Karl Rove Replaced By Fake "Protestor" of Miami-Dade Vote Recount in 2000 - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

host · 04-19-2006, 11:29 AM

The news today that Karl Rove's non-blatantly political duties at the white house....the actual government "job" that he was paid to do, are being transferred to an admitted, "bussed in" republican "thug" who was part of an orchestrated "protest" "Op", in Florida in Nov., 2000, that hinged on the rapid deployment of 700 republican operatives, from other parts of the country, to Florida with a plan to monitor, impede, interfere with, or shut down efforts to recount the close Florida vote.

With the 2000 pre-election efforts of Bush's brother, Florida governor Jeb Bush, and Fla. Secretary of State, Catherine Harris, who played dual roles of chief official Fla. election official, and Bush-Cheney 2000 Fla. campaign, chairwoman, to bar eligible Fla. voters from the polls by listing them on a flawed "Felon's List". The "List" was totally discredited four year later, in 2004, when it was discovered by the press, after CNN sued to force public access to the names on the list, that there were no Hispanic names on the list! A majority of Hispanics in Fla. vote for republican candidates.

Why was it necessary for republicans to deploy such a large, out of state contingent of national, partisan, political operatives to Florida, considering that the governor of the state was candidate GW Bush's brother, and the chief state election official was also that state's Bush campaign chairwoman?

I've put together this thread to post the background of unique, organized, and intentional efforts by out of state republicans to interfere or stop the 2000 vote recount in Florida, where Bush was "ahead" by 527 votes, on Dec. 12, 2000, when the SCOTUS granted a Bush-Cheney campaign request to block completion of the vote recount, granting Bush the U.S. presidency by default.

Quote:

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationwo...news-headlines
Bush Advisor Karl Rove Won't Be Grooming Policy
At the same time, presidential Press Secretary Scott McClellan resigns, effective in two or three weeks.

By Joel Havemann
Times Staff Writer

April 19, 2006, 12:48 PM EDT

WASHINGTON -- In the latest White House staff shakeups, Karl Rove, President Bush's closest advisor, lost half of his portfolio and presidential Press Secretary Scott McClellan resigned, effective in two or three weeks.

Rove will carry the same title — deputy chief of staff — but he will no longer be responsible for policy. He will focus instead on politics. <b>The policy part of his job will become the responsibility of Joel Kaplan</b>, deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget.......

Mr. President, you've described yourself as a "uniter", over and over. Your supporters advise the rest of us, to forget, give it up, "move on". You, yourself, are still rewarding the thugs that helped you avoid an unimpeded, Fla. vote recount in 2000. You show that you have a long memory, and so do we!

<center><h3>The Background</h3></center>

Quote:

http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:...en&lr=&strip=1
Posted on Sat, Jul. 13, 2002

Bush gave plum jobs to supporters who worked recount, paper reports

By CAROL ROSENBERG

Knight Ridder Newspapers

......Three members of the window-pounding crowd that on Thanksgiving Eve helped persuade the Miami-Dade County canvassing board to abandon the recount are now members of the White House staff: Matt Schlapp, now a special assistant to the president; Garry Malphrus, deputy director of the president's Domestic Policy Council; and <b>Joel Kaplan</b>, also a special assistant to the president.

Schlapp and Malphrus, both of whom declined to talk to The Herald, were first identified in 2000 in The Washington Post as part of the Miami-Dade demonstration. <b>Kaplan described his role</b> in a lecture at the Harvard University Institute of Politics, calling the demonstration the ``Brooks Brothers Protest,'' a reference to the way the demonstrators were dressed.

