The Democrats Will Lose In '06, '08 and Beyond ...

Brothers and Sisters, we are gathered here today to discuss, in gospel form, “Fooled Again” the latest book from political analyst and author Mark Crispin Miller. By doing so, I am in no way intending to mock Brother Miller, who pulls the lid off the vast network of voter fraud committed by supporters of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney in the 2004 Presidential election with the same brilliance and thoroughness with which he skewered the Bush/Cheney empire in his previous books, “Cruel and Unusual” and “The Bush Dyslexicon.” Instead, I am paying tribute to an administration that, as part of its longtime determination to turn the world into a Christian Kingdom, approved a book claiming the Grand Canyon was caused by Noah’s Flood, produced a film entitled “GWB: Faith in the White House” in which Bush appears in a split-screen tableau with Jesus, proudly displayed crosses onstage during the Republican convention, honored long-time contributor Sun Myung Moon in a coronation ceremony in a Senate office building and, last but not least, endorsed the teaching of Intelligent Design as a safe, sensible and, yes, fun alternative to evolution.

Now let it be said, good people of the Church of Liberal and Religious Sensibility, that the author, himself, begins his latest analysis by applying a word to George W. Bush’s successful re-attainment of the Presidency that is often used by the mighty Christian arm of this man’s political body: it was a miracle. Yes, indeed, brothers and sisters, despite having poll numbers mired in the forties, despite having many lifelong Republicans declaring their support for his opponent, Senator John Kerry, despite the highest voter turnout in 36 years, despite a larger increase in registration of Democratic voters than in any time in recent years, and, most blasphemous of all, despite having only a minor increase in support from the very evangelical base that inspired this sermon and that election robber baron Karl Rove had such a hard-on for, George W. Bush “won” the 2004 election by 8.56 million more votes than he had received four years before!

Of course, my flock, as we all (should) know, Bush did not “win” this election any more than he “won” the last one. As Brother Miller points out, in the 2004 contest, “The Democrats had registered 77,000 new voters for the election and realized 66,170 new votes. The Republicans (registered) only 17,000, and yet somehow realized 66,772 new votes ... six-hundred more than Kerry/Edwards did.” In other words, John Kerry was all set to exceed his Democratic predecessor, Al Gore, by winning both the popular and electoral contests by a small but significant margin... were it not for the Zionistic fervor with which Karl Rove and his armies of Election Luddites skewed ballot machines, voting stations, absentee ballots and, most importantly, media coverage so as to make it look like one of the most unpopular incumbent Presidents in American history pulled off a slam dunk.

Consequently, friends, those same forces are going to use any means necessary, be it by law, man, nature, God or the Devil, to make sure that the Republicans maintain, if not increase, their majorities in the House and Senate this year, and win the Presidential election in 2008. And the next one in 2012 ... and on and on until that Rapture James Dobson and the rest of the Fundamentalist Frothers keep promising us finally happens. As Miller describes in detail, and with thorough documentation of sources, during the tumultuous Year of Our Lord 2004, the right stopped at nothing to prevent would-be supporters of John Kerry from voting for, registering to vote for or even thinking about voting for a man they truly feared would actually (gasp!) win. And the media, for all intents and purposes, let them get away with it, through underreporting of violations leading up to and on election day, dismissals of charges of fraud and abuse made by Kerry campaign workers and other supporters, and the continuation of their inexplicable coddling of Wee George that began ever since he announced his candidacy for the highest office in 1999. This includes even such “bastions of liberalism” as The New York Times, which, in addition to giving far too much coverage of the patently absurd charges made against Kerry’s record in Vietnam by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, were strangely dismissive of the hard evidence of the electronic coaching device that was visibly bulging out of Bush’s back during his first debate with his opponent. I mean, come on, good people of the “New York Times,” the man blurted out “Let me finish!” during one of his stumbling replies to Jim Lehrer’s questions, when nobody in the room had even interrupted him!

Though The Times, and journalists overall, have become far tougher on the Bush Administration since their bungling of the Katrina disaster and the nearly weekly eruptions of scandals and hunting accidents since, they continue, by and large, to give the Admins the benefit of the doubt in defending their ineptitude and covering up their corruption. So, too, they will either be only moderately critical of, or even let off the hook, those with close personal, financial and religious ties to the Bush Beehive seeking reelection this year.

Among other right wing shouters for Bush/Cheney’s plan to turn this country into a haven for Big Corporations and Holy Rollers, this includes (choir, get ready): Texas’ Tom DeLay, who handily won his state’s Republican primary despite a laundry list of indictments that would have most candidates pulling out of a race (Halleluiah!); Pennsylvania’s Rick Santorum, who wrote a book telling women to get out of the workplace and back into the kitchen, and compares homosexuality to “man and dog love” (oh, yeah!); Mississippi’s Trent Lott, who infamously revealed his man-and-dog-like love for the good old days of segregation at Strom Thurmond’s 100th birthday gala (all right!); and California’s Arnold Schwarzenegger, who Terminated Governor Grey Davis mid-way through his term in order to aid the Bush Administration in their plan to help Enron dodge state and federal prosecution for the phony “energy crisis” of 2001 (I see the light! Oh, Lord, I see the light!).

