Quote Originally Posted by Psycho4Bud
LOL....reminds me of the days of Gore...

Have a good one!:s4:

Political banter is one thing P4B, but don't argue about this just for arguments sake. Lets keep things simple, I'm a Floridian. The fact of the matter is, the 2000 election in Florida stank to high heaven. And I'm not just refering to the confused greyhairs of South Florida or the pregnant chads in need of RU486.


It's a shame that any discussion on this is sure to devolve into bitter rants against the opposing party. But what else can one DO when the confronted with the realization of a poltical parties betrayal of the constitution. Not that this has not occured in the past and on both sides of the fence, but it now appears the norm instead of the exception. 2000 in Florida. 2004 Ohio.

To start with, I'm a Floridian. Have been all my life. That being said, the topic is still sore, even after these 7 progressively worse years. A prelude if you will to what this country was in store for.


I came across a quote that seemed apt for this discussion, a musing from the pen of the late great Hunter S. Thompson.
"There was one exact moment, in fact, when I knew for sure that Al Gore would Never be President of the United States, no matter what the experts were saying -- and that was when the whole Bush family suddenly appeared on TV and openly scoffed at the idea of Gore winning Florida. It was Nonsense, said the Candidate, Utter nonsense. . .Anybody who believed Bush had lost Florida was a Fool. The Media, all of them, were Liars & Dunces or treacherous whores trying to sabotage his victory. . . Here was the whole bloody Family laughing & hooting & sneering at the dumbness of the whole world on National TV. The old man was the real tip-off. The leer on his face was almost frightening. It was like looking into the eyes of a tall hyena with a living sheep in its mouth. The sheep's fate was sealed, and so was Al Gore's."
Take one look at the sheer scale of the scandals that have plagued this Administration and ask yourself, Is this so far fetched? The lateset debacle to emerge from this administration is nothing less then the co-opting of the Department of Justice by hardline conservatives whose first loyalty is to the White House, not the constitution. Suddenly a few thousand votes doesn't seem so outragious.

Lets start with Kathrine, may she burn in hell, Harris. Secretery of State for Florida and republican hack, she helped hand W the election on a silver platter.
As Secretary of State for the State of Florida, Harris presided over the contested 2000 US presidential election in Florida. There were allegations of conflicts of interest and partisan, unethical behavior by Katherine Harris during the 2000 campaign. Harris had been named as Bush's Florida campaign co-chair the year before.
In addition, by Harris' decree, ChoicePoint - a private firm - was hired prior to the election to identify and remove thousands of names from the state voters list on the condition that these people were convicted felons. Many of these would-be voters were turned away at the polls or even prior to reaching the polling places. It would later be discovered that approximately 97% of the people removed from the list - and thus denied the right to vote in the election - were not felons at all. The majority of these voters were African-American, and as African-Americans predominantly vote Democratic, the situation suggested foul play.[13] In any case, the thousands of votes affected by Choicepoint's error were far in excess of the number of votes (537) by which George W. Bush won the state. Whether or not there was deliberate action to prevent likely Gore supporters from voting is subject to intense debate, as is Harris' role in the process.
Harris certified that the Republican candidate, then-Texas Governor George W. Bush, had defeated the Democratic candidate, Vice President Al Gore, in the popular vote of Florida and thus certified the Republican slate of electors. Her ruling was challenged and overturned on appeal by Florida's Supreme Court; this decision, however, was itself reversed by the U.S. Supreme Court in Bush v. Gore. That Court ruled (5-4) that Gore's request to extend Florida's statutory deadline for ballot re-counts had no merit, because no Florida law at the time provided for that option. This ruling nullified the state court's decision, upholding Harris' certification. The decision foreclosed any further court challenges by Gore and resulted in Bush's margin of victory in Florida being officially tallied at 537 votes. Therefore, Florida's electoral votes â?? and the Presidency â?? went to George W. Bush.
537 votes decided the election. But thats because a few oldo's got confused right? Wrong.
http://archive.salon.com/politics/fe...0/11/13/duval/

I remember watching in disbelief as bus after bus packed with Bush fanatics arrived to "protest" the contested election. They raised hell on network tv, they chased an election official through the halls of a building on the pretext that he was "stealing votes." They were Floridians, and they wanted their voice to be heard. But they weren't. They didn't vote here.

Anyways, I'm at work and need to wrap this up. So here we go.

The Days of Gore refer to something that sadly wil never be. An America not mired in the bloody mess that is Iraq. Social programs instead of more tax cuts for the wealthy. An entire list of might have beens, had Florida not been stolen. Sure these seem far fetched, or more accurately the grousing of a political loser. But given what we know now, how could Al Gore be worse for America than "The Decider?"

Thank god Florida has opted for a paper trail for the next election. I don't think we could stand another fuck up... better make that Stand For.