Stealing the Election From Obama?
AIM Column | By Cliff Kincaid | June 6, 2008
The suggestion that the 2008 election might be stolen from Obama seems to be a developing theme of this event.
Minneapolis: Barack Obama supporter
John Nichols brought “media reform” activists to their feet on Thursday night
with wild and strident attacks on the Bush Administration. “George Bush was not
elected,” said Nichols, working himself into a frenzy.
Nichols
is the Washington
correspondent for The Nation magazine and a member of the board of the Free
Press, the official sponsor of the National Conference for Media Reform.
Bush
and his vice president, Dick Cheney, “seized” power and launched an “illegal
and immoral war,” Nichols continued.
“Send
them to the Hague,”
shouted out one conference participant, referring to the location of the
International Criminal Court. “After we’re done with them,” Nichols countered.
He
urged conference participants to prevent the “theft of our democracy” in this
election year and said we need a “democracy cocktail,” much like the AIDS
cocktail of drugs used to treat AIDS patients, in order to save our “sick”
democracy. He departed the podium with a clenched fist salute.
The
suggestion that the 2008 election might be stolen from Obama seems to be a
developing theme of this event. One of the weekend activities is the advance
screening of “Free for All!,” a documentary that “uncovers startling evidence
of varied schemes to steal the national elections in 2000, 2004 and 2006 and
explores what we can do to take back our election in 2008.”
Meanwhile,
Amy Goodman of the “Democracy Now” radio and TV program announced that she would
soon interview former Bush White House press secretary Scott McClellan, who has
turned on the President and has written a book opposing the Iraq War. “This
year can be a turning point,” she told the crowd.
While
the conference is designed in part to create the impression that the
“progressive” media have been discriminated against, Goodman told the crowd
that her radio/TV show is on 700 stations and she claimed a bigger audience
than Larry King on CNN or the MSNBC cable channel.
Information
distributed during Goodman’s talk, which largely focused on racism in America and the
Bush foreign policy, said that her radio show was carried on two local stations
and her TV program was carried by six local stations in the Minneapolis/St.
Paul area. In addition, her programs are carried by satellite TV. Her personal
production company gets hundreds of thousands of dollars a year from big
liberal and left-wing foundations.
She
urged people to confront the “corporate media” and challenge the renewal of
licenses of radio and TV stations which do not serve the public interest.
Nichols
and Goodman spoke at what was labeled a pre-conference event, part of
“Democracy Day,” at the Hilton Hotel, just a block from where the National
Conference for Media Reform officially opens Friday morning.
Another
such event, sponsored by Consumers Union, concerned “International Media and
Human Rights” and featured an ACLU official and a Ford Foundation-funded
activist. A literature table included a brochure from “Free Speech Radio News”
referring to anti-American ruler Hugo Chavez as “The Poor People’s President”
of Venezuela and portraying U.S. troops in Iraq as murderers.
“Free
Speech Radio News” is governed by a non-hierarchical Steering Committee that
strives for diversity in ethnicity, race, gender, class and sexual orientation
in its staff and reporter pool,” the brochure stated.
Meanwhile,
conference participants have been invited to a “Code Pink happy hour” on Friday
night to discuss how to disrupt the upcoming Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota.
On
Saturday night, Arianna Huffington will be signing copies of her book, Right is Wrong: How the Lunatic Fringe
Hijacked America,
Shredded the Constitution, and Made Us All Less Safe.
She
is insisting, of course, that the “lunatic fringe” is on the political right.
Conference
participants were provided copies of The Nation magazine, In These Times, The
American Prospect, and Ms. Magazine.
An
official conference exhibitor, Adbusters magazine, provided a special “Media
Democracy Issue” paying tribute to Dan Rather, Amy Goodman, Arianna Huffington,
and others. Rather, forced out of CBS News after he faked the news against
President Bush, is portrayed as someone who believes that the news is a “public
trust.” Rather is speaking to the conference on Saturday night.
Adbusters
takes various ads appearing in mainstream publications and purports to pick
them apart for inaccuracies and distortions. One ad that is examined urges
people to travel to Israel
during its 60th anniversary year of 2008. A “ranch on the Golan
Heights” is corrected to read a “ranch on the occupied Golan Heights,” since
the land was captured by Israel
from Syria
during the 1967 war.
