The Day After - The New Hampshire Gazette

NO MORE POLLSTERS, PUNDITS, AND PROPAGANDISTS – LET THE PEOPLE DECIDE

OBSERVATIONS ON THE NEW HAMPSHIRE PRIMARY
By Laurie Dobson
http://www.dobsonforsenate.com

The New Hampshire primary just completed raises important questions about powerful corporate forces who seek to manipulate and control our democracy for their Wall Street backers. Anyone who watches cable television knows that the pundits, pollsters, reporters and anchormen of the main networks do not regard themselves as people who report the news – they views themselves as the ones who will determine the results. People at many of the networks, especially some at MSNBC have exposed themselves as partisans and propagandists for a specific candidate – Obama, and as adversaries of Mrs. Clinton. In fact, there was a collective media swoon for Obama, with reporters demanding from voters a voluntary suspension of disbelief in their favorite candidate.

There was also a pervasive tendency of the corporate media to exclude any mention of John Edwards, and this was especially strong at the notorious Fox News. The anti-Clinton and anti-Edwards forces clearly wanted the entire Democratic Party primary process to end in New Hampshire. With the nomination of Obama by acclamation before his candidacy could be tested and his program examined. In this context, the commentators devoted much time to which other candidates would drop out, and when. As Edwards correctly pointed out, they wanted the primary process to end, with 48 states and 98% of the American people not heard from. Every state deserves to have a meaningful primary, no matter how late in the season it may be held. Those delegates should count, and the existing candidates should stay in the race to make sure this will happen. That will mean more politicization in more states, a good thing in itself.

Public opinion polls have been shown to be inherently unreliable. The leading pollsters have egg all over their faces. Their polls have been turned into push polls, manipulating voters and seeking to stampede them. What kind of corrupt dealings lie behind the failure of the polls we do not know, but we have the right to be very suspicious. We must prevent the pollsters from influencing future elections with their dubious products. Henceforth no candidate must be excluded from any debate or any primary based on these unreliable polls.

There is also the issue of Diebold electronic machine vote fraud, this time to the detriment of Obama, which has also come up again in New Hampshire. We must redouble our efforts to neutralize the threat of electronic vote fraud in any form, and prevent more distortion of vote totals.

We now look forward tom one of the best political seasons in 40 years. The candidates who are still in the race for both parties represent real social forces and real points of view, and they should all fight all the way to their respective conventions if they are serious. Christ Matthews and Mika Brzezinski should stop speculating about who will drop out next, and find a new hobby. They might even discuss the issues – things like the urgent need for a federal law now to ban all foreclosures on homes, farms, hospitals, transportation companies, public utilities, factories, and other productive and socially necessary activities. They could talk about the need to outlaw derivatives and hedge funds.

We are seeing a few networks remembering that what decides a nomination is not media hype and polling numbers and raw vote totals, but delegate counts at the national conventions. We need open conventions, not vapid media events controlled by manipulative media consultants. Party conventions have been dying, and here is a chance to revive them. We have not seen contested conventions since 1952, when Eisenhower defeated Robert Taft. Conventions did not end on the first ballot. They went on for ten of twenty ballots, with the outcome very much in doubt and not controlled by any particular clique of bankers or financiers. There also used to be real debates, floor fights about issues in the form of platform planks. The last big one may have been the fight over the Vietnam War plank at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago.

I call on all people to become politically active this year. We are now in the midst of a party re-alignment similar to those of 1828, 1860, 1896, 1932, and 1968. For forty years, since the coming of Nixon, we have been suffering under a political cycle based on the southern strategy, later called the Reagan coalition. This meant that southern states, white men, wealthy suburbanites, and religious evangelicals were the groups dominating a fragmented electorate. Under this system, Maine and New England counted for virtually nothing. This cycle has brought us disastrous results – economic decline, political crisis, and military adventurism and defeat, all culminating in Bush. There are many signs that the Reagan coalition has been shattered, and a new coalition, a new formula for winning the electoral college, is struggling to be born. The apathy of forty years has been replaced by enthusiasm and record voter turnout, especially among the young. The old wedge issues of Lee Atwater and Karl Rove are no longer working, starting with race. Money no longer buys elections – ask Mitt Romney, whose bottomless bank accounts do not procure him election victories. There is a fighting chance that this party realignment could go in a positive direction, although it could still go in the direction of fascism. People need to run for office at all levels – we need a people’s candidates movement.

