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Letter explaining "How to Fight Bush" in Upcoming Elections
Hot Damn! Design | March 15, 2004 | From Japan (?)

Posted on 03/14/2004 10:24:25 PM PST by Challenge

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Eric A. Smith Hot Damn! Design 81-03-3959-5371 snowdog@juno.ocn.ne.jp

(please distribute among your membership.)

An Emergency Call-to-Arms: A Five-Step Battle Plan for YOUR Future

This is a call to arms to you -- as an American and a custodian of your nation's future. Please act as if your life depends on it -- it well might.

We have been led down a dark, perilous road.

The journey has touched us all, from mothers and fathers burying children in a war over nonexistent WMD, to firefighters and policemen promised vital funds only to be cheated and asked to work for free. Millions of Americans have been cut loose as corporations exploit foreign workers on the cheap and CEOs gorge themselves on riches unprecedented in history. While Americans take second and even third jobs just feed their families, the Bush Administration has poured America's wealth into the greedy hands of defense contractors and tax-dodging megacorporations, notorious companies like (#1 Bush donator Kenneth Lay's) Enron or Cheney's wartime ripoff-artists at Halliburton.

Our environment, safety, economy, national security, labor protection and Constitutionally-guaranteed rights have all been gutted and left to die in a worker-hostile economy.

NOW WE FIGHT BACK.

Here's what we're facing:

This November, the Bush election machine has more than three times the spending power of its opponenets(1)

And they are fighting dirty, just as they did in 2000, when they purged Florida voter rolls(2), rioted to stop recounts(3), barred citizens from voting (ibid) and even threatened the Vice President and his family on their front lawn (4).

This year, through gerrymandering, data theft from Congressional computers, impeachments and recess judicial appointments, they are trying to consolidate their unprecedented power. And they have a special election-season surprise in store for us as well -- as the AFL-CIO argued before the Supreme Court last December(5), the Bushites have MADE IT A CRIME FOR THIRD PARTIES TO CRITICIZE THE PRESIDENT OR SAY THINGS TO INFLUENCE THE ELECTION during the election's most critical phase:

"This blackout will become national in scope on July 31, 30 days before the August 30-September 2 Republican National Convention . . . and it will then continue without interruption throughout the remaining 60 days until the November 2 election. Thus, from July 31, 2004 until the election, it will be a crime for a union, corporation, or incorporated non-profit organization to pay to broadcast any 'reference' to the President by 'name,' 'photograph,' 'drawing' or other 'unambiguous' means anywhere in the United States." (6)

They are ruthless, and will not concede victory without a vicious fight. Expect the outlawing of gay marriage to "divide and conquer", marginalize opponents and consolidate support from the religious right, a base estimated to be 30 million strong (7). Expect the Supreme Court to halt recounts again. Expect a "surprise" discovery of WMD even after Blix, David Kay and Iraq's scientists saying they were all destroyed. (8) Expect the "suprise" capture or "destruction" of Bin Laden conveniently close to the election (9). Expect lots of scary terrorism warnings and perhaps even an attack.(10) General Tommy Franks has even suggested a second 9-11-scale attack will lead to martial law in America (11).

None of this should deter you; remember it was the same group (Rumsfeld, Cheney, Baker, Bush Sr., Perle, etc.) that armed and funded Hussein and Bin Laden in the first place. The blood of our dead is therefore on their hands.

We must not underestimate the ruthlessness of those willing to start an international war based on known and transparent lies -- virtually against the will of the entire planet. Make no mistake; they are willing to throw away American lives in their quest for global dominion. And if you rise up and oppose them, you may be bullied, harassed and threatened, perhaps even by the FBI.(12) YOU MUST NOT LET THIS DETER YOU. WE MUST NOT BE BULLIED INTO LETTING THEM SEIZE POWER AGAIN!

