http://www.votermarch.org

Go to the

D.C. Voter Rights March

Saturday, May 19, 2001 from State College
 

"Those who cast the votes decide nothing.
Those who count the votes decide everything."
-Joseph Stalin

" Fascism should more properly be called corporatism , since it is the merger of state and corporate power."   
-Benito Mussolini (cited by Lewis Lapham in Harper's, January 2002)

http://www.blah3.com/money.html

"For anybody willing to find it, and write about it, and explain it, is this vast right-wing conspiracy that has been conspiring against my husband since the day he announced for President.  A few journalist have kind of caught on to it and explained it, but it has not yet been fully revealed to the American public."
--Hillary Rodham Clinton on the Today Show (NBC) 1/27/98  

"The process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event—like a new Pearl Harbor."
--PNAC signatories, including Dick Cheney (currently usurping the office of Vice President), I. Lewis Libby (Cheney's chief of staff), Donald Rumsfeld (currently usurping the office of defense secretary, and legitimately defense secretary under President Ford), and Paul Wolfowitz (Rumsfeld's No. 2 at the Pentagon), Elliot Abrams, Gary Bauer, William J. Bennett, Jeb Bush, and Norman Podhoretz, in the Project for a New American Century report " Rebuilding America's Defenses ,"  page 51.  9/00

Presidential election stolen ( none dare call it treason ), 12/12/00

"If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator."
-George W Bu$h, 12/18/00

"Dictatorship would be a heck of a lot easier."
-George W Bu$h, 7/26/01

"Lucky me, I hit the trifecta !"
-George W Bu$h, at least 15 times and counting since September 11, 2001

Anthrax sent to Democratic members of Congress "Everything seems to lean toward a domestic source ," one senior official said. "Nothing seems to fit with an overseas terrorist type operation.", 10/09/01

Karl Rove thought, "It’s like being at a Nazi rally.", 10/30/01
(Bush at War, by Bob Woodward, p. 277)

Seizing Dictatorial Power
--Editorial about military tribunals (kangaroo courts) written by conservative columnist and former Nixon press secretary, William Saffire, New York Times, 11/15/01

Questioning Authority
--Editorial about military tribunals (kangaroo courts), written by Senator Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania, New York Times, 11/28/01

''We've got a dictatorial president and a Justice Department that does not want Congress involved. ... Your guy's acting like he's king.''  
--Senator Dan Burton, Republican of Indiana, to Carl Thorsen, Deputy DA,  12/13/01 

Nuclear Posture Review includes provisions for nuclear first strikes , 1/08/02

New York Post headline, "Bush Knew" creates political uproar , 5/16/02

Bu$h adopts preemptive strategic posture at Westpoint commencement address, 6/1/02

"Bu$h wants to distract attention from his domestic problems. That's a popular method. Even Hitler did that."
--Former German Justice Minister, Herta Daeubler-Gmelin, 9/20/02

Political firestorm over Bu$h's motives in Iraq erupts in Canadian House of Commons , 10/3/02

Senator Paul Wellstone 's plane crashes 2 weeks before mid-term elections, 10/24/02

You Are Suspect
--Editorial about the Homeland Security Act, specifically provisions for a Total Information Awareness database, written by conservative columnist and former Nixon press secretary William Saffire, New York Times, 11/14/02

Fascism comes on little cat feet , Harley Sorensen, 11/18/02

Henry Kissinger appointed to head 911 "independent" commission,  11/27/02

" The decision is another Bush v. Gore. It is a convoluted decision by a Republican judge that gives Bush and Cheney near total immunity from scrutiny. In Bush v. Gore, five Republican justices gave the election to George Bush and Dick Cheney. Today, another Republican judge has decided that, once in office, Bush and Cheney can operate in complete secrecy with no oversight by Congress."
--Representative Henry Waxman, Democrat of California, Statement on the Cheney Energy Task Force , 12/09/02

Al Gore decides not to seek re-election in 2004, 12/15/2002
"Who will be the Democratic front runner in 2004? who cares? No candidate, Democratic or otherwise, has a prayer of defeating George W. Bush as long as Mr. Bush is not held accountable for his actions. Bluntly stated, this is -- by far -- the most corrupt and criminal administration the country has ever known. Why is war so urgent? Because without it Bush and his friends would likely be going to jail."  
--Marc Ash, editor of TruthOut, in Farewell Al, We Hardly Knew You

