This show was recorded 10-31-2006.
11:00 AM
Green Party candidate Bob Fitrakis.
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Moderator
A Documentary Record of Theft and Fraud in the 2004 Election
Robert J. Fitrakis, Steven Rosenfeld, and Harvey Wasserman
An array of primary sources documenting the dishonesty and disenfranchisement that tipped the scales for George W. Bush in 2004.
What Happened in Ohio? includes trucking receipts that show voting machines were pulled back from minority districts; ballots that contain evidence of tampering; mathematical analysis demonstrating the statistical impossibility of voting totals; testimonials from hundreds of voters, campaign workers, and poll workers about conditions that effectively disenfranchised thousands of voters; copies of flyers instructing Democrats to “vote on Wednesday”; official letters sent to tens of thousands of longtime voters incorrectly informing them they had been deemed “inactive” and ineligible to vote; photos taken of the original exit poll data broadcast on election night before it was retroactively “corrected” by the networks; and much, much more.
For anyone suspicious of the Ohio vote, here’s the evidence you’ve been waiting for.
Bob Fitrakis is a professor of political science at Columbus State Community College, a lawyer, and the executive director of the Columbus Institute for Contemporary Journalism. He lives in Columbus, Ohio. Steve Rosenfeld is a journalist and senior producer of The Laura Flanders Show on Air America. He lives in San Francisco. Harvey Wasserman is a senior editor and columnist for FreePress.org and the author of many books. He lives in Columbus, Ohio.
Will Ken Blackwell find the ways to steal Ohio 2006 as he did in 2004?
by Bob Fitrakis and Harvey Wasserman
October 26, 2006
The man who stole Ohio for George W. Bush in 2004 is now trying to steal it for himself in 2006. The question is: who will stop him, and will he also affect the balance of power in the U.S. Congress?
As election day approaches, Blackwell’s dirty tricks sink ever deeper.
Blackwell is now using “push polls” made infamous by Karl Rove. True to form, child molestation charges are front and center. He has also escalated the mass disenfranchisement of Ohio voters, trashing the ballots of some ten percent of absentee voters. He has eliminated the state-wide ballot initiative meant to save workers rights and wages. He’s even tried to strike the Democratic gubernatorial nominee from the ballot altogether. All of which could affect not only his race for governor, but key U.S. Senate and House races as well.
Blackwell is using Rove’s notoriously deceptive push poll device to spread an unsubstantiated smear against his Democratic gubernatorial opponent, Ted Strickland. Push polls were rendered infamous when Rove used them in South Carolina to falsely suggest that Senator John McCain had fathered a mixed-race child. Often the impact of push polls is magnified by callers to talk shows that spread additional street rumors, as in the lie that McCain impregnated a black hooker. The reality in McCain’s case: he had adopted a child from one of Mother Teresa’s orphanages and prominently displayed her in his campaign literature. Read more
Recent Zogby polls show that 92% of all Americans believe in full transparency for our democratic system. Since the vast majority of all Americans believe in the principles of democracy, let me recommend the following Election Protection conference at Columbus State Community College this weekend. I hope to see you there. It is free and open to the public.
For more details, go to: https://freepress.org/vrrc Voting Rights Revival Conference
Columbus State Community College, Columbus, Ohio
October 13, 14 and 15, 2006
Long lines….provisional ballots…intimidation at the polls…
Don’t let what happened on Election Day in 2004 happen again in Ohio!
Get involved!
Come to the Voting Rights Revival conference
Become an Election Protection volunteer!
The VRRC focuses on concrete solutions that will empower Ohio voters this November 7, 2006. Free and open to the public, the VRRC will inspire and inform with renowned speakers and hands-on workshops. Workshops will cover the changes in the new laws, basic voting procedures, how to make sure your vote is counted, how to work with Boards of Elections, Election Protection videography, the voting rights of people with disabilities, and post-election audits, to name a few.
Our Mission Statement:
To focus on the election process in Ohio, with the goal of sharing information that enfranchises all voters in Ohio; to encourage civic participation at the local and state level, including the ongoing facilitation of emerging local and student leaders and organizers: the commencement of a public sphere.
Highlights:
Speakers:
Workshops:
Entertainment:
The biggest surprise at the “We Count” conference in Cleveland was the announcement by U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich that he’s introduced H.R. 6200, a bill with 19 co-sponsors, that would require “hand counted paper, ballots counted, and posted at the precinct level” for the 2008 presidential election. To a rousing ovation, Kucinich told the assembled voting rights activists that “we heard you.”
He said, in reference to Ohio’s 2004 stolen presidential election “We understand why there’s such great concern…there are lingering questions about the 2004 election and there ought to be.”
What should not be lingering in anyone’s mind is the fact that Blackwell was the point man for Bush boys in stealing the 2004 election. We must do everything in our power to make sure Blackwell does not become governor in the Buckeye State.
