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UPDATES AS THEY OCCUR
Rick Gagliano | begun 11/10/04 and developing

11/23/04 5:00 PM Eastern: 50,693+ signatures

More news, more help, printing of petition underway

The events of today could not have been much more positive for those seeking to investigate the 2004 presidential election. While various Ohio Board of Elections officials, including one Kenneth Cunningham, Director of the Allen County Board of Elections, made some rather duplicitous statements yesterday, including that the recount effort mounted by David Cobb and Michael Badnarik would financially "crush county governments", news searches revealed a wealth of election fraud stories popping up on independent newspapers across the country.

For the record, Mr. Cunningham received the following email from me, earlier today:

To: Election Commissioner Keith Cunningham

Sir, your statements concerning the Ohio recount are very troubling and I intend to relate them to the American public. To suggest that the recount would financially "crush county governments" is suspect and likely groundless. The importance of fair elections in the United States, in Ohio and elsewhere is paramount to the continuation of our democracy, regardless of the cost.

Any attempt by you to subvert the recount process will be seen as an attempt to distort and hide the truth. I don't know if you are an elected official or appointed and it matters not. Your responsibility is to ensure an accurate and fair vote. All indications are that the election results in Ohio were neither accurate nor fairly achieved.

Your statements and actions display an unwillingness to recount Ohio's vote and by doing so, you expose yourself as an obstacle to democracy.

What is so troublesome to you about a recount? What are you trying to hide?

I think we both know the answer to that question and I challenge you to answer me in print.

Sincerely,

Rick Gagliano
Downtown Magazine
http://www.dtmagazine.com

Also unnoticed by the mainstream media was this press release of November 18 - VOTING PROBLEMS SHOULD BE FULLY INVESTIGATED & RESOLVED, by Kay J. Maxwell, President of the League of Women Voters. How that managed to slip beneath the radar of the the best journalists money can buy is anybody's guess, but it was not even well-reported on the internet. In fact, I didn't even know about it until I read this article: Congress to Revisit Election Reform, by Miles Benson of Newhouse News Service, published only yesterday.

An urgent email was dashed off to the League of Women Voters seeking their aid in our petition effort.

While I was digesting that, news broke that veteran newsman Dan Rather is resigning from the CBS Evening News.

During the day, various members of Congress have been receiving emails from many sources, particularly the people over at democrats.us an "Online Think Tank for Democrats," who graced their home page with a gorgeous pair of links to our petition.

We've still received no response from any member of Congress, and that is sending a mixed message. Either there's a full-blown whitewash going on in Washington, DC, and we're being buffaloed by this GAO investigation, or the Congress is effectively saying something to the effect, "we get the message, and we're on it." We can only hope that is the case.

Either way, it would be nice to hear the voice of a concerned Congressperson some day soon.

Progress on the printing of the petition continues at a steady pace. The signatures have been organized, bad entries removed and the first 15,000 signatures will be printed and ready to go by tonight - a task that I am returning to with all due speed.

December 2nd delivery to Congress remains on target, yet without a sponsor.

11/23/04 4:00 PM Eastern: 50,600+ signatures

House gets GAO investigation

PRESS RELEASE

House Committee on the Judiciary

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
November 23, 2004

Government Accountability Office to Conduct Investigation of 2004 Election Irregularities

(Washington, DC) -- Reps. John Conyers, Jr., Jerrold Nadler, Robert Wexler, Robert Scott, and Rush Holt announced today that, in response to their November 5 and 8 letters to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the GAO has decided to move forward with an investigation of election irregularities in the 2004 election. The five Members issued the following statement:

"We are pleased that the GAO has reviewed the concerns expressed in our letters and has found them of sufficient merit to warrant further investigation. On its own authority, the GAO will examine the security and accuracy of voting technologies, distribution and allocation of voting machines, and counting of provisional ballots. We are hopeful that GAO's non-partisan and expert analysis will get to the bottom of the flaws uncovered in the 2004 election. As part of this inquiry, we will provide copies of specific incident reports received in our offices, including more than 57,000 such complaints provided to the House Judiciary Committee.

