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TechnoratiGOP Attacks on American Voters Turn Desperate, Ugly and Dangerous
The GOP assault on American voters has hit full stride as John McCain and the economy tank in synch.
With just over three weeks until election day, the Republicans have mounted an all-out attack against newly registered voters and the organizations working to sign them up. As many as 75% of these new voters are expected to vote Democratic, but the attacks have also spread to long-established voters as well. Recent calculations show more than a million more newly registered Democrats in Ohio than Republicans.
The usual drumbeat claiming massive voter fraud has become ceaseless at Fox "News" and other right wing media mouthpieces.
As expected, the assault centers in Ohio, which once again could decide the presidency, but has manifested throughout the nation:
1) A Republican sheriff in Greene County, Ohio, has demanded social security and other records from 302 local voters whose ballots he apparently wants to negate. Sheriff Gene Fischer has requested registration cards and address forms for all Greene County residents who voted in a special session established in Ohio allowing new voters to register and vote on the same day. The process was challenged in court by the GOP. The Ohio Supreme Court turned down that challenge, and allowed the same-day voting to proceed. But now Fischer claims telephone calls complaining about the potential for voter fraud have prompted him to go after the information.
In Franklin County, home of Ohio State University, Columbus State Community College, Capital University, Ohio Dominican University, and Otterbein College, election protection observers are reporting continuing surveillance by Republicans at Veterans Memorial, the site for early voting. The observers have documented Republican operatives taking photographs and writing down license plate numbers of voters. Election activists expect similar criminal charges as in Greene County to be filed in the state's capital.
Greene County is home to Wright State, Central State, Wilberforce and Cedarville Universities, along with Antioch College, which was recently put out of business by a right-wing putsch on its board of directors.
Llyn McCoy, Greene County's deputy elections director, says names, telephone and Social Security numbers will be blacked out of any records handed over to the Sheriff. According to McCoy, the Sheriff says he has no evidence of voter fraud other than phone calls stating fraud was a possibility. It is widely assumed that the same-day registration/voting option was exercised primarily by students who lean heavily Democratic. In 2004, African-American students from Wright State, Central State and Wilberforce were regularly challenged on their registration credentials and forced to endure waiting in lines to vote for hours. Students at Cedarville, a Christian school, made no such reports. Sheriff Fischer's targeting of historically black college students, the core of Obama-mania, is intended to send a chilling effect through the ranks of these Democratic voters.
2) U.S. District Court Judge George C. Smith, a Reagan appointee, has approved a GOP lawsuit demanding that the state give county boards of elections great leeway in attacking new voter registration forms. The decision, framed under the Help America Vote Act, would allow Republican challengers access to data from the Bureau of Motor Vehicles and the Social Security agency to challenge new voters. The Judge noted that Ohio law permits challenges to absentee ballots, thousands of which have been pouring in to elections boards. If allowed to stand, it could give the GOP the right to shred ballots already cast in the Buckeye State, with the precedent possibly being used to further enable a GOP nationwide disenfranchisement campaign. Smith gave Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner a week to respond. Brunner has stated she will appeal.
3) Before the ruling, Brunner announced at the close of registration that the number of registered voters in Ohio had jumped by 665,949, from 7,518,189 active voters on January 1, 2008, to 8,184,138 active voters now. About 5.4 million votes were officially counted in Ohio's 2004 presidential election. Then-Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell certified a Bush victory of less than 119,000 votes. A massive GOP disenfranchisement campaign could easily exceed that margin.
4) The New York Times has reported that boards of elections in at least nine crucial states, including Ohio, have violated federal law in conducting purges and have been illegally using Social Security data bases as part of those purges. The Times' Ian Urbina quotes Colorado Secretary of State Mike Coffman as asking the Colorado Attorney-General to review how some 2,500 citizens were removed from the registration lists there. The Times has cited purges in Colorado, Louisiana and Michigan that have apparently been conducted within 90 days of the upcoming November 4 election, violating federal law that allows states to expunge only those who have been convicted of a felony, moved out of state or died.
