-Caveat Lector-

Online Journal - http://www.onlinejournal.com

02-27-01: Bushistas, 1, Miami Herald, 0; the junta moves on, mowing down
all in its path

By Bev Conover

February 27, 2001-Those who get their news from headlines and 10-second TV
sound bites will soon be taking as gospel the Miami Herald's sneaky
headline and inaccurate pronouncement that George W. Bush really won
Florida.

Yes, this is the same Miami Herald that a few months ago predicted when
the independent recount it had undertaken was completed that Al Gore would
be at least 23,000 votes ahead of Bush. Gosh, we are not supposed to
remember such things.

In a move reminiscent of the late Rosemary Woods' explanation of how she
made gone with 18 minutes of the infamous Watergate tape, Herald reporter
Amy Driscoll, without even mentioning the paper's prediction based on its
earlier findings, much less taking into consideration the Gore votes
Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris refused to accept and a heap
of other shenanigans, has decreed that "Al Gore would have netted no more
than 49 votes if a manual recount of Miami-Dade's ballots had been
completed, according to the review, which was sponsored by The Herald and
its parent company, Knight Ridder. That would have been 140 too few to
overcome Bush's lead, even when joined with Gore gains in Volusia, Palm
Beach and Broward counties-the three other counties where Gore had
requested manual recounts."

To muddy the waters more and give further impetus to the rabid Bush
supporters, whose mantra is, "We won. You lost. Get used to it"-kind of
makes you want to add, "Cha, cha, cha"-the headline and subhead on
Driscoll's story were:

DADE UNDERVOTES SUPPORT BUSH WIN
Review of ballots by Herald suggests Gore recount effort would have failed

Neat, eh? Perhaps we should start a Rosemary Woods Award. Surely, Driscoll
and Harris would be two of the nominees.

In a letter he fired off to the Herald, Michael Rectenwald, chairman of
Citizens For Legitimate Government <http://www.legitgov.org>, wrote:
"Firstly, The FL Supreme Court ordered the whole state recounted. But,
even based on the recounts that have already been done, Gore wins Florida.
The Herald's piece discounts the votes already manually recounted but
disallowed by Harris (ironically totaling some 140). The piece discounts
the fact that one county reverted back to a their first count and thus
cost Gore votes. The story completely ignores the Palm Beach Post article
that analyzes the undervotes in that county that alone give Gore the lead
(http://www.gopbi.com/partners/pbpost/news/election2000_pbgore.html, and
instead cites an earlier, superseded article. It disregards the Washington
Post article that analyzes over-votes and that shows the thousands of
votes lost where the intent off the voters is easily discerned
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A53804-2001Jan26.html)."

Rectenwald went on to jog Driscoll's memory about the voter purge scandal,
which only ace reporter Gregory Palast and the British media seem
interested in.

"This purge alone cost Gore the election, and it was illegal and carried
out by Katherine Harris with the explicit knowledge of Jeb Bush. This
alone is a scandal that should reach the proportions of a Watergate, but
given the rightwing control of the media, may not reach the light of day
in the U.S.A. (though it is reported in Britain by Gregory Palast:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/events/newsnight/newsid_248000/248099.stm)."

But Driscoll would undoubtedly reject that argument, because purged voters
cast no ballots; neither did thousands of African-American voters still on
the rolls, but who were robbed of their votes by a variety of tactics.

"This Herald article is another attempt by the G.O.P.'s organs to bestow
legitimacy upon a fraudulent mis-ministration; it is a very shoddy piece
of 'journalism' in that it is utterly incomplete, utterly irresponsible to
the whole story, and obviously a piece of G.O.P.-sponsored propaganda.
Congratulations, you have sunk to yet new lows," Rectenwald said.

But this is only one of the "new lows." The rabid Reich has a two-fold
goal in mind for its latest round of trumped up Clinton scandals: 1)
Neuter the Big Dog, who is the Democrats greatest fund raiser and 2)
Destroy the Democratic Party in the process. The chilling part is that the
Democrats in Washington are trotting like cattle to the slaughter.

As if these things were not enough, the Landmark Legal Foundation wants
the Internal Revenue Service to investigate whether any liberal nonprofit
organizations violated their 501(c)(3) tax exemption by opposing the
confirmation of John Ashcroft as attorney general. Landmark received
funding from several Scaife family foundations, the John M. Olin
Foundation -- which former Treasury Secretary William Simon sat atop
before his death last year -- and the William H. Donner Foundation.

In a Working For Change article
<http://www.workingforchange.com/article.cfm?ItemID=10793>, Bill Berkowitz
noted, "The Landmark Legal Foundation is, along with Larry Klayman's
Judicial Watch, one of the most persistent conservative litigation outfits
in the nation's capital. By virtue of its recent activities, Landmark has
become one of the key players in the long-term conservative project aimed
at taking government funding away from liberal groups. With more
ultraconservative appointments waiting in the wings, liberal organizations
are sure to raise their voices in opposition. When they do, they are sure
to be confronted by an ever-vigilant, always-outraged Mark Levin."

Ironically, despite any evidence, it was the rabid Reich that accused
Clinton of using the IRS to go after his enemies. Oops, we keep forgetting
that there are different rules for Republicans, especially Clinton-hating
Republicans.

So, with all these goodies afoot, does it seem all that surprising that
the Miami Herald, feigning a sudden memory lapsed, caved in to the desires
of the Bushistas, who are intent on legitimizing George W.'s White House
occupancy?

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