Bob Fertik writes, "In announcing his momentous decision not to run for President in 2004, Al Gore offered only a precious few words explaining why. For the millions of Americans who remain outraged over the 2000 election - and believe Al Gore deserves to occupy the office that was stolen from him by George W. Bush, his brother Jeb Bush, five Republican Justices on the U.S. Supreme Court, and the right-wing media led by FOX News - these few words were profoundly inadequate. Even more importantly, the reasoning behind those few words is historically wrong. In its usual fashion, the Republican media will not spend much time analyzing Gore's historic decision, and will instead turn its attention to the field of Democratic hopefuls [to] launch a campaign of personal destruction against each of these candidates. But for those of us who will never accept George Bush's theft of the Presidency, Gore's few words deserve a more thorough analysis."

Harry Truman said, "give the people a choice between a Republican and a Republican and they will vote for the Republican every time." That's the best explanation for Democratic losses in the House and Senate, as voters couldn't see the difference between Democrats and Republicans. Democratic leaders refused to challenge Bush's theft of the Presidency, and refused to challenge his mandate-less right-wing policies. Meanwhile, Bush sucked up corporate cash like a vacuum cleaner, selling America out to the greediest and most corrupt special interests, so Republicans could fill the airwaves with vote-killing toxic campaign ads. Now the Bush Dictatorship begins - and American Democracy faces its most profound test since the very founding of the Republic. Will American Democracy survive? The answer is up to us - so where do we begin? Join the discussion.

"After years of investigating Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda, John O'Neill came to the conclusion that 'All the answers, everything needed to dismantle Osama bin Laden's organization can be found in Saudi Arabia.' That conviction went with him to his grave. Unfortunately for O'Neill and 3,000 other men and women, at every turn after January 2001, the Bush administration blocked the efforts of the 'most knowledgable agent it had' to investigate Saudi ties to Bin Laden." So writes Cheryl Seal.

How many ways has Jeb broken the 10 commandments? Let us count the ways. Jeb STOLE the Presidency for his brother George. Jeb LIED about not being involved in the theft of the Presidency. Jeb committed ADULTERY with Cynthia Henderson. Jeb puts the GODS of money and power before Jehova. Jeb makes the Republican elephant into an IDOL. Jeb forgets the SABBATH every week. Jeb COVETS everything that belongs to his neighbors. And we haven't even touched the Seven Deadly Sins. Hey Jeb, before you judge the souls of 100 million other Americans, don't you think you should examine your OWN sin-ridden soul?

"The latest crime of the stolen 2000 Presidential election is blaming the victim of the stolen election - Al Gore - for the numerous illegal acts committed by the Bush campaign and its surrogates in their broad daylight theft of the Presidency. Both the evidence that Democrats.com has collected in its extensive investigation of the stolen election, and the election laws and procedures of the state of Florida, prove this 'blame the victim' attack to be totally wrong." So writes Nancy Kuhn.

It has taken 495 days, but an American newspaper has FINALLY acknowledged that 8,000 or more voters were illegally disenfranchised in Florida. In an editorial entitled "Stolen Votes," the Concord (NH) Monitor writes: "No matter how successful George W. Bush proves to be as president, a pall will forever hang over the 2000 election. In national scrutiny of the way Americans cast and count their ballots, many states were found wanting. The chief among them was Florida, where the outcome, with the help of the U.S. Supreme Court, gave Bush his victory over Al Gore... Had thousands of voters not wrongly been turned away from the polls, the outcome in Florida probably would have been different and Gore, not Bush, would be in the White House. Most of the disenfranchised voters were black." The editorial cites Greg Palast's most recent article in Harpers Magazine. Send your letters of appreciation to letters@cmonitor.com

Republicans control the House of Representatives by only 11 votes, 222-211 - so EVERY seat is crucial. In Mississippi, redistricting eliminated one seat, forcing a battle between two incumbents - Ronnie Shows (D) and Chip Pickering (R). Three Republican judges drew a district with additional white voters to favor Pickering. Amazingly, ALL THREE have direct ties to Pickering's dad, a federal judge! The case was then appealed to Supreme Injustice Antonin Scalia - a close friend of the Pickerings! Scalia, OF COURSE, immediately upheld the Republican gerrymander - and then the Felonious Five rejected a full-court review. Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Pat Leahy (D-VT) is starting an investigation. But this case is just the tip of the iceberg, and Leahy's investigation should FINALLY examine the theft of the Presidency by the Felonious Five.

