Republican Definition of “Fair and Free Elections”

“I saw a poll (of Iraqis) that said awww, right track, wrong track in Iraq is better than here in America.”
-President Bush, White House press conference on 9/23/04

Surprising how Bush pulls those facts out of .... thin air?

The link above gives you a text transcript of the Allawi/Bush White House Press Conference but you may wish to skip the hyperbole and view their performance on this Daily Show link to “Escape from MessOpotamia.” You skip the chatter and get right to the laughs while witnessing our fearless leader and his minion radiating Iraqi peace, love and harmony.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the “poll” was true, especially if it asked whether the national elections scheduled in Iraq for January would be as free and fair as American national elections in 2000 and 2004.

I’m sure the entire world remembers the messy maneuvering and manipulations of the 2000 election with it’s “tie” and subsequent “Florida Recount” and subsequent US Supreme Court ruling that overturned the recount and appointed George W. Bush as President. If your memory will not dredge up this historic drama, do a google search using the words, florida recount, and you’ll relive the moment with all its gory details. Pun intended.

When former President and world respected elections monitor, Jimmy Carter, goes on record with a warning that Florida is as bad if not worse now than it was in 2000, you have to pause and ponder the Republican definition of “fair and free.”

When black college students are threatened with prosecution by their county’s Republican district attorney because they used their college dorm address as their voting address, you begin to get a clearer understanding of the Republican definition of “fair and free” and note that the "Rock the Voters", especially the black ones, get the "fair and free"-lite definition. It's low on those filling civil rights and packed with tasty hype.

When the state of California joins a lawsuit filed by a voting rights advocate against Diebold for misrepresenting the accuracy and security of the e-voting machines used in the state, a person can begin to feel a little queasy about casting a ballot, especially in California. I feel even queasier after looking at Diebold campaign contribution records . The warm and fuzzy Republican campaign tag line of “fair and free” elections loses its zippiness. I get nightmares about election hijackings, figurehead governments, rows of obedient drones in grey unisex outfits standing enraptured by the spiteful ranting of officials on podiums.

I have come to the logical conclusion that any time a Republican politician says something, I have to interpret the meaning to be the opposite. So, “fair and free elections" in Iraq probably won’t be fair or free. The renown Republican dreamer and philosopher, Donald Rumsfeld, kind of confirms that interpretation.

Old Ashcroft has pretty much let the “fair and free election" cat out of the bag for us here in America as well. His persistent "terror warnings" have reached unprecedented screechiness and paranoia. I suppose some of those terror intercepts backlogged for months at the FBI have just been translated and he can only see more in the pipeline.

Will America's "fair and free elections" be cancelled before the Iraqi's elections? Should GWB's "poll" comment lead me this far afield and park me in a mean and bitter place where he might actually cancel US elections for the first time in history? He can do it. Should I apply the Republican word-decoder to the elections part of "fair and free elections?" The opposite of "elections" is depressing. Am I a hopeless paranoid? Not hopeless, never hopeless.....

We should all stay home and vote with absentee ballots this time around. That would circumvent being turned away from the polls or blown up; we wouldn't have to use the diebold hackermagnet, e-ballot; and if anyone needs to register to vote, now is the time so that they can resolve any bogus qualification claims ahead of time and receive their ballots. I don't believe this is an original idea, but it sure is a good one.

If you feel as I do that terrorists are not going to attack local polling places, another good idea would be to volunteer to help out at the polls, either as an observer or worker.

Think peace. It helps.