Flashback: Florida 2000

[RogerFGay]

Making a comment about Al Gore's Big Con on global warming started me thinking how pissed off he was that he got beat is his presidential bid - bitter deranged man that he is, a good bit of his motivation is probably trying to embarrass George Bush, rumored evil Earth-Destroyer, and then destroy civilization as we know it himself as divine punishment for cheating him out of the opportunity to become the most powerful man on earth legally.

OK - this whole comment started off as a digression I suppose - so I won't apoligize for not coming straight to the point.

I submitted testimony to the Florida legislature back in 2000 arguing against a professor who claimed that statistically, George Bush's lead in the vote counts was insignificant and therefore the legislature should consider giving their votes to Al Gore. It was a complete and detailed argument, but not so complicated - a simple majority has nothing to do with the analysis he gave - whoever has the most votes wins. You must follow procedures set up before the election - not alter counts to give advantages to one candidate (as they were trying to do for Al Gore in the recounts) - and what would happen if they counted 5 times and Al Gore got more votes the 5th time : you can't ignore the fact that George Bush got more the first 4 times - he still wins.

Anyway - the Florida Supreme Court (stacked with Democrats) kept the recounts going against all fact and logic until the USSC stopped them. (Al Gore never got more than GW BTW.) Their argument was that all the votes must be counted even after they had all been counted several times, apparently wanting the recounts to continue until somebody could figure out how to count them so that Al Gore got more votes than George Bush.

So, I'm thinking about that for a while, and thought of one more very, very important thing that I didn't think to say at the time; maybe because so much hadn't happened in the courts before I submitted testimony to the legislature. If any complaint about the voting system leads to an infinite number of recounts (perhaps assuming the majority on the Supreme Court is of the same party as the apparent loser) - apparently until the result is reversed - which is what in effect the Florida Supreme Court's precedent would have meant - it would have rendered elections in the state impossible from then on. Wow!

[Wyatt_Junker]

True. This was an attempt to seize democracy under the guise of 'count every vote' even if a goodly portion of the ballots weren't properly filled out. No. It would be the democrats, and the democrats only, job to 'divine voter intent'. If you recall, that wording was even used in the media by the very democrat operatives who were trying to end democracy by inventing a newer kind, one ruled by thugs, amoral jackasses, FSCJs and an assortment of other legal morons.

No. They would not be denied. They would find something, anything to cling to in the same manner a child justifies their behavior, they would divide the entire country if they had to to achieve their goals, there was simply too much at stake.

They would employ the use of incremental smoothing via endless recounts, stalling and quadratic equations. They would pick up ballots and hold them up to the light and run magnifying glasses across their surface. They would invent ideas on the fly, 'educate' the rest of us 'morons' about 'dented chads' or 'pregnant' chads or torn chads, ripped chads, improperly separated chads, ignored chads, chads with low self esteem, etc. etc.

You see, it was pure hubris on our part to assume that a democrat not win the 2000 election. How dare we attempt to take away what was their birthright?

And, yes, GW is Al Gore's fantasy fetish that can be traced all the way back to the wake of 2000's loss. It is his illegitimate child from an ill-gotten election *ahem* rejection. And even as he grew a beard like the uni-bomber from 2000 to 2002 and put on 65 lbs., he nursed this sore, picked its scab off several times until he could invent a new monster to feed, one from the back of his pus-lined mind. He knew he had an instant audience and not one from merely his Earth-In-The-Balance daze. No. These would be loyal ex-voters of his who he knew would buy the DVD merely out of spite of 2000. Yes. It would be the first massive book sale run based strictly on vindictiveness alone, an entire half of the electorate who would support such drivel.

I mean, how else could a piss-stained hobo shouting lunatic sayings on the street garner so much attention? We've had our apocalyptic shouters-off-rooftops before, their Thunderbird tucked into a paper sack, their beard coated with emerald chunks of dried snot. And we merely pass them by or honk at them if they get in the road.

But Al Gore who says the same retarded shit?

He's on Oprah and he says, WITH A STRAIGHT FACE, that Manhatten would be entirely underwater, SUBMERGED, by upwards of 20 feet by 2010 and no one laughs. The entire woman audience nods their heads in unison gravely, dead silence, no one breaks out LAUGHING. Even Oprah, head balanced on knuckles, stares right into the prophet's eyes.