Unilateral attack on Iraq begins,  3/19/2003
"The moment we attack Iraq without provocation is the moment we have failed as a nation."  
Scott Ritter, ex-marine, Republican, former UNSCOM weapons inspector.
"Welcome to the American Empire.  Don't be surprised that your rights and privileges have changed all of a sudden.  We used to be a constitutional democracy.  That's pretty much done now.  You're a citizen of an empire today, one that attacks sovereign nations without cause, with the backing of such international heavyweights as Spain and Eritrea.  You're not a citizen.  You're a customer.  Take a number and get in line."
...
"America is not making war on Iraq.  We are attacking a nation of 24 million people.  Some will tell you that this is the first time a democracy has instigated a war.  This is wrong.  Military empires have reached out to crush other peoples and nations since time out of mind.  Silly you, for thinking this was a constitutional democracy."
William Rivers Pitt, in Mr. Bush's War

Syria threatened 4/13/03
"You saw the furore that went on before the President got sufficient support to do this," he said. "This is still a democracy and public opinion rules. If George Bush decided he was going to turn troops on Syria now and then Iran he'd be in office about 15 minutes...if President Bush were to try it now, even I would feel he should be impeached. You can't get away with that sort off thing in a democracy."   Lawrence Eagleburger , Republican, Secretary of State under George Bush Senior

"As I went back through the Pentagon in November 2001, one of the senior military staff officers had time for a chat. Yes, we were still on track for going against Iraq, he said. But there was more. This was being discussed as part of a five-year campaign plan, he said, and there were a total of seven countries, beginning with Iraq, then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Iran, Somalia and Sudan. . . . I left the Pentagon that afternoon deeply concerned."
--General Wesley Clark, in Winning Modern Wars , as referenced in The Widening Crusade .  9/03

Israel bombs Syria 10/05/03

"Why of course the people don't want war ...
But after all it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy,
and it is always a simple matter  to drag the people along,
whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship...
Voice or no  voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders.
That  is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked,
and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger."
-Hermann Goering, Nazi leader, at the Nuremberg Trials after World War II

"...no initiative put in place starting today can have a substantial effect on the peak production year.  No Caspian Sea exploration, no drilling in the South China Sea, no SUV replacements, no renewable energy projects can be brought on  at a sufficient rate to avoid a bidding war for the remaining oil ... at least, let's hope that the war is waged with cash instead of with nuclear warheads."
--Kenneth S. Deffeyes, pre-eminent geologist, professor emeritus, Princeton University, as quoted from original footnoted sources in The Hydrogen Economy , p. 28, by Jeremy Rifkin, 2002  [Deffeyes was featured in John McPhee's book, Basin and Range, 1980]

The Energy Justifies the Means?

The Alternative:   The Hydrogen Economy

"Each act, each occasion, is worse than the last, but only a little worse. You wait for the next and the next. You wait for the one great shocking occasion, thinking that others, when such a shock comes, will join with you in resisting somehow...To live in this process is absolutely not to be able to notice it - please try to believe me - unless one has a much greater degree of political awareness, acuity, than most of us had ever had occasion to develop. Each step was so small, so inconsequential, so well explained or, on occasion, 'regretted,' that, unless one were detached from the whole process from the beginning, unless one understood what the whole thing was in principle, what all these 'little measures' that no 'patriotic German' could resent must some day lead to, one no more saw it developing from day to day than a farmer in his field sees the corn growing. One day it is over his head...And one day, too late, your principles, if you were ever sensible of them, all rush in upon you. The burden of self deception has grown too heavy... You see what you are, what you have done, or, more accurately, what you haven't done (for that was all that was required of most of us: that we do nothing)."
Milton Mayer, They Thought They Were Free

The reason for the silence :

Political cartoon featured in Centre Daily Times, Sunday, November 10, 2002

I don't need no arms around me
And I don't need no drugs to calm me.
I have seen the writing on the wall.
Don't think I need anything at all.
No! Don't think I'll need anything at all.
All in all it was all just bricks in the wall.
All in all you were all just bricks in the wall.

--Roger Waters (from Another Brick in the Wall, part III on the Pink Floyd album The Wall , 1979) 

Frodo has failed.  Abandon all hope .

The Morning after January 20th, 2001:

Hmm, what's this? ...