"The core principle of any democracy is the consent of the governed. All Americans, no matter how they voted, need to have confidence that when they cast their ballot, their voice is heard."

The Members listed above were joined in requesting the non-partisan GAO investigation by Reps. Melvin Watt, John Olver, Bob Filner, Gregory Meeks, Barbara Lee, Tammy Baldwin, Louise Slaughter and George Miller.

#108-11/23/04#

MORE TO FOLLOW SHORTLY...

11/22/04 10:54 AM Eastern: 50,000 signatures!!!!

And more to follow! Please read It's Time To Stick It To The Media on the main Elections page - an action plan to stop news suppression.

11/21/04 10:00 PM Eastern: 49,700+ signatures

Soon the petition will have garnered over 50,000 signatures, which is much less than we envisioned, though still an ample number. More will be signing as the situation progresses. There is, however, much to report on the continuing controversy and instead of trying to hash it all out here, I am posting a number of short descriptions with links.

In Chile, George W. Bush and Co. were forced to cancel a state dinner when the US insisted on having all guests walk through metal detectors. The suggestion set off the host Chileans, who protested vehemently, as did protesters throughout the President's four-day visit. http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2004/11/21/2003211922

In Ohio, organizers of the non-partisan public hearings which focused on irregularities in the Novenmber 2 election, including 10-hour waits in some urban precints, missing signatures from official voting role books, shortages of voting machines, unexplained undervotes, assorted claims of disfranchisement and intmidation, prepared to challenge the Ohio results.

Congressman Dennis Kuchinich has publicly announced his support for the recount being engineered by Green Party's Dennis Cobb and Libertarian Michael Badnarik, who are now also calling for Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell - who served as chairman of Bush's Ohio campaign - to recuse himself from the recount. http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=4485.

The effort to purge bad entries from the petition calling for a Congressional investigation continues apace, nearly complete up-to-date. Compilation and printing of the signatures has commenced, with the target date for delivery to Congress still set upon December 2nd. To date, despite numerous attempts, no member of Congress has stepped forward in support of the petition, despite widespread reporting of election irregularities. Equally troubling is the mainstream media's outright refusal to report any of the news to the American public. Many are now calling upon the media to discontinue their parroting and quiet acceptance of Administration policy and report the truth. Blogger Brad Friedman (bradblog.com) has openly accused the New York Times of undermining the effort of the internet investigators, bloggers and reporters and underreporting the story.

Some commentators are convinced that once the massive fraud is exposed fully to the American people, network executives and news personnel will face criminal charges for complicity in an effort to cover up the abuses, voting anamolies and questionable activity that has now been reported or is being examined in no less than 12 states. Still others insist that keeping the story from the public through coordinated misuse of pubic airwaves constitutes gross negligence or, at least, abuse of the public trust. In addition to Ohio, Minnestoa, Florida, California, North Carolina, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, West Virginia, Nebraska and Indiana have all reported either some kind of voting irregularity, legal issue or are undergoing or about to undergo a recount.

Please note that the above links on various states link to different articles highlighting post-election activity in those states. Those states without links have significant problems that have already been widely reported.

11/19/04 10:10 PM Eastern: 48,600+ signatures

"Lawyers who have been documenting voting day problems in Ohio say they'll challenge the results of the presidential election as soon as the vote is official." That is the opening line of a story being reported by WCPO.com in Cincinnati as well as the Akron Beacon Journal and the Dayton Daily News. With a recount already a certainty thanks to efforts of Green Party Candidate David Cobb and Libertarian Party hopeful Michael Bednarik, lawyers who have been collecting information from a series of public hearings held in Ohio this week say they will challenge the results of the Ohio election as soon as they are official. That date is set for December 6, according to various accounts on the ground in Ohio. The challenge could result in the election being declared invalid or spur yet another recount.

More information should be available tomorrow.

11/19/04 12:20 PM Eastern: 48,200+ signatures

The Waiting Game

As I was preparing to write this update, I glanced up at the text above and noticed, "begun 11/10/04 and developing." I am ten days into updating, and a total of 17 days into the seige, which began on election night and has worsened and deepend. For the record, the petition actually went live on the site of petitiononline.com on Sunday, November 7. By the 10th, the numbers were increasing so fast I created this and other pages to keep signers informed and answer questions. But still we wait.

