Do you remember (I hate to bring this up) reichwingers and reichwing radio making fun of her and calling her fat, after she had cancer? See, I don't forget that stuff...I don't pretend it didn't happen. My wife had breast cancer, and she is now cancer-free, so I don't forget stuff like that.

That's "big dan"...I still had "big danno" in there, from the "book 'em" Danno...thread... Yes, it can be revealed, I am both "big dan" and "big danno"...

Well as long as you don't start arguing with yourself or spewing disinfo and congratulating yourself for it, I guess we'll let it slide ... thanks for your comment, I strongly agree, and best wishes to you and your family.

"We told these people that if they stood in line and fought for their right to vote, we would fight to have them counted. We promised."

That's why I would vote for him in a heartbeat, as president, vice president or local dog catcher - INTEGRITY!

I never doubted for a minute that Edwards would have counted the votes and not listened to pathetic, faux-Democrat advisors who were intent on protecting Kerry's "viability" for future runs while sacrificing our Democratic Republic and everything it stands for.

The likes of Kerry and his old-school frightened consultants who strove so hard to capture the middle must be discarded as we attempt to rebuild our Democracy. If, in the end, that means we have to throw out the whole Democratic Party, it will be the likes of the DNC and DCCC that will force that to happen.

Let's vote Democratic in 2006 in numbers so large that any attempt to steal it will bring revolution to the streets. THEN, if the Democrats don't act to reverse the tide of the last 5 years, we can WIPE THE SLATE CLEAN in '08 and start over.

Sure it's wishful thinking, but it sure beats sulking.

Charlie L #5

That's the ticket!

Man, am I glad this piece is up! I really love John Edwards for all the hard work he's been doing for the poor and the working poor and the just plain working. I also never doubted he would keep his promise. I get the newsletters from his One America and love the stuff I get. Just listened to him interview Jimmy Carter the other night.

Gore/Edwards! Edwards/Kennedy! Kennedy/Edwards!

This is remarkable. First Teresa Kerry and now Elizabeth Edwards have questioned the 2004 election, while their husbands have not. Imagine if Mrs. Yuschenko in Ukraine (2004) and Senora Lopez-Obrador in Mexico (2006) had done the same while their husbands, the candidates, had remained silent about fraud.

I guess what we need now is for Laura Bush to come out and say, "I can't keep silent any longer. We stole the last two elections. As a woman and an American and the mother of two daughters, I have to tell the truth."

Robert Lockwood Mills

Whats that they say? Something about a snowball's chance in hell?, Central California?, Saint Louis? .....

Reading that made my blood boil. I feel like screaming every swear word I know in the direction of that fake SOB in Washington DC.

The guy is richer than friggen god! Why should he worry about future viability??

How about sticking up for the Dems like me that gave MORE money in the final hours because they wanted to build up a war chest?

Calming down......
Yea Edwards seems like a standup guy. I hope to see more of him.

OT

But this really pisses me off! When is someone going to shut this bitch up!

(Note: if you wear your Bullshit Protectors you will hear nothing but the sounds of silence!)

I don't know about elsewhere, but in this state if you walked into a bank, claimed to have a gun you would be charged with having that gun whether it existed or not.

How can she get away with calling for the editors of NY Times to be executed then claim to have sent the white powder which caused an anthrax scare?

She should be hauled in under the Patriot act because THIS is terrorism if I've ever seen it.

From Healthline .com

Terrorism: Terrorism refers here to the public health consequences and the methods for prevention of the purposeful use of violence or threats of violence by groups or individuals in order to serve political or personal agendas.

Boy that editor goes crazy when you start cutting and pasting links around etc.

WYSIWYG turns into WYSHNRWWYMGSGAAPIASWH. (What You See Has No Relationship With What You Might Get So Go Ahead And Post It And See What Happens)

OT, Just a heads up, Mike Malloy's show just came on and he said Clint Curtis will be on in 2 hours.

I remember watching Eliabeth at a hometown meeting during the 2004 election cycle, I thought at the time WOW, This is one intelligent woman with great poise and clarity also very quick on the comeback. I think she would make a great president herself. I also like Edwards,I voted for him in the primary. For some reason he struck a chord with me. I wish they would have fought for the count of every vote and I'm still pissed they didn't!

What saddens & aggravates me is people who are still counting on the Dems to get majority & fix it all.
Not that part of me doesn't WANT to believe it too.
I, too, want to believe everything is still ok & that if we can just get the 'good' team back in there--all will be well.