Quote:

http://www.time.com/time/nation/arti...,89450,00.html
Web Exclusive| Nation
Mob Scene In Miami
We look at the players behind the 'spontaneous' protest that preceded the shutdown of Miami-Dade's recount
By TIM PADGETT
SUBSCRIBE TO TIMEPRINTE-MAILMORE BY AUTHOR

Posted Sunday, Nov. 26, 2000
Marjorie Strayer insisted she was just a Virginian on vacation in Miami. She had come to the downtown Stephen P. Clark Government Center to watch the Dade County vote recount — something to do before the trip to the Seaquarium. But Strayer, it turns out, is a top aide to New Mexico's Republican congresswoman, Heather Wilson, and was one of hundreds of paid GOP crusaders who descended on South Florida last Wednesday to protest the state's recounts. "The system is unfair, inaccurate, fraught with human error!" Strayer cried. In a Winnebago outside, GOP operatives orchestrated the ranks up to the 19th floor, hoping to halt the tally of the largest potential lode of Gore votes. Republicans, not usually known for takin' it to the streets, got what they wanted. Just two hours after a near riot outside the counting room, the Miami-Dade canvassing board voted to shut down the count. Yet the way the Republicans went after it, by intimidating the three-member board or by providing the excuse it was looking for, gave Americans the first TV view of strong-arm tactics in what was supposed to be a showcase of democracy in action. If Jesse Jackson can do it, the Republicans argued, so can we. But the GOP's march turned into a mob. The screaming, the pounding on doors and the alleged physical assaults on Democrats suddenly made a bemused public queasy......

Quote:

http://www.sptimes.com/News/112900/E...ama_in_M.shtml
By DAVID ADAMS

© St. Petersburg Times, published November 29, 2000

.........Republicans were outraged and demanded that any hand recount include all ballots.

Cell phones and beepers came alive.

In order to conduct the undercount vote the board decided to move operations back to its 19th floor offices, where the 13 computerized ballot scanning machines were kept in a small room. The limited space allowed for a far smaller contingent of observers and media.

Republicans, and some members of the media, complained the board was violating Florida open government laws by excluding them.

Cuban radio stations in Miami that day had also warned listeners that Democrats were poised to steal the election. Listeners were told that by opting not to do a full manual recount, their heavily Republican districts in Little Havana and Hialeah wouldn't be included.

Meanwhile, GOP phone banks were making recorded voice "robo-calls" to get out the party faithful.

By mid-morning an angry crowd had gathered outside the government building. The crowd included top Republicans, including local Cuban-American members of Congress Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Lincoln Diaz-Balart.

But it was the out-of-state contingent that was the most vociferous.

"Thugs in that building are trying to hijack this election," the crowd was told by U.S. Rep. John Sweeney, R-N.Y.

According to one published report, Sweeney issued the decisive battle cry. "Shut it down," were his words to an aide, according to Wall Street Journal columnist and conservative commentator Paul Gigot, who was present.

<h3>Within a short time, some 40 to 60 GOP observers -- mostly from out of state -- moved en masse to the 19th floor tabulation room, chanting "fraud, fraud, fraud," and "three blind mice."</h3>

Some pounded on the doors and jostled with security guards.

Leading the charge was Elizabeth Ross, a 26-year-old staff assistant from the office of U.S. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss. Another was Thomas Pyle, who works for House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, R-Texas. Both staffers were also among a crowd that set upon Miami-Dade Democratic Party chairman Joe Geller.

Geller was shoved and pushed as he left the tabulation room with an unused sample ballot. Screaming insults, the crowd accused him of stealing an actual ballot.

"This Republican observer -- a woman with blond hair, a suit and clipboard -- was watching the whole thing," Geller said. "But the moment I started to walk away, she sicced the crowd on me. She said I was stealing a ballot and they surrounded me. It was all orchestrated."

As Geller made a dash for the elevator, the crowd followed.

"Suddenly, I was surrounded by a screaming, shoving, insane crowd, shouting that I had done something I hadn't done, that I should show them the ballot," Geller said. "People grabbing at me and my clothes and there was almost no security. I couldn't believe those people weren't arrested."

The actions of Ross and others have led to charges from Democrats that the assault on the tabulation room was a "near mob-like action" by "out-of-state paid political operatives."

Lott's office said Ross was not acting on orders from her boss.