I am not a patient man. A line longer than five minutes in a supermarket will cause me great agitation, I can barely sit through a single inning of a televised baseball game without reaching for the clicker and stop signs and lights in places where they're not needed annoy me to no end. So, I would imagine that had I been reistered to vote in one of those precincts in Ohio where the wait was 2-3 hours, and in some, according to testimony from witnesses at non-partisan public hearings held earlier this week, 5 to 7 and as much as 10 hours, I definitely would not have voted. And while I cannot expect many people to be nearly as impatient as me, I can only surmise that many people in Ohio, in predominantly African American and student dominated precincts - Kerry strongholds - would have done the same, and they did - they turned and walked away.

This isn't a case of miscounting votes. This is a case of people having their ability to vote denied. It's a crime, and it needs to be prosecuted.

The reason for the long lines in Ohio's urban districts was simple. The election commissioners allocated too few machines to the various polling places in those areas. Big surprise that no such shortage of machines occurred in suburban, white areas. No, sir, those Republican strongholds had all the voting machines they needed, and all the forms, and chairs and access for the handicapped, ad nauseum. All of these extras were also conspicuously absent from many of the urban polling places I mentioned.

That much we know already. We also know that Kenneth Blackwell, the Ohio Secretary of State and also Ohio Campaign Manager for President Bush, is ultimately responsible for assuring a fair and accurate count, and soon, recount. Mr. Blackwell also is responsible for seeing to it that every Ohioan had adequate access to vote, that the process was fair and equitable and that nobody was denied the right to vote. Mr. Blackwell, by all appearances, did not do any of those things. In fact, it looks as though Blackwell did everything he could to prevent minorities and students from voting. And did I mention that Blackwell was George Bush's campaign manager for Ohio. I did? Oh, well, I said it again. Can you say CONFLICT OF INTEREST? From all appearances, Ken Blackwell should be under indictment, and if there is a shred (bad term to use here probably) of justice left in the United States of America, he will be, along with the rest of the criminals who stole the election, along with the hopes, dreams and values of millions and millions of Americans.

Yet, still we wait and we hear nothing from our vaunted "free" press. Nothing about voter disfranchisement in Ohio and Florida, Nortth Carolina and elsewhere, nothing about mysterious "glitches" (more about these computer glitches later) miscounting votes, nothing about recounts in Ohio and New Hampshire. Nothing, Nada, Zero, Ziltch.

It's distressing, but even more absurd is the silence of the lambs we know as Democratic Congresspeople. Some have requested a GAO investingation. All well and good that is, but it has no teeth and will not find anything until sometime in the distant future if it finds anything at all. Not a single Senator or Member of the House of Democratic stripe has made a single public statement about the propriety - or lack thereof - of the November 2 election. That's absolutely pathetic.

And we wait. Wait for somebody to step forward and take control, to allay our fears and call it as many of us see it. The election was a complete and total fraud and the results should be voided.

Note: about those "glitches". If you're reading this, you're using some kind of computing device connected to what we know as the internet - a massive infrastructure of wires, fiber, nodes, servers, computer code, yeah, all that techie stuff 90% of us don't understand. Now, how often do you suffer a "glitch." Not often, probably. These computers are pretty darn reliable. I myself am a Mac guy. I am on a system that's 6 years old. I would say the number of major problems - in which I actually lost data - would be less than 10, and I am on this thing ALL THE TIME. So tell me, how do these voting machines made by Diebold, et. al. suffer "glitches", lose data, corrupt data, and why do these sanfus - the ones we discover, anyway - uniformly result in more votes for George W Bush?

Essentially, it's a crock. Nobody is buying that bull.

Two items of interest:
1. The popular web site, bellaciao.org has been down for well over 2 hours as of this writing. It's a site that is usually open and accessible, and serves as one of the better clearinghouses for the exchange of intelligent ideas. That it could be hacked by people who oppose the open exchange of free thinking people, is a definite possibility. UPDATE UPDATE! The good people at antiwar.com report that they are getting a message that the bellaciao site is down for maintenance and that the message looks legit.
2. Officials in Lodi, California are looking for a certain Daniel Askelson, for submitting over 1000 voter registration forms prior to the election, most of which may be fraudulent. Askelson was apparently employed by DRS, a voter registration service hired by the state's Republican Party. Fraudulent registrations? No, it can't be! Read the whole story here.

