June 2, 2006

The BuzzFlash Mailbag

The opinions expressed in the Mailbag are not necessarily those of BuzzFlash. More reader opinion is at "Contributors." You can write to Mailbag at http://www.BuzzFlash.com/contact/mail.html. Guidelines for submissions are at BuzzFlash FAQ #18.

Subject: Thank You, Mr. Kennedy

For those of us "Tin Foil" hat people that have been claiming foul play in the 2004 election (not to mention the 2000 election), finally a detailed report from a reputable source appears.

Was the 2004 Election Stolen? (Robert F. Kennedy Jr./Rolling Stone)

I have been polled on the phone a couple of times asking what is the most important issue in the upcoming 2006 election. My answer has been election fraud, and it will be until it is fixed. Strangely enough the pollsters don't seem to find that answer on their list of prejudged problems that they read to me.

The most atrocious acts of political life cannot happen, or at least can be corrected, if the elections are fair. However when the "fix is in" as they say, the winning party has nothing to fear in what it does while in office, for it can just rig the next election to stay in power.

We can rant all we want to about the illegal acts of the Bush administration, but we are helpless to do anything about it as long as the election process is controlled by that very administration.

Fair and independent overseeing of the elections is the only answer. Otherwise 36% approval rating in the polls (or lower) can easily become 51% approval rating on election day.

There have been dubious practices by both parties for years in this country, the shining example of democracy for the world. The Democrats had their share of ballot box stuffing in places like New York and Chicago during in the 20th century.

But when the fate of the Presidency rests upon a close election, the U.S. should have the courage to call upon outside observers to make sure the elections are fair. Or, better yet, we should take a good close look at the entire process and make sure the necessary changes are made so that impartial people are in charge of every election from the President to the dog catcher, with verifiable ballots that can be used for a recount. What right minded American would use an ATM that did not give a printed account of his activity? I know I would not trust any bank to just make up any amount it wanted to, and then give me no way to dispute the transaction later on. But I guess we value our money more than our rights. Unfortunately, we will have little of either, if the current voting system stays in place.

A BuzzFlash Reader

Subject: War Resisters in Canada

Hi BuzzFlash:

I read this in my Canadian indy and thought that you may wish to know that so many of us in Canada are doing everything we can, including having these brave resisters speak openly and safely to spread their message, in a bid to have them remain in Canada. Send us your resisters, your radicals, and your oppressed, and we will do what we can to see they are cared for.

War, hunh, what is it good for? Peace!!

U.S. anti-war movement supports resisters (Rabble News)

Marie-France
Nanaimo, BC, Canada

Subject: Wal-Martians?

Scott, I will give you the edge for knowing much more about Wal-Mart than maybe the rest of us, living there.....but, I have to think back to my childhood...in a town of 1200....my town did not allow a Wal-Mart in...so, what did the poor folks do...they went to the town 5 miles away that did! I have a niece and nephew (married) who both work full time for Wal-Mart...they are managers...and they are not college graduates....so, they make a living...have benefits and health insurance. It is really hard for me, coming from a town the size of mine...where the average income at that time...was maybe 12,000 a year...and that includes the doctor and dentist. It is horrid in a small town.

The one thing we might all ask ourselves, with Wal-Mart in mind....is how many of the surviving owners...there are 6, I think... how many have done what Kenneth Lay and Jeff Skilling and Fastow did to the employees? Or how many like Cheney, still taking a check from Halliburton, gave away no bid contracts to a very questionable war?

Secondly, this year for the first time...someone beat them in income...Exxon/Mobil was the highest moneymaker anywhere. And so that involves our Vice president and likely our president. That to me is the sin.....Wal-Mart, no matter what anyone says....sells at the best price for those of us who lost our job the minute Bush took the office. Your regular drugs...aspirin, etc...even hair spray...are an average of 1.00 cheaper! I am not on the bandwagon for Wal-Mart....I just see so much worse in this world, especially in the past 6 years! Everyone I know, shops there...and I feel a little hypocritical bashing them...but, when I see the actions of a Cheney...or any of the Enron folks...I will be the first to suffer..and give them up! I have never in my life seen a Vice President list 8 million dollars a year as salary...you think he might be getting some from Halliburton?

