ELECTION REFORM NOW!
At the moment, survey research reflects a generic public preference for a
Democratic victory next year. Still, despite everything, there are nearly as
many
polls showing particular Republicans beating particular Democrats as vice versa.
So this election could be another close one. If it is, the winner may turn out
to have been chosen not on November 4, 2008, but five months earlier, on June
3rd.
This is not a issue confined to California. As it could very well determine the next occupant of the White House, it is a national issue.
If you have a web site, please put the link below on your web site.
http://www.fairelectionreform.com/
If you would like to listen to a recent discussion on this subject, aired on KQED FORUM, click on the link below.
ELIZABETH DE LA VEGA, former federal prosecutor and chief of the San Jose Branch of the US Attorney's Office for the Northern District of California. Her pieces have appeared in The Nation magazine, the Los Angeles Times, and Salon. She has appeared on "The Colbert Report" and "Democracy Now!"
Elizabeth is the author of: United States v. George W. Bush et al. You can buy her book, which we recommend, and view her tour schedule at the link below:
To view a movie clip from her recent talk in Santa Rosa, click the link below.
Introdutcion to a book review, By June Schumacher
It Can Happen Here, by Joe Conason
Joe Conason has hit the nail on the head. It Can Happen Here is well written
and well documented. Can it happen here? You be the decider.
Surrounding himself with the religious
right and leftovers from the Nixon days, George W. Bush and gang began their
tenure believing their job was to remove the left from power permanently.
Permanent war seemed to provide the means to accomplish this goal. Thus we've
witnessed information management, deliberately distorted and fabricated facts,
demonized dissent, conveniently timed terrorist alerts, and politicized
science.
It Can Happen Here, by Joe Conason
August 14, 2007 I was sent the article below, as it appeared in the Bay Guardian:
There are efforts to convince city Councils or County Boards of Supervisors to pass resolutions in favor of Impeaching George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, or both. One such effort is in Mendocino County California and is spearheaded by Janie Sheppard.
Below is a Resolution written by a Mendocino County Supervisor and testimony by Janie Sheppard to the Mendocino County Board of supervisors.
In many areas of the country
Mendo - County resolution by Colfax.pdf
Testimony before the Mendocino Board of Supervisors on August 14,2007
by Janie Sheppard
Mendo county - Janie's testimony.pdf
Thursday May 10, 2007
Below is a compilation
of the combination of several emails that were forwarded to me in the last two
days.
I did my best to verify the information below and I believe it all to be
correct. If you are in favor of Impeachment, now is your chance to make it
happen.
Philip Harlan
Subject: Speaker is taking tally for IMPEACHMENT
call Pelosi's
office.
From: Garry S. Shay
Member, Democratic National Committee (CA) and
Lead Chair Rules Committee, California Democratic Party
Representing 6.7 million registered Democrats
=======================================================
"PLEASE CALL Nancy Pelosi's office right now.
House Speaker Pelosi's office is taking calls voting for Impeachment of
Bush/Cheney at 202-225-0100.
Folks, each of you who have been wanting Impeachment, need to commit right now
to ask at least 10 others to call and ask each person to commit to asking 10
others to call and so on. It needs to happen fast and NOW.
HERE IS A LIST OF TOLL FREE CAPITOL
HILL SWITCHBOARD NUMBERS:
1 (800) 828 - 0498
1 (800) 459 - 1887
1 (800) 614 - 2803
1 (866) 340 - 9281
1 (866) 338 - 1015
1 (877) 851 - 6437
The California Democratic Party passed a resolution in favor of Impeachment, at this years convention in San Diego. You can read the resolution at the link below.
Text
of CA Democratic Party Impeachment Resolution
Sunday, May 13, 2007
What is habeas corpus?
According to the Center for Constitutional Rights , the public interest law firm that is handling many of the Guantanamo detainees’ cases, “Habeas corpus, or the Great Writ, is the legal procedure that keeps the government from holding you indefinitely without showing cause. When you challenge your detention by filing a habeas corpus petition, the executive branch must explain to a neutral judge its justification for holding you. It’s been a pillar of Western law since the signing of the Magna Carta in 1215.”
What happened to it? On October 17, 2006, President Bush signed the Military Commissions Act of 2006. Among other egregious provisions, the Act suspends habeas corpus for all non-citizens who have been determined to be “enemy combatants” or are “awaiting such determination” and to strip the federal courts of the right to hear detainees‘ claims.
