Reply #22: I agree 100%. BUT...the question is HOW do we get it done? KICK!

[Peace Patriot]

This is where I've been at since 11/3: THERE IS NO OTHER ISSUE.

And I'm still there, BUT I've come to the following conclusions:

We have to get this done LOCALLY, state by state, with highly focused grass roots groups. This is the only avenue of election rule change left open to us.

Congress is NOT going to fix this, and may make things worse, by reducing or altogether overriding state power over elections--thus leaving the PUBLIC with no avenue of remedy--or, by coming up with some bullshit thing that looks good, but does NOT solve the fundamental problems.

NOTE: What Conyers and Boxer are doing IS HELPFUL. Education! Publicity! Keeping this on the national agenda, in the public consciousness. And they are certainly courageous and straight-thinking, and need to be supported in every respect (including, for instance, Boxer's OTHER battles, such as the Condaleeza Rice nomination--we need to support her and boost her power). But they cannot remedy this fraudulent election system, not in Congress.

BushCons have an even greater majority in Congress now. They have an election system that "selects" THEM and keeps de Fuhrer in the White House. They set it up this way very deliberately. They are not going to give it up. And, given the power situation in Congress, they could mandate electronic voting everywhere, with no paper trail, and exclusive, no bid contracts to BushCon companies tomorrow, and who could stop them?

The Democrats in Congress have no power to fix this. They don't have the votes, and they have a history of corruption, collusion and lack of vigilance. (HAVA = $3.5 BILLION to the states, plus massive wining and dining by Diebold et al.) They LET THIS HAPPEN in the first place. MIND-BOGGLING lack of vigilance! And even if we could turn that around this term--make it Congressional Dems 1st priority, make life impossible for them if they don't--they don't have the power or the votes.

My worst fear--and the most likely thing to happen in Congress--is a NON-solution, something that APPEARS to be good, and gives the politicians "talking points" for their campaigns, but which is either, a) HOT AIR (no fix at all--say, a Constitutional Amendment on voting rights that Gonzales can merely brush aside with all other Constitutional protections, i.e. NO ENFORCEMENT); or b) contains POISON PILLS (such as reducing state power on this matter, or including things like mandating a mere paper RECEIPT that has no status in a recount (to do any good, it has to be a paper BALLOT that takes precedence over electronic tallies in any recount), meanwhile...

...FAILING TO FIX ANY FUNDAMENTAL PROBLEMS, such as BushCon secret, proprietary source code running all the central vote tabulators.

What do you think a compromise between BushCons and weak Democrats is going to look like? (--IF the Democrats can even get them to the table, doubtful in itself).

One thing is VERY CLEAR. We are NOT going to get paper ballots and hand counts from Congress. Both BushCons and Democrats are INVESTED in electronics. Big money involved.

So...

...to the states, my friends! And take no prisoners!