I can only assume that these were the doorknobs who voted for Al Gore??? How else to explain it? I mean, how else would they convince themselves that they WEREN'T fools in 2000 by voting for him if they now had to silence his insane ramblings? So, instead, they have to cover for him and become believers. This is how evil works. Once you commit yourself to it, you have to now defend it. Its how the game of the liar works. Once you begin down that path, once you say your first lie, it takes several more later on to keep the first one from collapsing. So, you make those moral equivocations.

Pretty soon, you look like such a huge douche that it doesn't matter anymore. You've gone too far, off the deep end. Your side started this bullshit by 'divining' unpunched butterfly ballots using new age crystals and Tarot readings in an attempt to define American elections through grand larceny. Now, your 'man' writes a book that seems totally unhinged. In order to make yourself not appear unhinged yourself, you must buy the book of course. That's how it works. You've committed yourself to bullshit. Might as well keep eating more of it.

[Lazarus]

...This is how evil works. Once you commit yourself to it, you have to now defend it. Its how the game of the liar works. Once you begin down that path, once you say your first lie, it takes several more later on to keep the first one from collapsing. So, you make those moral equivocations.

Pretty soon, you look like such a huge douche that it doesn't matter anymore. You've gone too far, off the deep end. Your side started this bullshit by 'divining' unpunched butterfly ballots using new age crystals and Tarot readings in an attempt to define American elections through grand larceny. Now, your 'man' writes a book that seems totally unhinged. In order to make yourself not appear unhinged yourself, you must buy the book of course. That's how it works. You've committed yourself to bullshit. Might as well keep eating more of it.Right on target again, Brother Wyatt...

In fact the explanation applies not only to Gore's legions, but you can study Gore himself, go back into his political past, and pinpoint the moment when Al Gore, Senator from Tennessee, staunch defender of the military and national security, sold his soul to Satan in exchange for a promise of power beyond imagination, and thus started his long slide into insane depravity and raw evil...

Al Gore has become nothing more than a laboratory specimen of the darkness of human nature and the debilitating effects of power lust on the human soul...

[RogerFGay]

Yah. Like I said; Wow!

[Naturalized-Texan]

Election Fraud 2000: How AlGore Tried to Steal the Election (http://www.freeconservatives.com/vb/showthread.php?t=29914&highlight=Election+Fraud+2000)

[DeclinetoState]

Their argument was that all the votes must be counted even after they had all been counted several times, apparently wanting the recounts to continue until somebody could figure out how to count them so that Al Gore got more votes than George Bush.
The argument was (and is, for those who haven't gotten over it) that the votes may have been recounted several times, but they were never (wholly) recounted by hand. Had they been recounted by hand, votes that the machines mistakenly did not count would have been counted, and most likely those votes would have given a plurality, and thus the election, to Algore.

[RogerFGay]

Pardon me, but the votes were recounted by hand - more than once. They were recounted by hand even after it was all over - paid for by news organizations that wanted to settle the dispute once and for all. Even in that independent post-election count, George Bush got more votes.

[DeclinetoState]

Oh, but didn't you see Michael Moore's movie, Fahrenheit 9/11? He found a headline to a letter to the editor of some newspaper that said Gore really won.

:p

[gnome]

Just as a factual point, I do not believe there was ever a complete hand count before the election was decided.

As I recall:

The closeness of the election triggered an automatic machine recount.
Reported problems with the machines led to a hand recount in selective counties.
Ultimately the Supreme Court ruled that the selective-county hand recount had to stop before it was completed--and this is the point of contention.
After the election was decided the news media recounted all the ballots in every county according to various standards of what counted as a valid vote. By most of the standards used Bush won, by at least one standard Gore won.

The only official recount that was "asked for" was the hand recount, as I recall, since the original machine recount was mandated by law.

This is just for keeping the facts straight. It's really quite pointless, even as someone who had a problem with how it was handled, to continue making arguments. I'm in favor of noting the facts and moving on, preferably with better voting equipment.

[RogerFGay]

OK, if you say so. I've googled and jogged my memory a little based on what I read. Some counties finished the recounts and some did not finish by the deadline. Some confusion occurred. There was an initial request for recounts in 3 counties. I guess my recollection that a multitude of recounts had taken place was probably based on Gore not getting what he wanted out of original requests, then trying again and again. The state supreme court ordered recounts for the whole state and some counties were not able to complete the task (it looked like it was because they were trying to rig the result).

