Forum Post: AmericansElect.Org Busted Wide Open For All To See The Evildoers Inside!
Posted 12 years ago on Dec. 17, 2011, 12:51 a.m. EST by OccupyAmericaOnline
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I've been warning everyone for weeks that Americanselect.org was a conservative run, non-consensus-based, illegal-operation hell bent on running candidates against Federal law and against IRS rules for a 501(c) to do so, and whaddya know: AmericansElect.Org Busted Wide Open For All To See The Evildoers Inside!
One guy posted: I jumped into the AE site like a fish in water thinking that we’d finally found our Wikipedia meets Democracy moment. Your site has removed the veil for me. I just deleted my profile/account at AE. Rand Corporation is one of the most vile, war-mongering outfits in the world. No one with half a heart would align with this group, let alone put them on as the overlords. Disgusting.
Thank you for this incredible journalism! Keep up the vital work.
Americans Elect Candidate Ejection Committee Chaired by FBI, CIA, Military Research Chiefs Jim Cook 12/15/2011 [3] comments You read that right. But before you find out who they are, consider what they will do.
What the Americans Elect Candidate Ejection Committee Does Americans Elect is the first-ever effort by an American corporation to run its own privatized online presidential nomination. Votes on the first ballot will begin in 124 days, and you’re supposed to be able to make a choice — but only between alternatives that the Americans Elect corporation deems acceptable. The self-appointed Americans Elect corporate Board of Directors will appoint a Candidate Certification Committee, which serves at the corporate board’s pleasure, can be reshuffled at the corporate board’s will, and is empowered in two ways to reject candidates that it does not consider suitable. Certification doesn’t sound so bad, but it has a complement: decertification, exclusion, ejection. This is a Candidate Ejection Committee.
According to the corporate bylaws of Americans Elect, the first standard by which the Candidate Certification Committee can eject a presidential candidate who voters might otherwise support is by deeming them “incapable of performing the duties of president”:
Section 5.4. Candidate Certification Committee.
5.4.1. Purpose. The Candidate Certification Committee shall be responsible for certifying that candidates and draftees for the offices and president and vice president meet all constitutional eligibility, as well as to develop and apply criteria of demonstrated achievements based on qualifications of past presidents and vice presidents to ensure that only persons capable of performing the duties of president and vice president are eligible for voting by the registered Delegates…
In other words, this committee, appointed by the Americans Elect Board of Directors (which in turn is only appointed by itself), will decide whether presidential aspirants fit their “criteria” and are “capable” enough to be considered by the delegates.
According to Rule 8.0 of the Draft Rules of Americans Elect, the second standard by which the Candidate Certification Committee can eject a presidential ticket that voters might otherwise support is by deeming it to be ideologically incorrect:
Subject to reversal by vote of 2/3 of all Delegates, the Candidate Certification Committee shall determine whether any proposed ticket is balanced by reference to candidates’ responses to the Platform of Questions within fourteen days after the final Qualifying Ballot, or such further time as the Board may allow.
The Platform of Questions is an ideological litmus test asking questions regarding various issue positions. The final content of these questions will be determined by the corporate-board-appointed Platform of Questions Committee (see Rule 2.1.3.2). If the Candidate Certification Committee determines a ticket to be unbalanced, then out it goes, even if Americans Elect delegates would otherwise support it.
Delegates can hypothetically overturn these decisions — but it would take a 2/3 vote by all people who have ever signed up online to be delegates. This includes all the people who sign up to be delegates on a whim and then forget about it, and as anyone who’s spent time online knows, that portion online tends to be high. All the people who don’t show up for the vote will be counted as if they would like to keep the committee’s decision as it is. Check out turnout statistics for national elections over the last fifty years (courtesy U.S. Elections Project). As you can see below, not once in the last fifty years have 2/3 of registered voters ever turned out to vote.
Human behavior virtually guarantees that the decisions of its Candidate Ejection Committee will never be overturned.
Who the Candidate Ejection Committee is So who will be sitting on this candidate ejection committee? Americans Elect has just named the first three committee members. They are:
Larry Diamond — Professor of Sociology and Political Science, Stanford University — Member, Council on Foreign Relations
William Webster — Former Chairman of the Board, RAND Corporation — Former Director, FBI — Former Director, CIA — Chairman, Homeland Security and Advisory Council to the United States Goverment — Member, Council on Foreign Relations
James Thomson — Former staffer, National Security Council and Department of Defense — President of RAND Corporation until last month — Member, Council on Foreign Relations
What is the RAND Corporation? It’s an ostensibly independent non-profit organization that was founded by the U.S. Air Force, is funded by seven different units of the Defense Department and the Department of Homeland Security, and houses three different federally funded research and development centers on military matters.