And, people in the pews (you can take a break, choir), by revealing what wimps most reporters are in the face of Republican blowhards and Administration pit bulls, and how strangely impressed the fourth estate is by the royal trappings and hollow pronouncements of King George, Miller gives the lie to one of the biggest myths of the Limbaugh-O’Reilly-Coulter-FOX-News-right-wing-roach universe: that the media suffers from a “liberal” bias. If the followers - excuse, me morons - who’ve so long lapped up these roaches' dribblings about this “bias” were paying any attention, they’d know that the print, radio and, especially, television news choirs have practically been Bush/Cheney’s cheerleading squad. How else to explain, back in the dark days of November, 2000, that squad’s “yaying” Georgy Boy on as he paraded around in a jacket with a Presidential seal and announced his staff appointments before the recount even reached its ominous end? How else to explain that choir’s dissing Al Gore for being a “sore loserman” because he rightly refused to stop that recount until the Supreme Court’s partisan, unconstitutional and damn near Satanic decision to end it? How else to explain, in the dark days of November, 2004, John Kerry’s folding like a house of cards mere hours after the polls closed during that election, his concession borne out of fear that that goon squad would vilify him the same way (and, legitimate as that fear was, Kerry’s capitulation was a weak and unnecessary move for which I will never forgive him)? And, how else to explain, two months after that, the chorus’ mighty yawn when Representative John H. Conyers released his 100-page report of the vast network of voting irregularities in 2004?

If these bimbos had given proper coverage to that report, most people - even some who voted for the SOB - would be calling for the impeachment of the Son of a Bush. As Brother Mark lays it out, those disparities, infringements and outright thefts were far from confined to Ohio, the final “battleground” state, and the only one the press paid any attention to. Instead, to paraphrase of one of his chapter titles, this network of polling fraud spread like the most uncontrollable form of cancer all across the land. One of the leading causes of this cancer was the use of touch screen voting machines provided by Diebold, ES&S and numerous other firms headed by open supporters of Bush, and which, consequently, were designed to be manipulated (and with no paper trail) so the final results would come out in favor of God’s personal choice for President. Another leading cause of the deprivation of potential hits for Kerry was the intimidation and trickery inflicted upon members of the country’s African-American and minority populations This was committed, in part, by a nationwide network of phone calls and mailings threatening anyone with legal blots on their, or a relative’s, records with arrest if they dared enter a voting place. The right’s high regard for the intelligence of black voters was further demonstrated in friendlier calls reminding folks to vote on November 3rd, the day after the election - and having some of these phonings made by “Bill Clinton” himself! Outside of the circles of tele-hell were the infringements on minority voters’ ability to register, including the elimination of same-day registration, phony requirements for driver’s license in order to do so, delays in the mailing out of registration forms, and other tricks of the trade, many of them the brainchildren Christian Coalition operative and phonics hooker Nathan J. Sproul. Finally, there was that instance of fraud that even the news media couldn’t ignore: the long lines of voters standing outside voting stations in cold, rainy and - interestingly enough - heavily Democratic districts. Those lines were the result of convenient “breakdowns” in voting machines, staffers who were deliberately slow and hostile to visitors, and the pathetic distribution of such stations in these potentially pro-Kerry districts. This last arrangement was courtesy of Bush-friendly Secretaries of State like Minnesota’s Mary Kiffmeyer, Arizona’s Jan Brewer and Ohio’s J. Kenneth Blackwell (the last two of whom also happened to be chairmen of Bush’s campaign!).

Now, for those of you in the flock who still doubt Brother Miller’s words, or the venality of the Bush/Cheney “re-election” program, heed the testimony of two women who survived a personal appearance by The Great Leader, himself, in Jacksonville, Oregon. In a chilling appendix to the book, these one-time Bush supporters describe an Orwellian nightmare of helicopters strafing the skies, snipers splayed out on rooftops, well-dressed thugs in sunglasses rudely removing any pro-Kerry people standing outside of that event’s “free speech” zone (surely one of the greatest slaps in the face to the right to free speech one can imagine) and, when His Highness’ carriage arrived, riot police forcing protestors away from even that meager zone with stun guns and billy clubs. Seeing as Jacksonville is no more of a “terrorist hideout” than any other part of the country, the draconian atmosphere of Bush’s appearance was typical of ones he made throughout the campaign, and a complete contrast to such stops made by Kerry and Edwards. These, I can attest from personal experience, were friendly and free of all but the most minimal security checks - and their operatives, I hasten to add, did not ask who I and other attendees were voting for, unlike the snarling dogs at the gates of Bush/Cheney events, who only let people declaring their support for The Dynamic Duo into their churches.

So, as we close this sermon in praise of Brother Mark Crispin Miller’s must-read book, “Fooled Again”, let me remind you that the Demons of Republican Voting will continue to enact these treacherous, racist and immoral practices this year and in the years to come ... UNLESS we vigilantly keep track of their schemes via our country’s leading liberal civic organizations, AND call an end to touch screen, computerized and other “innovative” forms of balloting, and hew to good old-fashioned paper votes. This, more than anything - more, even, than the campaigns of our Democratic saviors (well, we hope that’s what they are) - is the first step we should take if we have any hope of dismantling the rights’ hold on Washington and the corrupt, bloody and theocratic empire Bush and Cheney have been steadily building the last six years. With the Supreme Court now being taken over by Creationist zealots determined to stamp out freedom of speech, with a woman’s right to an abortion having been eliminated in South Dakota and Mississippi, and with the Administration being given all but carte blanche to continue its warrantless wire tap program, we simply cannot allow the right to rig elections in their favor.

So, good people of the Church of Liberal and Religious Sensibility, if you care about this country and consider yourselves true patriots, get your hands on a copy of Mark Crispin Miller’s “Fooled Again.” If nothing else, it should make better reading than that book about the Grand Canyon and Noah’s Flood.

Amen!

For more information on Mark Crispin Miller and his work, log on to http://www.markcrispinmiller.blogspot.com/