11/18/04 11:30 PM Eastern: 47,750+ signatures

The pace at which US citizens are signing has slowed this week, but they still keep coming and adding their names, despite the lack of press coverage on anything relating even remotely to the election.

"It's actually kind of spooky," I was told by one petition supporter, noting, "they (the news media) don't even want to mention it on their broadcasts, like it never happened, like George Bush was president, is president, nothing has changed at all."

Indeed. They are avoiding it like the plague, or maybe this year's strain of flu - the election bug.

Meanwhile, rumors are flying everywhere. Some of the rumors are of such a nature and so guarded and secretive that I have been sworn to not speak a word, even though I was tipped on what to expect in days to come.

Am I sitting on top of the biggest story of the decade and can't do anything about it?

That's probably not the case, though I should point out that the media, in denial, cannot possibly hope to keep the lid on every reporter, in every city, working for the affiliate stations, forever.

Or maybe they can. If they control 97% of the news, that 3% bent on speaking out could easily be silenced, quieted.

From an entirely different perspective, this story has already blown sky high. If the internet were the primary mass medium in this country - and it will be within a decade, or if not it should be - our good president W might very well be in leg irons at this very moment. Over the past two weeks, theories have spawed charts and graphs, which grew wings and spread the seed, which germinated and sprouted tiny growths of news, and now that news is branching outward and upward. It's very evolutionary to witness and quite remarkable to see just how inventive and creative human beings can be. All of this, of course, to the utter dismay of the administration.

That brings up yet another point, or series of points. If there is evidence of vote tampering, manipulation - and there is - it need not necessarily point directly to the president, or the VP, or anyone in the Cabinet, or anyone even further down the ladder from the leader. To be sure, it almost certainly will not. It will be a programmer here, a challenger there, a random polling official, one or two election commissioners, and off we go. Like a snowball rolling down a slope, it will gether momentum and mass and speed and continue downward, eventually agglomerating and destroying everything in it's path. Not a pretty picture, an avalanche. Once the real story of the 2004 election gets the attention it deserves - and it will, make no doubt about that - it will be serious CYA time in DC, as the cover up will certainly go ballistic.

We are reminded that history repeats itself. Nixon in '72, Bush in '04. It doesn't even rhyme, but I like the sound of it just fine.

11/18/04 1:30 PM Eastern: 47,000+ signatures

We are still gathering signatures to the petition, slowly but steadily. Support this effort by emailing anybody and everybody a link to the petition. It is in, as they say, "our national interest."

I'm getting deluged with email and information. Things are moving so quickly I can only hope to keep up. There are now volunteers working on the petition. We have nearly all of the signatures to date and they are being culled, the bogus names purged and the entire thing formatted for printing, with more to come. I sent a number of copies out to various people as a measure to ensure that this document will NEVER be lost.

If you want to help in any way, get on the mailing list and find out what still needs to be done.

In the interest of time, I am going to cut this a little short to focus on getting more information out in a couple of hours. For your viewing pleasure, a copy of an email from one of our most ardent supporters. And remember, the right wing does not have a monopoly on love of country, patriotism, etc. What we are doing is as patriotic as one can get. The people who signed the peitition did so because the love this country. we all do.

RE: CAN SOMEONE HELP US IN FLORIDA? ANYBODY? ACTIVIST VILMA FOX ASKS

A voter in Florida sent me a good response concerning the alleged illegal shenanigans having taken place in Volusia County where Black Box Voting Director Bev Harris' www.blackboxvoting.org/, reported having filmed polling place tapes found in a 'garbage bag' on the premises of a Volusia County Elections warehouse www.volusia.org/elections/department.htm#contact

My fellow Floridian replied: "So they FILMED IT? So what the hell is going on in this world, huney?!?

