On this episode of Breaking the Set, Abby Martin talks to NYU professor and author of 'Fooled Again', Mark Crispin Miller about voting fraud, 911 and how the term 'Conspiracy Theory' shuts down objective debates. Abby then speaks with Kurt Haskell, Congressional Candidate for Michigan's 7th District, about his experience on the flight with the Christmas day Underwear Bomber that completely contradicts the government's narrative. BTS wraps up the show with a look at the intertwined relationship between the Japanese Yakuza crime syndicate and the nuclear energy industry in Japan.

LIKE Breaking the Set @ http://fb.me/BreakingTheSet

FOLLOW Abby Martin @ http://twitter.com/AbbyMartin

New Court Filing Reveals How the 2004 Ohio Presidential Election Was Hacked
Truthout, Bob Fritakis, July 25, 2011
Cached version

A new filing in the King Lincoln Bronzeville v. Blackwell case includes a copy of the Ohio Secretary of State election production system configuration that was in use in Ohio's 2004 presidential election when there was a sudden and unexpected shift in votes for George W. Bush.

The filing also includes the revealing deposition of the late Michael Connell. Connell served as the IT guru for the Bush family and Karl Rove. Connell ran the private IT firm GovTech that created the controversial system that transferred Ohio's vote count late on election night 2004 to a partisan Republican server site in Chattanooga, Tennessee owned by SmarTech. That is when the vote shift happened, not predicted by the exit polls, that led to Bush's unexpected victory. Connell died a month and a half after giving this deposition in a suspicious small plane crash.

Additionally, the filing contains the contract signed between then-Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell and Connell's company, GovTech Solutions. Also included that contract a graphic architectural map of the Secretary of State's election night server layout system.

Cliff Arnebeck, lead attorney in the King Lincoln case, exchanged emails with IT security expert Stephen Spoonamore. Arnebeck asked Spoonamore whether or not SmarTech had the capability to "input data" and thus alter the results of Ohio's 2004 election. Spoonamore responded: "Yes. They would have had data input capacities. The system might have been set up to log which source generated the data but probably did not."

Spoonamore explained that "they [SmarTech] have full access and could change things when and if they want."

by Bob Fitrakis
http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2011/4239

July 20, 2011 A new filing in the King Lincoln Bronzeville v. Blackwell case includes a copy of the Ohio Secretary of State election production system configuration that was in use in Ohio's 2004 presidential election when there was a sudden and unexpected shift in votes for George W. Bush.

The filing also includes the revealing deposition of the late Michael Connell. Connell served as the IT guru for the Bush family and Karl Rove. Connell ran the private IT firm GovTech that created the controversial system that transferred Ohio's vote count late on election night 2004 to a partisan Republican server site in Chattanooga, Tennessee owned by SmarTech. That is when the vote shift happened, not predicted by the exit polls, that led to Bush's unexpected victory. Connell died a month and a half after giving this deposition in a suspicious small plane crash.

The Mysterious Death of Bush's Cyber-Guru

Shortly before six o’clock on the evening of December 19, 2008, a man standing outside his home in Lake Township, Ohio heard the whine of an engine in the sky above him.

Moments later two red lights broke through the low clouds, heading almost directly toward the ground. It was a light aircraft, and for a second, as it descended below the tree line, the man thought it would climb back up. Instead, there was a terrible thud, and the sky turned orange. When the fire crews arrived, they found the burning wreckage of a Piper Saratoga strewn across a vacant lot. The plane had narrowly missed a house, but the explosion was so intense that the home’s plastic siding was on fire. So was the grass. The pilot had been thrown from the plane and died instantly. Body parts and pieces of twisted metal were scattered everywhere. A prayer book lay open on the ground, its pages on fire.