But
an article in the magazine goes further, examining “Israel’s Architecture of
occupation” against the Palestinians. Israel
is depicted as a government that has taken Palestine
away from its rightful owners while former President Jimmy Carter is portrayed
as a wise statesman for calling the Israeli policy toward Gaza a crime and atrocity and for meeting
with the terror group Hamas, which backs Obama for president.
Articles
like this reflect the far-left perspective of virtually all of the conference
speakers and participants.
Nevertheless,
Minnesota’s
liberal Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar is scheduled to help kick off the
conference on Friday morning.
There’s
no official word as to whether comedian Al Franken will show up. He is trying
to secure the Democratic senatorial nomination in Minnesota and hopes to run against
Republican Senator Norm Coleman. But Franken’s jokes about raping women and his
pornographic writings for Playboy have come back to haunt him.
Cliff Kincaid is the Editor of the AIM Report and can be reached at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
26 Comments
The networks called Florida for Gore in 2000, before the polls closed in the panhandle (CST, not EST), as though they had never covered a national election before and weren’t aware of the panhandle. Ineptitude or tampering with a national election? Probably a bit of the former and a ton of the latter.
Then Gore, “count every vote” or not, sent a team of 500 lawyers down there to toss out the military vote for any reason they could come up with.
Soldiers were taken on training exercises before the election, told that they would be back in time to vote. They weren’t.
Basically, everything the democrats are routinely guilty of, they project onto republicans.
Note that the first responders for Katrina were led by…democrats! Bush had called on Friday before it hit and offered any and all assistance that might be required. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin was utterly incompetent…but re-elected afterwards despite a performance that verged on a plot for a comedy movie. Seems like most of those who actually evacuated on time were the police! These idiots, Nagin rewarded with a trip to Vegas at great expense. Shrewd.
LA Gov Kathleen Blanco literally went to pieces in a televised appearance. But this was all blamed on Bush.
Granted, the Dept of Homeland Security did what unweildy large bureacracies ALWAYS do: they screwed the pooch.
BUT…in 1995, N Orleans had millions of dollars to fix their levees…but were broke by ‘96 because they chose to build casinos instead.
HBO’s movie “Recount” was a flop and largely a work of bad fiction.
Dems get about 90% of the black vote in every election…who enjoy a bus ride with a union driver, a box of KFC, and a pack of smokes for their troubles. Getting out the vote? Yeah: from under a rock!
Obama needs no assistance in losing the election as long as his and his wife’s mouths will function while making speeches.
I find the thought of Obama facing a real open and honest debate for the first time to be highly entertaining. The dem powers that be made it clear that such questions were inappropriate in the primary after George Steponoffacliff asked some serious questions of Obama much like those he will face in debate with McCain.
Like Mondale (who lost 49 states in ‘84 running agaist Reagan), he promises to raise taxes, oblivious to the financial hardships that most people are facing due to rising gas, food, and damn’ near everything else prices. Shrewd.
Obama simply has too many communist and terrorist (AMERICAN terrorists) friends whom he has not yet thrown under the bus.
If Obama learned as much in school as he did in church, he would be illiterate.
Hillary might not have had the right delegate numbers, but her popular vote totals seemed to come from a cult of personality, much like Obama’s own similar cult. Obama would be well advised to walk on eggs in his treatment of Hillary (yes, I loathe her, but I didn’t vote for her in the primaries).
While I don’t think Hillary’s supporters will actually vote for McCain (although they just may be spiteful enough to do so), they will more than likely sit it out, especially if Obama continues to come unraveled as he has after the Rev Wright issue was thrown in America’s collective face. I’d bet the ranch that we see a LOT of Rev Wright, an embarrassment not just to blacks, but to whites and Americans in general.
McCain? He’s no virgin at campaigning.
Should be interesting come November.
Obama changed his first name from Barry to Barack as he regarded himself as a Muslim. Founding Fathers had a very low, very poor opinion of Democracy. This is why they called USA a Republic, & had Electoral college to elect President.
All great posts, It’s interesint how the Democrats turned into Republicans and such throughout the history of our govvernment.
