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in voting systems throughout the country, owned and controlled by far rightwing, Bushite corporations, with virtually no audit/recount controls, before, consider them now. For one thing, neither Barack Obama, nor any public official in the country, can prove that he or she was actually elected. I happen to think that Obama WAS elected, by a landslide, in fact--about 5% more than the "official count" reflects--but the fact that he can't prove it, and the fact that these far rightwing corps could have easily--EASILY--denied him victory, and can do so in 2012, greatly influences what he is doing now and will do in office.
Here's what I think happened. Obama's was a genuine insurgent campaign, with the enthusiasm and hard work of his supporters inspired by a determination to rid the Democratic Party of pro-war, pro-corporate leaders. The early momentum of his campaign during the primaries came from the caucus states, which are NOT counted by Diebold & brethren. He won something like 11 out of 15 of them, and was thus launched as a serious contender. Money started pouring in from the American people, whose contempt for our DLC leaders resulted in a 10% approval rating for the 2006 so-called Democratic Congress (worse approval rating than Bush, for godssakes!). The people clearly wanted real change. The money, and the volunteers pouring in, and the big crowds at rallies, kept Obama in the running. The people made him a serious contender. Hillary Clinton's Florida/Michigan strategy (ignore the rules, get early momentum as the 'inevitable' candidate) collapsed.
At that point, I think Obama underwent an early vetting by the global corporate predators who rule over us. He began his very distinct move to the right. Also, I think it suited the powers-that-be to have two big liberal groups--women and blacks--at each other's throats. The contest in the Diebold & brethren primaries (most of the country) went on and on and on. I don't think this was genuine--but was deliberately prolonged. Obama won it, and we should have realized then that nobody gets that far in a U.S. presidential election without a serious compromise of principles (if he or she has any, at that point), and a deal with the emperor-makers. The voting system is so egregiously non-transparent, and so corporatized, that it cannot be otherwise. These rightwing corps DO have the power to steal any presidential election, with almost no hope of detection. Half the voting systems in the country are 100% non-transparent. The other half are 99% non-transparent (use 'TRADE SECRET' systems with only a 1% audit; recounts almost never occur, and are very difficult to get).
Obama then had to win an all-Diebold-&-brethren general election, in which there was to be virtually no transparent vote counting--no hands raised, as in the caucus states, no ballot TO count in half the systems in the country, and things not much better in the other half. That is when the most serious vetting by the global corporate predators occurred, when Obama brought Biden on board, and when he made his deal with the Clintons. And that is when he became more the creature of the global corporate predators than the candidate of the anti-war, corporate-oppressed masses. And now we are seeing the results of that deal.
I happen to think that Obama is a good guy--good heart, very intelligent, wants to do good, and is not particularly beholden to any corporate predator interest (at least this was the case at the beginning). But he was running for emperor, not president. And I think we have to face this. Until We, the People, restore transparent vote counting--which is still possible to do, since power over voting systems still resides in local/state venues--our opinion doesn't count for much, and can easily be overridden, and our sovereignty as a People--our right to hold our leaders accountable--is nil. We are no longer a sovereign people. The global corporate predators are the sovereign, and they have the final say on who gets to be emperor, which means that anyone who wants to be emperor--for good or for ill--must obey them, not us.
Private, rightwing corporate, 'TRADE SECRET' vote counting is not the only thing wrong with our election system, by any means, but it was the coup d'grace--the final blow--to a democratic system that was already in deep trouble, from the filthy campaign contribution system, and global corporate predator monopoly control of the media. 'TRADE SECRET' vote counting makes reform impossible. It is the final blockade to real reform. And until we peel back the corporate veil that has been placed over vote counting, nothing is going to change. The Democrats-In-Name-Only are going to continue to serve war profiteer/corporate interests, and set things up for nazis like Cheney and Rumsfeld. It was Bill Clinton who bombed Iraq for 8 years, softening it up for invasion. It was Bill Clinton who shoved "free trade" down our throats, and down the throats of millions of people in South America (who are now rejecting it) and others. It was Bill Clinton who promoted the U.S. "war on drugs," and larded the fascist narco-thugs running Colombia with billions of dollars in military aid, to murder thousands of union leaders, peasant farmers, human rights workers and others in Colombia.
Which brings me to Obama's appointments. The one that makes me angriest is Eric Holder, Obama's new Attorney General. Holder was the high-priced corporate attorney for Chiquita International, whose execs paid $1.7 million to rightwing death squads in Colombia, who murdered some 4,000 union leaders and members over a 7 year period. Holder, in collusion with the Bushwhacks, rescued these execs, and got them a handslap (a minor fine, in corporate terms, payable over time) for whacking some 4,000 people!
To my mind, this was an unconscionable appointment, and it tells us exactly where Obama stands, vis a vis the global corporate predators who are running things. He stands under them. He feels beholden to them, not us.
The best thing we can do to help Obama achieve some independence from these fuckwads--if we judge him worthy (and he may be--I really don't know yet)--is to restore transparency to our voting system and insure that we can re-elect him. In my opinion, the bad guys' direct control of the vote counting is why he is making these dreadful compromises.
Again, I think the corporate 'news' monopolies are a big factor. They can make or break an emperor, or any public figure, at the drop of a hat--or that is how it has been up to now. They did it to Kerry. They did it to Dean. They did it to Kucinich. They did it to Edwards. Combined with Bushwhack NSA spying, they probably did it to Spitzer. Combined with Bushwhack politicalization of the DOJ, they did it to Siegelman and others. In California, they did it to our good Sec of State, Kevin Shelley, when he sued Diebold (six months before the 2004 election). They have been doing it to Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela, for some time. There are many examples. I do think the American people are developing some immunity to these dirty psyops by the corpo/fascist media--which is one reason that 'TRADE SECRET' vote counting was so necessary to our rulers. (The bill that fast-tracked 'TRADE SECRET' vote counting all over the country was passed by the Anthrax Congress in the same month as the Iraq War Resolution--Oct '02). But the false narratives in the corpo/fascist media are still a big factor in elections. People may not believe them (--nearly 60% of the American people opposed the Iraq War--Feb '03, all polls--during the period in which the IWR and the e-voting bill were passed--despite intense, 24/7 warmongering and propaganda), but people do get demoralized under these onslaughts of propaganda. They are effective at confusing and disempowering people. And the billions of dollars raised from lobbyists and the super-rich, to pay for hugely expensive corporate TV ads, is also, of course, extremely corrupting.
'TRADE SECRET' vote counting is the final blow, though. It deprives us of the ability to elect real representatives of the people, and to protect them--to keep them in power, through re-election. Transparent vote counting insulates our leaders, to some extent, from global corporate predator influence. That is why transparency in our voting system was deliberately destroyed.
'TRADE SECRET' vote counting is better than assassination, I suppose (the raw method of the war profiteers, in controlling the emperorship, in the 1960s). It also means that our rulers are afraid of us--which I have always considered a good sign. Through the '80s and '90s, the corpo/fascist media prevailed as the primary fucker-up of our democracy. Now, the lawlessness and looting of these predators has gotten so bad that they MUST directly control the vote counting, along with everything else.
So that's where we should start, while we still have the opportunity to do so--that is, while control of the voting system still resides at the local/state level. (That could change.)
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