Michael Marks
New member
Critical issues have come up around the atrocity going on in Florida, and as an American citizen, you owe it to yourself to read this and take action. This has gone beyond the normal muck and back-room dealing we are used to in American politics. This is election theft in its most base and repulsive form. Al Gore is stealing the 2000 Presidential election and will succeed unless we take action. This isn't just another Gore lie like all the others, this is subversion of the election process. He is trying to reduce us to the likes of any Third-World banana-republic where elections are a farce and freedom is forgotten. Please read this carefully and consider how vitally important these issues are. I am not being dramatic when I earnestly tell you that the very foundation of the United States of America is at stake.
1. Election Tampering by the Networks : The House of Representatives has called for a hearing to determine whether or not the major networks deliberately interfered with the election process by falsely calling state victories while polls were still open. Think about this for a moment. Florida has spread across two time zones since time zones were first invented. This is not a last-minute oversight, this was a clear and intentional attempt on the part of the network to deny voters in an overwhelmingly Republican part of the state their right to vote, and it worked. Thousands of voters have been cited as having left their polling places under the outright lie that the state had already been won by Gore. (House GOP Miffed at Networks; Jim Abrams Associated Press Writer , Thursday, Nov. 16, 2000; 3:01 p.m. EST - see article at footnote #1 below)
2. Election Tampering by Democratic Officials : On November 9th, Irving Slosberg was caught by police in illegal posession of an official state voting machine in his car. Slosberg, a democratic member of the Florida state legislature, was already under investigation for allegations that he tampered with his own election by buying votes. Having illegally removed a voting machine from a polling place, Slosberg had the ability to create additional ballots, or to double-punch and thereby invalidate existing ballots. Palm Beach County’s supervisor of elections, Theresa LePore, (also a Democrat) declined to press charges, according to the report. “She noted that this incident did occur during the hand count of the presidential election and LePore stated she did not wish to pursue further this matter at this time due to extenuating circumstances.” She admitted that this was a crime, a crime which likely had direct impact on the election process. The "extenuating circumstance" is that presing charges could cause her candidate to lose. (see article at footnote #2 below)
3. Ignoring the Law : The laws and precedents on resolving an election inquiry are quite clear. The closeness of the race triggered an automatic recount, which verified the original tally. George Bush has won the Florida election on three different recounts already... there is NO QUESTION WHATSOEVER that Bush has won according to the rules. But in his grotesque hunger for power at all costs, Al Gore has since insisted, with no foundation under law, for a series of successive "recounts" which are not recounts at all. They are now "interpreting" votes. That means politicians are either GUESSING at what they THINK a voter meant, or they are looking for ways to declare that any unclear vote can be applied to the client of their choice. Even if you eliminate all trace of malicious intent, the simple fact is that this action has no scientific basis whatsoever. You might as well toss them in the air and say that vote that fall face-up are for Bush and face-down are for Gore. We MUST maintain the integrity of our election process. Any, I repeat ANY election can be stolen if you give one side the ability to manually alter the ballots and change the rules enough times. This insanity MUST stop!!
Given the now documented presence of vote tampering by the networks, the gross likelihood of ballot tampering with stolen voting equipment, and the fact that the Secretary of Florida has already issued her decision based on the laws of the State, there can be no doubt as to the absolute necessity that the election process be closed and George Bush be declared the rightful winner under Florida state law.
Edmund Burke said "The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is that good men do nothing." Today that is more true than ever. If we remain silent and allow this travesty to continue, Al Gore will STEAL this election and the American electoral process will never be the same again. If you love your country, if you have even the slightest sense of outrage that a career politician and pathological liar is stealing the Presidency of this country in broad daylight, then get involved. Call the White House, call your Senators and Representatives, send your support to Ms. Katherine Harris (Secretary of Florida, who is courageously standing alone on the front line of this fight - see my note to her as footnote #3 below). Go to every web-based poll you can find and vote against this atrocity. Post this on every message board. Print out copies and pass them out at the office or grocery store. Tie up phone lines. Organize a rally. March in the streets and exercise your freedom of speech. This is no longer a debate, its a fight. A fight we cannot afford to lose.
Right now, pick up a phone or write a blistering email to any (or preferably ALL) of the contacts below. I wrote a message which I sent to everybody on the list. (see a copy of that message at footnote #4 below) It's your turn. Don't be shy, don't be polite; be angry and loud, be pasionate and tell 'em what you think. Demand that they do the right thing. If we sit quietly, we will let them know they can take anything they want because we are too gutless to make a peep about it. I don't believe that. I believe we are still a nation of fighters, that we can rise up with one great shout and keep this nation out of the hands of parasite politicians and their swarm of lawyers and crooks that need stolen voting machines and court orders to steal an election.
The White House:
telephone (202) 456-4114
FAX
202)456-2461
e-mail
president@whitehouse.gov
The Vice President's Office:
telephone202) 274-5000
FAX202) 456-2883
e-mail
vice.president@whitehouse.gov
Vice President's Senate Office:
telephone: (202) 224-2424
Senator Tom Daschle (Senate Democratic Leader): (202) 224-2321
Also: (202) 224-5556
Representative Dick Gephardt (House Democratic Leader): (202) 225-2671
Also: (202) 225--0100
Also, be sure to call your congressmen and both your senators. All these numbers are easily located on voter.com.
You can also contact them through :
The U.S. Capitol Switchboard (all Senators and Representatives):
(202) 224-3121
Another office to call is that of Chicago's Mayor Richard M.Daley (the brother of Gore's campaign manager, Bill Daley):
Telephone: (312) 744-3300
FAX: (312) 744-2324
A COLLECTION OF KEY MEDIA CONTACTS - FLOOD THEM WITH YOUR OPINIONS:
Boston Globe
(617) 929-2000
Matthew V. Storin, Editor
(617) 929-3049
e-mail: storin@globe.com
Boston Herald
Andrew Costello, Editor
(617) 619-6400
e-mail: acostello@bostonherald.com
Chicago Sun-Times:
(312) 321-3000
Michael Cooke, Editor in Chief
e-mail: mcooke@suntimes.com
Chicago Tribune
(800) 874-2863
Howard A. Tyner, Editor
e-mail: ChiEd@aol.com
Bruce Dold, Editorial Page Editor
e-mail: bdold@tribune.com
Los Angeles Times
(213) 237-7935 (opinion department)
(213) 237-4511 and Fax: (213) 237-7679 (letters to the editor)
(202) 293-4650 (Washington bureau)
e-mail: http://www.latimes.com (follow prompts to e-mail windows)
New York Post
(212) 930-8000
John Mancini, News
e-mail: jmancini@nypost.com
New York Times
(212) 556-1234
Joseph Lelyveld, Executive Editor
Letters to the Editor
fax: (212) 556-3622
e-mail: letters@nytimes.com.