In regards to this article its obvious the blunders that the current administration have created aren’t going to bring much support from the American people. But I can’t help but feel that this conference is being held to as a nail in the coffin to shut the republicans out of the picture.
We are living in times that neither party should be trying to solely claim responsibility in. You’d think that their interest (Dem & Rep) would be the U.S.A and its people. Our sovereignty, health, safety, ideology, foreign relations and military strength all should be priorities. And within these topics it should be Americans taking on those tasks.
I’m certainly no political analyst but from a civilian point of view I enjoy watching Obama speak about what he wants for this country. But to add in his affiliations and his background he seems ‘placed’ in his position. That is why I find it comforting if he accepts McCain’s proposal for an open forum 15 times a week. It should of always been like this. American people asking tough, honest questions that aren’t just bashing tactics from the other party but ones that show our government what we want for our country. I like Obama but until he shows me through this sort of forum that what he says is HIS goals I’ll vote for the lesser of poor choices McCain. Man, am I sick of bad choices for presidents.
No candidate wants to know what Founding Fathers meant by Separation of Church & State. They did not want a State Church like back in Europe. They wanted Americans to worship Heavenly Father without coercion in any way.
Under Bush, Clinton, Bush and I still think it will be Clinton again. The things is people will fight to the death for their party. sick….the real problem is people do NOT learn from history. Obama, Clinton, and McCain are globalist..Clinton, and Obama sais no drilling for oil on our soil,,Bush did not, what makes anyone thing McCAin will.? I have yet to hear any of these three say they will stand on our Constituion, Declaration of Independance, or the Bill of Rights.. follow our laws..like close the borders..Not only killing our econemy, but take a look around..Under Bush watch..our forefathers said, NOT to naion build, aid the enemy and they cannot send our tax money to anyone with out our permission. we also voted to kick out the ugly UN,,and now we have the so called secret but know the Saudi are not our friends aids and trains all jihad..Na…I am not that stupid, an if America wakes up one morning and its dead. or so broke all are hungry,,blame yourselves..giving China the secrets for the big Olympic and leaving them there. and selling or giving Wmd to all other enemys and then saying we are fighting terror. To top that, all the ones but one who hit the towers were Saudi, and yet were flown out day one.and then right after Bush brings 10,000 in to take flight school!! How about writing in your vote come Nov. If not,,you can kill the US goodbye because we will belong to the EU..I have yet to hear one American say they like and want globalism, Maybe one should check out history and see how Islam is infillerating the states and gov. and coming over the borders in doves. and who is buying hundreds of land and foreclosers?? YOu guessed it, THE UN and Islam. The books in our schools are watered down and paid for by Saudi, Where is your brains..your sense of freedom, and why have you not dug deep about Obama. No one according to Islam can name their child PERIOD Hussein or Mohammad unless they are MUSLIMS..they are patient, and this one has been trained for 20 yrs. think about what he doesn’t say. by the time, if he wins. taxes will be so high when you are broke and hungry, old people on SS will have cuts, even on checks..and a so far left…all godless against G-d on abortion, laws and all else..Better find out who Halburtion is and Fema, and why you would want a police state, BEst get real, and know media sets your minds. not truth. go read some newswithviews.com and find out some real scary truth before it is too late. All these liars promises stuff they can’t do. and if they say the wrong thing, and we don’t agree, they flip to what you want to hear..words are cheap,,I supose if I hung out with the kKK for over twenty yrs and then told you Ididn’t like them or what they thot,,I’d get a pass? Its stupid and deadly, we are the company we keep and birds a feather flock together..ever see a eagle fly with a crow? Looking for go handouts that won’t be there? want to see the rest of America sink without homeowenership, or jobs or real real hungry??? How bad does it have to get before you get real??? WE need to write in a man for white house, be INdependant..you are following the three who are deadly not only for the US but Israel, and If Israel does, so do we..believing the lies of the enemy, instead of G-d’s truth..and flavor that with apostay in all the churches,,,unity, no gospel but the other one Paul warned of..I am so sick of it all, but I know where I will spend eternity,,just for fun, read Ezekiel or Matthew 24 and connect the dots from truth , not lies..It is now or never folks.. read between the lines of these three, what they say they will do that THEY think is right is not what you think or know is right..I can hardly believe America is so stupid or dumbed down..WE are a REPUBLIC…not a Democracy,,look it up in the dictionary…
For now all I have to say is…
“Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch.
Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote. “Benjamin Franklin” 1759
It’s time to arm up and march to Washington.
I will never vote for BHO. I honestly beleive he is a muslim. I have read ever thing I can find on him. They are patient, and have waited a long time for this moment. America had better open it’s eyes before its to late.
Helen, Kim. You can see how all things will work A/c to our LORDS Words, so we can put our trust completely in HIM. When we put our trust in our fellow man than we are riding for a fall. Many are coming to know our LORD in Middle East, but Western nations are being Islamised. I live in Australia so I am glad it is not following in footsteps of USA as it has done in past, but how much time do we have?
http://blogs.reuters.com/trail08/2008/06/04/hamas-unendorses-obama-after-speech-to-pro-israel-lobby/
Hi, please learn to do basic fact checking before you write anymore articles.
Kenneth,
Actually, the separation of Church and State was to prevent one state with a particular branch of Christianity, notably the Quakers in Pennsylvania although other states had other leanings, to make THEIR state’s branch of religion the national religion, hence the separation of Church and State, NOT “wall of separation,” which originated in a letter from Thomas Jefferson if memory serves (Ken, I’m not attributing this “wall of separation” issue to you), which is not in the Constitution. The libs just like to pretend that this is their “interpretation.”
The Constitution isn’t all that complicated and easily understood by anyone with a functional IQ. Article 4, Section 4 is particularly revealing. (I keep my Bible and a copy of the Constitution and Bill of Rights within arm’s reach at my computer.)
The dems are too effective to lack functional IQs, so they are obviously distorting and rewriting it at every opportunity, hence a “Living Constitution,” ie, it doesn’t really mean what it says, but is open to “improvement” by liberals.
On another issue: Obama isn’t a Muslim, but a communist. His political career began in 1995 at a meeting which took place at the home of former terrorists (“I wish we had done more”) William Ayers and Bernadette Dohrn, who were impressed with Cuba (especially after Bernadette’s visit).
The Washington Post did a nice hit piece on the evidence that Obama has been influenced by “father figure” communist Frank Marshall Davis (Communist Party - USA) during his formative years in Hawaii. The reporter didn’t bother to read ANY of the research, but presented faux (libs: this means “false”) ridicule to discredit the report. This is beneath contempt, however effective it may have been. (Not much, I suspect, as most Americans are utterly uninformed unless they’re at a gas station, where the truth is kind’a hard to miss! Filling ‘er up is now literally a pain in the arse! Well, for men at any rate: women get a pain in the purse.)
We call this being “in the bag” for a particular politician…and our media is blatantly in the bag for Obama.
E pluribus unum (“from many, one”; NOT “from one, many,” as Gore restated it). Gore is an idiot with a cause. Clean up the cesspool that is your property in TN, Big Al (Fat Albert?). Flying coach instead of on a private jet wouldn’t hurt, either. Do as I say, not as I do? Bite me, you demagogue.
Our media has been ‘in the bag’ for Obama since he made his national debut at the Dem convention. The speeches from the pundits were almost identical. It was chilling.
It is almost as if this man had been groomed since childhood, and was, yes, ‘placed’ and guided into this position. I fear his affiliations may be much more dangerous to us than either communist or Islam.
In talking with quite a few people this weekend, a lot of them are afraid of Obama.
As for his sounding good - I will confess I’ve never listened to him much in this campaign - some before. Politicians say anything, surely we have learned that now.
What I have heard is that he is for ‘change’ - isn’t that an understand platform of every politician. I can’t imagine one standing up and saying, ‘everything’s fine, let’s don’t make any changes’.
Amendment 1 to the Constitution reads:
“Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, of of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”
The first part of that amendment must be read to mean: “Congress shall not attempt by law or force to control the minds of citizens.”
That is exactly what is attempted and accomplished by laws designed to enforce morality in one form or another: e.g., prohibition of so-called gay marriage, obscenity, polygamy, etc. No matter how repugnant those things may be to the majority, it is the government’s responsibility to preserve from the tyranny of both the mob and the government itself each citizens’ right to freely choose their own sense of life.
The only restriction that can be imposed on the individual is the prohibition of violating the individual rights of fellow citizens. That is the price of freedom.
