🚀 go-pugleaf

toddh (webmaster@cableid.com) wrote:
: x-no-archive: yes
: >     Let the record show that:
: >- After urging that this election be kept out of the courts,
: >G.W. Bush filed the first lawsuit

: That lawsuit was an attempt to bring the process to an end in it's
: legally specified timeframe. And it came after at least 8 lawsuits
: filed on behalf of the Gore camp with the encouragement and support of
: Gore.

     No, it was the first lawsuit filed in connection with this
election.

: >- "I trust the people" G.W. Bush, who wants to return more power
: >to the states, filed a federal lawsuit to overturn the Florida
: >Supreme Court

: A cutesy cliche taken out of context, GW Bush has consistently stated
: that he trusts the people to make the best decisions for *themselves*.
: What he doesn't trust is people making decisions *on behalf of
: others*. The whole problem here is that the election panels are not
: non-partisan, and Bush does indeed trust (fear) that they will make
: the decisions in their own best interests.

     He also stated he wants power returned from the federal
government to the states.  Evidence?  Filing a federal suit
on what is clearly a state matter.  The states leave a lot of
discretion in local hands for election matters, and Bush 
decided he would try to get the federal courts to override
the state because he didn't like the result.

: >- The first (and thus far the only) mob that invaded a county
: >office building and intimidated the staff and disrupted the
: >recount was a Republican mob.  

: The Miami-Dade and Broward county election panels initially voted to
: not conduct a recount. After intense political and legal (and who
: knows what threats) pressure, they reversed themselves with little or
: no explanation.

: As far as the Republican "mob", get real. Are you really buying that
: crap that they intimidated the Miami-Dade board? They only began
: shouting after the board attempted to move the count from a large
: public room (as required by law) to a private backroom and shut out
: the observers. And the crowd was not trying to stop the count, listen
: to the tape and you will hear them saying "Let us in". Furthermore,
: this isn't some backwoods hick county, this is a metropolitan area of
: several million. Are the police forces down there unable to secure one
: building from 30 unarmed people?

     So it's not the mob's fault, it's the police's fault for not
protecting the election officials.  I don't suppose you are as
forgiving of burglars, rapists, etc.


: >- Al Gore twice offered to meet with Bush to try to come up
: >with a resolution without lawsuits or, presumably, mobs.  Bush
: >refused both times.

: What's the point of a meeting? The Republicans know that Gore is just
: posturing for the public. Neither have the authority to change Florida
: law anyway, so Gore's "offer" to count every county was meaningless
: because the deadlines for such requests had passed.

     If Bush had accepted this solution, I'm sure the two of
them could have prevailed on the Legislature to convene in
special session to authorize such a recount.  But he decided
to stonewall instead (and file suits).

: >There is no voting system in the world that can record voters' intent

: We agree there, and it shows the futility of this fiasco in trying to
: determine voter intent in the recount. A ballot cannot indicate what
: was in the voter's mind, it can only measure what the voter did.
 
     But Florida (and Texas) law require that a ballot be counted
if it is clear what the voter's intent was.  Nobody is trying to
read the voters' minds, just count a ballot when the intent is
clear but the machine rejected it.