Shirley ... St. Louis

Subject: The Axis of Evil

One down with two yet to go. Iraq was "easy," the powers that be haven't suffered one bit, but for more than twenty-four hundred of our best and brightest it's been lights out for all time yet to come, with the loved ones left behind receiving a personalized "We regret to inform you" from the commander-in-chief, by way of military personnel specially trained for delivering a shocker such as this.

And now stepping up to the plate, Iran. And, who'd believe it, the powers that be are using the same pitch as they did with Iraq:"Trust us. We'll pursue every opening before we give up on negotiations." But, fortunately for the rest of us, the advantage now shifts to us because we've just been through this BS and we know exactly what's coming next, "Sorry, nobody hates war more than yours truly, but, since negotiations have failed, what else can I do? So hi ho, hi ho, it's off to war we go."

So what do we do? We sound the alarm, spread the word and, at the same time, we figure out a way to prevent our country from making war upon Iran. Should be a slam-dunk, considering what we have on them now, their lies, their broken promises, the number of times, these past three years, that Taps has had to be played.

And last but not least, what about North Korea? Fortunately for us, no problema; we prevent an Iran war and out goes the axis of evil. Why? Because there'll be no wars no more (no need for designated demons. either), being that, in preventing an Iran war, we the people will have changed the world (that's what it's going to take), and nice going in advance.

A BuzzFlash Reader

Subject: Banning Gay Marriage

Marriage is a religious ceremony so why is the government even involved? How about no one gets married by the government?

Diesel
Cocoa, FL

Subject: Bush Attempts To Rescue His Low Poll Numbers By Screaming Gay
Marriage

As if we didn't already know there was absolutely NOTHING Bush won't do, except tell the truth.

So Monday will roll around and in order to try to bolster support for his sad, sad approval ratings he will again try to cultivate fear, hatred and intolerance by telling everyone what they already know about him ...THAT HE IS A HOMOPHOBIC BIGOT.

His announcement Monday to that effect should be a non news item, but in true toady form, the MSM will pick it up as the news of the day and run it straight into the ground.

The only thing that might possibly take some attention off his non news moment is if Natalie Holloway or the runaway bride make an entrance or another white chick going missing.

So here we have it, Bush pandering to the homophobic racists that worry way too much who everyone else is having sex with and who they want to marry than minding their own business and worrying about how this sad little mad man is systematically tearing up the Constitution, which he has referred to as "just a Goddam**d piece of paper" and his codpiece Gonzales deems "an outdated document."

The very sad thing is that Bush's poly to refocus America's attention away from his miserable lies, and illegal behavior and corruption to Gay Marriage will probably work.

You see, in Bush's little world the truth does not matter, only winning matters. He believes that he can repeat a lie often enough and have the MSM repeat the lies, until the public takes it as gospel.

Bush as a young boy used to insert fireworks in frogs and cats and set them off. You see most little boys that torture animals don't grow up to be president, they usually become serial killers. Food for thought.

And one final note: they call the Church congregation the "flock" for a reason. That reason is sheep never lead, they only follow.

So when Monday rolls, around you'll see a whole new effort to deny civil rights, and a brand new call to hate.

Mission accomplished.

An injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. -- Rev. Martin Luther King

KJ Lovell
Duncan

Quotes from famous historical figures can give us perspective, inspire us, educate us, and rouse us to action. So take a look at the following quotes, and see if they apply to our situation today.

http://georgewashington.blogspot.com/2006/06/quotes.html

A BuzzFlash Reader

Subject: Re Atrocities

We are hearing the same exact terms for Iraq as Vietnam atrocities: "isolated incident," "rogue soldiers," "just a few soldiers out of control." The US government and the US military brass said the My Lai massacre was "a few bad apples," even though the facts were the opposite.

Big surprise. The government lies.

Read this ...

