GuvWurld
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On Friday I posted an announcement that the Voter Confidence Committee (VCC) is organizing a Parallel Election to coincide with California's special election on Nov. 8. Download the full page flier here and the 1/4 leaflet here. Volunteer recruitment is going well, but we still need more help. We are looking for a legal adviser, a statistics expert, and since it looks like we may be able to cover multiple polling places, we'll need additional videographers to ensure we capture footage of each parallel poll opening and closing. Contact me if you can assist in any of these ways, or if you would like to work at one of our parallel polls encouraging voter participation.

Last night I was interviewed by Eileen McGee for her TV show Seeking Solutions. This episode of Seeking Solutions will air in Eureka on channel 12 at 6pm on Monday (tonight!) and again on Thursday. The first 40 minutes or so is a compilation of interviews Eileen did with random members of the community discussing the issues on the 11/8 ballot. The remainder of the show is devoted to the Parallel Election, ranked choice voting, and other broader themes of election reform.

Another note about tonight - it looks like the VCC won't have its regular Monday meeting due to Halloween. However, we will be having a special meeting this Friday, November 4 in order to train volunteers for the Parallel Election. This will likely be a 6pm gathering at the Liquid Cafe but I will confirm this later in the week. Meanwhile, recruitment will be in high gear on Wednesday. HSU students have called for a general strike in solidarity with the World Can't Wait campaign being executed all over the country. I'll be speaking at the HSU quad that morning, and perhaps at the Eureka Courthouse later in the day.

* * *

I need to add this long overdue post-script to my recent trip to Portland, OR for the National Summit To Save Our Elections. When I returned, I posted a report called Peaceful Revolution Is The Elephant In The Room. That was a combined reference to the white paper I had recently posted called Blueprint For Peaceful Revolution, and also the experience I had in Portland where the elephant metaphor was applied to the issue of whether verifiable voting must absolutely require only hand counted paper ballots. As I have said, election reform should now be viewed as a tactic, not a goal in itself. The paper ballot issue, while important, is more a red herring than an elephant. I realize not everyone agrees with this assessment.

I'm still thinking and writing about this because in Portland, in a group strategy session attended by over 30 leading election reform advocates, I was not able to make the case that we were improperly defining the elephant. As a result, a subset of the group, led by Brad Friedman of BradBlog.com, began working on a document that has come to be called the Declaration of Democracy (DoD). I am not able to directly quote from the still-private and developing document just yet, though I can say it was partly inspired by and includes references to the three goals identified in the Blueprint as a way to identify the existence of Democracy: conclusive election outcomes, a basis for confidence in the results reported, and an accountable government representing We The People with our Consent.

I had hoped to leave Portland with a coalition of reformers willing to work for adoption of the Voter Confidence Resolution (VCR) in their respective communities. Instead, in the coming weeks I will be working with Brad to develop a joint strategy for the VCR and DoD, likely to be promoted through VelvetRevolution.us (which Brad co-founded). GuvWurld is a Velvet Revolution affiliate and VR has endorsed the VCR. I'm optimistic to be working with Brad who has proven himself as one of, if not THE most important independent investigative journalist of this time.

* * *

Finally, a plug for a great article ("Orwellian "Scenarios": Emergency Preparedness against the "Universal Adversary"") that I commented on in a separate post a few hours ago ("We Are Being Set Up: The Manchurian Nation").


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I recently read Michel Chossudovsky's 6/7/05 article for the Center For Research on Globalization called "Orwellian "Scenarios": Emergency Preparedness against the "Universal Adversary"." This is an analysis of a leaked report by the Homeland Security Council:

A recent Report of the Homeland Security Council entitled Planning Scenarios describes in minute detail, the Bush administration's preparations in the case of a terrorist attack by an outside enemy called the Universal Adversary (UA).

The Universal Adversary, is identified in the scenarios as an abstract entity used for the purposes of simulation. Yet upon more careful examination, this Universal Adversary is by no means illusory. It includes the following categories of potential "conspirators":

*"foreign [Islamic] terrorists",
*"domestic radical groups", [antiwar and civil rights groups]
*"state sponsored adversaries" ["rogue states", "unstable nations"]
*"disgruntled employees" [labor and union activists].

According to the Planning Scenarios Report:

"Because the attacks could be caused by foreign terrorists; domestic radical groups; state sponsored adversaries; or in some cases, disgruntled employees, the perpetrator has been named, the Universal Adversary (UA). The focus of the scenarios is on response capabilities and needs, not threat-based prevention activities." (See Planning Scenarios)

The domestic radical groups and labor activists, which visibly constitute a threat to the established political order, are now conveniently lumped together with foreign Islamic terrorists, suggesting that the PATRIOT anti-terror laws together with the Big Brother law enforcement apparatus are eventually intended to be used against potential domestic "adversaries".