The person went on to say: "Richard Nixon taped his own demise (Watergate).
Last week, the Marines in Fallujah were filmed committing a war crime by murdering
an unarmed, wounded Iraqi (insurgent)."

"They also filmed the abuses in Iraqi prisons and showed them on American TV
for the whole nation and world to see!"

"And now we have film of the discarded polling place tapes in a 'garbage bag' from the 2004 election?"

I can relate to how this voter feels because WHY would Volusia County Elections Officials do such a thing?
Things that make you go hm-m-m..................

Is it possible that the polling place tapes provided 'evidence' showing Democrat John Kerry
having received thousands of more votes in Volusia County's precincts, than reported?
Enough even that it would have made a difference?

In fact, this may have been the case in Florida, as well as in Ohio and possibly other States. There have been numerous reported 'voting irregularities' having taken place in several States which have NOT been investigated thoroughly, where there have been NO recounts, and which have been dismissed by election officials quite abruptly.

If John Kerry truthfully did not receive more votes than Bush - than so be it. But, the American people should know - either way!

Just what WILL it take for Americans to wake-up and DO something concerning the level of deceit and corruption that has become "business as usual" in the Bush Administration?

I again ask - can anyone help us in Florida? Or will the American voters whose votes were NOT counted or dumped (hidden) in the garbage across America be once again disenfranchised?

Did our votes not matter?

Like I screamed out last week. What are we the voters - chopped liver?! ALL votes should be counted and counted accurately, if we ever are to have elections in which the American people can feel secure about.

The American people deserve no less! VILMA FOX - South Florida Activist


11/17/04 6:00 PM Eastern: 46,300+ signatures

Today was somewhat of a maintenance day for me, catching up on emails, some personal business, some real business, a bit of anger, anguish, an actual laugh or two, a fortuitous fortune cookie, and a thought. I'll share those last two with you.

I was over my parent's house (born Republicans, but good, elderly people in their 80s) and there were a couple of fortune cookies on the kitchen table. I decided to check one out, plus, I, being a certifiable nut-case (according to Rush Limbaugh, that is), actually like the taste of fortune cookies. So, I cracked it open and it said, "Your example will inspire others." No lie. My only hope is that my example DOES inspire others - to not give in, to never give up, to stand up for what you know in your heart is right, to move forward against all opposition, to not be denied, to never say die. I never shall, and I hope you never will, either.

My thought was this: going about my business today, the passion of the issues burning red-hot in my soul, I stopped at a light and watched a couple cross the street. They were just people, going about their day, likely working, on their way to a meeting, maybe. It struck me that there are millons of Americans just like that, and that many of you who signed the peitition are just like that. You have jobs, families, responsibilities, and little chores we have to tend to every day that don't get any attention, but are at the heart of what makes us all human - washing clothes, mowing the lawn, picking the kids up from school, calling a friend just to say 'hi'. Those little things bind us together and silently keep us together. I thank every one of the petition signers for taking some time out from your day and making the effort. The good in all of our hearts shall prevail.

Two items I need to pass along. There's a website called sorryevrybody.com that is so powerful that I cannot adequately put it into words. Visit there. Also, a journalist from Alaska, Dahr Jamail, has been filing some incredibly moving stories from Iraq. You can read them at dahrjamailiraq.com. Both of these sites accept donations. If you haven't seen fit to give here, please support them.

It's almost time for the nightly propaganda briefing - formerly known as the network news broadcast - so I must prepare myself. George Orwell - a man so progressive in his time he got the title of one of his books wrong by 20 years. I'll try to post later tonight following my de-programming.

11/17/04 1:10 AM Eastern: 45,000+ signatures

Good news on the petition - we continue to make strides towards bringing it to the attention of our legislators. However, it must be pointed out that it will make no difference if the media is not willing to act properly in its role as the fourth estate. It is apparent to anyone paying attention that all four networks and most major newspapers have given no coverage whatsoever to the recount efforts in New Hampshire and Ohio.

The networks, especially, act as though these recounts are a fiction of the left's imagination. Can one assume that the final result is already determined, thus, no need for any coverage of any kind? Probably. And what of the petition? Still looking for anyone from the Congress to sponsor or accept it. Should it be this difficult? Not really. Welcome to the New World Order. we didn't actually vote for them, so they don't have to answer to us. The state of affairs in our beloved USA grows sadder by the day.