After 18 months of research, Greg Palast has obtained the "scrub list" that Katherine Harris and her predecessor sent to county officials to remove "felons." Highlighted examples include "David Butler," a name which appears 77 times in Florida phone books; Thomas Cooper, flagged for a conviction in 2007 (!); Rev. Willie Dixon, scrubbed despite a rare official pardon; and Johnny Jackson Jr., who never went to Texas but matched the name of a Texas felon; and Wallace McDonald, who was scrubbed for the misdemeanor of sleeping on a bus-stop bench in 1959. "Of the 'matches' on these lists, the civil-rights commission estimated that at least 14 percent - or 8,000 voters, nearly 15 times Bush's official margin of victory - were false." No corporate media outlet has ever reported on the felon purge - because it proves Jeb helped George steal Florida in a "high-tech" stolen election.

Southard is a laid-off tech industry project manager who describes himself as "a middle aged white guy who has been unable to sleep since the theft of the presidency." In a series of articles published on BushWatch, he observes that the U.S. political-media establishment dismisses as conspiracy theories what much of the rest of the world views as fact. In particular, the widely shared understanding that U.S. military and economic policy are designed to secure control of the Central Asian oil reserves for the American petroleum industry. No wonder the Administration is fighting so hard to keep the records of Cheney's Energy Task Force secret.

On 7-15-01, NY Times reporters David Barstow and Don Van Natta Jr. documented how the Bush campaign pressured numerous Florida counties to count illegal overseas military ballots. A thorough statistical analysis of this data estimates that Bush gained 286 votes as a result of this massive fraud. Without those 286 illegal votes, the Florida Supreme Court would have declared Gore the winner on 12-8-00, when it overruled Katherine Harris and accepted the results of partial recounts from Palm Beach and Miami-Dade and cut Bush's lead to 154. These 286 votes also put Gore over the top in most of the media recount scenarios.

After trying to negotiate with the White House for a year, the GAO was finally forced to file an historic lawsuit, Walker v. Cheney. Dictator Bush is rolling out his heaviest legal artillery - led by Election 2000 Lawyer-in-Thief Ted Olson - to remove "any question about how seriously we take this principle." What principle, exactly? The principle that Bush is America's Dictator, and cannot be questioned by anyone. Of course, this comes as no surprise to those of us who have been protesting his Theft of the Presidency since 11-8-00. At this point in Bush's power-grab, there are two solutions: 1) Congress should demand that the Justice Department appoint a Special Prosecutor (with clear subpoena power) to expose the truth about Enrongate; and 2) Americans must elect a Democratic House in November in order to begin impeachment proceedings.

In November, Ari Fleischer said, "You are saying, 'we don't trust you.'" "No, Ari, we don't. None of you made it easy from the word "go." Air Force One was never trashed nor was it ever a target but you said those things. Your boss said there were things we were never going to know and you're all doing your best to distract people so you don't get caught lying. The sordid pasts of so many in your little club make for fertile ground for many of us to get caught up in conspiracy theories. Some aren't too bad while some seem crazy. But you know what? The more time that goes by and the more heated those press conferences become, the less crazy some people feel. As heartening as that may be, it's really sad as well. So much for "honesty and integrity" but, as I recall, most Americans didn't buy that lie either on Election Day 2000." So writes David Jenkins.

