Ukrainian elections

[Miulang]

Does anyone else see the huuuuge irony in the big election pilikia in Kiev, where the government has now invalidated the election results so the Kremlin-backed "winner" now has to probably endure another election runoff, and our own national elections? If you're following what's going on in the Ukraine, apparently we (the US) have had a hand in rousing the pro-Yuschenko faction (mostly the young, educated people).

And then we have the Afghanistan elections where our boy, Hamid Kharzai, won and pretty soon (maybe), we'll be having rigged elections in Iraq, too.

Why are we so busy trying to alter international policies in a subversive way? And why is the Prez refusing to speak before the British Parliament and will instead deliver a speech in Nova Scotia? Could it be that he's afraid of being booed out of Parliament by the Brits?

Miulang

[Miulang]

Re: Ukrainian elections

Everyone who's feeling down in the dumps about our last Presidential election can take heart at the events in the Ukraine. In a formerly Communist state, we have true Democracy at work...despite the best efforts of the government. Now, why can't something like this happen here?

http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/120104D.shtml

Miulang

[Miulang]

Re: Ukrainian elections

Amazing that the political events in a former Soviet state can mirror what happened in the US Presidential elections...except it appears that the Ukraine Parliament declared the Nov. 21 runoff void because of voter fraud and now it appears that there will be another election held, and all we did was roll over and play dead by declaring Bush the winner despite voting irregularities.

The way the Putin-backed faction is getting back at Yerschenko and his supporters is to suggest that both candidates in the last election step aside and allow a whole new slate of candidates run for office. Ha! what a crock.
If they have a revote of just the 2 current candidates, odds are if the election is closely monitored that the peoples' candidate--Yerschenko--will win quite handily, and that is what Moscow fears most.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...MPLATE=DEFAULT

Miulang

[Albert]

Re: Ukrainian elections

I think it's wonderful that the people there can care so much.

Would that we Americans had cared so much in 2000.

[Miulang]

Re: Ukrainian elections

Someone in the US press has finally reported on the ironies between the Ukrainian elections and our own Presidential election! According to the attached article, there have been more than 30,000 complaints of voting irregularities reported in this country over the last month, and none of the major news feeds has even bothered to report on it! Maybe that's why the US rabble is so silent, as opposed to the Ukrainian population. Is someone out there who gives a **** listening, and what are we going to do about our own election irregularities???

Miulang

http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/120204Y.shtml

BTW: It was also reported earlier this afternoon that one of the heads of the New England Republican Party has been indicted for hatching a DOS attack against a bunch of Democratic phone lines during the 2002 elections. Can you say "Watergate II"?

[Miulang]

Re: Ukrainian elections

Here's another interesting tangent on this whole crooked voting thing: In the State of Washington, we just had our first recount of ballots in the governor's race.

The Secretary of State (a Republican, BTW) officially named the Republican candidate the winner by 42 votes. The Democratic party has until Friday to ask for another recount (a manual one---the first recount was using machines, and the original tally was both manual and machine). It's going to cost a minimum of $750,000 for the Dems to have the entire state's votes retallied. They can also ask for individual counties to be tallied (which would cost less money). If the Democrats only have enough money for selected counties to be hand tallied and the outcome of the election is reversed (as in the Democratic candidate wins this time), then we, the taxpayers have to pay to have the entirestate's ballots manually recounted! We may not have a Governor until sometime next year! If the Democratic candidate wins in the recounted recount, does the Republican still win because he already won 2 certified elections? Or is it best of 5 recounts? This is verging on the absurd.

To make things even more absurd, the outgoing Governor (a Democrat) told the media today that if the Democrats couldn't come up with the money for the recount-recount, he would chip in some of his own money for the cause!

Ain't politics grand? This gubenatorial election in Washington State is going to go down in the US History books as the closest election ever.

Miulang

[Linkmeister]

Re: Ukrainian elections

BTW: It was also reported earlier this afternoon that one of the heads of the New England Republican Party has been indicted for hatching a DOS attack against a bunch of Democratic phone lines during the 2002 elections. Can you say "Watergate II"?