June 22, 2009

The CIA and US Media Roles in Destabilizing Iran

By Michael Green

While everyone who writes about the recent Iranian election has very strong opinions, very few have very many, if any, firm facts. Even such a seemingly solid article by Mr. ZMag, Stephen Zunes, i.e., "Has the Election Been Stolen in Iran?" Posted on June 13, 2009, Printed on June 14, 2009, http://www.alternet.org/story/140626/
makes broad claims and assertions of patent theft without citing a single source or providing a satisfactory example of any of his claims. I have emailed Professor Zunes for solid examples and have asked him how he obtained so much information so quickly, but have not had a reply (his sites advises that he typically cannot answer all inquiries). For example, Zunes writes from the omniscient perspective:

OpEdNews

Original Content at http://www.opednews.com/articles/Programmer-who-rigged-2004-by-Larisa-Al...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
December 20, 2008

White House consultant who rigged 2004 election dies suspiciously

By Larisa Alexandrovna

One of my sources died in a plane crash last night...

UPDATED BELOW

I don't usually reveal sources, but I think this is incredibly important. Michael Connell died in a plane crash last night. He was a key witness in the Ohio election fraud case that I have been reporting on. More importantly, however, he had information that he was ready to share.

You see, Mike Connell set-up the alternate email and communications system for the White House. He was responsible for creating the system that hosted the infamous GWB43.com accounts that Karl Rove and others used. When asked by Congress to provide these emails, the White House said that they were destroyed. But in reality, what Connell is alleged to have done is move these files to other servers after having allegedly scrubbed the files from all "known" Karl Rove accounts.

Bush Insider Who Planned To Tell All Killed In Plane Crash, Non-Profit Demands Full Federal Investigation

PRNewswire
Sunday, Dec 21, 2008

http://www.prisonplanet.com/bush-insider-who-planned-to-tell-all-killed-...

Flashback: Rove Threatened GOP IT Guru If He Does Not ‘Take the Fall’ for Election Fraud in Ohio, Says Attorney ( http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6214 )

Michael Connell, the Bush IT expert who has been directly implicated in the rigging of George Bush’s 2000 and 2004 elections, was killed last night when his single engine plane crashed three miles short of the Akron airport. Velvet Revolution (”VR”), a non-profit that has been investigating Mr. Connell’s activities for the past two years, can now reveal that a person close to Mr. Connell has recently been discussing with a VR investigator how he can tell all about his work for George Bush. Mr. Connell told a close associate that he was afraid that George Bush and Dick Cheney would “throw [him] under the bus.”

Investigative journalist Gary Webb refused to be complicit. For his courage, the Mockingbird character assassins remembered him with this hit-piece of an obituary: http://www.nytimes.com/2004/12/13/obituaries/13webb.html

After the 2004 election, five weeks before his "suicide", he called out the American people for their apathy and moral cowardice.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3977503.stm

"What this election tells me, unfortunately, is that it doesn't matter to most Americans if their government lies to them repeatedly.

They no longer care if their leaders erode their civil liberties, push this country further towards a police state, or shroud their actions in additional layers of official secrecy.

They don't mind if their government operates strictly for the benefit of the rich and the corporate class, as long as their own taxes don't go up.

Nor do they care if their government spends itself to the brink of bankruptcy. As long as they feel threatened by some external evil, everything is permitted."

(With the Presidential election on the horizon, I asked Michael Collins, who is a serious student of the Fraudulent elections of the past few years, to pen a short piece for visitors of 911blogger, summarizing the dangers of Election Fraud... not "Voter Fraud"... Election Fraud. -rep.)

Hope for Change or Change Your Hopes?

Elections and Voting in a Dissociated State

by Michael Collins, 10.31.2008

"Some say" that no matter who gets elected we're still going to be in Iraq, the bailout will continue, and there will be no drawdown of the bloated budgets, particularly the military, that feed the defense contractors their daily ration. We're not getting national health, rather an electronic exchange and so forth down "the middle of the road" of national leadership.

