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Banned
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by aceventura3
You change the conditions. First we speaking in very general terms, then we are not. Historically, leaders who overly seek compromise and unity at the expense of conviction have been weak.
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Yeah....Bush is "strong", alright....but does he "mean what he says" ?
Quote:
http://www2.jsonline.com/election200...te14121300.asp
Bush calls for unity after Gore concedes
President-elect seeks consensus, national healing
By CRAIG GILBERT
of the Journal Sentinel staff
Last Updated: Dec. 13, 2000
Washington - On the heels of a soothing concession from Al Gore, Republican George W. Bush spoke to Americans for the first time as their president-elect, preaching bipartisanship, promising to "change the tone" in Washington and declaring "now it is time to find common ground and build consensus."
Election 2000
Photo/AP Photo/AP
President-elect George W. Bush addresses the nation from the chambers of the Texas House of Representatives in Austin, Texas on Wednesday. Bush promised that he and Al Gore, who gave his concession speech earlier, would do their best to heal the nation.
Saying the nation has been through a "long and trying period," Bush promised that he and Gore would "do our best to heal our country after this hard-fought contest."
His brief, prime-time speech, from the chamber of the Texas House of Representatives, repeatedly stressed reconciliation and unity.
Bush voiced the hope that rather than divide the country, the adversarial endgame to the election would "heighten a desire to move beyond the bitterness and partisanship of the recent past."
Bush's comments came one hour after Gore addressed the nation, flatly conceding the race and vowing to "do everything possible to help (Bush) bring Americans together."
"I personally will be at his disposal," said Gore, flanked by family members and running mate Sen. Joseph Lieberman. "And I call on all Americans - I particularly urge all who stood with us - to unite behind our next president."
Taken together, the back-to-back speeches from these bitter rivals were as amicable and upbeat as any of their supporters might have expected.
So ended the 2000 election, almost 36 days late, the murkiest in modern times, a contest that resisted clarity and consensus to the bitter end....
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....but this is what we actually got:
Quote:
http://www.democrats.org/a/2006/07/six_questions_f.php
.........Voting Rights
· Voter Purges And Rejected Ballots In 2000 Disenfranchised African Americans. In 2000, Republican election officials used a flawed felon list to purge voters from the voter roll. This disproportionately affected African Americans, disenfranchising thousands of them. In Miami-Dade County alone, almost 5,000 African Americans were purged from the voter roll as compared to less than 1,300 whites and "over half of the African Americans who appealed from the Florida felon exclusion list were successfully reinstated to the voter rolls." [Miami Herald, 6/5/04; Washington Post, 6/21/02]
· Republicans Across the Country are Forcing Voter ID Laws that Disproportionately Disenfranchise African American Voters. President Bush has failed to stand up to a national Republican effort to promote state voter ID laws that disproportionately disenfranchise minority, senior, rural and student voters.
· Rejected Ballots Disproportionately Impacted African American Voters. According to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights' report on the 2000 election, "The rate of ballot rejection for votes cast by African Americans was an estimated 14.4 percent, compared with a rate of 1.6 percent for votes cast by non-African Americans." [U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, "Voting Irregularities in Florida During the 2000 Presidential Election," 6/01]
Bush's Response:
· President Bush Has Refused To Exert The Leadership Needed To Reauthorize The Voting Rights Act. Despite his rhetoric on the VRA, the President has failed to pressure the Senate into voting to reauthorize the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act. Senator Majority Leader Bill Frist has yet to schedule a vote.
