"How the hell did this man get elected?"

[proud2BlibKansan]

Some friends of mine just got back from Bali. They said as soon as they got off the plane and into a cab, the cab driver asked them if they liked George Bush. They said no. He asked if they had voted for him and they said no. So the cab driver said he didn't get it, he asks every American in his cab these same questions and every single one of them says the same thing my friends said. And the cab driver asked how the hell did this man get elected.

Kinda makes you go hmmm.

[Liberal In Texas]

1. Dibold. Caging.

Read Greg Palast's "Armed Madhouse."

[proud2BlibKansan]

2. Yes I have read it twice now

Great book!

[Liberal In Texas]

9. Indeed. I'm in the middle of Bamford's

And after reading "Body of Secrets" and "The Puzzle Palace" I have no doubt that he has inside contacts and info. about the nefarious operation of our government.

Both Palast and Bamford are national treasures. Or should I say "assets"

[proud2BlibKansan]

26. Looks interesting

Thanks for the recommendation. I will check it out:)

[Bongo Prophet]

3. Funny thing, that. After WW2 it was hard to find supporters of Adolf.

And no, godwin's law doesn't apply if the example is apt.

;)

[Orsino]

20. Fuck Godwin's Law.

Only an idiot would deny the resemblance.

[Occulus]

41. Thank you for that

Godwin can go straight to hell...

[Ron Green]

4. Most of the people who voted for Bush probably don't travel abroad much.

[rucky]

7. And certainly not Indonesia. n/t

[proud2BlibKansan]

27. Probably too scared of the terrorists

:scared:

[The_Casual_Observer]

5. Only smart people travel to Bali?

I suppose there would be some lie-your-ass-off republicans in the mix too.


Success has many fathers...

[CreekDog]

13. Well, George Bush is a bastard

:rofl:

[Lucinda]

6. You know what the really sad thing about your post is?

We have so many bad apples, I didn't automatically know who you were going to post about.

[proud2BlibKansan]

28. LOL

I know what you mean.

[MagickMuffin]

8. Well when you have a brother who is the governor of a big electoral state

then it appears relatively easy. Don't forget to include Texas with our electoral votes and presto whamo the major idiot is (S)elected .

They had several years to put the players into place. With Poppy's connections to the CIA then it becomes even easier. You did know about Poppy's friend exCIA man who got a call while golfing that he was needed at RNC HQ's.
He immediately left the course and headed on over to retrieve ballots that needed some adjusting.

I watched ALL the court hearings during the debacle.

Sad sad day for Democracy.

on edit: K&R :hi:

[proud2BlibKansan]

29. I was too depressed to watch those hearings

Thank goodness I have friends like you to watch them and let me know how bad they were - when I was finally ready to hear it. :hi:

[flashl]

10. The answer is ...

Demonstration Elections

Demonstration elections are "free elections" as a tool of public relations.

Elections have been used by the United States as an instrument of management in Third World client states since the turn of the century. The functions which they have served, however, have changed in accordance with the shifting demands placed upon the managers. The aim in holding such elections has always been to ensure 'stability'. In the first half of this century the threat to stability came almost exclusively from within the client states, which were subject to internal turmoil and thus threatened with a loss of 'independence.' In recent decades, serious challenges have arisen from within the United States itself. It is this shift in functional need that has led to the emergence of elections oriented to influencing the home (U.S.) population, which we designate 'demonstration elections.'
— Edward S. Herman and Frank Brodhead, Demonstration Elections: U.S.-staged elections in the Dominican Republic, Vietnam, and El Salvador, South End Press, 1984, p. 1.

Districts are gerrymandered to ensure results. Voters are purged from databases. We have vote flipping voting machines.

Knowing all of this, we keep expecting to have an "honest" election.

And, worse, we believe that large numbers of people actually vote for him because we saw it on TV.

[CreekDog]

11. I disagree with your premise

Elected?

[orleans]

12. no shit. what city is the cab driver in? i could maybe understand if

he was driving in ny or chicago but i'm thinking he might not be driving in blue territory and he's still getting that answer.