While the Universal Adversary is "make-believe", the simulations constitute a dress rehearsal of a real life emergency situation:

"The scenarios have been developed in a way that allows them to be adapted to local conditions throughout the country."

Chossudovsky describes who is involved in the conduct of these exercises and what are some of the implications:

These fabricated realities penetrate the inner-consciousness of key decision makers. The reality model script molds the behavior of public officials, it builds a "knowledge" and "understanding", namely a shared ignorance regarding the war on terrorism and the "adversaries" who oppose the administration's war and homeland security agendas.

[snip]

The "Scenarios" were developed for "Use in National, Federal, State and Local Homeland Security Preparedness". They instill in public and private sector officials and participants a sense of responsibility, duty and awareness in relation to something which is ultimately fictitious.

The "scenarios" and anti-terrorist exercises develop observance and compliance by public officials, law enforcement, intelligence, military and civilian federal and State employees, etc.

Moreover, the scenarios also envisage the circumstances under which Martial Law could be triggered in the case of a threat by the Universal Adversary. In other words, fake intelligence could indeed be used to trigger a martial law situation in America, much in the same way as (deja vu) fake intelligence was used "to fit the policy" of invading Iraq, as revealed in the controversial Downing Street Secret Memo.

Last month, just prior to attending the National Summit to Save Our Elections, I posted a white paper called Blueprint For Peaceful Revolution. The paper describes many ways that inherent uncertainty is created, resulting in a rift in the perception of reality. The government intentionally creates this divide to facilitate consolidation of power and control - as long as We The People fight amongst ourselves, we won't unite in non-violent revolution.

Rather than a culture war, or red states and blue states, I see a Cold Civil War occurring between the reality-based community and the faith-based community (where faith-based has no religious connotation, instead referring to those who accept the official line unquestioningly, on faith). Chossudovsky's analysis strongly supports this paradigm by exposing the "reality models" actually used to condition and indoctrinate many establishment members into the faith-based community.

So two powerful realizations overtook me as I read this article. The first is what I've been describing: my own analysis has even more supporting evidence than I realized. The other thought referred me back to the first-ever post in the GuvWurld Blog:

American democracy empowers leaders through the consent of the governed. Who is willing to consent to elections where the preparation consists of making sure the will of the people will be reasonably called into question? We can see the setup from a mile away - the so-called opponents are "debating" the rules of their contest. This is simulated competition, in the grand tradition of professional wrestling and the Harlem Globetrotters.

I added the emphasis because Chossudovsky's article again gave me the inescapable sense that we are being set up. It goes far beyond the dangerous and violent corruption of any powerful individuals, and even surpasses the recklessness of rogue factions such as the PNAC. As Chossudovsky describes labeling peaceful protesters as terrorists, initiating actions based on fake intelligence, and the overall brainwashing needed for mass buy-in, the wholly manufactured existence of the faith-based community reveals we have become the Manchurian Nation.


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** CITIZENS' AUDIT PARALLEL ELECTION **
Volunteers Needed on Election Day, Nov. 8, 2005
Concerned citizens are needed in Humboldt County. On Election Day, our team will invite voters to duplicate their vote on a paper ballot that will be counted by hand, in public, after the polls close. The results of this parallel election will be compared to the official election results that are counted by computers out of public view.

WHY ARE WE DOING THIS?

· To demonstrate what Democracy looks like
· To ensure the Consent of the Governed is sought and given
· To make sure your vote is counted as cast!

Parallel elections enable citizens to DOUBLE-CHECK the accuracy of official election results. The official ballots and vote tallies are recorded on optical scanners, electronic voting machines, and central tabulator machines that are operated with trade-secret software not disclosed to the public--not even to public election officials! When our ballots are counted with secret software, election officials cannot demonstrate that our votes are actually counted as we cast them.

HAND-COUNTING the parallel election ballots provides a comparative set of voting results, enabling statistical analysis of the official vote count that may detect discrepancies between the reported official tally and how citizens themselves say they voted. The parallel election paper ballots may also provide legal evidence for court challenges.

HOW DOES A PARALLEL ELECTION WORK?

1. Cast your official ballot inside the polling place.
2. After voting, exit and sign the Citizens' Audit Parallel Election roster book.
3. Vote again on a Citizens' Audit Parallel Election ballot*.
4. Place your Citizens' Audit Parallel Election ballot in the sealed ballot box.

