-Caveat Lector- http://asia.dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/world/article.html?s=asia/headlines/001119/world/afp/White_House_war_goes_nuclear_as_Bush_plays_military_card.html Sunday, November 19 7:43 AM SGT White House war goes nuclear as Bush plays military card WASHINGTON, Nov 18 (AFP) - The war of words went nuclear Saturday in the battle for the White House as Republican George W. Bush accused Democrat Al Gore of subverting the will of the US military in order to gain power. In a stunning rhetorical blast bordering on a charge of treason, the Bush campaign said Gore had "gone to war" against soldiers stationed abroad through a Democratic scheme to throw their votes out in Florida. "We are concerned that a targeted effort by the Democratic Party sought to throw out as many as a third of the overseas absentee ballots" received in Florida, Bush campaign spokeswoman Karen Hughes said in Austin, Texas. Many of those, she added, were "the votes of the men and women of our United States Armed Forces who are serving the cause of freedom throughout the world. "No one who aspires to be commander in chief should seek to unfairly deny the votes of the men and women he would seek to command," Hughes said in political broadside directed squarely at Gore. She was flanked by the Republican governor of the state of Montana, Marc Racicot, who was presented as a former US Army prosecutor who served overseas and who launched a more incendiary volley of charges at Gore. "I am very sorry to say it but the vice president's lawyers have gone to war in my judgment against the men and women who serve in our armed forces," Racicot said. "The Democrats have launched a statewide effort to throw out as many military ballots as they can." Friday marked the deadline in the battleground state of Florida for receipt of absentee ballots, many of which traditionally come from overseas military personnel thought likely to support Bush in the presidential contest. Final but still uncertified results announced by a top state official after those approximately 2,000 absentee votes were counted gave Bush a lead in the state of 930 votes out of six million that were cast. Racicot charged that on Friday alone at least 900 ballots from Florida voters serving in the US military were thrown out for questionable reasons in many of the state's counties on orders from Gore supporters. "These judgments are being made by Democrat panels in those individual counties," he said. Florida election supervisors said ballots could be thrown out if they were not postmarked on time or were otherwise improperly completed. Shortly before Hughes fired the Bush campaign's volley, another staunch Bush loyalist and admired national war hero, retired general Norman Schwarzkopf, issued a blistering attack of his own on the Gore campaign. "It is a very sad day in our country when the men and women of the armed forces are serving abroad and facing danger on a daily basis ... are denied the right to vote for president of the United States who will be their commander in chief," Schwarzkopf said in Tallahassee, Florida. Schwarzkopf was the top US military commander on the ground during the 1991 Gulf War prosecuted by Bush's father, former president George Bush, and won a strong reputation there as a straight talker and a winning patriot. The charges of manipulating the military vote from the Bush campaign marked one of the sharpest and riskiest escalations of rhetoric in the battle for the presidency that broke out after the November 7 election and remains unresolved. The Pentagon had no immediate comment on the Bush charges, which came ahead of a hearing Monday in the Florida Supreme Court that could set the rules for determining who becomes the next US president. "It is sad and disappointing that the Bush campaign has made a decision to inject raw, crass partisan politics into a process that should be guided by our laws," said Gore spokesman Chris Lehane. Political analysts expressed shock at the accusations levelled by the Bush campaign and underlined that they differed dramatically from other charges that the Florida vote was riddled with extreme irregularities. "It's a near-nuclear escalation of the partisan conflict that is going to make any rebuilding difficult," said Allan Lichtman, professor and presidential historian at American University in Washington. "I think it's incredibly dangerous. This invoking of the military does almost amount to an implicit charge of treason. I just hope people step back from the rhetorical brink and let the court system do its work," he said. Barbara Ehrenreich, a Florida-based political commentator and author of a recent book on the history of war, described the accusations from the Bush camp as "alarming." "There's always an issue in this country on whether the military is really under civilian control," she said, adding that Democrats were routinely accused by Republicans and the military establishment of weakness. The charges from Bush bore a resemblance to rhetorical appeals to the military heard amid power struggles in "banana republics" and other less-developed democracies, Ehrenreich said. ================================================================= Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT FROM THE DESK OF: *Michael Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends ================================================================= <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. 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