All on the Council on Foreign Relations. One a major intelligence chief. Another a major player in military policy and research contracts. What interesting choices to decide what presidential candidates the rest of us should be able to choose between. http://www.occupationamerica.com
Why I Vote OBAMA
A friend asked me “Why vote safe?” I guess he meant, why not vote with my heart.
This is what I said to him:
I want change as much as you do. I really do. Yes, I do think Americans Elect has a 0% chance of producing a ticket that will win the White House. I think AE has a 0% chance of winning a plurality.
But they have a very good chance of being a spoiler. Even if you thought AE was totally above board or even if you wanted a Republican to gain the White House, the math, statistically speaking, does not favor AE winning a plurality.
And I'm sure this math does not escape the people willing to put $$millions into the AE effort. I think it is true that we can't even begin to see the slime that is the dark, soft money behind the political machinery running our world.
I've watched Obama from his first day in office. I've watched him viciously attacked by FOX from day one and from every far right-wing media entity out there. I've seen him being forced to make compromises and odious calculations not only for his own survival, but for what is best for the nation.
I've seen a number of Democrats in Red states insidiously turn against him in order to side with the Red tide of right-wing propaganda. I've seen him spend political capital to safeguard a prioritized set of values only to have his successes defined as "failures" by the Faux Whore in such a way that even his closest friends might be inclined to believe it.
I know what long term damage would be done by having a Republican House, Senate and White House extend what the Supreme Court Five has begun in giving over unlimited electioneering power to big money, be they domestic or foreign---defining corporations as people and equating money with speech.
I know what would happen to teachers and nurses and policemen and firefighters and doctors and scientists and engineers and all professionals in a society with an unbridgeable chasm between the wealthiest 1% (and I'm not talking Democrats here) and the 99% who would be treated like commoners because they happened to lie outside the graces of the rarified courts of hereditary wealth, and the sycophants who ascend to our highest courts, willing to do their bidding.
It ultimately comes down to a matter of trust. The more I look into the people behind Americans Elect the more alarm bells go off for me.
The AE Political Director admits AE's candidate could result in a spoiler, but just says "Oh well..." That conveniently lets AE off the hook. AE Board Chairman, Peter Ackerman, has a known record for junk-bond dealing (willingly and knowingly deceiving large numbers of people!!) and belongs to an institution that would like to end Social Security. AE’s National Field Director, Kellen Arno, and his brother, Michael Arno, AE’s Ballot Access Advisor of Arno Political Consultants, have a known record of fraud and deceit in signature gathering. Do a Wiki search for “Arno Political Consultants”. Are you really ok with these things?
AE's Chief Legal Officer, sitting Republican Congressman Dan Wilson, wants to do away with all collective bargaining rights. Many of the AE leadership are former "W" campaign strategists, as in "collaborating with Karl Rove and the Koch brothers" type of strategists, and we know where that got us—a Supreme Court that gave us Citizens United, which handed election outcomes over to the highest bidder.
And there’s not much we can do about donor issues—we already know that undisclosed soft money is perfectly and gruesomely legal. Until the laws change, that will never be an issue we can do anything about—except to speak up and speak our hearts.
But why would a group of some of the most wealthy right of center people put so much money, time and effort into helping elect a left of center candidate—as the 7 million question AE survey answers so clearly show they will?
Surely you can see that AE was launched on the Colbert Show, MSNBC, NPR, etc. You're strategist enough to see what kind of core base that's going to attract—and you can see that is exactly the base AE did in fact attract. A Fox is not going to start a movement to protect the rights and safety of chickens...
One last thing. It has been pointed out that the AE Board of Directors, in their bylaws, has taken care to assert definitively that they will take any and all steps necessary to assure that their intentions are not thwarted. Absolute authority to take any action, public or covert, to assure their will is done. In the name of all Americans Elect delegates. Period.
You tell me what I could say. We are the 99%. We ARE the 99%.
Yes. It's said to be funded by hedge fund operators. The names Bloomberg and Petraeus get touted. Scary stuff.