* PLEASE VOTE THE SAME WAY YOU VOTED on the OFFICIAL BALLOT.

WHERE? The parallel election poll will be outside an official polling place -– specific location TBA.

**We can'’t do this alone. We need you.**
*We have Preparation and Election Day jobs.*
To volunteer and help ensure our Democracy works contact:

Dave: 707-845-3749 or blog@guvwurld.org
For more info: www.studycaliforniaballots.org or www.voterconfidencecommittee.org

Download this flier.
Download 1/4 page leaflet.
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Dennis Kyne is a long time correspondent of the GuvWurld Blog. If you are not familiar with him, his words below will tell you a lot.

Update from Algiers. October 15th, 2005 Day 39

EVERYONE IS ACCOUNTABLE

What a job. I mean what a work out. There are no jobs here, but a lot of work needs to be done. Gordon and I are still in the Bayou. Ralph McAtee from www.plenty.org (Plenty International) got into Algiers last night with the bus.

If you remember the updates I stopped writing nine days into Katrina relief, before Rita even arrived, and during the changing of camps, changing of warehouses, and changing from Covington, LA to Mobile, AL; You will remember Ralph and I got into Algiers on September 6th. When the Active duty Calvary boarded the bus and accused Ralph of hotwiring the thing. You can view days 5 through nine updates at www.michaelmoore.com

You can read Ralphs notes at http://www.plenty.org/katrina/ralph.html

When we got to Malik Rahim’s house in Algiers we were putting diapers into his garage. The garage is now stacked with five computers and a radio station, Radio Algiers. You can listen to the interviews and find out what is happening on the New Orleans Indy Media site. The backyard was tightly kept for pups that call 331 Atlantic home. The backyard is now a lot different. Starhawk is here building compost toilets, believe me the porta potties have to go. There are people from all over the country here working on projects. Now we are working on mold abatement, we are working on fixing roofs. We are feeding people still, which as most of you know has been my main mission since leaving Camp Casey in September.

The Houma Nation is getting help, the occupied West Bank, where Algiers sits and where combat veteran Mike Cuzzort resides is being supported. We have supplies getting to my new friend MAMA D, and we have trucks delivering in local neighborhoods thanks to the ever steady Jimmy, who six weeks later I still don't know his last name. Shows how little that stuff means in times like this.

FROM FORCED EVACUATION TO FORCED EVICTION

When Ralph and I arrived here on the 6th there was a forced evacuation on. What had happened was everyone was starving so they left. There were 76,000 residents of Algiers before Katrina, and they reduced to 3,000 before Rita even came, and went. There was no flood, why would 73,000 people leave there homes? NO Food or water. You can see heavy ICE / WATER paintings in the street, for the five day later helicopters to see from the sky, people got nothing. A lot of Orleans Parrish residents do not drive, or own a vehicle. The facts indicate that they starved Algiers out, forced people to leave for no reason. Shortly after that day, the forced evacuation was called off. Thanks in very large part to Michael Moore having a set of balls big enough to prove that there was no reason for people NOT to come and help. And people arrived, and some left, and some more came, and a large number have stayed longer than they expected.

Yesterday the Forest Park HUD Housing project held a protest and press release to address the forced eviction that property owners are pushing. It is unlawful, it is not even legal by HUD Standards. Funny how these rules are only for the convenience of the money bags. I was there, I can tell you it is a f______ sham that the Mayor of this city told residents to come home, and when they got here they were welcomed with an owner authorized eviction notice. Even the local courthouse can’t enforce this. I went in to the project managers office and asked if I could rent a place. Two women said they needed to restore it, no body can rent, and the people are leaving. I asked why the renovation was happening now, considering that Algiers never flooded? Why would you rennovate after a non flood, when the people were here to work and do it before? Sounds like an Insurance scam to me. They asked me if I was with the ACTIVISTS outside. Activists, I am white, they MUST have known I wasn't from the neighborhood. Categorized me. I said, "I am a relief worker looking for a place to sleep. I have been here six weeks and I need to find a home." They got upset with me and asked me to leave. They didn't know I am home, as a an activist and relief worker, as a member of the human race, as a citizen of the world, that this is common ground. I was standing with citizens of New Orleans who came home on the Mayors orders and got an eviction notice as the welcome home card. I am reminded of something I learned on the battlefield, we are all in this together. Algiers is the front line. Come feel it.

