F911 Deceits 3 thru 7
Deception #3: Bush won florida cuz Katherine Harris (the Secretary of state in FA and "Bush's campaign chairperson in Florida" and "the vote count lady" made it so Bush would win. Furthermore, the Florida Supreme Court's recount was halted by "his dad's buddies in the Supreme Court." By any scenario of recounts, Gore would have won Florida and thus the Presidency.
Facts: First of all, every time a Republican is aided by another Republican, the conspiracy theorists come out of the woodwork and scream bloody murder. Yes, some Supreme Court Justices were appointed by Republican Presidents. Does that mean that they are merely servants of the GOP? Ah, no! Consider this: If the Supreme Court were in Bush's pocket, as Moore suggests, why not use this to reverse some court decisions that go against Bush's ideals and opinions. Why not repeal Roe vs. Wade (the decision that made abortion legal)?
Katherine Harris was no the Florida chairperson, she was the co-chairperson. She was not the "vote count lady" either. Her job was to certify the vote counting that individual Florida counties carried out.
Had Gore gotten the recount he and the Florida Supreme Court wanted, Bush would have won. This is according to CNN, The NY Times, and The Washington Post who came together to attempt to resolve the recount situation. Here are their findings summarized in USA Today:
Who would have won if Al Gore had gotten manual counts he requested in four counties? Answer: George W. Bush."
"Who would have won if the U.S. Supreme Court had not stopped the hand recount of undervotes, which are ballots that registered no machine-readable vote for president? Answer: Bush, under three of four standards."
"Who would have won if all disputed ballots — including those rejected by machines because they had more than one vote for president — had been recounted by hand? Answer: Bush, under the two most widely used standards; Gore, under the two least used."
The article summarized in the NY Post: http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/27166.htm
You can even make up your own rules to see who would have won Florida at this site:
http://www.nytimes.com/images/2001/11/12/politics/recount/
There are 24 different scenarios and unlike Moore asserts, Gore doesn't win in all of them. And as mentioned above, the Florida Supreme Court's reocunt plan would have resulted in a win for Bush.
Adding to this, Moore flashes a number of newspaper headlines, one of which is a letter to the editor and not a news headline at all.
Conclusion: Moore continues to distort facts and present only his side of the story. He uses clever editing tricks to make people look like they've said things that they don't really need.
Deception #4: Moore claims that Florida's conservatives purposely removed black people off the voter eligibility rolls in an effort to reduce the number of Democratic votes.
Facts: Conservatives who controlled the government in Florida did hire the company that was supposed to clean up Florida's voting rolls of felons and dead people (makes sense seeing as neither can vote under Florida law) and the company fucked up. In the 1998 Miami Mayoral election, dead people and felons had voted. The fact of the matter is that blacks are disproportionately more likely to be felons than whites. Florida laws allow felons from other states to vote but some of these felons, disproportionally black, were accidently whiped off the voter list. In fact, the company never even used race as a discerning characteristic between people!
Conclusion: Were people wrongly turned away from polls? Yes. But there was no malice or racist intent on the part of Florida's government or the company they hired to purge the rolls of people who could not vote. Too many elections in US history have been marred with controversy due to overvoting, dead people voting, and otherwise inelligble voters voting. If more blacks were turned away from the voting booth than whites would this have made a difference? Moore seems to think so. It is true that blacks are a key constituency for the Democratic Party, however, isn't it racial profiling to predict that black people will vote for Democrats simply because they're black? As a matter of fact, it is.
Deception #5: Bush was welcomed to the White House with a barrage of eggs. His Presidency was stagnant before 9/11. His approval rating went down, and the Senate became Democrtatic.
Facts: Bush's limo was pelted by one egg which is such a constructive act. I'm sure the thrower of that egg will convince alot of people that Bush lost Florida in prison. It is true the Senate switched from Republican to Democratic when one Senator changed parties. Moore makes it seem as if an election was held in between January of 2001 and September of 2001 and the Democrats won Senate seats.