But I know it ain't gonna happen.

Politics in this country is way too far gone to expect them to police themselves--take a deep breath & a good, long, hard look at it all......go ahead, look at it & think.........

It ain't gonna happen.
Our officials can't fix anything--they ARE the problem---they're victims, in a way, of the system:

They need money to get elected---groups give it to them--& these groups have power over them ever after.

Did you see that "election reform" they passed? It was a total joke---almost like them givin us the raspberries. It was insulting it was so lame.
It was like they said--hey, you people want election reform? Ha Ha. Here--we got yer reform buddy--PTHTTTHT!!
Even www.citizen.org said it was almost an insult it was so lame.

Neither the Dems nor the Republicans are ever going to "reform" our elections significantly.
Not ever.
Never.
That's because, even if THEY want to---which is a big if---the powerful lobbies & the rich will not allow them to vote it in.
Are the rich going to smile & let them take away all their power to run everything & control our government?

NO. And Hell NO.

I don't know why people can't see that.

Please understand, it's highly important to point this out for the good of our country, not just to rain on someone's happy parade.
We don't have hope for reform until it dawns on most of the citizenry that we are not going to get it by counting on political parties to reform themselves.

Some do see it but they have a vested interest in keeping Dems or Repubs powerful.
They aren't tellin.

It's a hard pill to swallow all right.
But it's true.
Until each citizen realizes this in their heart---& deals with it, nothing will change.
Even if Dems get majority, nothing will change. That's just the scam the powers that be have a personal interest in selling us.
Think about it. The rich are going to fund whatever side gets into position to do them the most good---it's been reported the Dems are already getting more money than the Repubs are! (Don't ask reported where--I can't recall.) But it's true.
If the Dems want to get majority, they'll have to convince the rich that they can be counted on. Perhaps by declaring they won't impeach, for instance. Perhaps by having Hastert pipe up in strong support of Israel.

Rich & powerful Democrats & Republicans do not want the National Initiative for Democracy (www.ni4d.us) to go through for the same reason. They are not going to give up their power to the---well, to the "little people", for heaven sakes.
No, no no no.
Instead they'll have the candidates throw us just enough of a bone, at just the right times, to keep the masses believing it's all gonna be ok, nothing major to worry about--just move along & go about your business.

And their plan has been working quite well.

I mean, who doesn't want to put on a happy face & turn that frown upside-down?

Yes. Who indeed?

These links illustrates the problem and the problem is almost unlimited funds to wrestle the control away from the "people”, shifting it unfairly to the "stockholders”. How many people can even imagine these amounts of money.

Google: “Leo Emil Wanta” for instance.

Every man has his price.

http://www.rawstory.com/...tors_1_billion_0727.html

http://seattlepi.nwsourc...79197_oilearnings28.html

http://www.aflcio.org/ab...d/0503_bigfixtoolbox.pdf

MMIIXX, Arctic Beacon IE: Greg Syzmanski has been all over the Leo Wanta Story. Link: http://www.arcticbeacon.com/27-July-2006.html

Laura who couldn't you buy/eliminate with these amounts of money for bribes ,wet work etc.

Charlene - Comment # 15

That was a pretty bleak picture you painted there,..
I am really not sure that it is all that bad. The Democratic Party is not total nirvana by any means,..
but it is 1000X better than this fascist bu$$hco clan team in place now.

It is imperative that we gain oversight to this unitary
executive currently occupying the White House. We need to take the majority of the Congress and/or Senate and then we can put bush and cheney under the magnifying glass.

50% of the voters don't even bother to show up at the ballot box,.. we have to get every conceivable Democratic voter to cast a ballot.

Once we regain the majority and get Demos in there,..
any Demo really,.. we can't be too picky or fussy at this point.

But down the road if these Demo candidates don't toe the line,.. we can weed them out before 2008. This is not going to take one election cycle to clean up this mess. Try more like 3 or 4 election cycles before we see any meaningful results. We need to develop some real strong candidates before we can let down our guard.

As someone said in this post,.. and it has been often said in other threads we need to get to the polls in
such overwhelming numbers and vote against them in a sizable amounts,.. they can't steal this election. Down the road we can bring election reform to stop the suppression and machine miscounts.

Throw the bums out,.. it is happening now,.. already.

Look at the Christofascist kook...
Katherine Harris in Florida,.. things don't look so good there for her candidacy.

Look at the Christofascist Ken Blackwell,.. he is running a weak campaign for Governor in Ohio. His current polling numbers do not indicate a win coming.

