MATHEMATICIAN RICHARD CHARNIN TAKES A FINAL LOOK AT THE RESULTS OF THE WISCONSIN RECALL ELECTION, THE FORCING OF THE EXIT POLLS TO MATCH THE "OFFICIAL" VOTE COUNT, THE FAILURE OF THE MEDIA TO REVEAL THE ACTUAL EXIT POLL RESULTS, AND PREDICTION OF THE WINNER BY HIS TRUE VOTE MODEL. HE ALSO REVEALS THE "STATISTICALLY IMPOSSIBLE" RESULTS (84% OF THEM FAVORING REPUBLICANS) OF THE "OFFICIAL" OUTCOMES OF PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS FROM 1988 TO 2008 WHEN COMPARED WITH THE *UN*ADJUSTED STATE EXIT POLLS.

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Original here

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Wisconsin Recall: The adjusted Final Exit Poll was forced to match an unlikely recorded vote

Wisconsin Recall: The adjusted Final Exit Poll was forced to match an unlikely recorded vote

Richard Charnin

June 6, 2012
Updated: June 20

The media and the exit pollsters have done it again.

Before the first votes were posted, the media reported that based on the exit polls, the election was “too close to call”. But Walker won by 53.2-46.3%, a 173,000 vote margin. Assuming “too close to call” meant that the exit poll indicated a 50/50 split, then there was a significant 7% discrepancy between the unadjusted exit poll and the recorded vote. I believe that Barrett was actually leading the exit polls. Of course, we will never know until the unadjusted exit polls are released. In any case, what caused the unknown red shift?

According to the Wisconsin True Vote Model , Barrett was a likely 54-46% winner. Barrett should have won easily – assuming the caveat of a fair election. But the election was very likely stolen.

Forcing the exit poll to match the recorded vote

The Final Wisconsin adjusted exit poll (2547 respondents) indicated that Walker had 53.0% (see the NY Times link below). The 0.2% difference between the Final and the recorded vote was the result of the standard policy of forcing the unadjusted poll to match the vote.

The pollsters claim that the exit poll had a 4.0% margin of error. But they can’t mean the final, adjusted poll because it is always forced to match the recorded vote within 0.5%.

Why did the media not provide the actual unadjusted exit poll demographics? Was it because they knew that they would have to adjust all the crosstabs to match a rigged recorded vote – and did not want the public to view the “adjustments”?

The Fraud Factor

And as is always the case, there was no mention of the fraud factor in the mainstream media. There never is. To the exit pollsters and the media, there is no such thing as election fraud.

The GOP employs overt voter disenfranchisement in plain sight by robocalling voters with false information and having election workers discourage voters from using paper ballots and vote on unverifiable touchscreen DREs. But we are supposed to believe that right-wing voting machine manufacturers would not stoop so low as to write malicious code to covertly flip votes in cyberspace.

In 2010, Walker “won” by 52.2-46.6%, supposedly due to low-Democratic turnout.
Was the election a prologue of the recall?

In the recall, Democrats turned out in droves, they wanted Walker gone. There was no way that the unpopular Governor would match, much less exceed, his 2010 vote – if the votes were counted as cast. But that is a quaint notion considering the overwhelming statistical evidence of systemic election fraud since 1988.

Implausible 2008 returning voters and 2012 vote shares

Obama had a 56.2% recorded share in Wisconsin and 63.3% in the unadjusted exit poll (2.4% margin of error). Assuming Obama had a 60% True Vote share, then to match the recall vote, Walker needed the following:
1) 81% of McCain and 71% of Obama voters turned out.
2) He needed to win 25% of Obama and 95% of McCain voters.
3) He needed 46% of new voters who did not vote in 2010. The 2012 exit poll indicates he had 45% and that new voters comprised 13% of the total vote.

In order to win by his recorded vote, Walker needed a 10% advantage in returning 2008 voters and a 20% advantage in net defections. That is highly implausible.

Exit poll oddities

1) A full 5% of voters were not white or black. But their vote is n/a.
2) Philosophy: 13% of liberals voted for Walker?
3) Party ID: 34% Democrat/ 35% Republican in a progressive state?
4) Labor: Just 62% voted for Barrett?
5) Obama preferred by 51-44%, yet Barrett lost the recall by 53.2-46.3%?
6) Barrett only got 81% of would-be Obama voters?
7)Turnout:47% of recall were returning Walker 2010 and 34% Barrett? That’s a 13% difference. In 2010 Walker “won” by 52.2-46.6%.
8) Urban vote: Barrett had just 62% in big cities?

The Ultimate Smoking Gun:300 state presidential exit polls (1988-2008)

In the 1988-2008 presidential elections, there were 300 state exit polls, of which 252 red-shifted from the poll to the vote in favor of the Republican and 48 to the Democrat. Assuming zero fraud, approximately 150 would be expected for each. The probability P that 252 would red-shift to the Republican is:
P = 1.3E-34 = Binomdist(62,75,.5,false)^4
P = 1 in 8 billion trillion trillion

The margin of error (MoE) was exceeded in 137 of 300 state exit polls (only 15 would be expected at the 95% confidence level). The probability P is:
P = 7E-80 = Poisson (137, .05*300, false)
P = 1 in 1 million trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion

Of the 137 exit polls in which the MoE was exceeded, 134 moved in favor of the Republicans (only 8 would be expected). Three favored the Democrat. The probability P that 134 out of 300 would favor the Republican is:
P= 5E-115 = Poisson (134, .025*300, false)
P= 1 in 2 million trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion trillion

In the Wisconsin recall Exit Poll notes (following the crosstabs), the pollsters indicate there were 2547 exit poll respondents and that the margin of error (MoE) was +/-4%. Presumably, this includes a 30% cluster factor. But the MoE seems too high, considering the number of respondents.

The theoretical MoE is given by the simple formula: MoE =.98/sqrt(n), where n is the number of respondents. For the recall: MoE = 2.0% = .98/sqrt(2547). It is 2.6% after adding the 30% cluster effect.

The National Exit Poll is always forced to match the recorded vote to within 0.50%. Yet the pollsters claim that the MoE is 4.0%. Why do the pollsters even bother to mention the MoE? It has no meaning since the exit poll is always adjusted to match the recorded vote anyway.

If we had unadjusted exit poll data, the margin of error would be applied to determine the interval where the vote share would fall 95% of the time. This is why unadjusted exit polls are necessary. The standard practice of forcing the exit poll to match the recorded vote implicitly assumes zero fraud, i.e. the recorded vote is identical to the True Vote. It never is.