 ...And when you lose control, you'll reap the harvest you have sown
And as the fear grows, the bad blood slows and turns to stone...
--Roger Waters (from Dogs on the Pink Floyd album Animals , 1977)

O.K.  I said I wasn't going to post this.  It would only serve to show that my neighbor got under my skin, which is what he wanted in the first place.  We are neighborly.  We continue to be neighborly, settling this issue with honest discussion.  But recent events in Happy Valley have made me re-think what constitutes intimidation.  Is this intimidation?  The sign reads, "Did you burn the flag in D.C.?"  My reply:  "No, I was there saving it."  His sign was posted in response to my attending the completely legal Voter March January 20th in Washington D.C..   I had been quoted in the local newspaper before going to Voter March that I was concerned that we were losing control of our democracy.  Let's look at the level of critical thinking here.  There must have been over 100 groups, including Voter March, protesting in D.C. that day.  A group of anarchists burned what has been reported as both a black flag and an American flag.  One burns a flag, and everyone protesting in D.C. is a flag burner?  I've encountered this level of critical thinking before.  When I was in school during the Cold War, being an environmentalist, or even being concerned about public health as it relates to the environment, was synonymous with being a communist, and being a communist was synonymous with being a traitor.  Now we have environmental majors, but it still looks like being anything other than a Republican is synonymous with being a traitor.  But again, I ask if this is intimidation.  I expressed my opinion, and he expressed his.  So why did this get under my skin?  I know why.  Can you guess?

As long as we're on the subject of flag desecration, does this count?

I don't think I've seen a JPG or GIF file yet that made me think longer or harder than this one.  It's from:
http://www.adbusters.org/   They call it United Corporations of America.
It just goes to show that in an icon-flooded world, you can't give the flag "special protections" without squelching provocative thought, exactly what the 1st amendment is supposed to protect!

Here is an interesting exchange of letters I had with Al Gore regarding ground water.  Thank God corporate America doesn't own ground water yet!
Proposals for the Ground Water Protection Act (An open letter to President Albert Gore)
The 1993 letter to Vice President Albert Gore
And here is a great letter from Scientists for a Sustainable Energy Future:
Scientists for a Sustainable Energy Future (An open letter to the American people)

After reading from Senator Debbie Stabenow ( http://stabenow.senate.gov/press/033001lakes.htm ) that Bush entertained thoughts of drilling in the Great Lakes, the most stupid proposition I've ever heard in my entire life, I'm compelled to post this:

Come the millennium, month 12
                In the home of the greatest power
        The village idiot will come forth
                To be acclaimed the leader.

                        Nostradamus, 1555
 

For more puerile chimp entertainment like the above, visit:  http://bushorchimp.hypermart.net/

Gotta love hypocrisy!

http://www.blah3.com/moneytalk.html 

Mr. Bush, are you illiterate, an alcoholic, and a felon?

Mr. Bush, why the cover-up surrounding your D.U.I.?
 

Bush Inaugural Address -- Second Draft
I was there (protesting).  The final draft was worse:

My fellow Armenians:

As I stand here today, looking over this magnificent viagra, I think
we can agree that the past is over.  Our country is ready for a fresh,
bipolar approach.  I want to bring America together.  We are the hill
shining on a city, and each of us can get to the top if we set our
feet to it.  Americans have made their decision.  They don't need
sympathy; they need ablutions.

We need to move beyond the petty armadillos.  Politics doesn't have to
be the way it is today.  We can make the pie higher.  A high pie lets
everyone put food on their family and their family on the table.
That's my record: I side with most of the people...and Democrats be
people too.

(Music break)

A president has to think not only of himself and his family and his
baseball team's families, but of all American families.  I don't
believe a president should be choosing who are the right Americans and
who are the wrong Americans.  All of us are together, white or wrong,
black or right.  Or perversely.  That's why my tax cut is as broad as
we are.  And it will give our expansion a timely second dose of wind.

(Zantac commercial)

I say there's a cost to inaction.  I haven't done the acrobatics, but
it's probably around a trillion dollars.  That's a good round sum to
offer to everyone, especially our seniors, who are the backache of our
nation.  I would like to take a moment to mention my mother, Barbara
Bush, who tragically has turrets syndrome.  We need our seniors to be
free to pass on. Thanks Mom, thanks Dad, thanks Jeb...and long live
the Supreme Court..at least five of them.

