Sunday, January 16, 2005

No Stolen Elections?!

On January 5th, an organization called No Stolen Elections! presented the office of Russ Feingold with an 800 letter petition, asking Feingold to fight against voter fraud, most notably in Ohio. Now No Stolen Elections! does not pretend to be a bipartisan organization. In this article on Znet, founders Steve Cobble and Charles Shaw open by saying the following:
Let's start with the conclusion: We encourage people to work for regime change at home all day on November 2nd, Election Day, and then prepare to return to the streets on November 3rd (and perhaps beyond), at predetermined, symbolic, convenient locally-chosen sites.

So it is safe to say that Cobble and Shaw are not exactly Bush supporters. In fact, given that they went to the "People's Legislature" in Madison to collect signatures, it's hard to take them seriously at all. Just the same, in their ZNet article, Cobble and Shaw claim they were inspired to prevent another stolen election aka Florida 2000, stating:
A right-wing cabal stole an election, partly in the dark of night, partly in broad daylight.

If they were legitimately upset by Florida in 2000, then they should be down right outraged by Wisconsin in 2004, where in the dark of night, Republican rental vehicles were vandalized, and in broad daylight, large numbers of unverified votes were counted in Milwaukee County. Of course, they won't be, but one of their stated goals was that "We must also prepare to defend the vote." Here's their chance to "defend the vote". In fact, give them a little encouragement. Go to their feedback page and ask them to petition Sen. Feingold to open investigations on Capital Hill into voting irregularities and foul play in Wisconsin. After all, if their purpose is completely upright and honest, they should be even more outraged at election fraud here in Wisconsin as perpetrated by Democrats than they were by the "irregularities" in Ohio or in Florida.

And by the way, if you do not recognize Cobble and Shaw, I'll give you brief bios. Cobble has dabbled in writing, doing several pieces for The Nation, as well as working as a political director for the Rainbow Coalition and as an advisor for the Kucinich campaign. Shaw, on the other hand, is the Editor of Newtopia Magazine, which is self described as "A Journal of the New Counterculture." Well, now would be a nice time to see if the "new counterculture" holds consistent values or, if they are just like the mainstream culture they disdain, holding values of convenience.

Disclaimer: It is only with more than a little bit of indigestion that I give this organization any free publicity. I have no doubt that they will find nothing wrong with what has happened here in Wisconsin. I decided it was worth giving them the coverage only because they should be challenged to live up to their own publicly proclaimed desire to "defend the vote".

(Cross-posted at Badger Blog Alliance)

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