The conventional wisdom is very conventional – and very misleading:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/05/wisconsin-recall-vote_n_1572662.html

The NY Times Election site has the FINAL, adjusted exit poll crosstabs.
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/06/05/us/politics/wisconsin-recall-exit-polls.html

About Richard Charnin
In 1965, I graduated from Queens College (NY) with a BA in Mathematics. I later obtained an MS in Applied Mathematics from Adelphi University and an MS in Operations Research from the Polytechnic Institute of NY. I started out as a numerical control engineer/programmer for a major defense/aerospace manufacturer and then moved to Wall Street as a manager/developer of corporate finance quantitative applications for several major investment banks. I consulted in quantitative applications development for major domestic and foreign financial institutions, investment firms and industrial corporations. In 2004 l began posting weekly "Election Model" projections based on state and national polls. As "TruthIsAll", I have been posting election analysis to determine the True Vote ever since.
View all posts by Richard Charnin

WISCONSIN'S RECALLED GOVERNOR SCOTT WALKER ATTRIBUTED HIS VICTORY TO VOTERS PREFERING "LEADERS WHO STAND UP AND MAKE TOUGH DECISIONS." (LIKE CUTTING THEIR SALARIES AND BENEFITS AND FIRING THEIR CHILDREN'S TEACHERS?) EVEN MORE IRONIC, WALKER'S OPPONENT BARRETT CONCEDED WITH THE COMMENT "WE HAVE SEEN THIS DEMOCRACY COME ALIVE." (LIKE DEMOCRACY IS YOUR RIGHT TO GO TO THE POLLS THINKING YOU ARE "THROWING THE BUM OUT" AND THEN ACCEPTING THAT YOUR VOTE MAY HAVE BEEN MISCOUNTED?) THERE IS VOLUMINOUS EVIDENCE THAT U.S. ELECTIONS ARE ROUTINELY RIGGED ...THAT IS IF YOU HAVE OTHER SOURCES OF NEWS THAN THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA. YET THIS TIME EVEN LIBERAL NEWS SOURCES LIKE DEMOCRACY NOW ATTRIBUTE WALKER'S UNEXPECTED WIN TO HIS SPENDING 7 TIMES AS MUCH MONEY AS HIS OPPONENT. NOW LET ME GET THIS STRAIGHT... IF I'M RECALLING A GOVERNOR BECAUSE HE IS SAVAGING MY STANDARD OF LIVING, AM I GOING TO BE SO DAZZLED BY HIS EXPENSIVE ATTACK ADS THAT I DECIDE TO KEEP HIM? TO ME WE HAVE JUST SEEN OUR DEMOCRACY *DIE*. DON'T THINK SO? READ BELOW AND WEEP.

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← Conspiracy Theories and Mathematical Probabilities                                    Go here for original

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Wisconsin Recall: The adjusted Final Exit Poll was forced to match an unlikely recorded vote

Richard Charnin |

June 6, 2012

The media and the exit pollsters have done it again.

Before the first votes were posted, the media reported that based on the exit polls, the election was “too close to call”. But Walker won by a solid 7% margin and 173,000 votes. Why the big red shift?

Why did the media not provide the actual unadjusted exit poll data (the “crosstabs”)? Was it because they knew that they would have to adjust the poll to match a bogus recorded vote and did not want the public to view the impossible “adjustments”?

The solid 53.2-46.3% Walker win was more than implausible since voter turnout exceeded that of the 2010 election. Walker “won” the recorded vote 52.2-46.6% in a supposed low-turnout election. But who turned out in droves in 2012? Democrats and independents who wanted Walker out. The grossly unpopular Walker could not have done better than he did in 2010 – only worse.

And as is always the case, there was no mention of the fraud factor in the mainstream media. There never is. To the exit pollsters and the media, there is no such thing as election fraud.

The GOP employs overt voter disenfranchisement in plain sight by robocalls, election workers discouraging voters from using paper ballots, etc. But we are supposed to believe that they would not covertly program the voting machines to flip votes from Barrett to Walker in cyberspace? And even if the machines are manufactured and programmed by right-wing organizations using unverifiable code.

The conventional wisdom is very conventional – and very misleading:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/05/wisconsin-recall-vote_n_1572662.html

The NY Times Election site has the FINAL, adjusted exit poll crosstabs:

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2012/06/05/us/politics/wisconsin-recall-exit-polls.html

Here are just a few exit poll oddities:

1) A full 5% of voters were not white or black. But their vote is n/a.

2) Philosophy: 13% of liberals voted for Walker?

3) Party ID: 34% Democrat/ 35% Republican in a progressive state?

4) Labor: Just 62% voted for Barrett?

5) Obama preferred by 51-44%, yet Barrett lost the recall by 53.2-46.3%?

6) Barrett only got 81% of would-be Obama voters?

7) 47% voted for Walker in 2010 and just 34% for Barrett?

Walker only “won” by 52.2-46.6% in 2010.

8) Urban vote: Barrett gets just 62% in the big cities?

If we assume an equal 75% Obama and McCain voter turnout in the recall, a 50/50 split in new and returning third party voters, then in order to match the recorded vote, Walker needed 28% of returning Obama voters while Barrett had just 5% of returning McCain voters. That is a very implausible net 23% defection of Obama voters.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AjAk1JUWDMyRdDRwcWRPTUZoZk53YUlxOEVMT0FnX3c#gid=32

The True Vote Model indicates that Barrett should have won easily – assuming the caveat of a fair election. But the election was stolen. Its still the same old story – a case of do or die.

http://richardcharnin.wordpress.com/2012/05/24/2750/

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About Richard Charnin

In 1965, I graduated from Queens College (NY) with a BA in Mathematics. I later obtained an MS in Applied Mathematics from Adelphi University and an MS in Operations Research from the Polytechnic Institute of NY. I started out as a numerical control engineer/programmer for a major defense/aerospace manufacturer and then moved to Wall Street as a manager/developer of corporate finance quantitative applications for several major investment banks. I consulted in quantitative applications development for major domestic and foreign financial institutions, investment firms and industrial corporations. In 2004 l began posting weekly "Election Model" projections based on state and national polls. As "TruthIsAll", I have been posting election analysis to determine the True Vote ever since.

View all posts by Richard Charnin »

ELECTRONIC ELECTION RIGGING IN THE U.S.A. COMMITTED BY AND FOR THE 1%: A TIMELY HISTORY WITH LINKS TO THE MULTITUDINOUS EVIDENCE

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IN HONOR OF THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE WISCONSIN UPRISING, February 11, 2011, WISCONSIN: THE NEW FLORIDA AND OHIO?

Written by Sheila Parks         World News           Feb 17, 2012                         Original here          .

IN HONOR OF THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE WISCONSIN UPRISING

February 11, 2011

WISCONSIN:  THE NEW FLORIDA AND OHIO?

