BellaOnline Forums Travel and Culture Polish Culture What do you think were the main reasons that Bush won?

Trish. Amen to you too.
I now know that it was the invading aliens that caused so much trouble in the world. Proof? The Spider Solitaire is messed up. I checked mu "puter" and I found a hole in the disgruntifactor, the D drive was leaking into the C drive and my computer was almost not working. Those vile aliens. They used my computer as an experiment to find out if they could rig those voting machines. LOL :beamedup:

http://www.catsprn.com/letter_of_apology.htm

Letter Of Apology

Author unknown - sentiment shared.

For good and ill, the Iraqi prisoner abuse mess will remain an issue. On the
one hand, right thinking Americans will abhor the stupidity of the actions while
on the other hand, political glee will take control and fashion this minor event
into some modern day My Lai massacre.
I heard some Arabs are asking for an apology. I humbly offer mine here:
I am sorry that the last seven times we Americans took up arms and sacrificed
the blood of our youth, it was in the defense of Muslims (Bosnia, Kosovo, Gulf
War 1, Kuwait, etc.).
I am sorry that no such call for an apology upon the extremists came after 9/11.
I am sorry that all of the murderers on 9/11 were Arabs.
I am sorry that Arabs have to live in squalor under savage dictatorships. I am
sorry that their leaders squander their wealth.
I am sorry that their governments breed hate for the US in their religious
schools.
I am sorry that Yassir Arafat was kicked out of every Arab country and hijacked
the Palestinian "cause."
I am sorry that no other Arab country will take in or offer more than a token
amount of financial help to those same Palestinians.
I am sorry that the USA has to step in and be the biggest financial supporter of
poverty stricken Arabs while the insanely wealthy Arabs blame the USA.
I am sorry that our own left wing elite and our media can't understand any of
this.
I am sorry the United Nations scammed the poor people of Iraq out of the "food
for oil" money so they could get rich while the common folk suffered.
I am sorry that some Arab governments pay the families of homicide bombers upon
their death.
I am sorry that those same bombers are seeking 72 virgins. I can't seem to find
one here on Earth.
I am sorry that the homicide bombers think babies are a legitimate target.
I am sorry that our troops died to free more Arabs.
I am sorry they show so much restraint when their brothers in arms are killed. I
am sorry that Muslim extremists have killed more Arabs than any other group.
I am sorry that foreign trained terrorists are trying to seize control of Iraq
and return it to a terrorist state.
I am sorry we don't drop a few dozen "Daisy Cutters" on Fallujah. (Note: a
"Daisy Cutter" is a 10,000 lb bomb, used to clear helicopter landing zones)
I am sorry every time terrorists hide they find a convenient "Holy Site".
I am sorry they didn't apologize for driving a jet into the World Trade Center
that collapsed and severely damaged Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church - one
of our Holy Sites.
I am sorry they didn't apologize for flight 93 and 175, the USS Cole, the
embassy bombings, etc.
I am sorry Michael Moore is American; he could feed a medium sized village in
Africa.
I am sorry the French are french?
America will get past this latest absurdity. We will punish those responsible
because that is what we do. We hang out our dirty laundry for all the world to
see. We move on. That's one of the reasons we are hated so much. We don't hide
this stuff like all those Arab countries that are now demanding an apology.
Deep down inside, when most Americans saw this reported in the news, we were
like - so what? We lost hundreds and made fun of a few prisoners. Sure, it was
wrong, sure, it dramatically hurts our cause, but until captured we were trying
to kill these same prisoners. Now we're supposed to wring our hands because a
few were humiliated? Our compassion is tempered with the vivid memories of our
own people killed, mutilated and burnt amongst a joyous crowd of celebrating
Fallujans.
If you want an apology from this American, you're going to have a long wait.
You have a better chance of finding those 72 virgins.
If you are "sorry" also, use this link to email this page to your friends.