5) The Times has also reported that boards of elections in Nevada, North Carolina, Michigan, Indiana and Ohio have illegally used federal Social Security databases to flag and possibly eliminate voters whose registration applications were suspected of irregularities. The Times reported some 37,000 Colorado voters removed in the three weeks after July 21; Secretary Coffman said the number was 14,000.
6) Michigan elections director Christopher Thomas said his state had removed about 11,000 voters in August, while the Times estimated the real number to be closer to 33,000. Thomas refused to make the purged files public. Michigan Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land is a long-standing Republican partisan whose political activism traces back to the mid-70s when she worked for Gerald Ford's campaign in high school. Critics charge that she functions in the traditional of Florida's Katherine Harris and Ohio's J. Kenneth Blackwell.
7) North Carolina's BOE director Gary Bartlett dismissed concerns raised by the Social Security Administration about possible mis-used of SS files to purge registrations there in conjunction with drivers licenses. The SSI contends Social Security numbers can only be accessed when there is no drivers license or other form of state ID available.
8) A CBS News report has revealed organized caging attempts by the GOP to eliminate registered voters from the rolls in 19 states. The report marks one of the first initiated by a corporate news organization isolating Republican anti-vote campaigning.
9) An electronic voting machine in New Mexico was found to be operating on faulty software which could have eliminated hundreds of votes. The glitch was apparently corrected, but was of a type that could result in thousands of votes being lost on Election Day 2008, as they were in 2000 and 2004.
10) The grassroots organizing group ACORN has come under serious attack in Nevada, Missouri, Ohio and elsewhere from Republicans attempting to negate the thousands of generally low-income citizens ACORN has registered to vote. As a matter of law, ACORN is required to report irregular registrations that come through its process. But GOP operatives have equated these with "fraudulent" filings, and a have ramped up a smear and fear campaign aimed at negating thousands of legitimate ACORN registrants throughout the US.
11) The GOP continues to resist attempts to subpoena Michael Connell, a shady Republican computer operative who programmed the 2000 Bush-Cheney web site. Connell was also hired by former Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell in 2004 to tabulate the Ohio vote count. Under Connell, Ohio's vote totals were shunted to a computer bank in the same basement in Chattanooga, Tennessee, that housed the servers of the Republican National Committee. In the early hours of the morning after election day, vote totals mysteriously began shifting from Kerry to Bush, swinging the 2004 election. Connell's cyber-security industry colleague Stephen Spoonamore, a Republican and former McCain supporter, has said that Connell may be able to shed light on vote count rigging in the 2008 vote count as well. Attorneys in the King-Lincoln-Bronzeville civil rights lawsuit have thus far been unable to secure Connell's sworn testimony.
12) CNN has reported that Obama's surging poll numbers may leave him "in position to steal Virginia from the GOP." Virginia hasn't backed a Democratic presidential candidate since Lyndon Johnson in 1964, but CNN's use of the word "steal" has raised hackles among election protection activists who argue the flow of theft is in the other direction.
As the moment of truth arrives, McCain-Palin attacks based on race, alleged "terrorist" ties and more are sure to increasingly dominate the GOP campaign. But far more insidious will be an all-out assault on voter registration in the name of "voter fraud," and on finding new ways to undermine the national vote, most importantly on electronic voting machines of the kind programmed by Michael Connell.
If those supporting the democratic process are not exceedingly vigilant, the GOP could use these tactics to once again take the White House.
41 Comments so far
Show AllIt seems in some places it's smart to go to the polls in armed groups to protect your voting rights. I've voted since 1974 in several different states and never have had my right to vote challenged. If that were to happen, woe be it to whomever the challenger might be.
Much has been said by the poor losers in the Republican Party about ACORN, yet the organizatio itself is not what has been questioned.... it is some of their paid workers who have apparently gotten paid for turning in phony voter registrations.