 

 Sheila Parks, Ed.D.

In the 2000 presidential election, Florida needed Katherine Harris (then Florida Secretary of State), Jeb Bush, the Supreme Court Justices – and the connections between them – to put George W. Bush in the White House.  See John Nichols, Jews For Buchanan

The optical scan machines in Volusia County, product of Diebold Corporation, were also key in this election.  Alastair Thompson wrote a detailed analysis of the election fraud that went on in Volusia Country on optical scans.  His account relies heavily on the original work of Bev Harris in Chapter 13, Security Breaches, in her book BLACK BOX VOTING: Ballot-tampering in the 21^st century.  Read the entire book online.   The Emmy nominated documentary Hacking Democracy (The film will come on after the 2 ads or the 2 messages saying that ads could not be loaded.) shows Finnish computer expert Harri Hursti hacking the same kind of machines as those used in Volusia County.  Harris, who arranged the hacks, stars in the film, as does Kathleen Wynne, one of the first people in the country to call for publicly observed secure hand-counted paper ballots (HCPB) elections.

The Election Assistance Commission (EAC) put out a warning in December 2011 about ES&S DS200 IntElect optical scan electronic voting machines errors during voting.  These machines were used in Florida, Ohio, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and New York.  Read more details here and here.  Nevertheless, the machines will not be decertified.  Said Brian Hancock of the EAC:  “Our goal is not to decertify systems. We never want to be in a situation of putting counties in a position where they cannot run an election.”

***

In the 2004 presidential election, George W. Bush needed Kenneth Blackwell (then Ohio Secretary of State and also honorary co-chair of the Committee to Re-elect George W. Bush) to stay in the White House. John Conyers (Democratic Representative from Michigan) in Preserving Democracy: What Went Wrong in Ohio, had scathing comments about Blackwell’s role, stating that many of the problems in Ohio involved “intentional misconduct and illegal behavior,” with Blackwell playing a major role. Read the Conyers Report here.  What Went Wrong In Ohio can be purchased at Academy Chicago Publishers. Wally O’Dell, president, chair and CEO of Diebold Corporation at the time and also huge fund-raiser for the re-election of Bush, said he would help deliver Ohio’s votes to Bush.  Although no Diebold touchscreens were used in Ohio in the 2004 general election, other corporations’ touchscreens were:  the paperless ES&S iVotronic and Infinity DRE from MicroVote, also paperless.  Huge thanks to the generosity and knowledge of Wisconsinite John Washburn, historian and computer expert, for his help about DRE’s in Ohio in 2004.

***

Here is a Who’s Who guide of public figures and organizations to watch among ultra right-wing conservatives, who are (trying) to manipulate the electoral process in both state and federal government in Wisconsin and elsewhere.  The question remains:

• Are any of these players the new Harris and/or Blackwell?

Jocelyn Webster is a protégé of Karl Rove and is the new Director of Communications at Wisconsin Department of Administration (DOA).  Take a look at her appointment letter and resume and more about her shenanigans here and here.  Some questions remain:

• How and why did she get this job?
• Did Rove or the Koch Brothers or one of their emissaries tell, oops, ask Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, now on recall with over one million signatures gathered, to appoint her?

Karl Rove is known as The Architect of George W. Bush’s presidential campaigns in 2000 and 2004.  Bush’s nicknames for Rove are Boy Genius and Turd Blossom – a flower that grows out of dung.  The question remains:

• Besides Jocelyn Webster, what tentacles of Rove are in Wisconsin now?

The Koch Brothers, ultra right-wing businessmen, starring especially in oil, recently convened a “super secret meeting” of billionaires to discuss the 2012 elections.  In the 2010 gubernatorial elections, the brothers gave $43,000 (p.18) to ultra right Republican Scott Walker and $87,000 (p. 18) to Democrat Andrew Cuomo (now governor of New York). See the Koch Brothers’  top policy issues in which they outline strategies for repealing health reform, denying climate change, fighting Wall Street reform, dismantling collective bargaining rights, fighting reductions in carbon emissions, keeping corporate money in elections, fighting Internet neutrality (p.2).  The questions remain: 

• What kind of relationship do Mayor Bloomberg of New York City (who ordered police to evict Occupy Wall [OWS] Street from Zuccotti Park) and Andrew Cuomo have?
• Does Bloomberg also have a relationship with the Koch Brothers?

Scott Walker must be watched also, to put it mildly. Many of his top aides have been charged in a John Doe investigation and one of them, Darlene Wink, is going to spill the beans. How many remains to be seen.  Here is the criminal complaint against Wink.  The timing of a Walker email in the “secret email system” might be suspicious, and he himself is “willingly”, he says, talking with the investigators.  Attorney Mike Pampatonio, host of Ring of Fire radio show, thinks it is extremely risky for him [Walker] to go in there and act like he is going to hustle them  …”  Oh, now Walker says he “voluntarily” agreed to talk with the investigation when asked to do so.  Ernest Canning on bradblog has written a detailed account of all the goings on.  Mary Bottari of the Center for Media and Democracy’s PR Watch writes about Walker and his relationships with realtors. The questions remain:

• What is Walker’s relationship with the Koch Brothers?
• Who is Walker taking orders from?

The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), founded by the Koch Brothers, advocates for limited government, free markets and federalism. On its Task and Policy task force web page, ALEC says, “A recent survey of members indicated that tax policy was their top concern. In the most recent legislative session, over 500 bills to lower the tax burden and curb excessive government spending were introduced by ALEC members.”  ALEC writes boiler plate legislation that states adopt.  The questions remain:

• Has Wisconsin adopted, under Scott Walker, any of ALEC’s boiler plate legislation?
• And if so, which ones?

Kathy Nickolaus is the Waukesha county clerk who was investigated for her activities around the Supreme Court election and recount in Wisconsin, but she was not prosecuted.  See BRADBLOG and Wisconsin Government Accountability Board GAB.  The questions remain:

• What role will Nickolaus play in the Scott Walker recall?
• What role will Nickolaus play in the 2012 General Election?

During 2011, Minnesota-based Command Central first offered to sell EDGE reconditioned touchscreens (with VVPAT, voter-verified paper audit trail) and INSIGHT optical scan machines to municipalities in Wisconsin. No payment was due until January, 2012. Then, when perhaps Command Central did not have enough takers, the company offered to trade two touchscreens for free in exchange for having the municipality returning to Command Central one optical scan machine that they already owned.