And here we come to the deep, dark heart of the matter:

This year 28% of the vote (and counting) will be tallied on electronic voting machines or scanners, which have been repeatedly hacked and can be used to fix an election -- all without a trace. Below you'll find a link to the diagrammed, step-by-step report of how e-vote activist Bev Harris hacked one(13). If you think this is exaggeration, please follow the links listed below, where everything has been well-documented and by the NY Times, the Washington Post, CNN, ABC, CBS, the BBC, etc. (14)

Once paperless, effortlessly hackable (10) voting machines have been installed, the situation will be PERMANENT -- we will never know or be able to prove if an election has been stolen. And if it HAS -- those who have stolen it CAN NEVER BE VOTED OUT. And without the fear of voter reprisal, whoever takes advantage of such a situation could do literally anything they wanted and NEVER LOSE POWER. It will mean the end of Democracy. And if you work for an activist group, it will certainly mean the end of your organization.

We have less than six months to prepare to fight the biggest power grab in human history.

Do your part.

Help save America.

There will not be a second chance.

A 5-STEP BATTLE PLAN:

I. LOBBYING (20 minutes approximately)

Tell your representatives to support Bills H.R.2239, 1986, and ESPECIALLY 2045 (14)

Online e-petitions: http://www.truemajority.org/actionregister/ http://action.eff.org/action/index.asp?step=2&item=2821 http://www.verifiedvoting.org http://www.workingforchange.com/activism/petition.cfm?itemid=14993 http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/348035553?ts=1079111375&sign[partner_userID]=304336170&sign[memberID]=304336170&sign[partnerID]=1 http://www.blackboxvoting.org/cleanvote.html

Congress http://www.senate.gov/ Toll free: 1-800-839-5276 http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/

State elections boards http://www.blackboxvoting.org/htdocs/dcforum/DCForumID29/47.html

State Attorneys General http://www.naag.org/ag/full_ag_table.php

State Election Officials http://www.nased.org/

Members, Natl. Assoc. of County Recorders, Election Officials and Clerks http://www.nacrc.org/leadership/st_coord.htm

Penelope Bonsall, national director of the Office of Election Administration Office of Election Administration Federal Election Commission 999 E Street, NW Washington, DC 20463 vss@fec.gov (202) 694-1095 (phone) (202) 219-8500 (fax)

II. MEDIA BLITZ (one to three hours approximately) Write a ltter and email or fax it to Radio & tv stations, newspapers & magazines in your area: http://dmoz.org/Arts/Television/News/ http://newslink.org http://www.cantufind.com/american_newspapers.htm http://dmoz.org/Arts/Radio/Formats/Talk_Radio/Networks/ http://dmoz.org/Arts/Radio/Formats/Talk_Radio/Stations/ http://dmoz.org/Arts/Television/Networks/Cable/ http://dmoz.org/Arts/Television/Networks/ http://dmoz.org/Computers/Internet/Broadcasting/Information/

National Media Contacts: CBS Evening News 212-975-3691 evening@cbsnews.com

NBC Nightly News 212-664-4971 nightly@nbc.com

Peter Jennings : ABC World News Tonight Tel : (212) 456-4025, Fax : (212) 456-2381 PeterJennings@abcnews.com

Washington Post : abramowitz@washpost.com, colemanm@washpost.com , letters@washpost.com , hadarm@washpost.com , kingc@washpost.com , milbankd@washpost.com ,

New York Times: nytnews@nytimes.com, oped@nytimes.com, president@nytimes.com, publisher@nytimes.com, society@nytimes.com, washington@nytimes.com, web-editor@nytimes.com, letters@nytimes.com USA Today: editor@usatoday.com Houston Chronicle: viewpoints@chron.com San Francisco Chronicle: letters@sfchronicle.com Los Angeles Times: letters@latimes.com Chicago Tribune: ctc-TribLetter@Tribune.com Washington Post: letters@washpost.com Newsday: letters@newsday.com New York Daily News: voicers@edit.nydailynews.com

