When I began this blog in 2001, I was appalled by President Bush's headlong rush to an illegal war (we were not in fact under attack). As time wore on and Bush began his assault on the Constitution and any people bold enough to criticize, I believed that "the republic is endangered more by actions of our own government than by those of any terrorist." With the election of a high-minded, compassionate, intelligent man like Barack Obama, my fears have ceased.
"Honor them with peace, not war"
United for Peace
Tuesday, January 13, 2004
In discussion at the Talk Left blog, a commenter named "Poker Player" challeneged the lefties in the group to find any evidence that Florida mishandled the balloting to support the "fraud" claim they made. Although they were rather specific about 90,000 African American voters being wrongly removed from the voting rolls, they provided no such evidence. I went looking myself, and here is what I found:
My dear Poker Player,
Re: The fraudulent Florida vote: There is very little evidence in US newspapers because they didn't want to cover it. They should have, even if they didn't believe the allegations, because they were made by serious BBC investigative reporter Greg Pallast and carried on British television. The US news media shied away from the story either on their own or with help from the power-brokers in Washington (and Florida and Texas).
Pallast's stories were carried here only in the Nation and in Harper's as far as I know.
Harpers Magazine
The Nation
The US Civil Rights Commission believed him:
http://www.rememberjohn.com/fixthevote.html
Here's a summary of part of his book [http://www.rutherford.org/articles/oldspeak-capitalism.asp] :
So.. Katherine Harris contracted out a voter purge, didn't check the results, and lied to the US Civil Rights Commission under oath.
Does anyone care?
I've been reading Palast's book 'The Best Democracy Money can Buy,' and recommend it. [Order the book from Amazon ]
Copyright © 2001-03 Pam Shorey
(except the specific sources credited in quotes)
That election fraud won't go away
In discussion at the Talk Left blog, a commenter named "Poker Player" challeneged the lefties in the group to find any evidence that Florida mishandled the balloting to support the "fraud" claim they made. Although they were rather specific about 90,000 African American voters being wrongly removed from the voting rolls, they provided no such evidence. I went looking myself, and here is what I found:
My dear Poker Player,
Re: The fraudulent Florida vote: There is very little evidence in US newspapers because they didn't want to cover it. They should have, even if they didn't believe the allegations, because they were made by serious BBC investigative reporter Greg Pallast and carried on British television. The US news media shied away from the story either on their own or with help from the power-brokers in Washington (and Florida and Texas).
Pallast's stories were carried here only in the Nation and in Harper's as far as I know.
Harpers Magazine
The Nation
The US Civil Rights Commission believed him:
http://www.rememberjohn.com/fixthevote.html
Here's a summary of part of his book [http://www.rutherford.org/articles/oldspeak-capitalism.asp] :
... in a documentary Palast did for BBC television, he uncovers a contract agreement between the State of Florida and ChoicePoint DBT, the computer firm hired by the State to 'purge' ineligible voters from the rolls prior to the 2000 presidential election...
[The purged list] proved to be glaringly inaccurate and particularly damaging to African-American voting rights...[In an interview, Palast presents the contract] to Clayton Roberts, the director of Florida's Division of Elections (and an underling of Secretary of State Katherine Harris).
Almost immediately after reading the confidential document, Roberts rips off his lapel microphone, demands that the cameras be turned off and locks himself in his office. Apparently, the contract required ChoicePoint to check the accuracy of their purge lists (which eliminated about 50,000 Florida voters from the rolls) by using telephone calls and statistical sampling. For this, they were to be paid $2.3 million, nearly ten times the amount normally paid for such services, according to industry experts. Although ChoicePoint never checked the lists, they got paid anyway.
But why did Roberts lock himself in his office? Because both he and Katherine Harris testified under oath to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission that country election supervisors were in charge of verifying the purge lists, not ChoicePoint.
So.. Katherine Harris contracted out a voter purge, didn't check the results, and lied to the US Civil Rights Commission under oath.
Does anyone care?
I've been reading Palast's book 'The Best Democracy Money can Buy,' and recommend it. [Order the book from Amazon ]
Palema
6:15 AM
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Copyright © 2001-03 Pam Shorey
(except the specific sources credited in quotes)
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