Bob - I'm beginning to think that the aliens have stolen your brain....

but if so, don't worry - you could always run for president! <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Jaga - we know the lengths to which the repulicans went to in order to steal the election in 2000. only an idiot would trust them after that....

especially as stealing elections has become so easy.

you no longer need to go to the trouble of deliberately removing tens of thousands of Democrat voters from the register, let alone bugging the Watergate building....

there are already many documented cases of deliberate vote fraud, and as voting becomes all-electronic with no paper audit trail, stealing an election will become easier still. there are all sorts of problems with electronic voting but the lack of security is laughable.

votes are tallied on a central computer (an ordinary pc running on microsoft windows) which receives information from computers at the individual polling stations.

some info from Bev Harris:


On the CNBC TV show "Topic A With Tina Brown," several months ago, Howard Dean had filled in for Tina Brown as guest host. His guest was Bev Harris, the Seattle grandmother who started www.blackboxvoting.org from her living room. Bev pointed out that regardless of how votes were tabulated (other than hand counts, only done in odd places like small towns in Vermont), the real "counting" is done by computers. Be they Diebold Opti-Scan machines, which read paper ballots filled in by pencil or ink in the voter's hand, or the scanners that read punch cards, or the machines that simply record a touch of the screen, in all cases the final tally is sent to a "central tabulator" machine.

That central tabulator computer is a Windows-based PC.

"In a voting system," Harris explained to Dean on national television, "you have all the different voting machines at all the different polling places, sometimes, as in a county like mine, there's a thousand polling places in a single county. All those machines feed into the one machine so it can add up all the votes. So, of course, if you were going to do something you shouldn't to a voting machine, would it be more convenient to do it to each of the 4000 machines, or just come in here and deal with all of them at once?"

Dean nodded in rhetorical agreement, and Harris continued. "What surprises people is that the central tabulator is just a PC, like what you and I use. It's just a regular computer."

"So," Dean said, "anybody who can hack into a PC can hack into a central tabulator?"

Harris nodded affirmation, and pointed out how Diebold uses a program called GEMS, which fills the screen of the PC and effectively turns it into the central tabulator system. "This is the official program that the County Supervisor sees," she said, pointing to a PC that was sitting between them loaded with Diebold's software.

Bev then had Dean open the GEMS program to see the results of a test election. They went to the screen titled "Election Summary Report" and waited a moment while the PC "adds up all the votes from all the various precincts," and then saw that in this faux election Howard Dean had 1000 votes, Lex Luthor had 500, and Tiger Woods had none. Dean was winning.

"Of course, you can't tamper with this software," Harris noted. Diebold wrote a pretty good program.

But, it's running on a Windows PC.

So Harris had Dean close the Diebold GEMS software, go back to the normal Windows PC desktop, click on the "My Computer" icon, choose "Local Disk C:," open the folder titled GEMS, and open the sub-folder "LocalDB" which, Harris noted, "stands for local database, that's where they keep the votes." Harris then had Dean double-click on a file in that folder titled "Central Tabulator Votes," which caused the PC to open the vote count in a database program like Excel.

In the "Sum of the Candidates" row of numbers, she found that in one precinct Dean had received 800 votes and Lex Luthor had gotten 400.

"Let's just flip those," Harris said, as Dean cut and pasted the numbers from one cell into the other. "And," she added magnanimously, "let's give 100 votes to Tiger."

They closed the database, went back into the official GEMS software "the legitimate way, you're the county supervisor and you're checking on the progress of your election."

As the screen displayed the official voter tabulation, Harris said, "And you can see now that Howard Dean has only 500 votes, Lex Luthor has 900, and Tiger Woods has 100." Dean, the winner, was now the loser.

Harris sat up a bit straighter, smiled, and said, "We just edited an election, and it took us 90 seconds."

With the re-election of President Bush, America recommitted itself once again to expanding freedom and promoting liberty. :angel: <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

translation:

With the re-election of President Bush, America recommitted itself once again to expanding the personal wealth of the Bush family and promoting American interests without giving a damn about what anybody else thinks. :devil: <img src="/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

Lily, I have run across a lot of histories that tell of no one knowing the concequences of Auschwitz and BIrkenau in 1940. The Wannasee conference composing the 'final solution' did not take place until 1941, toward the end of the year I believe. Even in 1942/43 there are Jewish sources that speak of rumors but do not speak of more proof than suspicions.