Mike Ware of Ha skins, Ohio, a veteran of the Army's 101st Airborne Division who served in Vietnam during America's most controversial and divisive war, reacted to an ad in The Blade last week that promoted the series of articles that started on today's front page.

This series reveals for the first time anywhere that members of a platoon of American soldiers from the 101st known as Tiger Force slaughtered an untold number of Vietnamese civilians over a seven-month period in 1967.

After a 4 1/2 -year Army investigation concluded that at least 18 Tiger Force soldiers committed war crimes, the matter was dropped by the Army. The official files were buried in the Army's archives since 1975, and to this day military officials continue to withhold them from the public.

Mr. Ware called The Blade to ask about our series. "Why do you have to do this?"

That's a fair question, and one that other readers may be asking.

Why would we write about war crimes committed by American soldiers during an unpopular war 36 years ago? Why would we spend eight months researching records, interviewing more than 100 people, and travel to two provinces in Vietnam, and to California, Arizona, Washington state, Indiana, Washington, and several cities in Ohio and Michigan for this story?

This was a serious topic of discussion among Blade editors and the newspaper's publisher and editor-in-chief, John Robinson Block. One reason is that the public has a right to know that American soldiers committed atrocities and that our government kept them from the public. We would have been party to a cover-up if we had knowledge of these war crimes and did not publish the story.

Wrongdoing on this grand a scale is always significant. It is important to know what happened and why it happened because that's how a democracy functions. The people need to know what is being done in their name and who is responsible. [more]

EXECUTIVE EDITOR COMMENTARY: Massacre story needs to be told (October 20, 2003/Toledo Blade)

A BuzzFlash Reader

Subject: This is way too painful

Re Was the 2004 Election Stolen? (Robert F. Kennedy Jr./Rolling Stone)

One key paragraph:

But what is most anomalous about the irregularities in 2004 was their decidedly partisan bent: Almost without exception they hurt John Kerry and benefited George Bush. After carefully examining the evidence, I've become convinced that the president's party mounted a massive, coordinated campaign to subvert the will of the people in 2004. Across the country, Republican election officials and party stalwarts employed a wide range of illegal and unethical tactics to fix the election. A review of the available data reveals that in Ohio alone, at least 357,000 voters, the overwhelming majority of them Democratic, were prevented from casting ballots or did not have their votes counted in 2004 -- more than enough to shift the results of an election decided by 118,601 votes. In what may be the single most astounding fact from the election, one in every four Ohio citizens who registered to vote in 2004 showed up at the polls only to discover that they were not listed on the rolls, thanks to GOP efforts to stem the unprecedented flood of Democrats eager to cast ballots. And that doesn't even take into account the troubling evidence of outright fraud, which indicates that upwards of 80,000 votes for Kerry were counted instead for Bush. That alone is a swing of more than 160,000 votes -- enough to have put John Kerry in the White House.

A few more paragraphs:

As the last polling stations closed on the West Coast, exit polls showed Kerry ahead in ten of eleven battleground states -- including commanding leads in Ohio and Florida -- and winning by a million and a half votes nationally. The exit polls even showed Kerry breathing down Bush's neck in supposed GOP strongholds Virginia and North Carolina. Against these numbers, the statistical likelihood of Bush winning was less than one in 450,000. "Either the exit polls, by and large, are completely wrong," a Fox News analyst declared, "or George Bush loses."

But as the evening progressed, official tallies began to show implausible disparities -- as much as 9.5 percent -- with the exit polls. In ten of the eleven battleground states, the tallied margins departed from what the polls had predicted. In every case, the shift favored Bush. Based on exit polls, CNN had predicted Kerry defeating Bush in Ohio by a margin of 4.2 percentage points. Instead, election results showed Bush winning the state by 2.5 percent. Bush also tallied 6.5 percent more than the polls had predicted in Pennsylvania, and 4.9 percent more in Florida.

According to Steven F. Freeman, a visiting scholar at the University of Pennsylvania who specializes in research methodology, the odds against all three of those shifts occurring in concert are one in 660,000. "As much as we can say in sound science that something is impossible," he says, "it is impossible that the discrepancies between predicted and actual vote count in the three critical battleground states of the 2004 election could have been due to chance or random error."