[scarletwoman]

14. The cab driver quoted in the OP was in Bali -- not in the U.S. (nt)

[DFW]

15. Taking office is not always a result of having been elected.

See "Bush, subsection George W."

[HughBeaumont]

16. The short answer is "he didn't".

It took the most brazen robbery since the S&L scandal to pull it off.

That and there are more sub-idiots in Florida, Texas and Ohio than there are thinkers.

[proud2BlibKansan]

30. I live in Kansas

So I try hard not to criticize people in other states. There are good people here and there are idiots. And the good people work pretty hard to keep the idiots in line.

[Perry Logan]

17. To believe America reelected The Worst President Ever™ is a smear on America's name.

[Orsino]

19. Whether or not there were actually enough votes cast to elect him...

...* is a stain on America's reputation.

That there were actually enough votes to come sorta close to electing him--twice--is perhaps the greater stain. So many systems--the media, judiciary, education, and Americans' attention spans--had to fail for him to get anywhere near the White House that we can say that the nation is dying, and has been since before most of us knew GHWB had any sons.

* is a great evil, but he is still only a symptom. The rot goes deep.

[alphafemale]

18. What...you think FReepers travel...abroad?

:rofl:

[proud2BlibKansan]

31. Yes we did discuss that impossibility

and we decided that drinking the terror koolaid would keep them from ever going to somewhere like Bali.

[madokie]

21. thats the sixty four dollar question

"How the hell did this man get elected?"
The answer is by cheating and stealing and you know what he'll go out kicking and screaming too, while I'll be laughing my ass off at him. to be followed shortly with tears for what we've lost and what the worlds been through.
The dickster is the person who we must not take our eyes off of, he's the schemer, the evil one in all this, I'm convinced of that

[Hersheygirl]

22. Do you really think people are going to admit

to being that stupid?:dunce:

[in_cog_ni_to]

23. Most people won't admit, in PUBLIC, they voted for the psycho, but in private they worship him!

Who, in their right mind, would ever admit something like that? I know I sure as hell wouldn't!

[JI7]

24. Bali isn't really a place conservatives would travel to

[lonestarnot]

25. Well I hope the fuck they told him he didn't!

[proud2BlibKansan]

32. They are both passionate about election fraud

So I am sure they filled that cab driver in. :hi:

[VP505]

33. It was the same thing

with Nixon after Watergate, nobody wanted to admit voting for him. I can remember asking friends and co-workers if they knew how he got elected, considering that nobody voted for him.

[postulater]

34. Of course. All he sees are Dems. Why would a republican go to

Bali? Is there oil there or something?

[EFerrari]

35. You know what's funny? Every time BushCo scams us, we blame

ourselves and lose a little more faith in each other.

They steal the election, we wonder who voted for him -- except those voters don't exist.

They scam us on home loans, we wonder who was irresponsible -- except due diligence wouldn't expose the traps.

They lie us into a war, we wonder why nobody is outraged -- except they were and are outraged.

It's uncanny the way we get manipulated like this, every time.

[mentalsolstice]

36. Easy answer!

Of the five people who voted for him, one of them is dead, and the other four don't strike me too much as people who want to don bikinis and soak up the sun on Bali beaches.

[Rosemary2205]

37. Carlyle Group.

[Booster]

38. Same thing happened with Nixon. You couldn't find one person

who would admit they voted for him.

[leftofthedial]

39. he didn't

this is a potemkin america

[Beelzebud]

40. Because we live in a Banana republic, and our elections are rigged.

[mainer]

42. I hear that question everywhere when I'm abroad

Same question was asked of me in Turkey, Egypt, Malaysia, and all over Europe. We're all telling the truth -- we didn't vote for him. It's just that Bush supporters don't seem to travel very much, which may be why they're Bush supporters.

[DarkTirade]

43. Of course you also have to consider...

just how many freepers visit Bali? :) Only people I know who've made it out that far are openminded progressive types.

[LeftishBrit]

44. You don't NEED to be elected when you've got a little brother like Jeb!