Welcome to DU! The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards. Join the community: Create a free account Support DU (and get rid of ads!): Become a Star Member Latest Breaking News Editorials & Other Articles General Discussion The DU Lounge All Forums Issue Forums Culture Forums Alliance Forums Region Forums Support Forums Help & Search
 

TheNutcracker

(2,104 posts)
14. As many as here. We are in the game together. A game that is killing innocent people every day.
Wed Mar 18, 2015, 11:45 AM
Mar 2015

Ask yourself why since the early 70's has nothing changed here? Now they disrespect us after all the years of funding, like you have never seen. America has been more open to the Jewish community than any other people, ever. They run our wonderful fashion houses, movie/television industry, hold office, and so much more. This has been a real slap and with an election this close, with a country so close to the U.S., and it's own history of election fraud,

the silence is deafening.....

it's like "The Silent Scream of the Numbers"
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2005-05-16/news/0505160123_1_elections-column-media


The column itself, best preserved by Democratic Underground should be reviewed once again. Every other news source shut the story down. Do read the link above first...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=203&topic_id=356725

The Silent Scream of Numbers -- Robert Koehler's "Nash-ional" column

This syndicated column is available now from the (Chicago) Tribune Media Services syndicate. It will be made available automatically this morning to 200+ newspapers that use this syndicate nationwide. However, any newspaper in the country can obtain this column from the Tribune syndicate and reprint it. Please encourage your hometown paper to do so.

We all owe Bob Koehler a great deal of gratitude for this hard-hitting piece. He doesn't mince words -- the election was stolen and it is up to us as citizens to do something about it. We were honored to have him in Nashville with us.

This column is reprinted here in its entirety with the permission of the author. I will post a web-link as soon as one is available in the morning.
------------------------

THE SILENT SCREAM OF NUMBERS

By Robert C. Koehler

Tribune Media Services

As they slowly hack democracy to death, we're as alone - we citizens - as we've ever been, protected only by the dust-covered cliches of the nation's founding: "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty."

It's time to blow off the dust and start paying the price.

The media are not on our side. The politicians are not on our side. It's just us, connecting the dots, fitting the fragments together, crunching the numbers, wanting to know why there were so many irregularities in the last election and why these glitches and dirty tricks and wacko numbers had not just an anti-Kerry but a racist tinge. This is not about partisan politics. It's more like: "Oh no, this can't be true."

I just got back from what was officially called the National Election Reform Conference, in Nashville, Tenn., an extraordinary pulling together of disparate voting-rights activists - 30 states were represented, 15 red and 15 blue - sponsored by a Nashville group called Gathering To Save Our Democracy. It had the feel of 1775: citizen patriots taking matters into their own hands to reclaim the republic. This was the level of its urgency.

Was the election of 2004 stolen? Thus is the question framed by those who don't want to know the answer. Anyone who says yes is immediately a conspiracy nut, and the listener's eyeballs roll. So let's not ask that question.

Let's simply ask why the lines were so long and the voting machines so few in Columbus and Cleveland and inner-city and college precincts across the country, especially in the swing states, causing an estimated one-third of the voters in these precincts to drop out of line without casting a ballot; why so many otherwise Democratic ballots, thousands and thousands in Ohio alone, but by no means only in Ohio, recorded no vote for president (as though people with no opinion on the presidential race waited in line for three or six or eight hours out of a fervor to have their say in the race for county commissioner); and why virtually every voter complaint about electronic voting machine malfunction indicated an unauthorized vote switch from Kerry to Bush.

This, mind you, is just for starters. We might also ask why so many Ph.D.-level mathematicians and computer programmers and other numbers-savvy scientists are saying that the numbers don't make sense (see, for instance, www.northnet.org/minstrel, the Web site of Dr. Richard Hayes Phillips, lead statistician in the Moss vs. Bush lawsuit challenging the Ohio election results). Indeed, the movement to investigate the 2004 election is led by such people, because the numbers are screaming at them that something is wrong.

And we might, no, we must, ask - with more seriousness than the media have asked - about those exit polls, which in years past were extraordinarily accurate but last November went haywire, predicting Kerry by roughly the margin by which he ultimately lost to Bush. This swing is out of the realm of random chance, forcing chagrined pollsters to hypothesize a "shy Republican" factor as the explanation; and the media have bought this evidence-free absurdity because it spares them the need to think about the F-word: fraud.

And the numbers are still haywire. A few days ago, Terry Neal wrote in the Washington Post about Bush's inexplicably low approval rating in the latest Gallup poll, 45 percent, vs. a 49 percent disapproval rating. This is, by a huge margin, the worst rating at this point in a president's second term ever recorded by Gallup, dating back to Truman.