Philadelphia Inquirer
(215) 854-4500
Letters to the editor:
Inquirer.Letters@phillynews.com
USA Today
(703) 276-3400
Karen Jurgenson, Editor
e-mail: http://www.usatoday.com and follow feedback prompts
Washington Post
(202) 334-6000
Fred Hiatt, Editorial Page Editor
e-mail: hiattf@washpost.com
Time
e-mail: letters@time.com
ABC
e-mail: http://abc.go.com/abc/help/contact.html
CNN
(404) 827-1500
CBS
(212) 975-4321
MSNBC
e-mail: World@MSNBC.com
NBC
NBC-Nightly News: e-mail: Nightly@NBC.com
NBC Today Show: e-mail: Today@NBC.com
FOOTNOTE #1 : ARTICLE REPORTING ALLEGATIONS OF ELECTION TAMPERING BY NETWORKS
House GOP Miffed at Network
Jim Abrams Associated Press Writer
Thursday, Nov. 16, 2000; 3:01 p.m. EST
WASHINGTON . House Republicans on Thursday accused the television networks of being biased toward Vice President Al Gore in their election-night winner calls.
They said early calls for Gore could have affected the outcome in Florida and discouraged Republican voters in other parts of the country.
Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-La., said that by making early calls on states going to Gore and delaying calls on states Texas Gov. George W. Bush was carrying, "you receive a picture of America believing that Al Gore was sweeping the country, that George W. Bush was having trouble carrying his states."
He said there was a "very disturbing picture, I think, of probable bias."
Tauzin, who chairs the House Commerce subcommittee on telecommunications, said he plans to hold hearings on media coverage of the election either in December, when Congress returns to its lame-duck session, or more likely when the new Congress convenes in January.
CNN Chairman Tom Johnson, in two letters to Tauzin Thursday, said he would name an independent advisory committee to look into what went wrong in the news network's election night coverage. But he added that "as chairman of CNN, I state categorically there was no intentional bias in the election night reporting."
Su-Lin Nichols of ABC News said the network was undertaking a "top to bottom review of our election night projections. ... We take this matter very seriously and intend to review all of the facts so that we can institute changes to ensure that this situation does not occur again."
Tauzin claimed there were delays in calling nine states that Bush won by at least six percentage points but there were no delays in any state that Gore carried by six percentage points. His data used CNN as a source.
Between 7:49 p.m. and 8 p.m. EST Tuesday, NBC, CBS, CNN, Fox, ABC and The Associated Press all called Florida for Gore. Some two hours later the networks and the AP began pulling back that projection as actual voter count revealed how close the race was. Early Wednesday the networks declared the state for Bush, effectively giving him the presidency, but then had to retreat again when the vote ended in a near tie. The AP did not call the race for Bush, either in Florida or for the presidency. Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., said the early call giving Florida to Gore could have affected thousands of votes in the state's Panhandle, a stronghold for Bush where the polls closed an hour after the rest of the state because the area is in the central time zone.
Earlier this week, elections officials in at least three counties in the Florida Panhandle said they had no evidence of voters discouraged by the network calls. Brenda Renfroe, assistant supervisor of elections for Escambia County in Pensacola, said the TV call was made only about 15 minutes before polls closed.
"I can't imagine anyone in line would have heard it, and we didn't have any reports of anyone walking away," Renfroe said.
But the centrist Republican Leadership Council said Thursday it had commissioned a phone survey of more than 35,000 Panhandle voters in which 2,380 Bush supporters said they decided not to vote after hearing that Gore had won the state.
Rep. Chris Cox, R-Calif., said giving Florida and other crucial states to Pennsylvania and Michigan to Gore while polls on the West Coast were still open was in part responsible for the lowest turnout in California since 1972. He said the outcome of several close House races in his state that went to Democrats may have been affected because Republican voters were discouraged.
Tauzin said that, in preparation for hearings, his staff would be talking to the Voter News Service about how election-night calls were made. VNS is a consortium of the networks and AP that uses voter exit polls and actual results to help make election projections.
Under a 1985 agreement, the networks usually have withheld using voter exit polls to call elections until most polls in a given state are closed.
Tauzin said the basis of his data came from work done by David Eisenhower, grandson of former President Eisenhower, who works for the Annenberg Project.
¢© Copyright 2000 The Associated Press
FOOTNOTE #2 : ARTICLE REPORTING DEMOCRATIC THEFT OF OFFICIAL VOTING MACHINE
Missing Voting Mechanism Recovered
Police Say Florida State Rep. Irving Slosberg, a Democrat, Had a "Votomatic" in His Car
By Chris Vlasto and David Ruppe
Nov. 15 Several days after presidential votes were tallied in what has become the hotbed of Florida’s post-election confusion, police in Palm Beach County confiscated a ballot-box mechanism from the car of a well-known local Democrat.
The mechanism, called a “Votomatic,” did not contain any ballots. It’s a device used on some types of ballot boxes to punch votes through ballot cards, which are then tallied by computers.
According to a police report filed at the Palm Beach County sheriff’s office and obtained by ABCNEWS, Irving Slosberg, 53, pulled the mechanism from his car and handed it over to police on Nov. 11 after denying to a county government employee that he had it.
When told of the incident, Palm Beach County’s supervisor of elections, Theresa LePore, declined to press charges, according to the report. “She noted that this incident did occur during the hand count of the presidential election and LePore stated she did not wish to pursue further this matter at this time due to extenuating circumstances,” it said. No further action was taken.