Here's some news from the election fraud segment of our precipitous decline thanks to greed and avarice, not to mention stupidity, on the part of the ruling elite. Everyone of the problems mentioned could be solved without much cost in a few months. Everybody in power knows that and only a few officials act to serve citizens. They're rarely rewarded and frequently punished and marginalized for their service.

Wayne Madsen
WMR
October 8, 2008

WMR has learned from knowledgeable Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) sources that the Bush administration is putting the final touches on a plan that would see martial law declared in the United States with various scenarios anticipated as triggers. The triggers include a continuing economic collapse with massive social unrest, bank closures resulting in violence against financial institutions, and another fraudulent presidential election that would result in rioting in major cities and campuses around the country.

In addition, Army Corps of Engineer sources report that the assignment of the 3rd Infantry Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team (BCT) to the Northern Command’s U.S. Army North is to augment FEMA and federal law enforcement in the imposition of traffic controls, crowd control, curfews, enhanced border and port security, and neighborhood patrols in the event a national emergency being declared. The BCT was assigned to duties in Iraq before being assigned to the Northern Command.

http://www.infowars.com/?p=5165

AlterNet
October Surprise: Goverment Computers To Go Offline During Voter Registration Peak
By Wendy Weiser, Brennan Center for Justice
Posted on September 25, 2008, Printed on September 30, 2008
http://www.alternet.org/story/100392/

A recent alert by the Social Security Administration announces that the agency plans to shut down its databases for maintenance from October 11 through October 13. While this might not sound like an election issue, it turns out that this could significantly impede registration of first-time voters as well as the re-registration of eligible citizens.

Here's why. A 2002 federal law, the Help America Vote Act, requires all states to "coordinate" their voter registration databases with the Social Security database (and state motor vehicle databases) for the purpose of processing new voter registration forms. For the millions of voters who do not have current driver's licenses and register using the last four digits of their Social Security numbers, state election officials are required to try to match their voter registration information against Social Security records. But if the Social Security database is down—as it will be for four days—they won't be able to do that. Across the country, the processing of these voter registration forms will grind to a halt for four days.

Voter Roll Purges are being reported by Daily Kos, Greg Palast, and DemocraticUnderground.

In swing-state after swing-state Republicans are purging every voter they can. Most of them likely to vote for Obama. In Colorada 1/5 of voters have been purged.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&add...

Massive purges of likely Democratic voters in swing states -- FL, CO, NM
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/7/28/4727/23178/316/558035

2008 is 2000 All Over Again? Voter Rolls PURGED in CO, FL, NM, OH, NV...
http://www.gregpalast.com/obama-doesn%e2%80%99t-sweat-he-should?noop=1

Flyby News Notes -
Editor - Jonathan Mark - www.FlybyNews.com
February 11, 2008 - Bank Failure * Torture * Sibel * Shell Game

”9/11 Truthers are the Real
Patriots of the 21st Century!”

-- Steve Alten
Author of The Shell Game

1) Financial Corruption Threatens US All
- - The Bush Financial Bust of 2008
- - World Reports: Extreme Crisis As Group of 9 Demand Settlement
2) Waterboarding for God and Country
- - Ray McGovern: Waterboarding for God and Country
- - Justice Dept. 'Cannot' Probe Waterboarding, Mukasey Says
- - Cheney Defends Use of Harsh Interrogations
3) Sibel Edmonds: "The Highjacking of a Nation”
- - CNN [In Turkey] Covers Sibel Edmonds
- - Let Sibel Edmonds Speak – Don’t - Kill The Messenger
4) Uncounted – Diebold – Hillary 08?
- - Uncounted: The New Math of American Elections
- - The Winning Ticket: Hillary and Diebold in 2008
5) Project Shell Game – 9/11 Commission Cover-Up
- - The Shell Game Opportunity for 9/11 Truthers to Reach the Masses
- - 9/11 inquiry head 'tried to shield George Bush'
- - Coleen Rowley on Philip Shenon's Book
- - The Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation

Editor’s Notes:

Flyby News Notes -
Editor - Jonathan Mark - www.FlybyNews.com
February 6, 2008 - Iran * Reflecting Pool * Clinton * Peltier

"Actions are held to be good or bad,
not on their own merits, but according
to who does them. There is almost no
kind of outrage--torture, imprisonment
without trial, assassination, the bombing
of civilians . . . does not change its moral
color when it is committed by 'our' side.
The nationalist not only does not disapprove
of atrocities committed by his own side,
he has a remarkable capacity for not even
hearing about them."

