Guest MikeSC Report post Posted November 1, 2004 Foreign teams set to monitor balloting By Betsy Pisik THE WASHINGTON TIMES About 60 mainly European election observers have taken up their posts in six states, including Florida and Ohio, saying they hope their presence will serve as a "preventative to the shenanigans" during voting tomorrow. "We will tell the people of Ohio whether their election is free and fair," said one of the observers, Hugo Coveliers, a Belgian senator who plans to monitor voting in Cleveland. But many of the parliamentary observers sponsored by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) are here to learn about the American electoral experience as much as to monitor it. Several sat up straight during a lecture late last week by former Republican National Committee Chairman Frank Fahrenkopf when he talked about wedge issues and how to concentrate resources where they will produce the most ballots. "That's not a bad idea," whispered one Eastern European observer to a colleague. "This may be useful next year." The observers all are legislators who have volunteered to observe the U.S. elections at the request of the OSCE, a 55-member alliance founded in 1975 to foster East-West cooperation and monitor compliance with the Helsinki Accords. This is not the first time the OSCE has sent monitors to the United States, but it is the largest and most controversial of its U.S. missions. The Bush administration issued the invitation only reluctantly, and the presence of the Europeans has angered many Americans, who see it as an infringement of U.S. sovereignty. The observers have already fanned out to Florida, New Mexico, Minnesota, Ohio, North Carolina and Virginia. After meeting with local officials and voters groups, the observers — whose home countries range from Belgium to Kazakhstan — will spend Election Day watching the polls. The OSCE rules do not allow observers to do much more than make sure that local rules are followed. If they see someone burning ballots in the alley, they are not permitted to interfere. Nor are they supposed to criticize the army of lawyers, negative advertising or simplistic campaign speeches that many of them seem to find jarring. Nevertheless, the observers hope their presence will serve as a "preventative to the shenanigans," said Mr. Coveliers, the Belgian senator. "What [the voters] can be sure about is, if there are obvious shortcomings, an international organization of 55 countries will declare there are shortcomings." OSCE officials also see the exercise as an opportunity for the organization to demonstrate its own fairness. Many Eastern European nations are frustrated by the OSCE's focus on monitoring elections in emerging democracies, explained Andreas Nothelle, a German parliamentarian who is now an ambassador at the organization's Vienna, Austria, headquarters. "It is important to see the organization applying the same standards to everybody," he said. The program has not been easy to coordinate: The Greek delegation, which won the coveted Fort Lauderdale, Fla., slot, confounded the OSCE by refusing to stay in nonsmoking hotel rooms. The Russians and Kazakhs must monitor elections within driving distance of Washington because their governments cannot afford to fly them around the United States, according to Vitaly Evseyev, a Russian official with the OSCE. There are few concerns about voting plans in North Carolina and Virginia, he added, "but they really want to experience a U.S. election. They're not here to look for trouble." During an intense two-day briefing on the American political system from federal election officials, technocrats, political experts and others, the Europeans received a crash course in U.S. political history and theory, as well as a primer on how complex and expensive the U.S. political process has become. When Federal Election Commission information officer Greg Scott told them that candidates, their political parties and other groups will have spent more than $1 billion on the 2004 campaign, they nodded and frowned. When they heard that the average U.S. congressional candidate raises about $1 million and a senator four times that, they gasped. "It would be impossible to spend that much money in Switzerland," marveled Cleveland observer Barbara Haering, a full-time environmental lawyer and member of Switzerland's part-time parliament, "probably because we are not allowed to advertise on television." The delegates are from Greece, Belgium, Denmark, Cyprus, Sweden, Serbia-Montenegro, Kazakhstan, Romania, Switzerland, France, Malta, Albania, Romania, Norway, Finland, Italy, Russia, Monaco, Belarus, Estonia and Turkey. http://www.washtimes.com/world/20041101-122925-6356r.htm -=Mike Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kkktookmybabyaway 0 Report post Posted November 1, 2004 Ugh. In an unrelated story -- I went to McDonalds for lunch and at the intersection were a bunch of Kerry supporters holding signs, etc. I wound the window down and gave them a "thumbs down." I was too busy looking at the road to see what their reaction was... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Swift Terror 0 Report post Posted November 1, 2004 uh oh, kkk, sounds like "shenanigans" to me Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Styles 0 Report post Posted November 1, 2004 KKK was disenfranchising those voters by intimidating them from voting and stiffling their free speech! Yeah, this year's election bullshit with all the lawyers, observers, campaign operatives, etc. will make 2000 look like clockwork. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