Finally! Here's a book about the pro-democracy movement that arose following the Theft of the Presidency by George W. Bu$h. This book is about all of US - the true patriots who have fought for Democracy in the face of a criminal Republican Party, a corrupt media, and a cowardly Democratic Party. "They wrote letters, organized rallies and marches, signed petitions, formed Internet sites and groups, and did whatever else they could to register their disapproval of what the court did. They worked for needed electoral reforms so that all Americans' votes could be counted in future elections. 'We Will Not Get Over It: Restoring a Legitimate White House' covers their story, which has been largely ignored by the media. The roughly 100,000-word book was written by journalist Jackson Thoreau and social worker Sharon Thoreau." This is an eBook that you can print on your own printer - $5 donation requested.

Using data from revised state totals, the FEC now has the definitive official results of Election 2000. In the popular vote, Gore beat Bush 50,999,897 to 50,456,002, a margin of 543,895. Gore had the second highest vote total in history, behind Reagan in 1984. The only reason Bush occupies the White House is because he stole Florida's 25 electoral votes with the help of Jeb Bush, Katherine Harris, and the US Supreme Court. We will never get over it!

One of the most important criminal actions taken by Katherine Harris to steal the Presidency was the fraudulent purge of thousands of alleged "felons" using a private vendor with Republican connections that was instructed to intentionally remove qualified voters. Did she learn her lesson? Yes - big-time! Having gotten away with stealing the last election, she's now planning to steal the next one, by hiring ANOTHER firm with Republican connections to maintain a list of ALL voters, not just "felons." No doubt, the verbal contract instructs the company to figure out ways to purge all of the Democrats they missed the last time around! Who will stop Katherine Harris, the Destroyer of Democracy???

Last year, Time chose George W. Bush as their "Person of the Year," following his successful Theft of the Presidency. (Of course, they didn't quite put it that way.) We believe Tom Daschle deserves the award this year, for making Democrats that majority in the Senate and fighting off some of the worst proposals of the Bush administration. And when Daschle's Senate office was attacked with anthrax, he showed true character by keeping the Senate open for business. You go, Tom!

Here's a story that could have changed the outcome of the recount - if it had been reported in November 2000, rather than December 2001. The punchcard machines in Palm Beach County were so error-prone that even experienced poll workers had trouble running tests on the machines before the polls opened. Theresa LePore insists the poll workers were trained to replace malfunctioning machines, but not a single one did - despite the fact that 261 of the county's 531 precincts had malfunctioning machines. These machines produced 10,311 ballots without a Presidential vote, over 5,000 of which had some kind of dimple. This is just one more piece of evidence that the problems in Florida were not "stupid voters" as the Republicans screamed, but rather "stupid machines," "stupid ballots," and "stupid officials." But don't expect the Republicans or their national media slaves to correct their lies.

"While the Ney-Hoyer bill has been reported to be the cure-all for America's election ills, little attention has been given to opt-out provisions that allow any state to avoid complying with the bill's election reforms as well as existing federal election standards. As a result, this legislation would be ineffective in addressing the disparities in voting equipment, as well as the serious problems facing language minorities and persons with disabilities. In fact, because of its opt-out provisions, Ney-Hoyer could set us back... As written the Ney/Hoyer bill would not have prevented any of the problems that occurred during the 2000 elections. We must remind our elected officials that voting is not merely our constitutional right; it is the mechanism by which we participate in our democracy. We must call on them now to ensure that the solution does indeed solve the problem." Send a free fax to Congress, courtesy of the ACLU.

We now know that Gore really did win Florida, and the Supreme Court really did help Bush steal the Presidency. That makes it more important than ever to protest the Supreme Court's subversion of Democracy on December 12, the anniversary of Bush v. Gore. Major events are planned for Washington DC, New York City, Tampa FL, Orlando FL, Eugene OR, Oakland CA, Los Angeles CA, and Santa Ana CA. Let's make December 12 a national event, with candlelight vigils from coast to coast! Use our local chapters of Democrats.com to organize locally. Visit this page, find your state and county, join the group, pick a place and time, and spread the word! We suggest 6 pm at the nearest Federal courthouse, to make the connection to the Supreme Court. Bring your copy of "Betrayal of America," plus all of your buttons and signs from the past year. Tell the local press you will be there, and tell them to cover the news that millions of Americans refuse to "get over" the theft of the Presidency.

