Kerry Concedes but Ohioans Fight on.
I read this line in the Cleveland Plain Dealer "Cincinnati - Seeming to brush aside John Kerry's concession speech, the Ohio Democratic Party has launched a federal court fight over nearly 155,000 provisional ballots by contending a proper accounting of those votes might decide who really won."
Seeming to brush aside....? Well the fact is, it is not up to Kerry alone to determine whether or not votes are counted or whether they will bring victory or lead to his defeat. The media makes a big deal about concession speeches as if the candidate's admission of defeat constitutes the defeat. This is not the case because the politician alone does not decide whether he or she will serve or whether she or he is defeated. The people decide through their votes no matter what any politician says! Consequently whether Kerry fights or not doesn't matter. If the people, those that voted for Kerry, and those that voted against him want to fight to make sure all ballots are counted or that all the elections are fair then it is up to them to decide.
Of course we all know why Kerry conceded. Our fickle media would have labelled him a whiner had he fought and if he'd fought and still lost, as Gore did, he would have to slink away much as Gore did for a while. The difference between Gore and Kerry is that Kerry is a Senator and he still has a job to do and if the media, always ready to play up scandal and personality "flaws" regardless of party affiliation, would have pounced on him and savaged him as a whiner, then he would have lost the ability to be a strong Senator as he has promised he will be. He is a Senator who had 45 million people supporting him. No other Senator can claim that, certainly not those Senators (John Kyl- AZ, Bill Frist-TN) speaking out against Arlen Specter's forthcoming Chairship of the Judiciary Committee. Let us hope that Kerry follows through on his promise to stand up for us in the Senate and to not bow to media pressure (as he already did this one time).
Ohio might not turn towards Kerry as many of us hope, because of the President's fear and hate mongering tactics and an ignorant electorate, but at the very least we should all just acknowledge that regardless of what Kerry or Bush say this is a nation of the people and so it is the people who decide whether to challenge an election result not the politician (even when the politician does she/he does so as one of the people). Kerry could have stood up and announced that he lost and didn't deserve to be president and it wouldn't matter if we the people stood up, demanded a recount and found him to the be winner! He would still have to take up that mantle (unless he resigned making Edwards president) and serve.
So next time you read a newspaper talk about how Kerry conceded so thus there is no reason to fight, write that newspaper and point out that Kerry is but one of the American people and so his decision to say he lost is not the final decision. The final decision does and always will lie with the people of this nation.
Speaking of which, we have to be ever vigilant because if this election taught us one thing it is that there are forces at work in society who think they know better than us and who are committed to insuring that many of "we the people" cannot vote, or do not have our votes counted. It is for THESE people (those who cannot vote, or whose votes will not be counted) NOT for John Kerry that the Ohio Democratic Party is fighting. Every vote should count and if not even a John Kerry victory would meaningless.
Born on the 4th of July.
I am currently watching the end of Oliver Stone's "Born on the 4th of July" starring Tom Cruise. This movie, for some reason shown only after the election, tells the true story of Ron Kovic, a Long Island man who volunteered for the war in Vietnam, was paralyzed, and like John Kerry (though physically wounded far more than Kerry) became a Vietnam veteran against the Vietnam war.
This movie lays out the sort of turmoil we are going to face again as we finally learn the truth of the lies of Iraq, the murders of Iraq and the crimes of Iraq committed by our soldiers, who should not be there and who would not have committed crimes if they were kept at home.
War is inherently immoral. It turns young adults into killers, innocent civilians into "collateral damage" blown to pieces in "precision bombings" conducted with 500 pound bombs over their homes and holy places, and turns young and poor men and women into "terrorists" and "insurgents" and freedom fighters. Once we let loose the dogs of war they are not easy to reign back in.
The scars and bloodshed, the wounds and hurt will not go away. Thousands upon thousands of Iraqis are dead because of our actions. Almost 1200 American soldiers are dead because of President Bush's orders and a reaction to them that is as ferocious as it was predictable. Hundreds or so of soldiers from other nations not to mention our Iraqi "allies" (derided by many as "Collaborators" in occupation which of course they are) also are dead. Families are without fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, because of our actions.
I hear from others that Hussein was worse.... or Hussein was a butcher. OK. We can't deny that. He killed tens of thousands of people. Sadly, so now have we, and for what? Hussein is in prison, Iraq is in turmoil and thousands are dead. Seems to me that the only difference between Iraq under Hussein and Iraq under Bush (don't buy the lie that Iyad Allawi, himself a former trained killer for Hussein's Ba'ath Party, is in charge) is that now more than a thousand US soldiers and those from other nations are also dead. We have a promise of elections in January in Iraq which do provide a certain amount of hope, however as many have pointed out to me (while arguing that the democracy in Lebanon is illegitimate) is that elections while under the occupation of foreign powers cannot be considered legitimate.