County Official Contacts Authorities
Slosberg, a 53-year-old resident of nearby Boca Raton who owns a handbag company, recently won a seat in the state Legislature amid allegations he tried to buy his election. The officer who filed the report, Deputy Sheriff Daniel Grose, had been working a special elections detail when he was contacted by Denise Cote, director of public affairs for Palm Beach County. Cote said she believed Slosberg had an official Palm Beach County ballot box, according to the police report.
Cote told the deputy she first wanted to speak with Slosberg alone to convince him to give the machinery back, but she asked the officer to stand by. Ten minutes later, Cote returned to the officer and said Slosberg had become confrontational and denied having the mechanism.
“I asked Mr. Slosberg to return it to me, and he said no, he intended to use it,” Cote told ABCNEWS.com. She said Slosberg did not say how he wanted to use it and he declined to say how he had obtained it.
“I was told by the county’s attorney’s office that it must have been taken from a voting booth, because there was no other way that he could have obtained it,” Cote said. When the officer asked Slosberg whether he had the item, Slosberg led the officer to his car and handed over the Votomatic, according to the police report.
Elected After a Recount
Slosberg won his new seat during a heated and extremely close election.
Just days before a Democratic runoff, which he won, his opponent, incumbent Curt Levine, filed a state ethics complaint, accusing Slosberg of trying to buy the election by giving away thousands of handbags and paying retirees phony consulting fees.
Slosberg’s defeat of Levine practically guaranteed him a term that reportedly pays nearly $27,000 a year for representing the Boca Raton district. On Nov. 7, he defeated a lesser-known write-in candidate, Robert A. Sloan III, in the general election.
In the primary election, Slosberg had barely squeaked past Levine. He reportedly had 50.5 percent of the votes to Levine’s 49.5 percent. Slosberg was declared the winner after a recount of the votes.
'It Disappeared’
A Palm Beach Post political columnist wrote Monday that Slosberg had been “schlepping” the mechanism around the county government center “like a traveling election equipment salesman.”
“He was happy to provide a demonstration of the county’s ballot problems for anyone with a TV camera last week,” wrote columnist George Bennett.
But Slosberg was no longer toting the visual aid Saturday night, after Mary McCarty, a Palm Beach County commissioner, demanded to know how he got his hands on a piece of official county voting machinery, Bennett wrote.
“It disappeared,” Slosberg said Sunday when asked about the Votomatic.
FOOTNOTE #3 : A MESSAGE OF SUPPORT TO KATHERINE HARRIS, FLORIDA SECRETARY OF STATE
Ms. Katherine Harris
Florida Secretary of State
email : secretary@mail.dos.state.fl.us
Dear Ms. Harris,
In the midst of a grotesque and unfair attack by a desperate Democratic party to overturn the legal outcome of the current presidential election, I want you to know how much I admire and appreciate the strength and integrity you have demonstrated throughout these trying days. The attempts by Vice President Gore and his confederates to invoke ad-hoc changes to the established voting laws is nothing short of reprehensible. But with the weight of a biased media behind them, they might have been able to crumble some officials under a barrage of unfounded negative characterizations. It is clear that you are cut from a better cloth than either Gore or his leeches can understand or appreciate.
Although I now reside in Virginia I lived in Florida for most of my life. I received two degrees from the University of Florida and I consider Florida my first home. While a vocal few in Palm Beach have conducted themselves in a shameless and unethical manner, I want you to know that your perseverance has made me very proud to say that we are from the same state. A state where right and wrong have meaning, where the integrity of the law is not for sale. Please remember that you hold my unwavering support, as I am sure the support of a vast majority of Americans, Republican and Democrat alike, who are sickened and horrified as to how far Al Gore will go to steal an election and prostitute the American electoral process. The action you take in this matter will echo in the posterity of our history. Thank you for having the wisdom to see the truth, and the guts to fight for it.
With my sincere best wishes for your continued success,
And my heartfelt thanks,
FOOTNOTE #4 : AN OPEN EDITORIAL SENT TO EVERYBODY ON THE LIST ABOVE
In the midst of the debacle that began as Election2000, I decided to go to the Thomas Jefferson Memorial and consider the impact of the past week on a nation that Jefferson was so instrumental in creating. A passionate man who cherished the ideals of freedom, Jefferson was vehemently outspoken. Railing against the current government, Jefferson backed up his words with his life, his property and his honor. I thought that on the historic shore of the Potomac, surrounded by the writings of a man whose vision, courage and integrity helped fashion our Republic, that I should be able to frame this election in a proper context.
Frankly, I also wanted to see if the great patriot had rolled over in his grave.
The ongoing actions of Al Gore in this election are nothing short of dispicable. Clearly cut from the same cloth as his mentor Bill Clinton, Gore has pressed ahead under the premise that any lie, if supported by the media and repeated loudly enough, will become truth. Any why not? It has worked for Bill Clinton for the last eight years. It has worked not because it is right, but because we have allowed it to. While Jefferson stood in the face of bullets, we have been cowed into mute silence for fear of being called insensitive. While patriots saw their homes burn in the fight for a Republic, we have been gagged and disarmed by nothing more than the fear of being termed politically incorrect. Standing next to Jefferson's grave, considering all he sacrificed to hand us a nation unlike any other, I was ashamed.
We should all be ashamed.
In little over two hundred years we have gone from a nation that fought in the streets for freedom to a silent flock of sheep willing to accept any lie as long as it is delivered on television under the weight of a dozen polls. We have watched much of the news media degrade from a watchdog of the public good to a manipulative lobby group that shapes the news as much as they report it.
If Jefferson were alive today he would be leading an angry mob to kick down the doors of public office and throw the likes of Al Gore into the street. Along the way, our furious forefather would likely smack half of us in the head and berate us for sitting in a TV-induced coma while our hard-won birthright was chopped up and carried away piece by piece. But we sit silent, afraid to speak. Jefferson stood in public squares and raged against injustice. We can't pick up a phone or write a letter. Oh yeah, we should be ashamed all right.
