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PROPRIETARY programming code, owned and controlled by a handful of rightwing, Bushwhack corporations, with virtually no audit/recount controls. In half the systems in the U.S., there is NO paper trail whatsoever--and a ZERO audit (automatic handcount) to check for machine fraud. In the other half, they may have paper ballots, but they do a completely inadequate 1% audit, and 99% of those ballots never see the light of day. According to statistical experts whom I respect, 10% is the minimum audit required to detect fraud in an electronic system.
The three main Bushwhack corporations who tell us who won our elections are...
DIEBOLD (now called "Premier"): First CEO (during the '04 election) was Wally O'Dell, a Bush/Cheney campaign chair and major fundraiser (a Bush "Pioneer" right up there with Ken Lay), who promised, in writing, to "deliver Ohio's electoral votes to Bush/Cheney in 2004."
ES&S: Brethren to Diebold (a spinoff of Diebold--similar computer architecture; also, the two corps are run by the rightwing Urosevich brothers), whose initial funder and major investor is the reclusive, rightwing billionaire, Howard Ahmanson, who also gave one million dollars to extremist 'christian' Chalcedon foundation, which touts the death penalty for homosexuals (among other things). ES&S manufactures its 100% non-transparent touchscreen voting machines in sweatshops, in the Philippines. (See Dan Rather's "The Trouble With Touchscreens," at www.HD.net.)
SEQUOIA: --which hired Republican CA Sec of State Bill Jones, and his chief aide Alfie Charles, to peddle their machines, after Jones brought the curse of electronic voting to California--in one of the more spectacular cases of "revolving door employment" (one of the most corrupt practices in the U.S.).
These are the people who are 'COUNTING' ALL OUR VOTES WITH VIRTUALLY NO AUDIT/RECOUNT CONTROLS, out of public view, inside "black boxes" that neither you, nor I, nor any voter, nor even our secretaries of state, are permitted to see the insides of.
You say, "The U.S. hardly has the least transparent election system on earth." Well, you are dead wrong. The U.S. has the least transparent election system on earth! Hands down. Run by rightwing nutjobs, with 'TRADE SECRET' code.
Now let me tell you about Venezuela's election system. They also vote electronically, but the code in the machines is OPEN SOURCE CODE--anyone may review it--and they furthermore handcount a whopping 55% of the votes, as a check on machine fraud--more than five times the minimum needed to detect fraud. They have been heavily monitored by every major international election monitoring group--the Carter Center, the OAS, the EU and others--and their elections have been unanimously declared to be open, honest and aboveboard, in every way.
Our elections are awash in filthy money (you have to have a million dollars in hand, these days, to even think of running for Congress), in addition to the vote counting system having been privatized and placed in Bushwhack corporate hands.
Barack Obama cannot prove that he was elected. The proof isn't there. It does not exist. It is a 'TRADE SECRET'! I believe he was elected, in fact by more votes than were recorded (I think his mandate was significantly and fraudulently shaved), but I base that belief on exterior evidence (Democratic high registration figures; opinion polls; common sense), NOT on the counting of the votes. The votes were not counted. And half of them do not even exist in any visible, public form.
That is the truth, Cali. That is a fact. And it is one of the facts that makes our corpo/fascist 'news' monopolies' slander of Chavez, as a "strongman" or "dictator," so ironical. He can prove that he was elected. Our president cannot. There are others that I did not even mention. Who has his finger on nuclear weapons that could destroy all life on earth? Not Chavez. Who has the "Patriot Act" powers? Not Chavez. Who is killing innocent civilians in Afghanistan? Not Chavez. Who is occupying two countries with military force? Not Chavez.
Obama may be a great and well-intentioned leader--and I think he is. But these other facts are also true about him. He is the leader of a militaristic, corpo/fascist empire. He may be a "good king." He is nevertheless much more king than president. And Chavez is a president--transparently elected by big majorities of Venezuelans, and obviously acting in their interests, because they keep electing him, as well as electing Chavista majorities to the National Assembly. He has no nukes. He has no great army. He has no power except legal, constitutional, political power. But he does seem to have a rather good intelligence agency, which has kept him alive all this time, despite Exxon Mobil's wish for a different outcome. If the Bushwhacks hadn't gutted the CIA, maybe he would be dead. (Talk about ironies!) Chavez works by persuasion and by alliance and diplomacy. He has no power to coerce anybody. Obama seems inclined to work that way, and I hope he follows his inclinations, and is permitted to. But it simply cannot be denied that he also has the US 4th Fleet handy in the Caribbean, and US bases all over Latin America, but most particularly in Colombia, and the DEA, and the FBI, and the being-renovated CIA, and Defense Dept. agents, and dubious State Dept. Bushwhack holdovers, all ready to hand, in case he wants to use force. So, who is the "strongman"? Who bestrides the world with armies and nukes?
Again, I don't think of Obama as a "strongman." But he is, in many ways--or, rather, holds the powers to become one, which means latent bully power. Chavez has none of this.
My "slavering adulation of Chavez"? I'm just stating facts. I don't slavishly adulate anyone. I see Chavez's flaws. I see his failures. I also see his successes, against the odds--and against relentless hostility from the U.S. All in all, I think he's a good leader, and could be considered a great and visionary leader, certainly a courageous one. Is that adulation? Admiring someone on the basis of the facts? I also admire the people of Venezuela, for their defense of their democracy in 2002, and their transformation of their country into a better place, where the poor can go to school, and have access to medical care, and can put food on the table. And I admire their long, hard dedicated work to create a transparent, honest, aboveboard election system, that can elect real representatives of the people. Those are major accomplishments. Chavez is the president, but he didn't do it all. He is their representative. I don't "slavishly adulate" individual leaders, but I do sometimes slavishly adulate certain ideas, and democracy is one of them. It may be foolishly idealistic of me. But I worship democracy as I would a god. I think it is the answer to almost every ill. When it works right, it creates a sort of consensus wisdom of many minds. All ideas and policies are examined, put out there, talked up and down, and--if it's working right, with everyone involved--the best ideas and policies rise to the top and consensus on them is reached.
You can follow this phenomenon throughout the history of democracy--as, first, propertied white men were enfranchised (in relation to kings), then unpropertied white men were enfranchised, then women and men of all races, slavery was abandoned, segregation was eventually declared illegal, workers' rights were fought for and finally recognized. Each of these ideas was a revolution, brought about by a process of consensus, based upon the elements of democracy--free speech, free press, freedom of assembly, freedom of religion, voting. So, too, universal education and other human rights. It is the best form of government ever devised--if it is permitted to work right, and if the individual citizens take responsibility for making it work. That has happened in Venezuela. And I applaud them for it. Our democracy has become old and decrepit, and dominated by the rich and by fascists, and, above all, by global corporate predators and war profiteers. We need to renew our democracy, as it was in its best times--and as it was in its original idea. Government of, by and for the people. We are struggling towards that goal, after this Bush Junta interregnum. Venezuela is already there. It is not without problems, but it is, by God, a democracy. They print the Constitution on grocery bags, in Venezuela. And, yeah, I could be said to worship that idea.
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