2008 Election -- Already Stolen With Supreme Court Assist?

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS
by Christine Bowman

From a BuzzFlash Interview, 5/17/07:

People ask me: Are they going to steal the 2008 election? No, they’ve already stolen the 2008 election. -- Greg Palast, author of Armed Madhouse

Investigative reporter Greg Palast broke the story in Florida in 2000 about the purge of so-called "felons" whose votes were denied. His book Armed Madhouse documents extensive voting problems in the U.S. elections of 2000 - 2006. The 2007 update of the book also includes a chapter called "Busted" on "voter ID" laws that make it easier for local election officials to hand elections to whomever they please.

Turns out the prescient Greg Palast was right on the money with his seemingly cynical projection. The Supreme Court of the United States has just intervened, once again, to make it harder to vote and be counted. They ruled Monday to uphold Indiana's new Voter ID law requiring that voters show a state-issued picture ID in order to vote.

As Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman of The Free Press note:

Voting rights activists have long argued that since photo ID can cost money, or may demand expensive trips to government agencies, the requirement constitutes a "poll tax." Taxes on the right to vote were used for a century to prevent blacks and others from voting in the south and elsewhere. They were specifically banned by the 24th Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1964.

Did the US Supreme Court Just Elect John McCain? (The Free Press)

There's much, much more in the full article. These two reporter/activists have been key players in the attempt to bring more legitimacy to our election processes.

With this new ruling, the Supreme Court has knee-capped the Democratic Party, which has been busy registering hundreds of thousands of new Democratic voters nationwide who want to participate in democracy in November 2008. It's deja vu all over again, of course, but voters can try to protect themselves. Palast offers a few suggestions (in addition to making sure you can produce a state-issued ID when voting, if your state demands one). Here's Greg Palast's advice:

l. Vote early if your state allows that, and bring someone with you to observe. Voting early means you'll have a chance to correct any problem and still have time to get counted.

2. Don't mail in your ballot. In 2004, Palast says, it's official that about 750,000 of mailed in absentee ballots were never counted.

3. "Register and Register and Register." If you think you are already registered, check anyway with your Secretary of State's website or call your County Board of Elections for confirmation.

Then register everyone in your family, all your friends, and lots of neighbors. Connect with Operation Push, the League of Women Voters, or your local party officials to do more volunteer voter registration.

Comment below, to share your own voting news and views.

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Partisan Supreme Court errs on strict voter ID laws (Atlanta Journal Constitution)

Did the US Supreme Court Just Elect John McCain? (The Free Press)

Armed Madhouse (by Greg Palast, Available from BuzzFlash)

Greg Palast, Author of Armed Madhouse, on How Rove May Have Already Stolen the 2008 Election (A BuzzFlash Interview 5/17/07)

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS

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That happens only in America.

The voting process itself is a fraud. What an outrage if countries like Russia or Cuba would use this kind of process. Ask yourself! Registering for a certain party? Voter Id = driving license? Primaries? What for? Easy solution: every American citizen should get an invitation to vote, no further ID would be neccessary if registering with the community you live in would be part of the law (they do it in Europe and their is no Id theft or not as much credit card fraud as in the US). Anything else is phony and just strange. We will see it again in November - long lines of people threatend by the US police (why do the act like facists?).

Greg Palast Quote and other referenced articles

How did Mr. Palast know last year how the Supreme Court would rule this year? Let's admit he could not. Unfortunately in the full quote from last year's interview Mr. Palast is quoted as suggesting that the 2008 election be swiped back by the Democrats. This indicates to me that he is willing to have the party engage in unlawful activities to win. Here I am using "swipe" in the regular meaning of take unlawfully. If he is willing to approve swiping, how can we believe he is telling us the truth? And wasn't he just pimping his new book version in last year's interview?...... The Detroit Free Press authors are clearly reprising their lawsuit in the press, and as such cannot really be considered reporters in the sense that reporters normally do not have a stake in the news articles they report....... The Atlanta Constitution editorial piece condemns the Supreme Court justices by casting aspersion on their gender, signaling a willingness to hate-the-other that makes the rest of Ms Tucker's argument harder to accept....... Lastly, the notion that there has been no voter fraud arising from persons misrepresenting themselves at polling places does not pass the snicker test. There is instead a long and well recounted tradition of just this sort of fraud in Chicago, home of Buzzflash....... In my opinion (do you think you already know it?) The Supremes had one of their usual balancing acts to perform, and did so. A different Supreme Court might have ruled another way. Given the unprecedented number of and percentage of undocumented immigrants in the country right now, to take action to restrict voting to people actually eligible to vote by law in not so incomprehensible. The solution IMHO is to get those people eligible to vote, get them some ID and get them registered...... Joe E

