Posts from — October 2004

BBC NEWS New Florida vote scandal feared

The Brits know more than we do, how is that?

A secret document obtained from inside Bush campaign headquarters in Florida suggests a plan - possibly in violation of US law - to disrupt voting in the state’s African-American voting districts, a BBC Newsnight investigation reveals.

Election supervisor Ion Sancho believes some voters are being intimidated
Two e-mails, prepared for the executive director of the Bush campaign in Florida and the campaign’s national research director in Washington DC, contain a 15-page so-called “caging list“.

It lists 1,886 names and addresses of voters in predominantly black and traditionally Democrat areas of Jacksonville, Florida.

An elections supervisor in Tallahassee, when shown the list, told Newsnight: “The only possible reason why they would keep such a thing is to challenge voters on election day.”

Ion Sancho, a Democrat, noted that Florida law allows political party operatives inside polling stations to stop voters from obtaining a ballot.

They may then only vote “provisionally” after signing an affidavit attesting to their legal voting status. Mass challenges have never occurred in Florida. Indeed, says Mr Sancho, not one challenge has been made to a voter “in the 16 years I’ve been supervisor of elections.”

“Quite frankly, this process can be used to slow down the voting process and cause chaos on election day; and discourage voters from voting.” Sancho calls it “intimidation.” And it may be illegal.

A Republican spokeswoman did not deny that voters would be challenged at polling stations. In Washington, well-known civil rights attorney, Ralph Neas, noted that US federal law prohibits targeting challenges to voters, even if there is a basis for the challenge, if race is a factor in targeting the voters. The list of Jacksonville voters covers an area with a majority of black residents.

When asked by Newsnight for an explanation of the list, Republican spokespersons claim the list merely records returned mail from either fundraising solicitations or returned letters sent to newly registered voters to verify their addresses for purposes of mailing campaign literature.

Republican state campaign spokeswoman Mindy Tucker Fletcher stated the list was not put together “in order to create” a challenge list, but refused to say it would not be used in that manner. Rather, she did acknowledge that the party’s poll workers will be instructed to challenge voters, “Where it’s stated in the law.”

There was no explanation as to why such clerical matters would be sent to top officials of the Bush campaign in Florida and Washington.

Private detective

Democrat Congresswoman Corinne Brown says watches a private investigator film voters. In Jacksonville, to determine if Republicans were using the lists or other means of intimidating voters, we filmed a private detective filming every “early voter” - the majority of whom are black - from behind a vehicle with blacked-out windows. The private detective claimed not to know who was paying for his all-day services.

On the scene, Democratic Congresswoman Corinne Brown said the surveillance operation was part of a campaign of intimidation tactics used by the Republican Party to intimidate and scare off African American voters, almost all of whom are registered Democrats. - By Greg Palast

That was a pretty good “Frontline” last night. They are two steps back from where I think they should have gone with it, but I also understand their caution.

One thing that really struck me was that in comparision to the early Cheney, Wolfowitz and Rumsfeld, Kissinger was considered a moderate! My god. I still think one of the major reasons Bush didn’t want to join the International Tribunal was so that Kissinger couldn’t be charged with war crimes - and of course, anyone else after that, like Bush himself.

I also got a different sense of Colin Powell than I had before. He is clearly the best of the bunch. I will say that Rumsfeld does have a kind of personal charm that I find appealing at times - I liked those early pics of him with a pipe, and he is a handsome man. Cheney and Wolfowitz, on the other hand, are more clearly apparent as what they are in their early photos. Just in time for Halloween. Shudders.

But it is frightening to me how far back these things go - back to Nixon, back to Ford. Oh, on Nixon, a very very strange thing from the Nixon tapes has him saying that Rumsfeld is “not long for this world” and that they were going to “dump him” when this is over. It sounded ominous - Nixon talked just like a gangster half the time - who woulda thunk it from a Quaker?

The Wolfowitz plan, which is now the Bush plan, of preemption was considered too hawkish and radical for even the republicans of those days. How the worm has turned.

WolfpacksforTruth.org: The Real Story on George Bush’s “Wolves” Commercial

This is nice. Wolf pack for Kerry. Why are wolves for Kerry? Check and see.

“When the camera crew showed up, we wondered
why they were all driving Hummers. Our agent
assured us it was a Greenpeace commercial and
they paid TWICE our hourly steak rate. Little did we
know we were being tricked into this vicious
campaign attack ad.”

Read more about it…..

