Reply #6: I don't know, but that's a great sig line!

[Peace Patriot]

Orleans, my advice: don't focus on Kerry. He's just one actor in this tragedy. For two years, they were setting up a fraudulent election SYSTEM--egregiously fraudulent, fraudulent on its face. How could the Dem Party leadership have gone along with this? That is the question we must ask. The Democratic county and state election officials. The DNC. Leaders in Congress. Have could they have let this happen without major, major protest?

By the time Kerry conceded, the election had long since been lost--in a thousand decisions along the way, by many people, to let Bushite corporations gain control of vote tabulation with 'TRADE SECRET,' PROPRIETARY programming code, with virtually no audit-recount controls. I mean, it's not rocket scientist.

The failure was systemic--and catastrophic. By the time Kerry conceded, the news monopolies had FALSIFIED their own exit polls to "fit" the result of the Bushite corporations' secret formulae, Congress was already full of illegitimately elected people, and the Supreme Court had long since been bagged. I really don't think Kerry had any choice, from his point of view. No hope in Congress--full of Bush "pod people". No support from Dem leaders (some of whom were lying to him). No hope in the courts Ohio very corrupt, the Supreme Court a lost cause). Very hostile media. He would have been alone in a challenge, at all the upper levels of power--or at least that's how I think it must have looked to him. His main flaw may have been that he had no faith in the people--possibly because of his patrician background. I think the country WOULD have risen up in support of a challenge, if he had told people the truth, exposed the election system, and led the challenge.

But I really, really, really believe that we must STOP depending on leaders to save us. We are a DEMOCRACY. We must save OURSELVES. And how we're going to do that is hard, persistent, never-give-up work on election reform!

I DID find parts of the Daily Show DVD funny, and it was good to laugh. And I was so admiring of the show for its exposure of ELECTRONIC VOTING. They had two skits on it. I felt kinship with those guys, those fab comedians. They had to experience this catastrophe ON CAMERA, in real time, with no access to any of the analysis we did at DU, for instance, in the days after the election. And they did their best. It's now an historical document. I'm glad I saw it. I was hesitant, though. I'm with you there. I wondered, can I laugh at this--knowing what it has meant in tortured and slaughtered people, in the bankrupting of our country, and in the loss of our democracy?

I put it off, and then tonight decided to watch it--not realizing that it was January 6, the anniversary of the Boxer Rebellion--the historic challenge of the Ohio electors in Congress. Maybe that's why I watched it, being subconsciously aware of the anniversary. It did make me sad, ultimately. But I admired the brave work of the DS crew, who have done so much in helping young people understand our country's political scene. Do you know that MOST young people get their news from the Daily Show and from no other source? (My son told me that.)

I'm black Irish. We figure shit's going to happen. It always does. But you have to not let it get inside of you. And you have to never give up. Never!