Election Fraud & Voter Fraud

The efforts expended to game the election system in the favor of one political party are deploreable in a supposed Democratic Republic. Using the judicial branch to commit election fraud and then have the audacity to divert the attention to voter fraud is deploreable. EVERY CITIZEN WHO HAS THE RIGHT TO VOTE SHOULD BE ABLE TO EXERCISE THAT RIGHT AND HAVE THE ASSURANCE THAT HIS OR HER VOTE WILL BE COUNTED AND BACKED UP WITH A PAPER TRAIL. We have come to a point in which a party knowing it cannot win legitimately and within the rules, will resort to illegitimate means also called CHEATING. One frightening thought is that all this could be moot if Bush declares martial law, suspends elections, and remains in office under the blanket of a national emergency.

Sounds like excuses are already being made for Obama's loss

Why shouldn't there be a voter's id? We have so many illegals in this nation, that something needs done. I now have to show my voter's card for identification prior to voting. So it has a photo id, what's the difference. This should have been done a long time ago. Face facts in this day and age the government knows everything about a person anyway. The states can assist the elderly in getting their voters ID. The states already assist them in getting to the polls to vote. It sounds like some need to set up who is to blame if Obama loses the election.

Soooooooo Far Off Base!

You couldn't be further off base. There are MANY Americans who don't have photo ID for one reason or another. My grandmother lives until the age of 90 without ever having one. She never learned to drive and so never felt a need. There are the poorer folks who don't drive because of the expense. Heck, I know people who were born and raised in NYC who don't have a drivers license and are just dandy about it. Voting is one the KEY elements to a democracy. If you don't have free elections then you certainly can't be called a democracy. As for getting the "elderly to the polls to vote", it isn't the STATES who get them to the polls, it's volunteers from particular candidates. Since people and organizations have already had charges pressed against them for registering voters, how do you think these same states are going to react to having volunteers taking those without ID to get theirs? It's a sad and pathetic political environment we live in these days in America. The day that our government RESTRICTS people from voting is outragious indeed. So much for progess. Instead, we're in a state of regression.

Neva, you silly twit!

The Supreme Court should have mandated that anyone can go to their local Post Office and "On Demand" get a free picture Identification card. If they had ruled in this manner, then their ruling would have been valid. Of course the Supreme Court is comprised of wealthy pompous jerks who long ago forgot that their sh&* also stinks!

Obama's Going To Win In November By A Landslide

"No matter what Reverend Wright said?" "No matter." "No matter they're out to steal the election?" "No matter." "Why is he going to win?" "We'll see to it." "How?" "By whatever nonviolent means are necessary." "And then what sort of world?" "It'll be up to us."

What country do you live in?

Get serious wrote: "To win this election, we must win it MASSIVELY, and be prepared to defend that win in the streets." .........Uh, yea, that's gonna happen.

You may be right

It probably won't happen, since November is SWEEPS month and there will be new episodes of LOST, AMERICAN IDOL, and DANCING WITH THE STARS.

I was not saying what I thought __WOULD__ happen, only what I said NEEDED to happen.

Get serious...

What are we talking about here? One, two, maybe five million Democratic voters who won't be able to vote for lack of I.D.? Another one, two, maybe five million who will be illegally caged? Another one, two or maybe five million more Democratic voters who will be otherwise tricked or whose votes will be stolen?

THAT'S STILL ONLY 15 MILLION VOTES THEY ARE GOING TO STEAL.

We should be able to win this election by 50 million votes and put them away for good.

It's time to play explosive and MASSIVE politics. The stakes are simple:

We win this election and begin to slowly restore our country, and eventually hold all these criminals accountable either in the courts or in history.

Or, we lose this election for lack of fighting and with it everything.

This is simple. (Not easy, but simple.)

The SCOTUS is NOT our friend, and this only the first of many partisan and unjust decisions they will make as "crooked refs" in a crooked and rigged game.

To win this election, we must win it MASSIVELY, and be prepared to defend that win in the streets.

get real

When IBM canceled its pension plan and retirement medical and left all IBM US employees with no retirement plan except cat food and a cardboard box it was only about one in a thousand that spoke out. Let's see 100 million dems at 1 per 1000 that is 100,000 dems in the streets. There will be more than enough space in the new concentration camps to "protectively hold" these "terrorists". Hail John McCain king of Israel and the US. Let the bombing commence.

What if the bombing starts early?

How is all this impacted if they bomb Iran BEFORE John McCain can be installed?