CNN HeadLine News executives : cameron.baird@turner.com, dave.willis@turner.com, bill.schneider@turner.com , james.broyles@turner.com, jason.evans@turner.com, lou.dobbs@turner.com , moneyline@cnnfn.com , kathy.slobogin@turner.com , paul.varian@turner.com , judy.fortin@turner.com, bill.galvin@turner.com, susan.jalali@turner.com, kurt.kasting@turner.com, tim.mallon@turner.com, wade.mckinney@turner.com, jerry.mihoch@turner.com, stephanie.minter@turner.com, dennis.newman@turner.com, alan.schrack@turner.com, rolando.santos@turner.com, steve.shusman@turner.com, jennifer.c.thomas@turner.com,

USA Today : editor@usatoday.com , fanklam@usatoday.com , jbacon@usatoday.com , lbranson@usatoday.com , dcolton@usatoday.com,

Los Angeles Times : dean.baquet@latimes.com , op-ed@latimes.com , john.carroll@latimes.com , janet.clayton@latimes.com , letters@latimes.com , latmag@latimes.com , marjorie.miller@latimes.com, john.puerner@latimes.com james.rainey@latimes.com, bill.stall@latimes.com ,

REUTERS : michel.gelbart@reuters.com , eddie.evans@reuters.com , editor.reuters@reuters.com, daniel.grebler@reuters.com , stephen.jukes@reuters.com , reshma.kapadia@reuters.com , andrew.mitchell@reuters.com , dick.satran@reuters.com , david.schlesinger@reuters.com, eddie.evans@reuters.com , washington.daybook.newsroom@reuters.com, miami.newsroom@reuters.com, michel.gelbart@reuters.com, boston.newsroom@reuters.com, toronto.newsroom@reuters.com , mexicocity.newsroom@reuters.com ,

Associated Press: info@ap.org, msilverman@ap.org, gjohnson@ap.org , hjung@ap.org tkorte@ap.org , sthomsen@ap.org etompson@ap.org , ntrott@ap.org rtanner@ap.org, mtighe@ap.org, kathleen.carroll@ap.org, dcrary@ap.org, adinnocenzio@ap.org, jaffleck@ap.org, mfeldman@ap.org, paula.froke@ap.org, tfuentez@ap.org, kgazlay@ap.org, chanley@ap.org, bharpaz@ap.org, lheinzerling@ap.org, rherschaft@ap.org, hitalie@ap.org, sjacobsen@ap.org, ajesdanun@ap.org, tkent@ap.org

III. WITNESS E-VOTE EVALUATIONS (one afternoon) Ask your elections board (about any e-voting purchase evaluations meetings to be held in your district. As a member of the voting public, it is your legal right to attend as a witness, although, out of convenience, they may try to avoid giving you the information. Insist on your rights.

If you do attend as a witness, you may well be a victim of intimidation tactics. Insist on voter-verified paper ballots. Bev Harris has written comprehensive answers to arguments you will hear. DO NOT BACK DOWN OR BE INTIMIDATED BY CIVIL SERVANTS -- they are your EMPLOYEES, paid by YOUR TAXES:

From Bev Harris, http://www.BlackBoxVoting.Org

Assertion: "Upgrading the printer already in the (Diebold) machine costs money" Fact: Diebold has stated in writing that their pre-installed internal printers are sufficient to generate a voter-verified paper trail.

Assertion: "The paper is very expensive" Fact: No, thermal paper is the cheapest made. And with an estimated maximmum of 300 people voting at each touch screen. A LARGE precinct may have seven touch screens, but many have just two or three. It might cost $15 per precinct to print those ballots.

Assertion: "The paper won't last" Fact: If the report to be by the machine will last the required amount of time, the ballots will too, if printed on the same paper. The printer is there to report totals at the polling place.

