bad secdef. Consider that there is little new evidence since 2004. So where is all of this new criticism coming from? The only thing I can think of is that those who gave Bush and Rummy the benefit of the doubt have seen mistakes compounded and continued to the point where what dawned on me the day I saw mass looting in Baghdad has finally dawned on those who backed Bush. We all can accept a mistake or two, and even see that mistake take time to be corrected. But when a mistake is pointed to as progress, as victory and a reason to continue the mistake, that's when people will finally saw enough is enough, especially when lives are being lost to maintain the mistake. I guess Bush saying that Rummy was to stay til the end did it for them. It seems to me that many in the military are coming to the same conclusion Kerry came to in Vietnam when he asked how you can ask someone to be the last soldier to die for a mistake.

Many of these generals and admirals -- thank God -- believe that it isn't their place, nor should it be, for them to speak out on political issues. Even after retirement...

Where's Colin Powell?

I would suspect that many of the top brass in the military knew and respected Colin Powell. Certainly, they must have learned by watching how the Administration treated him and just what the Administration thought about military leaders who did not share their opinions.

If that alone was not enough, certainly the military brass must have observed in the past, regardless of stripe, how this Administration went after Senator McCain and Senator Kerry in previous elections; these folks really do not have any respect for military people. I suspect that the real reason that so many kept quiet while innocent people continued to be slaughtered in Iraq had more to do with saving their own hides, not because it was not their place to speak up.

No one in Bush's Administration is qualified to lead the so-called war on terrorism, just ask Richard Perle one of the former architects of the pre-9/11 plan for regime change in Iraq; today he is also criticizing the Bush Administration's bungling of the war. I suppose that if those competent individuals were still around who knew better, it would reflect very poorly on Bush and company.

Besides, Bush prefers consulting with a man who lost his war, Henry Kissinger. Losers stick together!

DC,

Here is the link that you requested for the discussion between George Stephanopouls and Dick Cheney yesterday: http://www.abcnews.go.com/ThisWeek/story?id=2629168&page=3

STEPHANOPOULOS: It seems like the public has turned against it right now.

CHENEY: It may not be popular with the public. It doesn't matter in the sense that we have to continue the mission and do what we think it right, and that's exactly what we're doing. We're not running for office, we're doing what we think it right.

DC

With regard to impeachment, I am on the fence. I want Bush and company out so that the killing can stop, on the other hand I want the country to heal.

Factually, I hope that if the Democrats can wrest power away from the Republicans, that they will take the high ground and put the needs of the ones who are dying needlessly and the nation first.

What a conundrum?

DC,

Here is the link that you requested for the discussion between George Stephanopouls and Dick Cheney yesterday: http://www.abcnews.go.com/ThisWeek/story?id=2629168&page=3

STEPHANOPOULOS: It seems like the public has turned against it right now.

CHENEY: It may not be popular with the public. It doesn't matter in the sense that we have to continue the mission and do what we think it right, and that's exactly what we're doing. We're not running for office, we're doing what we think it right.

With regard to impeachment, I am on the fence. I want Bush and company out so that the killing can stop, on the other hand I want the country to heal.

Factually, I hope that if the Democrats can wrest power away from the Republicans, that they will take the high ground and put the needs of the ones who are dying needlessly and the nation first.

What a conundrum?

Mr Arkin, I am non-military but my oldest son's best friend has just started his second tour in Iraq and during his first tour I read the Army Times everyday. They have been way out in front of the American public as far as surveys and editorials go.
You should read it.
As far as the rebellion of the mostly generals go, you mention thousands of admirals and generals are not saying anything. They did not serve with Rumsfeld. Hello, your Kerry-Hater slip is showing.

