A day of confrontation

A big day today. Angry Ohio voters, counters and recounters will confront the Conyers investigation today in Ohio...the electoral college casts its votes...and Democratic Lawyer Cliff Arnebeck is going to lay out his legal case at 9:00 this morning.

If the mainstream media somehow manages to ignore this flurry of activity, they could ignore a nuclear war.

Precinct 440, Greene county, Ohio: The information I posted yesterday concerning the strange doings in this largely African-American community was incorrect. I spoke to someone "on the ground" in Ohio, and got the straight skinny.

This precinct serves a college with a primarily black student body. 1336 people tried to register, but only 593 people were allowed to cast ballots -- a "turnout" of 44.39%. The reason? The election officials would not accept ballots from students living on campus because they all had the same street address!

Just another one of those "whoopsie-daisy" accidents that just happened to disenfranchise blacks...

You will recall yesterday's study by Richard Hayes Phillips, which proves that turnout numbers are mysteriously low in pro-Democratic areas of Ohio -- despite the long lines of heroic voters who stood in cold weather until after midnight.

The recount lockdown in Greene County: The folks involved with the recount -- and with keeping an eye on the election offices -- are dog tired. Every concerned citizen owes those fighters for democracy an expression of gratitude.

You will recall that the recount was stopped, and that the ballots were yanked out of the hands of recounters. Sealed and locked boxes of optical scan ballots were placed inside the election offices --which were then left unlocked. Someone entered overnight, as evidenced by a lit lamp.

My source tells me that one big worry now is that the Republican election machinery deliberately left the door open. Why? Not to let Ken's minions sneak in -- after all, they would have a key to the door. Rather, the intention may have been to lay the groundwork for the claim that Democrats tampered with those ballots!

If the Republican propagandists do try to push that idea, remember: Those ballots were kept in locked, sealed boxes. Could someone from Ken Blackwell's office open up those boxes, stuff them with Bush ballots, and then re-lock and re-seal them? Of course. But could the recounters manage a similar trick? Hardly.

Where would they get the keys and the seal?

The Boston Globe was supposed to report on this story today. They didn't. (However, they did have room for an in-depth look at the new Kevin Spacey movie.)

Actually, the Globe published an AP story which covered the demonstrations -- though not the data about the recount lockdown. Yet according to William Rivers Pitt, the Globe had its own reporters on the scene. Why did they rely on the AP, and why did both news outlets ignore the story of Blackwell's criminality? Odd!

If you want to read a good article about Ken Blackwell's blatant violation of the law, go here.

Absentee ballots in Ohio. Did you know that more absentee ballots were counted than were issued? Check out the data here.

What is to be done? Will Arnebeck, Bev Harris, John Conyers and all the other heroes manage to put John Kerry's hand on the Bible in January? I support their efforts, but I remain a pessimist.

But the story will not end if and when Bush takes the oath of office. The real battle is for legitimacy, and that battle will be fought on foreign turf.

We must convince the rest of the world that America is no longer a democracy. If we are treated as a pariah state, if boycotts ruin the sales of American products, if overseas investors stop funding our deficit, if other nations refuse to negotiate agreements with us, if our prestige plunges ever further into the sewer -- then our rulers may come to rue the price of empire.

We will get democracy back when its replacement proves too costly.