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Thank You!

Dr. Fitrakis,

Thank you so much for investigating and writing about vote suppression and fraud.  I keep hearing the Republicans preach the demise of the Democratic party as though it goes without saying that the majority of voters agreed with them on the major issues, when the polls show the reverse is the case.  And while there’s nothing wrong with introspection and regrouping when needed, it’s seems highly premature for the Democrats to begin this process when we don’t even know if we’re actually losing elections! 

By shining a light on Republican dirt and insisting that the government (and the Democratic party for that matter) do their jobs and investigate this, you’re performing a very important public service.  Let’s get a correct vote count – better yet, a revote with paper ballots, nonpartisan election officials, and international observers – and then if Kerry still loses, fine, then we can all roll into a fetal position, suck our thumbs, and wonder where we went wrong.  Until that time, I’m not buying it, and I’m so grateful that you’re not either.

  Big Thanks!

Heather Wilkes
Mesa, AZ

Article on Ohio

I received an e-mail highlighting your site -- which I have visited before, calling attention to the Ohio article.

My comments:

1)  I am troubled by the way people on the "left" bash each other in public.  The "right wing" in this country has become so strong by making a decision about 30 years ago never to bash each other in public. We could take that page from their play book.

2)  Bashing Kerry for his decision to concede:

a)  John Kerry's brother Cam and Gen. Wesley Clark         have been working tirelessly before, during and         after the election with Common Cause to assure         all votes are counted.  We received a letter directly         from Cam Kerry shortly after the election.

b) I'm a psychologist by training and practice and my husband        and I have been media activists for many        years -- I tell you that to give you some idea        where I'm coming from.

The day Kerry conceded we believed with every         fiber in our bodies that the election process was         not over but I     l00%  supported John Kerry in         making a concession speech. I cheered the decision

M.I.C.

Voter Suppression: STEALING VOTES IN OHIO URBAN AREAS (full documentation)

Voter Suppression: STEALING VOTES IN COLUMBUS

Harvey Wasserman and Bob Fitrakis

Harvey Wasserman & Bob Fitrakis,

" . . . will the Democrats now stand and fight? . . . "

The Ds didn't fight in 2000.
What reason is there to think they will in 2004?

Gore conceeded.
Never could figure that.
Never could figure why he disappeared after the election.

Kerry did the same (so far).

Almost as if the campaign was pro forma for the Ds.
Anyhow, the Ds and the Rs
serve the same interests and will take us toward the same objectives
even if by slightly different paths -
Enrich the super rich.
Screw every body else.

Yours Cynically,

Roland Dion
San Diego CA

Hypocrisy, Thy Name is Republican

There is an old saying that hypocrisy is the tribute that vice makes to virtue. By that definition, Republican Senator Norm Coleman of Minnesota has delivered a magnificent tribute with his demand for full disclosure of details of the so-called U.N. oil-for-food scandal, and the immediate resignation of Secretary General Kofi Annan. You don’t hear Coleman nor any other member of the Greedy Old Party insisting that Vice President Cheney and his friends at Halliburton reveal the full extent of their looting of Iraq at a cost of 100,000 innocent Iraqi lives and billions of American dollars, and that Cheney should immediately resign his office. I cannot recall any member of America’s supermajority party taxing President Bush to reveal all the details of his war-for-oil program, which resulted in the invasion of Iraq and will undoubtedly lead to a preemptive war against Iran; nor has any member of that illustrious tribe called for Bush's impeachment, conviction and removal. 

Dirty work at the Philly polls

In Philadelphia, the Republican Party hired local people including down-and-out addicts as neighborhood poll watchers, paid the poll watchers to challenge their neighbors' voting, and sent visiting teams of burly enforcers in window-tinted vans in a mixed strategy of intimidation, pay and misinformation to suppress voting on November 2, according to a Brooklyn law student who worked as a poll monitor. "I witnessed the difficulties of getting out the vote firsthand, exacerbated by the Republican Party's operations in urban, predominantly Democratic communities," she says.

New issue article

Hello,

I read the article "Disinformation and depleted uranium" by Tadit Anderson with interest, as I've just completed a course in radiation protection for biomedical use here in France. As usual for the articles posted at the Free Press, I found it very well-written and agree with the author's conclusions about the cynical use of this radioelement (although I have not followed the Ohio discussions about this issue).

I simply wanted to correct a tiny error that made it in, relative to two quotes (but it relates to a very common misconception):

"when the particles are embedded in living tissue, it can do considerable damage to the adjacent cells and their molecular components including the genetic codes of the nucleic acids which will release cancers and cause birth defects."

and

"U.S. soldiers who have been medically harmed by their exposure to "depleted" uranium weapon contamination, have contributed to medical harm to their partners, and have by their contamination experienced a high level of genetic birth defects among their children."

As Ukraine celebrates democracy, it's being denied in Ohio

As demonstrators cheer the restoration of democracy to their beleaguered country, Ohio officials continue to deny it.

In the face of obvious fraud, Ukraine's Supreme Court has thrown out an apparent coup for the incumbent and ordered a new election. That's what needs to happen here.

But despite growing national pressure and a major demonstration scheduled for tomorrow, Ohio's Republican Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell continues to stonewall a true recount in the state that allegedly gave George W. Bush another term.

Reverend Jesse Jackson and Congressman John Conyers will be among the speakers at a statehouse rally tomorrow demanding explanations for apparent irregularities in the November 2 Ohio vote.

Conyers is Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee. He's being joined by fellow US Representatives Jerrold Nadler, Melvin Watt, Sheila Jackson Lee, Maxine Waters, William Delahunt, Robert Wexler, Tammy Baldwin, Anthony Weiner and Linda Sanchez in demanding that Blackwell respond to a wide range of complaints about irregularities in the Ohio vote.

Glimmers of Sanity

How about some "Glimmers of Sanity" in the U.S.?  In your editorial (Nov.30) you discuss the fraudulent outcome of the elections in the Ukraine, but inexplicably, there has been very little mention of  mounting allegations of fraud and abuse surrounding the presidential election at home. While on election night, national exit polls showed Kerry winning the election by 51% –48%, they were widely discredited, once the tallies for Bush, surprisingly, increased. But according to republican pollster Dick Morris, "Exit polls are almost never wrong…to screw up one exit poll is unheard of. To miss six of them [in Florida, Ohio, Iowa, New Mexico, Nevada and Colorado] is incredible…and invites speculation that more than honest error was at play here."

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