"She was on vacation time when she was down there. She wasn't on the senator's salary," said Lott spokesman Sam Whitfield.

A few hours later, the canvassing board members did what that the protesters had been hoping for. In a stunning reversal, they unanimously voted to call off the recount. ...............

The "diplomat" who could not get confirmed as UN Ambassador by a majority of his own party's senators, was rewarded for his part in the Florida 2000 vote recount disruption "Op", with a temporary, recess appointment as UN Ambassador, by president Bush. Bolton's appointment will expire at the start of the new congressional term, 9 months from now.....

Quote:

http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:...s&ct=clnk&cd=3
Posted on Sat, Jul. 13, 2002

Bush gave plum jobs to supporters who worked recount, paper reports

By CAROL ROSENBERG

Knight Ridder Newspapers

MIAMI - John Bolton, undersecretary of state for arms control, caused a stir in May by accusing the Cuban government of transferring bioweapons technology to rogue nations. Nineteen months ago, he caused a different stir - bursting into a Tallahassee library on behalf of the Bush-Cheney campaign to stop a recount of Miami-Dade County ballots......

.....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. <b>He had worked for the first Bush administration and, 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.</b>

``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.

<b>It was his role, on a Saturday, Dec. 9, 2000, to burst into a library where workers were recounting Miami-Dade ballots</b> 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 <b>I'm here to stop the count,''</b> he was quoted as saying in news reports at the time.......

My opinion is that the six year, post 2000 election efforts of POTUS Bush to promote to key government positions, and surround himself, with folks of such demonstrated, compromised ethics and partisan zealotry, as Joel Kaplan and John Bolton have publicly exhibited (they are both proud that they acted as intimidating "thugs", against Miami-Dade Fla. 2000 vote recount offficials, speaks volumes about Bush's own ethics and character.

Six years later, the conduct of the 700 "bussed" in republican "staffers" and politcal operatives in the midst of efforts to recount the Fla. vote, still contributes to the "stench" of a coup.

Willravel · 04-19-2006, 11:42 AM

It's amazing how blatent it all really is. It almost seems as if they aren't afraid of being acught anymore, which is crazy considering the recent cases of dirty political figures being called on their bullshit. I remember a thread in which it was asked if the president lives in a bubble, somehow cut off from reality in one way or another. I suspect that this proves such a point. Bush takes the 2000 election and all of the people whop help him reap the rewards in the middle of terrible controversies about coruption surrounding the administration. It boggles the mind.

Ustwo · 04-19-2006, 11:50 AM

All I seem to recall are the Union members the democrats bussed in to 'protest' the inital vote.

I fail to see a point other than you didn't like the outcome of the 2000 election. Next time perhaps the democrats won't try SELECTIVE recounts in democrat controlled areas and instead push for the statewide one.

stevo · 04-19-2006, 01:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ustwo

All I seem to recall are the Union members the democrats bussed in to 'protest' the inital vote.

I fail to see a point other than you didn't like the outcome of the 2000 election. Next time perhaps the democrats won't try SELECTIVE recounts in democrat controlled areas and instead push for the statewide one.

Its hard to tell what the democrats will do next time since they appear to be losing the battle to allow voting by people without ID. Its very important to the DNC that people without verifiable identification be allowed to vote in elections...wonder why

Poppinjay · 04-19-2006, 02:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stevo

Its hard to tell what the democrats will do next time since they appear to be losing the battle to allow voting by people without ID. Its very important to the DNC that people without verifiable identification be allowed to vote in elections...wonder why

I would say it's because the franchise the lynchpin of our entire democracy. I would add that being turned away when asked, "papers, please" sounds mighty fascist. I am happy to be in the party that wants more people to vote.

On the other hand, The GOP seems mightily invested in supporting Diebold vote counters. Wonder why?

Oh, wait, it's because Diebold gives a shitload of money to the GOP.

The_Jazz · 04-19-2006, 02:22 PM

What?! A politician rewarded someone that helped them win an election?! I'm outraged!