-- George Orwell

1) Iran Syria Oil Currency US-Israel Threat to Attack
- - Iran Oil Bourse to deal blow to dollar
- - What did Israel bomb in Syria? Implicit threat to Iran
- - THE SHELL GAME newsletter from Steve Alten
- - THE REFLECTING POOL – LA movie premiere review
- - The New York City 9/11 Ballot Initiative - Update
- - The Commission: The Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation
- - Why Were The Tapes Destroyed?
- - Willie Nelson: Twin Towers Were Imploded On 9/11
2) Lies and deceit is part of the Clinton-Bush record
- - Clinton Pardons Exposed Underworld Connections

Just ran into the clips of Bill Maher's 1st show back and there were some interesting moments to be had. Reflecting on last year, I still think his big interruption moment of 2007 was rejuvenative on all accounts. Yes, it could have been done with a little bit more finessing, but more important is that it was done. The perfect could have become the enemy of the good in this case. And it got people talking. We need more interruptions done strategically. What we want is people talking, debating, raising the issue. There are many fronts and faces in this challenge. The civil rights movement successfully found a place for the different strategies and styles of Rosa Parks, Malcolm X and MLK. Bill Maher and the rest of corporate media have a long election year ahead of them. It could get more interesting than anyone can imagine.

Wednesday January 9, 2008
Bev Harris, HBO's Hacking Democracy, Speaks With Alex Jones About Voter Fraud In The New Hampshire Primaries

* source = http://www.blackboxvoting.org
-----------------------------------

More MP3 Audio Clips >

Diebold Voting Machine Contractor Executive Has Criminal Background
Company responsible for machines throughout New Hampshire directed by convicted drug dealer

http://infowars.net/articles/january2008/100108LHS.htm

First hour: Kathleen Wynne, a 9/11 truth supporter and former Associate Director of http://blackboxvoting.org, will discuss stolen elections.

Second hour: Mitchell Stein of http://RonPaulVoteCount.com will discuss how YOU can make sure they don't steal the nomination from Ron Paul through vote fraud.

6-8 pm CT Saturday 12/22

http://www.republicbroadcasting.org

call-in number 800-313-9443

Check out the forwarded article- please call your reps this week and ask them to vote against HR 811, which privatizes the vote count in the US, makes the counting secret and unaccountable to the public, enshrines software systems that have been proven to be hackable and unreliable (CA Secretary of State Bowen recently decertified all the
electronic voting machines), and also makes the Executive appointed Election Assistance Commission permanent- they're in large part responsible for the current situation.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0709/S00056.htm
Making the World Safe For Voting Machine Vendors

Michael Collins
Scoop Independent News
Washington D.C.

At a New Jersey town meeting this July, Rep. Rush Holt (D-NJ) said of his bill, House Resolution 811, “It’s not my bill anymore.”

Why shouldn’t the world be safe for vendors? Microsoft in particular? After all, they pay the bills. Just let them have whatever they want and let the rest of us be thankful we’ve got jobs. This is the prevailing philosophy in Washington, DC, your capitol and the supposed heart of modern democracy.

Guns & Butter
Wednesday, January 3, 2006, 1:00pm

"The Ford Presidency"
Interview with Webster Tarpley, author of The Unauthorized Biography of George Bush. The Ford Presidency is analyzed, from Gerald Ford's participation on the Warren Commission; the Watergating of Richard Nixon; Ford's appointment to the Vice Presidency upon Spiro Agnew's resignation; his ascension to the Presidency with Nixon's resignation; the selection of Ford's Vice President; and the stolen 1976 Presidential election.

