-------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~> <FONT COLOR="#000099">eLerts It's Easy. It's Fun. Best of All, it's Free! </FONT><A HREF="http://click.egroups.com/1/9699/2/_/1406/_/973944206/"><B>Click Here!</B></A> ---------------------------------------------------------------------_-> Please send as far and wide as possible. Thanks, Robert Sterling Editor, The Konformist http://www.konformist.com GOP Popular-Vote Hypocrisy Fri, 10 Nov 2000 [EMAIL PROTECTED] consortiumnews.com - http://www.consortiumnews.com When Gov. George W. Bush's campaign feared that Vice President Al Gore might slip in by winning the Electoral College though losing the national popular vote, Republican strategists plotted how to block Gore by appealing to public outrage over such an injustice. Now, the shoe is on the other foot. Bush appears to have lost the popular vote but could win the Electoral College if he's given Florida. Suddenly, there's no more Republican talk decrying the antiquated Electoral College. Nor is there any more stirring rhetoric against the injustice of a popular-vote loser taking the White House. For this story, go to Consortiumnews.com at http://www.consortiumnews.com ***** Fri, 10 Nov 2000 Greg Bishop <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.cnn.com/2000/ALLPOLITICS/stories/11/10/costello.qa/index.ht ml Has an interview with the director of Jimmy Carter's Democracy program, which monitors elections in foreign countries. I found it interesting that he is calling for calm over the elections, in light of what you said last night. Quote: Q: Could the Carter Center ever be called in to monitor this election and would you be willing to do so? COSTELLO: Some other people have now raised that question about Carter Center involvement somehow. As I say, the Carter Center typically monitors elections overseas. We didn't do any monitoring of this election. I suppose we would be available as election experts for technical comments on questions people might pose to us. But monitoring or mediating this election? I doubt it. Our leader, President Carter, is of course known as an elder statesman and elections expert from his work in this field overseas. Obviously, he was a Democratic president of the United States, so people would find it hard to accept him in any role here. He did make a statement Thursday at the National Press Club in Washington about the election. It was basically the same kind of message we give in similar circumstances overseas. And that is: Everybody should stay calm, let the people who are directly involved in it go at it in a thorough and professional way, and try to keep political passions from being inflamed by the kind of public discourse that's used. Also make sure that this thing is channeled into American institutions, such as election commissions, the courts, and a free press, for a full treatment in a way that keeps this thing done according to the rule of law, according to proper procedures and in a civilized and peaceful way. The fact that the country was so evenly split about who should control not only the presidency but also Congress is quite remarkable. In most countries that we work, that would create immediate dangers of civil unrest and a struggle over power. I think the great good fortune of us here in the United States is that we have full confidence that this will be worked out according to election laws. Therefore, everybody should stay calm and let this get settled the proper way. ***** The Elderly Jews of South Florida... and 62 Years Ago Tonight Fri, 10 Nov 2000 Mike's Message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> November 10, 2000 Dear friends, There was something about yesterday's demonstration in front of the courthouse in Palm Beach County that profoundly moved me. Hundreds of elderly Jewish citizens, many in tears, demanding, begging for someone to listen to them. They tried to explain that the ballot they voted on was so confusing they feared that they had actually voted for Pat Buchanan (a man who once said "Hitler was an individual of great courage") instead the man they wanted for president, Al Gore. Rather than being heard, they have been ridiculed across the country as being "stupid," "ignorant" or "sore losers." They are portrayed as a bunch of whiners, old people who maybe shouldn't be behind the wheel of a car, let alone in the voting booth. Get off the road, you're messing up the election for the rest of us! This is the tone of much of what I have heard in the media and on the street: You had your chance, you idiot, you screwed up your own ballot, now shut up. I find it more than ironic -- actually, downright abhorrent -- that, in addition to the thousands of ballots that have been thrown out, at least a few hundred of these senior citizens' votes, through what appears to be an illegally constructed ballot, will end up being counted for a right- wing, anti-Semitic like Mr. Buchanan. South Florida has perhaps the largest population of Holocaust survivors outside of Israel and New York. Is it just me, or do these good people, all of whom have suffered enough in their lives, deserve not only our respect, but our commitment to see that their vote is counted? To many of you, World War II and the Holocaust probably seems like ancient history. The truth is, there are tens of thousands of people who lived through that horror, escaped the ovens, and are now living out their final years in South Florida. None of us can imagine what they went through; first to survive, and then to somehow make it to a country where they believed they would be free and their voice would be heard. These immigrants worked hard to raise families in America, contribute to our society, and make this country a better place for all of us. They took their citizenship duties very seriously, to the point where many of us have probably rolled our eyes a time or two over their extreme patriotism and love of America. Silly old people! Now they are being told to take a hike. I could understand the derision if it were 50 spoiled ballots, or 500 spoiled ballots. But 19,000??? 