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> From: Earl Katz <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Date: July 31, 2007 3:07:11 PM PDT > To: Earl Katz <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: FW: Wasserman/Fitrakis: Will Bush Cancel the 2008 Election? > > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Monday, July 30, 2007 8:26 PM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Wasserman/Fitrakis: Will Bush Cancel the 2008 Election? > > Will Bush cancel the 2008 election? > by Harvey Wasserman & Bob Fitrakis > July 30, 2007 > > It is time to think about the "unthinkable." > > The Bush Administration has both the inclination and the power to > cancel the 2008 election. > > The GOP strategy for another electoral theft in 2008 has taken > clear shape, though we must assume there is much more we don't know. > > But we must also assume that if it appears to Team Bush/Cheney/Rove > that the GOP will lose the 2008 election anyway (as it lost in Ohio > 2006) we cannot ignore the possibility that they would simply > cancel the election. Those who think this crew will quietly walk > away from power are simply not paying attention. > > The real question is not how or when they might do it. It's how, > realistically, we can stop them. > > > In Florida 2000, Team Bush had a game plan involving a handful of > tactics. With Jeb Bush in the governor's mansion, the GOP used a > combination of disenfranchisement, intimidation, faulty ballots, > electronic voting fraud, a rigged vote count and an aborted > recount, courtesy of the US Supreme Court. > > A compliant Democrat (Al Gore) allowed the coup to be completed. > > In Ohio 2004, the arsenal of dirty tricks exploded. Based in > Columbus, we have documented more than a hundred different tactics > used to steal the 20 electoral votes that gave Bush a second term. > More are still surfacing. As a result of the King-Lincoln- > Bronzeville federal lawsuit (in which we are plaintiff and > attorney) we have now been informed that 56 of the 88 counties in > Ohio violated federal law by destroying election records, thus > preventing a definitive historical recount. > > As in 2000, a compliant Democrat (John Kerry) allowed the coup to > proceed. > > For 2008 we expect the list of vote theft maneuvers to escalate yet > again. We are already witnessing a coordinated nationwide drive to > destroy voter registration organizations and to disenfranchise > millions of minority, poor and young voters. > > This carefully choreographed campaign is complemented by the > widespread use of electronic voting machines. As reported by the > Government Accountability Office, Princeton University, the Brennan > Center, the Carter-Baker Commission, US Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) > and others, these machines can be easily used to flip an election. > They were integral to stealing both the 2000 and 2004 elections. > Efforts to make their source codes transparent, or to require a > usable paper trail on a federal level, have thus far failed. A > discriminatory Voter ID requirement may also serve as the gateway > to a national identification card. > > Overall, the GOP will have at its command even more weapons of > election theft in 2008 than it did in Ohio 2004, which jumped > exponentially from Florida 2000. The Rovian GOP is nothing if not > tightly organized to do this with ruthless efficiency. Expect > everything that was used these past two presidential elections to > surface again in 2008 in far more states, with far more efficiency, > and many new dirty tricks added in. > > But in Ohio 2006, the GOP learned a hard lesson. Its candidate for > governor was J. Kenneth Blackwell. The Secretary of State was the > essential on-the-ground operative in the theft of Ohio 2004. > > When he announced for governor, many Ohioans joked that "Ken > Blackwell will never lose an election where he counts the votes." > > But lose he didÂ….along with the GOP candidates for Secretary of > State, Attorney-General and US Senate. > > By our calculations, despite massive grassroots scrutiny, the > Republicans stole in excess of 6% of the Ohio vote in 2006. But > they still lost. > > Why? Because they were so massively unpopular that even a 6% bump > couldn't save them. Outgoing Governor Bob Taft, who pled guilty to > four misdemeanors while in office, left town with a 7% approval > rating (that's not a typo). Blackwell entered the last week of the > campaign down 30% in some polls. > > So while the GOP still had control of the electoral machinery here > in 2006, the public tide against them was simply too great to hold > back, even through the advanced art and science of modern Rovian > election theft. > > > In traditional electoral terms, that may also be the case in 2008. > Should things proceed as they are now, it's hard to imagine any > Republican candidate going into the election within striking > distance. The potential variations are many, but the graffiti on > the wall is clear. > > What's also clear is that this administration has a deep, profound > and uncompromised contempt for democracy, for the rule of law, and > for the US Constitution. When George W. Bush went on the record > (twice) as saying he has nothing against dictatorship, as long as > he can be dictator, it was a clear and present policy statement. > > Who really believes this crew will walk quietly away from power? > They have the motivation, the money and the method for doing away > with the electoral process altogether. So