(Applause; tears)

We know that America is the best in the world.  We are the great
super-premium; we cannot afford to be unleaded.  This is still a world
of madmen and mental losses. And mental loss is easy to
underestimate.  We need a sharpened sword to light our way.  To quote
Ronald Reagan: "I do not believe in a fate that will fall on us if we
do nothing.  I do believe in a fate that will fall on us if we do
something.  And it must never run our lives."

(Exxon commercial)

I worked in Texas by common sense and plain dozing.  I got on with
small business, because I was one myself.  I'm less now.  But I'm also
more.  I know you would rather be watching TV, and so would I, so I
will draw to a quick confusion.  My message is: I will get things
done.  I will inspire and untie. I will appeal to people's better
angles.  I will prove that politics can be bigger than you ever
thought possible.  We will trust the people we serve, and serve the
people we trust.  Together, we can do what needs to be done to
preserve this great fruit basket of freedom.

....Leave us pray.
 
 

The Kennebunkport Hillbilly
(sung to the tune of The Beverly Hillbillies Theme Song)

Come and listen to my story 'bout a boy name Bush.
His IQ was zero and his head was up his tush.
He drank like a fish while he drove all about.
But that didn't matter 'cuz his daddy bailed him out.
DUI, that is.  Criminal record.  Cover-up.

Well, the first thing you know little Georgie goes to Yale.
He can't spell his name but they never let him fail.
He spends all his time hangin' out with student folk.
And that's when he learns how to snort a line of coke.
Blow, that is.  White gold.  Nose candy.

The next thing you know there's a war in Vietnam.
Kin folks say, "George, stay at home with Mom."
Let the common people get maimed and scarred.
We'll buy you a spot in the Texas Air Guard.
Cushy, that is.  Country clubs.  Nose candy.

Twenty years later George gets a little bored.
He trades in the booze, says that Jesus is his Lord.
He said, "Now the White House is the place I wanna be."
So he called his daddy's friends and they called the GOP.
Gun owners, that is.  Falwell.  Jesse Helms.

Come November 7, the election ran late.
Kin folks said "Jeb, give the boy your state!"
"Don't let those colored folks get into the polls."
So they put up barricades so they couldn't punch their holes.
Chads, that is.  Duval County.  Miami-Dade.

Before the votes were counted five Supremes stepped in.
Told all the voters "Hey, we want George to win."
"Stop counting votes!" was their solemn invocation.
And that's how George finally got his coronation.
Rigged, that is.  Illegitimate.  No moral authority.
Y'all come vote now.  Ya hear?
 
 

The Future:  Computerized Ballot  (Try re-voting in Palm Beach County)

This is a poem made up entirely of actual quotes from George W. Bush. The quotes have been
arranged only for aesthetic purposes, by Washington Post writer Richard Thompson. Too good
not to share, especially during National Poetry Month...

MAKE THE PIE HIGHER
  by George W. Bush

I think we all agree, the past is over.
This is still a dangerous world.
It's a world of madmen and uncertainty and potential mental losses.

Rarely is the question asked
Is our children learning?
Will the highways of the internet become more few?
How many hands have I shaked?

They misunderestimate me.
I am a pitbull on the pantleg of opportunity.
I know that the human being and the fish can coexist.
Families is where our nation finds hope, where our wings take dream.

Put food on your family!
Knock down the tollbooth!
Vulcanize Society!
Make the pie higher! Make the pie higher!

http://www.bushcartoon.com/index2.html

Songs for Unpresident's Day:  February 18, 2001
      from the Lewisburg Resisters
Should All Our Ballots Be Forgot
(to the tune of Auld Lang Syne)

(slow)
1.  Should all our ballots be forgot
just because the Supreme Court
decided not to count the votes
in the state of Florida

CHORUS:  There's nothing we could do, my friends
because the fix was in
but come the year two thousand two
we all can vote again.

2.  We'll see that ballots fairly cast
are counted lawfully
and won't be cast aside by those
who have stained democracy

CHORUS
credit:  The Lewisburg Resisters

Riding on a Monkey
(to the tune of Yankee Doodle)

(fast)
1. Dubya Bush went to D.C.
a-riding on a monkey
Stuck the ballots in his hat
and called his Supreme flunkies

CHORUS: Dubya Bush is illegit
and his corporate cronies
Dubya Bush is nothing but
a presidential phony