My campaign provides the perfect vehicle for those who want to participate in politics in this new season. Last weekend, Bush’s reckless and irresponsible policies brought us close to war once again in the Persian Gulf with a possible new Gulf of Tonkin incident. The body count in Iraq is rising once again, as it had to because there has been no US withdrawal. This must be stopped. Wall Street says we are now in a recession, and I say that Wall Street, and not the American people, should pay for the recession that they have created. The constitutional crimes of Bush-Cheney cry out for impeachment. I urge you to join my campaign and support me.

3 thoughts on “The Day After”

vermin supreme

January 12, 2008 at 23:58

Vermin Supreme Demands a Recount. Press contact: Vermin Supreme 978-546-1688
Serious like a Dick Cheney heart attack. crazycircusdogs@yahoo.com
Republican candidate for president Vermin Supreme joined the chorus of candidates calling for a recount of the New Hampshire Primary vote, today.
On election night, Mr. Supreme encountered by chance, two, hand ballot counters from the New Hampshire town of Lyndeborough. Upon learning of Mr. Supreme’s identity , the election workers excitedly told him that they were a witness to Mr. Supreme receiving one vote in Lyndeborough. The official town and state vote tallies make no mention of this missing vote.
“These women were not joking, they appeared quite sincere. They didn’t claim dozens or hundreds of votes. No, they claimed one vote for me in their town, a number that is plausible, and consistent with voting patterns around the state.
How many other votes of mine may have turned up ‘missing’ due to ‘irregularities’?
I would have to guess up to five. The real question is how and why something like this could happen. By ,‘irregularities’, I mean some person or persons unknown, simply discarding a paper ballot with my name on it. If true it is an outrage, and an affront to my candidacy, not to mention an indication of greater vote diddling” said Mr. Supreme.
The Vermin Supreme Campain is asking the Secretary of State, Bill Gardner and the Office of Elections to investigate.
More as this breaking story develops
verminsupreme.com
zerohits.com/vermin
mobe

January 12, 2008 at 02:41

I live in Texas. Our primary is in March; want to trade places. Because it’ll be an empty ballot by that time, at least on the Democratic side. (I hope and pray that everyone in each party wins one of the upcoming primaries, including on Tsunami Tuesday, so that this doesn’t happen.)

ALTERNATIVELY:

How about this for a completely different system: One randomly chosen congressional district (to be chosen 2 – 4 years before the presidential election; 4 in case some place like Alaska is chosen; we don’t need any more Paul Wellstone-type deaths), and (adjacent) rotating regional primaries for the rest of the country? For instance, if New England is chosen as the first region, perhaps the New York City area could follow, etc.

Of course, this would require the relinquishing of the permanent place at the front of the line by Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada, and South Carolina. But think about it; you could finally say that the United States is a DEMOCRACY, where ALL the people get to participate. Because democracy isn’t worth much if you’re nose is always pressed to the glass, looking in at it.
lauriedobson

January 10, 2008 at 15:13

NO MORE POLLSTERS, PUNDITS, AND PROPAGANDISTS – LET THE PEOPLE DECIDE

OBSERVATIONS ON THE NEW HAMPSHIRE PRIMARY
By Laurie Dobson
http://www.dobsonforsenate.com

The New Hampshire primary just completed raises important questions about powerful corporate forces who seek to manipulate and control our democracy for their Wall Street backers. Anyone who watches cable television knows that the pundits, pollsters, reporters and anchormen of the main networks do not regard themselves as people who report the news – they views themselves as the ones who will determine the results. People at many of the networks, especially some at MSNBC have exposed themselves as partisans and propagandists for a specific candidate – Obama, and as adversaries of Mrs. Clinton. In fact, there was a collective media swoon for Obama, with reporters demanding from voters a voluntary suspension of disbelief in their favorite candidate.