Here is a Customer Database from Command Central that lists their electronic voting machines transactions in Wisconsin in 2011.  I obtained this database through a request to Ross Hein and Kevin Kennedy of the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board (GAB).  Hein, Campaign Finance and Elections Supervisor at the GAB, sent me the chart.  In a phone conversation with him on February 16, 2012, Hein told me that the GAB had requested this information from Command Central. I learned a lot from Hein: The information Command Central sent appears to be incomplete.  Very worthy of note and not necessarily obvious in the chart, Hein said that Command Central sold to other municipalities the same INSIGHT optical scan machines that were returned to them by some municipalities in exchange for two free EDGE touchscreens.  These machines would be about five to seven years old. The Won Eagle machines are from the nineties.  “HMA” after “Won Eagle” stands for hardware maintenance agreement. Imagine the money Command Central will be making from maintaining these old machines. According to John Washburn, electronic voting machines companies make most of their money in maintaining the machines, not in selling them.

Optical scan machines are bad enough.  These machines lull people into thinking that because there is a paper trail, the paper ballots can always be counted by hand if something is suspect about the machine count of the election. But with many touchscreens, there is no paper trail at all, and therefore no way ever to count the votes again.  And often the paper trail that the touchscreens have is worthless and small and fades.

Wisconsin law statutes require a voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT)    Â§5.91 (18), “If the device consists of an electronic voting machine, it generates a complete, permanent paper record showing all votes cast by each elector, that is verifiable by the elector, by either visual or nonvisual means as appropriate, before the elector leaves the voting area, and that enables a manual count or recount of each vote cast by the elector.”  Some questions remain:

• Why and when did Command Central approach Wisconsin?
• Did Command Central also approach other states?
• If so, what other states and when?
• Were the offers the same as those given to Wisconsin municipalities?
• How did they decide which municipalities in Wisconsin to approach?
• When and why did they change from offering touchscreens to sell to offering a free exchange?
• What are the municipalities who paid saying about their neighbors who paid nothing?

More questions:

• Are there connections between the burning issue of a huge open-pit iron mine on the shores of Lake Superior and the electronic voting machines offers of Command Central?  As the Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa Indians and other Wisconsin activists protest the proposed mine, police take Sam Morris of  the Bad River Band out of the Capitol for drumming.  Here is a press release by the Bad River Band about the International Ecological Treasure that would be destroyed by the proposed mine.
• Are there connections between the municipalities that accepted for free or bought Command Central offer and the iron mines?
• Is there no connection to the iron mines issue of those municipalities that refused the offer?
• Why did some of the municipalities refuse the deal?

More questions, these from attorney Jim Mueller of Wisconsin Citizens for Election Protection, a Facebook group you can join.

• What are the specific municipalities Command Central contracts with?
• Who are the principals of Command Central and what are their political, financial and criminal backgrounds?
• Who are the programmers and what are their political, financial and criminal backgrounds?
• Where did Command Centrall get the machines?  From some state banning them out?
• How can Command Central give two machines in exchange for one twenty-year-old machine?
• What is their fee structure for programming, supplying and maintaining the machines?
• What operating instructions do they give to election officials?
• Who owns the owner of Command Central?

Bottom line, who is Command Central?  In private Facebook communications and on the telephone in February 2012, in response to questions I had asked him, John Washburn told me that Command Central has been in Wisconsin for 20 years and is the exclusive distributor for Dominion Voting Systems in Wisconsin, Minnesota, the Dakotas, and Michigan.  The question remains:

• Is there a connection between the offers of Command Central and the desire to rig the upcoming Scott Walker recall and also the 2012 General Election?

***

Electronic voting machines and the rigged elections coming from them are pushing this country not only to the right, but to the ultra right. I do not believe the people of the USA, the 99%, are ultra right.  Since the passage of the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) – a well thought out and planned strategy to steal our elections – most jurisdictions/municipalities across the country use electronic voting machines for voting.    Verified Voting periodically publishes a fantastically helpful listing of all election equipment used in jurisdictions in the USA; see Election Equipment 2010.

Whether Direct Recording Electronic (DRE)/touchscreens or optical scans, all electronic voting machines can be, and have been, hacked. Many states are still using touchscreen that do not even have a paper trail. Paper ballots, as used with optical scan electronic voting machines, of themselves are not enough.  Paper ballots are not very valuable unless they are hand-counted in publicly observed secure elections.  How many recounts have their been?  And how many changed the result of the election?

There have been only two notable hand-recounts.  The first was the hand-recount in Washington state in 2004, which overturned the machine election results and gave Christine Gregoire the governor’s seat.  The second was the hand-recount in Minnesota in 2008, when the electronic voting machines count was overturned and Al Franken won the Senate seat in the hand-recount.  Several years ago, in a telephone conversation with voting rights activist Paul Lehto,he stated that in both cases the recounts were for Democratic candidates and both states had a sympathetic Democratic governor who supported the recount.

The words “paper ballots” obfuscate the issue to the uninitiated. The solution to the fraud and error associated with all the electronic voting machines, is elections counted and decided by publicly observed, secure hand-counted paper ballots (HCPB).  With that kind of HCPB elections, we have the fairest and most transparent opportunity to know that our votes are counted as cast.  See Center for Hand-Counted Paper Ballots for extensive readings about hacking and the solution.

The Scott Walker recall election must not be rigged.

The Senate race between Scott Brown and Elizabeth Warren in Massachusetts must not be rigged.

The 2012 General Election must not be rigged.

The bandwagon: Please, get on it with us to struggle for elections decided by publicly observed, secure hand-counted paper ballots (HCPB).  If you “like” this Facebook page, Center for Hand-Counted Paper Ballots, you will be able to keep current with information on this endeavor and actions to take.  You can also suggest to all of us what you think we can do about this dire situation.  We cannot let the 1%, owners of the privatized electronic voting machine industry, continue to rig elections that belong to us, the 99%.

Non-violent resistance:  The hard-won victories of the Civil Rights, Women’s Suffrage and GLBTQ movements came about not only when people lobbied Congress (local or federal), wrote letters to the editor, held rallies and marches, signed petitions, and donated money.  It took much more than that. Non-violent resistance was an integral and vital part of these movements.

We must pay close attention to the Occupies and what they are doing.  Do mic checks everywhere.  Do everything else you can think of to bring attention to the rigging of our elections and to help change the hearts, minds and souls of people everywhere.

Watch:  Cameras:  Fantastic You Tube instructions for taking pictures of the revolution, via extraordinary videographer, Nicole Desautels Schulte, on the ground in Wisconsin.

THANK YOU: Tunisia, Egypt, Wisconsin, Occupies, Deborah Sirotkin Butler, Lucius Chiaraviglio, Michael Collins, Bob Fleischer, Mindy Fried, Brad Friedman, Janet Jesberg, Mary Magnuson, Nina Moliver, Marianne Moonhouse, Jim Mueller, Marguerite Rosenthal, Nicole Desautels Schulte, Joseph Skulan, John Washburn

I am completely responsible for the text and any errors in it.  This article may be reproduced in whole or part, with attribution of authorship given and link to this article.