· Bush Underfunded HAVA Reform Funding For 2004, Despite Bipartisan Support. The 2002 Help America Vote Act (HAVA) authorized $2.4 billion in election grants for FYs 2003 and 2004. Despite the $1 billion remaining in promised funds, Bush requested only $500 million for HAVA's implementation for FY 2004. HAVA's bipartisan sponsors in the Senate and the House called on the Congress to fully fund the bill and had former presidents Carter and Ford write to Bush urging him to fund HAVA. Senators Chris Dodd and Mitch McConnell joined together to add $1 billion dollars to HAVA for the EAC to disburse for FY 2004. [Roll Call, 1/24/04, 11/12/03; Congress Daily, 12/22/03]
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....and this:
Quote:
http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/showpos...0&postcount=44
it was discovered by the the Sarasota Herald Tribune that the 2004 purge list
HAD ALMOST NO HISPANIC NAMES ON IT, due to a "database error"), and
the way the 2000 Florida 65,000 names voter purge list smelled....since only
seven states do not automatically restore voting rights to felons who complete
their sentences, and the accuracy of that list was called into question, and
now because Florida recently was found to have neglected to give a notice,
required by law, to 125,000 inmates, since at least 1993, informing them at
the time of their release, how to apply to the governor for clemency in order
to restore their right to vote. <b>Bush "won Florida" by 537 votes...</b>
http://www.sptimes.com/2004/07/11/St...s_felon_.shtml
http://www.whoseflorida.com/misc_pag...ht_to_vote.htm
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This....is the "point".....the 2000 Florida vote contest resulted in the closed thing to coup that resulted in the "installation" of a POTUS who lost the popular, nationwide vote, by 500,000. He promised to be a uniter, not a "divider". He appointed 2000 Fla vote recount "intimidator", John Bolton. last year to an interim UN ambassador job that his own party's senators would not approve Bolton to hold. Now....a revamp of the white house staff is touted.
Fake 2000 "local protestor" in the Miami-Dade vote recount gets appointed to take Karl Rove's principle government job.
At what point is it appropriate to stop protestion against this...and end attempts to educate people as to the history of the 2000 Fla. vote....???
...when Bush stops appointing the thugs who broke the rules to put him in office, there would be nothing new to comment on!
[/quote]
....and this:
Quote:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp...1074-2005Jan23
<b>In The Loop
Miami 'Riot' Squad: Where Are They Now?</b>
By Al Kamen
Monday, January 24, 2005; Page A13
As we begin the second Bush administration, let's take a moment to reflect upon one of the most historic episodes of the 2000 battle for the White House -- the now-legendary "Brooks Brothers Riot" at the Miami-Dade County polling headquarters.
<b>This was when dozens of "local protesters," actually mostly Republican House aides from Washington</b>, chanted "Stop the fraud!" and "Let us in!" when the local election board tried to move the re-counting from an open conference room to a smaller space
With help from their GOP colleagues and others, we identified some of these Republican heroes of yore in a photo of the event.
Some of those pictured have gone on to other things, including stints at the White House. For example, <b>Matt Schlapp, No. 6</b>, a former House aide and then a Bush campaign aide, has risen to be White House political director. <b>Garry Malphrus, No. 2 in the photo</b>, a former staff director of the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on criminal justice, is now deputy director of the White House Domestic Policy Council. And <b>Rory Cooper, No. 3</b>, who was at the National Republican Congressional Committee, later worked at the White House Homeland Security Council and was seen last week working for the Presidential Inaugural Committee.
<CENTER><CENTER><img src="http://www.washintonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/daily/graphics/intheloop_012405.jpg">
Here's what some of the others went on to do:
<b>No. 1. Tom Pyle</b>, who had worked for Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), went private sector a few months later, getting a job as director of federal affairs for Koch Industries.
<b>No. 7. Roger Morse</b>, another House aide, moved on to the law and lobbying firm Preston Gates Ellis & Rouvelas Meeds. "I was also privileged to lead a team of Republicans to Florida to help in the recount fight," he told a legal trade magazine in a 2003 interview.
<b>No. 8. Duane Gibson</b>, an aide on the House Resources Committee, was a solo lobbyist and formerly with the Greenberg Traurig lobby operation. He is now with the Livingston Group as a consultant.
<b>No. 9. Chuck Royal</b> was and still is a legislative assistant to Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), a former House member.
