In the movie, "Gangs of New York", Mayor "Boss" Tweed who ran the infamous Tammany Hall said "what really matters is who counts the ballots" when he heard there were not enough ballots to manipulate the results of the election.
Why isn't the Democratic Party concerned with who counts the ballots in next month's election? Since the Republicans have previously demonstrated in both the 2000 and 2004 Presidential elections the ability and capacity to manipulate the results of those elections, Democrats should be extremely apprehensive about how the ballots are counted as well as which ballots are counted in November's election. As America didn't learned the lesson of larceny that was committed by Republicans in those elections whereby either (1) votes were not counted or else (2) Americans could not vote because their names were taken off the voting roles, the risks for fraud, larceny, and manipulation in next month's election are substantial.
With the control of Congress at stake, it is very plausible that the Republicans would do the same with the 2006 election. Could this phenomenon of Republican election chicanery possibly be the explanation for Karl Rove's overly optimistic prediction of a Republican victory?
The Mark Foley Scandal is sufficient proof to show how far the Republicans are willing to go to steal the 2006 election. No longer can the Republicans hide behind their claim that they answer to a higher moral law as their excuse for stealing elections when The Mark Foley Scandal demonstrates that Republicans do not obey any higher moral laws themselves.
In the 2000 Presidential election, exit polling in Palm Beach County showed that Gore was leading. But the actual ballot count that was validated as official by the County's Election Commission gave Bush the lead.
Why the discrepancy between exit polling and the official vote count in the Florida 2000 election and for that matter in the Ohio 2004 election?
The conventional news media -- ABC, CBS, NBC, Reuters, Associated Press, The New York Times, and The Washington Post -- capitulated to the Republican assertion claiming victory when they said the exit polling was wrong and that the official vote count was correct. Nothing could have been further from the truth. The conventional news media now skews the exit polls to reflect the tainted official vote count.
In the national elections of Georgia and Ukraine, both the Bush Administration and the Republican Party declared that the exit polling were more accurate in reflecting the actual results of those plebiscites then the official vote count reported by the governments of those nations. If exit polling incited the people of Georgia and Ukraine to topple their governments, then exit polls should be just as applicable in the United States where the Bush Administration and the Republican Party have shown only contempt for public opinion.
Lastly, if both the Bush Administration and the Republican Party condoned the use of exit polling to determine the outcome of the elections in Georgia and Ukraine, then why did Bush, Florida, and the Republican Party insisted that the exit polling in Palm Beach County was wrong? More likely the actual vote count that was validated as official results by Florida's Commissioner of Elections Katherine Harris was the consequence of fraud, larceny, and manipulation. Whereas the discredited Palm Beach County's exit polling accurately conveyed the intent of the electorate.
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References For Gangs of New York
Top News
Saakashvili Wins in Georgia by Landslide-Exit Poll
Updated 11:54 AM ET January 4, 2004
By Margarita Antdize
TBILISI, Georgia (Reuters) - Mikhail Saakashvili, who led the "rose revolution" that forced Eduard Shevardnadze from office six weeks ago, won Sunday's Georgian presidential vote by a landslide, according to an independent exit poll.
The exit poll, organized by a group which included the Soros Foundation, the British Council and other international groups, said Sakaashvili had won with 85.8 percent of the vote.
The result crowns the 36-year-old lawyer's high-risk campaign which began when he led tens of thousands onto the streets in protest against a flawed parliamentary election late last year, forcing an increasingly unpopular Shevardnadze to resign.
The election, called swiftly after Shevardnadze quit in November, is under scrutiny by neighboring Russia and the West.
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
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Top News
Russia Says U.S. Planned Shevardnadze's Exit Long Ago
Updated 1:20 PM ET December 6, 2003
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said on Saturday Moscow believed the United States might have planned for Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze's ouster weeks before a peaceful revolution toppled him.
Ivanov, who helped mediate a smooth transfer of power in Georgia last month, told a newspaper he believed visits by U.S. emissaries, Shevardnadze's friends from when he was Soviet foreign minister, could have prepared the groundwork for the veteran leader's departure.
U.S. officials have said the visits were part of a plan to ensure free and fair parliamentary elections that it had been working on for several years.
"Now it is becoming clearer that one of these goals was to persuade Shevardnadze to leave his post," Ivanov told the mass circulation Komsomolskaya Pravda daily. "I don't have any information or documents about the aim of these missions."
"Of course there was preparation -- the American ambassador played an active part, as Shevardnadze himself recognizes," Ivanov was quoted as saying.
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
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Ukrainian opposition claims poll fraud
Nick Paton Walsh in Kiev
Monday November 22, 2004
The Guardian
Ukraine's opposition claimed victory last night in a presidential run-off vote, but accused the authorities of falsifying the results after the polls had closed.
An exit poll funded by western embassies suggested that the pro-western opposition candidate Viktor Yuschenko had 54% of the vote, with the pro-Russian prime minister, Viktor Yanukovich, trailing by 11 points.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004
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US rejects Ukraine poll result
Sarah Left, George Wright and agencies
Wednesday November 24, 2004
The Guardian
The US secretary of state, Colin Powell, today said his government refused to accept the results of the Ukrainian presidential election, which has been marred by reports of widespread electoral fraud.
Shortly after the electoral commission in Kiev declared the pro-Moscow prime minister, Viktor Yanukovich, as the winner, Mr Powell said: "If the Ukrainian government does not act immediately and responsibly there will be consequences for our relationship."
The Russian president, Vladamir Putin, had previously congratulated Mr Yanukovich on his apparent win, but both the US and the EU said they regarded the election as deeply flawed.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004
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Ukraine Should Be Free of Foreign Influence, Bush Says
Reuters
Dec. 2, 2004 - In an apparent message to Russian President Vladimir Putin, President Bush said on Thursday that any new election in Ukraine should be free of foreign influence
Ukraine's opposition has charged the country's Nov. 21 presidential election was rigged in favor of Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, who favors Moscow, over opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko, who is more Western-oriented.
