International Monitoring of US Election Called 'Frightening'

CNS News ^ | 8-9-04 | Roch Hammond

[truthandlife]

The State Department's invitation for an Austrian human rights group to monitor this year's U.S. presidential election is a "frightening" development and "an absolute threat" to America's independence and sovereignty, according to the head of a conservative think tank in Washington, D.C.

Tom DeWeese, president of the American Policy Center, said he's especially angry that the Bush administration would reach out to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which is based in Vienna, Austria.

"Bush continues to give conservatives the rhetoric of sovereignty, independence and strength of the United States, and he continues to give the [opposite] actions," DeWeese told CNSNews.com. "It's just outrageous this administration would allow this to happen," DeWeese added.

The spokesman for U.S. Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) was equally critical of the State Department's reported invitation. "It's exactly the type of entanglement that results from our continued insistence on being a member of the U.N. and having an interventionist foreign policy," said Jeff Deist, press secretary for Paul, a Republican who once ran for president as a libertarian candidate.

Paul believes that the United Nations and other international organizations are illegitimate and threaten American sovereignty.

"We're all supposed to accept this growing notion of world government ... that's obviously the opposite of sovereignty," Deist said, adding that "a lot of Americans are going to take offense" with the decision.

OSCE is "the largest regional security organization in the world with 55 participating States from Europe, Central Asia and North America," according to the group's website. "It is active in early warning, conflict prevention, crisis management and post-conflict rehabilitation" the website states.

OSCE observers will arrive in the U.S. from its Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights. It will be the first time such a team has been present for a U.S. presidential election, though the OSCE monitored mid-term elections in 2002, and the California gubernatorial election last year.

An official with the State Department said on background that the OSCE mission is "more of an assessment" designed to verify election results. "The OSCE-participating states all agreed, including the U.S., in 1990 to allow each other to observe elections," the official said.

However, the State Department's invitation coincides with lingering Democratic charges that George W. Bush and Florida Republicans stole the 2000 presidential race by preventing many African Americans from casting ballots. Bush's eventual 537 vote winning margin in Florida allowed him to gain the state's 25 electoral votes and the presidency.

Earlier this summer, 13 Democratic members of the U.S. House sent a letter to United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, requesting that the agency monitor this year's presidential election between Bush and Democrat John Kerry.

The spokesman for Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), who was among those who signed the letter to Annan, said the State Department's invitation to the OSCE "represents a good first step."

Stuart Chapman, press secretary for Lee, said the U.S. should set an example for other countries by allowing an independent group to monitor the balloting.

"We bill ourselves as the greatest democracy, so therefore, we should have applied to our own situation what we send out and promote and claim that we are to the rest of the world," Chapman said. "There clearly was a demonstrated, systematic effort to ensure that the votes of certain people were not counted in the last election," Chapman asserted.

[Buffettbassman]

Bush should call for Powell's resignation immediately. He won't...but he should!

[DoughtyOne]

Well, he may be on to something. Who knows how this will ultimately play out? And that's why you don't add in a factor like this, that could literally decertify a valid victory for our side. Again, this is just NUTS!

[RVN Airplane Driver]

Folks, we have had monitors in our election process as organized labor has manipulated the system at a minimum and many places commited outright fraud for nearly a century.

Actually I would have more trust in international monitors than a bunch union hacks.

I think the Bush folks actually were quite perceptive with this move....The Dem's have already indicated they are going to "lawyer" this election. Some of their thunder may be stolen with international monitors in play.

[OldFriend]

I'm with you. The dums are going to be sorry they get what they wished for....LOLOL........

[Digger]

"Bush continues to give conservatives the rhetoric of sovereignty, independence and strength of the United States, and he continues to give the [opposite] actions," DeWeese told CNSNews.com. "It's just outrageous this administration would allow this to happen," DeWeese added.

Go vote if you are compelled but neither of these "Two-Party Cartel" pols should expect a "true" conservative to vote. Just how outlandish will you let this corrupt government go before you will say that it is enough? I'm sorry but I have NO representation in Congress except an occasional Tom De Weese, Tom Tancredo, Ron Paul outburst but NO action.

[elephant]

Yes, the RumDumbs maybe sorry for what they wished for but I DONT want other countries/UN, NATO etc monitoring our elections.

[COEXERJ145]

Seeing how all these 50 people can do is sit around and watch, it just doesn't seem like something to blow up over. It isn't the U.N. (like a lot of people seem to think) and they're not "monitoring" the election. All they can do is observe. They're not allowed to interfere with the voting process.

[tang-soo]

My guess is that the one worlders realize this may be their one and only chance to mess with our election process.

Chances are they will throw everything they have in 2004.

[Poohbah]

Is this really a case of these people being invited to "monitor" our elections or is it being mischaracterized as such?

The latter. It's more fun to overreact to a strawman than to actually apply thought.