To find out more about the 2004 presidential election and Cynthia McKinney’s fight against corrupt politics and election stealing, see the film “American Blackout,” by GNN, a Sundance-award winning film at Studio 35 this week through Thursday in Columbus. Another film documenting the run-up to the 2004 election in Ohio plays at the Drexel Gateway starting this Friday, October 6 – “…And so goes the nation.”
And if you want to ensure that what happened at the polls in 2004 doesn’t happen again: don’t miss the Voting Rights Revival – Tune in, Tune Up, Turn Out! voting rights event in Columbus on October 13-15 at Columbus State Community College, Nestor Hall. Starting on Friday evening we will present speakers, entertainment and workshops to prepare for the 2006 election. Workshops will organize volunteers to work as Election Protection on Election Day – observing, monitoring and videoing at the polls – legal protection – parallel elections and exit polling – and how to adopt-a-board. We will have singers, comedy, spoken word and several films and videos such as “American Blackout,” “Stealing America Vote by Vote” and more! The conference is FREE and open to the public. See the website: www.freepress.org/vrrc or call 614-253-2571.
School funding:
School funding should be equalized with each child getting the same amount of money regardless of whether their parents own a mansion or rent a shack. Vouchers for private schools should end, but publicly chartered voucher schools under school districts should be encouraged. The prison budget should be cut back dramatically by medicalizing drug addiction and ending the senseless war on drugs, and shifting the savings into the school budget.
Key factors for Ohio jobs:
Providing universal health care for all Ohio workers, developing new high-tech and green industries, and going back to the future by building trains, trams and trollies to improve our mass transit system and freight rail and to create jobs.
Why best candidate?
I am more interested in changing the culture of corruption in Ohio than being a player in one of the major political parties. The two major parties are incapable of ending the pay-to-play system in Ohio. Only an outside independent force can restore integrity in Ohio politics. My background as a political scientist, investigative reporter and attorney, I have the skills to bring back honest government to the people of Ohio. I want to see Ohio become a place known for green alternative energies, convenient mass transit, clean air and water, great college and universities, and a place where the Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution in enforced.
Appropriate role:
Government should rein in the large trans-national corporations when they engage in anti-social practices such as polluting our environment. Government should encourage the relocalization of small entrepreneurial businesses throughout Ohio. It is illegal for government to spy on U.S. citizens without a warrant. Federal officials who engage in such practices should be arrested. Government should move out of people’s bedrooms and quit enforcing an insane racist and class-based war on drugs. There should be a separation of church and state.
It was great to be back live on “Front Street”, the public affairs radio talk show that used to be on WVKO 1580AM here in Columbus – back with my old pal Charles Traylor.
For ten years I was the only white talk show host on a black-owned and operated radio station, thanks to the late and legendary Bill Moss. First, I was on WSMZ starting in 1996 until 2002 when I moved to WVKO, a black gospel station.
The station, like the Free Press was committed to Old Testament righteousness. Speaking truth directly to the powerful. Sadly, it went off the air on May 5, 2006. Convenient for Ken Blackwell, since it was the station that broadcast live the hearings we held in Columbus to hear testimony from voters about the 2004 election debacle.
There’s a tremendous void in Columbus’ black community with the loss of WVKO, and there’s a greater need than ever for alternative voices. That’s why I’ll continue to blog, stream and podcast my thoughts throughout this election. We must break the corporate for-profit oligarchy that controls the infotainment business.
All power to the people!
I heard an interesting statistic recently. Our state loses more young people aged 18-24 to jobs and opportunities outside Ohio than any other state in our nation. Not something to be proud of. As an educator at Columbus State Community College, I’ve seen thousands of students pass through Columbus State to go on to bigger, better jobs in other states. We can turn this around in Ohio, if we make our state a better place to live and work.
To rebuild Ohio economically, we must do three things:
1) Raise the minimum wage
2) Provide universal health insurance to all Ohio citizens
3) Make all state government contractors pay a living wage
I fully support the campaign to raise the state’s minimum wage to $6.85 an hour. The more we create a stable middle class society, the more we’ll reduce crime and the need for our massive prison industrial complex. The more we pay people, the more likely they are to afford to send their children to college or get increased education and training for themselves. Instead of exporting the greatest amount of 18-24-year-old educated and trained young adults to other states, we may keep the talent here in Ohio.
These proposals, along with increased funding for education, will make Ohio a progressive and productive state.
On August 2 one year ago, my dear friend Bill Moss passed away. We had talk about him running for governor this year and envisioned a three-way race with three black men: Bill Moss, Michael Coleman, and J. Kenneth Blackwell – sort of the good, the bad and the ugly of Ohio’s black politics, although Mike’s not really bad, just wishy-washy. That adjective was never associated with the only independently-elected black man in Columbus history. Moss, who ran for mayor as a Democrat and for State Rep, was elected to the Columbus School Board repeatedly without the endorsement of the Democratic Party.