Robert Parry, who broke many of the Iran-Contra stories in the 1980s for the Associated Press and Newsweek, believes that U.S. citizens are susceptible to being withheld without being able to seek a writ of habeas corpus, as reported in his February 23, 2007 article Still No Habeas Rights For You
, but I believe the language of the Act excludes U.S. citizens.
But that’s not enough.
Article I, Section 9 of the U.S. Constitution states: “The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may require it. The
Preamble of the U.S. Constitution opens with “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice…” People, not citizens. The ability to apply for a writ of habeas corpus is a human right.
Restoring habeas corpus should be a “slam dunk” with the Democrats in control of Congress. But it isn’t, which explains the New York Times May 9 editorial and Glenn Greenwald’s post
. In this must-read article, Glenn states, “… whether a country permits its political leaders to imprison people arbitrarily and with no process is one of the few defining attributes dividing free and civilized countries from lawless tyrannies. Or, as Thomas Jefferson put it in his 1789 letter to Thomas Paine: 'I consider [trial by jury] as the only anchor ever yet imagined by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution.' To vest the President with the power to imprison people indefinitely with no charges is fundamentally to transform the type of country we are."
You can get more information at the link below.
Habeas Corpus or Habeas Corpses – You decide post
☼ Upcoming Events ☼
Events include a repeat of the forum:
SHOULD THE CITIZENS OF SONOMA COUNTY SUPPORT IMPEACHMENT?
January 24
Also a letter writing campaign and March in Washington DC on January 25
March in San Francisco January 25
For more information:
Gail Jonas has started a countywide campaign in support of impeaching George W. Bush and Richard Cheney. On January 10, 2007, a public forum, "Should the Citizens of Sonoma County Support Impeachment?" will be held at the Healdsburg High School library, 1024 Prince Street, from 7:15-9:15 pm. The four presenters are nationally known.
Peter Tracy, a local musician and a member of Vietnam Veterans for Peace, attended an organizational meeting on impeachment on December 10. The widespread enthusiasm among those attending inspired him to write a song. Gail has his permission to distribute it. Peter will be singing his wonderful political songs at the public forum.
Philip Harlan
Turn on your speakers and press the Play Button below.
Let's Impeach George W Bush, by Peter Tracy
SHOULD THE CITIZENS OF SONOMA COUNTY SUPPORT IMPEACHMENT?
Public forum: Wednesday, January
10, 2007
7:15-9:15 pm
Healdsburg High School Library
1024
Prince Street
PANEL:
Dr. Peter Phillips: Associate Professor of
Sociology and Media Research Specialist at Sonoma State University, and
director of Project Censored. He co-authored Impeach the President - The
Case Against Bush & Cheney. His
pieces have appeared in Z magazine,
Counterpunch, Common Dreams, Buzzflash, Social Policy, and Briarpatch.
Elizabeth de la Vega: Author of United States v. George W. Bush, et al.,
former
federal
prosecutor and chief of the San Jose Branch of the US Attorney's Office for the
Northern District of California. Her pieces have
appeared in The Nation magazine, the Los Angeles Times, and Salon.
Phil Burk: Phil created the www.impeachbush.tv website in December 2000 "just
in case". Bush has kept him busy since then researching and
publishing information on various crimes and the process of impeachment.
He is co-author of the "Guide to the Impeachment of George Bush and
Richard Cheney,"
Sophie de Vries: National Impeachment
Coordinator for Democrats.com, Field Coordinator for
AfterDowningStreet.org and co-author of
"A Guide to Impeachment of George W. Bush and Richard Cheney."
to view the entire flier, click the link below.
If you want to post a copy of the flier, please open the link below.
If The link above does not do the job and you need a copy in Word or RTF, please go to:
Political committees and cities that have passed impeachment resolutions
Action Links
To write a letter to the California Secretary of State demanding action.
Take Action: Stop the Diebold "rush job"
http://ga3.org/campaign/diebold
Articles
March 5, 2006
Electronic Voting is a Slam Dunk for Republicans
By Missy Comley Beattie www.OpEdNews.com
Progressive
writers for print media and internet sites are hammering away, sometimes daily,
often weekly, to vent frustrations and direct attention to the outrages of the
Bush Administration. Many pen paragraphs on the spectrum of abuses, the George
W. crime du jour. Others hit the keyboard about corporate greed, global
warming, or illegal spying on American citizens. Some focus on George’s
who-gives-a-rat’s-ass reaction to numerous things, for instance, a category
five hurricane and its aftermath. I concentrate mostly on the war and the
impact my nephew’s death in Iraq will always have on my family but, sometimes,
I detour.