Assertion: "the machines will jam" Fact: The printer is similar to models used in supermarkets and WalMart. Remember: the total number of transactions, will be about 300. Do supermarket and WalMart printers jam every 15 sales? No; They process thousands of printouts without jamming.

Assertion: "the ink will run out" Fact: There is no ink in a thermal printer

Question: "If a paper ballot record doesn't match a machine record, which is the legal vote?" Fact: The voter-verified paper must trump the machine unless a mechanical defect or fraud is shown, because it is a physical record seen and verified by thousands of individual voters, whereas the machine is bits and bytes that can be changed by a single technician!

Assertion: "Paper ballot systems have been tampered with" Fact: Yes, and machines have been frequently wrong as well. Do not allow sidetracking of the discussion or assertions that you are "against electronic voting" -- no, we want them to put paper in a printer and use it for auditing.

Assertion: "Officials won't know what to do with paper ballots and new laws must be written." Fact: Laws and procedures set up for optical scans are applicable.

Assertion: "A paper trail will only lead to demands for more complicated and stringent auditing" Fact: Yes, it will. We're asking for that anyway, with optical scanning. It is still be cheap and efficient compared to many of the changes currently being implemented to accomodate the sales of more touchscreen machines.

Question: "Why use machines at all if you're demanding paper ballots?" Fact: Voting machines are helpful for the visually impaired

Assertion: "Paper ballots prevent the visually impaired from voting" Facts: Wheelchair-assisted voters can use a touch screen with the same efficiency whether or not there is a paper printout, and the visually-impaired are can be provided with headphones for these machines. Nor does a paper printout hinder their ability to vote.

Alternatives to the Diebold, Sequoia and ES&S machines (operated by heavily partisan CEOs, designed to operate WITHOUT a paper trail, and whose code and components are not allowed to be examined) exist.

Avante Systems has a machine that shows a printout through a glass screen. After the voter confirms it is correct, the paper ballot is droped into a storage box so it can be checked against the machine totals and the AccuPoll system has a scanner that can pass over the printed ballot to verify votes.

Alternative, secure e-voting machines you can suggest to your elections officials: http://www.accupoll.com/ http://www.aitechnology.com/avantetech/home.html

IV. VOLUNTEER ELECTIONS MONITORING (three days approximately, including preliminary training) Vootewatch is organizing election monitor volunteers here: http://www.votewatch.us/forum/register.php?

Bev Harris has outlined a point-by-point strategy on specifically what to look for when monitoring electronic voting machines. It is also recommended that you either download her free e-book "Black Box Voting", or better yet, purchase it here: http://www.blackboxvoting.org

From Bev Harris, http://www.BlackBoxVoting.Org

CITIZEN WATCHDOGS: What to look for and report -- Let's get good at this before November!

Optical-scan systems and absentee ballots: We have information that all systems recognize carbon-containing marks (soft lead pencil). Some DO NOT recognize all inks. You may want to bring a soft lead pencil to the polling place with you to mark your optical-scan ballots.

All Diebold counties (AccuVote and AccuTouch are Diebold brands) -- Ask that the poll workers print a report and post a copy at the polling place at the end of the day, whether they are required to or not. All Diebold machines, both touch-screen and optical-scan, contain internal printers and have the ability to print a polling place results report. This takes 60 seconds and costs nothing, and is an important check and balance to compare with the county results from the GEMS system, which we believe to contain security flaws. Votes should not change from the polling place to the county.

Report any instance of mismatched polling place/county tabulations here. Do NOT accept the excuse that they won't match because early votes, absentee, provisional, or challenge votes were added into the polling place totals. That is called "co-mingling" the data and is not an acceptable record-keeping practice. Additional categories of votes must be accounted for as separate line items.

Sequoia touch-screens do not have an internal printer. A printer can easily be hooked up with a serial port. If you see printers, demand a polling place report.

Watch for any "wandering vote tallies" on election night, especially if any votes go DOWN. (Yes, this has been known to happen).