2. Dubya Bush went to D.C.
though he lost the election
'cuz Scalia and the gang
decided his selection

CHORUS

3.  Dubya Bush went to D.C.
to do the corporate bidding
promised to be fair to all
who does he think he's kidding?

CHORUS

4.  Dubya Bush went to D.C.
to push Alaskan drilling
and threaten all the wildlife
so his friends can make a killing
CHORUS
credit:  the Lewisburg Resisters

BUMPER STICKERS and RALLY SLOGANS
 

Get these and more, or your own design, at: http://www.published.com/mvp/2000vote.html

Re-elect Gore in 2004

Don't Blame Me - I voted for Gore... I Think

I voted - Didn't matter

My parents retired to Florida and all I got was this lousy President

Disney gave us Mickey, Florida gave us Dumbo

DON'T THROW AWAY YOUR VOTE...LET KATHERINE HARRIS DO IT FOR YOU

Bush trusts the people, but not if it involves counting.

To you I'm a drunk driver; to my friends, I'm presidential material!

One person, one vote (may not apply in certain states).

I DIDN'T VOTE FOR HIS DADDY EITHER

The election can't be broken. We just fixed it.

Banana Republicans

George W. Bush: The President Quayle We Never Had

The last time somebody listened to a Bush, folks wandered in the desert for 40 years.

Campaign spending: $184,000,000.
Having your little brother rig the election for you: Priceless.

"Those who cast the votes decide nothing.
Those who count the votes decide everything."
-Joseph Stalin

"Oh No, Gore's ahead!  Better call my brother Jeb!

All truth
    1.  Is met with ridicule
    2.  Is countered with intimidation and violence
    3.  Is held to be "self evident"
    --Martin Luther King
 

Votermarch Past Events
 

"NOT MY PRESIDENT'S DAY"
Sunday, February 18, 2001 in State College
STATE COLLEGE RALLY FOR VOTER REFORM

WHEN: Sun., February 18th 3pm-5pm
WHERE: College ave., across from old main st.
WHY: Goals are to bring attention to electoral, ballot & campaign
finance reform and other issues that are not top priority for un-president Bush.
February 18th has been declared "Not My President's Day" by the Democracy March Organization
please help by attending, so we can get our voice heard!
signs provided or bring your own.
as planned weather permitting.

For information contact Illona  < illona2cats@webtv.net >

January 20th D.C. VoterMarch Itinerary:  

Just like Florida, they tried to "shut it down" with intimidation!

For local travel information, contact

 John Hoaglund < hoaglund@essc.psu.edu >

(814) 865-4792

or visit:  http://www.emsei.psu.edu/~hoaglund/votermarch.html

Departing State College from the Atherton–Pollock faculty parking lot, free parking on weekends (SW of Atherton Street between Pollock Road and the soccer fields)  in State College at 6:00 A.M., Saturday 1/20/2001.  We will proceed along Hwy 322 to Hwy 15 near Harrisburg (stay west of the river), to I-83 to Baltimore, and on to D.C.

The Harrisburg stop has been eliminated.  (Car travels separately to Harrisburg area to pick-up Harrisburg riders).

to  the Silver Spring D.C. Metro Station near the beltway for travel to Dupont Circle or The Ellipse in D.C. ,  by 10:00 A.M rally time.**

Returning  to State College, same parking lot, late evening P.M., Saturday, 1/20/2001.  (Rally to end at Ellipse in D.C. around 4:00 P.M.)

**I decided on the Silver Spring Metro Station because it is on the Red Line going directly to Dupont Circle.  A reliable source strongly recommended New Carrolton Metro Station due to more abundant, cheap parking.  We may use this station as a back-up if Silver Spring Station cannot accommodate.  If you decide to use New Carrolton, please be advised that you must change trains from the Orange Line to the Red Line at Metro Center Station.  Metro trains are usually labeled with the end-point station.  For example, from Silver Spring station, take the Shady Grove Red Line train, but only as far as Dupont Circle.  On the way back, take the Glenmont Red Line train, but only as far as Silver Spring.  Be sure to print-off driving directions and parking information from the Metro web-page.