In case you can't tell, I'm being sarcastic.

/Stops channelling Homer Simpson
//Remembers that the next line in the letter to Mr. Burns contains the line "smells like an elephant's butt", which seems oddly appropriate here.
///Remembers he lives in Chicago, where patronage has transformed into a fine art

Seaver · 04-19-2006, 05:59 PM

Quote:

I would say it's because the franchise the lynchpin of our entire democracy. I would add that being turned away when asked, "papers, please" sounds mighty fascist. I am happy to be in the party that wants more people to vote.

On the other hand, The GOP seems mightily invested in supporting Diebold vote counters. Wonder why?

Oh, wait, it's because Diebold gives a shitload of money to the GOP.

How is having a valid ID a difficult task to accomplish? God forbid convicted felons cant vote! Oh lordy Illegal Immigrants can't vote!

Hardknock · 04-19-2006, 06:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Seaver

How is having a valid ID a difficult task to accomplish?

Ask anyone who lives on the gulf coast.

Seaver · 04-19-2006, 06:23 PM

Quote:

Ask anyone who lives on the gulf coast.

I live on the gulf coast. All you need is a birth certificate, SSN card, or any other proof of citizenship. Hell in most counties they'll quite litterally come to your door to sign up for both voter registration AND issuing an ID.

So... how is having a valid ID a difficult task to accomplish?

Poppinjay · 04-19-2006, 07:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Seaver

I live on the gulf coast. All you need is a birth certificate, SSN card, or any other proof of citizenship. Hell in most counties they'll quite litterally come to your door to sign up for both voter registration AND issuing an ID.

So... how is having a valid ID a difficult task to accomplish?

There is already a process of registration for voting.

When a person votes, they are checked off the registration list.

If another person tries to vote under that name, the matter is investigated.

You cannot just show up and vote and get it counted.

The fact is, (and I say this as a southerner) portions of this country have had a poor record of providing the vote to all ethnicities. And this isn't ancient history, this is within the last three decades. Considering that districts are allowed to interpret election requirements, I wouldn't be at all surprised to hear of a return to something like a poll tax or quiz related to a "valid ID".

And yes, I think felons should be allowed to vote if they have satisfied their punitory expectations. There are "felons" who can't vote because of a civil rights march they were in in the wrong kind of town in 1965.

ratbastid · 04-19-2006, 07:25 PM

Oh, man... This thread is stirring up a 6-year-dormant hornet's nest. I don't think that's really what this news item is about.

The thing that's noteworthy here is that yet again, when a position comes open in the administration, it's given to somebody who demonstrated their loyalty at the cost of performing questionably ethical actions.

We've seen this a lot. We're not outraged anymore. You know, if you beat a dog for long enough, it'll start to act as if it thinks it deserves it. I don't know about you, but America's starting to look a lot like a beaten dog.

roachboy · 04-19-2006, 07:47 PM

i am actually amazed at the seeming stupor abroad in the land too...what is going on out there? you would think that there would be more public pressure--or you'd have some sense of general public discontent---but there seems nothing organized.

folk are yelling at their tv sets and wondering aloud what is happening to them to friends over a beer or 6 at a nearby publick house.

or: there are tons of messageboards like this on the net--i imagine that in most of them, folk are posting or have posted wondering why there is this stupor abroad in the land and no organized reaction to the many--um---malfeasances (yikes) of the bush people.

well, maybe there is.
maybe this is it.
maybe this is what we do.

....

Elphaba · 04-19-2006, 07:50 PM

Even a beaten dog will eventually show it's teeth. We are long overdue in demanding some legitimacy in those that represent our government.

Host has pointed out that the administration's so called shakeup is cosmetic at best. Qualification (legitimacy) hasn't mattered in rewarding the incompetent for a role in government. They simply need to "getting away with it."

ubertuber · 04-20-2006, 12:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Elphaba

Host has pointed out that the administration's so called shakeup is cosmetic at best. Qualification (legitimacy) hasn't mattered in rewarding the incompetent for a role in government.