KPFA 94.1 FM Berkeley 1pm PST, and streaming and archived at www.kpfa.org

www.gunsandbutter.net

I've expressed my conviction before, that this last election was tampered with no less than the ones of 2000 and 2004.(for example here). That the "D" part won this time does not disproof the fact that the "R" part has massively intervened with fraud, hacking and manipulations. It's just that their efforts were still not good enough to keep off all of the pro-"D" swing that happened in the electorate desperately seeking for an alternative (and believing the "D" to be one such).

Now there is even some evidence for my assumption: the Election Defense Alliance (EDA) have now released a preliminary report about their ongoing investigations which made OpEdNews.com. Editor Rob Kall write a background article.

The Election Defense Alliance has this to say:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Major Miscount of Vote in 2006 Election:
Reported Results Skewed Toward Republicans by 4 percent, 3 million votes

Election Defense Alliance Calls for Investigation

Hacking Democracy (HBO Special) Electronic voting machines count about 87% of the votes cast in America today. But are they reliable? Are ... all » they safe from tampering? From a current congressional hearing to persistent media reports that suggest misuse of data and even outright fraud, concerns over the integrity of electronic voting are growing by the day. And if the voting process is not secure, neither is America's democracy. The timely, cautionary documentary HACKING DEMOCRACY exposes gaping holes in the security of America's electronic voting system.

At the end of this Film Cleveland, Ohio. Dec. 23rd 2005. Cuyahoga County spent 22 million Dollars on these Diebold voting system. Cuyahoga did not change there mind after a hearing. What does this tell you? Business as usual, and F the American people, we're using them anyway. Argue all you want! They are going to what they want, not what we want.

Sign up for NATIONAL HAND COUNT REGISTRY HERE http://www.bbvforums.org/cgi-bin/forums/board-profile.cgi?action=register Black Box Voting WebSite http://www.blackboxvoting.org Forum http://www.bbvforums.org/cgi-bin/forums/discus.cgi HBO Info http://www.hbo.com/docs/programs/hackingdemocracy/synopsis.html I'm a 911 Activist Chuck Newell, and it time to make a change in a America, and fix our Voting System.

Today's reading recommendation #2. Extracts:

Steal Back Your Vote
Published by Greg Palast November 6th, 2006 in his blog

A lot of advice we’re getting from our progressive friends is to take photos of your ballot and silly stuff like that. Well, that’s all about how to complain after they steal it. I have a better idea: Win, don’t whine.

The regime’s sneak attack via vote suppression [see, "How They Stole the Mid-Term Election"] will only net them about 4.5 million votes. You should be able to beat that blindfolded. As that will cost about 5% of the vote. That means you can’t win with 51% of the vote anymore. So just get over it. If you can’t get the 55% you need for regime change, then you’re just a bunch of crybaby pussycats who don’t deserve to take charge.

#1: Vote Early, Vote Often

Vote today — at early voting stations — so you can spend tomorrow bringing out others to vote. Also, if you’re challenged, you’ve got another day to bring in more ID or scream bloody murder to your county elections board about your missing registration.

#2: Gang Vote

Arrive with five! Never go bowling, make love or vote alone. And volunteer at get-out-the-vote operations. It’s worth it just for the stale donuts, cold coffee and hot democracy.

#3: Tell Them to Take Their Provisional Ballot and...

If they try to hand you a "provisional ballot," scream bloody murder. If there’s a problem with your ID or registration, demand adjudication from a poll monitor, come back with proper ID, or demand appeal to the county supervisor of elections.

But don’t just walk away. If it’s provisional or nothing, take it — then return for the count to defend it.
[....]
       ( ----> more)

Today's reading recommendation #1. Extracts:

HOW THEY STOLE THE 2006 MID-TERM ELECTION
by Greg Palast, for The Guardian (UK), Monday November 6, 2006

Here’s how the 2006 mid-term election was stolen.