Thing is, Gore et al. were claiming that votes not counted because of things like double-punching - two candidates - should be counted (for him) and that a bunch of votes cast for Patrick Buchanan should go to him - cause they figured people in those areas were more for Gore than Buchanan, no matter which hole was punched on the ballet. Also, when no hole was punched, they figured that should go to Gore because it was probably a vote from an old person not strong enough or smart enough to physically perform the task of voting - and any such person should also prefer Gore, according to Gore's advocates.

When it was clear they'd lost the election, they even tried suing for a second election, because they didn't like the outcome of the first - but they didn't get that.

Anyway - hand recounts were performed in some counties - particularly the ones that Gore thought should have had a heavier turn out for him.

[Naturalized-Texan]

AlGore requested hand recounts in only 3 heavily Democrat counties (Broward, Palm Beach, Miami-Dade) where Democrat election officials were sure to give the benefit of any doubts to AlGore.

From the link in my post above:

When AlGore saw that he still couldn't win the election, he ordered his lawyers to sue Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris to force her to violate Florida Law and the U.S. Constitution to allow hand recounts in certain heavily Democrat counties after the deadline mandated by the Florida Legislature had expired. Judge Terry Lewis ruled that Harris had some discretion to allow hand recounts if there was sufficient reason under Florida law. Harris ruled that since there was no fraud or no machine failure, such recounts were not permitted under Florida law. Judge Lewis agreed that Secretary Harris should certify the election with Bush the winner.

But, the seven highly partisan liberal members of the Florida Supreme Court couldn't let Bush's victory stand, so they unilaterally stepped in without an appeal and prevented Secretary Harris from certifying the election. The Florida Supreme Court then ordered that the Bush and Gore sides present arguments on whether the election should be certified.

It was in his argument on this issue that Gore's lead lawyer, David Boies, lied when he claimed that the Illinois Supreme Court had ruled that dimpled chads should be counted in determining the intent of the voter. The fact is that the Illinois Supreme Court had ruled exactly the opposite – that dimpled chads should NOT be counted and to be counted, a chad must be hanging by at least two corners.

Naturally, the Florida Supreme Court violated Florida law, federal law, and the U. S. Constitution and ruled, largely based on the David Boies lie, that hand recounts in certain heavily Democrat counties must continue and set a deadline of 5:00PM on November 26, 2000, for completing the recounts and sending the results to Secretary Harris. Giving those counties such a short time to complete the hand recounts turned out to be a serious error committed by the Court.

Several days before the Florida Supreme Court stepped in uninvited, the Miami-Dade County Canvassing Board had announced that it would not be able to complete its hand recount before December 2, 2000. Consequently, that Board decided to discontinue its recount and certify the vote tally as of November 14, the original mandated deadline. However, the REAL reason it stopped the hand recount was that it was about to start counting the Hispanic precincts that went 80% to 90% for Bush and the Board feared that Bush would begin picking up votes. (It turns out that the canvassing board was correct. A review of all the Miami-Dade "undercount" ballots conducted in January, 2001, by the Palm Beach Post showed that Bush would have PICKED UP a total of 6 votes had the hand recount been completed.) Stopping the hand recount was a blow for Gore because he expected to pick up 600 votes in Miami-Dade. Gore couldn't let the Miami-Dade count stop, so he sued to force the canvassing board to resume its count.

After the Florida Supreme Court issued its ruling, the Palm Beach County Canvassing Board started its recount. However, it only worked half-days before Thanksgiving Day and did no counting at all on the holiday. Consequently, it was unable to meet the Court-imposed deadline so its recount was not included in the final certified tally. Then the Canvassing Board had the gall to complain that the deadline was unfair.

Since the Florida Supreme Court ruling clearly violated Florida law, federal law, and the U.S. Constitution, the Bush Team appealed that ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously vacated the Florida Supreme Court ruling.

There are many more facts about AlGore's attempted theft of the 2000 election at that link.

[Longhorn_Platinum]

Naturalized-Texan:
There are many more facts about AlGore's attempted theft of the 2000 election at that link.

:moo: I just added another in which I'm sure you'll be interested.

[Naturalized-Texan]

:moo: I just added another in which I'm sure you'll be interested.
Thanks. I added a slightly edited version (in keeping with the tone of my essay) to the FC version as well as the original on my hard disk. Of course, I credited you for the addendum.