A final rant. WARNING... [View All]

[mostly_lurking]

many of you will not like this, but it needs to be said.

It's time to let it go.

I joined this forum shortly after the election. As my forum name implies, I have spent most of my time here reading and researching, posting only when I thought I had something to contribute. What I have seen over the past 2 months, however, has been a spiral into self-delusion that is damaging to the Democratic party and threatens to keep Republicans in power for a generation at least.

In spite of repeated statements (in this forum) about all of the mounting "hard" evidence of fraud, any objective evaluation has to conclude that there is no "hard" evidence at all. Absolutely none. That's why the all the Democratic senators voted "nay" yesterday, leaving Boxer with her ??? hanging out all over the place.

The vaunted "exit polls" were useful at first as they cast suspicion and provided starting points to investigate. Well guess what. Every hand-count done, EVERY ONE, shows that the votes were properly counted. That includes counts in Florida by the Miami Herald, Ohio during the 3% recount, and most especially during the Ida Briggs/Nader recount in NJ.

Still, I see posts about how the chances that Bush won the election are 100,000,000,000,000 to 1 (sarcasm here, but the "odds" just get bigger and bigger). It's stupid. The polling firm itself isn't contesting the facts, and all these "odds" are based on mathematical "analyzes" of incomplete data with LOTS of unknown factors. But what this sounds like is this: "Hey, the exit polls are MUCH more reliable than the actual votes. Let's stop having elections... we can just use exit polls to determine the winners!" That, my friends, is why no one is paying any attention to this red herring.

And oh yes, the recount in Ohio was "rigged." Implying, of course, that all the Democrats in the BOE's are actually Republican plants. Wow, that is an amazing feat. I am continually amazed at how the Republicans managed to find this superhuman (with truly God-like powers)... Karl Rove. Oh, please. If he truly is as skillful at manipulating people as many here believe than perhaps the Bush administration deserves to be in power. Personally, I think you give Rove WAY to much credit.

So what's left? Bev, Curtis, Madsen, Fischer, and Arnebeck? Well, through all of Bev's public brashness and rants she has produced exactly ZERO evidence of vote rigging through BBV. She's reaching for the moon but is falling short. Madsen, Fischer, and Curtis? Well they are already on the moon (and from all I have read about them they should stay there). We have dead dogs, fake $21 million checks, sophomoric visual basic programs, and reform schools filled with teenage hackers trained to steal elections.

Arnebeck's suit is based primarily on the same flawed analysis of the "exit polls." It's going nowhere... Moyer is apparently being "polite" before he squashes it like a bug. It is moot now anyway as the US Constitution will trump anything a state court does.

So what's the point of this rant? To try and get the base here to WAKE UP. I believe the "victories" here are actually helping the Republicans, and in a big way.

The recount in Ohio was forced by the Greens/Libs by exploiting a law designed to allow serious candidates (i.e. with a real chance of winning) an avenue to redress real concerns. Kerry chose not to pursue that course, so the Glibs, at the urging of this forum, abused the law and forced Ohio to conduct the recount. The law, written in the mid 1950's, allowed the recount to be forced at a fraction of the actual cost. This, very rightly, PISSED OFF many in Ohio, INCLUDING many Democrats. The BOEs (which consist of both Republicans and Democrats) were insulted at the accusations of incompetence and fraud, and the taxpayers in Ohio get to pick up the bill for what many see as a frivolous fishing expedition forced by those who just couldn't accept the results of the election. Like it or not, that is the perception.

Similarly, the spectacle in the US Congress yesterday was extremely hurtful to the Democrats. Tubb-Jones and Boxer both admitted, in public speeches prior to the contest, that they weren't trying to really contest the election but rather wanted to shine a light on irregularities and voter problems. Fine... EXCEPT they abused a Constitutional provision and hence cheapened that provision for future, legitimate uses. Like the recount in Ohio, they abused a protection for political purposes and accomplished nothing.

If I subscribed to the Rove theories, I would swear that he is an active member in this forum, under many names, with the express purpose of keeping the faithful marching down the path it has taken over the past two months. All this is doing is taking our eyes off the real problems and issues and keeping us in the dark. Unless the Democrats wake up and start looking for the real reasons Kerry lost and Bush won, we are doomed to repeat this spectacle in election after election.

To sum up, I have become convinced over the last two months that Bush really did win. I will now direct my energies toward more productive pursuits designed at winning the next election and not moaning and whining about elections being "stolen."

The last one out, turn out the lights.