Consider the facts of this election. The Palm Beach ballot was certainly no less confusing when it appeared in the newspapers and mailboxes of voters across the county in the weeks before the election. If it was so incomprehensible, why weren't the phones ringing off the hook with concerned voters demanding a clarification? Where was Jesse Jackson when those poor people were kept in the dark? Why did both Republican and Democrat officials responsible for certifying the ballot deem that it was sufficiently clear? And how was it that hundreds of thousands of other Florida voters seemed to use the same ballot flawlessly?
The fact is that for many of those befuddled voters, election day was the first moment they bothered to look at a ballot. They did not care enough to make sure they could cast their own vote properly and now they expect the nation to pay for their lack of effort. It is the politics of hindsight, the agenda of "would have, could have" instead of reality. It is a last-ditch effort of losers to con us into giving away a victory already won. And it is working.
An election is not a process designed to make us all feel good about ourselves, it is a process which operates under a long-established set of rules. Through election we invoke our most sacred right to soberly and thoughtfully choose those who will serve the nation in public office. Elections are governed by rules. Once the votes are in, there will always be unhappy losers and people who later wish they had voted or voted differently. The reality for the losers of any contest remains the same: Too bad. Work harder next time.
The law clearly states that the burden has always been on the general public to make themselves aware of the candidates and the issues, as well as the process of voting. Yet we find ourselves once again wrapped in a frenzied debate driven by the anguished cries of what should be or could be, what is fair and what isn't. But law is not about situational ethics and what seems fair at the moment. Law is about a set of rules, written in black and white. We have lost sight of that fact, and as a result we will swallow any lie fed to us.
The Clinton/Gore administration has been eight years of lies. Sadly there are too many to list, but let's consider two of the most memorable:
"I smoked dope but I didn't inhale." There is not a parent in the country who would buy this lame story from their own kid, but we accepted it from a Presidential candidate. And who cares about inhaling? The law is not against inhaling. Buying dope, posessing it, rolling it, lighting it and sucking the smoke into your mouth has been more than enough to put countless drug-users behind bars.
Better yet was "I didn't have sex with that woman." For crying out loud, she had your genetalia in her mouth Bill. I challenge any woman reading this: would you accept that excuse if it were your husband or boyfriend explaining to you why the girl with her face in his lap wasn't really having sex? And guys, how many of you think you could make that argument fly with your own wife or girlfirend?
Yet in the face of these obvious lies, Gore remained Clinton's #1 cheerleader. Rather than encourage Clinton to admit the obvious truth, Al "Mr. Family Values" Gore danced to the lie and encouraged us all to believe it. He placed his hand on the lies and swore to them, and in doing so he made them his own. The fact remains that they were lies, pure and simple.
But instead of getting angry that we were lied to, we allowed the media to wrap us around the axle as to why Clinton cheated or whether cheating on his wife impacts his ability to do the job. Who cares? Do we care WHY a murderer kills or a thief steals? No. It was never about Clinton being a dope-smoking adulterer, it was about him being a liar. And make no mistake, Clinton and Gore have made careers out of lying.
They do so when telling the truth would have been easier; it is simply their nature to lie. If the response to the Monica fiasco had been "Sure I did it, so what?" it would have been reduced to a matter of betrayal between a husband and wife and frankly, as most Americans, I would have ceased to care. But when he looked into the camera with Gore solemnly at his side and said "I did not do it" when we all knew he did, he lied to me. Not to his wife. Not to his daughter. To me. And coming from a public servant, that is inexcusable.
Gore has demonstrated in harsh clarity that when it comes to lying, he has learned at the feet of the master. From his insane claim of inventing the internet and his denial of accepting illegal campaign contributions from the Bhuddist Temple, to his publicly proven lie about visiting disaster sites, the "honesty question" was a major public focal point throughout Gore's campaign. For those of you who aren't up on your politically correct lingo, someone with an "honesty question" is a liar, someone you can't trust. Someone who should not be in the White House.
When Clinton/Gore won the 1996 election, the Democrats did not give a damn about the 16,000 votes in Palm Beach county that were thrown away at that time. But when the 2000 election was won last week by George Bush, Gore's story changed. He demanded a recount and still lost. He demanded another manual recount and lost once more. Then he demanded an "interpretational recount" where hand-picked government figures would look over the ballots and divine, perhaps through some unique God-given wisdom that only politicians have, just what the voters really intended when they punched a given ballot. Gore believes that politicians should re-cast those votes of the poor helpless citizens who obviously didn't know how to vote by themselves.
What utter crap. What an insult to America. If I was allowed to change the rules of golf enough times over enough games I could beat Tiger Woods. With enough recounts and enough made-up rule changes Gore can steal this election. He is doing it in broad daylight and he is counting on you and I to sit quietly and watch on the sideline. Don't speak, just shut up and watch CNN like good little children. After all, the news can't be wrong, can it?
This atrocity cannot be allowed to continue. Politicians are not high-powered corporate executives, they are civil servants who work for us. In some cases they are people who have never held a job in the same real world where you and I fight to claw out a living every day. Some politicians have only the skill necessary to win a popularity contest once every four years. And for that skill we hand them our trust and our checkbooks. We blindly give them the ability to redefine our rights and spend our money. We grant to them the highest level of public trust. For that kind of trust, I certainly demand an honest answer. Big issue or small, don't EVER lie to me. A politician's ability to tell the truth is an absolute requirement to do the job, and Al Gore clearly lacks that ability.
The legacy Al Gore has given us through this selfishness is to set a precedent that will haunt us, perhaps forever. By putting his own ambition ahead of the good of the nation Gore has guaranteed that, at every election in the future, lawyers will be poised and ready to file motions the moment their candidate loses. Election rules will be as laughable as impeachment rules have already become. Because in the new system, there are no rules. Just lie. Lie often and stick to the lie. Send your lawyers to the courtroom and your spin doctors to the TV station. Appeal to the weak and listless because the strong are too scared to lift a finger. That's how to win in America today. That's the Clinton/Gore legacy that we will pass on to our kids if we sit idly by and let this election travesty continue.
Pick up a pen. Pick up a phone. Speak from your heart, not from the abbreviated dictionary of political correctness. Speak with passion, because if this isn't worth fighting over, nothing is. Its your right. Its okay to get angry, that's how we became a nation in the first place.