"What's wrong with this picture?" asks exit polling expert Jonathan Simon, who pointed these latest numbers out to me. Bush mustered low approval ratings immediately before the election, surged on Election Day, then saw his ratings plunge immediately afterward. Yet Big Media has no curiosity about this anomaly.

Simon, who spoke at the Nashville conference - one of dozens of speakers to give highly detailed testimony on evidence of fraud and dirty tricks from sea to shining sea - said, "When the autopsy of our democracy is performed, it is my belief that media silence will be given as the primary cause of death."

In contrast to the deathly silence of the media is the silent scream of the numbers. The more you ponder these numbers, and all the accompanying data, the louder that scream grows. Did the people's choice get thwarted? Were thousands disenfranchised by chaos in the precincts, spurious challenges and uncounted provisional ballots? Were millions disenfranchised by electronic voting fraud on insecure, easily hacked computers? And who is authorized to act if this is so? Who is authorized to care?

No one, apparently, except average Americans, who want to be able to trust the voting process again, and who want their country back.

- - -

Robert Koehler, an award-winning, Chicago-based journalist, is an editor at Tribune Media Services and nationally syndicated writer. You can respond to this column at bkoehler@tribune.com or visit his Web site at commonwonders.com.

© 2005 Tribune Media Services, Inc.

Recommendations

0 members have recommended this reply (displayed in chronological order):

