As usual, Larry's brilliance and humor shine and at its core always the truth. But his essay made me even more frightened and hence I am forced to share my own terror.
Of course I'm like a little child next to the political brain power by almost everyone who writes on this site. Thank God.
I was about to write a piece a few days back after seeing something on TV very early morning West Coast time then realized who cares what I think, especially when I hardly do. I'd prefer to rip the GOPs in my own self-deprecating way as I have for decades in front of millions on TV, radio and in print interviews without posting that much on this incredibly erudite web site.
Plus, most who would read what was scaring me yet again would be read mostly by my own base. I haven't written that many essays this year as not unlike Larry David's recent piece who himself also has been so frightened if Obama would lose, I have felt that writing, especially in the past few years, (and not unlike what Larry said, and I'm paraphrasing), "might hex one of the Dems." Moreover, for me, in my own bleak scenario, I considered the very real chance that my words would give some lunatic, separation of church and state blurring anti-Semitic fringe writer, some great comment to spin and help lose a state and the election for Senator Obama.
That said, this afternoon, I decided to publicly humiliate myself with my good intentions and political naiveté. Obviously, I can't watch or listen to every show or read every article -- few can. I think I'm enlightened enough to see though all the bullshit and clearly realize that the Bush administration has turned this country into the Invasion of the Body Snatchers by our own government.
I'll cut to the chase. There is some folklore in baseball that "the shot heard round the world" home run hit by Giants ball player, Bobby Thompson, was not 100% kosher as he got signs from some Giants coach hiding in center field behind the scoreboard, and alerted Bobby that a curve was coming. That said, hitting a home run is still hard but he did and they beat the Dodgers in one of the most historic games in history.
The GOP easily, poor campaigns run by the Dems aside, stole the elections in 2000 for sure and probably in '04.
Rachel Maddow had RFK Jr.on her show early this week talking about the purging and the suppressing of the votes and the "matches" that make it so hard for people to vote and not surprisingly these concerns (as written in the piece in Rolling Stone) only seem to come from The Democratic side. Duh.
Anyway, I couldn't sleep and for me to watch MSNBC's Morning Joe takes me back to my drug days before 1994, being up at 3 AM, though I do catch some of the shows and go back to sleep. So, at about 9:25-9:30 AM EST I believe on Oct 23rd on CNN, while clicking around the TV, there was a piece about the "touch screens" and voting early. The news of record early turnouts seems like great news but when the piece on West Virginia came on, and at least in this story, 2 counties in that state had been reporting problems I started shaking again. It wasn't like that I don't expect voter shenanigans yet again this year but to see some sweet, 81-year-old man describe how he touched the voting screen four times for Obama and McCain's name came up and then other similar personal stories, my mind went wildly negative thinking of all the votes that will be lost that way and not just with all the other historic ways to make sure the GOP ticket wins as was so articulately discussed by RFK Jr.
I'm writing because as much as I know you know this exists, prior to Nov 4th all the talking heads will spit out their talking points and a huge invisible elephant will most certainly be behind some scoreboard in many counties laughing through his trunk as he changes enough Obama votes to assure this country will go down a path so scary and so right wing that it squeezes almost every ounce of hope in my body that things will ever be what the Founding Fathers wanted us to to be.
I'm rambling and I'm sorry but I guess I am hopeful that the voting machines and the purging and the actual process is big news -- and not finger-pointing as much as "news."
The GOP would spin it faster than those plate spinners on the old Ed Sullivan show that we are paranoid about of losing a tight race while they quietly know they will manipulate their victory. The GOP voter registration "pod" (forget the actual title -- like Elvira in FL in 2000) in West Virginia, when asked how could this happen, said to the reporter with a really scary smile, something like, "I wouldn't know how to make this machine screw up if I wanted to."
Great, so the manufacturer can.
And then CNN reported (to make it like it was being evenhanded) that there are ways to clear what you voted if you voted wrong. Gimme a break! How many people would actually check to make sure when they touched Obama's name that McCain's wouldn't come up instead before leaving the booth? I'm sure enough don't double check and will keep that elephant laughing until the "End of Days."
Not to mention, we never hear about a story like that from Republicans who are registering to vote, attempting to vote, perfect match, rigging machines etc... this just doesn't happen. We don't hear that from Republican voters. Never have. Just those who are registered Democrats or likely to be voting Democrat. Period.
I can't imagine that Obama's staff will not be 1000% more proactive on this versus Gore who just basically caved in 2000 under so much pressure and ultimately letting "the Supreme Court from Hell" ruin us. If it happens again... oh my God.
And speaking of Hell, I simply will not tolerate another stolen vote and election, tantamount to a sentence of another four-to-eight years of Hell, because we all haven't been vigilant, on the ball and done our jobs. This time, there is no excuse. We're aware of all of the tactics going on. We're aware that they will do and say anything to win and stop at nothing. How many times can we say we're surprised?
As our bone-headed current leader put it so effectively: "Fool me once, shame on -- shame on you. Fool me -- you can't get fooled again."
I hope the voting situation is BIG NEWS now on the networks and airwaves to prevent a potential political nightmare for this country and not just all of us crying on Nov 5th, as we stand on our roof tops weeping and trying in a daze to wave to Russia as our country goes down the drain.
Richard Lewis
An American Patriot
Related: Larry David: Waiting for Nov. 4th
Related: Albert Brooks: Not to Worry