Once you are in D.C., local travel is up to you.  It is advised that you buy a D.C. Metro Rail Pass.  On Saturdays, $5.00 gets you an all-day pass for anywhere on the line, that's all day!  Here are the details:

D.C. Metro / Subway line  http://www.wmata.com/metrorail/systemmap.htm

As to the 1-day itinerary, Washington is going to be jammed.  Tourism or extended stay is not advised.  However, you are encouraged to buy a D.C. Metro / Subway pass, $5.00 for all day Saturday.  Review the system map to Dupont Circle:

http://www.wmata.com/metrorail/systemmap.htm

If you are driving yourself, or if our mini-van / car-pool caravan decides to park at a Metro Station, here are the parking details:

http://www.wmata.com/metrorail/PARKING.HTM#3

and here's how to get to a Metro Station (Driving Directions):

http://www.wmata.com/metrorail/DRIVE.HTM

Caution on D.C. parking:  My guess is parking in D.C. is anywhere from $30 per day to $30 per hour.  In Chicago, you are charged $20.00 just for entering a parking garage downtown.  Rates are considerably cheaper at Metro Station parking lots .

The mini-van and car are full!
Confirm your reservation
 

Vehicle and Seat Number	Pass Code
VAN
1	Hopi
2	Aztec
3	Inca
4	Maya
5	Iroquois
6	Beethoven
7	Schubert
CAR
1	Bach
2	Mozart
3	Haydn
4	Brahms

The Mini-Van is reserved with Enterprise (hey, you gotta love their unprecedented donation to the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra)!

Carpooling among acquainted, adult occupants is encouraged.

Upon closing the transportation pool at noon Wednesday, I had to cancel the bus.  The bus would have been the most ENVIRONMENTALLY RESPONSIBLE way to travel (something most Bush-Republicans do not understand).  The next best thing is a car pool.  Those who have been following developments on the web know that I had a sliding scale, incrementing from my personal car ('91 Honda Civic), to 2-mini-van caravan, to bus transportation depending on turnout.  In grassroots fashion, these contracts were reserved with my own personal resources.  I am a hydrogeologist.  I am not a PSU transportation coordinator or tour promoter.  Every last idea, good or bad, and every last keystroke was my own.  I became a Voter March organizer simply by inquiring with the National Voter March organization, asking if any travel had been arranged from State College.  I tried various methods of promotion, and only thought of the newspaper when Bruce Bailey (Philly organizer) sent me a copy of his letter-to-the-editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer .  I called both the Centre Daily Times and the Daily Collegian on Monday.  The Daily Collegian wrote an excellent and accurate article on their second page.  Unfortunately, it was too late for the Tuesday edition, and I (and "they" in their Wednesday article)  made it clear that decisions on bus or van had to happen Wednesday afternoon.  I realize it was too much to ask for students to respond that quickly, and for that I apologize.  I have an itinerary, but I can no longer put forward the "risk" on a $693 bus contract.

Live and learn.  If nothing else, I offer my "mistake" as proof that this thing is entirely GRASSROOTS, and INSPIRING.

You are strongly encouraged to make a donation to the D.C. votermarch organization.
 

D.C. Voter March Events:
 

The rally will be marching from Dupont Circle to The Ellipse!
 

From Louis Posner, Chairman and National Groups Coordinator, on Plans and Planning
for the D.C. Voter March

More from  Louis Posner, Chairman and National Groups Coordinator, on why the Parade
Route Changed
 

Disappointed?  No, disillusioned

After reading Al Gore's statement , I was going to keep quiet and "patriotic."
After all, his statement transcends the rancor to unite a deeply divided country.
My reservations  about "getting involved" included feelings that my protest
would only be perceived as bitterness from an overly disappointed Gore voter.
After all I voted for Gore because I believed in his policies,
not out of some "fear of Bush" or "inability to stomach
the thought of wasting my vote on Nader."

But this is no longer about Al Gore, this is about abuse of power and criminal activity
in the face of the only thing that matters, the will of the people expressed in their votes.
I was "disappointed" [to say the least] in 1980, 1984, 1988, 1994 ... but then
I was able to accept that there was a mandate from the masses,
and that I was simply in the minority.
Now, I'm not "disappointed", I'm terrified.

We the people no longer matter, and at that we have lost control of our democracy.
Gore, as usual, takes the high ground, quoting his father:
"defeat might serve as well as victory to shape the soul and let the glory out."
Gore did the right thing at this point in exposing the crimes and then letting go.
Demanding our democracy back at this point most likely will not result in a Gore presidency,
but it might strengthen the politics of ballot and campaign finance reform.
And with that, even Bush knows he can't win because he knows he already lost.
Who knows, it may even begin a process to remove the
incompetent [illiterate?],
arrested-three-times [felonious?] ,
squatter from the White House.
It is now up to us to "let the glory out."