I think this blog is so on the money. I think we got duped in to voting for someone who didn't even intend to be President. At least that has been a nagging thought that I can't shake. We also know that Kerry won New Hampshire on the very same voting machines as what made him lose now. In the areas that had lever, and hand counting methods- Dean won over whelmingly. In the blackbox voter areas, Kerry won. Go figure!

Jeeni Criscenzo wrote:

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November 18, 2004 The Second Mouse by Jeeni Criscenzo Thursday, 11/18/04: I was driving across the country in a post-election vision quest, looking for direction. Then, on I-8 in Arizona, cruising along at 75 miles per hour, I heard the voice of my muse came out of my satellite radio. It sounded a lot like Jim Hightower. He was quoting Willie Nelson. OK - so inspiration comes to me in a very round-about way. But here's what the voice said: "The early bird may get the worm. But the second mouse gets the cheese." I nearly drove off the road as those words penetrated my white-line trance. Think of it, we progressives are staring opportunity in the face and crying because we don't recognize it! This is our big chance! The first mouse got caught in the trap. But the cheese is still there, and it's ours for the taking! We don't have anything holding us back anymore. The trap's been sprunk and we're still here! Back in the summer, I recall many passionate discussions about how to vote in the presidential election. Those of us who had put our hearts into the campaigns of Dennis Kucinich and Howard Dean were told that if we didn't work to support the candidate delivered to us by the Democratic Party, we would be personally responsible for all the horrors of a second Bush term. A vote for Nader or some other independent candidate would be criminal. Like most, I fell in line, even though there were many things about John Kerry that I didn't like. The truth is, when you put him up against Bush, you knew he had to be an improvement because at least he wasn't so damn stupid. He actually had a spine, once, when he protested the Vietnam War, and I was hoping that spine would miraculously return to him after he was elected. It's sort of like how I hoped my first husband would treat me a lot better after we got married. John Kerry was light years away from the things that had inspired me with Dennis Kucinich. He'd voted to give Bush the power to go to war in Iraq. He'd voted for the Patriot Act. He wasn't talking about universal health care. He wasn't going to get us out of NAFTA. When George Bush accused Kerry of being as far to the left as he could go, I almost choked. Kerry wasn't even one degree left of center. Still, there was that threat of a second Bush term looming over our heads, so we ignored the Skull and Bones bond Kerry shared with the little dictator and worked our butts off to get him elected. And in the interest of capturing those middle-of-the-road undecided voters, we relinquished our dreams for bringing our troops home, and fair trade, and health care for all. At least Kerry had a good record on the environment - right? So the worst possible thing happened and we're looking at a dark future painted with Bush brush strokes. And we can at least say that we did everything we could to prevent this dismal outcome. Some people are even now working to prove the election was rigged. Of course it was rigged! But the rigging didn't start on Novemeber 2, 2004. It started with the primaries, when Howard Dean was the surprise favorite and the DNC had to scramble to squash him so their favorite son could step in and pretend to be a viable candidate, so we could all believe we were having a real election. Remember that brouhaha over Dean shouting "Aragggghhhhhhh!"? That was a reason to disqualify him as a candidate? Ouch! I sound like a conspiracy nut. Do you think I enjoy realizing that I was duped into working to get a guy elected who had no intention of being president? But wait, didn't John Edwards tell us minutes before John Kerry conceded that every vote would be counted? Was that the most classic case of mixed messages the American people ever swallowed? Some people bought into this charade so completely that they are continuing to race full speed ahead, fighting for a candidate who hasn't shown the least bit of interest in the will of the people since he so graciously stepped down the day after the election - even with blatant voting scams going on all around. Wake up! Who are you fighting for? Why are organizations, like Blackboxvoting.org, looking for donations to fund auditing while the Kerry campaign conviently forgets about the millions it had stashed away to fund legal battles over election fraud? I have a better idea on how to expend our energy. Let's go back to our original plan and get that damn cheese that's just sitting there for us to take. There's no more reason for us to hold back on what we really want. We want our troops home, NOW! We want universal health care. We want rights for the working class. We want God out of our government and back in our hearts. We want equal rights for everyone, no matter their gender, skin shade or sexual orientation. Go ahead, call me a flaming liberal! So what! While you fundamentalist nut-jobs are taking our country to hell, me and my buddies are going to be making plans for getting that cheese. When the economy collapses, and the people of this country wake up and realize they have no jobs, and their kids are being slaughtered in a war that will never ever end unless we just quit like we did in Vietnam, we're going to be ready to step up to the plate. We're going to have all the pieces in place to build something better. This isn't going to be another Russia where nobody was ready with an alternate plan when the empire collapsed. This is going to be something so much better, because we'll be ready. Oh yes, we are the second mouse! ©2004 Jeeni Criscenzo Send all comments and suggestions to Jeeni@cpr4democracy.com CPR4Democracy is only sent to email addresses provided by subscribers when they request and pay for a subscription. If for any reason you no longer wish to receive this daily news report, please send an email to jeeni@cpr4democracy.com and I will immediately remove you from the list.