bobobrazil1984 0 Report post Posted November 1, 2004 Perhaps, if you see any at your polling place.... you should attack them physically and violently... before you go vote. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kkktookmybabyaway 0 Report post Posted November 1, 2004 KKK was disenfranchising those voters by intimidating them from voting and stiffling their free speech! Funny enough, I had an empty can ready to throw if my thumbs-down was reacted to in a manner that might cause damage to the car I was driving... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
NoCalMike 0 Report post Posted November 1, 2004 Similar story here. I was on my way to school, and as I exited the freeway, there was a small group of folks in my age group holding up Bush '04 signs. At first I was compelled to roll down my window for the thumbs down, but then I noticed one of them was a super hot blonde with big tits, and a top that was about five times to small for her cans. How could I give her a thumbs down? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest El Satanico Report post Posted November 1, 2004 Shame on those Bush supporters for taking advantage of an easily manipulated blonde. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest BDC Report post Posted November 1, 2004 Shame on that blonde for not manipulating Mike into voting for Bush! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest MikeSC Report post Posted November 1, 2004 People have to deal with it: Republicans have much hotter chicks. -=Mike ...MUCH hotter chicks... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Styles 0 Report post Posted November 2, 2004 People have to deal with it: Republicans have much hotter chicks. -=Mike ...MUCH hotter chicks... and better sex: http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/News/story?id=180291 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rob E Dangerously 0 Report post Posted November 2, 2004 People have to deal with it: Republicans have much hotter chicks. -=Mike ...MUCH hotter chicks... That's probably true. Why else did James Carville marry Mary Matalin.. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest MikeSC Report post Posted November 2, 2004 People have to deal with it: Republicans have much hotter chicks. -=Mike ...MUCH hotter chicks... That's probably true. Why else did James Carville marry Mary Matalin.. In his case, it's that "Beggars can't be choosers" thing. -=Mike ...Bella Abzug wasn't a Republican. Then again, I'm not convinced she was a woman... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rob E Dangerously 0 Report post Posted November 2, 2004 People have to deal with it: Republicans have much hotter chicks. -=Mike ...MUCH hotter chicks... That's probably true. Why else did James Carville marry Mary Matalin.. In his case, it's that "Beggars can't be choosers" thing. -=Mike ...Bella Abzug wasn't a Republican. Then again, I'm not convinced she was a woman... to be fair. Carville probably had hair when he married Matalin. Maybe. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest MikeSC Report post Posted November 2, 2004 Nah. In a shocking twist, Carville didn't have hair EVER. He was born bald and it never changed... -=Mike Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rob E Dangerously 0 Report post Posted November 2, 2004 Nah. In a shocking twist, Carville didn't have hair EVER. He was born bald and it never changed... -=Mike He could have gotten a rug from Jim Traficant if he wanted one Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest MikeSC Report post Posted November 2, 2004 Nah. In a shocking twist, Carville didn't have hair EVER. He was born bald and it never changed... -=Mike He could have gotten a rug from Jim Traficant if he wanted one Good luck getting it off the head of that crazy drunk guy. I LOVED Traficant. -=Mike Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Rob E Dangerously 0 Report post Posted November 2, 2004 Nah. In a shocking twist, Carville didn't have hair EVER. He was born bald and it never changed... -=Mike He could have gotten a rug from Jim Traficant if he wanted one Good luck getting it off the head of that crazy drunk guy. I LOVED Traficant. -=Mike nobody was really that surprised when the truth about Traficant's hair was revealed. And yeah.. Traficant was someone to watch CSPAN for. As was Bob Dornan. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest MikeSC Report post Posted November 2, 2004 Nah. In a shocking twist, Carville didn't have hair EVER. He was born bald and it never changed... -=Mike He could have gotten a rug from Jim Traficant if he wanted one Good luck getting it off the head of that crazy drunk guy. I LOVED Traficant. -=Mike nobody was really that surprised when the truth about Traficant's hair was revealed. And yeah.. Traficant was someone to watch CSPAN for. As was Bob Dornan. Tucker Carlson actually have a good reason to love the guy: He was willing to appear on-air drunk off his ass. -=Mike Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MrRant 0 Report post Posted November 2, 2004 KKK was disenfranchising those voters by intimidating them from voting and stiffling their free speech! Funny enough, I had an empty can ready to throw if my thumbs-down was reacted to in a manner that might cause damage to the car I was driving... An empty can? I'd throw a full can. You've gotten soft. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
CheesalaIsGood 0 Report post Posted November 2, 2004 Is Ashley Banfield a republican? If so I will end up agreeing with Mike about the hotter chicks being GOP. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kkktookmybabyaway 0 Report post Posted November 2, 2004 An empty can? I'd throw a full can. You've gotten soft. Hell no, hippie. I'm not wasting a can of pop on some pseudo-hippie. I'll probably see them again today... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
