Like it still is
Like it still is
I had to cut that last post off because dinner was ready.
Greg Palast says he had to move to Europe in order to get away with serious investigative reporting on the government and big business in the USofA. After going to his web site and reading a couple of articles and such, I'm going to buy his book, "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy."
The biggy to me is his thorough documentations of the voter fraud - and I did not say alleged - in Florida during the Coup2000. Yeah, conservatives will be saying get over it, but (and this is one of the things the interview on "Like It Is" brought to my attention) Florida settled the NAACP's lawsuit alledging voter fraud on the part of Kathleen Harris, Jeb Bush, etc.
Don't believe me? Check it yourself:
By Catherine Wilson
Associated Press | Boston Globe
Tuesday, 27 August, 2002
MIAMI (AP) The NAACP's lawsuit over Florida's disputed 2000 presidential election appears headed for a close as the state and two counties the only remaining defendants have agreed to a settlement, attorneys said Tuesday.
Joe Klock, an attorney for the state, told U.S. District Judge Alan Gold that all parties promised to file final papers by Friday for approval. Attorneys would not discuss terms of the settlement.
The class-action lawsuit filed by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and other civil rights groups argued voters were disenfranchised during the on Nov. 7, 2000 election; it included allegations that blacks were kept from voting in some counties.
The state and Orange and Hillsborough counties were the only holdouts in the lawsuit. Miami-Dade, Broward, Leon, Volusia and Duval counties settled earlier rather than face trial.
Provisions of those settlements included sweeping modifications to voter registration, voter-roll maintenance and polling practices. They also required counties to improve election day communications between precincts and election headquarters and in some cases guaranteed foreign language-speaking workers would be at the polls to assist voters.
After a legal battle that reached the U.S. Supreme Court, President Bush's 537-vote margin over Al Gore in Florida swung the outcome for the presidency.
The state had argued the Legislature adequately addressed problems by standardizing recount rules, eliminating punch card voting systems and allowing provisional balloting. But plaintiffs argued Florida had still not done enough to avoid wrongfully turn away voters.
A settlement would eliminate the likelihood of unflattering headlines from a trial projected to last through parts of Gov. Jeb Bush's re-election campaign.
Want to see the report broadcast by the BBC? Make sure you have *ugh* RealPlayer. Otherwise you'll have to settle for the transcript. Then check out the introduction and two chapters from his book.
Get mad at this shit. STAY mad at this shit. And get other people mad. The only defense against this ongoing coup is the fact that we still have elections and we still have minds.
