| Laws Govern Ballot Design To Prevent Confusion Obviously because some people can be more easily confused or tricked. The laws governing ballot design were not followed in Palm Beach County and the result was that the ballot confused 5% of those who voted. A party which gets 5% of the national vote is entitled to millions of dollars in public monies, i.e., it is considered a substantial percentage of those who vote. A violation of law has caused harm to 5% of the voters in Palm Beach County and the harm suffered was the harm which the law was intended specifically to avoid. The Republicans are real big on punishing those who break the law. What should be the punishment in this case? Punish the victims? You bet! The Republicans want to blame and punish the victims because it suits their desire to have Bush elected. But the fair punishment for disenfranchising 5% of the voters in that county by use of an ILLEGAL BALLOT is to require that the county hold a new vote with a LEGAL BALLOT. The voters are entitled to a legal ballot on which to vote. Where are the "LAW-ABIDING" Republicans when it involves breaking a law has worked to their advantage and does not involve putting some "welfare chiseler" or "dope smoking hippie" behind bars? They're yelling "too bad" and "tough luck" at the victims, that's where the Republicans are on this one. But being two-faced for Republicans is nothing new. They shout "Get the government out of lives and off our backs," and "less government regulation is what we need", except, of course, when it comes to individual life choices. Then, it's fine if the government upholds laws that make private consensual sodomy illegal, or if the government makes everyone pledge allegiance to "one nation 'under God'", even if a citizen does not believe in God. The reality is that Republicans want the government on people's backs if the government is making people act, behave and think according to their Christian beliefs. But they don't want the government to regulate or mitigate the effects of unbridled capitalism. As the American Indians said, "white man speaks with forked tongue." I never pay attention to anything that George Will says. Bush has shown himself to be the person salivating for power by forming a "cabinet" before the election results are final, and by filing a lawsuit to stop a manual count of the vote in Palm Beach when he signed such a law permitting manual counting in disputed elections in Texas. Isn't that rather hypocritical on Bush's part? To me, it makes him appear dishonest and much more like he trying to grab the Presidency regardless of the real vote. Any fair minded person, including Bush himself in his own state, recognizes that in a very close disputed election, a manual count is by far the best way to determine how the votes were cast. Baker was engaged in the highest form of sophistry in defending the Bush lawsuit trying to stop the manual recount. The Republicans request for an injunction to block the manual recount doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell of succeeding. It will be summarily denied tomorrow in Federal court. It was a stupid move by Bush and shows how power hungry he is. He doesn't care what the vote really was. He wants the election so badly that he refuses to allow the process to proceed in Florida in a manner which he himself signed into law in Texas, i.e., manual counting of ballots in closely disputed elections. What that means is that Bush is being fundamentally dishonest. What a way to begin. He won't earn my respect behaving like that. |