Josh Marshall has been on it for quite a while. The linked post is a recap with links to the originals.

[Kalihiboy]

Re: Ukrainian elections

They wont talk about US election fraud unless its Keith Olbermann at MSNBC, he is basicially the only person who mentions it because there has been a media lockdown on this story everywhere else in the mainstream media. I find the 2004 election more strange and disturbing than the 2000 election. Why? Because in past elections there was a election buzz that lasted for several weeks, people still discussing Reagan's blowout victories over Carter and Mondale on the news, but not this election, there was a concession speech made by Kerry the next morning and you never saw the guy's face again on television, a ridiculous mandate was soon called by the Bush Administration despite them winning the election yet again by virtue of one state (Ohio), that still to this day hasnt certified its vote and most likely will be having a recount of their statewide vote next week. Then for all of Bush's bravado and the Dem's being mysterious silent...so did the Bushes they even stopped talking about the election and their phony mandate, realizing that shuffling their cabinet was the Presidential thing to do before the re-Inauguration.

Yet none of this election fraud stuff is reported, so much for the "liberal media".

Kalihiboy

[Miulang]

Re: Ukrainian elections

Why can't the US resist the temptation to meddle in the political affairs of other countries? According to the AP article below, we've sent $65 million to the Ukrainian political parties to "help promote the cause of democracy". Did it ever occur to the Bush Administration that maybe, just maybe, the Ukrainians can fend for themselves? Is it just because Putin and his regime also sent money to the other candidate that we had to try to "balance things out"? What makes our foreign policy makers think that the people of the Ukraine really want our kind of democracy? We spend a total of $1 billion every year to try to spread democracy around the world. How much are we spending on the "No Child Left Behind" Act in this country?

This is really really sounding like another Cuba to me. We got rid of the duly elected President Bautista and installed Fidel Castro, thinking he would be our puppet. Instead, Castro turned around and turned Cuba into the only Socialist country in the Western Hemisphere. We also helped fund Che Guevara's terrorist activities in Latin America. The people of Cuba, while under a dictatorial rule and living in "substandard" conditions (according to our standards), have healthy kids who are all in school. Everybody has a job. The only reason why people are trying to escape from Cuba now is not because of political oppression, it's because they see what Americans have and want some piece of it too.

We meddled in Chile, where the popular Marxist government of Salvador Allende was toppled with help from the CIA and where Augosto Pinochet, a true murderous despot, was put into power (with our help)...

Throughout history, the United States has had a foreign policy that says only America and democracy can set the world free. And yet, our "help" is why many of the oppressive governments of the world are in existence today.

Sad, sad, sad.

Miulang

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniont...1n11usaid.html

[Miulang]

Re: Ukrainian elections

Reports from doctors who are treating Viktor Yuschenko for his "mysterious illness" today say that he was poisoned by dioxin, one of the chemicals found in Agent Orange. The question now is: who did it and why? There is speculation that the former KGB may have had something to do with it.

All Yuschenko will say right now is that he's glad to be alive; small wonder, since he was found to have something like 1000% times the normal amount of the stuff in his body. The disfigurement and debilitation he suffered because of the chemical is astounding, and yet he says he will continue campaigning through the Dec. 26 elections. More than likely, unless another assassination attempt is waged, he will win the election. But for the West, what form of government will he and his administration choose for their country?

Note to Viktor: either hire a food taster (like the Roman Emperors used to have) or stay away from cream soups (dioxin apparently can be disguised very well when mixed with cream because the chemical is fat soluble). This whole episode sounds like something that would happen in the 1950s, not 2004.

Miulang

[Miulang]

Re: Ukrainian elections

Help Wanted: One certified food tester who is able to identify the taste of poison in food (with a subspecialty of organic poisons). Apply in person, to Government of Ukraine. No former KGB agents need apply.

Looks like Viktor Yuschenko and his Orange party will be leading the government of the Ukraine now that the 3rd round of balloting is over. Time will tell if all the money and influence the West (the US and the EU countries) have dedicated to assure "free" elections will pay off.

Miulang