f'ing Travesty! On this I Blame Bush For Going Along

[Annie]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm...orld/20040917/wl_oneworld/4536942841095439163

One world says it all...

Independent Election Observer Team Arrives in U.S.

Fri Sep 17,12:34 PM ET

Jim Lobe, OneWorld US

WASHINGTON, D.C., Sep 17 (OneWorld) - A team of 20 independent democracy experts from 15 countries and five continents has arrived in the United States in order to observe this year's presidential election campaign.

Related Links
• Fair Election - official site



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The election monitors, who have been brought here by the San Francisco activist group "Global Exchange," will be fanning out in the coming days initially to research how the election preparations are being conducted in five states. They will then return just before the actual polling November 2.

The five states include Florida, Ohio, Arizona, Missouri, and Georgia. According to Global Exchange, Florida was selected due to the controversy that erupted there in the 2000 elections; Georgia because it is one of only two states where voters will use only touch-screen voting machines.

Arizona was picked because elections there are publicly financed, while Missouri was the scene of widespread reports of Republican efforts to suppress the black vote in 2000. Ohio was also of interest because it is expected to be one of the most hotly contested battleground states in this year's election.

"Many of us in this room have worked for many, many years in different situations and in different countries," said Brigalia Bam, one of the observers who also chairs South Africa's Independent Electoral Commission at a press conference at the National Press Club Thursday. "It is that experience that has brought us to the United States." She said all elections should be assessed by the degree to which they are "responsive, transparent, and fair."

Other observers, with similar qualifications, hail from Argentina, Australia, England, Canada, Chile, Ghana, India, Ireland, Mexico, Nicaragua, Philippines, Thailand, Wales and Zambia.

The Global Exchange group, which hopes to meet with local and state election authorities, as well as with civic groups that are also involved in getting out the vote and ensuring a fair election, is not the only international team that will be observing the November elections.

The State Department last month invited formally invited an observer delegation from the Vienna-based Organization for Security and Cooperation (news - web sites) in Europe (OSCE (news - web sites)), a 55-nation body that encourages all member countries to observe each others' elections.

State Department officials stressed that the OSCE delegation will not have the authority to assess the fairness of the vote, but it will be expected to issue a report on any problems or shortcomings as part of a new program for all OSCE members.

That invitation drew praise from more than a dozen Democratic lawmakers who had asked UN Secretary General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) to dispatch observers to the November elections earlier this summer.

In a letter to Annan, which the UN subsequently referred back to Powell, the lawmakers said they were concerned about the possibility of irregularities in the 2004 balloting.

"Given the deeply troubling events of the 2000 election, the growing concerns about the lack of necessary reforms and potential abuse in the 2004 election," the lawmakers wrote, "we believe that the engagement of international election monitors can be the catalyst to expedite the necessary reform, as well as reduce the likelihood of questionable practices and voter disenfranchisement on Election Day."

The letters drew outrage from many Republican lawmakers in the House of Representatives. They promptly attached an amendment to the 2005 foreign-aid bill banning the use of any of that money to finance UN monitoring of the election.

"For over 200 years, this nation has conducted elections fairly and impartially, ensuring that each person's vote will count," said Rep. Stephen Buyer during debate on the floor of the House of Representatives. "Imagine going to your polling place on the morning of November 2 and seeing blue-helmeted foreigners inside your local library, school or fire station."

The delegation invited by Global Exchange said they were less likely to be watching specific polling places on Election Day as they were to be examining the larger process, particularly with respect to the possible disenfranchisement of voters.

"The potential for minority and specific groups to be disenfranchised, that's certainly ...a concern that needs to be closely looked at," said David MacDonald, a former Minister of Communications and Secretary of State under Progressive Conservative governments in Canada.

Several of the Global Exchange observers stressed that U.S. officials should not be offended by their presence. "I think it's productive that America should also invite observers because, if we judge ourselves, we wouldn't be judged," said Damaso Magbual, deputy secretary general of the National Citizens Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL) in the Philippines.

"We may think we are the best, (but) it's always best to have others see to have others see it from an outside perspective, to find out how things are," he noted.

"In all places, there is a need for sharing experiences, and there is always room to improve," said Horacio Boneo, an Argentine professor who has taken part in electoral assistance and observation in more than 60 countries and is one of the United Nations (news - web sites)' top advisers on elections.

Global Exchange said the delegation marks the first major effort by a non-governmental organization (NGO) to monitor U.S. election processes. A spokesman added that some counties with which the group had made contact had invited the observers to meet with election officials and even attend tabulation centers on Election Day, while in other cases - notably Miami's Dade County - no response has been forthcoming.

''I don't think they have anything they particularly want to hide from us," said Bam, who will be part of the team to be sent to Florida.

