Duty to Warn

Nine Republican governors have the power to put Mitt Romney in the White House, even if Barack Obama wins the popular vote.

With their secretaries of state, they control the electronic vote count in nine key swing states: Florida, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Iowa, Arizona, and New Mexico. Wisconsin elections are under the control of the state's Government Accountability Board, appointed by the governor.

In tandem with the GOP's massive nation-wide disenfranchisement campaign, they could---in the dead of election night---flip their states' electronic votes to Romney and give him a victory in the Electoral College.

Every loss of life is tragic and that is why I oppose the current US policy of killing. The US is currently regularly killing people in Asia and in Africa. Taken to its extreme, the Obama Administration even claims authority to kill US citizens on US soil!

The unfolding situation in Libya is troubling, not only for the bloodletting and carnage that is taking place, but also because of the murkiness that surrounds the events themselves. I have several observations and a few questions:

Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series of investigative articles documenting who owns the electronic hardware and software used in the U.S. voting process. Our goal is simple: To reveal the man behind the curtain and expose the vulnerability of non-transparent, faith-based voting. ~ Bob Fitrakis, Editor.
Various far-right conspiracy researchers have been alleging for some months that George Soros somehow secretly will control the outcome of the 2012 Presidential election. The Free Press's exhaustive research can find not a single tangible link between George Soros and any manufacturer of voting equipment. Our research did find links much more frightening.

The Free Press widely reported the various dirty tricks employed by Karl Rove and company to apparently outright steal the election for George W. Bush in Ohio, and thus the nation, in 2004. Since then, a witness in our case has died in a mysterious plane crash, and all the players in the DRE (Direct Reporting Electronic) voting machine game have shifted seats in a gigantic game of musical chairs.

Why would I even ask that question? I've been trying (with virtually no success) to get everyone to drop the election obsession and focus on activism designed around policy changes, not personality changes. I want those policy changes to include stripping presidents of imperial powers. I don't see as much difference between the two available choices as most people; I see each as a different shade of disaster. I don't get distressed by the thought of people "spoiling" an election by voting for a legitimately good candidate like Jill Stein. Besides, won't Romney lose by a landslide if he doesn't tape his mouth shut during the coming weeks? And yet . . .

Shamako Noble is Executive Director of Hip Hop Congress and currently personal assistant to Green Party VP candidate Cheri Honkala. He didn’t sleep in a tent or rely on Romneyville’s porta johns or its converted old school bus kitchen. But he spend hours there each day to help with events that countered, in a small but more than just symbolic way, the agenda of the Republican National Convention.

And I was glad to see him and Green Party VP candidate Cheri Honkala during counter DNC events in Charlotte. Along with presidential candidate Jill Stein, they held a press conference at Marshal Park with about 40 tents as a backdrop. That didn't sit well with some of the Occupiers there, but that's another story.

All this summer, the U.S. Navy has put on a multi-million dollar dog and pony show called “Navy Week” in 15 cities across the country. Six stops on the Great Lakes featured guided missile frigates, coastal patrol boats and the historic brig “Niagara,” the ship Oliver Hazard Perry transferred to during the War of 1812’s Battle of Lake Erie (“Don’t Give Up the Ship”), when the “Lawrence” was blown out from under him.

At each stop, Navy officers and enlisted gave numerous press interviews, visited kids in hospitals, played musical concerts, helped build projects for the disabled and everywhere displayed banners with its motto, “America’s Navy: A Global Force for Good.”

Everywhere it went, the Navy’s p.r. machine reaped a bounty of benefits from the local news media which often turned Navy press releases directly into news copy. Here in Toledo, Veterans For Peace (VFP) issued a written response to Navy claims and sent it to all news outlets, twice, plus several phone calls to the Toledo Blade’s city desk…to absolutely no avail. Editors issued not a single critique to a week-long debauchery of military hardware and tall tales.

(Honkala in Romneyville with son Guillermo Santos) We talked with Honkala on August 27th in Tampa, Florida at Romneyville which was part of protests during the Republican National Convention. Honkala is founder and national coordinator of the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign, an organization which set up the encampment.

“Different Christian groups have accused me of having a hidden agenda. It’s absolutely true. My hidden agenda is motivated by love. I’ve been involved in trying to change things in this country for 20 years, because I think it’s totally possible.”

I asked Honkala what she thinks of the idea that the debate among some activists regarding violence and strategic nonviolence is missing the point in that it’s, instead, a question of love vs. hatred.

Singer, songwriter, and activist David Rovics talked with us on Aug 28 in Tampa Florida at Rommneyville , an encampment set up by the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign as part of events to counter the Republican National Convention.

“Love is an integral component of any social movement. Activists usually act out of some combination of self-preservation and concern for the self-preservation of a larger group, like humanity or the working class.”

He said people don’t get involved in activism unless they have a deep concern for their fellow humans.

“Many different people have said this thru out history. And this is true of people whether they are involved in violent or nonviolent struggle.”