Sheila Parks, Ed.D., is active in Occupy Boston and the Founder of the Center for Hand-Counted Paper Ballots, http://www.handcountedpaperballots.org. An ardent feminist, long time peace and justice activist and internationalist, she defended the abortion clinics with her body for a long time.  Sheila spent a year in prison for the 13^th non-violent Plowshares resistance against first strike nuclear weapons.

February 17, 2012.

HOW THE "MAINSTREAM" MEDIA MAKES LIBERALS LOOK UNHINGED ...AND PATENTLY DUMB RIGHT-WINGNUTS LOOK POPULAR

Thom Hartmann: I'll bet you didn't see this Palin on "Face the Nation" 

TheBigPictureRT

Scott Walker Admits Union-Busting Provision ‘Doesn’t Save Any’ Money For The State Of Wisconsin

By Zaid Jilani on Apr 14th, 2011 at 2:45 pm


Today, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform called Govs. Scott Walker (R-WI) and Peter Shumlin (D-VT) to testify in a hearing titled “State and Municipal Debt: Tough Choices Ahead.” Much of the hearing was spent probing Wisconsin’s spate of anti-union restrictions it recently passed.

At one point, Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) confronted Walker about his crackdown on public employee unions. The congressman referenced a provision Walker signed into law that would require union members to vote every year to continue their membership. Kucinich asked the governor how much money the state would save from the provision. Walker repeatedly dodged the question and eventually admitted that it actually wouldn’t save anything at all.

Kucinich then asked Walker how much money would be saved by barring union dues from being drawn from employee paychecks, another provision of Walker’s legislation. Walker claimed that it would save workers money, but was unable to explain how it would save the state any money. Kucinich then produced a document from the Wisconsin Legislative Fiscal Bureau, the state’s equivalent of the Congressional Budget Office, that concluded that Walker’s measures were “nonfiscal” — meaning they had no impact on the state’s finances. Kucinich asked that the letter be included in the public record, but Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) refused:

KUCINICH: Let me ask you about some of the specific provisions in your proposals to strip collective bargaining rights. First, your proposal would require unions to hold annual votes to continue representing their own members. Can you please explain to me and members of this committee how much money this provision saves for your state budget?
WALKER: That and a number of other provisions we put in because if you’re going to ask, if you’re going to put in place a change like that, we wanted to make sure we protected the workers of our state, so they got value out of that. [...]
KUCINICH: Would you answer the question? How much money does it save, Governor?
WALKER: It doesn’t save any. [...]
KUCINICH: I want to ask about another one of your proposals. Under your plan you would prohibit paying union member dues from their paychecks. How much money would this provision save your state budget?
WALKER: It would save employees a thousand dollars a year they could use to pay for their pensions and health care contributions.
KUCINICH: Governor, it wouldn’t save anything. [Goes on to present letter from LRF and is denied unanimous request for it to be placed in the public record by Issa]

Watch it:



Walker’s admission is crucial because he had long claimed that his anti-union “budget repair bill” was designed to save the state money, not bust unions. But his words today echo those of Wisconsin state senate leader Scott Fitzgerald (R), who last month effectively admitted that the union fights are not about budgetary issues, but rather about winning the next election by depleting the ranks of organized labor.

THE PEOPLE WHO COUNT THE VOTES IN WISCONSIN...

Thu Apr 07, 2011 at 08:06 PM EDT

Why Prosser needed EXACTLY +7500 votes....

by Cieran

In WI, a recount at state-expense is triggered if an election is within .5% if the candidate requests it, and we have a fully verifiable paper trail to audit election results. That means in this election with approximately 740k for Kloppenburg and 739k for Prosser, the vote gets recounted at state-expense if the election is within ~7400 votes.

So the last 2 days the WI-GOP has been scrambling trying to figure out how they can still get Prosser into office. What was the result of their brain-storming? Add a few extra votes in a friendly area (Waukesha), and call it a clerical error. But in order to steal the election, they NEED to be able to keep a recount from occurring, because a recount would expose their attempted fraud to the light of day.

So they couldn't just give Prosser a couple hundred to put him barely in the lead by 40. They had to give him more than 7500 in order to get above the threshold for a free recount, so that the only way for a recount to happen would be if Kloppenburg ponies up the money for a state-wide recount, which could be expensive. Granted, all of us in WI would be happy to donate to a potential recount effort if it gets to that point, but the resolve of the Kloppenburg camp remains to be seen.

When the Republicans have declared victory starting tomorrow, they will use the full power of their media empire to pressure KloJo to concede instead of paying for a recount. They'll say she's a sore loser if she pushes for a recount outside of the .5% margin. They'll say the gap is so wide that a recount couldn't possibly swing enough votes her way, so she shouldn't waste the time of election workers. They'll say she's just further trying to divide the people of WI. They will do EVERYTHING they can to make sure NO ONE checks the paper trail. Because the paper trail will be the nail in their coffin.

We must not let them succeed in this attempted fraud.

It is NOT a coincidence that Prosser didn't get +300 votes or +1000, it had to be +7500 or more in order for the fraud to work. +7400 just wouldn't have been enough.

RECOUNT WISCONSIN!

UPDATE:

Why did the GOP aim for the .5% mark?

In WI we know that an election that is within 200ish votes deserves to have a careful examination of every ballot - whichever side is ahead. We have a sense of fairness here. While technically the losing side would have to request a recount if under .5%, it's understood that no one would be accusing said candidate of having sour grapes or being a sore loser if they requested it in an election determined by ~200 votes out of 1.5 million.

But it's different when there's a 7500 vote difference, it breaks that psychological barrier that it's not close enough for a critical re-examination as the likelihood of overcoming such a deficit would be unlikely. When the candidate has to pony up their own cash because the state considers a recount of that wide of a margin to be frivolous, public opinion changes.

And you KNOW Fox News and Rush will be hammering home this meme: She's pursuing a frivolous recount and dividing the state, sour grapes, sore loser, don't be Al Gore, etc etc. The GOP is acutely aware of this psychological barrier, which is why they went for +7500 instead of +7400.

Great new diary about the criminal clerk from Walkersha county.

