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You have to give the right-wingers credit. The fear tactics they
learned from arch-Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels remain at the front of
their political playbook. First, they put out the notion that in the event
of a terrorist attack around the time of the November 2 election, a
postponement of the vote may be necessary. Second, they start talking
about the Federal government�s response to such a scenario. It�s the
second item we must all be focused upon.
The idea of terrorism affecting the election was first proffered by
Reverend DeForest B. Soaries Jr, the Bush-appointed chairman of the U.S.
Election Assistance Commission. Soaries is a right-wing New Jersey
Republican Secretary of State who has been living under the small
�fanatics only� revival tent of the Christian fundamentalist crowd for
some time. Soaries�s job is to ensure that there is no repeat of the 2000
Florida fiasco. However, he and his friends in the Bush administration
(read that as Karl Rove and Tom DeLay primarily) may have their eyes set
on causing a major West coast electoral disruption in 2004 that will make
Florida 2000 look like a minor glitch by comparison.
As expected, suspecting a Bush conspiracy to cancel the election and
remain in power until a determination would be made by Homeland Fuhrer Tom
Ridge that an election was safe, the moderate, liberal, progressive, and
libertarian communities cried foul. Postponing an election without a
constitutional amendment would be a major breach of the Constitution (not
that Bush has ever worried about his constitutional oath) and that would
be impossible with only a little over three months before Election Day.
Those who respect our Constitution pointed to the fact that President
Abraham Lincoln did not cancel the 1864 presidential election during the
Civil War � a war which saw this nation more at danger than it is during
the current cable news bite-driven and somewhat sensationalist �Global War
on Terrorism.�
The right wing had a different take on the possibility of an election
postponement. Neo-fascist babble mongers like Rush Limbaugh said, �No!� to
a postponement of the election. They argued that if a terrorist alert or
attack were to occur, the election should go on and only those votes cast
should be counted. Bingo! The plan for a second Bush administration became
clear as day. And that plan�s target is California, with its whopping 54
electoral votes, and possibly Washington State�s 11 electoral votes, at
stake.
In 2000, Bush and the election fraud cabal that included his brother,
Florida Governor �Jebbie� Bush, and Jebbie�s old flame, Florida Secretary
of State (now Congresswoman) Katherine Harris and Fox News election
analyst John Ellis (Bush�s first cousin), engineered Bush�s phony Florida
�win� using a combination of scrubbed electoral rolls that disenfranchised
almost 100,000 African-Americans, confusing �butterfly ballots,� an early
Fox projected Bush �win� in the Sunshine State, and voter intimidation at
mainly rural polling places. As with Osama bin Laden and his band of
zealots, the Bush team never uses the same tactic twice. Therefore, all
eyes should shift from Florida this Election Day, to California, where one
of Bush�s new minions, the Nazi-admiring Arnold Schwarzenegger, engineered
a gubernatorial coup d�etat with the help of Enron�s Ken Lay and his Texas
oil cronies, to seize control of the governorship from the reelected
Democrat Gray Davis.
Clues to Republican motives are found back during that awful day in
2001. On September 11, the day of the terrorist attacks, New Yorkers were
heading to the polls to vote in their mayoral primary. Under the direction
of the outgoing incumbent mayor, Rudolph Giuliani, city election officials
quickly postponed the election. Giuliani, one who never misses an
opportunity to emulate the former Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, toyed
with the idea of amending New York City�s term limits law so that he could
run for mayor for a third consecutive term. Another Giuliani plan would
have postponed the primary and regular mayoral election for one year,
giving him at least one more year in office with the possibility of a
change in the city law to allow him to run for a third term. Another plan
would have made Giuliani a write-in candidate. Wary of Giuliani�s various
proposed election contrivances and his intention to use the attack on the
World Trade Center for his own political advantage, New York�s City
Council and the New York State Legislature quickly put the kibosh to
Giuliani postponing the election indefinitely, extending his term for one
year, or amending the city�s term limit statute. The mayoral primary took
place on September 25, two weeks after the terrorist attack, and the
general election occurred on schedule on November 6. Michael Bloomberg was
sworn in as the new mayor on January 1, 2002.
After having Tom Ridge drop the media bomb that an election
cancellation was a possibility and then having National Security Adviser
Condoleezza Rice declare that no such plan existed, the cat was out of the
bag. No, do not expect an election cancellation but be prepared for a
terrorist �event� during the election. That is what the Bush White House
and their media prostitutes are spinning.
