Strange but this is not a "don't pick on mah bro. man" letter.

The letter dismissed the investigation's findings as irresponsible and biased.

"While Governor Bush and others in Florida have set about the task of reforming Florida's election system, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights has instead busied itself with producing a biased and sloppy report aimed at delegitimizing the outcome of the November 2000 presidential election," the letter said.

----- Florida Governor Calls Commission Report on Election Biased

Gov. Jeb Bush's office sent a scathing letter to the United States Commission on Civil Rights denouncing its preliminary findings on the problem-plagued presidential race in Florida last November.

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/06/06/politics/06VOTE.html

-----

June 6, 2001

Florida Governor Calls Commission Report on Election Biased

By DANA CANEDY

IAMI, June 5 — Gov. Jeb Bush's office sent a scathing letter to the United States Commission on Civil Rights today denouncing its preliminary findings on the problem- plagued presidential race in Florida last November. The letter dismissed the investigation's findings as irresponsible and biased.

"While Governor Bush and others in Florida have set about the task of reforming Florida's election system, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights has instead busied itself with producing a biased and sloppy report aimed at delegitimizing the outcome of the November 2000 presidential election," the letter said.

The response, sent on behalf of the governor by his general counsel, Charles Canady, came a day after a draft of the commission's investigation report, scheduled for review and a possible vote by the commission on Friday, was given to news organizations and became public.

A divided commission, whose majority members are Democrats, prepared a draft report that concluded Governor Bush and Secretary of State Katherine Harris, both Republicans, ignored mounting evidence of problems on Election Day that led to "a pattern and practice of injustice, ineptitude and inefficiency." The flaws, the report said, denied many Floridians, particularly African- Americans, the right to vote in the election that put the governor's brother in the White House.

The governor's letter characterized the report as "riddled with baseless allegations, faulty reasoning and unsupported conclusions." It took issue with the release of the findings to the news organizations after the commission denied a request from the governor's office to review it in full.

"Unfortunately, the premature release of the report is entirely consistent with the substantive bias and procedural unfairness that have been the commission's trademark throughout its investigation of the November 2000 election," the letter said.

A spokeswoman for the governor, Katie Bauer, said the governor's office was compelled to send the letter after reading news accounts of the report's conclusions before being permitted to review the findings. "We were very frustrated and surprised that this office has not been given an opportunity to officially respond to the accusations made within this report," Ms. Bauer said.

The commission's general counsel, Edward Hailes, to whom the governor's letter was addressed, said it was standard practice to provide only the sections of draft reports pertaining to affected parties, as his office did in forwarding portions of the conclusions to Governor Bush. Anyone wishing to respond to the report has 20 days to do so, Mr. Hailes added, and Mr. Bush's letter will become part of the record.

"If there are facts in this letter that would cause us to change our report, which is still a draft report, then we would do that," Mr. Hailes said. "That is a part of our procedures, but based on just argument and assertions, we would not feel compelled to change the draft report."

The two Republican appointees who serve on the eight-member commission said they had not been consulted on the report.

The report concluded that black voters were nearly 10 times more likely than white voters to have their ballots rejected. It also criticized election officials for, among other things, using erroneous listings to purge felons from the voter rolls, failing to provide required language assistance in heavily Hispanic polling places and not providing adequate money for sufficient training of poll workers.

In general, the report highlights what the commission said was "the harsh reality that despite the closeness of the election, it was widespread voter disenfranchisement and not the dead-heat contest that was the extraordinary feature in the Florida election."

The commission did not conclude that state officials or election workers conspired to disenfranchise voters, but its report calls for a broad investigation by the Justice Department into whether the officials violated the National Voting Rights Act.

The report also said the state was woefully unprepared to handle the large voter turnout.

"Despite the early signs of a large influx of new voters," the report said, "the Florida state election apparatus was indifferent to this reality and did not respond with the appropriate array of measures to avoid the chaos that occurred."

Mr. Bush's letter took aim at many of the findings, including the issue of widespread disenfranchisement among minority voters. The letter said that, as with all voters, minorities could have been affected by a number of variables that the commission failed to take into account, such as "the voter's education level, the voter's experience with voting, the ballot design and the voting machine used."

Furthermore, the governor's letter said, many of the commission's conclusions were based on vague and unsubstantiated assertions by witnesses that "the commission itself lacks the evidence to justify."

Mr. Hailes called the commission's investigation thorough and its conclusions responsible. "It is a very fact-driven report," Mr. Hailes said. "As with all our reports, it was based on sworn testimony and we have statistical analysis to back up the claims."

The commission's findings were welcomed by state Democratic leaders and denounced by Florida's Republican Party officials.

"I think there are some facts in the report that just speak for themselves," said Senator Darly Jones, a Democrat who was a member of the governor's task force on election reform.