I dedicated my book “A Schoolhouse Divided” to Bill, because he was the key source and the inspiration for giving all children a quality education. Before Bill’s tragic and untimely death, he was working hard to expose the corruption in the 2004 election. His last major performance before the Election Assessment Committee in Houston, Texas was a classic. There he confronted the Chair of the Carter-Baker Commission and asked them what they planned to do when they realized a lot of the suppression of voters in Ohio was pre-planned and criminal.
I wish Bill had lived and I was managing his campaign. All I can hope for now is to follow a few of his last words to me: “Stand in the gap.” Even though he had just suffered from a stroke, there was plenty of fight left in him and he was still planning to restore democracy in Ohio and America. Bill Moss was a warrior and a soldier, but what people didn’t understand – he relished the fight against the forces of oppression and what he called The Money Party.
To Bill, it was always the people vs. the Titans. And he always believed that the people would prevail in the end. He believed in his heart that the choice was between serving God or mammon.
Help me stand in the gap and continue the fight that Bill Moss started.
Since that very important corporate newspaper, the Columbus Dispatch, has decided that only Strickland and Blackwell’s opinions matter, I’m now forced as a duly certified candidate to ask myself the same questions in a spontaneous interview on the fraudbusterbob blog.
How important is religion in your life?
I try to live my faith…which is democracy, human rights and the Sermon on the Mount. I believe it will be difficult for J. Kenneth Blackwell to get into heaven, much like it was difficult for the camel to pass through the eye of a needle. I’m also quite fond of the socialism of the early Catholic Church in the Book of Acts. And, I also fight every day to save the poor baby Jesus from the warmongering greedhead clutches of Bush and Blackwell.
Do you apply your faith in office or in campaigning?
Sure. Democracy means trusting the people. I apply that faith every day and I hold true to my belief in a final judgment and just pray I’m present when God asks J. Kenneth why he oppressed “the least of our brothers and sisters” by canceling their votes because they hadn’t registered on 80 bond unwaxed white paper.
Can you cite any policies or votes that may have stemmed from your faith?
Well, I’m not in office, but most of my positions are based on faith. For example, I believe Jesus is the Prince of Peace, and hence would find Bush and Blackwell’s illegal war in Iraq reprehensible. I believe Jesus and I would be against torturing human beings as are the vast majority of people on the planet. Bush and his lackey Blackwell, see otherwise. The only marriage I would outlaw is the marriage of Church and State. And I believe the First Amendment protects Freedom of Religion and the Freedom From Religion – the rights of agnostics, atheists, humanists, and pagans.
Do you think America was founded as a Christian nation, is it now, and should it be?
Since the original founders of our country were the indigenous, pantheistic Native Americans, I would have to say no. As I recall, in the preamble of the U.S. Constitution says “We the people” not “We the Christian people.” Now, I know that some far-right evangelicals will tell you that the holy spirit of Christ descended on the founding fathers in Philadelphia in 1787, but I think anyone who reads the Constitution will come to the conclusion that it was founded by a group of wealthy, well-educated men – some who were slave holders – and that it wasn’t the Holy Spirit or God who told them to count slaves as 3/5ths of a person and not to outlaw the importing of slaves for at least 20 years. That sounds like the work of the devil, or at worst, politicians.
Are non-Christians religions true?
Is the Pope Catholic?
Which of the following statements comes closest to your view about the Bible?
#3 – that the Bible is an ancient book of fables, legends, history and moral precepts recorded by man. I would disagree with this statement in that there were obviously women, like Ruth and others, who recorded things. Also, that the King James version is an incredible work of literature as well. All great radicals from Marx to Eugene Victor Debs and Norman Thomas quoted the Bible. It has a prophetic quality and should inspire us to speak truth to power, and that’s a basic Old Testament concept of righteousness.
What is your position on evolution, intelligent design and science, and what should be taught in science classes?
Let me go out on a limb here – science should be taught in science classes. By that I mean that the scientific method that people can never have truth, but the best possible explanation given the existing data. Why would we teach intelligent design in our science classes? I believe in the separation of church and state. But, if they do allow intelligent design, I think you have to include them all, including the one about the Earth being on the back of a giant turtle and the ancient astronauts breeding with primates. I think any non-scientific faith-based explanation must be treated equally in a secular classroom.
Is homosexuality a sin and can gays be cured?
No and I’m laughing too hard to answer the second half of this question. I believe that people like Blackwell who see sexuality as a “choice” must have had a very strange pattern of sexual development as a youth. I don’t remember somewhere around puberty there being a “choice” day. Scientific studies show that the vast majority of people’s sexual orientation is set early in life and it’s not a choice or lifestyle. I do however, believe that eating pork, as in the Book of Leviticus, is a sin. And, I say this as a biased former owner of two noble tropical boars, including the legendary Iggy. So, if I’m going to spend my time, focusing on sin, look for me protesting at Bob Evans against the pig holocaust.