Late poll openings: Report these immediately and we'll try to get cameras there. This is a form of vote suppression, often occurring in minority areas.

Late vote results: Report late incoming tallies. These can be indicative of the county trying to resolve voting machine anomalies before filing reports.

Observe how many cords come in and out of the voting machines. Report any evidence of networking the machines together. Report any time you see more than a simple power cord plugged in while the election is in progress.

Wardrive election sites. See if you can pick up wireless signals either during or after the election. Wireless communication is not permitted. Also, report any use of cell phones for vote transfers, which is also not permitted.

Election workers: Report the procedures used for training if they seem insecure. For example, we have already had reports that in Georgia, some poll workers were told to take voting machines home after training; Georgia flag artwork was uploaded right before the election; and other unwise and insecure procedures were followed.

Go visit the polling place at the end of the day and see how secure it is. We had reports recently of machines left in the polling place unattended.

Felony watch: In some states, IT IS A FELONY for technicians who are not sworn elections officials to touch the vote database in any way, shape or form after votes have been cast. In fact, if you look at Chapter 13 of Black Box Voting, the San Luis Obispo incident was probably illegal (Diebold tech Sophia Lee was tied to a live vote database that appeared on the Internet five hours before the polls closed).

Watch for statistical anomalies. Look at everything. Time is of the essence, as these analyses take some time and there are only a few days before the election is certified.

V. LEGAL CHALLENGES (indeterminate)

Author Lynn Landes has questioned the constitutionality of voting machines. http://www.ecotalk.org/VotingMachinesUnconstitutional.htm

If your organization has the wherewithal to raise a legal challenge on these (or other grounds) here are some resources below:

Election campaign and civil rights lawyers listed for every city: http://lawyers.findlaw.com/lawyer/practice/Election%20Campaign%20&%20Political%20Law http://lawyers.findlaw.com/lawyer/practice/Civil%20Rights

Institute for Justice: http://www.ij.org/index.shtml

Center for Indiviual Rights: http://www.cir-usa.org/intake.html

Class actions: http://www.bigclassaction.com/civil_rights.html

Southeastern Legal Foundation: http://southeasternlegal.org/

Electronic Frontier Foundation attorneys: gwen@eff.org jason@eff.org owlswan@eff.org wendy@eff.org tien@eff.org fred@eff.org

Other challenges: http://www.palmbeachpost.com/localnews/content/auto/epaper/editions/tuesday/local_news_04d49255058760a400d8.html http://www.electionguardians.org/actions.htm http://www.blackboxvoting.org/dieboldlawsuit.pdf

Pax Christi is also organizing an international group of elections monitors. More information here: http://www.paxchristiusa.org/news_events_more.asp?id=887

REFERENCES

1 (GOP:$115,667,827 ; Dems:$44,175,502). http://www.opensecrets.org/parties/index.asp

2. Greg Palast, Harper's Magazine "The Great Florida Ex-Con Game" http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=122&row=2

3 a."Unprecedented" -- internet preview of the film http://www.unprecedented.org/UnprecedentedPreview.htm

3 b. Lynn Landes: "Mission Impossible - Federal Observers & Voting Machines" http://www.ecotalk.org/FederalObservers.htm

4. Barabara Walters interview"The Note": http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/791744/posts

5.McConnell vs the Federal Election Commission http://www.oyez.org/oyez/resource/case/1637/

6. http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0404/hentoff.php

7. "Bush Assures Evangelicals of Commitment to Marriage Amendment" http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/12/politics/12EVAN.html?pagewanted=print&position

8a. Online Journal: "Wag the Osama" http://www.onlinejournal.com/Commentary/031004Burns/031004burns.html

8b.NewsNet5: "Ridge Sidesteps Question On Bin Laden's Capture" http://www.newsnet5.com/news/2917298/detail.html

