Take Serious Note Of This

You know that the political debate has been poisoned when 85 percent of African-Americans feel President Bush stole the 2000 election. At least that is what a CBS poll released last Friday finds.

Possibly this just reflects the same 85 percent of African-Americans who disapprove of the job that Bush is doing. But if no body really believes the election was stolen and it is all window dressing, it is hard to explain why the Democrats keep raising the issue at almost every possible opportunity.

Michael Moore is not alone in asserting the election was stolen. On Monday night at the Democratic Convention, both former Vice President Al Gore and former President Bill Clinton raised the election issue that "this time every vote is counted" and "this year, we're going to make sure they're all counted."

Before both the NAACP and the Urban League during July, Senator John Kerry said that in 2000 there were "a million disenfranchised African Americans" and that it was the "most tainted election in history."

Jesse Jackson recently claimed that "in the year 2000, the loser won and the winner lost" and that "our birthright was stolen."

The continued charges of Bush stealing the election from Gore are remarkable considering that exhaustive studies by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and newspaper organizations have found little, if any evidence voter harassment, intimidation and disenfranchisement occurred in Florida.

Probes Come Up Empty

The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights began an investigation in January 2001 following the public outcry after the election. Although Democrats appointed 6 of the 8 commissioners and the hearings were often hostile toward Republicans, the Commission could not find evidence that a single person was intimidated, harassed, or prevented from voting by Florida law enforcement.

The Commission could not find evidence of systematic disenfranchisement of African-American voters, and concluded that state officials were not at fault for widespread voter disenfranchisement.

A favorite charge is that Republicans threw African-Americans off the voter rolls to take votes away from Democrats.

Florida bans felons from voting, unless they had been granted clemency. Before the 2000 vote, the state hired Database Technologies to purge rolls of felons and dead people. Unfortunately, some non-felons were erroneously removed from the rolls--but the errors didn't target minorities.

The liberal-leaning Palm Beach Post found that "a review of state records, internal e-mails of [Database Technologies] employees and testimony before the Civil Rights Commission and an elections task force showed no evidence that minorities were specifically targeted."

In fact, while more African-Americans were removed from the voter roles simply because most felons in Florida are black, whites were twice as likely to be erroneously placed on the list as African-Americans were.

The evidence does not support the charges that there was a nefarious plot to deny African-American voters their right to vote.

In fact, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights reports that in 24 of the 25 counties with the highest percentage of non-voted ballots for president, the county supervisor was a Democrat. In the remaining county, the supervisor was an independent.

Spoiled Ballots

Additionally, the overall rate of spoiled ballots was 14 percent higher when the county election supervisor was a Democrat, and 31 percent higher when the supervisor was an African American Democrat. The famed butterfly ballots of Palm Beach County were creations of Democrats.

Thus, if these nonvoted ballots are viewed as disenfranchisement, not simply that some voters didn't intend to vote in a particular race, then the ire of Democrats should be directed toward Democrats in Florida.

Recent research published by one of the current authors in the Journal of Legal Studies shows that if any African-Americans in Florida had an unusually high rate of spoiled ballots it was African-American Republicans, not African-American Democrats.

By income, it was voters with family income over $500,000, hardly a group that one could attribute their nonvoted ballots to mistakes on their part.

To start the Democratic convention, newspaper headlines blared: "Democratic Convention aims to stay positive."

Of course, there were the obligatory charges from speakers such as Jimmy Carter that President Bush had lied about the Iraq war.

But Bill Clinton is the master at simultaneously claiming that Democrats have sought to unite Americans, while Republicans "need a divided America," and lacing his speech with issues that divide Americans: the supposedly stolen election or rich versus poor being just two.

Senator Kerry and the Democratic Party elites will undoubtedly continue to trumpet their message of the 2000 election as "stolen" and "tainted" because it resonates with their base. But at what costs are these short-term electoral gains achieved? How harmful is it to race relations that African-Americans believe that others are conspiring to keep their votes from being counted?

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or when racist rightwing nuts minimize, disenfranchise and dismiss 85% of african americans with the smug assertion that they were just to stupid to do something as simple as vote.

Come on McG, why not just call a spade a spade?

Your vision must need checking as no one is minimizing, disenfranchising or dismissing 85% of African Americans. Where in that article does it say that?

That you read that into the article tells volumes about your partisanship.

Yo dick, I know the article didn't say it, you did.

"But if no body really believes the election was stolen and it is all window dressing, it is hard to explain why the Democrats keep raising the issue at almost every possible opportunity"

Who says nobody really believes it???

Without democrats even raising the issue, I guess the writer assumes that those 85% would never have suspected anything. Hmmm... maybe because he assumes they're stupid?

more than once as a matter of fact.....or rather than blacks were you talking about those pesky jews down there mr. milk of human kindness?

It has to be one or the other, because it's blacks and jews who have complained about disenfranchisement so tell me pal, which group is it you feel is too stupid to vote?