As I mulled these thoughts a dull thud and a mournful sigh drifted up from Jefferson's grave.
"I hope you are getting up instead of just rolling over" I whispered sadly, "we need you now more than ever."
===========================================================
This is a personal editorial from an outraged American taxpayer.
1. Election Tampering by the Networks : The House of Representatives has called for a hearing to determine whether or not the major networks deliberately interfered with the election process by falsely calling state victories while polls were still open. Think about this for a moment. Florida has spread across two time zones since time zones were first invented. This is not a last-minute oversight, this was a clear and intentional attempt on the part of the network to deny voters in an overwhelmingly Republican part of the state their right to vote, and it worked. Thousands of voters have been cited as having left their polling places under the outright lie that the state had already been won by Gore. (House GOP Miffed at Networks; Jim Abrams Associated Press Writer , Thursday, Nov. 16, 2000; 3:01 p.m. EST - see article at footnote #1 below)
2. Election Tampering by Democratic Officials : On November 9th, Irving Slosberg was caught by police in illegal posession of an official state voting machine in his car. Slosberg, a democratic member of the Florida state legislature, was already under investigation for allegations that he tampered with his own election by buying votes. Having illegally removed a voting machine from a polling place, Slosberg had the ability to create additional ballots, or to double-punch and thereby invalidate existing ballots. Palm Beach County’s supervisor of elections, Theresa LePore, (also a Democrat) declined to press charges, according to the report. “She noted that this incident did occur during the hand count of the presidential election and LePore stated she did not wish to pursue further this matter at this time due to extenuating circumstances.” She admitted that this was a crime, a crime which likely had direct impact on the election process. The "extenuating circumstance" is that presing charges could cause her candidate to lose. (see article at footnote #2 below)
3. Ignoring the Law : The laws and precedents on resolving an election inquiry are quite clear. The closeness of the race triggered an automatic recount, which verified the original tally. George Bush has won the Florida election on three different recounts already... there is NO QUESTION WHATSOEVER that Bush has won according to the rules. But in his grotesque hunger for power at all costs, Al Gore has since insisted, with no foundation under law, for a series of successive "recounts" which are not recounts at all. They are now "interpreting" votes. That means politicians are either GUESSING at what they THINK a voter meant, or they are looking for ways to declare that any unclear vote can be applied to the client of their choice. Even if you eliminate all trace of malicious intent, the simple fact is that this action has no scientific basis whatsoever. You might as well toss them in the air and say that vote that fall face-up are for Bush and face-down are for Gore. We MUST maintain the integrity of our election process. Any, I repeat ANY election can be stolen if you give one side the ability to manually alter the ballots and change the rules enough times. This insanity MUST stop!!
Given the now documented presence of vote tampering by the networks, the gross likelihood of ballot tampering with stolen voting equipment, and the fact that the Secretary of Florida has already issued her decision based on the laws of the State, there can be no doubt as to the absolute necessity that the election process be closed and George Bush be declared the rightful winner under Florida state law.
Edmund Burke said "The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is that good men do nothing." Today that is more true than ever. If we remain silent and allow this travesty to continue, Al Gore will STEAL this election and the American electoral process will never be the same again. If you love your country, if you have even the slightest sense of outrage that a career politician and pathological liar is stealing the Presidency of this country in broad daylight, then get involved. Call the White House, call your Senators and Representatives, send your support to Ms. Katherine Harris (Secretary of Florida, who is courageously standing alone on the front line of this fight - see my note to her as footnote #3 below). Go to every web-based poll you can find and vote against this atrocity. Post this on every message board. Print out copies and pass them out at the office or grocery store. Tie up phone lines. Organize a rally. March in the streets and exercise your freedom of speech. This is no longer a debate, its a fight. A fight we cannot afford to lose.
Right now, pick up a phone or write a blistering email to any (or preferably ALL) of the contacts below. I wrote a message which I sent to everybody on the list. (see a copy of that message at footnote #4 below) It's your turn. Don't be shy, don't be polite; be angry and loud, be pasionate and tell 'em what you think. Demand that they do the right thing. If we sit quietly, we will let them know they can take anything they want because we are too gutless to make a peep about it. I don't believe that. I believe we are still a nation of fighters, that we can rise up with one great shout and keep this nation out of the hands of parasite politicians and their swarm of lawyers and crooks that need stolen voting machines and court orders to steal an election.
The White House:
telephone (202) 456-4114
FAX
202)456-2461president@whitehouse.gov
The Vice President's Office:
telephone
202) 274-5000FAX
202) 456-2883vice.president@whitehouse.gov
Vice President's Senate Office:
telephone: (202) 224-2424
Senator Tom Daschle (Senate Democratic Leader): (202) 224-2321
Also: (202) 224-5556
Representative Dick Gephardt (House Democratic Leader): (202) 225-2671
Also: (202) 225--0100
Also, be sure to call your congressmen and both your senators. All these numbers are easily located on voter.com.
You can also contact them through :
The U.S. Capitol Switchboard (all Senators and Representatives):
(202) 224-3121
Another office to call is that of Chicago's Mayor Richard M.Daley (the brother of Gore's campaign manager, Bill Daley):
Telephone: (312) 744-3300
FAX: (312) 744-2324
A COLLECTION OF KEY MEDIA CONTACTS - FLOOD THEM WITH YOUR OPINIONS:
Boston Globe
(617) 929-2000
Matthew V. Storin, Editor
(617) 929-3049
e-mail: storin@globe.com
Boston Herald
Andrew Costello, Editor
(617) 619-6400
e-mail: acostello@bostonherald.com
Chicago Sun-Times:
(312) 321-3000
Michael Cooke, Editor in Chief
e-mail: mcooke@suntimes.com
Chicago Tribune
(800) 874-2863
Howard A. Tyner, Editor
e-mail: ChiEd@aol.com
Bruce Dold, Editorial Page Editor
e-mail: bdold@tribune.com
Los Angeles Times
(213) 237-7935 (opinion department)
(213) 237-4511 and Fax: (213) 237-7679 (letters to the editor)
(202) 293-4650 (Washington bureau)
e-mail: http://www.latimes.com (follow prompts to e-mail windows)
New York Post
(212) 930-8000
John Mancini, News
e-mail: jmancini@nypost.com
New York Times
(212) 556-1234
Joseph Lelyveld, Executive Editor
Letters to the Editor
fax: (212) 556-3622
e-mail: letters@nytimes.com.