What did the exit polls have to say? SoLeftIAmRight Mar 2015 #1
Too close to call I believe./NT DemocratSinceBirth Mar 2015 #3
"Too close to call" is code for "we're rigging it... truebrit71 Mar 2015 #24
We are the masters of electronic vote counting and I'm sure they told Netty not to worry. TheNutcracker Mar 2015 #4
I thouight they used paper ballots in Israel. nt B2G Mar 2015 #8
Israel does not use machines for voting. former9thward Mar 2015 #11
Do they use machines for counting? HereSince1628 Mar 2015 #79
They use ballot slips that are then sealed into a envelope by the voter. former9thward Mar 2015 #86
You can rigg votes withouy voting machines.... mylye2222 Mar 2015 #83
How come none of the 30 parties have charged election fraud? former9thward Mar 2015 #87
the world is too stupid to not realize NM_Birder Mar 2015 #93
Oh my God! yeoman6987 Mar 2015 #38
I'm curious whether you're going to leave up your post as evidence of the fact you don't know what onenote Mar 2015 #68
Apparently you have no clue about elections in Israel. GGJohn Mar 2015 #73
Most had it 27-27 between Likud and ZU KamaAina Mar 2015 #30
I don't know enough to say JustAnotherGen Mar 2015 #2
For starters, the first step would be for Jimmy Carter to be on the ground, yesterday. TheNutcracker Mar 2015 #6
No. It was either stolen or there are a lot more warmongers in Israel than I sinkingfeeling Mar 2015 #5
Sad but true SoLeftIAmRight Mar 2015 #7
As many as here. We are in the game together. A game that is killing innocent people every day. TheNutcracker Mar 2015 #14
Many Thanks SoLeftIAmRight Mar 2015 #44
+1. n/t Smarmie Doofus Mar 2015 #85
I don't think the election was stolen, it is the result of the multi-party system... Spazito Mar 2015 #9
I heard experts on Israel say yesterday a.m. on Pacifica Radio (left-wing) deutsey Mar 2015 #22
Given the absolute panic Netanyahu showed in the few days leading up to the election... Spazito Mar 2015 #26
I'm listening to the expert right now deutsey Mar 2015 #28
Yes, that's exactly what he did... Spazito Mar 2015 #35
Marcia B. Cohen is her name deutsey Mar 2015 #41
She is a professor at the University of New England... Spazito Mar 2015 #43
I thought that at first, too, but I don't think she's the same deutsey Mar 2015 #58
I believe she is affiliated with a DC political policy institute... Spazito Mar 2015 #61
News reports indicated exit polling showed a Bibi win groundloop Mar 2015 #10
Actually, Bibi claimed victory before anyone called it... joeybee12 Mar 2015 #12
No. ananda Mar 2015 #13
Not illegally, but... TreasonousBastard Mar 2015 #15
it was stolen Takket Mar 2015 #16
Ask Mitt Romney about poll accuracy... n/t bobclark86 Mar 2015 #33
No clue. But fear sells, unfortunately. Tommy_Carcetti Mar 2015 #17
In other words, you have no clue if what you're saying is correct... brooklynite Mar 2015 #18
Gore isn't claiming it was stolen. KamaAina Mar 2015 #31
Bibi is a genocidal monster. cilla4progress Mar 2015 #19
The Bibi victory is no surprise to me. GitRDun Mar 2015 #20
all paper ballots, this election reflects Israel as it actually is, not as we liberals wish it would geek tragedy Mar 2015 #21
Actually I think it is a combination of fear mongering and too many parties. jwirr Mar 2015 #23
That's what happens when there's more than two... bobclark86 Mar 2015 #34
Actually, this is the exact opposite. jeff47 Mar 2015 #42
Multi-party governance systems can, and often do, disperse the votes such that... Spazito Mar 2015 #45
They can. They didn't in this election. (nt) jeff47 Mar 2015 #48
Actually, they did... Spazito Mar 2015 #50
There are not a wealth of left-leaning parties. jeff47 Mar 2015 #54
There may not be a "wealth of left-leaning parties" but there are enough to disperse... Spazito Mar 2015 #59
No, there really aren't. jeff47 Mar 2015 #60
I stated "the majority of voters" not the majority of eligible voters... Spazito Mar 2015 #62
Actually, too many parties isn't the problem. jeff47 Mar 2015 #40
Certainly those are big contributory factors LeftishBrit Mar 2015 #92
Jimmy Carter should have been on the ground, yesterday! TheNutcracker Mar 2015 #25
Ummmm, because he wasn't invited by the Israeli govt? GGJohn Mar 2015 #75
You should be, if you're not. People are stupid, and vote that way. Dawgs Mar 2015 #27
polling ends sabbat hunter Mar 2015 #29
Nope. You are not alone. GoCubsGo Mar 2015 #32
Honestly it is another country yeoman6987 Mar 2015 #36
No. You have to remember it's a multi-party system. jeff47 Mar 2015 #37
VERY IMPORTANT INFORMATION SoLeftIAmRight Mar 2015 #39
Ohio 2004 malaise Mar 2015 #46
Yep. Ohio 2004 PLUS Florida 2000 mylye2222 Mar 2015 #84
No I don't think so. hrmjustin Mar 2015 #47
You should be alone. Sadly you aren't onenote Mar 2015 #49
Thanks...let me put you on ignore... joeybee12 Mar 2015 #52
Surprised. Not. onenote Mar 2015 #65
I asked a day or two ago who counts the votes, how it works there...What we KNOW is he tried NoJusticeNoPeace Mar 2015 #51
He went "George W", but not Bush. Bibi went George Wallace. Sarcastica Mar 2015 #53
Ridiculous. Why don't we all just say that virgogal Mar 2015 #55
Nope, because polling is actually ridiculously accurate... joeybee12 Mar 2015 #56
Untrue. former9thward Mar 2015 #89
It's a parliamentary system BainsBane Mar 2015 #57
Nope. n/t 2naSalit Mar 2015 #63
Only 10,373 Polling Places For Nearly 7,000,000 People? Corey_Baker08 Mar 2015 #64
The one thing that is clear from your post: You're no mathematician onenote Mar 2015 #67
This Is The Post Where I Got My Numbers & Info From... Corey_Baker08 Mar 2015 #96
In addition to onenote's comments -- Nuclear Unicorn Mar 2015 #72
Right wingers are constitutionally incapable of accepting loss without at least trying to cheat. Of GoneFishin Mar 2015 #66
It appears that Israel DOES use electronic voting machines eas999 Mar 2015 #69
The system is new, and replaced hand counted paper ballots eridani Mar 2015 #71
Wrong. This system, proposed in 2008 was never approved or implemented onenote Mar 2015 #95
Actually it is a fact that Israel DOES NOT use electronic voting onenote Mar 2015 #94
Bibi reflects views of many in Israel donna123 Mar 2015 #70
Israel is full of Obama hating right-wingers! B Calm Mar 2015 #74
Perhaps...probably...yup catbyte Mar 2015 #76
Are you kidding? It's standard operating procedure for right wingers notadmblnd Mar 2015 #77
He's the Israeli version of Dick Cheney - TBF Mar 2015 #78
Bibi only cares about Bibi and use some disgusting tactics to win Gothmog Mar 2015 #80
Was reading your op.... NCTraveler Mar 2015 #81
No you are Not. mylye2222 Mar 2015 #82
How come the parties in Israel are not complaining? former9thward Mar 2015 #90
Of course he stole it. Stealing elections is what right-wingers do. ~nt~ b.durruti Mar 2015 #88
Not beyond the bounds of possibility, IMO LeftishBrit Mar 2015 #91
Latest Discussions»General Discussion»Am I the only one who thi...»Reply #14