9. U.S. Unloading WMD in Iraq http://www.tehrantimes.com/Description.asp?Da=3/13/2004&Cat=4&Num=011

10. Aljazeera.net: "Purported Al Qaida Statement" http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/2CDD53D6-7AF7-40C7-AF88-32A16072F81B.htm

11. NewsMax: "Tommy Franks: 'Martial Law Will Replace Constitution After Next Terror Attack'" http://infowars.com/print/ps/franks_martial.htm

12. The New McCarthyism, the Progressive: http://www.progressive.org/0901/roth0102.html

13. Scoop: "Inside a US Election Vote Counting Program" http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0307/S00065.htm

14a. NY Times: "Hack the Vote" http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/120303A.shtml

b. CBS: "Electronic Voting Causing Concern" http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/01/03/eveningnews/main591185.shtml

c. UK Independent: "All the President's Votes?" http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/1013-01.htm

d. Salon: "Will the Election be Hacked?" http://archive.salon.com/tech/feature/2004/02/09/voting_machines/index_np.html

e. BBC: "Concerns over US Computer Voting" http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3489877.stm

f. ABC News: "Avoiding Another Florida Fiasco" http://abcnews.go.com/sections/GMA/SciTech/Voting_machines_040305-1.html

g. "Comparison of Senate Bills 1980, 1986, and 2045" http://www.verifiedvoting.org/senate_bill_comparison.asp

You are encouraged to distribute this document freely and widely.

Contact: Eric A. Smith, Hot Damn! Design, Tokyo, Japan œ 81-03-3959-5371


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; Miscellaneous; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: electronicvoting

1 posted on 03/14/2004 10:24:26 PM PST by Challenge
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To: Challenge
and even threatened the Vice President and his family on their front lawn (4)

Wasn't this a major Freep ? At least they could have given credit where credit is due.
2 posted on 03/14/2004 10:31:15 PM PST by stylin19a (Is it vietnam yet ?)
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To: Challenge
Sounds like the pucker factor is crawling up the chart.
3 posted on 03/14/2004 10:34:06 PM PST by Adrastus
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To: Challenge
Sounds like the pucker factor is crawling up the chart.
4 posted on 03/14/2004 10:34:27 PM PST by Adrastus
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To: Challenge

 

THIS is democrat talking points....

About Us

WorkingForChange is an online journal of progressive news and opinion published by Working Assets. Visit WorkingForChange.com on a daily basis to read the latest dispatches from nationally syndicated reporters and columnists including Molly Ivins, Robert Scheer, and Greg Palast.


5 posted on 03/14/2004 10:41:03 PM PST by Wolverine (A Concerned Citizen)
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To: Challenge
---snowdog@juno.ocn.ne.jp---

Yeah! What's up with the Japanese URL? Tokyo Snowdog?
6 posted on 03/14/2004 10:43:10 PM PST by claudiustg (Go Sharon! Go Bush!)
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To: stylin19a
and even threatened the Vice President and his family on their front lawn (4)

Wasn't this a major Freep ? At least they could have given credit where credit is due.

Would you mind retelling the Gore-y details of this story for those of us who didn't have the privilege of knowing about Free Republic in 2000?

7 posted on 03/14/2004 10:45:01 PM PST by Spotsy (Bush-Cheney '04)
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To: Challenge
Wow. Looks like we've really got 'em flustered.
8 posted on 03/14/2004 10:49:29 PM PST by squidly (I have always felt that a politician is to be judged by the animosity he excites among his opponents)
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To: stylin19a
" Wasn't this a major Freep ? At least they could have given credit where credit is due."