So where are we now? Tough to say. Thousands dead. Thousands more certain to die. Elections to come? Well one might hope so.... of course there are elections to come in Cuba too, eventually, and we didn't have to flatten Cuban cities to make it so.
We are just in a conundrum, one that occurs in all situations of war. I honestly don't see this entry as one going anywhere.... I don't have answers really other than we must try to get away from this idea that we can bomb our problems away. It doesn't work especially in situations when nothing was happening. There was NO war in Iraq until we brought war to Iraq. Now there is war in Iraq and there will be war in Iraq for years to come.
Democracy is government of the people by the people. By this very reason outsiders cannot impose democracy. Imposition runs counter to what democracy is supposed to be, and so our project in Iraq is doomed to failure because of its inherent contradiction. If it were not doomed to failure we would not have had to impose Iyad Allawi in power. Allawi is a man who, according to complaints from Australian SAS soldiers reported in the Sydney Morning Herald, was seen personally executing prisoners in an Iraqi prison (one bullet to the back of the head) 5 days before assuming power from L. Paul Bremer. Allawi served in Hussein's secret police monitoring and executing Iraqi dissidents in Europe before Hussein took a dislike to him and tried to have him killed. He is not a good man, he is not a holy man, he is not a revered Iraqi figure and he is no principled anti-Hussein dissident. He is a killer and a thug. If not for Hussein's change of heart in the 70s Allawi would be rallying insurgents against us rather than US soldiers against them. Let us not mistake Allawi for a democrat. He is a tyrannical strongman, and our use of him demonstrates the incipient failure of Bush's project in Iraq.
Let us hope. Let us hope for an end to the bloodshed. Let us beg our troops home. Let us beg our troops to avoid killing innocents. We are in a catch-22 whose only escape route is a removal of our troops and an apology for the death of innocents in our project to "liberate" them, as well as an apology to the families of those soldiers killed by the actions brought on by lies and the waste of their lives for no purpose.
Although I have lost faith in organized faith because of the faithless actions of the so-called faithful, I do pray for the souls of those whose souls have been given flight years before they should have. I hope that those who found no peace in their lives can at least find it in their deaths and that those left behind can find the strength to choose peace and forgiveness rather than death and vengeance because it more than we deserve (and probably more than many of them deserve as well) but it is the best that we and they can hope for.
Maybe not so Red.
So more and more articles I read keep saying that at least two of our Red states might not have been as Red as we were led to believe. I mean it makes sense. There are three large swing states with exit poll results going Kerry and then the two states with Republican governors happen to go for Bush while the one with the Democrat goes for Rendell.
Of course one might say it is simply a matter of corruption from all three governors. Of course I would say that this is not the case. Pennsylvania was Blue in 2000 with Republican Tom Ridge as governor, while Ohio and Florida both went Red in both elections with Gov. Jeb (not to mention Secretary of State Katherine Harris- Chair of Bush-Cheney2000 in Florida) and Gov. Taft (not to mention, coincidentally, Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell- Chair of Bush-Cheney2004 in Ohio). Incidentally Pennsylvania re-elected a Republican Senator (Arlen Specter- endorsed by Bush) while voting for a Democratic president, while both Florida and Ohio narrowly elected or re-elected Republican Senators and voting for Bush. I mean Specter was in a tight race with Democrat Joe Hoeffel so if PA was corrupt why not just give Hoeffel the Senate too but they didn't so I can discount the Democratic corruption conspiracy in PA.
So what we have then is Ohio and Florida using electronic-computerized voting machines, exit polls that don't meet final results and, in Ohio at least the CEO of voting-machine-making company, Diebold, giving thousands to Bush and promising him to "deliver Ohio." Then you have a state (Florida) with the BROTHER of the president sending his police (the Department of Public Safety answerable directly to the governor's office) to investigate elderly African-American voters (as Bob Herbert documented leading up to the election) for "voter fraud" BEFORE the election even took place, but then denying the right of voters to see his "felon list" and examine the voting machines beforehand while not fixing the machines when they totally screwed up in the March primaries!
But, I will stop since others have written a bit more eloquently on this topic and uncovered far more evidence concerning irregularities than I can.
http://ustogether.org/Florida_Election.htm , http://us together.org/election04/FloridaDataStats.htm, http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=536&e=4&u=/ap/20041105/ap_on_el_pr/voting_problems , http://www.tompaine.com/articles/kerry_won_.php , http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1106-30.htm
So clearly some of these are partisan, but let's face it, would a Republican partisan even be digging around looking to uncover irregularities? No, I think not, so we can only expect partisans to investigate.