Frankly, I wouldn't put it past the dirty tricksters in the Republican Party to PLANT such worker on the ACORN payrolls.
I have always suspected that Monica Lewinsky was the brainchild of Karl Rove... after all, her buddy Linda Tripp who advised Monica not to clean the famous blue dress was ALSO the last known living person to speak to Vince Foster.
Someone needs to round up our Rethuglican friends and force them into therapy for their paranoia. The same people who used to see Communists everywhere now see muslims and Democrats. Everyone's out to get them. Classic paranoia.....
I'm a long-time poll worker. My coworkers and I feel very strongly about citizens exercising their right to vote. The tossing of ballots occurs during the counting of absentee (VBM) and provisional ballots. If your county election supervisor or Secretary of State is Republican, you've got a problem.
Busque la verdad!
WHERE'S CHENEY??? WHERE'S CHENEY? He's been NOTICEBLY absent from everything that has been going on,,, It's creepy and makes me suspicious... wheres Cheney..?
The questionable accusations by the GOP of fraud should be taken extremely seriously...
Here in Indiana, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham (!what the heck makes him an expert here?) expressed his doubts that Obama could win Indiana without fraud.
This was actually in the Fort Wayne newspapers...His open false accusation of fraud before the fact raises the probability that an Obama win will be a legalistic nightmare. There have already been reports of hundreds of new voter registrations being thrown out. This is the same tactic used in Ohio in 2004 - the voter registration cards for many dems were not on heavy enough stock paper and were tossed.
I'm getting more convinced the fix is in.
Sioux Rose
WTF: Recall the films where an insider knows too much and is told that now he belongs to "the tribe." I'm thinking the Mafia wife who knows she'll never get out of "the family" alive. Suppose Obama climbed high and HAD some ideals, but once was a potential to the U.S. throne, was told in no uncertain terms that any serious deviation from THE PROGRAM would result not only in his own death, but an unfortunate accident to his beloved family. Could that not explain why suddenly the against-the-war voted for it, and suddenly seemed a champion of the MIC, and voted FOR FISA and this insane pro-banker bail out? I may accept that he was always a centrist, and had to be something of a go-along to get-along in the big white boys' club, but the degree of his sell-out became too overt right after the nomination was in his court. He probably senses, given the fate of ML King and the Kennedy men, that in this nation there ARE dangers when you approach the seat of power.
He actually voted for Iraq war funding several times since coming to the Senate. This year both he and Hillary Clinton voted against it, probably because they knew it was going to pass anyway and didn't want to hurt their Presidential campaigns by voting for something unpopular during an election year. Then again, I can't imagine Obama thought his voting and heavy-handed lobbying for the bailout would go over well with voters, so there must have been a hell of a lot of pressure for it.
Sioux Rose
It's believed when we die that we are led by higher souls to whatever is next, and in their presence, which is to say the PRESENCE OF LIGHT, we recognize our own shortcomings with far greater acuity. It is my wish that all those who purged the voter rolls that brought the world this catastrophe disguised as a presidency, the dark gift that keeps on delivering, are forced to SEE the full devastation their vanity wrought. Like SCROOGE I would wish that they are forced to see the lives decimated, both here and abroad by a group of individuals so lacking in basic humanity, so much a product of a dearth of compassion, as to recognize where their only Divine recompense is to return to earth and serve MANY lifetimes in capacities similar to Mother Theresa.
Front row seats in this "just completed lifetime review" process go to our Sagacious court justices that in essence put their stamp on this reign of terror.
They said Capitalism was a step into Imperialism. I didn't believe them. How wrong was I. Maybe it's too late...unless the People can take the earbuds out of their ears, grow a pair and storm our Central Powers. If this isn't the time for the people to stand up and act for themselves, I don't know when is.
