Letter to Bush-Cheney '04 Chairman

The following letter is my response to an email sent from Marc Racicot, the Chairman of the Bush-Cheney '04 campaign, about the possiblity of litigating the election results. Note that his email is quoted in full at the end.

Dear Chairman Marc,

Thank you for sending me your note about the
presidential election.  I find your note encouraging
because I too believe that voters should be the ones
who choose our elected officials -- especially for the
office of President of the United States of America.
After all, they are supposed to be our "elected"
officials and our country is one of the greatest
democracies in the history of the world.  It only
makes sense, then, that the will of the people
determine who our next president will be and not some
"shadowy" group.

I am heartened by your sentiment that "We do not want
to go through another election where the outcome is
held hostage by the courts and those who were defeated
at the polls try to reverse the outcome through legal
wrangling and endless litigation."  Perhaps it is too
late to rectify the mistake where the majority of
Americans clearly chose Al Gore to  be our president
and yet George W. Bush was inaugurated.  It is too bad
we can not go back in time and make right what we both
clearly can see is wrong -- that the outcome of the
election was "held hostage by the courts" and the
those that were "defeated at the polls" "stopped at
nothing" and used the courts to ensure the outcome.

As I am sure you are aware, independent investigations
by the media revealed that if the votes in Florida had
been counted by non-partisan election officials in
compliance with the law, Gore would have won Florida
(see http://www.democrats.com/display.cfm?id=181) and
that he should have won not just the "popular vote,"
which he won by 538,948 votes, but the "electoral
vote" as well.  Although it is perhaps expecting too
much of our President, who as his selection Chairman I
assume you speak for, to step down in favor of our
rightfully elected President, I hope that this time we
can all agree to respect the wishes of the voters.

I must point out a minor error I found in your message
regarding how the judicial system works.  As you may
recall from the last presidential selection, it is not
the lawyers who make the legally binding
interpretations of the law -- they merely present
arguments in a court in favor or against various
interpretations of the law.  It is the judges -- in
this case the Supreme Court Justices -- who make the
determination of how laws are interpretated and
implemented.

I hope that you and the President agree with me that
if there is a "repeat" of the last election's Florida
debacle, whether it occur in Florida or another
"battleground" state, that the right thing to do is to
not use the Supreme Court to legalize what is
otherwise an illegitmate presidency, but to follow the
wishes of the majority votors and, in the spirit of
democracy, concede victory to the people's choice.

Sincerely,

Alex Lindgren



--- Chairman Marc Racicot
 wrote:

> Dear Alex,
>
> Just a few short days stand between us and the
> election. If the activities taking place in
> battleground states are any indication, our
> opponents plan a long, bitter, and vicious fight.
> Let me share just a sample of what is going on
> across the country today, 6 days before you vote.
> And let me tell you what else you may expect to see.
>
> We have already seen 35 lawsuits filed in 17 states
> - some before the first ballot was even cast. So
> far, the Democrats have failed in their attempts to
> win this election in the courts, rather than the
> ballot box.
>
> The shadowy groups aligned against us will stop at
> nothing, and I mean nothing, to win. That is why we
> must prepare for every possible outcome next
> Tuesday. That is why we must have the resources
> necessary to fight any legal battle. Will you ensure
> we're prepared?
>
> www.GeorgeWBush.com/Recount
>
> Our offices have been broken into, vandalized, and
> robbed. Gun shots have pierced the doors and windows
> of several offices. Fortunately, no one was hurt in
> those attacks, but unfortunately, when union members
> stormed an office in Florida, a volunteer's arm was
> broken.
>
> Our GELAC account (our legal fund, really) can be
> used to pay for some of the damage done to offices
> we occupy. More importantly, though, it allows us to
> pay the costs of a recount. It allows us to guard
> against the kind of lawsuits we have seen, and which
> we expect to see in the days after the election.
>
> Those allied against us will not go quietly when the
> voters speak. They have already made clear they
> consider the election to be only the opening battle
> in a much larger war - a war we must also be
> prepared to fight. Will you make sure we're ready?
>
> www.GeorgeWBush.com/Recount
>
> We do not want to go through another election where
> the outcome is held hostage by the courts and those
> who were defeated at the polls try to reverse the
> outcome through legal wrangling and endless
> litigation.
>
> We want the people's will, not the will of
> high-powered trial lawyers, to determine the
> President. To make that happen, we need you. We need
> you to make one last contribution to our GELAC fund
> and help us secure the outcome of this election
> against those who would use violence, theft and
> assault as tactics - and those who would use the
> courts to claim a victory they did not earn.
>
> Please give all you can.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Marc Racicot
> Chairman
>
> P.S.  Those who oppose us have already used theft,
> vandalism and assault as weapons to win this
> election. Their next stop will be the courts. Will
> you make a contribution to our legal fund and ensure
> we have the resources to uphold the vote when the
> people speak next Tuesday? Please give all you can.
> www.GeorgeWBush.com/Recount
>
>
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Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 released on DVD today