Philadelphia Inquirer
(215) 854-4500
Letters to the editor:
Inquirer.Letters@phillynews.com
USA Today
(703) 276-3400
Karen Jurgenson, Editor
e-mail: http://www.usatoday.com and follow feedback prompts
Washington Post
(202) 334-6000
Fred Hiatt, Editorial Page Editor
e-mail: hiattf@washpost.com
Time
e-mail: letters@time.com
ABC
e-mail: http://abc.go.com/abc/help/contact.html
CNN
(404) 827-1500
CBS
(212) 975-4321
MSNBC
e-mail: World@MSNBC.com
NBC
NBC-Nightly News: e-mail: Nightly@NBC.com
NBC Today Show: e-mail: Today@NBC.com
FOOTNOTE #1 : ARTICLE REPORTING ALLEGATIONS OF ELECTION TAMPERING BY NETWORKS
House GOP Miffed at Network
Jim Abrams Associated Press Writer
Thursday, Nov. 16, 2000; 3:01 p.m. EST
WASHINGTON . House Republicans on Thursday accused the television networks of being biased toward Vice President Al Gore in their election-night winner calls.
They said early calls for Gore could have affected the outcome in Florida and discouraged Republican voters in other parts of the country.
Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-La., said that by making early calls on states going to Gore and delaying calls on states Texas Gov. George W. Bush was carrying, "you receive a picture of America believing that Al Gore was sweeping the country, that George W. Bush was having trouble carrying his states."
He said there was a "very disturbing picture, I think, of probable bias."
Tauzin, who chairs the House Commerce subcommittee on telecommunications, said he plans to hold hearings on media coverage of the election either in December, when Congress returns to its lame-duck session, or more likely when the new Congress convenes in January.
CNN Chairman Tom Johnson, in two letters to Tauzin Thursday, said he would name an independent advisory committee to look into what went wrong in the news network's election night coverage. But he added that "as chairman of CNN, I state categorically there was no intentional bias in the election night reporting."
Su-Lin Nichols of ABC News said the network was undertaking a "top to bottom review of our election night projections. ... We take this matter very seriously and intend to review all of the facts so that we can institute changes to ensure that this situation does not occur again."
Tauzin claimed there were delays in calling nine states that Bush won by at least six percentage points but there were no delays in any state that Gore carried by six percentage points. His data used CNN as a source.
Between 7:49 p.m. and 8 p.m. EST Tuesday, NBC, CBS, CNN, Fox, ABC and The Associated Press all called Florida for Gore. Some two hours later the networks and the AP began pulling back that projection as actual voter count revealed how close the race was. Early Wednesday the networks declared the state for Bush, effectively giving him the presidency, but then had to retreat again when the vote ended in a near tie. The AP did not call the race for Bush, either in Florida or for the presidency. Rep. Cliff Stearns, R-Fla., said the early call giving Florida to Gore could have affected thousands of votes in the state's Panhandle, a stronghold for Bush where the polls closed an hour after the rest of the state because the area is in the central time zone.
Earlier this week, elections officials in at least three counties in the Florida Panhandle said they had no evidence of voters discouraged by the network calls. Brenda Renfroe, assistant supervisor of elections for Escambia County in Pensacola, said the TV call was made only about 15 minutes before polls closed.
"I can't imagine anyone in line would have heard it, and we didn't have any reports of anyone walking away," Renfroe said.
But the centrist Republican Leadership Council said Thursday it had commissioned a phone survey of more than 35,000 Panhandle voters in which 2,380 Bush supporters said they decided not to vote after hearing that Gore had won the state.
Rep. Chris Cox, R-Calif., said giving Florida and other crucial states to Pennsylvania and Michigan to Gore while polls on the West Coast were still open was in part responsible for the lowest turnout in California since 1972. He said the outcome of several close House races in his state that went to Democrats may have been affected because Republican voters were discouraged.
Tauzin said that, in preparation for hearings, his staff would be talking to the Voter News Service about how election-night calls were made. VNS is a consortium of the networks and AP that uses voter exit polls and actual results to help make election projections.
Under a 1985 agreement, the networks usually have withheld using voter exit polls to call elections until most polls in a given state are closed.
Tauzin said the basis of his data came from work done by David Eisenhower, grandson of former President Eisenhower, who works for the Annenberg Project.
¢© Copyright 2000 The Associated Press
FOOTNOTE #2 : ARTICLE REPORTING DEMOCRATIC THEFT OF OFFICIAL VOTING MACHINE
Missing Voting Mechanism Recovered
Police Say Florida State Rep. Irving Slosberg, a Democrat, Had a "Votomatic" in His Car
By Chris Vlasto and David Ruppe
Nov. 15 Several days after presidential votes were tallied in what has become the hotbed of Florida’s post-election confusion, police in Palm Beach County confiscated a ballot-box mechanism from the car of a well-known local Democrat.
The mechanism, called a “Votomatic,” did not contain any ballots. It’s a device used on some types of ballot boxes to punch votes through ballot cards, which are then tallied by computers.
According to a police report filed at the Palm Beach County sheriff’s office and obtained by ABCNEWS, Irving Slosberg, 53, pulled the mechanism from his car and handed it over to police on Nov. 11 after denying to a county government employee that he had it.
When told of the incident, Palm Beach County’s supervisor of elections, Theresa LePore, declined to press charges, according to the report. “She noted that this incident did occur during the hand count of the presidential election and LePore stated she did not wish to pursue further this matter at this time due to extenuating circumstances,” it said. No further action was taken.
County Official Contacts Authorities
Slosberg, a 53-year-old resident of nearby Boca Raton who owns a handbag company, recently won a seat in the state Legislature amid allegations he tried to buy his election. The officer who filed the report, Deputy Sheriff Daniel Grose, had been working a special elections detail when he was contacted by Denise Cote, director of public affairs for Palm Beach County. Cote said she believed Slosberg had an official Palm Beach County ballot box, according to the police report.
