Opinion on the 2000 Election and Selection

I recall hearing that night when the MSM reported Gore was leading in Florida. My wife and I high-fived because we knew this would put him over the top. Later, the announcement that changed the country, possibly forever. I had a sick feeling in my stomach after that announcement, and from that day I had to listen in anger at all the goings on this administration has put this country through.
My honest opinion, on the 2000 Election is very broad and covers everything in a nutshell. If Gore would have won AND have been placed in the White House, NONE of the things that have happened to this country since then would have happened, 9/11, Supreme Court Decisions, all the lies, dceits, untruths and downright crimnial behavior of this administration. Of course, the talking right heads would have been having a free forall against Gore and his administration, but in retrospect, I would rather listen to a bunch of blithering idiots than go through more of what has been going on AND to have my kids possibly be affected by their actions in the future.

I went to bed after I heard gore was going to win Florida I thought it was over. A little while later my partner woke me up and told me that Florida had become undecided and for some strange reason at that point in time I felt despair, which has never left me since.

And no Iraq War.

circumstances, in order to create the desired outcome. A Democratic Party vastly weakened by the Clinton's corporatism--with an inactive grass roots, and a huge division between party leaders and membership (--the leaders split off to the DLC, the members increasingly angry and alienated by items like NAFTA). A badly informed, brainwashed, non-alert American people, unaware of the dangers of the war profiteering corporate news monopolies (their lies and deception on behalf of fascist corporate rule). Most people--including not just ordinary people, but also government insiders--unaware of the grave danger of this cabal of Bushites/NeoCons and those behind them. (Witness the whistleblowers/defectors now--CIA agents, diplomats, generals, US attorneys, etc.)

They found a highly manipulable circumstance--the Florida recount--bribed some Supreme Court judges (in my opinion) who issued one of the most embarrassing and unprecedented rulings in SC history. In effect, the SC appointed Junior as President.

The 2004 election, on the other hand, was systematic, deliberate planned fraud, and has furthermore given us a pervasively fraudulent and secretly manipulable vote counting system, that was used not only to keep Bush/Cheney in power, and not only to prevent the election of a Congress that would impeach them for their many crimes, and stop their horrible war, but which is not thoroughly entrenched, and will prevent honest representation of the interests of the American people, and all reform efforts, indefinitely--until we, the people, get smart and throw these electronic election theft machines into 'Boston Harbor.'

In Florida '00, there were at least ballots TO recount, so that we could KNOW there was a fraudulent count. Now, a third of the country has no ballots--no paper trail at all. The elections are unauditable and unrecountable. And things are not much better in the remaining two-thirds. In 2004, 80% of the nation's votes were tabulated by extremely insecure and insider hackable election voting systems, run on 'TRADE SECRET,' PROPRIETARY programming code, owned and controlled by rightwing Bushite corporations, with virtually no audit/recount controls. This fascist coup was fast-tracked into place, during the 2002 to 2004 period, with $3.9 billion in boondoggle funding, and with the total and mindboggling silence of the Democratic Party leadership.

And to just give you an idea of how mindboggling this is, here's a rundown on just who 'counted' the 2004 (s)election under a veil of corporate secrecy...

DIEBOLD: Until recently, headed by Wally O'Dell, a Bush-Cheney campaign chair and major fundraiser (a Bush "Pioneer," right up there with Ken Lay), who promised in writing to "deliver Ohio's electoral votes to Bush-Cheney in 2004"; and

ES&S: A spinoff of Diebold (similar computer architecture), initially funded by rightwing billionaire Howard Ahmanson, who also gave one million dollars to the extremist 'christian' Chalcedon Foundation (which touts the death penalty for homosexuals, among other things).

Bush/Cheney campaign chairs and far rightwing nuts are 'counting' all our votes, in secret, with code that neither you nor I nor even our secretaries of state are permitted to review.

Lessons can be learned from Florida '00--about vigilance over vote counts, about persistence, about having party leadership with spine, about maintaining non-partisan principles in selecting election officials, about reasserting the "Fairness Doctrine" as a requirement for a broadcast license. All sorts of lessons.

And lessons can also be learned from Ohio '04 and Republican vote suppression tactics--and also from recent revelations of Rove's use of the Justice Department to influence elections (--or, rather, to write the narrative for pre-ordained stolen elections). The massive vote suppression in Ohio was a factor in the '04 (s)election, but its high visibility masks something far worse: rightwing Bushite corporate control of the vote totals in almost every state. And this latter condition is permanent. And it is a democracy killer.

We all lament the 2000 (s)election. But what are we doing about FUTURE election fraud now BUILT INTO the system?

This is a far, far, FAR worse problem than corrupt Supreme Court judges, or corrupt local election officials in specific elections, or Republican brownshirts storming vote counts, or systematic exclusion of black voters (horrible as that is). This is a completely Stalinized voting system. ("Those who vote decide nothing. Those who count the votes decide everything." --Josef Stalin.)

And because of the collusion of our Democratic Party office holders in this system, it is extremely difficult to change. Our best hope is probably at the state/local level, where ordinary people still have some influence. We need grass roots citizen movements all over the country, in every precinct, in every county, in every state--pressuring local officials--and it's going to take time. I think it will happen. I think it IS happening. But not in time for 2008. And, bear in mind, that Diebold/ES&S are also selecting our Democratic candidates. They control the primary vote counts as well as the general elections.

We are being systematically disenfranchised, and defrauded of proper representation, and we had better wake up to this, or our democracy is over.

...and will prevent honest representation of the interests of the American people, and all reform efforts, indefinitely--until we, the people, get smart and throw these electronic election theft machines into 'Boston Harbor.'"

Gore is a different person than Bush. He would not have or have been swayed by Cheney and the neocons. He is a much better thinker and much more intellegent. Much more well read and traveled.
Gore's ideology is different from Bush as well.