Puzzled by the discrepancies, Freeman laboriously examined the raw polling data released by Edison/Mitofsky in January 2005. "I'm not even political -- I despise the Democrats," he says. "I'm a survey expert. I got into this because I was mystified about how the exit polls could have been so wrong." In his forthcoming book, Was the 2004 Presidential Election Stolen? Exit Polls, Election Fraud, and the Official Count, Freeman lays out a statistical analysis of the polls that is deeply troubling.

In its official postmortem report issued two months after the election, Edison/Mitofsky was unable to identify any flaw in its methodology -- so the pollsters, in essence, invented one for the electorate. According to Mitofsky, Bush partisans were simply disinclined to talk to exit pollsters on November 2nd -- displaying a heretofore unknown and undocumented aversion that skewed the polls in Kerry's favor by a margin of 6.5 percent nationwide.

Industry peers didn't buy it. John Zogby, one of the nation's leading pollsters, told me that Mitofsky's "reluctant responder" hypothesis is "preposterous." Even Mitofsky, in his official report, underscored the hollowness of his theory: "It is difficult to pinpoint precisely the reasons that, in general, Kerry voters were more likely to participate in the exit polls than Bush voters."

Now, thanks to careful examination of Mitofsky's own data by Freeman and a team of eight researchers, we can say conclusively that the theory is dead wrong. In fact it was Democrats, not Republicans, who were more disinclined to answer pollsters' questions on Election Day. In Bush strongholds, Freeman and the other researchers found that fifty-six percent of voters completed the exit survey -- compared to only fifty-three percent in Kerry strongholds. "The data presented to support the claim not only fails to substantiate it," observes Freeman, "but actually contradicts it."

What's more, Freeman found, the greatest disparities between exit polls and the official vote count came in Republican strongholds. In precincts where Bush received at least eighty percent of the vote, the exit polls were off by an average of ten percent. By contrast, in precincts where Kerry dominated by eighty percent or more, the exit polls were accurate to within three tenths of one percent -- a pattern that suggests Republican election officials stuffed the ballot box in Bush country.

"When you look at the numbers, there is a tremendous amount of data that supports the supposition of election fraud," concludes Freeman. "The discrepancies are higher in battleground states, higher where there were Republican governors, higher in states with greater proportions of African-American communities and higher in states where there were the most Election Day complaints. All these are strong indicators of fraud -- and yet this supposition has been utterly ignored by the press and, oddly, by the Democratic Party."

The evidence is especially strong in Ohio. In January, a team of mathematicians from the National Election Data Archive, a nonpartisan watchdog group, compared the state's exit polls against the certified vote count in each of the forty-nine precincts polled by Edison/Mitofsky. In twenty-two of those precincts -- nearly half of those polled -- they discovered results that differed widely from the official tally. Once again -- against all odds -- the widespread discrepancies were stacked massively in Bush's favor: In only two of the suspect twenty-two precincts did the disparity benefit Kerry. The wildest discrepancy came from the precinct Mitofsky numbered "27," in order to protect the anonymity of those surveyed. According to the exit poll, Kerry should have received sixty-seven percent of the vote in this precinct. Yet the certified tally gave him only thirty-eight percent. The statistical odds against such a variance are just shy of one in 3 billion.

A BuzzFlash Reader

Subject: Ship of State=Ship of Fools

If there is one thing I have learned in 62 years on this earth it is that no matter how I kick and scream the world is not going to be run my way. Good thing, too, considering some of the blunders I’ve made.

I have never subscribed to the idea that our elected officials should be “just one of the boys” (or girls either). I always hoped that they would be smarter than me. Better than me.

Being an Independent I observe Democrats with a jaundiced eye. Still I have come to the sad conclusion that once again I will vote for them because the Republicans are simply too bad to consider.

In the years that the Republicans have held a majority in Congress and the Senate they have bungled everything they touched and broken every promise they made with their “Contract With America.” They said if they didn’t follow that contract we should kick them out. They didn’t and we ought to.

