Woooo. WOOOOOO. Oooooo.
GOP robocalls, door knocking strangers, and centralized micro targeting form letters are no match for our superior shadow style GOTV Army...
A long time ago when Karl Rove used to smite his debating foes in High School he showed up with mighty boxes of research cards. The targeted debaters would tremble from psychologically snafu'd nerves and doubt themselves and their superior abilities when faced with his massive research. The cards were blank. Even worse - the idea isn't original, and the GOP cause is twisted and supressive. Something very close, yet psychologically perverted, to this tactic may be happening today along with very real spooky voter supression?
Spooks ensue after the flip:
The
Ghost Army of WWII:
It's a story that stayed secret for nearly 50 years. Starting in 1942, the US Army recruited artists, designers, scriptwriters and sound engineers to form an army that didn't exist. Their top-secret unit, the 23rd Special Troops, was given a unique mission: to create a "travelling road show" that would deceive the Germans in battle after battle across Europe.
They became known as "The Ghost Army."
Between D-Day and the end of the war, they staged more than 20 battlefield deceptions from Normandy to the Rhine. They employed high-tech sound trucks and inflatable tanks; altered their uniforms and vehicle markings; and play-acted as 2-star generals and loose-lipped drunkards. With just over a thousand men they became adept at impersonating divisions of 20 thousand or more, capable of diverting German attention from real American units. Then the men of the Ghost army would steal away in the night and get ready to do it again.
The GOP effort, much the same as a Ghost Army is designed to rattle us just as much as it is designed to seize election victories. Fortunately, we have some very real Armies of our own consisting of and not limited to:
Eli Pariser said on The Colbert Report, "They have money - we have people." Their GOTV operation is underway at a telephone near you.
We also have the AFL-CIO with their launch of the FINAL FOUR GOTV Push.
Over the course of the last year, the AFL-CIO has run an extensive voter identification and microtargeting program focused on educating and turning out union voters in dozens of key congressional districts as well as Senate and gubernatorial races. The AFL-CIO identified 2.6 million drop-off voters in 2006, contacting them as many as 25 times throughout the course of the program. The AFL-CIO has made more than 10 million phone calls and sent more than 11 million pieces of mail urging union voters, including drop-offs, to get to the polls on November 7.
The strength of the AFL-CIO program is that it is co-worker to co-worker, neighbor to neighbor - not stranger to stranger.
The spectre of
electronic voting fraud and traditional suppression techniques are documented and worrisome - I get that, believe me. Why else would I be writing this diary right now? Take courage. There are places you can go to combat it proactively, and these organizations are in place since 2000, 2002 and 2004:
Join one.
See Democracy Now's coverage of these issues
today here.
Watch the upcoming
HBO documentary:
Hacking Democracy this November 2nd
Unlike the GOP GOTV machine, The Ghost Army of WWII was fighting for a good cause - a cause that has many principled paralells that we seek to further in the face of what's happening today in our country in this election.
Rather than go into the issues again, I've provided links for your state. I am also using my energy to call upon my ancestors from the "greatest generation." My departed grandma and grandpa who grew up during the Depression Era and raised me fought for these voting principles. They taught school, worked, ran businesses, served in the military, raised families, conserved resources, took care of people, advocated for those less fortunate than they, loved democracy, loved this country, and sacrificed for their kids. They comprise my Ghost Army.
I'm not saying that the GOP GOTV ghoul isn't powerful scary and that we should underestimate it. No one ever got anywhere underestimating the Rove/GOP machine. It's healthy to be skeptical, but don't allow caution to invade your mind so far that your morale suffers. We should also feel confident of our own unprecedented efforts, values, families, communities, and ancestral history at this time. Envison and advocate victory. I hope you have the time to contemplate it. Sun Tsu would say victory is won before it is endeavored this way.
I give the money, I defer my time and energy just like you - but, I have this one other inexplicable thing to lend too...
Calling my spectral Granny! Call me hokey or nuts - that's okay. However, I'm still meditating/praying and calling/resurrecting my grandparent's spirit for this Novemeber 7th election. They may have been Republicans, but I know they'd never approve of the actions I see today - quite the opposite. They served their time and then some, but I need to call on them now - reach into our once shared memory, ask for strength, appeal for change and commune for assistance to achieve this goal. I need their support. I need all of you too. They are proud of us all here this week. I can feel it. It's not only crazy and supernatural - it's spiritual, respectful and powerful. I should know - they've made me this way, and I'm fighting for their values as well as my own. I think it's called the common good?
If you aren't already, think and call on your own extarordinary familial spirit and history this final week, and please accept a virtual hug from mine. Take stock and pride in your efforts, believe and know we can turn this current course together. Change is ours. We own it, we're earning it, we must defend it along with the potential for a better and more brilliant future.
Also, BRING A VIDEO CAMERA this year to the polls.
Document and report incidents to at least 5 sources here everything spooky and suspicious.
If you encounter trouble call 1 866 OUR VOTE.
Repeat the mantra: I'm not a frightened witness - I'm part of the proactive Ghost Army.
PS.) Tolkein would have wanted it this way too...
Happy Halloween. Thanks for reading. Boo!