Al Cardenas, head of the Florida Republican Party, called the commission's work careless. "The substance of the report is highly suspect because the process was so flawed and unfair," he said. "My sense is that it is a political hatchet job."`

But Lois Frankel, a House Democrat, said that not all of the findings could be dismissed. "Governor Bush is missing the point here," Ms. Frankel said. "There's something inherently wrong with the system when a black voter is 10 times more likely than a white voter to be disenfranchised because of the color of his skin."

-- Anonymous, June 06, 2001

Answers

AND WHAT A LOVELY COMMENT WE FIND AT THE END...FROM A MEMBER OF THE PARTY WHOSE "SOUTHERN DEMOCRATS" PRACTICED THE VERY TACTICS SHE DENOUNCES FOR OVER 100 YEARS WHILE BLEATING ABOUT "STATES RIGHTS" AND "THE RIGHT TO BE LEFT ALONE" AND "THE NEED FOR MINIMUM STANDARDS" (FOR THOSE LOVELY VOTING TESTS).

NEVER.....LET IT BE SAID.,.... THAT THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY IS **NOT** THE "PARTY OF ALL................................THE HYPOCRITES".

-- Anonymous, June 06, 2001

EXAMPLE...............HYPOCRISY...........CUBED:

But Lois Frankel, a House Democrat, said that not all of the findings could be dismissed. "Governor Bush is missing the point here," Ms. Frankel said. "There's something inherently wrong with the system when a black voter is 10 times more likely than a white voter to be disenfranchised because of the color of his skin."

-- Anonymous, June 06, 2001

Geeze Charles, The actions of people 100 years ago are comparable to what was done in Florida last year? Glad to hear you agree that the same kind of corrupt, bigoted, illegal actions were responsable for minorities voting rights being negated, causing Bush to slip into office when, if all the votes of those minorities had been counted, Gore would be the clear winner.

Or are you saying that the actions of bigoted southern polititions of 100 years ago justifies it being done today?

What ever spin you want to put on it, what ever excuses or justifications are given, you will not be able to deny the fact that the votes were denied to the minority segment of the population in Florida. Which makes Bush and his (personal-not America's) mandate a fraud.

Every day more and more is coming into the open, such as the head of Enron attempting to blackmail and threaten FERC management into doing what they want.

The shit is just starting to hit the fan.

Charles, sometimes blind trust in something without unbiased assessment can set you up for a fall.

-- Anonymous, June 07, 2001

Yes, well, Cherri, it's become apparent (to me, at least) that Charlie DIDN'T learn from the last obvious episode of "blind faith". Which is a hoot because two years later, he keeps posting about it.

Charlie, I think "Doomzies be YOU".

BTW, how do you figure that's "hypocrisy"? What definition of "hypocrisy" are you using?

And one last thing (for now) ..... We Told You So.

:-)

-- Anonymous, June 07, 2001

Sorry but the Democratic ward heelers who perpetuated Jim Crow long after Brown v. Board and other cases were not from 100 years ago.

And there are still pockets of disgusting practices defended by Democrats to this day.

True all of the South has made great progress. Now it is the Democrats of the North who practice and perpetuate a de-facto form of segregation in places like Boston, NYC, Phila. and more.

Welfare payments in the North were and are just as effective as the tests given to voters across the South until recently.

-- Anonymous, June 08, 2001

This is the smear tactic the BushMemes use in their bag of tricks. Smear something as defacto bs because it from "Liberals". Back it up with irrelevant history.

The memes were unable to use the standard tactic of "just ignore it", since this item deals with the core crime committed by this Rogue Administration. They must contain anything which will expose the shame which is this Bush Administration.

Panel Tells Bush Global Warming Is Getting Worse and Here Is the Real Betrayer By Robert Scheer are threads best left to the "Ignore it Tool" the BushMemes employ so often. Poole takes this and uses a different variation which appeals to the heart of the reader and says he is "too busy" to comment.

Doomzie tends to like the Diversionary tactic of posting irrelevant BS to bury anything which will threaten the bug in his thinking. The McVeigh and eyeroller threads show this.

Making a list, feel free to contribute.

Even saw the "Typo attack" yesterday at Unk's, too funny. Came from Maria, what a surprise lol. Stay tuned, *I* make tons of mistakes, as you know LOL.

-- Anonymous, June 08, 2001

Robert Scheer is a 'way far left' Jewish writer for the 'way far left' Los Angeles Times. Everything that he writes is subjective so as always, consider the source. -- Telinet (like@it.is), June 08, 2001.

EVER STOP TO THINK THAT MOST PEOPLE JUST ***IGNORE YOUR STUFF? **

T.S. AS THE RUSSIAN MARINES SAY.

-- Anonymous, June 09, 2001