On November 12, the members of the corporate Media Consortium published their analysis of the Florida recount. Although the data proved that Al Gore won under all scenarios in which ALL legal votes were counted, the Media Consortium nevertheless proclaimed Bush the winner. In other words, the media lied - to preserve the fiction that Bush is a legitimate President, and the Supreme Court's outrageous and anti-democratic ruling in Bush v. Gore was irrelevant. In a Democrats.com EXCLUSIVE, we are reviewing all of the Florida Recount stories, and issuing a grade. We call it the "Media Integrity Test" - and we welcome your own submissions!

Randy Schultz is the first Media Consortium representative to flatly declare the truth. "The wrong man became president of the United States in January. That isn't an opinion. It's a fact." He places the blame firmly on Theresa LePore. "Let's dispel one myth. The county's Democratic and Republican parties didn't 'sign off' on the butterfly ballot, as Mr. Bush's spinmeisters got away with claiming last year. The parties don't have to approve the ballot. Democratic officials never saw the ballot in the voting machine. The elections supervisor just has to get the names right and in order. Other supervisors told The Post that Ms. LePore never showed them her plan for putting all the candidates on two pages, and that if she had, they would have warned her about confusion." But blaming LePore is a copout; the Bush campaign could have allowed a revote - or a fair recount - but they were determined to steal the Presidency.

A recent review of the Florida 2000 election results by a [media] consortium...wrongly concluded that...Bush still would have won the state and the presidency if the recounts had not been halted by the U.S. Supreme Court. "They [media outlets] chose to spin the outcome as a victory for Bush," Bob Fertik...told CNSNews.com. "They chose to validate Bush's theft of the presidency rather than look at the facts..." When all the legal votes were counted, Gore won by margins ranging from 42 to 171 votes, depending on the standard used for...chads. Moreover, if the voting machines had accurately recorded the intent of Florida's voters, Gore would have won by more than 25,000 votes…the only scenarios that supported a Bush victory were those where some legal votes were not counted, Fertik said. "If you count the votes, Gore wins. If you don't count the votes, Bush wins. In a democracy, you're supposed to count the votes," he said.

"When will we reformers start to demand, without apology, that our political leaders treat November 7 with at least a measure of the seriousness they have accorded September 11? We do not diminish the dead, nor the struggle to protect the living, when we say that this country is strong enough to face tough questions about the legitimacy of its leaders and its democracy even in a time of war and uncertainty. Rather, we prove a national strength and resolve that run deeper than personalities, to the very heart of the American experiment. [Women's suffrage heroine] Alice Paul would tell us that, in challenging leaders in a time of war to make real their talk of democracy, we practice the truest patriotism. In an oral history, conducted toward the end of her long life, Paul recalled the "radical" sign that stirred so much controversy outside the White House during World War I. It read: "Democracy should begin at home." So writes John Nichols in In These Times.

The Media Consortium's "proclamation" that its recount shows that Bush won has produced considerable confusion. Here's an excellent concise refutation of the consortium's Big Lie. "Gore didn't actually get what he asked for. He requested a liberal standard of voter intent, but Palm Beach - acting on the advice of Katherine Harris's lawyer - imposed a narrow standard instead. More importantly, Gore did belatedly ask Bush to agree to a statewide count, and Bush refused the offer. But even if none of this were true - even if Gore had never asked for what the Florida voters deserved - it would not make what happened any less of a travesty. The important rights at stake, after all, are those of the voters, not those of the candidates. And the voters have a right to the most accurate determination of their intent possible - regardless of which candidate has the better legal staff." Always remember - it's OUR votes!

In a story entitled "An election correction," the Economist issued the following correction: "In the issues of December 16th 2000 to November 10th 2001, we may have given the impression that George Bush had been legally and duly elected president of the United States. We now understand that this may have been incorrect, and that the election result is still too close to call. The Economist apologises for any inconvenience." We call upon EVERY media outlet to do the same!