Cote told the deputy she first wanted to speak with Slosberg alone to convince him to give the machinery back, but she asked the officer to stand by. Ten minutes later, Cote returned to the officer and said Slosberg had become confrontational and denied having the mechanism.
“I asked Mr. Slosberg to return it to me, and he said no, he intended to use it,” Cote told ABCNEWS.com. She said Slosberg did not say how he wanted to use it and he declined to say how he had obtained it.
“I was told by the county’s attorney’s office that it must have been taken from a voting booth, because there was no other way that he could have obtained it,” Cote said. When the officer asked Slosberg whether he had the item, Slosberg led the officer to his car and handed over the Votomatic, according to the police report.
Elected After a Recount
Slosberg won his new seat during a heated and extremely close election.
Just days before a Democratic runoff, which he won, his opponent, incumbent Curt Levine, filed a state ethics complaint, accusing Slosberg of trying to buy the election by giving away thousands of handbags and paying retirees phony consulting fees.
Slosberg’s defeat of Levine practically guaranteed him a term that reportedly pays nearly $27,000 a year for representing the Boca Raton district. On Nov. 7, he defeated a lesser-known write-in candidate, Robert A. Sloan III, in the general election.
In the primary election, Slosberg had barely squeaked past Levine. He reportedly had 50.5 percent of the votes to Levine’s 49.5 percent. Slosberg was declared the winner after a recount of the votes.
'It Disappeared’
A Palm Beach Post political columnist wrote Monday that Slosberg had been “schlepping” the mechanism around the county government center “like a traveling election equipment salesman.”
“He was happy to provide a demonstration of the county’s ballot problems for anyone with a TV camera last week,” wrote columnist George Bennett.
But Slosberg was no longer toting the visual aid Saturday night, after Mary McCarty, a Palm Beach County commissioner, demanded to know how he got his hands on a piece of official county voting machinery, Bennett wrote.
“It disappeared,” Slosberg said Sunday when asked about the Votomatic.
FOOTNOTE #3 : A MESSAGE OF SUPPORT TO KATHERINE HARRIS, FLORIDA SECRETARY OF STATE
Ms. Katherine Harris
Florida Secretary of State
email : secretary@mail.dos.state.fl.us
Dear Ms. Harris,
In the midst of a grotesque and unfair attack by a desperate Democratic party to overturn the legal outcome of the current presidential election, I want you to know how much I admire and appreciate the strength and integrity you have demonstrated throughout these trying days. The attempts by Vice President Gore and his confederates to invoke ad-hoc changes to the established voting laws is nothing short of reprehensible. But with the weight of a biased media behind them, they might have been able to crumble some officials under a barrage of unfounded negative characterizations. It is clear that you are cut from a better cloth than either Gore or his leeches can understand or appreciate.
Although I now reside in Virginia I lived in Florida for most of my life. I received two degrees from the University of Florida and I consider Florida my first home. While a vocal few in Palm Beach have conducted themselves in a shameless and unethical manner, I want you to know that your perseverance has made me very proud to say that we are from the same state. A state where right and wrong have meaning, where the integrity of the law is not for sale. Please remember that you hold my unwavering support, as I am sure the support of a vast majority of Americans, Republican and Democrat alike, who are sickened and horrified as to how far Al Gore will go to steal an election and prostitute the American electoral process. The action you take in this matter will echo in the posterity of our history. Thank you for having the wisdom to see the truth, and the guts to fight for it.
With my sincere best wishes for your continued success,
And my heartfelt thanks,
FOOTNOTE #4 : AN OPEN EDITORIAL SENT TO EVERYBODY ON THE LIST ABOVE
In the midst of the debacle that began as Election2000, I decided to go to the Thomas Jefferson Memorial and consider the impact of the past week on a nation that Jefferson was so instrumental in creating. A passionate man who cherished the ideals of freedom, Jefferson was vehemently outspoken. Railing against the current government, Jefferson backed up his words with his life, his property and his honor. I thought that on the historic shore of the Potomac, surrounded by the writings of a man whose vision, courage and integrity helped fashion our Republic, that I should be able to frame this election in a proper context.
Frankly, I also wanted to see if the great patriot had rolled over in his grave.
The ongoing actions of Al Gore in this election are nothing short of dispicable. Clearly cut from the same cloth as his mentor Bill Clinton, Gore has pressed ahead under the premise that any lie, if supported by the media and repeated loudly enough, will become truth. Any why not? It has worked for Bill Clinton for the last eight years. It has worked not because it is right, but because we have allowed it to. While Jefferson stood in the face of bullets, we have been cowed into mute silence for fear of being called insensitive. While patriots saw their homes burn in the fight for a Republic, we have been gagged and disarmed by nothing more than the fear of being termed politically incorrect. Standing next to Jefferson's grave, considering all he sacrificed to hand us a nation unlike any other, I was ashamed.
We should all be ashamed.
In little over two hundred years we have gone from a nation that fought in the streets for freedom to a silent flock of sheep willing to accept any lie as long as it is delivered on television under the weight of a dozen polls. We have watched much of the news media degrade from a watchdog of the public good to a manipulative lobby group that shapes the news as much as they report it.
If Jefferson were alive today he would be leading an angry mob to kick down the doors of public office and throw the likes of Al Gore into the street. Along the way, our furious forefather would likely smack half of us in the head and berate us for sitting in a TV-induced coma while our hard-won birthright was chopped up and carried away piece by piece. But we sit silent, afraid to speak. Jefferson stood in public squares and raged against injustice. We can't pick up a phone or write a letter. Oh yeah, we should be ashamed all right.
Consider the facts of this election. The Palm Beach ballot was certainly no less confusing when it appeared in the newspapers and mailboxes of voters across the county in the weeks before the election. If it was so incomprehensible, why weren't the phones ringing off the hook with concerned voters demanding a clarification? Where was Jesse Jackson when those poor people were kept in the dark? Why did both Republican and Democrat officials responsible for certifying the ballot deem that it was sufficiently clear? And how was it that hundreds of thousands of other Florida voters seemed to use the same ballot flawlessly?
