THE JEB AND KATHERINE HARRIS' AFFAIR AND CNN'S COVER-UP. VOTERGATE IN
GEORGIA.
VOTE TAMPERING IN GEORGIA AND A MEDIA COVER-UP IN FLORIDA?
By Bev Conover © Onlinejournal 11/29/00
http://www.onlinejournal.com/Special_Reports/Conover112900/conover112900.html
November 29, 2000 | In the ever-escalating revelations about Election 2000,
two more potential bombshells for the Republicans turned up in our mailbox
this morning: What appears to be vote tampering in Georgia and an effort by
the media to cover up Florida Governor Jeb Bush's and Florida Secretary of
State Katherine Harris's alleged adulterous affair.
Apologies if this sounds like Drudge sludge, but, unlike the notorious Matt,
we don't make this stuff up and the implications of a Jeb-Harris affair go
beyond anything Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky did. The Florida governor,
after all, is the brother of the Texas governor who has anointed himself
president-elect thanks to Harris who certified him as the winner of Florida's
25 electoral votes. But first the Georgia incident in the words of our
source:
The machine they sent me to was not working properly. That's the first time
this has ever happened to me. No matter how hard I punched, I couldn't get
the needle to go through to make a hole at all (yet, curiously, there was a
satisfying but erroneous sound as if the needle were going all the way
through). Then, imagine my surprise when I pulled out the only
partially-punched ballot to check it, numbers against names, only to find
that the machine had deftly misaligned my card so that I had voted for one
person above each name I had actually intended, including that it made me
vote for shrub for prez. I was shocked beyond words! I could NOT believe
this had happened. I immediately sought a new ballot, complained about the
machine, and wondered what the hell was going on that they left an
obviously defective machine in place all day like that... The poll workers
said that our poll had long lines all day; and that this machine had been
"working fine all day -- as far as [they] knew." I've voted all over the
country, never missed a chance once ever since I was legal to vote, and I'm
50 now -- such an odd thing has never happened. Then, the poll workers
said, no problem, they would tell people "'not to use the machine, that it
indeed was broken." Ah, but they did nothing to take it out of action
(they did not move it back, cover it, put a sign on it, nothing). It
stayed right there in the middle of the other machines, obviously to be
left in full use. I felt powerless to do anything more about it. The poll
was rather busy and confused, so I took some names, as this distressed me.
And as I left the poll, I had an eerie feeling. I was quite struck by the
whole thing in a very funny way (intuition?). This was still election day
(late afternoon), before all the other stories started pouring in. You can
imagine how I felt when I heard what had happened to others. Do I believe
there was a concerted effort to have some machines rigged so that the
ballot goes askew, making you vote for the wrong candidate (such as Reform
Party candidate Pat Buchanan in [Palm Beach County] Florida)? You bet.
Not a doubt in my mind that all of this cannot possibly be 'coincidence,'
or old and imperfect machines, or confused people, or anything regular at
all. Not a doubt in my mind.
An isolated incident? Coincidence? Either seems a stretch in view of what we
know happened in Florida. The corporatist major media, though, are playing
deaf, dumb and blind about what went on in other states, while letting every
Republican hack repeat the lie ad nauseum how the Florida vote was counted,
recounted and counted again – that is, when the media aren't beating the Bush
drum to force Al Gore into conceding.
Little by little, it's all seeping out. Florida. Texas. Georgia. Tennessee…
The Tennessee Tribune reported:
African-American voters in Nashville cited missing pages in books at
Gra-Mar Elementary voting precinct. African-Americans in Chattanooga,
Brownsville, and Maury County reportedly went to vote at familiar spots,
then found that suddenly these locations were no longer designated voting
sites. Some voters in Memphis have signed and submitted affidavits saying
that they were turned away despite having proper credentials, and that
rosters were being purged of eligible voters. Memphis has also reportedly
been one location where voters who participated in the motor-voter
registration program were not allowed to vote either if they didn't know
their particular precinct or their names couldn't be found on the list.
There are also several reports of mistreatment involving students in
Nashville and Wilson County. Some student voters in Wilson County charged
they were told to either remove NAACP signs from their vehicles or move
their vans from the premises. Nashville students assert they were denied
the chance to vote although they were registered.
Some voters have even reported incidents that smack of overt
discrimination. African-Americans cited one instance in Murfreesboro where
white voters were placed ahead of a black women, and an official reportedly
said, "You (African-Americans) know what it means to sit at the back of the
bus."
If the disenfranchisement of tens of thousands of voters wasn't enough,
another source alleges, "Newsweek is sitting on allegations that Jeb Bush and
Kat Harris have had an adulterous affair" and that CNN has instructed its
newswriters "not to report the affair."
The source claimed the following was issued "Tuesday in cnni.readme (a
constantly updated file on CNN's computer network):"
Guidance
Newsweek has an item on an alleged personal relationship among two of the top
players in Florida. Under NO circumstances should this be reported on CNN
without the approval of senior management.
We'd also recommend that we be prepared in case this gets brought up during a
live interview or news conference.
If this allegation proves to be true and even the Bushes can't keep it buried
forever, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out why George W. and
the Republicans are screaming for Gore to concede. Surely even William
Bennett would scream, "Where's the outrage?" if Jeb Bush, who promised to
deliver Florida to his big brother, and Katherine Harris, who had the gall to
tell the Florida Supreme Court it was wrong as she brazenly certified the
election results to give George W. Florida's 25 electoral votes, were
sleeping together.
"CNN and the rest of the media are digging hard -- but they're squelching it
from the public until they can cover their tails," said our source.