On November 6 - even before the media recount proved that Al Gore won Florida - a Gallup poll showed nearly half of Americans still did not believe Bush won "fair and square." "Americans have not changed their minds about what happened in the election and its aftermath. The poll shows that today 50% of Americans say Bush won the presidency fair and square, while 32% say he won it on a technicality, and 15% say he stole the election. These numbers are little changed from those found immediately after the Supreme Court decision in December that effectively halted the vote recount and made Bush the winner. At that time, 48% said Bush won fair and square, 32% said he won on a technicality, and 18% said he stole the election. These results are also remarkably similar to those obtained in a Gallup poll this past July." If the media would stop lying and tell Americans the truth, there would be a political revolution in America.

In its rush to conceal the truth about the Florida recount, the NY Times declared "George W. Bush would have won even if the United States Supreme Court had allowed the statewide manual recount of the votes that the Florida Supreme Court had ordered to go forward." But the judge chosen to supervise this recount, Terry Lewis, recently told the Orlando Sentinel that "he would not have ignored the overvote ballots" - especially since Bush's lawyers were demanding their inclusion. As Mickey Kaus points out in Slate, the conclusion of the NY Times (and other Consortium members) "is thoroughly bogus - unfounded and inaccurate. If the recount had gone forward Judge Lewis might well have counted the overvotes in which case Gore might well have won. Certainly the Times doesn't know otherwise." In other words, the NY Times LIED. E-mail letters@nytimes.com and demand a front page retraction!

"If the U.S. Supreme Court had given the state enough time to fashion a comprehensive remedy or if Bush had agreed to a full-and-fair recount earlier, the popular will of the American voters – both nationally and in Florida – might well have been respected. Al Gore might well have been inaugurated president... But this outcome was not the favored hypothetical of the news organizations, which apparently wanted to avoid questions about their patriotism. If they had simply given the American people the unvarnished facts, the reality that the voters of Florida favored Al Gore might have bolstered the belief that Bush indeed did steal the White House. That, in turn, could have undermined his legitimacy... The national news media also showed little regard for the fundamental principle of democracy: that leaders derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, not from legalistic tricks, physical intimidation and public-relations maneuvers." So writes Robert Parry.

"Gore won under a strict-counting scenario and he won under a loose-counting scenario. He won if you count 'hanging chads' and he won if you counted a 'dimpled chad.' He won if you counted a dimpled chad only in the presence of another dimpled chad on the same ballot — the so-called 'Palm Beach' standard. He even won if you counted only a fully-punched chad. He won if you counted partially filled oval on an optical scan and he won if you counted only a fully-filled optical scan. He won if you fairly counted the absentee ballots. No matter how you count it, if everyone who legally voted in Florida had had a chance to see their vote matter, Al Gore would be sitting in the Oval Office today." So writes Eric Alterman in MSNBC.

"Gore beat Bush in the national popular vote by over a half million votes. Secondly, Consortium interpretations of the voting data conclude that thousands more people voted for Gore in Florida than Bush. The problem for Gore is that many more votes in his favor were declared invalid than similar votes for Bush. Third, discounting such invalid votes, Consortium interpretations conclude that Gore still beat Bush statewide in Florida by a thin margin of under 200 votes. Which brings us back to the Supreme Court decision." So writes Jerry Politex in BushWatch.

"Still trying to figure out which recount standard to apply? Try this one: Al Gore won Florida by approximately 30,000 votes and there were 30,000 excuses for not counting them... What we come away with from Florida is a Man running the country who we know wasn't elected. Every time he pays off one of his backers, every time he alienates one of our allies, every time he tries to exterminate the legacy of his predecessor we are reminded and it cannot go away. With each increment of descent into chaos we find all exits from Florida blocked. What a spectacular abdication of journalistic integrity, to admit clearly on the one hand that the people of the state of Florida chose Al Gore, and at the very same moment to unilaterally mask that with misleading headlines." So writes Marc Ash in Truthout.com

According to the St. Petersburg Times, "Gore could have picked up 2,182 votes last November on overvotes where voter intent is clear, and Bush would have gained 1,309 votes, the media companies' analysis shows. That difference [873 votes] would have enabled Gore to defeat Bush in any statewide recount that included overvotes, regardless of what statewide standard for counting undervotes was used." These clear votes should have been counted on Election Day; election officials who failed to do so broke the law. Moreover, the analysis of 2-candidate overvotes shows that Gore would have gained another 25,000 votes, if all of Florida's counties used error-checking machines.