Laws which make government immune from lawsuits are a direct violation of the last part of this amendment as well and must be repealed.
The difference between Democrats (“progressives”) and Republicans (“conservatives”) is what Ayn Rand illustrated as the distinction between “mystics of muscle” and the “mystics of spirit.”
The progressives seek to enslave Man’s body: regulations and the attitude that “there ought to be a law” to force/enforce their permitted/preferred actions, e.g., how much of your hard-earned income you will be allowed to keep.
The conservatives seek to enslave Man’s mind: regulations and the attitude that “there ought to be a law” to force/enforce their permitted/preferred thoughts, e.g., morality.
Both seek the control of all individuals by the few who muscle their way into power. Both tend toward totalitarianism “for the good of the people.”
Jack:
Savage has propagated the common misinterpretation and misuse of the meaning of “liberal.” Unfortunately this perversion of meaning is unlikely to be remedied anytime soon.
Liberal meant the minimal amount of government interference into the lives of citizens to Jefferson. Neither Democrats or Republicans meet that test, so neither can truly be considered Liberal in Jefferson’s understanding of the term.
Obama has raised the racism spector and awakened something that was doing it best to die.
If he gets elected, I’m thinking he is a very dangerous man - but I’m thinking some people will do a lot to keep the pot boiling and to cause more and more divide between the races. Personally, I think he could care less what color one is - as long as they can be used and controlled - and I think he will use anything to achieve that goal.
If he doesn’t get elected, I think there will be trouble in this country, bad trouble. Putting the idea out there, he is creating a mindset and anger.
Should we look at this ‘stealing the election’ as a threat or blackmail?
As for lib/cons - that label has meant nothing for a very long time. It’s just a label they put on people to keep them under the tent - either tent. Only the people think it means something - the politicians know better.
It hasn’t meant much for almost as long as our being a ‘republic’ has meant anything.
Voxoreason I think at least 2 of Founding Fathers became Ambassadors to countries in Europe. They saw effect of official state churches. So they were concerned same did not happen to USA like Europe became Christendom back in 5th century.
What’s REALLY scary is the irrational adoration many of Obama’s supporters demonstrate.
For examples, have a look at http://dummiefunnies.com/ , in particular the thread posted today titled “Is Obama an enlightened being?”
Here’s the original article that the dummiefunnies post is mocking:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2008/06/06/notes060608.DTL
San Francisco Chronicle: should have guessed…
I don’t know about Obama’s adoring groupies, but I believe they exist.
What we must, simply must, do, however, is realize that we have just as many on the so called ‘other side’ that did and many who still look adoringly on Pres. Bush.
We have become a nation that is besoted with politicians and labels and not looking at anything else.
John Gault,
I’m not very happy with you making my stomach hurt from all the laughter that insued after reading that article.
Is Mark really serious? No wonder Savage thinks liberalism is a disorder. Mark seemed to write the entire article based on his ‘feelings’. In that case I bet Edward Norton or someone in Hollywood could make it to office no problem. They could write awesome speech after awesome speech. Spreading incredible visual sensories that blast our imagination through the skies! I’m so excited from this post that I’m changing my endorsement to Obama because he’s more ‘lively’ than that boring Ron Paul (he must be a bad guy because of that!)
I wouldn’t be surprised that if he had his own radio show the Fairness Doctrine would have him on 24/7.
That articel should be on Jay Leno’s funniest articles bit.
Long live reasoning and the ‘evolution’ we are all sailing into!
Justin Obama after he said Jerusalem would remain undivided went back on his words when he received criticism from Arabs showing he will say ^ do anything to become President
Justin:
My stomach was hurting too, but it was from puking rather than laughing.
YOU ARE ALL WRONG. JOHN NICHOLS IS ONLY PRESENTING THE MAIN PLATFORM OF OBAMA,.... AMERICAN COMMUNISM.
Nichols did not steal the show from Obama. It is what Obama wants.
June 6 at 3:10 pm | #1 | Link
John Nichols sounds like Adolph Hitler, Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin during their rhetorical rantings against their governments. He should be arrested and tried for inciting a crowd to treasonous acts. Fortunately his voice is not the only one we hear. Regarding what he has to say…“NUTS!”