why wouldn't they? > > The groundwork for dismissal of both the legislative and judicial > branch has been carefully laid. The litany is well-known, but worth > a very partial listing: > > The continuation of the drug war, and the Patriot Act, Homeland > Security Act and other dictatorial laws prompted by the 9/11/2001 > terror attacks, have decimated the Bill of Rights, and shredded the > traditional American right to due process of law, freedom from > official surveillance, arbitrary violence, and far more. > > The current Attorney-General, Alberto Gonzales, has not backed away > from his announcement to Congress that the Constitution does not > guarantee habeas corpus. The administration continues to act on the > assumption that it can arrest anyone at any time and hold them > without notification or trial for as long as it wants. > > The establishment of the Homeland Security Agency has given it > additional hardware to decimate the basic human rights of our > citizenry. Under the guise of dealing with the "immigration > problem," large concentration camps are under construction around > the US. > > The administration has endorsed and is exercising its "right" to > employ torture, contrary to the Eighth Amendment and to a wide > range of international treaties, which Gonzales has labeled "quaint." > > With more than 200 "signing statements" the administration acts on > its belief that the "unitary executive" trumps the power of the > legislative branch in any instance it chooses. This belief has been > further enforced with the administration's use of a wide range of > precedent-setting arguments to keep its functionaries from > testifying before Congress. > > There is much more. In all instances, the 109th Congress---and the > public---have rolled over without significant resistance. > > Most crucial now are Presidential Directive #51, Executive Orders > #13303, #13315, #13350, #13364, #13422, #13438, and more, by which > Bush has granted himself an immense arsenal of powers for which the > term "dictatorial" is a modest understatement. > > The Founders established our government with checks and balances. > But executive orders have accumulated important precedent. The > Emancipation Proclamation by which Lincoln declared an end to > slavery in the South, was issued under the "military necessity" of > adding blacks to the Union Army, a step without which the North > might not have won the Civil War. Franklin Roosevelt's Executive > Order #8802 established the Fair Employment Practices Commission. > Harry Truman's Executive Order #9981 desegregated the military. > > Most to the point, FDR's Executive Order #9066 ordered the forcible > internment of 100,000 people of Japanese descent into the now > infamous concentration camps of World War II. > > There is also precedent for a president overriding the Supreme > Court. In the 1830s Chief Justice John Marshall enshrined the right > of the Cherokee Nation to sovereignty over its ancestral land in > the Appalachian Mountains. But President Andrew Jackson scorned the > decision. Some 14,000 native Americans were moved at gunpoint to > Oklahoma. More than 3,000 died along the way. > > All this will be relevant should Team Bush envision a defeat in the > 2008 election and decide to call it off. It's well established that > Richard Nixon---mentor to Karl Rove and Dick Cheney---commissioned > the Huston Plan, which detailed how to cancel the 1972 election. > > Today we must ask: who would stop this administration from taking > dictatorial power in the instance of a "national emergency" such as > a terror attack at a nuclear power plant or something similar? > > Nothing in the behavior of this Congress indicates that it is > capable of significant resistance. Impeachment seems beyond it. Nor > does it seem Congress would actually remove Bush if it did put him > on trial. > > Short of that, Bush clearly does not view anything Congress might > do as a meaningful impediment. After all, how many divisions does > the Congress command? > > The Supreme Court, as currently constituted, would almost certainly > rubber stamp a Bush coup. If not, like Jackson, he could ignore it > as easily as he would ignore Congress. > > What does that leave? There is much idle speculation now about what > the armed forces would do. We also hear loose talk about "90 > million gun owners." > > From the public side, the only conceivable counter-force might be a > national strike or an effective long-term campaign of general non- > cooperation. > > But we can certainly assume the mainstream media will give lock- > step support to whatever the regime says and does. It's also a > given that those likely to lead the resistance will immediately > land in those new prisons being built by Halliburton et. al. > > So how do we cope with the harsh realities of such a Bush/Cheney/ > Rove dictatorial coup? > > We may have about a year to prepare. Every possible scenario needs > to be discussed in excruciating detail. > > For only one thing is certain: denial will do nothing. > > -- > HARVEY WASSERMAN'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES is at > www.solartopia.org, along with SOLARTOPIA! OUR GREEN-POWERED EARTH, > A.D. 2030. The FITRAKIS FILES are at www.freepress.org (where this > article was originally published), along with HOW THE GOP STOLE > AMERICA'S 2004 ELECTION & IS RIGGING 2008, which Bob and Harvey co- > wrote. > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! 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