"Make no mistake. Al Gore won in Florida. Under any consistent legal standard of counting the ballots, Gore won. The fact that the media consortium is lying about the results is more an indication of just how debased our democracy has become, than it is a reflection of what appears on the ballots that were examined." So writes Paul Lukasiak.

The media consortium applied its ballot review to nine scenarios for recounting ballots. Under six of the nine, Al Gore won.

We waited for more than a year for 175,000 uncounted votes to be counted. Now the results are in, and the facts show that Al Gore won Florida. But Republicans and the corporate media cannot allow the public to see the truth - that Gore won and Bush lost - because that would expose the Presidency of George W. Bush as illegitimate. So the same people who helped Bush steal the Presidency are now trying to steal the Truth. This page is dedicated to exposing the monumental efforts by the media to distort the truth: that Al Gore won, and George Bush stole the Presidency with the help of Jeb Bush, Katherine Harris, the U.S. Supreme Court, and the TV networks.

Way back in January, the Media Consortium promised to announce the results of its recount by the end of March. Amazingly, it's now November - and we know the results of the 2001 election before the 2000 election! According to the grapevine, the results will FINALLY be released on Sunday. Naturally, we are certain the data will PROVE that AL GORE WON. Stay tuned...

For a year, the Miami Herald has been blaming voting machines - primarily punchcard systems - for most of Florida's 175,000 uncounted votes. Suddenly, a year later, the Herald has changed its story, and now blames "poorly designed ballots." "Those troublesome ballots, used in 18 counties, had presidential candidates broken into two columns or spread over two pages." Well, duh! The whole world knew about Teresa LePore's "Butterfly Ballot" on November 8, 2000. This and the other confusing ballot designs were ILLEGAL and should have been vetoed by Secretary of Katherine Harris, but she was too busy taking first class trips around the globe to enforce Florida's election laws. Just one more reason why Harris should be indicted, not elected!

"A Democratic state representative from Palm Beach County is calling for a criminal investigation of county Election Supervisor Theresa LePore, whose 'butterfly ballot' and malfunctioning voting machines might have swung the presidential election to George W. Bush. Rep. Irv Slosberg of Boca Raton filed an eight-page complaint July 26 with Sheriff Ed Bieluch... It alleges that LePore's unconventional facing-page ballot and some particularly troublesome punch-card voting machines used by the county violated state election law. 'I don't think this is a conspiracy,' Slosberg said. 'I think it just has to do with Theresa LePore and the way she's running her office. She's a nice lady, but she's drowning.'" Slosberg wants an investigation of Lepore's purchase of cheap "Data-Punch" knockoffs of the Votomatic machines, as well as election day use of machines that were known to be malfunctioning.

Katherine Harris has insisted that the three GOP operatives who ran a partisan "war room" out of her non-partisan office were "volunteers." But once again Katherine Harris has been caught lying, because she agreed to pay one of them - Adam Goodman - $12,000 for his work during the recount. And Goodman's correspondence leaves no doubt as to the nature of their relationship: instead of trying to objectively apply Florida election law, he and Katherine were working to "rock the world" - GOPspeak for stealing the election for Bush. Harris refused to pay Goodman from her political funds, because his work for her was in her "official" capacity. This means Harris intentionally used her office to hire a GOP operative to help her steal the Presidency. We demand an investigation!

Poor Katherine Harris! The mere suggestion that she stole the election reduces her to tears. But when it comes to proving her innocence, she leaves us high and dry. Under cross-examination, she now admits that her much-touted "firewall" between official duties and politics ONLY referred to the 36-day recount. But even THEN she had 3 GOP operatives working in her office - Mac Stipanovich, Adam Goodman, and her unnamed campaign manager, whose AOL name is GOPspinner - a 100% pure partisan hack! PLUS "there may have been communication over legal strategies between Harris' legal team and top members of Bush's legal team." SAY WHAT??? Were Harris' lawyers CONSPIRING with Bush's lawyers to STEAL the election? We demand an investigation!