Whatever your spin on it McG, it doesn't change the fact that something is just plain fishy in America in general. I'm not sure how I can be as partisan as you think I am, as, if I was American, I wouldn't want to see Bush or Kerry in office. I don't smell conspiracy theory here, just a disfunctional country.

"Yo dick"? Geez, I thought you had graduated from grade school. I thought I was done with you.

You mean when you threatened me by pm? And I bet a few people would like to hear your answer to that question.

And btw I thought your name was Dick. You know, because of your previous avatar......please excuse...

Maybe it's just Richard, bear. We should give him the benefit of the doubt. I'm starting to think that McG and BPB may have known each other in grade school. McG's statement "I thought I was done with you" clearly refers to a childhood beating of the poor bear which has not been forgotten. I wouldn't put it past McG, for he is a self-confessed, supposedly reformed bully.

But enough of that. I feel the need to lapse into a bit of conspiracy theory here, just for fun. Does anyone wonder why the voting machines for blacks have "continuous problems", in McG's words? Makes ya think....hmmm.

no beatings for this bear..... even the smallest bear can dispatch a bully.... they're just pussy-cats at heart one good bite and they're done.....not even a meal, just a snack....

Let's leave Rich alone before he gets the idea we don't like him....all in good fun right Rich? See ya in church.....

I'll just mark it down as another episode where you have nothing to add to the discussion so you resort to the continuous parade of personal attacks. It's expected.

ahh...the self righteous indignation....right on schedule.....you gotta expect to get hit when you continuously paint a bulls eye on yourself Rich......it's a crime of opportunity....besides I was adding to the discussion.....you as of yet have refused to respond to it........I even substantiated my remarks in the form of direct quotes from you......I am truly puzzled I reach out to try and establish a dialog, give you an opportunity to present your case or refudiate my post, and you cry that I'm picking on you......"No fair!!!!" " You hit me back", is not the way adults communicate.....so let's try again

You said the political process is ruined when 85% of african americans feel disenfranchised and cheated.......I said a bigger ruination of the political process is when racists, and I believe anyone who puts forth the notion that blacks have ruined the political process by sticking to their views is a racist, smugly dismiss that large number of a particular group....referring not to the article but your own remarks.

Then you come back and say I'm a partisan, and say that the article never stated that. I remind you, by quoting your own remarks, that it's you I'm speaking of. I then ask you, reasonably given your remark whether it is jews or blacks that you feel aren't intelligent enough to master the art of voting, because as you stated, some group is, according to you, and since jews and blacks are the two groups complaining about disenfranchisement it seems reasonable to assume that you're talking about one of those groups. Perhaps I'm wrong. Maybe you were referring to both.

So you see, I thought I had attempted to add to the discussion, and I'm still awaiting your reply.

"The continued charges of Bush stealing the election from Gore are remarkable considering that exhaustive studies by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and newspaper organizations have found little, if any evidence voter harassment, intimidation and disenfranchisement occurred in Florida. "

So where is the idea that they are disenfranchised come from? Could it be the continued plague of propaganda from the left? Al Gore may believe deep in his wooden heart that the election was stolen from him, but the facts don't back him up. The facts don't back up the belief that the the black community is somehow being targetted or that any fraud has been committed.

You want to put words in my mouth to make me out as a racist or something worse because I said "There was no election fraud other than some people are not capable of the simplistic act of voting correctly." I stand behind that. The democrats introduced a ballot that was difficult for some (not all because evidently there were multitudes of votes that were read just fine) to understand. Where in that statement do I make even a remotely racist remark?

In the same thread you say that 85% of african americans have polluted the political process because they feel disenfranchised....that's dismissive.....you establish the group you refer to as incapable of correctly voting that way.......that's racist.....then you want to cloak yourself in reasonableness when called on it.....that's ....well I'm not saying.....

No, John Lott said that 85% of African Americans are disenfranchised because of the pollution spread by the democratic propaganda. I know you can read, why do you choose to pretend you can't?

And you concur of course. So I ask, why do you post this drivel? Let me answer my own question. Because you agree with it and believe it.

Since the democraticv propaganda is evenly spread, why are only african americans disenfranchised by it? Why no mention of the % of caucasian americans who feel disenfranchised?
Why bring it up at all? Why, after opening it up do you seek to disassociate yourself with it?

Why do you feel the need to focus on one sentance that has nothing to do with the intent of the article? Because you can't argue anything else that it states.

PDiddies article wants everyone to think that the blacks in Florida have been cheated by the system. I post a follow up article refuting Greg Palast and get called a racist.

BPB writes:


I think a close analytical look at this would show that it is not the Republicans who assert that black Americans are too stupid to know how to vote. Seems to me that Republicans give black Americans credit for having normal intelligence. It seems it is the Democrats who are concerned that the voting system 'disenfranchises' black Americans and therefore demand that the pregnant chads be counted and that the system be changed to ensure the black Americans won't be 'disenfranchised' next time around.

What is mystifying to me is that more black Americans can't see how patronizing and insulting that is.