RIGGING THE VOTE

I've been trying to stay out of general politics and the war here. I figure there are plenty of bloggers out there covering that territory but this story affects (or maybe I should say infects) the anti-prohibition movement as well as every citizen in the US. The Bush administration is destroying not only our constitution and the bill of rights but also the fabric of our democracy. Our vote is the most effective tool we have as private citizens to impact the policies of our government and our only real means to keep the legislature's power in check.

TruthOut reported this story yesterday on how the Bush neo-cons are planning to steal the next election. With this technology, they can rig any vote from a citizen's initiative to a presidential election.

The days of Daley's Chicago are gone. It's no longer necessary to raise the dead and strongarm the living legions to rig an election. The technology expands daily. Even as you read this, some kid is figuring out some new way to hack into something cool. The Pentagon has been hacked, how secure could an election be?

I figure you could practically pull this off with 12 people in the know and a few bright teenage hackers.

There's a lot of buzz over on the GNN forum about this item. Some of guerrillas would like to use this as an excuse to give up and not vote at all. Thankfully there seem to be more that take it a challenge to keep fighting to take back the system that Bush and his band of thugs are trying to steal from under our noses.

It's interesting that all the critical news that breaks on this administration seems to be coming out of Australia and New Zealand and to a lesser degree from England and Canada. I posed that question on the thread. The New Zealanders say it's because they care and the Aussies say it because their press is not bought by corporate interests. Personally, I think it's because the main-stream media in the US has become a bunch of gutless panderers of Bush-fed propaganda.

This story should scare you, but let it scare you into action, and not be used as an excuse for inertia.
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ON THE BATTLEFRONT

Meanwhile, the War On Some Drugs continiues unabated. Not is all news is bad however. Today in Canada, Health Minister Anne McLellan was dragged kicking and screaming into medical marijuana compliance. I've only started paying attention to Canadian politics lately but from what I see they seem to have enlightened jurists even though many of their bureaucrats are as morally corrupt as our own. It appears the system and the voters are working better there. Their laws at least seem to reflect the will of the people more than of corporate lobbyists.

US District Judge Jeremy Fogel cast a point of light in San Jose today when he asked the medical marijuana community to come up with some help and find a cite he could use to order an injuction against further raids in Santa Cruz. The Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana have been long awaiting a ruling in the case. Good to know we have some enlightened jurists on this side of the border as well.

On the other hand, not unexpectedly, the US Government will appeal Ed Rosenthal's sentence. Our government's attempt to circumvent a sensible decision by US Dist. Judge Charles Breyer on a downward departure from the mandatory sentencing guidelines. That would be the federal government spending our tax dollars fighting the state government's citizen mandated laws.

I know it wasn't all rosy under any adminstration, the government has often irritated me, however, at this moment it terrifies me. As they dismantle our civil rights, the ability to dissent is almost imperceptibly undermined. Their agenda is transparent, their machinations so clumsy yet they are getting away with it because they sold their souls to the corporate powers who protect and elect them and have taken over the media which would otherwise expose them.

Our need is clear. We have to depose the Bush dynasty in 04 or we will lose any vestige of democracy as we know it. Let that be the final word today.

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