by Richard L. Franklin
2/7/08
Back in the first century, the Roman poet Juvenal, in his 'Satire X', wrote a poem with lines which have forever remained famous and have been endlessly repeated. His satirical poem ridiculed the Roman people for letting their freedoms dwindle and slip away as they contented themselves with the free grain that was given to them in addition to the free circuses held in the Coliseum.
From Juvenal's 'Satire'
Already long ago,
from when we sold our vote to no man,
the People have abdicated our duties;
for the People who once upon a time handed out military command,
high civil office, legions - everything,
now restrains itself and anxiously hopes for just two things:
bread and circuses
As I watched and listened to the electoral circus being presented to the people of America, and I took note of their extreme excitement over the ongoing contests, I was simultaneously saddened and angered. I saw the entire huge ritual as a great waste of time and wealth. It is obvious to me that it has been no more than a spectacular diversion for the media and the people of America. I say 'diversion' because the ongoing electoral circus takes the minds of the people off an ongoing dramatic erosion of their liberties, clear hints of a pending national economic collapse, and most significantly, clear signs that a corrupt electoral system has been installed in so-called 'key states'.
Since the last election, which was won by Kerry, but was blatantly fixed to give Bush still another undeserved four years in the White House, America's electronic electoral system has been left untouched by significant reform or the imposition of any rational governmental control over it. There is no federal oversight whatsoever over the new electronic voting systems! Not only that, state after state continues buying huge numbers of corruptible Diebold and ES&S voting machines from the infamous Bob Urosevich and his brother Todd.
Bob once publicly declared that he 'would do anything to elect George Bush'. Amazingly, the media ignored his brazen pledge, and Bob went ahead to fix his Diebold programs with switch levers. In the Ohio elections, his machines performed such manipulations as giving Bush two votes and Kerry one vote every time somebody voted for Kerry. Todd most likely managed to do the same with the ES&S machines in other locales.
Just for starters, only the brothers and their agents are allowed under law to access the computer programming of these machines, an outrage our treasonous Supreme Court has smiled upon. It's so easy to hack these machines, a chimpanzee has been trained to do it in 90 seconds. I kid you not.
Not only that, the voting machines are all linked at any given voting station. This makes it possible to change the program in one machine in about 60 seconds thusly making it a master machine and all the rest of the machines slaves. In short, in 60 seconds, an entire voting station, no matter how big, can be reprogrammed to give the election to a specified candidate.
Exit polls proved that massive vote fraud occurred in Ohio and the election was arrogantly stolen from Kerry. With gross arrogance, Ohio officials still have not corrected this situation. Worse yet, other states have been massively buying and installing Diebold and ES&S machines.
Permit me to repeat a report I once made regarding Wisconsin. For reasons that totally escape me, Karl Rove and associates consider Wisconsin 'a key state'. This made Wisconsin a target for vote fixing for the coming election. The problem was that there weren't enough electronic voting machines in Wisconsin to gain control over voting results.
So how was this resolved? Easily. Miracle of miracles! Suddenly the Wisconsin State Board of Elections decided Wisconsin needs more electronic machines. Their first choice? Why of course, the infamous Diebolds. After contracting with Diebold, the state board announced that they had carefully tested the Diebold machines and found them to be 'absolutely secure', a statement that goes beyond chutzpah and borders on criminality. They then ordered two of the most populous counties in Wisconsin to buy and install Diebold voting machines, even though the citizens of those counties were not happy with that dictatorial order.
I wrote to several newspapers pointing out that preparations for voting fraud were quite possibly underway in those counties because Diebold machines have been proven by top experts all over the country to be absurdly easy to reprogram. I believe somebody managed to influence the Wisconsin State Board of Elections by hook or crook. It was imperative for the media to start screaming for an investigation and a court order to stop the purchase and installation of Diebolds until high level experts had examined the machines and testified as to their reliability or a lack thereof. To my knowledge, not one newspaper printed my letter, thusly making the media partners in crime.
It's clear that Ohio has not corrected the problems that existed, and in fact, things may have gotten worse. Ohio definitely is a key state, and it astoundingly stands ready to do exactly what it did last time.
The Dems have done almost nothing to initiate a reform of the system. Pelosi et al seem fearful of even mentioning the problem. Huge numbers of Diebold machines have been bought and installed all over America for the coming election. Very few states have moved to do much about it. California is one of the few states taking meaningful measures, and there has been some fussing in a few other states, but the picture as a whole looks very bad. In some states, efforts are being made to ban all electronic voting, but these efforts are having little or no success.
While all this is happening before our very eyes, America is now engrossed in an electoral circus. Huge amounts of money, time, effort, and emotion are being invested in this circus. People stay up all night to watch it. Cheers and tears are abundant as vote tallies relatively go up or down. And so on. The excitement and drama are abundant.
Mind you, I'm not harping about the current circus per se. I'd love to look forward to a clean November election for a new president and a change in the composition of Congress. It's just that I want more than diversionary games. Before engaging in a vast, enormously costly carnival, I'd like to see a reliable, honest electoral system in place.
The current scene is a long, drawn out circus, which will finally arrive at two separate smaller circuses known as 'conventions' to select candidates. Then another huge, drawn out national circus will begin. It too will be filled with drama and excitement, a spectacle that is even more exciting.
Of course the grand finale of the circus will take place in November. Once again, people will stay up all night, breathless, anxious, and tense. When one candidate for the presidency finally admits to defeat, great sobbing and great jubilation will spread across the land. What a magnificent circus it had been. And what a great democracy we have in America. What other country has such magnificent circuses every couple of years?
Just as Juvenal rebuked the Roman people for letting their freedoms slip away as they enjoyed their free grain and wonderful circuses, I condemn the whole show and the careless disregard of the American people in preserving their liberties as they wrap themselves in cocoons of reality denial, shells that protect them from the realities of 9/11, the relentless eradication of their liberties, the creation of a fraudulent voting system, and the obvious ongoing shift of America from democracy to fascism.
America is now poised at a hugely dangerous point in its history; yet 90% of Americans seem oblivious to that ugly reality. The circuses and the games go on and on, while Machiavellian figures in our capitol city conspire to strip us of the final remnants of our freedoms.
The clock is ticking as Americans cheer on the circus.
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