19,000!!! Are we going to just discard these senior citizens with a big shrug and a laugh? They were already discarded once in their lives. Being stripped of their vote is not the same as being stripped of their life, but then why are we remembering our veterans on this Veteran's Day if not for the fact that they risked THEIR lives so that people like these survivors could have the right to vote? Are we really going to do this to them? When Al Gore named Joe Lieberman as his running mate -- the first Jew to run on a national ticket for a major party -- it created a wonderful rush of pride within the Jewish community. If there had been any doubt that they, as Jewish Americans, were not fully welcomed at the table, this one act on Gore's part made that doubt virtually disappear. I remember watching on the news that day a story about Lieberman's wife, Hadassah. She is the child of two Holocaust survivors -- her father, an inmate in a Nazi slave labor camp, and her mother, who miraculously survived Auschwitz. As I watched Hadassah's story, I paused to think of those in her family who did not survive the camps to live to see this momentous day. I thought, if only it had been possible, in the final moments before their deaths, for someone to whisper to them that this madness will indeed end, that the Jewish people will not only survive but see the day when a child of theirs is married to the man running for vice president of the United States! Whatever small comfort that could have given them to alleviate their pain and suffering before their lives were exterminated, I wish... I wish... they just could have known that their death was not in vain. These elderly survivors and relatives of survivors in Palm Beach County deserve our fight for their voice to be heard. This is a national shame and dishonor. Everyone knows the truth here: 19,000 people could not read the ballot. I don't care that the local Democrats had approved the ballot. Like most Democratic party hacks, they blew it. So what. Does that mean these elderly have to pay the price? The Republicans have now resorted to spewing incredible lies, such as the "same number of ballots were spoiled in the 1996." That is a bald face lie. The number of spoiled ballots was HALF what it was this year, and I have been told that voters in the '96 election DID complain but no one listened because the spoiled ballots did not effect the outcome. Look, I personally did not vote for either Gore or Bush. I think Lieberman's politics and campaign contributions are appalling. But I and others have made these points throughout the election -- and the majority of Americans have chosen to dismiss them for now. That is their right. But if the campaign for Ralph Nader was nothing, it was, at its very core, about trying to stop the disenfranchisement of the American people. For us not to speak up now -- even though OUR will did not prevail -- would make everything we stand for lack credibility. I am asking all who read this -- Nader supporters, Gore voters, Republicans with a conscience -- to stand up and resist this theft of our election. Someone has set up a website calling for spontaneous demonstrations in numerous cities at 1pm tomorrow, Saturday, November 11 (click here for the list: http://geocities.com/countercoup/). Take one hour, just one hour, of your time tomorrow and go down to where the rally is happening in your town. Do not listen to those who are saying we have to put this behind us and get on with it. Get on with what? A democracy that does not respect its most basic and cherished right, the right to have your vote counted? If the person who got fewer votes is installed as president, it will inspire so much cynicism amongst the citizenry that I fear even MORE people than the 100 million who chose not to vote will sit out the next election. They will just say, "What's the use? It's all rigged!" Progressives and Greens and everyone must understand this danger -- and how much more difficult it will be to organize if more of our fellow Americans just give up. Please, do this for the sake of our country. Do it because it is right. Do it because those senior citizens in Florida deserve our respect and our help in their time of need. Sixty-two years ago tonight, the Holocaust began in full force on what was called Kristallnacht. The German government sent goon squads throughout the country to trash and burn the homes, stores and temples of its Jewish citizens. Seven years and 6 million slaughtered lives later, the Jewish people of Europe were virtually extinct. A few survived. I will not allow those who survived to come here to this "land of the free" be abused again. They are our fellow citizens in our great democracy, and their voice, if I have anything to say about it, will never be snuffed out. Yours, Michael Moore [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.michaelmoore.com ***** Don Hazen Executive Director Independent Media Institute [EMAIL PROTECTED] Alex Burns <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> I always wanted to write the line that Robert Sterling writes at the start of each Konformist posting (paraphrased from memory): "Please spread this as widely as possible." :) Alex Ben Austin [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Friday, November 10, 2000 My mother, Palm Beach County precinct clerk Dear friends, I don't normally send long emails like this to a large block of people, certainly when it comes to my family, and certainly when the import of the issue makes it seem like the letter might travel far and wide. But so many people have asked about this story that it seems important to send it out. This is the true story of my mother, precinct clerk in Palm Beach county, Florida. My mother was a precinct clerk in Palm Beach county, Florida, election day of 2000. Mom's very good friend Leah was a precinct clerk as well. Both of them were incredibly upset during and after election day, before anyone knew the import of these specific voters. And my mother was convinced there were serious irregularities long before they gained national prominence, and she called me to say so. I note this because some Republicans are now asking "if there were these irregularities, how come they were not raised until after the election?" In fact, my mother and the other precinct clerks raised these issues from the moment that the polls opened in the morning - the problem is that the person they intially called on was Theresa LePore, elections supervisor of Palm Beach county. She was the source of the ballot confusion, and was uninterested in the issue. First, the paper ballot was extremely confusing to these voters. Although both major parties got a chance to review the card layout, it is not clear if any had a chance to put the actual ballot in an actual machine and punch the holes. The card is laid horizontally as you vote, and it is hard to see the holes as you punch them. And my mother, who supervised the precinct she was in (this is a paid