I do not believe the kettle is as black as early as some careless historians paint it.

Kai

Kai:
>I do not believe the kettle is as black as early as some careless historians paint it. <

Agreed! I recall that in the USA we didn't hear about it until 1945. Moreover...
In Europe many Catholic priests saved as many Jews as they could. IMO today the goal should be to prevent all future holocausts of all cultures.
Carl

Believing the unbelievable (from "Karski: How One Man Tried to Stop the Holocaust," by E. Thomas Wood and Stanislaw M. Jankowski)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

In London, on December 2, 1942, Karski reported to Polish-Jewish leaders Szmul Zygielbojm and Ignacy Schwarzbart.

Zygielbojm had assumed the worst about the fate of the Jews in Europe for some time. His had been a lone voice, without much influence. Schwarzbart had close ties to the World Jewish Congress and had shared that organization's cautious outlook as the first atrocity stories filtered out of Europe.

On December 1, when Schwarzbart perused the full text of the documents Karski had carried, his illusions were shattered. Reeling, he cabled the World Jewish Congress in New York:

HAVE READ TODAY ALL REPORTS FROM POLAND COMPULSORY ORDER JEWISH COUNCIL WARSAW FOR DEPORTATION STOP THEY EXCEED BY HORROR SUFFERINGS OF OUR NATION EVERYTHING FANTASY CAN PICTURE STOP JEWS IN POLAND ALMOST COMPLETELY ANNIHILATED STOP READ REPORTS DEPORTATION TEN THOUSAND JEWS FOR DEATH STOP IN BELZEC FORCED TO DIG OWN GRAVE MASS SUICIDE HUNDREDS CHILDREN THROWN ALIVE INTO GUTTERS DEATH CAMPS IN BELZEC TREBLINKA THOUSANDS DEAD NOT BURIED IN SOBIBOR MASS GRAVES MURDER PREGNANT WOMEN STOP JEWS NAKED DRAGGED INTO DEATH CHAMBERS GESTAPOMEN ASKED PAYMENT FOR QUICKER KILLING HUNTING FUGITIVES STOP THOUSANDS DAILY VICTIMS THROUGHOUT POLAND STOP BELIEVE THE UNBELIEVABLE STOP....

The leaders received Jan in a small conference room. If they needed any further evidence in order to "believe the unbelievable," Karski provided it. He told of naked corpses in the Warsaw Ghetto, of hollow-eyed children wearing yellow stars, of the mass murder he had witnessed at the camp.

Jan fielded questions for some time. Finally Schwarzbart excused himself, rising unsteadily from his seat. Karski stayed to deliver a message to Zygielbojm, explaining that he would repeat as exactly as possible what Leon Feiner, a Jewish leader in Warsaw, had told him. Jan relayed Feiner's rejection of empty protests. He repeated a call for retaliatory bombing, leafleting and the execution of Germans in Allied hands. Then, without notes, he began reciting verbatim Feiner's final plea:

"We are only too well aware that in the civilized world outside, it is not possible to believe all that is happening to us. Let the Jewish people, then, do something that will force the other world to believe us. We are all dying here; let them die too. Let them crowd the offices of Churchill, of all the important English and American leaders and agencies. Let them proclaim a fast before the doors of the mightiest. Let them die a slow death while the world is looking on. This may shake the conscience of the world."

Zygielbojm jumped from his seat. He paced violently back and forth across the small room. "It is impossible," he said, "utterly impossible. You know what would happen. They would simply bring in two policemen and have me dragged away to an institution." Zygielbojm became more and more frantic, less and less coherent. By the end of the interview, he was begging Karski to believe he had done his best to help his people.

"It will actually be a shame to go on living," Zygielbojm declared in a BBC broadcast two weeks later, "if steps are not taken to halt the greatest crime in human history." Zygielbojm continued his desperate efforts for five more months.