I also need to do two things here. One, report widespread internet problems. The pettiononline.com site, which hosts ours and many others, was seemingly under a DoS attack tonight and was inaccessible from roughly 8:30 to 9:30 EST. Two, the stories coming out of Iraq are nearly too horrible to read. Living though them must be 1000 times worse. I can't see many Christians, at least the ones I know, approving of what's going on over there. It's not really my issue, but I felt a need to say something. We pray that tomorrow will be a brighter day for everyone.

11/16/04 2:40 PM Eastern: 44,000 signatures

The following message was sent to mail list subscribers an hour ago and some have responded with donations. My work will continue.

Petition's Progress #3, 11/16/04

The official newsletter of A Petition to Congress requesting an investigation into the Presidential Election of 2004

http://www.petitiononline.com/uselect/petition.html

More information at:
http://www.dtmagazine.com

Greetings, Petitioners,

Please read this entire newsletter. In it, I will explain what efforts are being made to advocate the position of the petition and deliver it to the not-so-welcoming arms of our beloved US Congress. I have yet to receive any communication from any member of Congress though I and others have made repeated requests.

If you are receiving this newsletter and do not want it, just follow the unsubscribe button at the bottom and you'll never hear from me again. Otherwise, read on.

Much has been done so far in the effort to gather names for the petition and promote it. I have written numerous articles and posted them to my site and elsewhere. I have updated my site with new info daily. Many others have surely circulated the petition via email. Of course, there's this mailing list. There's much more work ahead.

I have set a date of December 2 to deliver the petition and as many signatures as possible to the US Congress. With the level of donations abhorrently low, I have no choice but to use my own funds in this effort.

Since petitiononline.com charges .01 per name (one cent), and can get about 100 signatures on a page - that's $1 per page or $1000 for 100,000 signatures - I have concluded that I cannot afford that expense. I have decided to cull the list, purge the bad signatures and print the list of signatures myself in order to save some money. Since I'm essentially working for nothing, the only out-of-pocket expense will be printer ink.

While the signatures are being prepared, I will also be making an effort to contact a congressperson - ideally more than one - who will accept the petition and submit it to his or her respective house. In support of that, I am preparing a document - much like presenting a case for probable cause - to show that there is enough evidence to warrant a Congressional investigation and hearing. I feel there is enough information readily available on the internet to compile a report that will show, at the very least, that voting in the presidential election of 2004 could have been manipulated, tampered with or otherwise subverted. This report will be printed and submitted to Congress along with the petition and signatures.

Also, I will continue to answer emails and phone calls, provide updates on my website and message board, write articles in support of the petition and promote it to whomever, whenever and wherever I am able.

I will tend to the matters of transporting me and the petition to Washington, organizing other interested parties to join me, contacting media to cover the handing over of the petition to Congress and various other details as time allows.

To date, I have received $345 from 13 contributors, and I thank them. They have shown courage and commitment. However, this level of contribution is insufficient and a sorry testimony to the state of affairs in America. Judging by the contributions, the value placed on a fair and accurate vote is small. No wonder elections can so easily be stolen.

This email is going to more than 250 individuals. If each of you give only $5, it will be sufficient to cover the expenses to complete all of the above tasks. Without it, I will make do on my own.

I refuse to continue this endless undignified appeal for funds. It is cheapening and undermining the entire effort. I hate doing it and therefore, this is the last time I will appeal for donations.

Now it is time for you to make a choice.

If you feel that this is a worthwhile effort, and that I should continue, show your support by clicking on the PLEASE CONTRIBUTE link below and making a contribution.

If you feel that I should work for nothing, using my own funds to accomplish the goals mentioned above (which I am glad to do if it means preserving our democracy, fair elections and our rights), or you believe, for whatever reason, that this is an effort not worth supporting, please go to the bottom of this message and click on the UNSUBSRIBE link.

MAKE YOUR CHOICE NOW.