And it turns out she's lying when she says Microsoft Access didn't save when she closed the file. See this diary for more info

Updated by Cieran at Thu Apr 07, 2011 at 07:10 PM PDT

Statement from JoAnne Kloppenburg campaign manager Melissa Mulliken:

"Wisconsin voters as well as the Kloppenburg for Justice Campaign deserve a full explanation of how and why these 14,000 votes from an entire City were missed. To that end, we will be filing open records requests for all relevant documentation related to the reporting of election results in Waukesha County, as well as to the discovery and reporting of the errors announced by the County. We are confident that election officials in Waukesha County will fulfill these requests as quickly as possible so that both our campaign and the people of Wisconsin can fully understand what happened and why. Just as Assistant Attorney General Kloppenburg has run to restore confidence in the court, Wisconsin residents also deserve to have full confidence in election results."

Updated by Cieran at Thu Apr 07, 2011 at 07:41 PM PDT

Statement from state Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller (D):

"It stretches the bounds of credibility to think that over 14,300 votes were somehow 'overlooked' until two days after the election.

Based on the partisan, political history of Ms. Nickolaus and the serious concerns that have been raised, by other Waukesha County officials, about the quality of her election administration and the possibility for fraud, an independent investigation of her conduct and the county's election results is not just warranted but urgently demanded to protect the integrity of our electoral system in Wisconsin."

The group Citizen Action of Wisconsin is calling for an immediate federal investigation and impoundment of all computer equipment, ballots, and other relevant evidence needed to verify a fair vote count in Waukesha County.

“Given the shocking character of this afternoon’s revelations, and its tremendous importance for the perceived integrity of Wisconsin’s governmental institutions, it is absolutely essential that there be a full investigation which is so beyond reproach that all Wisconsin citizens can have faith in the validity of the outcome,” said Robert Kraig, executive director of Citizen Action. “In the current political climate in Wisconsin, only an investigation by a U.S. Attorney can be seen by all citizens of the state as independent and above politics."

THE MOST ROUSING SPEECH I HAVE EVER HEARD! ...AND RIGHT ON TARGET!

Dennis Kucinich Speaking at Workers' Rights Rally in Madison, WI, on March 12, 2011

VideoNewsService

Original here

DID THEY DIE IN VAIN? A SHORT HISTORY OF U.S. LABOR'S STRUGGLE TO WIN THE RIGHT TO ORGANIZE BY ALAN GRAYSON

Bloggers Note: I just received the material below by e-mail from former U.S. Congressman Alan Grayson. Who is he exactly? Well, if you want to know -- and you should! -- I urge you to read this short biography and/or play the first three videos you will find in the right-hand column of this blog just below my Blog Archive.

Dear David:

On May 4, 1886, in Haymarket Square in Chicago, the public rallied peacefully in support of 40,000 workers in Chicago who had gone on strike, to win the right to organize. The police attacked, and eight died.

On July 6, 1892, in Homestead, Pennsylvania, 3800 workers went on strike, to win the right to organize. Three hundred hired and armed goons attacked them. Five people died.

On April 20, 1914, in Ludlow, Colorado, 1200 coal miners went on strike, to win the right to organize. The Colorado National Guard attacked their shantytown, and burned it to the ground. Nineteen people died. Two women and 11 children were asphyxiated, and they burned to death.

Here and around the world, many people have fought and died, so that you and I would have the right to organize.

And so that 250,000 public workers in Wisconsin would have that right, too.

This is not exactly a new idea. Six months after the Ludlow Massacre, President Wilson signed the Clayton Act, prohibiting the prosecution of union members under Antitrust Law. That was almost a century ago.

Two decades later, during the Franklin Roosevelt's first term as President, he signed the National Labor Relations Act into law. It protects the right to organize. That was over 75 years ago.

The right to organize also is a fundamental principle of international law. Over 150 countries have ratified the "Right to Organize" Convention, an international treaty. It was adopted in 1949, over 60 years ago.

So why are we even talking about this, 11 years into the 21st Century?

Because the teabaggers want to "take back America." They want to take it back, all right – take it all the way back to the 19th century. When there was no right to organize. When people worked for a dollar a day. When grown men competed against children for jobs. When women were barred from most jobs entirely. When you worked until you died.

Not to mention slavery.

I want to see an America that is healthy and wealthy.

They want an America that provides cheap labor to our corporate overlords. An America where the middle class is chained by debt.

We didn't ask for this fight. But we have no choice except to fight back. For the survival of the middle class in America. For us, for our children, and for our grandchildren. And so that the victims in Haymarket, in Homestead and in Ludlow did not die in vain.

As Cardinal Spellman said 45 years ago, "it is a war thrust upon us, and we cannot yield to tyranny."

I'm ready to fight for what's right. What about you?

Courage,

Alan Grayson

WISCONSINITES CONSIDER A GENERAL STRIKE IN RESPONSE TO THE LATEST OUTRAGE

Published on Thursday, March 10, 2011 by The Wisconsin State Journal

'General Strike!' Thousands Storm, Reoccupy Wisconsin Capitol in Response to Legislative Votes

"We're not leaving. Not this time."

by the State Journal staff 

Thousands of protesters rushed to the state Capitol on Wednesday night as word spread of the hastily called votes that sent Gov. Scott Walker's controversial bill limiting collective bargaining rights for public workers speeding through the Legislature.

Capitol, Madison, WI, March 10, 2011 (William DeShazer, Tribune)

GENERAL STRIKE!: The state Capitol in Madison, Wis., has been reoccupied by protesters who rushed into the building after hours, Wednesday evening, March 9, 2011. (M.P. King/State Journal) Shortly after 8 p.m., hundreds of protesters gathered outside the locked King Street entrance to the Capitol, chanting "Break down the door!" and "General strike!"

Moments later, police ceded control of the State Street doors and allowed the crowd to surge inside. The area outside the Assembly, which is scheduled to take the bill up at 11 a.m. Thursday, was jammed with protesters who chanted, "We're not leaving. Not this time."

Some said they planned to spend the night in the Capitol. Last week, a Dane County Circuit Court judge ordered dozens of protesters who had been occupying the Capitol for more than two weeks to leave.

It's not clear why police abandoned efforts to limit access to the Capitol Wednesday night, but Department of Administration spokesman Tim Donovan said "windows have been broken" to get in. He said he could not immediately provide specifics.

Protesters jammed three floors of the Capitol and packed the bridges that connect the four wings of the Capitol, prompting alarm by police and others that those parts of the building might collapse.

Some union leaders interviewed Wednesday night at the Madison Labor Temple indicated that strikes — which are illegal in Wisconsin for public-employee unions — are possible.

"Senate Republicans have exercised the nuclear option to ram through their bill attacking Wisconsin's working families in the dark of night," said Phil Neuenfeldt, president of the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO. "Tonight's events have demonstrated they will do or say anything to pass their extreme agenda that attacks Wisconsin's working families."

The budget-repair bill had been stalled in the Senate since the body's 14 Democrats fled Wisconsin Feb. 17 in a desperate gambit to slow or stop passage of the measure, which affects about 175,000 public employees.