Yeah, but (and this isn't really disagreeing with the thrust of your post) I don't think they've replaced anyone over incompetance, save Michael Brown. Most of these changes have been for political expediency, cosmetic reasons, or simply looking for fresh blood, not gross misconduct. That's not to say some of these people didn't need to go, but that's not why they were replaced.

shakran · 04-20-2006, 04:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ustwo

All I seem to recall are the Union members the democrats bussed in to 'protest' the inital vote.

I fail to see a point other than you didn't like the outcome of the 2000 election. Next time perhaps the democrats won't try SELECTIVE recounts in democrat controlled areas and instead push for the statewide one.

Your reply is telling Ustwo. Instead of "No way, he didn't do that! We're not wrong!" you instead choose "but the Democrats suck too!" That doesn't strike me as a very good excuse for what Bush & Co. are doing right now.

Ustwo · 04-20-2006, 06:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shakran

Your reply is telling Ustwo. Instead of "No way, he didn't do that! We're not wrong!" you instead choose "but the Democrats suck too!" That doesn't strike me as a very good excuse for what Bush & Co. are doing right now.

My reply is telling in that I have no idea what hosts original point was, but I think it had something to do with the 2000 election. I fail to see a problem here, an issue here, or where he is going. Perhaps he is mad that Bush wanted to work with people who supported him rather than against him. He is also wrong because Bush did try to 'reach out' to the democrats after 2000, even letting Teddy write the Education bill, and he saw how far THAT got him, but thats all old news.

roachboy · 04-20-2006, 08:40 AM

i thought that the New Civility was about trying to raise the quality of debate as a way of reducing the likelihood of personal attacks in threads.

how are your posts in this thread not simple trolling?

Bill O'Rights · 04-20-2006, 10:20 AM

I see no foul here.

Move on.

host · 04-20-2006, 11:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ustwo

My reply is telling in that I have no idea what hosts original point was, but I think it had something to do with the 2000 election. I fail to see a problem here, an issue here, or where he is going. Perhaps he is mad that Bush wanted to work with people who supported him rather than against him. He is also wrong because Bush did try to 'reach out' to the democrats after 2000, even letting Teddy write the Education bill, and he saw how far THAT got him, but thats all old news.

Perhaps I was remiss, by making my own statements and the documentation that I provided in this thread's OP, too brief. Possibly, I made statements that I did not thoroughly back up with references in news reporting, linked to published news articles on web pages owned by prominent MSM news departments. Live and learn.....my bad!

I'll let Al Kamen of WaPo, help clarify my core point:

Quote:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv...ions/kamen.htm
Al Kamen is a reporter on the national news staff of The Washington Post. <b>He writes the "In the Loop" column four times a week.</b>

He joined The Post in 1980 and has covered local and federal courts, the Supreme Court and the state department.

Kamen assisted Robert Woodward and Carl Bernstein in writing "The Final Days," and Robert Woodward and Scott Armstrong in writing "The Brethren."

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.

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>

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ustwo

All I seem to recall are the Union members the democrats bussed in to 'protest' the inital vote.

I fail to see a point other than you didn't like the outcome of the 2000 election. Next time perhaps the democrats won't try SELECTIVE recounts in democrat controlled areas and instead push for the statewide one.

The news reporting of that time....in mid to late November, 2000 stated conclusively that the Gore campaing tried to win the Florida vote in the courts, and the Bush campaign.....

Quote:

http://www.time.com/time/nation/arti...,89419,00.html
.........<b>It looks like Gore is the one doing the disputing and Bush is doing the Gary Cooper thing of being strong and

silent. In fact, of course, it was Bush who first went to the federal courts and first to the U.S. Supreme Court.</b>

For Bush, who has made a mantra of local control, this is like trashing the big bully behind his back and then

enlisting his services when you get in a brawl. You'll notice that the Bush campaign called the Florida Supreme

Court an "instrument of the Democratic party" when it agreed to let the manual count continue, but were silent

about the court's bias when it rejected Gore's emergency appeal to force Miami-Dade to resume its recount. .....