Finally, he apparently decided to heed Feiner's call for self-sacrificing protest. Leaving a note with one last plea for action on behalf of the Jews, Szmul Zygielbojm committed suicide on May 12, 1943.

Mission to Washington (from "Karski: How One Man Tried to Stop the Holocaust," by E. Thomas Wood and Stanislaw M. Jankowski)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It cannot have been a coincidence that Ciechanowski brought together three of the Roosevelt administration's most prominent Jews to hear Karski's report in this initial meeting. Presidential adviser Ben Cohen, Assistant Solicitor General Oscar Cox and Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter had helped to shape Roosevelt's New Deal policies.

Each man was close to the president and well-connected in Washington. Ciechanowski wanted to get Roosevelt's attention; Karski carried dramatic news that would presumably interest American Jews. Therefore, the ambassador would set his strategy in motion by inviting F.D.R.'s top Jewish advisers to meet Karski.

This plan was unquestionably sound with regard to Oscar Cox. More active in Jewish matters than most of the numerous other Jews in the administration, Cox had approached Ciechanowski in September 1942 to discuss the possibility of a United Nations commission on war crimes.

Cox's activism, however, represented an anomaly. Far more typical of the attitude toward Jewish issues of Jews in Roosevelt's inner circle was Felix Frankfurter's reaction to news of the emerging Holocaust. The son of Austrian Jews, Frankfurter did express concern about anti-semitism and did sometimes intervene behind the scenes to deal with instances of bias.

But the news from Europe in recent months had not energized Frankfurter. The difference between Frankfurter's attitude toward it and Cox's was evident in each man's reaction to the Riegner telegram-- a 1942 report based on detailed information from a German informant about Hitler's plans to exterminate the Jews.

When Cox came into possession of the still-secret telegram, he sent a copy to Ciechanowski and urged him to investigate the issue. When World Jewish Congress leader Nahum Goldmann showed the dispatch to Justice Frankfurter in October 1942, he found himself "very badly impressed by Frankfurter, who is an egoist and who, having read the terrible cables, started immediately to talk of his speeches."

The dinner meeting with Cohen, Cox and Frankfurter lasted until nearly 1:00 in the morning. Jan held forth on the organization of the Underground and other subjects, while also giving an objective description of the persecution of Jews in Poland. Over dinner, he referred only in passing to what he himself had witnessed-- but the stories were still enough to "make your hair stand on end," as Cox wrote to Harry Hopkins, Roosevelt's top aide.

Frankfurter lingered after the other guests left the embassy. Adjourning the gathering to a quiet ballroom, Ciechanowski took a seat to Karski's left. The Supreme Court justice sat opposite Karski, looking into his eyes.

"Mr. Karski," Frankfurter asked, "do you know that I am a Jew?"

Karski nodded.

"There are so many conflicting reports about what is happening to the Jews in your country," Frankfurter said. "Please tell me exactly what you have seen."

Jan spent half an hour patiently explaining how his missions to the Ghetto and the camp had come about and precisely, in gruesome detail, what he had witnessed. When Karski finished, he waited for the visitor to make the next move.

Frankfurter silently got up from his chair. For a few moments, he paced back and forth in front of Karski and the ambassador, who looked on in puzzlement. Then, just as quietly, he took his seat again.

"Mr. Karski," Frankfurter said after a further pause, "a man like me talking to a man like you must be totally frank. So I must say: I am unable to believe you."

Ciechanowski flew from his seat. "Felix, you don't mean it!" he cried. "How can you call him a liar to his face! The authority of my government is behind him. You know who he is!"

Frankfurter replied, in a soft voice filled with resignation, "Mr. Ambassador, I did not say this young man is lying. I said I am unable to believe him. There is a difference."

After a forced exchange of pleasantries, Frankfurter left the room in the company of Ciechanowski. Jan sat alone in the vast room as their footsteps echoed away.

there was no excuse not to know about the holocaust after Karski's confirmation of earlier reports.

unfortunately FDR and Churchill (like Stalin) had other priorities.