"The position of our government is that the will of the people must be known and heard," Bush said as he met Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo at the White House.
"Any election, in any country, must reflect the will of the people and not that of any foreign government," Bush said.
Copyright 2004 Reuters News Service. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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U.S. Money Helped Opposition in Ukraine
Saturday December 11, 2004 5:16 AM
By MATT KELLEY
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration has spent more than $65 million in the past two years to aid political organizations in Ukraine, paying to bring opposition leader Viktor Yushchenko to meet U.S. leaders and helping to underwrite exit polls indicating he won last month's disputed runoff election.
No U.S. money was sent directly to Ukrainian political parties, the officials say. In most cases, it was funneled through organizations like the Carnegie Foundation or through groups aligned with Republicans and Democrats that organized election training, with human rights forums or with independent news outlets.
But officials acknowledge some of the money helped train groups and individuals opposed to the Russian-backed government candidate - people who now call themselves part of the Orange revolution.
For example, one group that got grants through U.S.-funded foundations is the Center for Political and Legal Reforms, whose Web site has a link to Yushchenko's home page under the heading ``partners.'' Another project funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development brought a Center for Political and Legal Reforms official to Washington last year for a three-week training session on political advocacy.
``There's this myth that the Americans go into a country and, presto, you get a revolution,'' said Lorne Craner, a former State Department official who heads the International Republican Institute, which received $25.9 million last year to encourage democracy in Ukraine and more than 50 other countries.
White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan said, ``There's accountability in place. We make sure that money is being used for the purposes for which it's assigned or designated.''
``Our money doesn't go to candidates; it goes to the process, the institutions that it takes to run a free and fair election,'' State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said.
The exit poll, funded by the embassies of the United States and seven other nations as well as four international foundations, said Yushchenko won the Nov. 21 vote by 54 percent to 43 percent. Yanukovych and his supporters say the exit poll was skewed.
The Ukrainian groups that did the poll of more than 28,000 voters have not said how much the project cost. Neither has the U.S.
The four foundations involved included three funded by the U.S. government: The National Endowment for Democracy, which gets its money directly from Congress; the Eurasia Foundation, which gets money from the State Department, and the Renaissance Foundation, part of a network of charities funded by billionaire George Soros that gets money from the State Department. Other countries involved included Great Britain, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Canada, Norway, Sweden and Denmark.
Grants from groups funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development also went to the International Center for Policy Studies, a think tank that includes Yushchenko on its supervisory board. The board also includes several current or former advisers to Kuchma, however.
IRI, Craner's Republican-backed group, used U.S. money to help Yushchenko arrange meetings with Vice President Dick Cheney, Assistant Secretary of State Richard Armitage and GOP leaders in Congress in February 2003.
The State Department gave the National Democratic Institute, a group of Democratic foreign policy experts, nearly $48 million for worldwide democracy-building programs in 2003. Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright chairs NDI's board of directors.
The U.S. Agency for International Development also funds the Center for Ukrainian Reform Education, which produces radio and television programs aiming to educate Ukrainian citizens about reforming their nation's government and economy. The center also sponsors press clubs and education for journalists.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004
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News Break
04/21/2005 14:32:50 EST
Rice Calls for Political Change in Belarus
By GEORGE GEDDA
Associated Press Writer
VILNIUS, Lithuania - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Belarusian dissidents Thursday she thinks an end to authoritarian rule in their country is within reach. She drew a rebuke from Russia's foreign minister for earlier comments about Belarus.
On Wednesday, Rice had said it was "time for a change" in Belarus - a comment that prompted a reply Thursday from Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Apparently interpreting her comment as a call for outside intervention, Lavrov said Russia "would not advocate what some people call regime change anywhere. You cannot impose democracy from the outside."
She said persistent outside pressure for a free and fair election process can serve as a catalyst for change, a phenomenon that led to the ouster of undemocratic governments in Georgia in 2003 and Ukraine in 2004.
The 2004 Belarus Democracy Act mandates U.S. assistance for Belarusian political parties, nongovernmental organizations and independent media. It also bars U.S. aid to the Belarus government, except for humanitarian assistance.
In signing the legislation last October, President Bush said, "At a time when freedom is advancing around the world, Aleksander Lukashenko and his government are turning Belarus into a regime of repression in the heart of Europe."
Copyright 2005 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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News Break
05/31/2005 16:50:32 EST U.S. Billionaire Downplays Georgia Role
By MISHA DZHINDZHIKHASHVILI
Associated Press Writer
TBILISI, Georgia - U.S. billionaire George Soros on Tuesday praised Georgia's "Rose Revolution," which catapulted opposition leaders to power 16 months ago, but played down the role played by organizations that received funding from his foundation.
During his three-day visit to the Caucasus Mountain nation, Soros has been met with protests by Georgian nationalists who allege he is the power behind the pro-Western government of President Mikhail Saakashvili.
Soros said critics have exaggerated the role played by organizations who received funding from his Open Society Institute, which was holding its 10th-anniversary commemoration in Georgia.
"I'm very pleased and proud of the work of the foundation in preparing Georgian society for what became a Rose Revolution but the role of the foundation and my personal has been greatly exaggerated," Soros said in response to questions to reporters. "I think you here must know more than anybody else that the Rose Revolution was entirely the work of Georgian society."
Protests against election fraud snowballed into demonstrations that came to be known as the Rose Revolution. The demonstrations toppled the corruption-tainted regime of Eduard Shevardnadze and catapulted Saakashvili to power.
Copyright 2005 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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