GET OUTTA' CHENEY'S HOUSE!
GET OUTTA' CHENEY'S HOUSE!!- I can still see the Freepers cheering, and holding up their SoreLoserman signs. (and me.. cheering in my living room.) As my grandkids would say....
AWESOME!!!!
9 posted on 03/14/2004 11:03:22 PM PST by gramcam
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To: Challenge; All
Cross-link:

-The Prince of Tides- Bush ads, Kerry ads, the Tides Foundation, and so much more--

10 posted on 03/14/2004 11:39:06 PM PST by backhoe (Just an old Keyboard Cowboy, ridin' the TrackBall into the Sunset...)
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To: Challenge
Wow, someone needs to talk to this guy! You shouldn't publish a huge list of major liberal activists' email addresses. Someone could copy them all and post them to major spam sites all over the web. They won't appreciate having to either change their email addresses or wade through millions and millions of male enhancement adds in the months coming up to the election year. The cheap insurance ads alone are enough to make you tear out your hair. Bad boy! Madonna's going to come and give you a spanky.
11 posted on 03/14/2004 11:44:54 PM PST by NaughtiusMaximus (I could never vote for a guy with a chin like that.)
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To: Spotsy
see post # 9
12 posted on 03/15/2004 1:13:25 AM PST by stylin19a (Is it vietnam yet ?)
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To: backhoe
Contact: Eric A. Smith, Hot Damn! Design, Tokyo, Japan œ 81-03-3959-5371
13 posted on 03/15/2004 1:19:07 AM PST by prognostigaator
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To: Challenge
Isn't this comical? Of course, I remember a lot of the same sort of doom-mongering around here in Clinton's second term.

America is greater than Clinton, Bush or any other politician or party. We the people are still in charge. You can stop having the vapors now.

-ccm

14 posted on 03/15/2004 1:35:25 AM PST by ccmay
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To: gramcam; stylin19a
A reprise from the past...........
 
TODAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2002

.....One thing we want to leave you with to remember us by is another excerpt from Barbara Walters interview with Al Gore and family, which airs tonight on 20/20 at 10:00 p.m. ET/9:00 p.m. CT (check your local listings).

The following exchanges, while sure to interest 'Note' readers and historians, actually won't be part of tonight's 20/20 broadcast, so you can read them only here and now:

WALTERS: I'm not sure that people realize that while you were in the residence of the Vice President [during the Florida recount] there were crowds of people outside screaming at you. What was that all about?

AL GORE: Well, this was the Republican response to what was happening during that 36-day period, and they organized busloads of people that came and stood outside the house all day and all night screaming at the top of their lungs.

WALTERS: What, "Get out!"?

TIPPER GORE: Things like that, yes, and, and sometimes … things that we don't want to say on your program, and, some people saw that they were buses from "churches," but it was organized. The one thing that, that they did mainly was reach the bedrooms of our children, and Albert was still in school locally, and trying to study, so we rearranged, you know, they … kids moved to a different part of the house, and I was trying to think of a way that we could kind of laugh about this since obviously it was out of our control, there wasn't anything anybody could do so I got all the boom boxes in the house and … I remember sort of what the government did with Noriega … I thought we'd try that, and I aimed them at, toward, you know, where the crowd …

WALTERS: The crowd?

TIPPER GORE: … And I put nature sounds on and turned it all the way up. And at least the kids laughed.

AL GORE: There were a few, more than a few who supported us and were offended by the organized chanting round the clock who came out on the other street corner during the day to express their support with signs, and … You know, emotions were running high throughout the country and it was just an unprecedented time.

KARENNA GORE: Well, when we were in the Vice President's house during the recount, it was it was very intense. And one of the things I remember is that there was a … an organized effort by, I don't know whether it was the RNC or it was … it was right-wing groups, it was definitely Bush-campaign-oriented effort to bus in people to have a sort of siege at the Vice President's house, and, so, they were all lining there, screaming, and it was kind of an assortment of groups. I mean, some of them were anti, um, were anti-abortion groups, and some of them were pro-gun groups, and some of them … they all had their different signs. But they were all screaming, "Get out of Cheney's house," the whole time. And I just remember being there next to my dad, because I went for a run, and I ran back through them, and I was very upset when I came into the house. And my whole attitude was, like, "We've got to fight back harder. And where are our crowds?" And my dad, I'll never forget his response. He said, "We have to do what's best for the country, and it is not good for the country to have this kind of divisiveness. And he was on the phone, really calling off the dogs.