- Insurgent
bligh4
Just wondering... how do you guys think the best way to both leave actual people that are eligible to vote on the polls, while making sure that no voter fraud takes place- i.e. the person is who they say they are, is eligible, and votes just once.
Real question. I've wondered how- with computing power so advanced- we still have paper rolls and hanging chads.
There is no voter fraud only totally unsubstantiated accusations of voter fraud by Republicans.
Lets clarify what "voter fraud" means - it means someone voting more than once, or a dead person voting, or a nonexistent person voting, or a non-citizen voting.
Someone voting with a typographical error in their birth date or address, or inadvertently voting in the wrong precinct or at the precinct of their old address, or a student who is voting where he is going to school instead of back home (perfectly legal in most cases) is not voter fraud.
Nowhere else in the world do citizens undergo such an arcane "registration" process just to vote.
As far as "computing power" none is needed. The most reliable, error free and hard to falsify voting is with paper rolls and plain, hand counted paper ballots. All the best democracies in the world still use plain paper ballots.
Unfortunately, the most reliable solution involves something that I suspect many would loath (I certainly do) for the US federal government to be in charge of: national identity cards. That is what is done in most other First World countries (particularly in the EU).
America needs a cleaning out from the top down.
Ban all lobby groups 100%
Ban any contrbution to a candidate over 100$
Make it 6 times a year the Candidate HAS to answer OPEN questions on what is happeneing in there state or even town.
Change the way the House and senate are run
OK if you have ever watched the Canadian system The Prime Minister HAS open question period EVERY DAY that is shown on TV. Any elected candidate can ask ANY question they want of any other elected person . It is wild and keeps the PM and others in line.
Another Apocalyptic Shtick
'Apocalypstick' for the republican rose looks good
on a Barbie Palin or ‘mission accomplished’ doll/action figure
just a good strong stick unlike Cheeney's
more like Halliburtons upticks
or General Dynamics freedom sticks
and portfolios with missed cluster bomb opportunities
the warfare stick that makes our nation tick
You can be the second dick without one
Just stick with the timed out John
the experienced one with practical jungle time
spreading agent orange or napalm
to clear the peasants for a Johnny run
a 'wag the dog' one of dumb bomb sticks from another quagmire.. Johnny's pride
as songbird fly sticks or curly fly licks
keep the lies off the dung heap of empire
as it readies the world for a new partially clothed leader
the all in one pale in one.. one
The paleface pride of the north a family head like Amadinejad
the celebrity mom one but please keep her mum
just keep her pictured with stalwart leaders like Uribe or Kiss of death in ger
and Johnny the for/four strikes one
Let's sell the road to nowhere
to the enamored few
or to a gentile or a jew
Please keep that road to nowhere well oiled and ethically clean
Keep it away from that Putin team or those Mullah queens
or the chosen few who may prefer tolls and check points
Check points to nowhere
like fallen Johnny angel prophecy
Cheney murders Bush . . . any time now . . . becomes president and suspends all political activity in the United States, as well as the constitution, in the face of "grave economic peril". Cheney promises the military 90% of the federal budget and they back his coup. The few patriots in the services, the congress and the Supreme Court who object are immediately liquidated. The United States falls apart in anarchy and chaos while the world stands by and does nothing. What are they supposed to do, invade us to restore order? Tens or hundreds of thousands "disappear". When it's all over, the United States has become the Disneyland of fascism. Could still happen.
Anyone seen Cheney during all this Palin hoopla, or the Wall Street fiasco? Must be in his private bunker where he hid out on 9/11, conspiring with the rest of the secret government on how to take the next, most important step in the total takeover.
I haven't seen him since - was he at the convention? Oh, Dickie, come out, come out wherever you are!
Cheney is supervising the construction of the Death Star.
The Repugs/NeoCons/Corporate Elite/Oligarchs/Etc will never let us have the government back until they can attain Grover Norquist's goal (you know, the bathtub dwowning thing).