Representatives of the union that represents blue-collar, technical and safety officers at UW-Madison said the possibility of a general strike has been discussed. "Anything is possible," said Local 171 steward Carl Aniel.

Aniel said only locals can call a strike, and it would be up to each one to do so individually.

"It's clear that Walker is not interested in any sort of negotiations. He's leaving the working class no other options," Aniel said.

Anne Habel, a steward with AFSCME Local 171, said Wednesday's action will further inflame the unions, which have staged daily protests since Walker introduced his budget repair bill in mid-February. "Every time something happens, people become more militant," Habel said."

Ted Lewis, a union representative for Rock Valley Education Professionals, led protesters in a cheer referring to the effort to recall the governor, in office for just two tumultuous months.

"Scott, you don't remember me," Lewis chanted, "but I can recall you."

State Journal reporters Sandy Cullen, Steven Verburg, Ron Seely, Dan Simmons, Devin Rose, Patricia Simms and Dee J. Hall contributed to this report.

© 2011 The Wisconsin State Journal

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 March 11, 2011




General Strike and Recall Movement Possible in Wisconsin

Wisconsin passes bill stripping public sector workers of collective bargaining rights; campaign to recall Governor and GOP Senators planned

Bio

Matthew Rothschild is the editor of The Progressive magazine. Rothschild has appeared on Nightline, C-SPAN, The O'Reilly Factor, and NPR, and his newspaper commentaries have run in the Chicago Tribune, the L.A. Times, the Miami Herald, and a host of other newspapers. Rothschild is also the author of a book entitled You Have No Rights: Stories of America in Our Repressive Age (New Press, 2007). Rothschild is also the co-founder and director of The Progressive Media Project, which since 1993 has been distributing opinion pieces to newspapers around the country in an effort to diversify and democratize the national debate.

ALERT! DECLARATION OF CLASS WAR IN WISCONSIN

March 10, 2011

Outrage in Wisconsin: Thousands Flood Capitol After GOP Strips Public Workers of Bargaining Rights in Surprise Senate Vote

Thousands of demonstrators flooded the Wisconsin State Capitol building last night after Republican senators took a surprise vote to strip most public employee workers of their right to collectively bargain. The bill could be made law if the Assembly votes today. The State Senate has been at a standstill since all 14 Democratic members fled the Wisconsin to prevent quorum. But on Wednesday, Republicans advanced the measure by stripping it of fiscal measures requiring a 20-member quorum for action. We speak to graduate student organizer Peter Rickman, Democratic Rep. Kelda Helen Roys, and State Democratic Sen. Chris Larson, who remains in Illinois. [Origonal includes transcript.]

March 10, 2011

"This is a Class War": Michael Moore Calls for Renewed Pro-Democracy Movement as Anti-Union Bills Approved in Wisconsin and Michigan

As Wisconsin Republicans passed Gov. Scott Walker’s anti-union bill in the State Senate, a bill in Michigan goes even further. In the measure, emergency financial managers would be allowed to break union contracts, dismiss elected officials, and even disincorporate entire municipalities. Michigan Senate Republicans approved the bill yesterday, and protests are expected in the Lansing State Capitol building today. We speak to filmmaker Michael Moore. “[This] is a class war on the people,” Moore says. “I think that the whole world has been inspired by what happened in Tunisia and in Egypt and throughout the Middle East. And while their problems are different than ours, the spirit is the same. And we need a pro-democracy movement in this country, badly, right now.” [Original includes transcript]

March 10, 2011

"We Have Reached a Turning Point”: Journalist Frank Emspak Says Protests Will Grow in Response to WI Anti-Union Bill

All eyes are on Wisconsin today to see how the state’s labor movement reacts to the surprise vote in the State Senate, moving Gov. Scott Walker’s anti-union bill one step closer to becoming law. We speak with Frank Emspak of the Workers Independent News in Madison. “We’ve had democracy by deception here,” Emspak says. “You’re talking about disenfranchising millions of people, not only in Wisconsin, but also throughout the Midwest, and basically saying that working people, in an organized fashion, have no right to participate in the electoral process. That is what the Republicans are doing.” [Original includes transcript]

Recall Wisconsin Governor Walker? - Rep. Obey w/ Cenk

TYT NETWORK


Uploaded by TYTInterviews on Mar 7, 2011
Cenk Uygur speaks with former Rep. David Obey (D-WI) about Governor Scott Walker and the protests in Wisconsin. Could Walker be recalled?

MICHAEL MOORE COMES TO WISCONSIN

Blogger’s Note: Having a Ph.D. is no big deal. It’s what one does with his/her life after exiting the educational system that counts. Michael Moore is a perfect example. With only a high school degree, he perceived the impending loss of America’s moral compass and set out to inform Americans of the danger. My first exposure to Michael’s writings was about 9 years ago when our college-educated daughter began sending me his e-mail newsletter. Céline said she wanted to go to work for him (which might have happened but for the fact that Michael was a reverse racial discriminator). Worried that Céline might have been taken in by a kook, I read all of Michael’s newsletters of the time and was swiftly impressed by the lucidity of his writings and the scientific way he gathered facts and used them to reach well reasoned conclusions. Of course, nowadays everyone recognizes Michael as producer and director of four of the top 9 documentary movies of all time – one of which, Fahrenheit 9/11, was awarded the Palme d’Or at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival!

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MichaelMoore.com / By Michael Moore

Michael Moore: The Smug Wealthy Have Gone Too Far -- And We're Finally Fighting Back

By trying to destroy us corporate America has given birth to a movement -- a movement that is becoming a massive, nonviolent revolt across the country.

March 6, 2011

America is not broke.

Contrary to what those in power would like you to believe so that you'll give up your pension, cut your wages, and settle for the life your great-grandparents had, America is not broke. Not by a long shot. The country is awash in wealth and cash. It's just that it's not in your hands. It has been transferred, in the greatest heist in history, from the workers and consumers to the banks and the portfolios of the uber-rich.

Today just 400 Americans have more wealth than half of all Americans combined.

Let me say that again. 400 obscenely rich people, most of whom benefited in some way from the multi-trillion dollar taxpayer "bailout" of 2008, now have more loot, stock and property than the assets of 155 million Americans combined. If you can't bring yourself to call that a financial coup d'état, then you are simply not being honest about what you know in your heart to be true.

And I can see why. For us to admit that we have let a small group of men abscond with and hoard the bulk of the wealth that runs our economy, would mean that we'd have to accept the humiliating acknowledgment that we have indeed surrendered our precious Democracy to the moneyed elite. Wall Street, the banks and the Fortune 500 now run this Republic -- and, until this past month, the rest of us have felt completely helpless, unable to find a way to do anything about it.