Gordon is the Chef here in Algiers at Common Ground http://www.commongroundrelief.org/
where Malik has a home that has passed down in his family. That is common, a lot of homes are owned by families that have been paid for and passed down. This makes it difficult to collect on insurance money, most people who ACTUALLY own their homes in this community don’t have the disposable income to pay for an overpriced insurance policy. That makes what we are doing so vital. It makes it so historic and rooted, because this is the way the world really works. It works together, not by some bank account that some company holds and releases funds as it finds fit. And believe me, while there is a rush to bring outside companies and outside workers, there is no rush to get money here to the people that are residing here. There is no rush to hire and employ the locals. There is a rush out of town by the federal agencies though. The photo op is over and in a number of places the agencies are leaving while the people are returning. As the people return they need to clean, and eat and so on, and of course the supply lines are not moving very fast.

The September 12th issue of Mother Jones, http://www.motherjones.com/news/update/2005/09/katrina_evacuees.html
quotes me and expresses my idea of over a month ago. A supply line into Southern Louisiana. We made it. After being dislocated from Rita, we have settled in. The living proof is Gordon’s cooking. He can cook, Really. You may remember, Gordon was responsible for getting the technology together to reunite families, animals, and get people onto the FEMA site and start getting help. He has driven the bus, and on and on I can go, he is cooking now. The supply line is here, and we are still supporting from the back end. While Gordon cooks, I sweep. Common Ground has three tents pushing truck loads of supplies into every region we can get from here. There are tools and supplies for local residents to borrow and return.

I was able to work in musician community. I got to Craig Klein's home with Shiek and Bill Phillips who are a couple of fellows I have worked with on the Jazz Funeral For Democracy and the Summer Soulstice. Two very major anti war events that occured on inaugeration day and June 18th of the past year. I also walked the 8th ward during Marin Luter Kings Birthday weekend to celbrate his birthday this past year. You can read my article WHERE WERE YOU? In which some Christian theologians responded that segregation was cool, here:

http://www.mindfully.org/Reform/2005/Where-Were-You-Kyne22jan05.htm


Lisa Fithian is here testing water, soils and today I handed her a geiger counter to check for radiation. As you know I hate radiation because of my exposure to Depleted Uranium in 1991.

The Supply Line is Open, Please Come!

Tomorrow I will fly to New York to give three depleted uranium presentations and than to California for one. This battle is not over. Algiers sits next to a Naval Shipyard, just like Hunters Point, California which I have written about many times. It is toxic, just like Hunters Point, and if you read up on the two communities you will see incredible similarities.

I will be back to Algiers, where WE ARE OPEN FOR BUSINESS. I hope when I get back you are here. The world needs you here, the broken system is not going to take care of the community, the culture nor the rehabilitation of an area that we (All three hundred million of us US residents) should have been attending to long before Katrina ever hit.

EVERYONE IS ACCOUNTABLE, kNOw excuses.

Common Ground can be found at 331 Atlantic Street, Algiers Point, just eight blocks from the Ferry to the French Quarter. There is a medical clinic that you can help at, there is also an incredible number of other things you can do. Don’t listen to the gate keepers who are saying that you can’t do anything. Listen to your heart, if you feel it thump, it is me telling you that this place can be helped. As my mama always told me, “You are either a help or a hindrance,” ask yourself, what are you doing to help. You can mail a box to Algiers or you can drive your truck here with bleech and a mop in it and give it away. You can spend an hour, a day, a week, I have spent a month and a half. Gordon and I are home, our supply line has made it to Southern Louisiana, and we hope you will come meet our new family.

Peace

www.denniskyne.com

Support the Truth

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I've been thinking about where to submit for publication the Blueprint For Peaceful Revolution. Harper's magazine had come to mind and then I came across this piece from the latest issue, We Now Live In A Fascist State. This piece is amazing. It illustrates how the creep of fascism in America has been ongoing for 30 years and only became detectable to some in the past few years. The interesting premise is that fascism has historically been popular with the people oppressed by it, and America has ushered it in similarly, although with the twist that this time the upper class and even young adults are the ones most accepting.

Also check out Bob Cesca's Huffington Post column where he describes the same phenomenon I have called Black Kettles (statements that would be more true if the speaker was referring to himself). Cesca credits Mark Crispin Miller with also writing about this and calling it "projectivity." That sums it up too.

PrissyPatriot is the first blogger I have found who has written about the Blueprint. That's OK. The stats counter at the GuvWurld News Archive shows an inordinately high number of readers have checked out.

This is a plug for parallel elections, described by Lynn Landes here, and detailed in a site set up by Judy Alter here. I met Judy at the recent National Summit to Save Our Elections. She is in SoCal and wants to help people throughout the state and nation become prepared to carry out this act of diligence and vigilance in concert with our next so-called "elections."