Conclusion: Of course Bush was going to have trouble passing every law he wanted to pass. With people like Moore running around the country screaming conspiracy theories and Gore's refusal to accept defeat until the highest court in the land forced him to, the President had very little mandate. With a hostile Senate and people voting on party lines, it was very difficult to get things through Capitol Hill. Moore doesn't come to the conclusion that Washington is a political place where party memebers toe the party line, he instead tries to make it seem as if NO-ONE beleived Bush was President.
Deception #6: Bush was on vacation for nearly half of his days before September 11.
Facts: Ummm, the internet! I remember last year I took all of my tests and quizzes for one class and never had to leave my dorm room! In fact, I took one quiz in while Massachusetts and my school is in New York! Phones, cable modems, fax machines, webcams, they all allow us to connect to each other without being in the same room, town, or even state! Moore portrays Bush as a backwoods farmer type who would rather chop some firewood than worry about the problems of the world. I'd like to see how Moore would deal with the stress of being President. I know I couldn't survive unless I had time off. If you have a good eye and a photographic memory (most people do not especially at the movie theater) you may remember about a 1/2 second shot of Bush tlaking with Tony Blair. Blair isn't his hunting pal, he is the Prime Minister of our most important ally. but I guess they were talking about football or the other football.
Conclusion: Presidents go on vacation. They spend time outside of the White House. People like Moore are hypocritcal if you ask me. In one instance, they portray Bush as a dadd'y's boy who never had to do a hard day of work in his life, then they portray him as a hick who enjoys working on his ranch (which is his only privately own residence, unlike Kerry's set of dwellings across the country).
Deception #7: Bush cares more about golf than terrorism.
Facts: The now famous incident of Bush tlaking about terrorism and then playing some golf has been burnt into my retinas. The fact of the matter is that he was talking about Palestinian terrorists and not Al-quaida and according to Moore, Palestinian terrorists never attacked us so we sohuldn't care that they kill innocent people seemingly on a daily basis.
Conclusion: Doesn't Moore claim that we should all just live our lives like normal? That worrying about terrorists is just as dangerous as a terrorist attack? So why shouldn't the President enjoy a round of golf? The first thing I thought of when I saw this clip in commercials is the picture of JFK chipping on the putting green he built on the White House lawn during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
That's it for now. I'm pissed and obsessed. Hehe.
Facts: First of all, every time a Republican is aided by another Republican, the conspiracy theorists come out of the woodwork and scream bloody murder. Yes, some Supreme Court Justices were appointed by Republican Presidents. Does that mean that they are merely servants of the GOP? Ah, no! Consider this: If the Supreme Court were in Bush's pocket, as Moore suggests, why not use this to reverse some court decisions that go against Bush's ideals and opinions. Why not repeal Roe vs. Wade (the decision that made abortion legal)?
Katherine Harris was no the Florida chairperson, she was the co-chairperson. She was not the "vote count lady" either. Her job was to certify the vote counting that individual Florida counties carried out.
Had Gore gotten the recount he and the Florida Supreme Court wanted, Bush would have won. This is according to CNN, The NY Times, and The Washington Post who came together to attempt to resolve the recount situation. Here are their findings summarized in USA Today:
Who would have won if Al Gore had gotten manual counts he requested in four counties? Answer: George W. Bush."
"Who would have won if the U.S. Supreme Court had not stopped the hand recount of undervotes, which are ballots that registered no machine-readable vote for president? Answer: Bush, under three of four standards."
"Who would have won if all disputed ballots — including those rejected by machines because they had more than one vote for president — had been recounted by hand? Answer: Bush, under the two most widely used standards; Gore, under the two least used."
The article summarized in the NY Post: http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/27166.htm
You can even make up your own rules to see who would have won Florida at this site:
http://www.nytimes.com/images/2001/11/12/politics/recount/
There are 24 different scenarios and unlike Moore asserts, Gore doesn't win in all of them. And as mentioned above, the Florida Supreme Court's reocunt plan would have resulted in a win for Bush.
Adding to this, Moore flashes a number of newspaper headlines, one of which is a letter to the editor and not a news headline at all.