[OldFriend]

If a simple police car standing a mile from a polling place caused some to turn back and not vote, what will happen when the dim bulbs see official observers at or near the polling places?

[Buffettbassman]

Interesting points of view. I'd like to invite them to come to my polling place so I can tell them exactly how welcome they are!

I'll leave diplomacy to the diplomats. I'll exercise my right of free speech.</wink>

[Unam Sanctam]

It sounds like it's an OSCE treaty requirement, but just why the State Dept. had to time it with the obnoxious Democratic UN request, I don't know.

[Salman]

What good could possibly come from this??? An inspector from Mali announcing "I am so impressed with the American election process! I want this for my own country!"???

Mali and the like are not members of this outfit. This isn't the UN. They observed our elections in 2002, and have observed elections in France and Germany.

And they do not certify vote counts. They stand outside the polling places to see that there is no violence or intimidation turning voters away.They did good work in Bosnia.

This is being blown out of proportion, and is nothing like the UN oversight the 'rats proposed.

[truthandlife]

1963 Communist Goals The following was entered into the Congressional record by Albert Herlong, Jr. (a Floridian who served in Congress from 1949-69) in 1963.

1) US acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war
2) US willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war
3) Develop the illusion that total disarmament by the US would be a demonstration of "moral strength"
4) Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.
5) Extension of long term loans to Russia and Soviet Satellites
6) Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination
7) Grant recognition of Red China, and admission of Red China to the UN.
8) Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev's promise in 1955 to settle the Germany question by free elections under supervision of the UN
9) Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the US has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress
10) Allow all Soviet Satellites individual representation in the UN
11) Promote the UN as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the UN as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo)
12) Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party
13) Do away with loyalty oaths
14) Continue giving Russia access to the US Patent Office
15) Capture one or both of the political parties in the US
16) Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions, by claiming their activities violate civil rights.
17) Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for Socialism, and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers associations. Put the party line in text books.
18) Gain control of all student newspapers
19) Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.
20) Infiltrate the press. Get control of book review assignments, editorial writing, policy-making positions.
21) Gain control of key positions in radio, TV & motion pictures.
22) Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all form of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings", substitute shapeless, awkward, and meaningless forms.
23) Control art critics and directors of art museums. " Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art".
24) Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press.
25) Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography, and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio and TV.
26) Present Homosexuality, degeneracy, and promiscuity as "normal, natural, and healthy".
27) Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity, which does not need a "religious crutch"
28) Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the grounds that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state"
29) Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.
30) Discredit the American founding fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man".
31) Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of "the big picture:" Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.
32) Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture - - education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.
33) Eliminate all laws or procedures, which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.
34) Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
35) Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI
36) Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.
37) Infiltrate and gain control of big business
38) Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand or treat.
39) Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.
40) Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.
41) Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.
42) Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special interest groups should rise up and make a "united force" to solve economic, political, or social problems.
43) Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.
44) Internationalize the Panama Canal.
45) Repeal the Connally Reservation so the US can not prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction over domestic problems. Give the World Court jurisdiction over domestic problems. Give the World Court jurisdiction over nations and individuals alike.

-------------------------------------------------------------
Check http://www.glennbeck.com for more

[reformedliberal]

I have already been told by one of our True Conservatives (tm) that they do not care what I say and that any explanation that is factual is *belittling* their opinion.

What we have here are folks who adore our few minority bomb throwers and have been looking for an excuse to stand on their so-called principles and not vote or vote for whatever-his-name-is, the isolationist, anti-Israel, so-called Constitution Party candidate who is probably not even on that many ballots.

These folks love to scare themselves and give themselves an excuse to pretend they will go hunting blue hats, even if these are not blue hats and even though they are just keyboard cowboys who most likely don't pass gas in public for fear of being noticed.

Several of us have spent several threads trying to explain the situation. They do not want an explanation. They want to foment dissension.

WND and now CNS are quoting DeWeese and Paul: one an unelected right wing journo and the other someone who couldn't get elected out of his single Congressional District.

You are both way too rational to be listened to.

[Buffettbassman]

This is being blown way out of proportion Complacency is the downfall of society. Why would you be so willing to accept this as harmless?

[Poohbah]

Why would you be so willing to accept this as harmless?

Because it is.

[Ichneumon]

It just may cut down on the dim voter fraud. A tempest in a teapot.

More likely, it will give Democrats "official, independent confirmation" that "irregularities" are taking place with regard to minority votes, etc.

If they can exaggerate one police car outside a voting place and an ordinary traffic check into "disenfranchising a million black voters", as they did in 2000, imagine what they can do with the most trifling of "irregularities" noted by foreign "observers" who aren't familiar with our system.

[Awestruck]

darn straight it's frightening! the UN and other global groups are a direct assault on our sovereignty by their very existance. It's time we started treating them as an enemy of our nation.

[leadpencil1]

I agree. This is a set up.