The military doesn't worry me! It's the stupidity of Rumsfeld and the Bush administration that has given me sleepless nights. These people are incompetent. The idea of Rumsfeld micromanging military campaigns is ludicrous. They are preoccupied with fighting a war cheaply. The military code word for competiveness and productivity is "Modernization". People are dying, but the wealthy will have their tax breaks, and Corporations will get their welfare through defense contracts and hurricane relief.

ELECTION ALARM!! SPREAD THE WORD!!

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http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/message/index.php?messageDate=2006-11-06

The Race Between the Right Wing and the Right Thing ...a message from Michael Moore

Friends,

Tomorrow night, those who sent 2,800 of our soldiers to their deaths -- all because of a lie the president concocted -- will find out if America chooses to reward them -- or remove them.

As good as things look for the Democrats, do not pop the corks and start the partying yet. Do not believe for a second that the Republicans plan on losing. They will fight like dogs for the next 24 hours -- relentless, unforgiving, nonstop action to squeeze every last conservative voter out of the house on election day. While the rest of us go about our day today, tens of thousands of Republican volunteers are knocking on doors, making phone calls, and lining up rides to the polls. They're not sleeping, they're not eating, they're not even watching Fox News. A day without Fox News? That's right, that's how insanely dedicated they are.

But the reason they have to work so hard is that, before they can get the vote out, they first have to completely turn around the massive public opinion against them. Almost 60% disapprove of Bush. Over 60% are opposed to the war. Those are landslide numbers. And the American people are not going to turn pro-war or into Bush-lovers by tomorrow morning. So it should be easy for us, right?

Yup. Just like it was when we won the popular vote in 2000 and when we were ahead in the exit polls all day long in 2004. You know the deal -- the other side takes no prisoners. And just when it seems like things are going our way, the Republicans suddenly, mysteriously win the election.

Well, it's not really that mysterious. They're out there busting their asses this very minute, right down the street from you. What are YOU doing? You're on a computer reading my cranky letter! Stop reading this! We have only a few hours left to wrestle control of the Congress away from these "representatives" who, if returned, will continue shipping our young men and women over there to die.

Here's what I'm imploring you to do right now:

1. Go through your address book on your cell phone and computer and call/e-mail everyone you know. Tell them how much it would mean to you if they vote on Tuesday. If they don't know where to vote, help them find their polling place.

2. Contact MoveOn.org ASAP. They will connect you to the folks who need you to make calls.

3. Contact your local Democratic Party headquarters. There are close races in nearly every state. They'll put you to work -- on the ground or on the phones. Or go to the local HQ for the Dem candidate running for the House of Representatives or the U.S. Senate and say, "Put me to work!"

OK, turn off the computer -- and I will, too. There's serious work to do. The good news? There's more of us than there are of them. Let's prove that, once and for all.

Is there anything more important that you have to do today? Nothing less than the rest of the world is depending on us.

Yours,
Michael Moore
www.michaelmoore.com
mmflint@aol.com

Rev,

Cheney stated that constitutionally he and Bush can not be subpoenaed by an equal branch of government. Richard Nixon used the same strategy, that's why they have to be impeached first. Congress can ask them to testify under oath and they have the right to refuse, if they refuse they can be impeached and lose their constitutional rights as Pres. and VP. Unlike Cheney, I'm not so sure how far these rights extend down in the cabinet. Is it only the Presidents constitutional right to refuse subpoena and no one else in the cabinet? Also to impeach, many Republicans would have to support it, not just a simple majority of Democrats.

Rev,

Do you have the link to "This Week"?

Hopefully Rumsfeld and the administration will hear the message from the electorate.

Mr. Arkin,

Cheney made it clear on the news talk show 'This Week' yesterday, that with regard to Iraq,it does not matter what the public thinks or believes, the Administration is marching on.

Since Mr. Rumsfeld is a part of the Administration, apparently Mr. Cheney was also referring to Mr. Rumsfeld, we will have to wait and see.

If anyone doesn't believe me, get the transcripts...Cheney actually made it clear that public opinion does not matter when it comes to Iraq!