I have nothing more than a high school degree. But back when I was in school, every student had to take one semester of economics in order to graduate. And here's what I learned: Money doesn't grow on trees. It grows when we make things. It grows when we have good jobs with good wages that we use to buy the things we need and thus create more jobs. It grows when we provide an outstanding educational system that then grows a new generation of inventers, entrepreneurs, artists, scientists and thinkers who come up with the next great idea for the planet. And that new idea creates new jobs and that creates revenue for the state. But if those who have the most money don't pay their fair share of taxes, the state can't function. The schools can't produce the best and the brightest who will go on to create those jobs. If the wealthy get to keep most of their money, we have seen what they will do with it: recklessly gamble it on crazy Wall Street schemes and crash our economy. The crash they created cost us millions of jobs. That too caused a reduction in revenue. And the population ended up suffering because they reduced their taxes, reduced our jobs and took wealth out of the system, removing it from circulation.

The nation is not broke, my friends. Wisconsin is not broke. It's part of the Big Lie. It's one of the three biggest lies of the decade: America/Wisconsin is broke, Iraq has WMD, the Packers can't win the Super Bowl without Brett Favre.

The truth is, there's lots of money to go around. LOTS. It's just that those in charge have diverted that wealth into a deep well that sits on their well-guarded estates. They know they have committed crimes to make this happen and they know that someday you may want to see some of that money that used to be yours. So they have bought and paid for hundreds of politicians across the country to do their bidding for them. But just in case that doesn't work, they've got their gated communities, and the luxury jet is always fully fueled, the engines running, waiting for that day they hope never comes. To help prevent that day when the people demand their country back, the wealthy have done two very smart things:

1. They control the message. By owning most of the media they have expertly convinced many Americans of few means to buy their version of the American Dream and to vote for their politicians. Their version of the Dream says that you, too, might be rich some day – this is America, where anything can happen if you just apply yourself! They have conveniently provided you with believable examples to show you how a poor boy can become a rich man, how the child of a single mother in Hawaii can become president, how a guy with a high school education can become a successful filmmaker. They will play these stories for you over and over again all day long so that the last thing you will want to do is upset the apple cart -- because you -- yes, you, too! -- might be rich/president/an Oscar-winner some day! The message is clear: keep you head down, your nose to the grindstone, don't rock the boat and be sure to vote for the party that protects the rich man that you might be some day.

2. They have created a poison pill that they know you will never want to take. It is their version of mutually assured destruction. And when they threatened to release this weapon of mass economic annihilation in September of 2008, we blinked. As the economy and the stock market went into a tailspin, and the banks were caught conducting a worldwide Ponzi scheme, Wall Street issued this threat: Either hand over trillions of dollars from the American taxpayers or we will crash this economy straight into the ground. Fork it over or it's Goodbye savings accounts. Goodbye pensions. Goodbye United States Treasury. Goodbye jobs and homes and future. It was friggin' awesome and it scared the shit out of everyone. "Here! Take our money! We don't care. We'll even print more for you! Just take it! But, please, leave our lives alone, PLEASE!"

The executives in the board rooms and hedge funds could not contain their laughter, their glee, and within three months they were writing each other huge bonus checks and marveling at how perfectly they had played a nation full of suckers. Millions lost their jobs anyway, and millions lost their homes. But there was no revolt (see #1).

Until now. On Wisconsin! Never has a Michigander been more happy to share a big, great lake with you! You have aroused the sleeping giant know as the working people of the United States of America. Right now the earth is shaking and the ground is shifting under the feet of those who are in charge. Your message has inspired people in all 50 states and that message is: WE HAVE HAD IT! We reject anyone tells us America is broke and broken. It's just the opposite! We are rich with talent and ideas and hard work and, yes, love. Love and compassion toward those who have, through no fault of their own, ended up as the least among us. But they still crave what we all crave: Our country back! Our democracy back! Our good name back! The United States of America. NOT the Corporate States of America. The United States of America!

So how do we get this? Well, we do it with a little bit of Egypt here, a little bit of Madison there. And let us pause for a moment and remember that it was a poor man with a fruit stand in Tunisia who gave his life so that the world might focus its attention on how a government run by billionaires for billionaires is an affront to freedom and morality and humanity.

Thank you, Wisconsin. You have made people realize this was our last best chance to grab the final thread of what was left of who we are as Americans. For three weeks you have stood in the cold, slept on the floor, skipped out of town to Illinois -- whatever it took, you have done it, and one thing is for certain: Madison is only the beginning. The smug rich have overplayed their hand. They couldn't have just been content with the money they raided from the treasury. They couldn't be satiated by simply removing millions of jobs and shipping them overseas to exploit the poor elsewhere. No, they had to have more – something more than all the riches in the world. They had to have our soul. They had to strip us of our dignity. They had to shut us up and shut us down so that we could not even sit at a table with them and bargain about simple things like classroom size or bulletproof vests for everyone on the police force or letting a pilot just get a few extra hours sleep so he or she can do their job -- their $19,000 a year job. That's how much some rookie pilots on commuter airlines make, maybe even the rookie pilots flying people here to Madison. But he's stopped trying to get better pay. All he asks is that he doesn't have to sleep in his car between shifts at O'Hare airport. That's how despicably low we have sunk. The wealthy couldn't be content with just paying this man $19,000 a year. They wanted to take away his sleep. They wanted to demean and dehumanize him. After all, he's just another slob.

And that, my friends, is Corporate America's fatal mistake. But trying to destroy us they have given birth to a movement -- a movement that is becoming a massive, nonviolent revolt across the country. We all knew there had to be a breaking point some day, and that point is upon us. Many people in the media don't understand this. They say they were caught off guard about Egypt, never saw it coming. Now they act surprised and flummoxed about why so many hundreds of thousands have come to Madison over the last three weeks during brutal winter weather. "Why are they all standing out there in the cold? I mean there was that election in November and that was supposed to be that!

"There's something happening here, and you don't know what it is, do you ...?"

America ain't broke! The only thing that's broke is the moral compass of the rulers. And we aim to fix that compass and steer the ship ourselves from now on. Never forget, as long as that Constitution of ours still stands, it's one person, one vote, and it's the thing the rich hate most about America -- because even though they seem to hold all the money and all the cards, they begrudgingly know this one unshakeable basic fact: There are more of us than there are of them!

Madison, do not retreat. We are with you. We will win together.

Michael Moore is an Academy Award-winning filmmaker and author. He directed and produced Roger & Me, Bowling for Columbine, Fahrenheit 9/11, and Sicko. He has also written seven books, most recently, Mike’s Election Guide 2008