There was also a pervasive tendency of the corporate media to exclude any mention of John Edwards, and this was especially strong at the notorious Fox News. The anti-Clinton and anti-Edwards forces clearly wanted the entire Democratic Party primary process to end in New Hampshire. With the nomination of Obama by acclamation before his candidacy could be tested and his program examined. In this context, the commentators devoted much time to which other candidates would drop out, and when. As Edwards correctly pointed out, they wanted the primary process to end, with 48 states and 98% of the American people not heard from. Every state deserves to have a meaningful primary, no matter how late in the season it may be held. Those delegates should count, and the existing candidates should stay in the race to make sure this will happen. That will mean more politicization in more states, a good thing in itself.

Public opinion polls have been shown to be inherently unreliable. The leading pollsters have egg all over their faces. Their polls have been turned into push polls, manipulating voters and seeking to stampede them. What kind of corrupt dealings lie behind the failure of the polls we do not know, but we have the right to be very suspicious. We must prevent the pollsters from influencing future elections with their dubious products. Henceforth no candidate must be excluded from any debate or any primary based on these unreliable polls.

There is also the issue of Diebold electronic machine vote fraud, this time to the detriment of Obama, which has also come up again in New Hampshire. We must redouble our efforts to neutralize the threat of electronic vote fraud in any form, and prevent more distortion of vote totals.

We now look forward tom one of the best political seasons in 40 years. The candidates who are still in the race for both parties represent real social forces and real points of view, and they should all fight all the way to their respective conventions if they are serious. Christ Matthews and Mika Brzezinski should stop speculating about who will drop out next, and find a new hobby. They might even discuss the issues – things like the urgent need for a federal law now to ban all foreclosures on homes, farms, hospitals, transportation companies, public utilities, factories, and other productive and socially necessary activities. They could talk about the need to outlaw derivatives and hedge funds.

We are seeing a few networks remembering that what decides a nomination is not media hype and polling numbers and raw vote totals, but delegate counts at the national conventions. We need open conventions, not vapid media events controlled by manipulative media consultants. Party conventions have been dying, and here is a chance to revive them. We have not seen contested conventions since 1952, when Eisenhower defeated Robert Taft. Conventions did not end on the first ballot. They went on for ten of twenty ballots, with the outcome very much in doubt and not controlled by any particular clique of bankers or financiers. There also used to be real debates, floor fights about issues in the form of platform planks. The last big one may have been the fight over the Vietnam War plank at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago.

I call on all people to become politically active this year. We are now in the midst of a party re-alignment similar to those of 1828, 1860, 1896, 1932, and 1968. For forty years, since the coming of Nixon, we have been suffering under a political cycle based on the southern strategy, later called the Reagan coalition. This meant that southern states, white men, wealthy suburbanites, and religious evangelicals were the groups dominating a fragmented electorate. Under this system, Maine and New England counted for virtually nothing. This cycle has brought us disastrous results – economic decline, political crisis, and military adventurism and defeat, all culminating in Bush. There are many signs that the Reagan coalition has been shattered, and a new coalition, a new formula for winning the electoral college, is struggling to be born. The apathy of forty years has been replaced by enthusiasm and record voter turnout, especially among the young. The old wedge issues of Lee Atwater and Karl Rove are no longer working, starting with race. Money no longer buys elections – ask Mitt Romney, whose bottomless bank accounts do not procure him election victories. There is a fighting chance that this party realignment could go in a positive direction, although it could still go in the direction of fascism. People need to run for office at all levels – we need a people’s candidates movement.

My campaign provides the perfect vehicle for those who want to participate in politics in this new season. Last weekend, Bush’s reckless and irresponsible policies brought us close to war once again in the Persian Gulf with a possible new Gulf of Tonkin incident. The body count in Iraq is rising once again, as it had to because there has been no US withdrawal. This must be stopped. Wall Street says we are now in a recession, and I say that Wall Street, and not the American people, should pay for the recession that they have created. The constitutional crimes of Bush-Cheney cry out for impeachment. I urge you to join my campaign and support me.

3 thoughts on “The Day After”

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