......Right now, there is a vague presumption among Americans that Gore is the down-and-dirty cheater and Bush is the honest cheater. <h3>Bush is using tactics we all are used to, sabre-rattling press conferences and thuggish spokespeople and vague threats to do something really nasty.......</h3>

Quote:

http://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/27/po...5ab0cd&ei=5070
November 27, 2000
The Demonstrators: Labor Unions Take to Florida Streets, Rallying for Gore
By SOMINI SENGUPTA

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. Nov. 26 � Finally, Al Gore's friends showed up.

<b>After ceding the rallying and protesting to the Republicans for more than two weeks, the vice president's organized labor base gathered its troops today</b>, filling the State Capitol plaza here with more than 200 cheering, chanting demonstrators, signaling a shift in the public relations battle over the presidential race.

<h3>Since the recounting began, Republicans have dominated the rallies on the streets, with their placards and slogans.

And their protests, occasionally unruly, as in Miami last week, have been important to the Republican strategy of

portraying the manual recounts as scenes of confusion and chaos.</h3>

The Democrats had chosen to portray the Florida

recounts as calm, methodical civic rituals.

That changed today, as the recounts wound down for the 5 p.m. deadline. Organized labor turned out its street

soldiers for simultaneous protests this afternoon in Miami, West Palm Beach and here, in the Capitol plaza.

Marilyn P. Lenard, Florida's A.F.L.-C.I.O. president, who called the protests, said she had grown weary of turning

on the television and seeing only all those "Sore-Loserman" placards. Sure, she said, she had considered something

dignified and quiet, like the silent vigil her group had organized on the night of the Florida Supreme Court's

decision last week. But that just got drowned out by the noisemakers from the other side.....

Read the following article, linked in the next quote box. All references to the November, 2000, post election Florida protests and accompanying organizing and support, describes republican activity as party managed and driven. There was apparently no "grass roots" (eminating from the people) protest activity or "voice" from the republican side. All republican participation was financed and managed by the party, and conducted by party officials and party activists, staff members of elected officials, and other "careerist" republicans or wannabees.

Contrast the descriptions of those who supported Gore. Some were organized and bussed by efforts of partisan clergy (Jesse Jackson) and by union organizations (AFL-CIO).....but....none apparently were seeking political payback via an appointed, post election job, they were not staff members of elected officials...

Quote:

http://www.geocities.com/floridavotecount/rallies.html
SPONTANEOUS RALLIES ARE CAREFULLY STAGED
FROM UNIONS TO PARTIES TO JESSE JACKSON, PROTESTS ON CAMERA GOT LOTS OF BACKSTAGE POLISH.
THE ORLANDO SENTINEL
December 6, 2000
Author: Doris Bloodsworth of The Sentinel Staff....

The Bush campaign was first to launch a "protest Op", solely engaged in a disinformation campaign to portray the recount process as "in chaos", attacked and shut down the Miami-Dade recount with the "folks" in the above photo, in which <b>Joel Kaplan</b> was one of their number, and directed John Bolton to rush from South Korea, to Florida, to burst into the room where the Miami-Dade recount has resumed...to order it stopped.

When you add the following to the "mix"....

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

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!

BigBen · 04-20-2006, 12:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by host

Perhaps I was remiss, by making my own statements and the documentation that I provided in this thread's OP, too brief. Possibly, I made statements that I did not thoroughly back up with references in news reporting, linked to published news articles on web pages owned by prominent MSM news departments. Live and learn.....my bad!...

Nooooooooooooo.....

Please, Lord God and everything sacred, please let Host be joking.

04-19-2006, 11:50 AM	#3 (permalink)
Ustwo Pissing in the cornflakes	All I seem to recall are the Union members the democrats bussed in to 'protest' the inital vote. I fail to see a point other than you didn't like the outcome of the 2000 election. Next time perhaps the democrats won't try SELECTIVE recounts in democrat controlled areas and instead push for the statewide one. __________________ Agents of the enemies who hold office in our own government, who attempt to eliminate our "freedoms" and our "right to know" are posting among us, I fear.....on this very forum. - host Obama - Know a Man by the friends he keeps.