Keith Olbermann over at MSNBC has put together an important collection of bogus terror threats from the past few years, each ultimately meritless but conspicuously timed to distract from bad news for the government. This is yet another illustration of the inherent uncertainty tactic employed to ensure We The People will find it impossible to have a single perception of reality. This is an important theme in the Blueprint, and now has its own section in the GuvWurld News Archive.

More soon on my recent guest lecture at the College of the Redwoods, the Portland adventure, and how Katrina has revealed the true "elephant in the room."
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The National Summit To Save Our Elections was held in Portland, OR last weekend, bookended by two meetings devoted to developing a cohesive national strategy for election reform. While I attended both strategy sessions, I am not at liberty to discuss many details. I will say the elephant in the room was called out and a big effort was made to address it. Unfortunately, as objects in rearview mirrors can be, it now seems to me the elephant was falsely identified. The election reform movement is inherently revolutionary and yet that is the biggest of pictures that we most completely ignore.

There are advocates of hand counted paper ballots who are at odds with other election reformers calling for any of a number of verifiable electronic solutions. As important as this is, we can't afford to get hung up on the minutia of these issues. We must focus on the larger picture. In my community, the City Council of Arcata, CA put this rift to rest with the Voter Confidence Resolution (VCR). This document contains an eight point election reform platform, all of which must be enacted to achieve the true end goals of ensuring conclusive election outcomes, creating a basis for confidence in the results reported, and establishing an accountable government that represents We The People with our Consent. Consider just these three platform items:

1) voting processes owned and operated entirely in the public domain, and

3) a voter verified paper ballot for every vote cast and additional uniform standards determined by a non-partisan nationally recognized commission, and

5) counting all votes publicly and locally in the presence of citizen witnesses and credentialed members of the media

Those words were chosen so as not to explicitly demand or deny any of the various narrow grounds on which election reform advocates have been divided. Having been through the process of crafting the VCR, I know that these three reforms alone won't lead to Democracy, but they also won't preclude advocates of paper ballots or otherwise from supporting the advancement of the movement. People on both sides of the debate need to consider the best case scenario rather than their narrowly defined success. Both sides should conclude that an enormous array of other issues will still prevent the true goals of conclusive outcomes, a basis for confidence, and accountable representatives seeking our Consent. In Portland, we did all agree on these three goals and I expect that we can grow the movement by asking for buy-in at this level. That buy-in will allow us to think bigger.

Also in Portland, I took comfort in observing that most if not all in attendance understand empirically, logically and emotionally that there is no rational basis for confidence in the results reported from U.S. federal elections. There was a lot of discussion about what has happened in recent "elections." But even more important were the projections, made with certainty, that future elections held under these conditions will guarantee inconclusive outcomes and fail to produce unanimous acceptance of the results. A good portion of Americans are still willing to argue about what is a fact. It is therefore a wiser strategy to avoid that confrontation and instead build on those points on which we agree.

As I wrote in the Blueprint For Peaceful Revolution, Americans are engaged in a Cold Civil War as a result of the government's intentional divisiveness. Government power has been consolidated by pitting We The People against each other, thus preventing us from uniting against our common fascist foe. Inherent uncertainty is one of the government's most frequently used techniques. If we can't recount the votes, we can't know who really won an election.

Looking at the real elephant in the room includes these questions: where is the movement going? What will it look like when it succeeds? How can we develop and facilitate the implementation of a cohesive national strategy? And how can we make the phrase "peaceful revolution" socially acceptable? This is why I went to Portland. There was some progress made but we did not get to the core of this matter.

As our post-Summit dialog continues, this is where I'll be directing my energy. Reformers from Portland as well as Berkeley, CA have told me of their intention to organize in support of the VCR. I will work to connect leaders with other volunteers, and also to engage other communities in this same pursuit. Listen up San Francisco, Santa Cruz, Ithaca and New Paltz, you are just a few of the places where every City Councilmember has received the VCR and knows what we're doing. Let your City Council know you support this, and help them make connections with other like-minded communities.

These are the growing pains of the movement. Our movement is growing, and it hurts so good.


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From the New York Times:

Mr. Bush compared Islamic militant leaders - at one point he used the phrase "Islamo-fascism" - to Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot, and said their ideology, "like the ideology of communism, contains inherent contradictions that doom it to failure."

The quote above has taken its place in the select Black Kettles category of the GuvWurld News Archive. Black Kettles are statements that would be more true if the speaker was referring to himself. In this case, Mr. Bush says inherent contradictions ensure failure. This is very similar to "inherent uncertainty," a phrase used six times in the Blueprint For Peaceful Revolution.
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