With Republicans in charge in the White House, the Senate, and the House of Representatives we have the most dysfunctional government I can remember. Put up a big tent over Washington, start the music and hire a trapeze artist. We already elected the clowns.

If, like me, you find the Democrats only slightly more palatable then the Republicans, that is understandable. But take a look at the alternative.

Republicans have given us:

· An Attorney General who finds no problem with torture.

· A Secretary of State who is more loyal to her President than to her country and is one of those most responsible for the war in Iraq.

· A Secretary of Defense who can’t seem to get over his arrogance long enough to see that he has nearly destroyed the military he thought to improve.

· A Supreme Court Justice whose loyalty is to corporate America and not to the country he should serve. Sam Alito may have gotten on the Supreme Court, he will never belong there.

· A President who makes the country safer when he is riding his bike than when he is making decisions that affect the people he is supposed to serve.

Oh hell, you get the idea. No matter how bad the Democrats are, they are the only choice. We really could do better, how come we don’t?

Marjorie Swanson
Kenosha, Wisconsin

Subject: Feds to city: drop dead - Homeland honcho cuts funds by 40% (NY Daily News)

A Homeland Security spokesman insisted New York's cut was based on a powerful new matrix that crunches millions of bits of data to figure out where money is most needed.

"We're quite frankly getting highly sophisticated in our ability to analyze threat," said Russ Knocked.

Highly sophisticated in their ability to analyze threat? Do you have to be a rocket scientist to figure out the most threatened places in the US? Let's just make it easy - if you're Blue, you're in trouble. That's the highly sophisticated reasoning they're using to figure out where money is most needed. I'm not surprised though. I would expect nothing else from this administration. Makes you feel all warm and fuzzy.

Every day it's a new atrocity and they're getting worse and worse. Are there actually people out there who don't realize how dangerous these people are? Oh, what a stupid question.

Chertoff - go Cheney yourself.

Barbara in NYC

Subject: Bush Cuts Anti-Terrorism Funds

On 9-11 New York and Washington were attacked by terrorists. Now Bush has decided to cut anti-terrorism funding by 40% for those two cities. I guess that we need to make sacrifices in our homeland security budget to make sure we have enough money to give the rich more tax cuts. How bad does it need to get before America impeaches this moron?

I'm Marc Perkel - And I approved this message!

Marc Perkel
San Francisco, CA

Subject: Bush: Beyond Belief -- On Lawbreakers

I’ve gotten to the point where I tend to totally dismiss most of what pResident Bush says and wait to see what he really does, because the proof is in the actions, not the words. Every once in a while, I catch him in what I believe to very hypocritical words compared to his actions to the contrary.

For example: The other night, NBC Evening News ran a segment with Bush responding to the tragic incident at Haditha, Iraq. Bush was framed very “authoritatively” in front of the flag, sitting at a desk. He then proceeds to announce “that any one caught breaking the law will be punished.” I was, once again, astonished by his arrogant blindness. Dubya put these Marines there – it was his decision. Many of them have either been frequently into and out of Iraq, and many, our citizen-soldiers, are in an equally precarious position.

It is so very easy for those people who are ruining our government, and have never served a day in the military honorably, to spout their rhetoric that lawbreakers will be punished, but not live up to your own standard. It’s what is known in military leadership as “Do As I Say But Not As I Do,” which is very autocratic and seldom used because it doesn’t teach responsibility, honor, and integrity. The best leaders are those who not only live up to, but exceed, their own standards, which in turn commands respect.

Let’s remember some of those lies. One of my favorites is, “I’ve been to war and I’ve raised twins. I would rather go to war.” Uh, George, you never went to war. You didn’t have the character to finish one military obligation honorably.” So, can the crap that you are a “War Hero” of some type. You aren’t.