Thank you,

Rick Gagliano

11/16/04 1:44 AM Eastern: 43,000 signatures

Fund-raising efforts have proven utterly futile. Not even worth mentioning any more. Less than 1¢ per signatory.

11/15/04 3:00 PM Eastern: 41,500 - Pace improving

The number of signatures kicked over 40,000 late last night or early this morning. At 9:00 today, we were well over that number and it continues to grow. Some are expressing disappointment at the numbers, though I remain positive. The pace at which people sign the petition has improved from over the weekend, which I assumed would be slow. Today and every day this week, for about 15 hours every day, between 2 and 5 Americans will sign each minute, and with any kind of media exposure, that number could be as many as 10 to 20 per mintue, as it was last week between Tuesday and Thursday, when word spread like wildfire and the seriously committed took action.

Of course, the media and the opposition still considers us a bunch of nuts. Yeah, we're all crazy. Sure.

Donations continue to come in at a much slower pace. Right now, the ratio of signers to donors is 41,500 - 14, or in simpler terms, for nearly every 3000 signatures, 1 donation (2964 - 1). That's a little disappointing, but it's been reported to me that people are recieving calls from groups claiming responsibility for the petition and soliciting donations - sad but true. Also, there were enough people their with hands out over the weekend to make one want to run for the hills - especially in Ohio where over $150,000 was raised in 2 days to fund a reount. If you gave to them, great, because that's worth every nickel.

Maybe people just don't see the value of our petition or don't think I'm serious about it. Let them think what they like, but I've repeatedly made my point and will continue to press ahead.

Maybe people don't think their decomcracy, their freedom, maybe even their life is worth even a $5 or $10 donation. On that thought, having only 40000+ names on this petition in just over a week is a little sad too. Apparently, there are still MANY who need convincing. I'm back to publicizing the issue...

11/14/04 11:00 PM Eastern: Excerpts From the Petition's Progress Newsletter #2

Without any assistance from the media, but through emails, blogs and postings to other sites which show an interest in the allegations outlined in the petition, the number of signatories will surpass 40,000 sometime tonight. I applaud the effort and am in awe of the courage shown by all of you who signed and passed the message along to others. This effort, thus far, has truly been in the best American tradition of grass roots organization, with a little help from the wonders of technology, of course.

The number of signers continues to expand by the minute. Since Friday night, we have added more than 5000 signatures, which is less than on previous days, but completely expected on a weekend when most people are involved with friends, family and recreation. I'll even admit to taking some time off from the never-ending tasks involved in writing updates and articles in advocacy of our position, answering emails, and organizing the effort as best I can. I am still working very much alone on this, though, as noted above, I have much help that I do not see. Any kind of media exposure would be a boost to our effort, but the mainstream media has been outfitted with blinders on any issue relating to the election just past.

The media has not, for the most part, even informed the American public that recounts are about to take place in Ohio and New Hampshire. There was nothing on any of the Sunday morning news shows. Apparently, the cover-up has already begun, and as many of you know from Watergate, it was the cover-up which brought down Richard Nixon.

Speaking of politicians, I have yet to receive any response from any member of Congress, even though I have written to Senator Clinton (I am a New York resident) and Representatives Conyers and Nadler, both of whom are co-signers of the request to the GAO for an investigation. I will eventually need contact with a Congressperson, to deliver the petition on December 2nd, and hopefully, to introduce our petition as an official measure.

Regarding the aforementioned GAO investigation as it relates to our petition, some have questioned whether the two would accomplish the same purpose. The answer, as best as I have been able to discern - and from Congressman Nadler's appearance on PBS's Charlie Rose show Friday night - is that they approach from broadly different perspectives, and for different requests. Ours is to the full Congress, for full, open hearings into any and all aspects of potential wrongdoing in the electoral process, while the one started by the Congressmen seeks an investigation mostly for fact-finding. The GAO has no prosecutorial powers, but as Nadler pointed out to Charlie Rose, he hopes that they will find enough evidence to compel hearings by a House committee, which then could proceed through both houses.

Ours strives to get to the point more directly and in a more expedient manner. But it needs a patron in the person of a member of Congress. I trust some of our elected officials will step forward.


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