That would include elminating (privatizing) Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, the VA, and a whole bunch more. To do that they have to totally bankrupt the government, but they are not quite there.
So look for either a stolen McCain victory or some sort of October/November surprises that will lead Bush to declare Martial Law and/or nullify the election. It doesn't look good. They will not give up.
So long, America the Beautiful!
They've already stolen everything. The damage is done. What we're looking for is someone who can undo it. Obama won't be able to go very far but even the Grover Norquist dittoheads will have to give it up at this point. We the people need to unite and tackle those ideological scumbags from local on up. That's how conservatives won. Grover Norquist wouldn't be anywhere today if it were not for that kind of bottom up strategy.
The dittoheads won't ever surrender; they are too braindead. A conservative friend of mine who took a major hit with the financial collapse, faced with the utter failure of Reaganomics, is ranting about how Barney Frank and the Democrats stole his money, caused the national debt, the bloated government, and runaway spending of the Bush administration. They still think tax cuts are the solution. They cannot see the truth because they cannot give up their false ideology.
As for so-called "voter" fraud, it is just another plank in the Republican platform which they use to actually practice election fraud so their scummy candidates can win in places where they'd never be elected dog-catcher. Just one tiny example - in 2004 Diebold machines recorded thousands more votes for Bush than there were people in the district. That's election fraud, and as the article says, it's only getting worse.
wcdevins--the person you call friend is in reality your worst enemy.
I come across those kinds of people in my state as well. That said, the only crime Barney Franks is guilty of is letting the GOP get away with their crimes. I'm not saying that all dittoheads will surrender. There will always be a set of staunch conservatives no matter what but trust me. A lot of these otherwise dittoheads aren't what they look like. I wouldn't give up the fight for the better and Obama is obviously aware of his need to reach out to moderates and independents in ways even John Kerry couldn't do.
"So long, America the Beautiful!"
Which "America" are you referring to? There are three.
North, Central and South.
Gosh darn lucky i guess to think that me and John defeated That One by a mere few hundred votes. Hardly can be believed, can it? - Future Sarah Palin on the Republican slide into home base.
Conservatives kill.
My son told me last night that a newspaper in CA where he lives said thousands of ballots had been sent to New York with "OSAMA" on them. Those who'd sent them said it was "a typo!" Anyone who types knows what a stretch that is. B and A are in different directions, and take different fingers to type.
And from what I've seen of the crowds backing McCain and palin, if Obama does win, he'd better be as well protected as gw has been - but in a different way - that party knows any weak spots in gw's protection.
Is this how the GOP will retain power after Nov 4? A claim of massive voter fraud, supported by the Supreme Court, that will nullify the election? The National ID cards will be enabled before further elections can take place? Maybe even tattoos?
I weep for what this country has become. A large segment of the population seethe hatred. A country divided, already facing economic collapse, is perhaps on the verge of societal collapse.
I have a very bad feeling that Obama will not make it alive through to the election, and if he does, he will not survive his first term. There is too much hatred against him. It just takes one angry racist Republican with a gun, and we know that there are plenty of them.
"Is this how the GOP will retain power after Nov 4? A claim of massive voter fraud, supported by the Supreme Court, that will nullify the election?"
It's ELECTION fraud. Not voter fraud. The voters are doing just fine...other than making willfully ignorant choices in many cases and voting party-line even when the D candidate is really an R.
Hundreds of voters in Rensselaer County in New York received mail-in-ballots with Obama's last name spelled incorrectly.
This is the fault of the election officials, not the voters. The voters have nothing to do with the so-called "typo."
Therefore, if anything it's election fraud NOT voter fraud. They are two completely different things.
So the party that enables imperialism is to step up and become the party that perpetuates imperialism, driven by a new generation of voters whose fate will be ever more capitalist, militarist, zionist oppression, and maybe bread lines.
"Won't make any difference. Obama wins."