Look at the Christofascist swindler Ralph Reed for Lt.
Governor in Georgia,.. ground zero in the bible belt,.
that primary campaign bit the dust.

Look at Christofascist Rick Santorum,.. now there's a campaign on the ropes,.. the guy is an incumbent,.. a shoe in,.. but Casey is giving him a strong fight.

Then there is Liberman,.. he is on the ropes,.. barely
still standing,.. he's a G-D fearing warmonger incumbent who is getting badly bruised.

And last but not least there is Tom Delay,.. there is talk he may throw he had back in the ring once again
for his powerful House seat,.. but I think he has a better chance to spend two years on a chaingang than back in Washington DC.

So being terribly bleak is unwarranted,.. the electorate has dormant and unexercised powers,.. we just have to put that power at our disposal to work.

Take our current political situation seriously,.. fascism is certainly not a joke. But we do not have to totally surrender our positive attitudes,... just yet.

Things/outlooks can become bleaker,..

if you constantly wish them so.

It is best to avoid falling into that trap.

Lest we forget and distort:

On January 6, 2005, representatives from the 50 American states met to certify the electoral votes for president and vice president. U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer and U.S. Representative Stephanie Tubbs Jones raised an objection to Ohio's votes, on the grounds that they were not "regularly given". This was the first objection to an entire state's votes since 1877, and resulted in separate debates and votes on the objection in both Houses. (A similar objection occurred in 2001, with Rep. Maxine Waters challenging Florida's votes, but in that instance no Senator joined the objection, so it could not be legally recognised.)

Numerous Democratic members of Congress spoke on the importance of election reform, announced initiatives for constitutional protection of the vote, and called for election integrity protection against conflicts of interest, listing problems with the process of the vote in Ohio and other states. Numerous Republican members of Congress spoke against the objection, calling it an obstruction of the democratic process and pointing out that Bush won Ohio's vote by over 118,000 votes according to the recount. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) denounced the objection, calling Boxer and Jones the "X-Files Wing" of the Democratic Party. [120]

The objection was rejected by a vote of 1-74[121] (Yea-Nay) in the Senate and by a vote of 31-267[122] in the House, as both supporters and challengers anticipated.

(Wikipedia link, bold added). That was the end of the matter. No courts had jurisdiction after that, because of mootness, to litigate the issue.

It is and was congress, not any candidate, that has sole jurisdiction of the challenge and the results.

Charlene - Comment # 15

YES, we can change things by voting Democratic, and here's why...

IF we bring to the polls more previously disenfranchised and apathetic voters and we get them to vote DEMOCRATIC, that will have happed WITHOUT the big money that is corrupting politics (I don't think Exxon or DieBold is contributing big to BradBlog).

IF they do not act for us and against their previous corporate patrons, they will be UNEMPLOYED and replaced with progressives who will.

OldTurk (#19) is completely right --- this will take a few cycles.

BUT IT BEGINS WITH MASSIVE DEMOCRATIC VOTING IN 2006.

It continues with SELECTIVE, MASSIVE DEMOCRATIC VOTING IN 2008 PRIMARIES (we will NOT be handed Hillary and told she is our candidate --- NO --- ABSOLUTELY NOT, and we will NOT let them destroy our chosen candidates with "false screams").

Then, MASSIVE DEMOCRATIC VOTING IN THE 2008 GENERAL.

Then again at the 2010 mid-terms.

Then again aat the 2012 General.

Etc. Etc. Etc. Repeat until Democracy is restored.

Charlie

Election eve 2004, John Edwards flew into Pensacola, Florida and spoke to an enthusiastic crowd of 2500 assembled in the darkness on the airstrip. Pensacola is home to several military bases and the world's largest military base, Eglund Air Force Base, is not far away. The Pensacola area is extremely Republican and extremely pro military.
I was in the audience as a supporter and was completely amazed and impressed that the very last campaign stop by John Edwards was in the heart of a Republican military stronghold. When demonstrations were held throughout the world against the start of a war with Iraq, my partner Linda was there protesting in Pensacola. The harshest reception and treatment of protesters in the entire world occured at Pensacola according to news reports of protests around the world!
So, in context, that means John Edwards flew into the MOST HOSTILE environment in America as his last campaign stop! He gave his all and I have no doubts he wanted ALL the votes to be counted before he gave up.
I think John Edwards would make a great President. Anyone willing to make his last appearance in an area overwhelmingly opposed to his party and ideals, after months of grueling campaigning, proves to me he believes in the people and would fight relentlessly for them. He would fight Diebold all the way. I hope Brad gets the opportunity to interview him and readers here give him some consideration as 2008 approaches.
It seems it was just a day or so after the election that it was revealed Mrs. Edwards had been diagnosed with breast cancer. That means John Edwards and family were awaiting test results even as election night approached, yet Edwards never gave up fighting to be elected. After Kerry conceded, John Edwards devoted his time to his wife and family. Real family values.
There is hope for the future. Brad and the wonderful team of supporters here are fighters like Edwards and winning is possible through their efforts. Court blocks use of Diebold machines could be a headline we see due in huge part to the Bradblog. Onward 6 or 7!

