Look, I'm not trying to be negative, just cautious and prepared. Hope for the best, plan for the worst.
Is the following quote from McCain the typical candidate obligatory bluster or does he already know something that the rest of us only fear?
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/11/3/headlines#2
Sen. McCain Predicts He Will Win Election Despite Polls
Senator John McCain predicted he would come back to win the election.
Sen. John McCain: "My opponent is working out the details with Speaker Pelosi and Senator Reid of their plans to raise your taxes, increase spending and to concede defeat in Iraq. He’s measuring the drapes! And as you might have seen the info—some of the infomercial, he gave his first address to the nation before the election. We’re a few points down, but tonight and today and tomorrow and the next day, we’ll show we’re coming back and we’re going to win this race."
Next, is McCain the Republican election grab machine setting the table for a dramatic turnaround late tomorrow night and in the wee hours of the morning? Note the following exchange between Chris Matthews and Kelly O’Donnell:
Hardball 11-3-2008
Chris Matthews: I heard rumors of movement toward McCain in Florida, Ohio and some other things going. What do you hear? What’s their hope signs right now?
Kelly O’Donnell: Well, Chris what you get from being with the campaign is perhaps a surprising sense of encouragement in some long flights that we’ve been taking in the last twenty-four hours. The top officials, Rick Davis, the campaign manager whose usually not on the road, has been talking to reporters pointing to information in their polling and their data that they say suggests a closing that they believe could be important in some key states. They mentioned Colorado, they mentioned Iowa, Florida. They believe that John McCain is in this. Now, they’re talking about their own polling. We’ve repeatedly asked them about the public polling and why is there a difference and they just say that they’re using some different models, they’re using some different data points and they’re encouraged. At the same time it’s also important to note that the candidate himself has been telling his top staff to stay positive, to enjoy this campaign to the very last moment. And in the words of John McCain from a recent conversation I had with him just put one foot in front of the other ‘til the very last moment fighting all the way but also trying to be appreciative of what a historic experience it has been. Bottom line - encouraged, realistic.
Is this following section intended to prepare the general public to accept a miraculous and unbelievable comeback, a comeback that is really computer Internet generated?
Now, they’re talking about their own polling. We’ve repeatedly asked them about the public polling and why is there a difference and they just say that they’re using some different models, they’re using some different data points and they’re encouraged.
Some people have for a while believed that something is afoot with this election. Now, if it weren’t for the 2000 and the 2004 elections, this might be labeled as just another conspiracy theory. (Just because you’re a conspiracy theorist doesn’t mean that there’s not a conspiracy.) However, this time, considering the enormous voter turnout, especially of democrats, they are going to have to do something much grander than merely flipping voting machines and creating long lines in predominantly Democratic areas. This time they are really going to have to stick their head out of the ground and take a look around - show themselves. They may have already done that because they have attracted the attention of a attorneys representing a few groups. What follows is part explanation and part warning.
http://www.velvetrevolution.us/prosecute_rove/
UPDATE 9/18/08: Ohio Attorneys File Papers To Take Deposition Of Bush IT Expert Michael Connell And Others-Includes Spoonamore Affidavit
Yesterday, Ohio attorney Cliff Arnebeck asked the federal court in Columbus to allow him to place Bush IT guru Michael Connell under oath to ask him about his 20 year work for the Bush family, including his work for Jeb Bush in Florida 2000 and for Ken Blackwell in Ohio 2004. "The public has a need and right to know, before the next presidential election, that the top Republican IT expert shares a concern about the vulnerability of electronic voting systems to fraudulent manipulation, and that this is not just "conspiracy theory," Arnebeck wrote. Arnebeck also advised the court that he would seeking depositions from others, including Karl Rove.
Attached to the filing are two affidavits, one from cyber security expert Stephen Spoonamore and the other from analyst Richard Hayes Phillips. The Spoonamore affidavit asserts that the election computer setup used by Ken Blackwell in 2004 provided the means and opportunity for the manipulation of the election results. " The vote tabulation and reporting system, as modified at the direction of Mr. Blackwell, allowed the introduction of a single computer in the middle of the pathway. This computer located at a company principally managing IT Systems for GOP campaign and political operations (Computer C) received all information from each county computer (Computer A) BEFORE it was sent onward to Computer B. This centralized collection of all incoming statewide tabulations would make it extremely easy for a single operator, or a preprogrammed single "force balancing computer" to change the results in any way desired by the team controlling Computer C. In this case GOP partisan operatives. Again, if this out of state system had ANY digital access to the Secretary of State’s system it would be cause for immediate investigation by any of my banking clients." See Spoonamore Affidavit.
Now, having verified that this method is possible, will they implement it in key battleground - swing states to turn the election. Remember there are no backup paper ballots in many states to verify results, and the polling totaling strips are also computer generated.
The Hayes affidavit asserts that after reviewing hundreds of thousands of documents, ballots and other election records, "it is my conclusion that there is so much evidence of ballot alteration, ballot substitution, ballot box stuffing, ballot destruction, vote switching, tabulator rigging, and old fashioned voter suppression, that the results of the 2004 presidential election, would have been reversed" had there been a real investigation. See Hayes Affidavit. He insists that the time is now to take depositions from those implicated in the theft of that election.
Those depositions were to be taken today. First on the list is Mike Connell.
http://www.bradblog.com/?p=6600
Steve Heller of VelvetRevolution.us
The Republican IT guru, recently described as a "high tech Forrest Gump" for his proclivity to be "at the scene" of so many troubling elections since 2000, and even at the heart of the "lost" White House email scandal, has been ordered by a federal judge to appear for an under-oath deposition next Monday in Ohio.
The BRAD BLOG has learned that Mike Connell, the Republican IT guru whose company, GovTech Solutions, created Ohio's 2004 election results computer network, appeared in federal court today, as compelled, and has been ordered to appear for his deposition on Monday, November 3, just 24 hours before Election Day 2008.
Is what happened in Ohio in 2004, in progress in other key states? Is he so relaxed because he knows that it’s in the bag? Unless the location has been changed, is McCain’s acceptance speech for the Presidency coming from a remote location intended to protect him from the huge demonstrations that might follow if this election starts to smell like three day-old mackerel?
If you pick up a whiff that something in the wind is rotten after the election results, go to libertytree.org. There will be PEACEFUL demonstration locations announced.
There will also be a slew of law suits.
Don’t get too hopeful. Even if sympathetic federal judges that support the suits are found, Bush has stacked the courts of U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals with young ideologues. Conservatives will make up 62% by inauguration day. They will control 10 of the 13 circuits. The future of justice in America does not look bright.