((My INSERT from The DRUDGE REPORT: http://web.archive.org/web/20010609154240/www.drudgereport.com/gore1.htm

The TIMES has learned that Gore personally lobbied top newspaper and newsmagazine editors and television news executives during the past month. "Gore made two rounds of telephone calls, once when he feared Harris would certify the Florida results on Nov. 18 and again when she was about to certify on Nov. 26."

The vice president personally urged editors and executives not to join Harris in declaring Bush the winner.

The TIMES outlines a memo written by Gore spinner Mark Fabiani' which detailed a weeklong plan that left little to chance in a crusade to "create news relentlessly, especially news that is televised."

He suggested ways to plant stories in the TIMES and prescribed "a strict schedule of two televised press events each day," including a Thanksgiving-eve visit to a homeless shelter.

GORE ORDERED ATTACK ON HARRIS

When Florida's Secretary of State Katherine Harris emerged as a key player, Gore asked an adviser: "What do we know about her?" according to the report.

When a Gore adviser responded that Harris was a partisan and Bush's campaign co-chair, Gore demanded: "Why aren't we getting that out?"

Later, Gore campaign press secretary Chris Lehane publicly called Harris "a hack'" and "Commissar Harris," drawing a private rebuke from the vice president. "This wasn't the communications strategy we agreed on,'' Gore sternly told one aide.
End of MY INSERT))

KARENNA GORE (continued from above): There were people who wanted to fan the … the flames of the racial issue and have real unrest.

(( MY INSERT from this report: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/789979/posts?page=222#222 

Hey, I was there at the VP Mansion over two weekends .. there were NO busloads brought in .. word just got around .... the GOP crowd lined Mass Ave for a couple of blocks .. then some union thugs and miscellaneous dregs came and stood on the opposite corner (no more than 20), but worked their way over to our side, put their faces into ours, whispering obscenities, and tried to provoke an incident.. NOTHING ... all the GOPers were having a really great time. On the Sunday when Katherine Harris was to certify at 5pm, there was a countdown (thanks to the atomic clock at the VP mansion) ... but.. the chant WAS "Get out of Cheney's house" .. she got that right. 222 posted on 11/15/2002 10:47 PM CST by EDINVA. End of MY INSERT)) 

KARENNA GORE (continued from above): And he was on the phone asking them not to, because of what was best for the country not because of what was best for him politically. And that's really who he is.

WALTERS: Do you remember the crowds outside screaming?

KRISTEN GORE: The crowds that were screaming outside our house, you know, "Get out of Cheney's house." And other things … of that nature, were really upsetting. It was difficult … It was just very … upsetting that someone would … yell those things at us. It felt … we felt sort of like … trapped in this … you know, little house with all these people yelling mean things. It's no fun. You know, whether you're a child of the person who they're directed at, or anyone else. It … it wasn't a good situation.

WALTERS: Were you scared?

KRISTEN GORE: I was scared that the truth was not going to come out. That's what I was.

After 20/20 and a break for your local news, you can catch Gore on Letterman.


15 posted on 03/15/2004 4:49:55 AM PST by Wolverine (A Concerned Citizen)
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To: Alamo-Girl
For your archive.
16 posted on 03/15/2004 4:59:10 AM PST by Wolverine (A Concerned Citizen)
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To: Wolverine
Thanks for the ping!
17 posted on 03/15/2004 5:47:04 AM PST by Alamo-Girl
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To: kristinn
For your archives, see #15.
18 posted on 03/15/2004 6:48:25 AM PST by Wolverine (A Concerned Citizen)
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To: Challenge
BTTT
19 posted on 03/15/2004 5:26:14 PM PST by arasina (So there.)
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