<b>No. 10. Layna McConkey Peltier</b>, who had been a Senate and House aide and was at Steelman Health Strategies during the effort, is now at Capital Health Group.
(<b>We couldn't find No. 4, Kevin Smith</b>, a former GOP House aide who later worked with Voter.com, or No. 5, Steven Brophy, a former GOP Senate aide and then at consulting firm KPMG. If you know what they are doing these days, please e-mail shackelford@washpost.comso we can update our records.)
<b>Sources say the "rioters" proudly note their participation on résumés and in interviews.</b> But while the original hardy band of demonstrators numbered barely a couple of dozen, the numbers apparently have grown with the legend.
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In the context of the above Al Kamen column and the phoio embellished doucmentation that it offers, consider rereading the report about John Bolton, located in my OP...here's an excerpt........
Quote:
http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:...s&ct=clnk&cd=3Posted Posted on Sat, Jul. 13, 2002
Bush gave plum jobs to supporters who worked recount, paper reports
By CAROL ROSENBERG
Knight Ridder Newspapers
......Bolton, the U.S. diplomat now responsible for arms control issues, said no payoff was promised for his decision to join the post-election fray. He had worked for the first Bush administration and, <h3>finding himself in South Korea on election night, contacted former Secretary of State James Baker in Texas to see how he might lend a hand. The reply: Go to Florida.</h3>
``I think, frankly, most of the people who did it just went down there by instinct,'' Bolton said. He said he received no legal fees, although the campaign paid his hotel bills and other expenses.
Bolton was part of the legal team and a ballot observer in Palm Beach County. Then he rushed to Tallahassee as the recount battle reached higher courts.
It was his role, on a Saturday, Dec. 9, 2000, to <b>burst into a library where workers were recounting Miami-Dade ballots to relay news of the U.S. Supreme Court's stay in the on-again, off-again presidential recount. ``I'm with the Bush-Cheney team, and I'm here to stop the count,'' he was quoted as saying in news reports at the time....</b>
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...and now, the details of this are still emerging:
Quote:
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/wa...ngs/?page=full
By Charlie Savage, Globe Staff | May 6, 2007
Missouri attorney a focus in firings
<b>Senate bypassed in appointment of Schlozman</b>
...Republicans claimed that ineligible voters were a major problem and pushed for laws to require photo IDs. Democrats said there was no evidence of widespread fraud and that such requirements suppress turnout among legitimate voters who are poor or disabled, and thus less likely to have driver's licenses.
Quote:
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/12/wa...9c7d0&ei=5088&
By ERIC LIPTON and IAN URBINA
Published: April 12, 2007
Correction Appended
WASHINGTON, April 11 — Five years after the Bush administration began a crackdown on voter fraud, the Justice Department has turned up virtually no evidence of any organized effort to skew federal elections, according to court records and interviews.
Although Republican activists have repeatedly said fraud is so widespread that it has corrupted the political process and, possibly, cost the party election victories, about 120 people have been charged and 86 convicted as of last year.
Most of those charged have been Democrats, voting records show. Many of those charged by the Justice Department appear to have mistakenly filled out registration forms or misunderstood eligibility rules, a review of court records and interviews with prosecutors and defense lawyers show.
In Miami, an assistant United States attorney said many cases there involved what were apparently mistakes by immigrants, not fraud.....
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The Justice Department's voting rights section referees disputes over the fairness of state election requirements. Under federal civil rights law, the section must sign off on redistricting maps and new voting laws in Southern states to ensure that changes will not reduce minority voting power.
Schlozman stepped into this fray in May 2003, when he was promoted to deputy assistant attorney general in the Civil Rights Division. He supervised several sections, including voting rights. In the fall 2005, he was promoted to acting head of the division.
Schlozman and his team soon came into conflict with veteran voting rights specialists. Career staff committees recommended rejecting a Texas redistricting map in 2003 and a Georgia photo ID voting law in 2005, saying they would dilute minority voting power. In both cases, the career veterans were overruled. But courts later said the map and the ID law were illegal.
