Chavez fans, prepare to toss furniture and have heart attack....

[ShaneGR]

The people shall vote!!

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/americas/06/08/venezuela.referendum.reut/index.html

(snip)
CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will face a recall referendum in August that could open the way for an election for a new president within 30 days if the leftist leader is defeated, election officials said Tuesday.

"It was agreed for August 15," National Electoral Council Vice President Ezequiel Zamora told reporters after a meeting of the council's directors.

The opposition, which has battled to hold a vote for more than a year, feared delays in holding the August referendum could block their chances of ousting Chavez's left-wing government at the ballot box.

According to Venezuela's constitution, if Chavez had lost a recall held after August 19, his vice president would take over until presidential elections in December 2006.

If Chavez loses the August 15 referendum, the constitution dictates elections must be held in 30 days.

Political confrontation has rattled the world's No. 5 oil exporter since Chavez survived a coup more than two years ago.

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter last year helped broker a deal that put forward the recall referendum as the best solution to the bitter crisis.

[redqueen]

1. Is Diebold active down there?

:grr:

[bullimiami]

3. not diebold but

ES&S supplied Model 100 ballot-counting machines through a
Madrid-based company called Indra for the elections in Venezuela.

It was reported in The Omaha World Herald that the head of
Venezuela's National Elections Council, Etanislao Gonzalez, placed
the blame for the technical difficulties during the election on the
Nebraska-based ES&S.

The Omaha World Herald is published by John Gottschalk, who is
one of the directors of ES&S.

"The firm flagrantly failed to meet its commitments and the failure
had destabilized the country's electoral process," Gonzalez said.

A Venezuelan air force jet flew to Omaha to fetch experts to
"salvage" the election. It was reported that more than 6 percent of
the 7,000 voting machines broke down during the Venezuelan
election and that there were major "technical glitches."

[AP]

5. I think I read that they replaced the ES&S machines with machines from

a small FL company.

The gov't was accused of doing that to rig the elections.

Personally, I think the less anything from FL is involved with democracy, the better.

But if you had to chose between ES&S and some other small company whose name hasn't come up in the BBV discusions, it's probably better to go with that small company even if it is a FL company.

[camero]

10. better the small company I agree

ES&S has ties to the dominionists.

http://www.ecotalk.org/VotingMachineCompanies.htm#ES&S

% of U.S. vote count: Probably the largest voting machine company. ES&S claims that they tabulated "56% of the U.S. national vote for the past four presidential elections." source: http://www.essvote.com /


AIS (1980) was formerly Data Mark (1979), both founded by brothers Bob and Todd Urosevich. Bob is currently president of Diebold (see below). Todd Urosevich is Vice President, Aftermarket Sales of ES&S.
AIS was primarily funded with money from Ahmanson brothers, William and Robert, of H.F. Ahmanson Co., holding company for the nation's largest savings and loan association and a group of Omaha-based insurance companies, at the time. http://www.essvote.com/index.php?section=exec&rightnav=about&f_exec_id...
Howard Ahmanson belongs to Council for National Policy (hard right wing organization) http://www.ifas.org/cnp/name98.html . Howard Ahmanson also helps finance The Chalcedon Institute: "Established in 1965, Chalcedon (kal-SEE-dun) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) and Christian educational organization devoted to research, publishing, and promoting Christian reconstruction in all areas of life... Our emphasis on the Cultural or Dominion Mandate (Genesis 1:28) and the necessity of a return to Biblical Law has been a a crucial factor in the challenge to Humanism by Christians in this country and elsewhere... A world that is increasingly pessimistic and disillusioned with the failure of secular Humanism is now feeling the impact of Christians who are exercising dominion and reclaiming lost spheres of authority for Christ the King." http://www.chalcedon.edu / / critical profile: the organization's purpose is to establish Old Testament Biblical law as the standard for society. Chalcedon promotes Christian Reconstructionism -- which mandates Christ's dominion over all the world. http://www.ifas.org/fw/9501/chalcedon.html


http://www.seekgod.ca/cnp.a.htm#ahmanson

Howard Ahmanson, Jr.- CNP Member 1984-85, 1988, Board of Governors 1996, 1998. President of Fieldstead and Co.; Fieldstead Foundation; chair of the California Independent Business PAC. Ahmanson is an Orange County financier who inherited Home Savings of America from his father, has spent millions promoting Religious Right candidates, first in California and then nationwide. Ahmanson has been a major contributor to the Capitol Resource Institute, 6 the California political front of Focus on the Family; the Western Center for Law and Religious Freedom, the Reason Foundation, 7 (an offshoot of Reason Public Policy Institute (RPPI) 8. and the California Prolife Council. Inc.


Ahmanson also served 23 years (retired 1995) on the board of the Chalcedon Institute 12 in Vallecito, California, which Newsweek (Feb. 2, 1981) accurately identified as the think tank of the Religious Right. The Chalcedon Institute, to which Ahmanson has contributed over a million dollars, was founded in 1965, perpetuates the Dominionist/Reconstructionist/Kingdom Now beliefs of founder Rev. Rousas John Rushdoony who was also a member of the CNP. Rushdoony, who died February 8, 2001, is known as the "father of Christian Reconstructionism," which is the misguided belief that Christians should have dominion over all earthly affairs and nations and the law would be according to Old Testament laws, which includes the death penalty for many infractions.

ES&S gets some of it's programmers from an Air Force base in Omaha.

Current ES&S CEO Bill Welsh was profiled in the University of Tulsa Magazine, Fall 2001. An interesting excerpt: "Given the fundamental importance and the logistical complexity of elections, Welsh and company leave nothing to chance: they had four business jets and two turboprops on standby; as well as more than 1,000 temporary employees, some drawn from Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha, Nebraska. ES&S staff were ready to be anywhere at a moment's notice to help iron out unexpected kinks." Comment: Why does ES&S go to an air force base for temporary personnel? http://www.utulsa.edu/alumni/magazine/pdf/TUmgFa01.pdf



Chavez will beat the fascists again. We all know the oligarchy will try to cheat.

[AP]

2. You're behind the curve, again.

Chavez supporeters at DU have been talking about this for a few days now, and the tone is generally, "well, he'll probably win again, for the fifth or sixth time he's run for office, but it probably won't stop the fascits from trying to get him out of office."

It's not so much throwing furniture, as being resigned to the fact that when there's so much weallth at stake that people who work for a living are fighting over with people who are already super-wealthy, the elected leaders of the people who work for a living will NEVER be accepted as legitimate by the economically powerful no matter how many of them feel otherwise.

[ShaneGR]

4. Fine with me

If he wins again, then he should be in office. But I believe the recall should be held to silence the critics.

Fair enough?

[AP]

6. What would be finest with me is if you...

...read up on this issue and cared more about the notion that people who work for a living deserve a government which looks after their interests.

[lastliberalintexas]

8. "If he wins again"

If he wins *again*. Why should he have to face a recall of the fascists' creation? One unfortunately, created in large part by American fascists.

To silence the critics? His critics will never be silent, just as Kerry's in the US won't be when he wins. Should Kerry pacify the RWers in this country by agreeing to a second election to give them another chance in an attempt to silence them? Hogwash.

This is nothing but bullying on a grand scale by corporatists who refuse to accept the decision of the people. He won legitimately the first time. Unlike some other world leader I could name.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

9. Well even on these boards when you say fascist in a post

about Chavez they assume you mean him.

he shouldn't have to face it but he is. they claim legitimacy and he said that he would win. He sounds confident that he has the people on his side - the paople with out the economic clout to do anything to influence the outcome except voting.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

7. That's right. The people will vote

And we will be watching