Kerry let me down by not fighting it more effectively, but hey Rep. Delay and Rep. Hastert made sure that voting machines couldn't have a paper trail, making any fight more difficult to wage, as well as an American electorate more willing to tolerate fraud than "instability." I guess the combination of American passivity and Republican legislative games have just managed to shut down democracy and enable vote stealing. If I were a Republican I would be worried too because just because the Republicans won this round of vote cheating doesn't mean Democrats won't be able to do it in the future and maybe even better. Our only guarantee would be a completely transparent and clear voting system. (not to mention stronger campaign finance reform which would keep these horrendous brainwashing ads off the news- from BOTH sides, and overturning the Supreme Court ruling that declares MONEY to equal free speech. I mean I always thought we enjoyed equal rights to free speech, but if money equals speech than a millionaire enjoys much more speech and far louder speech than I have which means we are not equal despite the Jeffersonian ideas in our Declaration of Independence and the 15th Amendment to our Constitution which guarantees Equal protection and assumedly equal voice under the law.
Oh yeah speaking of voting transparency. It is time we made Election Day a holiday. We have a holiday to celebrate Columbus who "discovered" the new world and managed to bring home syphillis and slaves to Europe, while abusing his crew and stealing their bounties (among other things). Of course he also helped begin what became a massive deliberate and accidental genocide of the native peoples here... anyway.... Columbus is not all the praise-worthy in my opinion yet we celebrate him so we should have Election Day be a national holiday since that would be more praiseworthy....
Since I have to respect the way Republicans affix BS names to their laws to hide their pernicious designs "Clear Skies Initiative" (to create pollution hotspots) "Health Forests Initiative" (to chop down forests) "Patriot Act" (to erode the rights patriot actually fought and died for) etc. We can all the Election Day holiday bill the "Freedom is on the March Bill" or "Celebrate Democracy by Voting bill"
I mean making Elections be on Tuesdays and also by making it difficult for people to register (except in Wisconsin where there is Election day registration and incidentally high voter turnout) we basically ensure that people who are struggling day to day cannot vote since they have to worry about jobs and paying bills rather than registering to vote a MONTH before the actual election, or getting up at 7AM to vote before heading to their 9-5 (or longer) job (and if longer than 9-5 with a lesser chance for overtime thanks to the new Bush Department of Labor regulations). With an election day holiday those long lines we saw at 7AM would not be an issue since we'd get all day to vote, or maybe heck why not make election day fall on a weekend when most of us are not actually working in the first place? Of course the reason that this hasn't happened is because those with the power really do not want a lot of people to vote so they leave it the way it is. I mean the "Founding Fathers" themselves spoke of this when they spoke of their fear of a "tyranny of the majority" or their fear of the "headless beast" which constituted the "masses." (Don't believe me? Read about Alexander Hamilton and the deliberations of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia which produced a Constitution reserving the vote only for white, male landowners)
So perhaps our next great democratic struggle should be to extend the voting franchise by making it easier to vote and by celebrating out democracy by creating Election day holidays. That would make us more of what we should be. I mean what better way to celebrate Democracy than by voting. Of course if what I suggest about voting machines above is accurate then perhaps we need to protect what little democracy we have before we can extend it.
Letters to America After November 2nd.
November 4, 2004
I start my blog career two days after the election that signals the beginning of the end of the career of the USA as a superpower. I was going to say respected but that ended the day our first soldiers crossed into Iraq.
Dear Red States,
Thanks a lot. We in the Blue states are now fucked. Note that the Blue States include such places as Chicago, New York, DC, Boston, Los Angeles, Seattle, San Francisco and the states that fill these cities with workers like Maryland, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Rhode Island. I say thanks because WE are the ones that are going to get bombed, gassed or nuked because of your stupidity.
Guess what “security moms” of Nebraska, Alabama, South Dakota, Idaho and similar Red States, you had nothing to worry about. Terrorists don’t give a shit about your states. There is nothing of value to a terrorist. Heck the non-Union automotive plants in Alabama should be stocked with workers nearly as pissed off as a Baghdadi who also lacks health insurance and an adequate wage as his job is also done by a South Asian. Of course in the case of Iraq we don’t even have the dignity to outsource the job we just import the workers themselves.
You were told that President Bush would protect you and you bought that crap hook, line and sinker not realizing that the same insularity that protects you from having to think about what the world thinks or what the world worries about also protects you from having to suffer the wrath of the world, a wrath born of the same insularity that leads to the election of assholes without a clue in the world about how to build true peace.
Again though, don’t worry, Bush is protecting you by sending your children and spouses to Iraq to provoke another round of terrorist attacks on the Blue States.
Yes, I am aware the Virginia, Florida and Texas went Red but that is because their Blue State elements were outvoted. Tallahassee and Jacksonville and rest of rural Florida outvoted Miami and Palm Beach, and West Texas, Waco, the Houston suburbs etc. outvoted Austin and poor minority Houston itself.