 

[rtwngAvngr]

He had to do this. The dems will have to shut up when their precious international community says the election is fair.

 

[musicman]

I couldn't even finish the article, I'm so mad. "Deeply troubling....2000 election"???!!! What the hell is President Bush thinking??!! Allowing this travesty gives creedence to the lying whiners who STILL can't get over the fact that they lost! Allowing other nations into our business is a gross violation of our sovereignty. And, forget about the potential for abuse. We've seen what happens when someone in a position of power, who is supposed to be objective and dispassionate, allows his personal prejudices to drive his actions RATHER than the pursuit of the truth. Just who do you think these "dispassionate" observers are rooting for?

More to the point, who's going to be observing THEM?

I need a drink.

 

[musicman]

He had to do this. The dems will have to shut up when their precious international community says the election is fair.

I hope you're right, RWA. Damn, I'm mad!

P.S. - I actually owned a Cordoba. That Corinthian leather WAS pretty f***ing rich(LOL).

 

[rtwngAvngr]

I hope you're right, RWA. Damn, I'm mad!

P.S. - I actually owned a Cordoba. That Corinthian leather WAS pretty f***ing rich(LOL).

The real question is what will happen if they declare it invalid. As we've seen, most likely nothing.

 

[musicman]

The real question is what will happen if they declare it invalid. As we've seen, most likely nothing.

LOL! Recommend that we take military action against ourselves, maybe? I'm sure they'd be happy to send a token force.

 

[dilloduck]

If they say anything but "this is the fairest election we've ever seen" can we hold em all hostages?

 

[musicman]

It probably wouldn't surprise the hell out of them. After all, that's how these things are done, isn't it?

And we're asking THEM for advice.

 

[onedomino]

I hope you're right, RWA. Damn, I'm mad!

P.S. - I actually owned a Cordoba. That Corinthian leather WAS pretty f***ing rich(LOL).

Please excuse this digression, but I could not help but wonder what you and rgtwngAvngr were talking about with your Corinthian leather references. Even more strange, rgtwngAvngr's signature attributed some whacky phrase about Corinthian leather to my all time favorite megalomaniac, Khan...er, I mean Ricardo Mantalban. So I researched it on the net. http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Ricardo_Montalban Apparently, Khan was a car salesman back in 1975! How could that be? I always imagined that he was real busy conquering the universe. Anyway, here's a picture of Ricardo wearing rich Corinthian leather:

 

[musicman]

Kahn!!!!




Kahn!!!!!

 

[sitarro]

Onedomino ,
He was a spokeman for Chrysler before he was Mr. Rourke on Fantasy Island . His accent made the car commercials very memorable, almost like he was selling the idea of car sex on that leather.

Daa Plane , Daa Plane!

 

[onedomino]

Kahn!!!!

Kahn!!!!!

"To the last I will grapple with thee!"

Khan

 

[KarlMarx]

Onedomino ,
He was a spokeman for Chrysler before he was Mr. Rourke on Fantasy Island . His accent made the car commercials very memorable, almost like he was selling the idea of car sex on that leather.

Daa Plane , Daa Plane!

Ah, yes, lil' Herpes, what would we have done without him?

Can you imagine what Fantasy Island would be like today? --- Oh wait, that's right, it's called "Club Med" and "Hedonism Weekend"! Instead of white suits, those two would be wearing studded leather ...... thingies.

On a lighter note....didja ever notice how the Left seems to want to re-write the Constitution?

1. On the matter of Gun Control. They want to abolish the 2nd amendment because, of course, we don't have militias today.

2. On the matter of presidential elections. They want to abolish the Electoral College because the notion of an Electoral College is "hopelessly outdated". Of course, it wasn't an issue before the 2000 election.

3. Of course, they always want to give the Judicial Branch the power to legislate from the bench!

4. Hey, what about that pesky First Amendment? First, they introduce the notion of "separation of church and state" meaning "let's kick God out of public and private life". Second there's that idea of Free Speech, which means "free speech for those who agree with the lunatic Left and death to everyone else!"

5. Then of course there are all those "rights" that the Founding Fathers put into the Constitution. Just like the Bible Code, with all those hidden messages! The right to abortion, the right to homosexual sodomy, the right to marriage. (How about the right to a million dollars? I'd like to have that one!)

6. Then there's the notion of looking to other countries' laws to interpret American law. Yes, of course, let's just tack on the Constitutions of Zimbabwe and Pakistan to ours...just for reference!

7. But then, if you try to get the Constitution amended to ban gay marriage, all of the sudden it's "tampering with the Constitution for political gain".... Or as my Senator Hillary Clinton once emailed to me...."the Constitution is a sacred document that shouldn't be changed for political purposes...." How nice, how noble, how lame!