The goal is a one party state where corporate America can write their own rules. If that sounds extreme, consider this treatise by chief GOP strategist Grover Norquist, who runs the weekly meeting where elected Republicans and the right wing press synchronize their message:
"The Democratic Party is Toast"
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2004/0409.norquist.html
Norquist also famously said, "Bipartisanship is another name for date rape."
Their financial motive, if it wasn't clear enough in the invasion of Iraq and cuts of capital gains and inheritance taxes, should be irrefutable after Bush chose privatizing Social Security as his first big issue after the election. It would give a big chunk of money to Wall Street, and remove the "security" part of Social Security.
If money is the motive, the logical way to fight back is money.
One part of this is demanding that state retirement funds divest from vote rigging companies, as the campaign below needs a minute of your time to do. If you are unfamiliar with how this is done, take a look at this video, and skip up to the segment with Howard Dean, which is about two minutes long. Anybody with an basic knowledge of computers will understand how blatant this scam is after seeing this: http://votergate.tv/movie_links.html
Another way to do this is to pull your money out of large banks and move it to a credit union. These large banks like Bank of America contribute overwhelmingly to GOP to work against your interests. 600,000 people have pulled their money out of B of A since last summer. If enough people do this, it will put a crimp in the money they have to cause trouble with. For a further explanation, see this:
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0407/S00040.htm
Protests are good, but they aren't as effective when the people we are protesting own the networks and simply ignore the largest protests in the history of the world, as happened before the Iraq War. They can't ignore an empty pocket though.
KEY EXCERPTS:
• Go to www.velvetrevolution.us/campaigns/dv4d/ and fill out the form to send letters to all nine companies with one click
• Make a generous donation to VR at www.velvetrevolution.us/donate.php to support this massive effort
• Send a letter to Congress telling them that you want paper ballots, open software and non-partisan election officials at www.velvetrevolution.us
• Spread the word about VR and the campaign by telling your friends, posting on the blogs, writing letters to the editor and speaking out.
FULL TEXT:
Begin forwarded message:
From: "Andy Stephenson"
Date: March 9, 2005 9:43:09 PM PST
Subject: Please Support the Velvet Revolution!
Hello, I am writing to ask for your strong support on an electoral reform issue that can make a real difference – the Divestiture for Democracy campaign initiated this week by www.velvetrevolution.us. In short, after two months of hard work, VR, with my active assistance, sent letters to the nine major vote machine companies (Diebold, ES&S, Sequoia, MicroVote, TriadGSI, HartInterCivic, Danaher-Guardian, UniLect, and Advanced Voting Solutions) asking that they voluntarily agree to have voter-verified paper ballots for all votes cast, open software and hardware that is independently analyzed, no networking, no staff involvement in partisan elections, polices for release of requested documents, and other steps designed to make election results trusted once again. We have given these companies 60 days to state that they will take these steps before their machines are used in another election.
As many of you know, several bills are pending in Congress to require these same things. Moreover, Representative John Conyers just strongly endorsed this campaign. However, we should not have to wait as companies that have the ability to make such changes on their own delay doing so while seeking contracts paid for with your tax dollars. These companies have an obligation to act now.
I believe that a concerted effort over the next two months by millions of people who are concerned about democracy could put enough pressure on these companies to get these needed electoral changes. Therefore, I am asking you to do the following:
• Go to www.velvetrevolution.us/campaigns/dv4d/ and fill out the form to send letters to all nine companies with one click
• Make a generous donation to VR at www.velvetrevolution.us/donate.php to support this massive effort
• Send a letter to Congress telling them that you want paper ballots, open software and non-partisan election officials at www.velvetrevolution.us
• Spread the word about VR and the campaign by telling your friends, posting on the blogs, writing letters to the editor and speaking out.
Of course, we may not be successful within 60 days. If not, we will go to the next phase of the campaign – divestiture and boycott to put these companies out of business forever.
Right now, however, you have my call to action. Please act today because together, we can make a difference!!
Thank so much,
Andy Stephenson
Special Advisor,
VelvetRevolution.us
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