Here�s the scenario we must be all be prepared for:
If the pre-election internal tracking polls and public opinion polls
show the Kerry-Edwards ticket leading in key battleground states, the Bush
team will begin to implement their plan to announce an imminent terrorist
alert for the West Coast for November 2 sometime during the mid afternoon
Pacific Standard Time. At 2:00 PST, the polls in Kentucky and Indiana will
be one hour from closing (5:00 PM EST � the polls close in Indiana and
Kentucky at 6:00 PM EST). Exit polls in both states will be known to the
Bush people by that time and if Kentucky (not likely Indiana) looks too
close to call or leaning to Kerry-Edwards, the California plan will be
implemented. A Bush problem in Kentucky at 6:00 PM EST would mean that
problems could be expected in neighboring states and that plans to declare
a state of emergency in California would begin in earnest at 3:00 PM
PST.
The U.S. Northern Command, which has military jurisdiction over the
United States, will, along with the Department of Homeland Security and
Schwarzenegger�s police and homeland security officials in Sacramento,
declare an �imminent� terrorist threat � a RED ALERT -- affecting
California�s major urban areas.
Although the polls in California will not be closed as a result of the
declaration, the panic that sets in and the early rush hour will clog
major traffic arteries and change the plans of many voters to cast their
ballot after work.
That terrorist emergency declaration could be made around 5:00 PM PST
and with only three hours left for voting throughout the state, a number
of working class voters in urban centers will either be caught up in
California�s infamous freeway traffic and be too late to get to their
polling places or be more concerned about their families and avoid voting
altogether.
Without a doubt, many Democratic voters might simply opt to pick their
kids up from day care centers or relatives and then go home without
voting. These would tend to be the lower and middle income Californians
and the Democratic base. The affluent voters in California who vote
Republicans and can easily vote early (and be late for work) or have the
option of leaving work at any time during the day to vote will have likely
already cast their ballots. Therefore, the recipe of a White House-induced
California terrorist alert and a low Democratic turnout could toss 54
electoral votes into Bush�s lap, especially if the scare tactics affect
the turnout in such urban and typically pro-Democratic vote-rich areas as
Los Angeles, the San Francisco Bay Area, and Sacramento.
At 7:00 PM EST (4:00 PM PST), the polls will close in Florida, Georgia,
New Hampshire, South Carolina, Vermont, and Virginia. A half hour later,
they close in North Carolina, Ohio, and West Virginia. If Kerry-Edwards
wins Florida and that is coupled with similar pickups in Ohio, West
Virginia and too-close-to-call races in Virginia and maybe North Carolina,
the Bush team may seek to extend the terror alert to other Western or even
Midwestern states, particularly Washington State (since Oregon votes by
mail, it would be largely immune from any polling manipulation on Election
Day). A terrorist alert for the Seattle area after 5:00 PM PST would
result in a similar situation to that of California�s, with the exception
that many potential voters could be trapped on Seattle�s commuter ferries.
Washington�s polls close at 8:00 PM PST (11:PM EST). A low Democratic
turnout in the vote-rich Seattle-Tacoma-Bremerton area could be offset by
a large Republican turnout in eastern Washington, thus possibly throwing
the state�s 11 electoral votes to Bush � a net pick up 65 electoral votes
from the West Coast, adding those votes to California�s. If Kerry picks up
Ohio and some border states, the Bush team will be looking for a West
Coast electoral offset and a terrorist alert would be the key to replacing
lost Bush electoral votes in Ohio (21 votes), Florida (25), and West
Virginia (5), a total of 51 electoral votes for Kerry.
With the stage set for a terrorist alert on the West Coast and with the
polls closing at 8 PM EST (5:00 PM PST and launch time for the terrorist
alert) in Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, DC, Illinois, Kansas, Maine,
Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey,
Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Texas, we might be looking at the
following electoral vote tally:
Kerry:
Florida (25); New Hampshire (4); Vermont (3); Ohio (21); West Virginia
(5); Connecticut (8); Delaware (3); DC (3); Illinois (22); Maine (4);
Maryland (10); Massachusetts (12); Michigan (18); New Jersey (15);
Pennsylvania (23). Total: 176 (needed to win: 270).