Yikes. Look, I'm not trying to attack your opinion that Obama will win regardless of the disgusting behavior mentioned above.
But, accepting what was written above as "ok" because the election results MIGHT come out the same way they would without tampering is awful. I hate the fact that my vote didn't count in the 2000/2004 election in Ohio. I hate the electoral system that insured that...The moment Ohio went to W, my vote was perfectly wasted. It kept me from voting in 1996 to know that my vote could have been worthless.
Now, we have a brilliant article to read about how horrible the system really is. Why should I vote? Why should anyone?
BECAUSE IT IS OUR RIGHT TO CAST A BALLOT AND HAVE IT COUNT.
Whoever attempts to take that away from an American is committing treason (imho) and it needs to stop!
Thank you for the article,
Orion
I knew a desperate man with a desperate man...if you take the time to understand...he resorted to evil to get to the top...only to see his soul take a flop...in his nowhere world...he seduced many to his evil dreams..been happening through all history so it seems...
He didn't care who he hurt..he didn't care who he left in a lurch...it was all their fault he loved to say...doing his evil night & day...maybe he'll change one day...it's so difficult to say...maybe he'll give it all up one day...and learn how to sing, dance & play...it's so difficult to say..
So now this is the now of things...with one Caesar after another in charge of people's worldly dreams while behind closed doors they plot & scheme in this world where nothing's what is seems...
Who hasn't been beat up...who hasn't been battered around...who hasn't had the man's heel grind them into the ground...As I knew a desperate man with a desperate plan...as the circle always circles around...
It is pretty clear Obama is going to take it with a landslide victory. That said, I have little hope that any significant change will be advanced on those issues important to me.
"It is pretty clear Obama is going to take it with a landslide victory."
Why would you (or anyone else) think THAT?
The presidential "elections" of 2000 and 2004 were both stolen. No "landslide." Why do you think 2008 will be any different? Nothing has changed with the voting system with these fraudulent, corrupt and easily-hackable voting machines. They are saturating the nation now. They are owned by Repugs and have been encouraged by the Dems. If there is an "election," the voters will be voting on the same system. If anything, the results will likely be more like: 51% to 49%. Close! (Where have we heard those numbers before?) No landslide for anyone. Or at least that's what we will be told the results are regardless of the actual and TRUE numbers/result. Diebold can turn day into night.
Even the polls----for what they are worth---that I have seen don't show any "landslide" whatsoever. One poll (Newsweek) shows Obama with an 11% lead. Another poll shows McCain will an 11% lead. Just depends upon which poll one looks at.
Unfortunately, no one is "polling" Diebold, Sequoia, ES&S and Hart InterCivic easily-hackable electronic voting machines. They are the ONLY polls that matter in the end.
To me, it's a given that the thing will be stolen (if there is an "election"). I just can't believe that the Bush regime stole 2 presidential "elections" to graciously and willingly turn their dictatorship over to someone else unless that new person has adamantly proven to them they he will continue the dictatorship. Regardless, I don't see any "landslide" for anybody. Even if Walk on Water Obama or McCain are allowed to "win" the White House the question is: Will "Unitary Executive" Bush and Cheney honor the results and actually leave in January? I'll believe that when it happens. There is NO ONE to force them to leave. Surely not the useless and worthless Dems. They would be delighted if Bush/Cheney stayed on so they could continue helping Bush/Cheney complete their dictatorial agenda as accomplices. (The Bush-accomplice Dems helped put "Unitary Executive" Alito on the Supreme Court).
----------------------
Nader/Gonzalez 2008, if there is an "election."
Cindy Sheehan to replace Bush-accomplice Pelosi
----------------------
It will be a landslide. It will be a HUGE landslide.
In 2000 you nominated a less than passionate candidate who didn't even win his own state, and then he wouldn't challenge your "stolen or Nader lost it for us, election". (Did Gore think he just lost? Probably.)