04-19-2006, 02:22 PM	#6 (permalink)
The_Jazz Asshole Administrator Location: Chicago	What?! A politician rewarded someone that helped them win an election?! I'm outraged! In case you can't tell, I'm being sarcastic. /Stops channelling Homer Simpson //Remembers that the next line in the letter to Mr. Burns contains the line "smells like an elephant's butt", which seems oddly appropriate here. ///Remembers he lives in Chicago, where patronage has transformed into a fine art __________________ "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - B. Franklin "There ought to be limits to freedom." - George W. Bush "We have met the enemy and he is us." - Pogo

04-19-2006, 07:47 PM	#12 (permalink)
roachboy Super Moderator Location: essex ma	i am actually amazed at the seeming stupor abroad in the land too...what is going on out there? you would think that there would be more public pressure--or you'd have some sense of general public discontent---but there seems nothing organized. folk are yelling at their tv sets and wondering aloud what is happening to them to friends over a beer or 6 at a nearby publick house. or: there are tons of messageboards like this on the net--i imagine that in most of them, folk are posting or have posted wondering why there is this stupor abroad in the land and no organized reaction to the many--um---malfeasances (yikes) of the bush people. well, maybe there is. maybe this is it. maybe this is what we do. .... __________________ a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear it make you sick. -kamau brathwaite Last edited by roachboy; 04-19-2006 at 07:51 PM..

04-20-2006, 08:40 AM	#17 (permalink)
roachboy Super Moderator Location: essex ma	i thought that the New Civility was about trying to raise the quality of debate as a way of reducing the likelihood of personal attacks in threads. how are your posts in this thread not simple trolling? __________________ a gramophone its corrugated trumpet silver handle spinning dog. such faithfulness it hear it make you sick. -kamau brathwaite

04-20-2006, 10:20 AM	#18 (permalink)
Bill O'Rights will always be an Alyson Hanniganite Location: In the dust of the archives	I see no foul here. Move on. __________________ "I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires." - Susan B. Anthony "Hedonism with rules isn't hedonism at all, it's the Republican party." - JumpinJesus It is indisputable that true beauty lies within...but a nice rack sure doesn't hurt.

04-19-2006, 11:42 AM	#2 (permalink)
Willravel ... a sort of licensed troubleshooter.	It's amazing how blatent it all really is. It almost seems as if they aren't afraid of being acught anymore, which is crazy considering the recent cases of dirty political figures being called on their bullshit. I remember a thread in which it was asked if the president lives in a bubble, somehow cut off from reality in one way or another. I suspect that this proves such a point. Bush takes the 2000 election and all of the people whop help him reap the rewards in the middle of terrible controversies about coruption surrounding the administration. It boggles the mind.

04-19-2006, 07:25 PM	#11 (permalink)
ratbastid Darth Papa Location: Yonder	Oh, man... This thread is stirring up a 6-year-dormant hornet's nest. I don't think that's really what this news item is about. The thing that's noteworthy here is that yet again, when a position comes open in the administration, it's given to somebody who demonstrated their loyalty at the cost of performing questionably ethical actions. We've seen this a lot. We're not outraged anymore. You know, if you beat a dog for long enough, it'll start to act as if it thinks it deserves it. I don't know about you, but America's starting to look a lot like a beaten dog.

04-19-2006, 07:50 PM	#13 (permalink)
Elphaba Deja Moo Location: Olympic Peninsula, WA	Even a beaten dog will eventually show it's teeth. We are long overdue in demanding some legitimacy in those that represent our government. Host has pointed out that the administration's so called shakeup is cosmetic at best. Qualification (legitimacy) hasn't mattered in rewarding the incompetent for a role in government. They simply need to "getting away with it."