Note the past tense. And I’m not kidding.

And shoot me for saying this, but it won’t be stolen by jerking with the touch-screen machines (though they’ll do their nasty part). While progressives panic over the viral spread of suspect computer black boxes, the Karl Rove-bots have been tunneling into the vote vaults through entirely different means.

For six years now, our investigations team, at first on assignment for BBC TV and the Guardian, has been digging into the nitty-gritty of the gaming of US elections. We’ve found that November 7, 2006 is a day that will live in infamy. Four and a half million votes have been shoplifted. Here’s how they’ll do it, in three easy steps:

Theft #1: Registrations gone with the wind

On January 1, 2006, while America slept off New Year’s Eve hangovers, a new federal law crept out of the swamps that has devoured 1.9 million votes, overwhelmingly those of African-Americans and Hispanics. The vote-snatching statute is a cankerous codicil slipped into the 2002 Help America Vote Act — strategically timed to go into effect in this mid-term year. It requires every state to reject new would-be voters whose identity can’t be verified against a state verification database.

Sounds arcane and not too threatening. But look at the numbers and you won’t feel so fine. About 24.3 million Americans attempt to register or re-register each year. The New York University Law School’s Brennan Center told me that, under the new law, Republican Secretaries of State began the year by blocking about one in three new voters.

How? To begin with, Mr. Bush’s Social Security Administration has failed to verify 47% of registrants. After appeals and new attempts to register, US Elections Assistance Agency statistics indicate 1.9 million would-be voters will still find themselves barred from the ballot on Tuesday.
[....]

(more)

http://electiondefensealliance.org/SaveRVoteVideo

SAVE R VOTE: Citizen Monitoring Exposes Illegal, Unverified, Expensive Procedures in Riverside, CA

As a close foreign observer to the US voting system, especially after the 2000 and 2004 fraudulent presidental votes, now, I'm proud to note
the following activism to protect your vote.

These are really good signs. Make me proud of you, remember, some here think you get what you deserved by electing G.W.Bush twice.
I'm not one of those...

***

Video the Vote

Help stop election fraud in the US

http://www.brasscheck.com/videos/ef/ef5.html

***

November Victory Within Reach
Election Protection and GOTV Urgently Needed

Dear Sitting-Bull,

In 2000 and 2004, many of us believed Democrats would win the elections. Unfortunately, hundreds of thousands of voters were prevented from registering and illegally purged from voting rolls. Many faced widespread intimidation and suppression, were forced to wait in line for hours, were denied provisional ballots, and did not have their ballots counted. Voting machines broke down and irregularities abounded.
...

There are two things you can do to help prevent these abuses from costing us another election. First, you can join with me in helping the Democratic Voter Protection program. You can assist in early voting, poll watching, and tracking voter irregularities and complaints. We will make sure you are placed with a program in your area.

Electronic voting machines count 80% of the votes cast in America today. But are they reliable? Are they safe from tampering? From a current congressional hearing to persistent media reports that suggest misuse of data and even outright fraud, concerns over the integrity of electronic voting are growing by the day. And if the voting process is not secure, neither is America's democracy.

In the 2000 presidential election, an electronic voting machine recorded minus 16,022 votes for Al Gore in Volusia County, Fla. While fraud was never proven, the faulty tally alerted computer scientists, politicians and everyday citizens to the very real possibility of computer hacking during elections.

In 2002, Seattle grandmother and writer Bev Harris asked officials in her county why they had acquired electronic touch screen systems for their elections. Unsatisfied with their explanation, she set out to learn about electronic voting machines on her own. In the course of her research, which unearthed hundreds of reported incidents of mishandled voting information, Harris stumbled across an "online library" of the Diebold Corporation - which counted more than 40 percent of the presidential votes nationwide in 2000 - discovering a treasure trove of information about the inner-workings of the company's voting system.