Today, exactly 4 weeks before the U.S. Presidential elections, Fahrenheit 9/11, Michael Moore's documentary film about America's response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, comes out on DVD. While Fahrenheit 9/11 does not provide a detailed analysis of the roots of the terrorist attacks and the Bush regime's heavy handed response, it raises a lot of questions, brings to a wider audience facts that the American mainstream media gloss over, and questions the purpose of the war in Iraq. Most importantly, it provides a reminder — especially for those of us isolated to the events — about the human costs on both sides of fighting a war.

Related articles:

• An open letter to Michael Moore (World Socialist Website, September 28, 2004)
• Liberal philistinism and Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 (World Socialist Website, July 9, 2004)
• Michael Moore’s contribution (World Socialist Website, June 30, 2004)
• Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 sets box-office records (World Socialist Website, June 29, 2004)
• Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 comes under right-wing attack (World Socialist Website, June 21, 2004)

The case for the Iraq war: lies and deception

As previously reported, the war in Iraq was based on various lies, particularly the claim that Iraq was an imminent threat and had or was on the verge of developing nuclear weapons. President Bush scared Americans into supporting the war with imagery of a "smoking gun." Vice President Dick Cheney said that there was irrefutable evidence that Iraq had reconstituted their nuclear weapons program. Yesterday The New York Times published an article detailing how the Bush regime embraced disputed arms intelligence when making their case for war.

Update: The New York Times is reporting that Charles A. Duelfer, the top American inspector in Iraq, says in a report being made public today that Iraq appears to have destroyed its stockpiles of illicit weapons within months of the first war on Iraq. According to the Times, "Mr. Duelfer concluded that Mr. Hussein made fundamental decisions, beginning in 1991, to get rid of Iraq's illicit weapons and accept the destruction of its weapons-producing facilities as part of an effort to win an end to United Nations sanctions." The Bush administration was clearly grasping at straws when it made the case that Iraq posed an imminent threat to the United States.

Related articles:

• Iraq WMD report proves Bush, Democrats lied to justify Iraq war (World Socialist Web Site, October 8, 2004)
• U.S. Report Finds Iraq Was Minimal Weapons Threat in '03 (The New York Times, October 6, 2004)
• How the White House Embraced Disputed Arms Intelligence (The New York Times, October 3, 2004)

Related posts:

• Former adviser charges Bush manufactured case for Iraq war (March 23, 2004)
• Iraq: One year later (March 19, 2004)
• U.S. Weapons Inspector: "We have not yet found stocks of weapons" (October 3, 2003)
• Bush's lies about Iraq (March 25, 2003)
• Is the war legal? (March 21, 2003)
• The invasion of Iraq: an unjust war (March 20, 2003)
• Bush's Smoking Gun Hypocrisy (December 10, 2002)