-------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~>
<FONT COLOR="#000099">eGroups eLerts
It's Easy. It's Fun. Best of All, it's Free!
</FONT><A
HREF="http://click.egroups.com/1/9698/2/_/1406/_/974173609/"><B>Click
Here!</B></A>
---------------------------------------------------------------------_->
Please send as far and wide as possible.
Thanks,
Robert Sterling
Editor, The Konformist
http://www.konformist.com
http://www.conspire.com
Number 55
Time for a Revolt, er, Revote!
Or, How George W. Bush, the Rich Kid Who Gets Away
With Everything, is About to Get Away With His Own
Little Coup
11/11/00 -- Ah, the good ol' days! When George Bush
was the conspiracy president. We miss the ol' CIA
chiefin', Big Oil shillin', Trilateral Commission
sittin' sonofagun. But wait! It seems that Bush has
passed the conspiracy bug on to his boys. The first
manifestation of this genetic predisposition: Votescam
2000!
We penned our little piece on Votescam almost a decade
ago (with an update a few years later in 70 Greatest
Conspiracies of All Time), but apparently we were well
ahead of our time. (You expected otherwise?) Now,
we're not saying there WAS a plot to rig the vote in
Florida, and we're not saying that there wasn't --
let's just look at the circumstances...
Everyone knew in advance that Florida was one of three
must-win states for bumbling Democratic Veep Al Gore.
In one of the three, Florida, the Sunshine State, the
governor just happens to be the brother of Bush II.
Then on election night, the state that causes the most
problems, the closest and last one to get its vote
count finished is -- surprise! -- Florida. And the
voting process there, it amazingly transpires, is
riddled with "irregularities." Let's not be too
paranoid, but didn't Little Bush look just a tad too
serene after the networks, early in the evening,
projected Florida for Gore, thus effectively (had they
been right) sending the Busher back to the bushes?
Gosh, it's almost like he knew he was going to win, or
something. But of course, that's impossible.
Maybe it all adds up to nada. Probably does. However
-- if you consider all of those circumstances and
you're not suspicious, you're stupid.
In one sure-fire-Gore Florida county (Palm Beach) the
ballot proves "confusing," causing thousands of mostly
Jewish voters to vote for Pat Buchanan, the country's
leading defender of accused Nazi war criminals. Or,
they double-punched their ballots, voting by accident
for Buchanan, then punching through for
Gore/Lieberman, thus disenfranchising themselves. Talk
show hosts across America have had great fun
ridiculing the astigmatic, Alzheimer's-inflicted
Jewish voters of Palm Beach County -- aren't elderly
Jewish people a scream?? -- but no one argues that
voters didn't mean to vote for Gore. In other words,
George W. Bush won by accident. The notion of
returning something that is not rightfully his has not
occurred to him, as of yet.
We use the term "acccident" carefully. Repeated TV and
radio interviews with voters from Palm Beach County
have yielded a description of the ballot that differs
from the ballot shown on CNN. Apparently, when the
computer-card ballot was slipped into its holder, the
holes didn't line up the way they were supposed to. We
guess no one checks for those things.
In other counties, allegations that black voters were
intimidated by police roadblocks set up near polling
places, or told that when they showed up, the polls
were closed or that there were no ballots left. And
let's not forget the strange tale of Volusia County
where Gore lost 16,000 votes and the Socialist Workers
candidate gained 10,000 due to some kind of "glitch"
-- in a single precinct with only 600 voters.
Interesting also to note that of the approximately
28,000 ballots that were thrown out and not counted in
Palm Beach County, nearly half came from precincts
that were mostly black or elderly, the Palm Beach Post
reports. In predominantly black voting districts, 16
percent of ballots were not counted, double the total
for predominantly white districts.
According to the Washington Post, "Douglas Daniels, a
lawyer for Gore here, predicts there will be
'television movies about how the election was stolen
in Volusia County.' He frets that Volusia will become
conspiracy theorists' new 'Grassy Knoll gunman.'"
Indeed.
Okay, so, what happened next? How about, incompetent
dolt Gore (how the hell an incumbent vice-president
sitting on a seemingly thriving peacetime economy
allows an election against the dumbest rich-kid,
frat-boy bozo ever to run for president to get this
close remains mind-boggling) at last gets his act
together. He demands that the votes be counted again
-- and again if neccessary. He, through his
surrogates, pledges to scrutinize the Florida SNAFUs
by legal means, if neccessary. He'll take it to court.
All pretty reasonable, despite the shrill wailing of
the punits and Republicans who have become nearly
hystertical in their demands to keep the election out
of the court system.
As if using the legal system to remedy a possible
illegality is such a bad thing.
And get this -- after all of their crying about how
terrible, how just, oh, so DREADFUL it would be if
this controversy entered the court system, who's going
to court first? That's right -- the Republicans! So
desperate are they to stave off a recount by hand of
ballots in four disputed counties that they are asking
a federal court to step in and stop it. Gosh, thatís
not too hypocritical of them, is it?
Now, we're sure that if the shoe was on the other foot
the Demos wouldn't behave any better than the Repubs
are now. But the fact is, in this case, the basic
principles of justice and democracy (corny concepts,
we know, but call us old fashioned) are on their side.
After all, doesn't the entire premise of democracy
rest on the foundation of fair elections? One would
think so, and yet, the Bush forces -- led by Daddy
Bush's chief henchman James Baker (cute to see Junior
calling his Pop to get him out of a scrape yet again,
just like that drunk driving thing up in Maine...) --
have no other objective than to put a stop to the
process.