Bob Kengle , a former deputy voting rights chief who left in 2005, said Schlozman also pushed the section to divert more resources into lawsuits forcing states to purge questionable voters from their rolls. One such lawsuit was against Missouri, where he later became US attorney. A court threw the Missouri lawsuit out this year.
Schlozman also moved to take control of hiring for the voting rights section, taking advantage of a new policy that gave political appointees more control. Under Schlozman, the profile of the career attorneys hired by the section underwent a dramatic transformation.
Half of the 14 career lawyers hired under Schlozman were members of the conservative Federalist Society or the Republican National Lawyers Association, up from none among the eight career hires in the previous two years, according to a review of resumes. The average US News & World Report ranking of the law school attended by new career lawyers plunged from 15 to 65.
Critics said candidates were being hired more for their political views than legal credentials. David Becker , a former voting rights division trial attorney, said that Schlozman's hiring of politically driven conservatives to protect minority voting rights created a "wolf guarding the henhouse situation."
Asked to respond on behalf of Schlozman, the Justice Department said it considers job applicants with a wide variety of backgrounds and insisted that politics has played no role in hiring decisions.
After the 2004 election, administration officials quietly began drawing up a list of US attorneys to replace. Considerations included their perceived loyalty to Bush and a desire by White House political adviser Karl Rove to increase voter fraud prosecutions, documents and testimony have shown. Most of the proposed firings were for US attorneys in states with closely divided elections.
Among those later fired was David Iglesias , from the battleground state of New Mexico, where many of his fellow Republicans had demanded more aggressive voter fraud probes. Iglesias has accused his critics of making the "reprehensible" suggestion that law enforcement decisions should be made on political grounds.
Missouri is another closely divided state. According to McClatchy Newspapers, Graves appeared on a January 2006 list of prosecutors who would be given a chance to resign to save face. He abruptly resigned in March 2006. Gonzales quickly installed Schlozman as Grave's replacement, bypassing Senate confirmation under new law that had been slipped into the Patriot Act.
That summer, the liberal activist group ACORN paid workers $8 an hour to sign up new voters in poor neighborhoods around the country. Later, ACORN's Kansas City chapter discovered that several workers filled out registration forms fraudulently instead of finding real people to sign up. ACORN fired the workers and alerted law enforcement.
Schlozman moved fast, so fast that his office got one of the names on the indictments wrong. He announced the indictments of four former ACORN workers on Nov. 1, 2006, warning that "this national investigation is very much ongoing." Missouri Republicans seized on the indictments to blast Democrats in the campaign endgame.
Critics later accused Schlozman of violating the Justice Department's own rules. A 1995 Justice election crime manual says "federal prosecutors . . . should be extremely careful not to conduct overt investigations during the preelection period" to avoid "chilling legitimate voting and campaign activities" and causing "the investigation itself to become a campaign issue."
"In investigating election fraud matters, the Justice Department must refrain from any conduct which has the possibility of affecting the election itself," the manual states, adding in underlining that "most, if not all, investigation of alleged election crime must await the end of the election to which the allegation relates."
The department said Schlozman's office got permission from headquarters for the election-eve indictments. <h3>It added that the department interprets the policy as having an unwritten exception for voter registration fraud, because investigators need not interview voters for such cases.</h3>
On Nov. 7, 2006, Missouri voters narrowly elected Democrat McCaskill over the Republican senator, James Talent . The victory proved essential to the Democrats' new one-vote Senate majority.
Last week, McCaskill told NPR that she'd like Schlozman to testify before Congress: "What this all indicates is that more questions need to be asked, and more answers under oath need to be given."
As the controversy over the US attorney firings started building, the Bush administration picked someone else to be western Missouri's US attorney. Unlike with Schlozman, the administration first sent the nominee to the Senate for confirmation.
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The only folks who <b>Bush is uniting</b>, are wealthy white conservatives and chrisitian fundamentalists...
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