Bush:
Indiana (12); Kentucky (8); Georgia (13); South Carolina (8); Virginia
(13); North Carolina (14); Alabama (9); Kansas (6); Mississippi (7);
Missouri (11); Oklahoma (8); Tennessee (11); Texas (32). Total: 152
(needed to win: 270).
At 8:30 PM EST (and a half hour into the West Coast terror alert), the
polls close in Arkansas and its 6 electoral votes are added to Bush�s
column, giving him 158 to Kerry�s 176.
At 9:00 PM EST, the polls close in Arizona, Colorado, Louisiana,
Minnesota, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Rhode Island,
South Dakota, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. With Kerry picking up Louisiana (9
votes), Minnesota (10), New Mexico (5), New York (33), Rhode Island (4),
and Wisconsin (11), his vote total would stand at 248.
With Bush picking up Arizona (8), Colorado (8), Nebraska (5), North
Dakota (3), South Dakota (3), and Wyoming (3), his vote count would stand
at 188.
At 10:00 PM EST, the polls will close in mainly Bush states. With Bush
picking up Idaho (4 votes); Montana (3); Nevada (4); and Utah (5) and with
Kerry likely grabbing Iowa (7), the vote count would stand at: Kerry: 255
and Bush: 204.
With an hour to go before polls close on the West Coast and the region
enmeshed in a major terrorist alert with cops and National Guardsmen now
adding to the mix and possibly closing roads and delaying traffic to the
polling places, Bush�s team in Washington and Sacramento would be poised
to deliver the death blow to Kerry-Edwards.
At 11:00 PM EST and 8:00 PM PST, the polls close in California, Oregon,
and Washington. The fix is in: with California (the mother lode of 54
votes) and Washington (11 votes) going to Bush and Oregon (7 votes)
possibly going to Kerry, the vote count stands at: Kerry: 262 and Bush:
269. Sometime in the wee hours of the morning of November 3, Alaska (3
votes) is declared for Bush and he is declared the winner with 272 votes
to Kerry�s 266 (with Kerry�s pickup of Hawaii�s 4 electoral votes). It�s a
down-to-the wire race with Bush being declared a winner without a Supreme
Court fight but using his �homeland security� powers to ensure his
re-election and Alaska putting him over the top.
That is what all this talk about a terrorist attack on Election Day is
about. It is to prime the population and allow Bush surrogates at Fox
News, CNN, and MS-NBC to begin their perception management campaign that
an attack will occur around the election. But there will be no
postponement of the election or cancellation � this is simply another plan
to manipulate the public through the use of phony threats and fear
tactics. The problem is that it just might work for Bush and his cabal of
�the ends justify the means� manipulators.
This article is a wakeup call to all those who can try to forestall
such a series of events. California�s Democratic majority in the state
legislature and its Democratic Lieutenant Governor and Attorney General
must take steps now to ensure Schwarzenegger does not conspire with his
fellow Republicans in Washington to do to California in 2004 what Jebbie
Bush and his people did to Florida in 2000. Similarly, Washington�s
Democratic Governor Gary Locke and all the Democratic officials, including
the two Democratic U.S. Senators, must take similar action to avoid a
similar scenario in their state.
Action needed now includes:
1.Informing all state election officials about such a scenario and its
potential impact on voter turnout.
2. Making contingency plans now to
keep the polling places open to ensure that people can vote later or after
any state of emergency is lifted.
3. Prevent the National Guard from
being used to facilitate such a state of emergency.
4. Close
coordination by the Democratic Party, smaller parties, and minority and
labor rights organizations to respond to such a scenario.
To paraphrase James Carville, �It�s California and the voter turnout,
stupid!� Forget about canceling or postponing the election. Keep your eye
on a �Red Terrorist Alert� on the West Coast for Election Day. That
doesn�t take a constitutional amendment, merely an okay from Bush and his
homeland security team. They must be stopped � the future of this nation
is at stake!
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Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist
and columnist. He served in the National Security Agency (NSA) during the
Reagan administration and wrote the introduction to Forbidden Truth. He is the co-author, with John
Stanton, of "America's Nightmare: The Presidency of George Bush II."
His forthcoming book is titled: "Jaded Tasks: Big Oil, Black Ops, and
Brass Plates."
Madsen can be reached at: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
July 14,
2004
Citizens For Legitimate Government
http://www.legitgov.org/ |