In fact, much of the major media has joined with the
Bush camp in the chorus of "Stop! For the Good of the
Country!" The theme: Gore must concede because this
whole thing is just causing our nation, well, too much
stress! How the "good of the country" is served by
allowing possibly corrupted and certainly unfair
elections to go unchallenged is not explained. But the
argument is made (by Bushites and media types) that
Gore should display the same "grace," "honor" and
"statesmanship" displayed by Mr. Honorableness
himself, Richard M. Nixon, when he, Tricky Dick, chose
not to press the issue of electoral fraud follwing the
ultra-close 1960 election in which he lost to JFK, and
in which there were widespread suspicions of vote
fraud favoring Kennedy.
This is madness. Imagine if you lend someone a hundred
bucks. And then you need it back. And this person
tells you to forget your money, then says to you,
"Please, don't let this process drag on forever! Be
graceful and concede the money! For the good of our
friendship!" That's what's happening in this
presidential election.
Before we move on, let's set that Nixon myth to rest
once and for all. It's very heartwarming to think that
Nixon, possibly the most shiftless, petty and
mendacious politico of the 20th century, chose
gallantly to put the national interest ahead of his
own. Quite a Spielbergian moment, that. But exactly
the opposite is true. In fact, Republican operatives
demanded recounts in 11 states, investigated charges
of fraud and even got Grand Juries empaneled. In
short, Nixon's boys left no ballot box unturned in
their quest to find evidence of Kennedy vote-fraud.
But they turned up nothing. That was the extent of
Nixon's "statesmanship." (And if you don't believe us,
here's a very good article about it.)
The difference was that Nixon cunningly gave himself
"plausible deniability" (as Bush's buddies in the CIA
would say), never publicly acknowledging the snooping
for bad ballots going on right under his flared
nostrils. When he later claimed in his memoir, RN,
that he set self-interest aside and, painful though it
may have been, conceded the election without
challenge, his self-aggrandizing fabrication passed
into the realm of accepted fact.
And why is the punditocracy citing Richard Nixon as a
model for political behavior? When did he become such
a freakin' saint anyway?
Let's not forget the ultimate absurdity of the "Gore
Must Concede" movement. Al Gore won this election. Not
in the anachronistic electoral college, admittedly (at
least not right now). And for that matter, he didn't
win the "popular vote" by much. But here's a cold,
hard fact: more American voters cast their ballots for
Gore than for George W. Bush. Windbag after televised
windbag (not to mention editorialists at most major
newspapers and Bush's flaks, of course) are begging
for Gore to act the "statesman" and throw in the
proverbial towel. Eh, wha'? At least Nixon lost the
election before he "conceded."
(Side note: when you total up Gore's votes together
with Ralph Nader's, you see that American voters
rather clearly rejected Bush's conservative agenda in
favor of a more liberal-progressive one. While voters
favored Gore over Bush, by a little, they favored
somewhat left-wing policies over somewhat right-wing
policies by a much more significant amount.)
Given that he is, however narrowly, NOT the people's
choice, why isn't it -- as Dan Kennedy of the Boston
Phoenix has suggested -- George W. Bush who displays
"grace" and "statesmanship" and steps aside?
Sure, we know that the Electoral College system is how
the Constitution lays it out, and hey, we're all for
the Constitution. But we think the Electoral College
is a weak, dated and asinine system that was
out-of-date by around the time slavery was abolished.
Apparently, Bush feels more or less the same way.
According to a Nov. 3 article in the New York Daily
News, Bush was prepared for the scenario (popular with
the typically obtuse prognosticators prior to this
election) that he, not Gore, would capture the popular
vote but lose the Electoral College.
If that had happened, according to a Bush aide quoted
namelessly in the article, Bush would have fought
mightily against the Electoral verdict, Constitution
or no Constitution. The Bush strategy: to spark a
popular uprising against the Electoral system with a
talk-radio blitz and TV ads hammering home the
injustice of the Electoral College system (not
incidentally undermining the hyopthetical Gore
presidency in the process; way to think of "the good
of the country," Georgie-boy). You don't hear much
talk of ELectoral inequities from the Governor now.
Funny how that worked out.
If Bush really feels, or felt, that the Electoral
system was bad, here's his chance to show it. He, like
everyone else, knows that Gore really won the vote in
Florida. No one in the Bush bivouac has ever denied
that over 20,000 people, for whatever reason, screwed
up their ballots and voted for someone they didn't
intend to vote for. Bush knows well that the vast
majority of those mistaken votes would and should have
gone to Gore.
Tough luck for the idiots who cast the ballots, you
say?? Perhaps. But idiots or not, those mistakes (if
they are indeed "mistakes") determined the outcome of
the election. The vote total is tainted, degraded and
corrupt. Who wants to assume the presidency knowing
you don't deserve it? George W. Bush does!
Bush knows that he, in reality as opposed to in
narrow, hairsplitting legalese, has won neither the
popular vote nor the Electoral vote. Yet he's claiming
victory at every possible opportunity. Who's the sore
loser?
It seems to us that what he should really do is
"magnanimously" step aside.
Of course that will never happen because Bush and the
Republicans are not interested in the process of
democracy -- only in a naked grab for raw power. In
other countries, when one man seizes control of the
government against the wishes of the people, that's
called a coup. Here, well, it's called "the rules."
And we all knew them going in, right?
True enough. But if Bush is really, truly interested
in getting this mess finished as "expeditiously" as
possible, "for the good of the country" as he and his
cronies claim -- if he wants his "I'm a uniter, not a
divider" shibboleth to be more than print on a
bumpersticker -- he has only one choice. Pull out.
Withdraw. Concede.
Let the healing begin!
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
