Posted by R.Anne on December 10, 2000, at 21:02:43
In reply to Re: Gore has a chance for the moment-what's next? » R.Anne, posted by ksvt on December 10, 2000, at 12:20:36
I agree with what you had to say last time and thought you might also like this article I came accross:
Anger grows over vote fraud
Special to the World
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Busloads of union members, senior citizens, and other fighters for voting rights rolled into the Florida State Capitol Dec. 5 for a rally protesting the drive by the Bush-Cheney campaign to steal the presidential election by discarding tens of thousands of votes.
"This is America. Count every vote," declared a statement by the Florida AFL-CIO, initiator of the demonstration in the courtyard of the state capitol.
"In the presidential race, that means every vote in Florida deserves to be counted. And every counted vote must be included in the official tallies. But Gov. Jeb Bush and Republican operatives don’t want to wait for the wheels of democracy to determine the election outcome."
The labor federation warned that the Republican-majority Florida Legislature, and especially House Speaker Tom Feeney, are "mounting a partisan power play" to disregard the popular vote and select a slate of Bush-Cheney electors.
"That is an offense to every voter and a shame to our nation," the statement said. "For democracy’s sake, working families are calling for a fair and accurate count of Florida’s presidential votes."
Florida AFL-CIO President Marilyn Lenard welcomed the huge crowd. "This rally is a people’s rally," she said. "We have come here to raise our united voice and our message is simple: count every vote."
She pointed to a wall festooned with thousands of orange ribbons. "Those ribbons represent the thousands of people in the state of Florida whose votes were not counted.
Tony Hill, secretary treasurer of the Florida AFL-CIO and a former leader of the International Longshoremen’s Association in Jacksonville, told the World, "What is it going to take to win justice? Street activities. Not letting them put us to sleep with lawyers and endless court cases."
Hill, a former member of the Florida legislature, together with State Sen. Kendrick Meek, son of U.S. Rep. Carrie Meeks (D-Fla.), conducted a 26-hour sit-in at Jeb Bush’s offices last winter to protest his "One Florida" plan to decimate affirmative action.
"Our position is that affirmative action to overcome race and gender discrimination is a major issue in the presidential election," Hill said.
"You heard what George W. Bush said during the presidential debates: ‘affirmative access.’ Like his brother, George W. will try to destroy affirmative action."
The Tallahassee rally, one of 30 mass protests across the country called by the AFL-CIO, coincided with a hearing before the Florida Supreme Court in which attorneys for Democrat Al Gore asked the high court to reverse a ruling by Leon County Circuit Judge N. Sanders Sauls and order a full count of the Florida ballots including more than 10,000 Miami-Dade County ballots that have never been counted.
More than 1,000 protesters gathered in front of the Stephen P. Clark government building in Miami, Dec. 1 to protest the bully tactics of Republicans Nov. 22 in forcing the Miami-Dade canvassing board to reverse its unanimous decision to conduct a manual count of over 600,000 ballots in the heavily Democratic county. The rally was organized by the AFL-CIO, NAACP, Florida Council of Senior Citizens, members of the Democratic Party who have built a strong grassroots coalition against the GOP power grab here.
"They want to bury these ballots and Bush wants to confuse the issues," said Meek, one of two African-American women who represent Florida in the U.S. House of Representatives. The other is Rep. Corrine Brown of Jacksonville.
"Bush wants us to be good victims," Meek said. "He wants us to shut up and suffer quietly ‘for the good of the country.’ I say we’re not going to do it!"
The crowd chanted, "Count every vote!"
Meek denounced the widespread violations of the Voting Rights Act exposed in a Nov. 11 hearing by the NAACP in Miami. The Justice Department is now investigating charges contained in a nearly 500-page NAACP report on voting irregularities in predominantly African-American, Haitian and Puerto Rican precincts.
"The right to vote was a hard-fought victory for women and people of color," Meek said.
Gerald McEntee, president of the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees, told the crowd, "Counting every vote should be – must be – beyond debate. The eyes of the country and the world are on us. What do they see? Those who have always looked to our country as the model of democracy now see a political party, the Republican Party, that will do anything, even ignore the votes of its citizens, to gain power."
Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) denounced the Republican goon squad organized by House Majority Whip Tom DeLay. Republican staffers terrorized Florida elections officials and stopped the legal hand recount in Miami-Dade.
"Congressional staffers have to abide by some ethical standards," Thompson said. "The notion that you come here intentionally to disrupt the orderly process of an election really smacks of the ‘Old South’ where I am from."
Rep. Earl Hilliard (D-Ala.) called it a "conspiracy to just take the state of Florida" by any means possible. "What those congressional aides did, they came here not only with the intent to disrupt and close down the recounts, they used tactics of ... fear to achieve that purpose."
***********Very interesing, huh? I didn't get this from my local newspaper but rather from a coffee shop newspaper I haven't seen in eons.
poster:R.Anne
thread:3549
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20001117/msgs/3585.html