QUOTATION: People often say that, in a democracy, decisions are made by a majority of the people. Of course, that is not true. Decisions are made by a majority of those who make themselves heard and who vote - a very different thing. - Walter H. Judd
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2004-07-12 - 7:39 p.m. "Do not let the terrorists win!"Is this the very same administration which during every other terror alert has urged us to continue on with our lives, to go to the shopping malls of the country and keep spending, keep spending, because threats made by terrorists would be nothing short of allowing fear to rule our country? Is this the very same administration, which is trying to bring democracy to the whole world one country at a time, which is willing to destroy a country in order to democratize it, and which is NOW considering postponing our presidential election? Excuse me! If this administration is so concerned about the possibility of terrorist attacks disrupting our elections in November, I would hope their priority would be placed on how to defend against those attacks, not how to once again bastardize the election process. Have they allocated so many of our resources abroad that we cannot fully fund the Homeland Security promised to us? All we hear is FEAR from this administration - and no more ideas for how they plan to deal with the terrorist threat than they had for the follow-up to the shock and awe in Iraq. Terrorist interference with the process seems to be their fear. Mine, too - only I'm not sure who the real terrorists are! One thing the administration and Congress COULD do to help with the election is to assure us that voting machines with an adequate paper trail will be available in every state and that there will be no interference with the process. The people who are talking about interference are speaking of terrorists. The best evidence of interference with the Spanish elections seems to be the belief of the Spaniards that the wrong guys won. We know how they feel, don�t we? Would it be considered interference here if the Democrats win this time? Based upon our last election, this question of interference is not an �idle� question. Our track record in responding to fear has not been very good. After 9/11, we willingly acceded to the wishes of the President; Congress passed the Patriot Act, which I�ve already discussed in two or three other blogs. When our freedom was threatened, many of our freedoms were forfeited with nary a whimper out of us. How many of us actually READ House Bill 5710. It seems that Congress passed the Homeland Security Act on November 19, 2002 based on a 30-page bill they, hopefully, had read. The night before the vote, the 30 page bill was replaced with a 484-page version that Congress then signed. They were told it was budget-neutral, only to find after signing it, that millions of dollars are tied up in it. I didn�t read anything in the act about their ability to suspend elections, which is why they are now proposing some kind of martial law for that purpose, I suspect, Surely because our election is threatened, we will not allow ourselves to also forfeit our democracy. It is time for the administration to stop what appears to be politically timed fear-mongering and protect our people and our democracy here at home. Ed and I went to see Fahrenheit 9/11 today, so forgive my cynicism from showing. Many have discussed the movie in great detail, so I won�t go into it today except to say it brings to life in living color what we�ve been reading about in Clark, Suskind, and Woodward�s books � truths I�ve over time come to believe. Among the most recent discussions, my favorite is today�s floodtide, Bev�s Funny the World, and an earlier review Fahrenheit 9/ll - Not a Movie, It's a Wake-Up Call. "Be wise today; 'tis madness to defer."
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