I get a lot of forwarded messages like these. This time, it was from a valued friend. Here was the forwarded note, which I’ve received several times, and then my response.

Boy! this hits the nail right on the head.

In light of the many perversions and jokes we send to one another for a laugh, this is a little different: This is not intended to be a joke, it’s not funny, it’s intended to get you thinking. Billy Graham’s daughter was interviewed on the Early Show and Jane Clayson asked her “How could God let something like this happen?” (regarding the attacks on Sept. 11). Anne Graham gave an extremely profound and insightful response. She said “I believe God is deeply saddened by this, just as we are, but for years we’ve been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives.. And being the gentleman He is, I believe He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand He leave us alone?”

In light of recent events…terrorists attack, school shootings, etc. I think it started when Madeleine Murray O’Hare (she was murdered, her body found recently) complained she didn’t want prayer in our schools, and we said OK. Then someone said you better not read the Bible in school the Bible says thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal, and love your neighbor as yourself. And we said OK.

Then Dr. Benjamin Spock said we shouldn’t spank our children when they misbehave because their little personalities would be warped and we might damage their self-esteem (Dr. Spock’s son committed suicide). We said an expert should know what he’s talking about. And we said OK.

Now we’re asking ourselves why our children have no conscience, why they don’t know right from wrong, and why it doesn’t bother them to kill strangers, their classmates, and themselves. Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with “WE REAP WHAT WE SOW.”

Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world’s going to hell. Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says.

Funny how you can send ‘jokes’ through e-mail and they spread like wildfire but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing. Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace.

Are you laughing?

Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you’re not sure what they believe, or what they WILL think of you for sending it. Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us.

Pass it on if you think it has merit. If not then just discard it… no one will know you did. But, if you discard this thought process, don’t sit back and complain about what bad shape the world is in!

I have known you for a while, and you deserve my honest and authentic response.

I’m so sorry, but I don’t support this post. Rather than embrace the diversity of the beliefs of our people from the perspectives of our own faiths, we have tried to impose one vision of God, with the result that the best things of religion have been lost. Love, compassion, good will, ethics, responsibility, understanding and wisdom cannot be legislated, but must grow. We have let these things go and instead wrapped ourselves in the costumes of patriotism and religion while almost completely discarding the message.

No I won’t pass this on. It is full of half-truths more destructive than a lie. If we wish God’s blessing, we have to act in the ways that encourage godliness. All children can pray in schools - but public schools cannot dictate that they have to. Peronally, I believe that saluting the flag is a particularly creepy form of nationalism and idolatry, and it makes me shudder to see even foreign children required to participate in this state form of religion - why would I want to see it expanded? I’m not ready to cry out Seig Heil just yet.

Even old-time parents only spanked their children rarely - for serious offenses. We associate children with criminals and we kick them out of school if they don’t match the criteria needed for school funding, but we don’t talk public debate on why the children are sometimes so dissociated or violent. We have stripped away celebration of life among generations, but we wonder why we are so isolated.

I haven’t heard anyone “trash” God in years, but I also haven’t seen a lot of true faith. I see masks all around me now. I see people pushing their religion as ideology but I haven’t seen so much in terms of good works or an understanding of grace. I don’t see much discussion of what God might call us to be or do outside of scapegoating others. I see religion used as a weapon, faith used as a drug - but I don’t see a whole lot of the christian call to social justice, for giving alms for the poor, for taking in and caring for the least among us, the widows, the fatherless children. I just don’t see a lot of compassion for others or even an ability to look someone else in the eye. I see a lot of talk about saving the lives of fertilized eggs, but no problem with the death penalty, the loss of lives in senseless war, or heaven forbid an interest in the stories of our victims. Yes, we all share responsibility for these sins.

Yes, we reap what we sow - but not as a punishment. I don’t believe in that kind of God. I believe we sow the seeds of our own destruction when we don’t even think to ask why on earth the US is hated so much now all over the world. I believe that when we hand over the best parts of democracy because we give way to fear, then the terrorists have won. I believe that if people read their sacred texts, they would find that they don’t always say what they think they say. As a scholar of religion, I have to say that what is being hidden in the cloak of religion and used to manipulate and distract us is pretty anti-Christian, at least in terms of christian theology and biblical interpretation. Remember, we just bombed the likely site of the Garden of Eden, among other things.

I cry for my country.

American Civil Liberties Union : Take Action

Just a reminder that the ACLU has a number of actions going, in which you can send a fax or email to your representatives in state government.

There are also some features such as the Patriot Act’s Impact on your rights.