position, and she reported directly to Ms. LePore) said the card did not even fit correctly in the ballot machine, so the holes in the card did not line up with the ballot. Anyone who thinks this was minor voter confusion has never dealt with retirees in a West Palm Beach retirement village in Florida, I promise you. My mother, following the rules, said the poll workers had been told not to help people with the cards, as it might bias the voters. My mother witnessed many, many people who voted incorrectly. Some stayed on a second line and had their cards re-done, some punched the second hole (and thus were probably thrown out), and some found out they voted for Buchanan after they had deposited their cards in the ballot box, and there was thus nothing they could do. Mom called me up to complain about this after the elction, and she called me up again on Thursday, very upset after reading a story in the New York Times (Nov. 9 2000, p. B6). The Times story states: After numerous complaints were received on Tuesday morning, Ms. LePore issued this directive to the county's 106 precincts: "Attention all poll workers. Please remind all voters coming in that they are to vote only for one (1) presidential candidate and that they are to punch the hole next to the arrow next to the number next to the candidate they wish to vote for." Mom never received this directive, and she believes that if anyone knew they could have helped people vote their preference, the outcome would have been very different. Instead, my mother and the others were trying to do the right thing, and they felt that helping explain the ballot to these people would have been helping them to vote for Gore, something she didn't feel was proper. These women are honest to a fault. Leah did receive the directive, but not until 4pm on election day, and only by accident - someone was coming to visit from the main office and told her about it. In the mean time, my mother and Leah (and most of the precinct clerks) had been desperately trying to call the county office. They had been given a phone number by Ms. LePore and told that the phone line would be staffed throughout the day. They were told to call if there were any problems. Mom tried to call starting at 7:30am, calling straight through when polls closed, but she got a busy signal the entire time. But mom was at a polling station with only a pay phone, so she had to deposit coins each time, and with long lines waiting for her, she was becoming increasingly frustrated. Leah was precinct chief at the retirement village where they live, and ran a polling station at the clubhouse. Having a more modern facility, Leah tried on the phone as well, and when she couldn't get through, she called the operator to ask her why the phone was busy. Leah had the presence of mind to get the operator's number (history is made by people like Leah) when the operator told her the phone was off the hook, meaning nobody was on the line the entire day. Evidently, the supervisor's office just didn;t want to hear the complaints. Leah then faxed the supervisor's office with her concerns at noon and again at 2pm. Nobody called Leah back until 5pm, when she heard from Ms. LePore, with the following words "don't bother me." So as this news starts to be spun and re-spun, let me tell you a few things I am certain to be true: -I can't argue intent either way, but the supervisor's office in Palm Beach county is at the very least unable to carry out an election in which these people have their say. -These people started trying to fix the problem from the moment polls opened, and were fought along the way. This is not about crying about the election once it is over. It pains me to see the issue being politicized by both sides. Gore has no place having his advisor Daley make statements that after a recount, Gore will emerge victorious; and Bush has no place saying that he is the victor, or setting up a transition team. In fact, the idea that Bush and his brother were together on election night, with Jeb Bush promising to "deliver Florida" draws a picture at least to me with the semblance of impropriety, especially now that we have seen the results so askew. I hope everyone will pay attention to the facts here, and let the people of South Florida have the same opportunity to vote that the rest of us had. You are free to send this to anyone you wish. Ben Austin ***** Electoral Observers Fri, 10 Nov 2000 Brian Doohan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> I've been running a fiction/nonfiction humor webserial on the 2004 election, thus, a mention of the URL would be welcome along with using the signature of the principle, Jack "Catfish" Parnell (there is no real former Congressman of that name running for president, so you need not fear for your lawyers). The op-ed piece may be published without charge though... again... a credit and URL referral would be nice. If various legalities are involved, however, use the name "Brian Doohan" which is real, at least to my most recent knowledge. You may check/verify the site at: http://internettrash.com/users/generisis/blackhel.html. Brian Doohan [EMAIL PROTECTED] Text: Since legitimacy and objectivity cannot be expected from any as count the disputed and absentee Florida ballots, and since both candidates have sworn fealty to globalism... the main beneficiaries, in fact, to an Al Gore victory being the Chinese, with OPEC pulling for the junior Bush... why not invite foreign observers in to certify the recount and choose our next President? Having a Haitian, an Indonesian and a Serb, for example, adjudicate this present crisis would be only fair in light of our own history of intervention. However humiliating to be treated as a banana republic, this would still be preferable to national devolution towards a banana kleptocracy. Jack "Catfish" Parnell U.S. Representative (ret.) Candidate for President, 2004 (Congressman Parnell is, fortunately, fictitious... a character in the webnovel "Black Helicopters" whose own manifesto, "Entropy and Renaissance" can also be found at http://internettrash.com/users/generisis/blackhel.html.) Attachment (op-ed column) If you are interested in a free subscription to The Konformist Newswire, please visit http://www.eGroups.com/list/konformist/ and sign up. Or, e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject: "I NEED 2 KONFORM!!!" (Okay, you can use something else, but it's a kool catch phrase.) Visit the Klub Konformist at Yahoo!: http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/klubkonformist