Remember, the second worst ever terrorist attack ever perpetrated on America was in Tulsa, Oklahoma by a pair of red-blooded, blue-eyed Americans who would have killed 3000 if they could but they couldn’t find 3000 people in Tulsa associated with the Federal government congregated in one area at one time. So if you all want “security,” rather than worrying about bombing civilians in Iraq, worry about your fellow blue-eyed citizens in the US who want to bomb their own cities.
So once again I would like to thank you for worrying about something that shouldn’t worry you to vote in a man who will make sure that I and millions of others like me will continue to have something to worry about.
Sincerely,
Travellinguist
Dear “Security” Moms,
Concerned about the safety of your children? Want to do something about it? Enlist in the armed forces. The man you support is currently suffering troop shortfalls in the war you believe is providing security to your children, so strap on a flak vest (that you have to buy at Wal-Mart, preferred retailer of the “security” mom), grab an M16 (now, thankfully, also available at that same Wal-Mart thanks to the expiration of the Brady Bill), go over to Iraq and help “secure” your child’s future.
Oh yeah, speaking of securing your child’s future, thanks to our catastrophic debt load your children might not be able to afford to go to college and most certainly will have a job (if your child does manage to secure the proper loans from a wealthy banking company) with less “security” and lower wages than you currently have.
Sincerely,
Travellinguist
Dear Firefighters and Police Officers,
President Bush keeps saying how heroic you are and many of you adopted “jets” and what not in our armed forces who are bombing Iraqis and Afghanis as we speak, but thanks to Bush’s economic policies (tax cuts for the wealthy that starve our states) your wages are not going to go up and many of you will soon be out of work.
Wanna go to Iraq and become a firefighter in one of those new Firehouses over there that Kerry pointed out we are actually opening? Want a job training the new Iraqi “police force”? That might be all that is left for you.
Sincerely,
Travellinguist
PS Because of Hazardous duty pay you’d at least make a wage commensurate with the dangers your job entails unlike in the States!
PPS Thanks to Bill Maher who pointed out that your wages from the President (and the rest of us) are pretty much psychological and not financial.
Dear People who voted for Bush because of his “morality,”
Pro-life (which is what most of you mean by “moral”) doesn’t mean gleefully presiding over the most executions of any Governor in United States combined in the 1990s, nor does it mean ordering the military to annihilate the cities of Baghdad, Fallujah and Ramadi to get a few hundred terrorists while explaining that you “don’t count civilian casualties.”
Furthermore, Jimmy Swaggart talked a lot about morality, God and praying, too and still had an extra-marital affair. Talking it and Living it are two different things.
Sincerely,
Travellinguist
Dear Catholic Bishops unwilling to give John Kerry communion,
Thanks for acknowledging to the rest of us lapsed Catholics that it is acceptable to only focus on or follow part of the Pope’s teaching. In case you forgot, the Pope opposes abortion, but he also opposes the Death Penalty and the Iraq War (war in general).
Being the selective Catholic consumer as you Bishops are, I will choose to follow the Pope’s lead on the death penalty and Iraq War, and will also point out for the millionth time that if we just taught kids and adults about how to use condoms and other forms of contraception they might not want/need to even have abortions. Which do you think is the greater sin in the eye of the Church pre-marital or extra-marital sex, or abortion?
Sincerely,
Travellinguist
PS I don’t think the Pope was very fond of how many of your fellow clergy sexually abused children and then got free passes to new parishes after you covered the whole thing up. Oh yeah and if God really is concerned about our behavior and sees you as his agents on Earth It/He/She must have been really really pissed!
Dear Young Republicans age 18-26,
Help your President keep his campaign promise. We are running low on troops to meet our force commitments throughout the world and to “secure” Iraq. You think that the war in Iraq was the “right war, in the right place, at the right time,” well now is the time to put your money where your boisterous mouths are.
It’s your war, for your president, for your beliefs, go defend them. Sign up at your local recruiting station and you too can soon be defending the conservative way of life on the streets of Baghdad.
Since your president received “more votes than any president in US history” he should not have a shortage of loyal soldiers to execute his will. Prove you stand behind him in more places than just the Ballot Box.
Sincerely,
Travellinguist
Dear Mom,
When you told me that John Kerry was not the answer my heart sunk. You were lied to and you believed, you were manipulated and you let it happen. You reserved your skepticism only for the criticisms from the Left and not the diarrhea coming from the Right. My only hope for you is that the worst of my fears will not come to pass so that you can enjoy your retirement with adequate health care and the security that you’ve earned through hard work as a teacher, librarian and mother.
Love,
Travellinguist