In 2004 you nominated a wuss and spineless candidate. Nuff said.
In 2008, with the nation completely trashed, the republicans have nominated a man who they simply are throwing to the wolves. A throwaway. He (like Kerry) will "take one for the team". They'll be rid of him by the next cycle since they know they're gonna lose anyway. (Maybe a little "No impeachment for the presidency" thrown-in for good measure? Perhaps?)
Obama is a man who is articulate, smart, can and does read, and can speak in complete and uninterrupted sentences. He's a man of color which plays to our growing population of color, as well as anglos. In a time that the people in power are suffering a devastating credibility problem, he can bring the most people together when its needed for Washington--and Iraq--and war in general.
It makes sense. It's in the cards. It's in the stars. It's Obama in 2008.
As for me, I don't expect any real change when it comes to the money or general lawlessness by these criminals in D.C. or Wall Street. I DO expect a giddy, touchy-feely era of "goodness" by democrats as they start they're own style of murder overseas. I also expect a draft. But it will be fine as long as the dems do it.
Obama is already in office. Study the nuances.
As for myself, I have the ability to vote for my beliefs and conscience, so of course my vote will go to Nader.
Call me what you want. But I don't vote for murderers anymore.
I sense from you and others that you are living under the illusion that the "election" (if there is one) will be legitimate. Why would you think that? Because you want to?
If it were legitimate, yes, Obama might win in a "landslide." (Not that I'm going to help him do so!)
But I see no reasons to think that the "election" will be legit since the last two presidential "elections" were not.
Obama is running the same type of wet-doily, weak, wussy campaign that Bush-accomplice John Kerry ran. He's a wimp. In the debates, he acted like a wimp. The only reason he has the support he does it because he has a D behind his name and because most people have swallowed his "hope and change" bull (while he votes FOR FISA, votes and actively works to bail out Wall Street and votes for war appropriations).
Obama is not "already in office." Bush is in office and Obama is still serving as accomplice, as he has been.
-------------------------
Nader/Gonzalez 2008, if there is an "election"
Cindy Sheehan to replace Bush-accomplice Pelosi
-------------------------
I agree about the total corruption of the Electoral Process.
But I think you are focusing too much on it as "rigged for Republicans" when it would be more accurate to say it was "rigged for Bush".
I think this time it will be "rigged for Obama".
There is no reason why the corporatists who control the wealth in the U.S. and the World would oppose Obama and the New Democrats, this is the "upshot" of the Dems move "right" (pro-wealthy).
'Will "Unitary Executive" Bush and Cheney honor the results and actually leave in January?'
I cannot see that happening. Bush is tired, and is eager to get back to the ranch. He doesn't want this job anymore (and I don't blame him). Being "Dictator for Life" requires a very special person, and support from a significant percentage of the population. Bush/Cheney have neither.
I don't think Bush and Cheney give a damn whether they have support or not from The People. And The People have not risen up one bit since 2000. Bush/Cheney could care less about The People or what The People think. Since Day One they have done as they so please, regardless of what The People thought. Other than purely symbolic stuff they've been doing in the last year to give the illusion/impression that they are going to leave, I see no sign they have any intention of leaving. Why would they cook up Directive 51 if they had no intention of using it? Why would they station US troops in the States for the first time?
Is Posse Comitatus Dead? US Troops on US Streets
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/10/7/us_army_denies_unit_will_be
It COULD still make a difference: house races, senate races, ballot questions, etc. AND it makes a difference as far as setting a precedent. I'm not an Obama supporter, but it does make a difference to me and it should to everyone else, too...
Well, the Dems (or those who charade as Dems) could have every seat in the house and senate and nothing would change for the positive. The status quo would continue. Most of these scum in congress will follow the Bush-accomplice so-called "leadership" in order to be "successful" in their congressional careers, otherwise they will be minimized to the sidelines like a Kucinich.
Won't make any difference. Obama wins.