I'm not saying the outlook is bleak, Old Turk.
Far from it.
I can't wait til we end this god-awful nightmare we're in & start doing good things with our power!

When we don't stop the misery our government is responsible for here & abroad, it's partly our own fault for not getting dead-serious about stopping it.
Serious like a heart attack.

I'm saying it's only bleak if we continue on, doing what we always have done & expect a different outcome than the one we have now.
It's wasting precious time our world may not have to blow while we dink around--feeling happy to be hoping it will all work out.
I believe that's what that grandma who was on here raining on the parade, was it Erma? I can't recall, meant. SHE saw it.
It's playing right into the hands of the powers that be!

They don't want any real change--they want us to continue to dink around, thinking we're doing something, while they know we're not. I'll bet they're laughing their asses off: The citizens are all going to get together boys & vote Democratic. They think that'll stop us! HA HA HA.

Meanwhile, people & the earth are suffering.

The Nat'l Initiative for Democracy is a way to fix it all & soon, that I stumbled upon one day.
If anyone can find a better way to take the enormous power our government has abused & put that power back into the hands of the People--which is where government's power first came from & still belongs mind you, with us, NOT them---let me know, I'm interested. I have not found a better plan.
We delegated the power to represent us to them & we can take that power we entrusted to them back.
This is OUR government, by the people..for the people..& of the people. Remember? It does not belong to our Representatives at all. It belongs to us. The power belongs to us, not them.
They can't be trusted because of the way our system is set up. Which is, the elite run it all.
We need to recognize the problem before we can take the appropriate actions to fix it.

Any solution that doesn't take a lot of their power away is not going to work. Period.
It's not rocket science.
Of course, that's the last thing the elite want--for Americans to jerk our power back from their dirty hands.

Believing political parties will reform themselves is a form of denial.
It's not going to help us toward a solution for our current massive corruption problem.

You're right Charlie L. that Exxon & Diebold are not contributing to BradBlog. But big business IS contributing to both political parties.
And, like I've said, a report said Dems are getting even more money than Republicans--at least at this point. (I can't remember where I read it, but RLM also said it a couple of times I believe) I guess big business is covering their bases, in case Dems do get in.

P.S. You know, I've thought about our Constitution & about how the founding fathers were really not all that interested in "equality & justice for ALL" when you examine it.
I love my country & believe in the PRINCIPLES the founding fathers stated was the basis for our Constitution.
But in reality, the founding fathers set it up more for equality & justice only for some, not "all" as they stated--even back then.
They had to make it sound good because it had to sell to the 'little People', even back then, I'm afraid.
(Does this sound familiar today, People?)
Back then, you could only vote if you were a man that owned property.
That vote didn't include "all".
Slaves were counted as 2/3 of a "person" each.
Slaves were considered property, as were women.
That sure didn't include "all".
What's the purpose they invented the "electoral college" for--if not to ensure the rich could control things?
They set up a basically sound Constitution in principle, but not in the way it actually worked-- even back then--sorry to say.

It seems even THEY set it up for the rich to run it all, because they WERE the rich & also because the type of quality education they had enjoyed was not available to all. So they didn't trust those that weren't rich. (Which is why a quality education for all even today is still of the utmost importance for our nation--NOT 'no child left'--which is an outrage that they use to dumb our schools down even further & keep the masses down.)
So, we needn't fear disturbing any sacred principles the founding fathers gave us by making an amendment to our Constitution---we're making it function closer to the principles they claimed it was based upon to start with.
So making the People like a fourth branch with equal powers through the Nat'l Initiative is not changing any principles--it's ensuring we get what they promised.
I see the Nat'l Initiative as the dawn of TRUE Democracy for all & peace & prosperity.
We'll be celebrating the day we adopt it like we do the 4th of July now.