Download link on http://u2r2h.blogspot.com

American Blackout, directed by Guerrilla News Network’s Ian Inaba uses a stunning mix of never before seen archive and firsthand interviews.

Download link on http://u2r2h.blogspot.com

Get Ready for the Massive November Vote Fraud.

We instinctively know when we are being lied to. Just as various lie
detectors use changes in physiology to determine the truthfulness or otherwise
of the statements we make, we also have an inbuilt crude mechanism whereby we
sense that we are being lied to. The most acute form of this emotion or mental
state is displayed by parents or teachers, who instinctively know when the
children in their care lying to them.

Since becoming involved with (or at least aware of) the 9/11 truth movement, I have
had to re-educate myself and reacquaint myself with this innate lie detector. Which appears to have been
subtly switched off in me. It was possibly turned off by the corporate main stream media (MSM),
I remained unaware of all deceit when dealing with the affairs and actions of government as reported in the MSM.
It's also possible that this physiological lie detector had been overloaded with the lies of
politicians and petty bureaucracy to such an extent that it had 'blown a fuse' and simply turned itself off
in order to protect my very sanity. Regardless, it's been a rude
awakening personally, and a hard re-wiring and re-configuring of this primitive
defence mechanism had to occur.

Looking+South:+Organized+and+Passionate+Activism

by Michael Collins

Mexico matters because the people and leaders knew election problems were coming and they did something about it. They protested in massive numbers, again and again. The Mexican people are offering the largest resistance to election fraud in modern history. Think of the demonstrations in the Ukraine, Belarus, the Georgia Republic, or any other post election protest. Over a period of 15 days, there were three Assemblies sponsored by Lopez-Obrador and the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD). These demonstrations attract over a million people (in a nation of 100 million). The corporate media tried to downplay the crowd size with Bloomberg News failing to mention a 1.1 million estimate it got on July 16 from police authorities. These are vibrant, involved people who work with their leaders, particularly Presidential candidate Lopez-Obrador, to develop plans and fend off attacks by the ruling party.

Mexico matters because the people and leaders refused to give up when the system failed to give them a real recount. The independent election institute tried to pass off a Calderon victory without investigating the numerous and substantial allegations of election fraud. For example, the institute tried to announce a victory by President Vincente Fox’s hand-picked candidate, Calderon, until an audience member pointed out ballots that they failed to count — at least 2.5 million of them. That type of "error" is rarely an error; rather, it shows bias and intent to deceive. The electoral tribunal resisted but was ultimately pressured into a recount of 9% of the vote. The tribunal then refused to order a total recount of the paper ballots even though it found that 130,000 were either missing or invalid — in only 9% of the precincts! The projected total for 100% of the precincts would be over 1.3 million ballots. Yet the full recount failed to materialize.

The Mexican People: Heroes of Democracy

The Mexican peoples’ democracy movement and their leader Andrés Manuel López Obrador are modern heroes of democracy and to all who demand clean elections. They recall the heroics of the Ukrainians with one important difference. There are no “great powers” supporting them. In fact, the American regime is hostile to a victory by Obrador and the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD). The increasingly unpopular and isolated White House cadre may have done its best to obstruct such an eventuality in ways which by now are predictably familiar. The Mexican people are alone, on the street, fighting the brave fight for people everywhere who believe in the inherently inalienable and natural right of men and women to determine their own destiny through free, fair, and transparent elections.

Supporters of democracy in Mexico are making a stand in the nation’s capitol. They just had their third major demonstration with more than a million participants. The American press tried a theme of demonstrators growing weary recently, just before the latest seven figure gathering. The demonstrations tell Mexicans and the world that the election was so questionable, an investigation is mandated through a thorough review of the most direct evidence: the ballots. The PRD’s demand for a “ballot by ballot, precinct by precinct” recount is fully warranted.