Making Democracy Transparent
David Dill – printed in www.tompaine.com
March 07, 2006
David Dill is a professor of computer science at Stanford University and founder and board director of the Verified Voting Foundation. In 2004 he recieved the Electronic Frontier Foundation's "Pioneer Award" for "spearheading and nurturing the popular movement for integrity and transparency in modern elections."
Public trust in our elections is eroding. While the general public still seems to accept election results, there is an undercurrent of bitterness that has grown tremendously over the last few years. There is a rapidly expanding body of literature on the Internet about the "stolen election of 2004," and several books on election fraud have recently been written. More are in the works.
Theories of widespread election fraud are highly debatable, to say the least. Some people enjoy that debate. I do not. It encourages a sense of hopelessness and consumes energy that could instead be focused on long-term changes that could give us elections we can trust.
The election fraud debate frames the problem incorrectly. The question should not be whether there is widespread election fraud. It should be: "Why should we trust the results of elections?" It's not good enough that election results be accurate. We have to know they are accurate—and we don't.
In a word, elections must be transparent.
Mark Crispin Miller: “Kerry Told Me He Now Thinks the
Election Was Stolen”
February 23, 2006
Integrity of E-Balloting System Still in Doubt
Michael Hiltzik Los Angeles Times
Golden State
L.A.
Times Article
Posted October 21 2005
MONKEY BUSINESS
A look at vote-counting mischief and the potential for
more
by Miriam Raftery
On Election Day, will your vote be counted accurately?
According to a CBS/New York Times poll, only 35 percent
of people surveyed had “a lot” of confidence that their votes would be properly
counted.
Nationwide, a movement to reform election procedures and
protect against electronic-vote tampering and other forms of voting fraud is
gaining force.
CityBeat interviewed San Diego City Attorney Mike Aguirre
regarding complaints raised by local and national election-reform activists
over alleged violations of election law in San Diego’s recent mayoral race.
“I share some concerns about the integrity of the
electoral system,” Aguirre said.
http://www.sdcitybeat.com/article.php?id=3674
Posted 7/11/2005
Ethics 101 for NC Election Officials
"The Election Center"
The Fox Guarding the Hen House:
http://www.ncvoter.net/ElectionCenter.html
You Might want to visit this site:
Our cause is that
of bringing honesty and accountability to American politics.
We believe that American government is being taken over by powerful business interests and that the freedom of the American people is threatened. We are working to put the government into the hands of the people as a whole and not into the hands of a few with the money to finance elections. We believe that no small group should be able to affect elections to the point of having extraordinary power that is greater than the many.
We
have decided that the most important thing we can do at this time is to
petition the county we live in (Sonoma County Ca.) for hand counted paper
ballots. This will do two things:
One.
It will save the county a considerable amount of money.
Two.
It allows for verification that the counting was done fairly.
Hand
counting of ballots is the only method where observers can see that the counting
is done properly. One reason for using machine counts is that it is faster than
people can count and that means the count cannot be observed by eye.
We
would welcome your input and your involvement. If you want to help, please go
to the contact page and let us know.
To learn how really
vulnerable voting machines are, please go to the page below.
Black Box Voting is a leader in voting machine security.
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/
We are also working with the,
California Clean Money Campaign,
What do we want from you in
the wake of the election?
We are looking for volunteers the help with:
TABLING
ARRANGING SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS
LETTERS TO EDITORS
We urge you to go to this web site and check out this
organization,
CCMC is working to reform California elections by installing (using the initiative process) a state constitutional amendment to allow for voluntary public financing of candidates running for state offices. This will take the power to decide who can afford to run for state office out of the hands of groups with large amounts of money and put it in the hands of the voters. Almost all states are working on this, which will put pressure on the federal elections to do the same.
Gail and I have looked closely at this issue and have been involved with this organization for over a year. We believe this is both worthwhile and doable.
You can contact us at:
Working for clean
elections, the elimination of paperless voting,
And on other
election issues.
Contact us for more
information or if you want someone to speak to your group.
Sponsored by:
Gail Jonas -
707.433.6845
&
Philip Harlan -
707.431.8451,
You Might want to visit this site:
Links to Election Reform Websites
Back Our Champion in the U. S. Senate
Twelve Essential Elements for
Voting System Integrity