Conclusion: Moore continues to distort facts and present only his side of the story. He uses clever editing tricks to make people look like they've said things that they don't really need.
Deception #4: Moore claims that Florida's conservatives purposely removed black people off the voter eligibility rolls in an effort to reduce the number of Democratic votes.
Facts: Conservatives who controlled the government in Florida did hire the company that was supposed to clean up Florida's voting rolls of felons and dead people (makes sense seeing as neither can vote under Florida law) and the company fucked up. In the 1998 Miami Mayoral election, dead people and felons had voted. The fact of the matter is that blacks are disproportionately more likely to be felons than whites. Florida laws allow felons from other states to vote but some of these felons, disproportionally black, were accidently whiped off the voter list. In fact, the company never even used race as a discerning characteristic between people!
Conclusion: Were people wrongly turned away from polls? Yes. But there was no malice or racist intent on the part of Florida's government or the company they hired to purge the rolls of people who could not vote. Too many elections in US history have been marred with controversy due to overvoting, dead people voting, and otherwise inelligble voters voting. If more blacks were turned away from the voting booth than whites would this have made a difference? Moore seems to think so. It is true that blacks are a key constituency for the Democratic Party, however, isn't it racial profiling to predict that black people will vote for Democrats simply because they're black? As a matter of fact, it is.
Deception #5: Bush was welcomed to the White House with a barrage of eggs. His Presidency was stagnant before 9/11. His approval rating went down, and the Senate became Democrtatic.
Facts: Bush's limo was pelted by one egg which is such a constructive act. I'm sure the thrower of that egg will convince alot of people that Bush lost Florida in prison. It is true the Senate switched from Republican to Democratic when one Senator changed parties. Moore makes it seem as if an election was held in between January of 2001 and September of 2001 and the Democrats won Senate seats.
Conclusion: Of course Bush was going to have trouble passing every law he wanted to pass. With people like Moore running around the country screaming conspiracy theories and Gore's refusal to accept defeat until the highest court in the land forced him to, the President had very little mandate. With a hostile Senate and people voting on party lines, it was very difficult to get things through Capitol Hill. Moore doesn't come to the conclusion that Washington is a political place where party memebers toe the party line, he instead tries to make it seem as if NO-ONE beleived Bush was President.
Deception #6: Bush was on vacation for nearly half of his days before September 11.
Facts: Ummm, the internet! I remember last year I took all of my tests and quizzes for one class and never had to leave my dorm room! In fact, I took one quiz in while Massachusetts and my school is in New York! Phones, cable modems, fax machines, webcams, they all allow us to connect to each other without being in the same room, town, or even state! Moore portrays Bush as a backwoods farmer type who would rather chop some firewood than worry about the problems of the world. I'd like to see how Moore would deal with the stress of being President. I know I couldn't survive unless I had time off. If you have a good eye and a photographic memory (most people do not especially at the movie theater) you may remember about a 1/2 second shot of Bush tlaking with Tony Blair. Blair isn't his hunting pal, he is the Prime Minister of our most important ally. but I guess they were talking about football or the other football.
Conclusion: Presidents go on vacation. They spend time outside of the White House. People like Moore are hypocritcal if you ask me. In one instance, they portray Bush as a dadd'y's boy who never had to do a hard day of work in his life, then they portray him as a hick who enjoys working on his ranch (which is his only privately own residence, unlike Kerry's set of dwellings across the country).
Deception #7: Bush cares more about golf than terrorism.
Facts: The now famous incident of Bush tlaking about terrorism and then playing some golf has been burnt into my retinas. The fact of the matter is that he was talking about Palestinian terrorists and not Al-quaida and according to Moore, Palestinian terrorists never attacked us so we sohuldn't care that they kill innocent people seemingly on a daily basis.
Conclusion: Doesn't Moore claim that we should all just live our lives like normal? That worrying about terrorists is just as dangerous as a terrorist attack? So why shouldn't the President enjoy a round of golf? The first thing I thought of when I saw this clip in commercials is the picture of JFK chipping on the putting green he built on the White House lawn during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
That's it for now. I'm pissed and obsessed. Hehe.