The fact is that for many of those befuddled voters, election day was the first moment they bothered to look at a ballot. They did not care enough to make sure they could cast their own vote properly and now they expect the nation to pay for their lack of effort. It is the politics of hindsight, the agenda of "would have, could have" instead of reality. It is a last-ditch effort of losers to con us into giving away a victory already won. And it is working.
An election is not a process designed to make us all feel good about ourselves, it is a process which operates under a long-established set of rules. Through election we invoke our most sacred right to soberly and thoughtfully choose those who will serve the nation in public office. Elections are governed by rules. Once the votes are in, there will always be unhappy losers and people who later wish they had voted or voted differently. The reality for the losers of any contest remains the same: Too bad. Work harder next time.
The law clearly states that the burden has always been on the general public to make themselves aware of the candidates and the issues, as well as the process of voting. Yet we find ourselves once again wrapped in a frenzied debate driven by the anguished cries of what should be or could be, what is fair and what isn't. But law is not about situational ethics and what seems fair at the moment. Law is about a set of rules, written in black and white. We have lost sight of that fact, and as a result we will swallow any lie fed to us.
The Clinton/Gore administration has been eight years of lies. Sadly there are too many to list, but let's consider two of the most memorable:
"I smoked dope but I didn't inhale." There is not a parent in the country who would buy this lame story from their own kid, but we accepted it from a Presidential candidate. And who cares about inhaling? The law is not against inhaling. Buying dope, posessing it, rolling it, lighting it and sucking the smoke into your mouth has been more than enough to put countless drug-users behind bars.
Better yet was "I didn't have sex with that woman." For crying out loud, she had your genetalia in her mouth Bill. I challenge any woman reading this: would you accept that excuse if it were your husband or boyfriend explaining to you why the girl with her face in his lap wasn't really having sex? And guys, how many of you think you could make that argument fly with your own wife or girlfirend?
Yet in the face of these obvious lies, Gore remained Clinton's #1 cheerleader. Rather than encourage Clinton to admit the obvious truth, Al "Mr. Family Values" Gore danced to the lie and encouraged us all to believe it. He placed his hand on the lies and swore to them, and in doing so he made them his own. The fact remains that they were lies, pure and simple.
But instead of getting angry that we were lied to, we allowed the media to wrap us around the axle as to why Clinton cheated or whether cheating on his wife impacts his ability to do the job. Who cares? Do we care WHY a murderer kills or a thief steals? No. It was never about Clinton being a dope-smoking adulterer, it was about him being a liar. And make no mistake, Clinton and Gore have made careers out of lying.
They do so when telling the truth would have been easier; it is simply their nature to lie. If the response to the Monica fiasco had been "Sure I did it, so what?" it would have been reduced to a matter of betrayal between a husband and wife and frankly, as most Americans, I would have ceased to care. But when he looked into the camera with Gore solemnly at his side and said "I did not do it" when we all knew he did, he lied to me. Not to his wife. Not to his daughter. To me. And coming from a public servant, that is inexcusable.
Gore has demonstrated in harsh clarity that when it comes to lying, he has learned at the feet of the master. From his insane claim of inventing the internet and his denial of accepting illegal campaign contributions from the Bhuddist Temple, to his publicly proven lie about visiting disaster sites, the "honesty question" was a major public focal point throughout Gore's campaign. For those of you who aren't up on your politically correct lingo, someone with an "honesty question" is a liar, someone you can't trust. Someone who should not be in the White House.
When Clinton/Gore won the 1996 election, the Democrats did not give a damn about the 16,000 votes in Palm Beach county that were thrown away at that time. But when the 2000 election was won last week by George Bush, Gore's story changed. He demanded a recount and still lost. He demanded another manual recount and lost once more. Then he demanded an "interpretational recount" where hand-picked government figures would look over the ballots and divine, perhaps through some unique God-given wisdom that only politicians have, just what the voters really intended when they punched a given ballot. Gore believes that politicians should re-cast those votes of the poor helpless citizens who obviously didn't know how to vote by themselves.
What utter crap. What an insult to America. If I was allowed to change the rules of golf enough times over enough games I could beat Tiger Woods. With enough recounts and enough made-up rule changes Gore can steal this election. He is doing it in broad daylight and he is counting on you and I to sit quietly and watch on the sideline. Don't speak, just shut up and watch CNN like good little children. After all, the news can't be wrong, can it?
This atrocity cannot be allowed to continue. Politicians are not high-powered corporate executives, they are civil servants who work for us. In some cases they are people who have never held a job in the same real world where you and I fight to claw out a living every day. Some politicians have only the skill necessary to win a popularity contest once every four years. And for that skill we hand them our trust and our checkbooks. We blindly give them the ability to redefine our rights and spend our money. We grant to them the highest level of public trust. For that kind of trust, I certainly demand an honest answer. Big issue or small, don't EVER lie to me. A politician's ability to tell the truth is an absolute requirement to do the job, and Al Gore clearly lacks that ability.
The legacy Al Gore has given us through this selfishness is to set a precedent that will haunt us, perhaps forever. By putting his own ambition ahead of the good of the nation Gore has guaranteed that, at every election in the future, lawyers will be poised and ready to file motions the moment their candidate loses. Election rules will be as laughable as impeachment rules have already become. Because in the new system, there are no rules. Just lie. Lie often and stick to the lie. Send your lawyers to the courtroom and your spin doctors to the TV station. Appeal to the weak and listless because the strong are too scared to lift a finger. That's how to win in America today. That's the Clinton/Gore legacy that we will pass on to our kids if we sit idly by and let this election travesty continue.
Pick up a pen. Pick up a phone. Speak from your heart, not from the abbreviated dictionary of political correctness. Speak with passion, because if this isn't worth fighting over, nothing is. Its your right. Its okay to get angry, that's how we became a nation in the first place.
As I mulled these thoughts a dull thud and a mournful sigh drifted up from Jefferson's grave.
"I hope you are getting up instead of just rolling over" I whispered sadly, "we need you now more than ever."
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This is a personal editorial from an outraged American taxpayer.