Another favorite (in the Rose Garden with Kofi Annan, after we invaded Iraq): "Hussein knows why we did this. He wouldn’t let the inspectors in, so we had to attack." Uh, George, what about those reports that the UN inspectors were on-the-ground in Iraq conducting inspections, in places previously barred, and were even taking your “intelligence” of knowing exactly where they were and not finding any evidence to back up your claim. Hussein’s son-in-law told the CIA the same thing when he defected to Jordan – the WMD had been destroyed after Gulf One. Scott Ritter said so. The Chief UN inspector said so. Then you sent two of your “hand-picked” ones to really investigate and they said so.

Oh! Here’s another good one: In the aftermath of no WMD, you did a spoof of looking for WMD in your office, joking that you couldn’t any there. It’s as though none of this horror is phasing you in the least.

And then, after so many lies and breaking the law, you have the audacity to speak of lawbreakers being punished. This is all your responsibility, Dubya. There are many people in this world who are much more intelligent than you are.

In essence, Dubya, you are the “Lawbreaker-in-Chief” in spite of your insisting you have some “unitary power” that no law of this land supports. George, when, will you punish yourself? I resent your facetiousness – especially when you have never even experienced it yourself. You couldn’t even hack a stint in the National Guard.

Leadership means commanding respect, not demanding.

Lisa Johnson
Milwaukee, WI

Subject: Make Every Vote Count

I have just finished reading Robert Kennedy's article on how the 2004 election was stolen from John Kerry (just like 2000 was stolen from Al Gore), and I cannot help but wonder what in the hell is going through the minds of our congressmen and senators who do nothing or propose nothing to ensure that this will not happen again!! What is it going to take to get legislation through that gives the people of this country what they want--their vote to count!!! If this means scrubbing the Diebold machines, so be it! If this means having the UN come in and oversee our elections, so be it!! The democrats don't have a chance in 2006 or 2008 if we don't do something now! The republicans are just getting better at election theft and fraud. Of course, if there isn't some oversight, and a close election takes place in 2008, the hand picked supreme court will just appoint Jeb or Newt or whoever--as they did with W in 2000. Our country cannot afford any more of this great republican leadership. We will be a banana republic in no time.

I think that Americans as a whole are law abiding and fair minded and would support election reform. I also believe that the best way to make sure that elections are fair is to have publicly funded campaigns. This would give everyone a fair chance, not just those who have grown up wealthy and owe their souls to fat cat corporations. I think it's high time we take back government from big business and start letting WE THE PEOPLE govern.

Was the 2004 Election Stolen? (Robert F. Kennedy Jr./Rolling Stone)

Kris Squires
Cook, MN

Subject: Religious Rockies

I live in Denver, and I can tell you that if the Rockies continue down this path of trying to publicly push their religious views on their fans, it will eventually cause a public relations nightmare that the team will never recover from. It boggles the mind... why on earth would a professional sports team choose this course of action? I'd say they are definitely shooting themselves in the foot on this one.

Dave Zirin: The Rockies Pitch Religion

A BuzzFlash Reader

Subject: Robt. Kennedy's article

Great article. Makes one wonder why the Democratic Party even exists or why should it? We all knew about the fraud, if not the specific details, yet the DP has done nothing to reverse the election results. They are the willing accomplices of the Republicans in everything that is going wrong. Shouldn't they simply merge with the GOP and be its liberal wing? Election fraud, wars, appointments of fascists to every office, etc. Let the Green Party be the real opposition to the other two forces that work so well together.

Was the 2004 Election Stolen? (Robert F. Kennedy Jr./Rolling Stone)

Myles Hoenig
Baltimore, MD

Subject: Enron and Bush, Fraternal Twins?

While reading the book, Conspiracy of Fools, by Kurt Eichenwald, I was struck by the parallels with what I was also reading on news sites like YAHOO or BBC during the read. One can lift passages out of "Fools" and compare them almost word for word with news reports out of Washington, just change the names or entities and it reads the same.

What is the link here? Where did these guys go to school? Did they attend the same school? Did they start a new Fraternity? Was their motto "Let 'em simper?" What is the source of their reasoning? Did they attend any classes? Did they all have the same professors?

"Professor." What does that mean, Professor?

Peace,

John
Tennessee