Thursday, January 1, 2009

A trip to DC

Yesterday, "TC" and I went on an expedition to DC to inspect the "certificates of votes" that are publicly available for examination at the Federal Register. I know that the certificates of votes of 24 jurisdictions have been scanned in on the web as of this writing, but that still leaves 27 unscanned (since DC also gets 3 electoral college votes). So after receiving some conflicting and confusing and contradictory stories from the Federal Register about the missing jurisdictions (even on the "deadline", December 24, 2008), as well as an invitation to come and look, I went. 

The security was pretty tight in the building. But the people were nice. They were quite surprised to see us actually. In the entire time that the "certificates of votes" have been available in DC this election cycle, TC and I were the only members of the public to show up to look at them. The Federal Register was caught off-guard and with a skeleton crew. They had to pull a couple of people off other tasks to have them babysit us and the certificates while we examined them. We even got a very senior manager and lawyer to sit with us for hours and hours. I suspect that probably we were the only citizens to visit this office in the last couple of election cycles to inspect these certificates. 

This does not bode well for our constitutional republic. People, we need to keep on top of the government to make sure they are doing their jobs. We need to make sure that no funny business is going on, such as letting dead people be electors (like Ilene Huber in California) or ineligible candidates on the ballot (like Roger Calero [1], and very possibly, Barack Obama - and some might argue, even John McCain). We need to double check these bureaucrats, who work for us. We need them to know we are looking over their shoulders. 

And we need to complain to our elected representatives. Plenty. If this is important to us, we need to let them know. Otherwise, they will just let it slide. Just look at the ridiculous responses we have had from elected representatives so far on this Obama eligibility issue. Look at the responses we have had from Secretaries of State and other state election officials when we have asked them about who determines the eligibility of the candidates standing for election, even in states which have election laws which require them to do this. So far, over half of the states have responded that they do not check that the candidates meet the requirements. 

Anyway, we found that the certificates of two states were "missing", much to the embarassment of the Federal Register people (Nebraska and Georgia). They will try to round those up. The certificates came in an astounding variety of formats, since there is no uniform required format. Although I think in some ways our expedition was a waste of time, in other ways it was quite valuable. It was a signal to the Federal Register that there are citizens who still are watching. And will make sure that the law is followed. 

If we do not exercise our rights, pretty quickly we will find we have lost them. And this election is a perfect example of that. We depend on our political system with two strong political parties to keep an eye on each other, but clearly this election is an example where this system failed a bit (just look at the responses we received from elected representatives, both Democrat and Republican). And look at the response of our once very dependable mainstream media and investigative journalists. This watchdog body has turned into a paper tiger; even the conservative media have basically given up on this one. And that is how this unbelievable situation has developed.

I found that the metro tickets in DC now feature the image of Barack Obama. That is absolutely amazing! I bet that this has not been done for any previous president about to be inaugurated. His picture is everywhere in DC actually. People are beside themselves with pride over his election. Is this how a cult of personality starts?   I heard one of the commentators on ABC's "This Week" program last Sunday predicting glibly that Barack Obama will have an extraordinarily long "honeymoon period". The commentators were almost universally ecstatic, bordering on orgasmic, about the prospect of Barack Obama taking office. 

This is at the same time that US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald is arresting Obama associates and all kinds of troubling questions exist. Fitzgerald has even asked to leave the period for indictments open for another 90 days to give him time to investigate, which is well into Obama's term. Interestingly, Governor Blagojevich's lawyer was as quiet as a churchmouse about this development. What does that tell us? Obviously, more is going on here than meets the eye. Lots more. 

 I guess Fitzgerald is asking to be a "special prosecutor" and not be terminated, which is what would happen normally when an administration changes. This would have to be a first; a new president that starts off his presidency with a special prosecutor already going after him. A new president with over 20 active lawsuits challenging his eligibility in the courts, and more coming. A new president that gives every sign of having taken the election through massive fraud. A new president that has prompted numerous states to consider changing their election laws, specially designed to keep someone perpetrating this kind of hoax off the ballot.. 

And this is supposed to lead to an extraordinarily long honeymoon? Well I guess I will believe it when I see it.