In a major report, local election officials called on the Justice Department to thoroughly investigate complaints from Florida, especially those documented by the US Commission on Civil Rights. In response, the Justice Department said it had received THOUSANDS of complaints, but had thrown all but TWELVE - probably all of the complaints filed by Republicans. We demand oversight hearings from the Senate Judiciary Committee!

What unfolded on August 2 under the elegant, gilded dome of the landmark historic Grand Lake Theater in Oakland, California was one of the harshest, no-holds-barred indictments of the U.S. Supreme Court ever made. Famed prosecutor and writer Vincent Bugliosi blasted the Bush v Gore ruling, calling it the "worst crime in U.S. history" - in effect, the "theft of the Presidency."

After evidence revealed that Katherine Harris intentionally misled Floridians about the illegal use of her office for the Bush campaign, Florida Democratic Party Chairman Bob Poe called for Katherine Harris' resignation on Wednesday. "Secretary Harris illegally used her office to benefit the Bush campaign and to call the race for George W. Bush long before she knew results of the Palm Beach County recount... Katherine Harris has violated the public trust with the Florida voters and proven she is not capable of being an impartial Secretary of State. It's time for her to end the charade and the nightmare of her tenure and simply resign." You go, Bob!

Here are some of the political activities conducted on Harris' computer. 1) On 1/29/00, a speech written for a Republican meeting that declared: "We are READY TO LEAD!" 2) On 3/14/00, a set of campaign talking points for George W. Bush. 3) On 11/14/00, an examination of the campaign finances of FL Supreme Court Justice Barbara Pariente - who was reviewing important election cases. 4) A list of contributors to Harris' 1998 Democratic opponent, Karen Gievers (undated). Item #3 proves that Harris lied when she declared: "no partisan political activity transpired in my office during the recount period." And from #1, here's the clincher that perfectly sums up Harris' role in stealing the election: "I am a bit biased - after all - I co-chair the campaign effort of George W. Bush." Thanks, Katherine - we'll engrave that on your jail cell door.

Katherine Harris has insisted that her office was never used for partisan Republican politics, claiming repeatedly that she had erected "a firewall" between her state office and the Republican Party. So when computer technicians found a campaign speech praising George W. Bush on one of Harris' computers, Harris' office lied and said it was merely received on that computer, not written on it. But Harris' former Communications Director, Donald Tighe, admitted he wrote the Bush campaign propaganda on Harris' computer. We demand Harris' resignation for lying to the American people!

The Florida Supreme Court ordered Katherine Harris to accept the Palm Beach recount until 5 pm on Sunday November 26 or on Monday at 9 am. But at 1:30 pm on Sunday, GOP operatives in Harris' office had already written speeches rejecting the court-ordered recount as "unlawful" and declaring Bush the winner, according to documents from her computers recovered by The Palm Beach Post. At 5 pm, Harris in fact rejected the recount because it was two hours from completion, even though Harris could have accepted the completed returns the following morning. On December 9, the Florida Supreme Court overruled Harris and ordered her to include 383 additional votes for Gore in Palm Beach and Miami-Dade, reducing Bush's lead to 154 and ordering a state-wide count of undervotes. That's when the Felonious Five of the U.S. Supreme Court stepped in to declare Bush the winner, contrary to all applicable law and the US Constitution. It is now clear that the Republicans were DETERMINED to steal Florida.

Online Journal researchers Elizabeth Jordan and Oliver Dawshed have done a preliminary statistical analysis of Florida voting patterns. They conclude that the most likely site for election night tampering was north Florida, especially the Panhandle. Ballot spoilage in Escambia County was clearly systematic. Excess ballot spoilage alone accounted for about 500 net Bush votes. Minting ballots from overvotes, as Lukasiak's work suggests, amounted to perhaps another 200. In 11 other Republican counties (Bay, Bradford, Calhoun, Columbia, Dixie, Gulf, Hamilton, Jackson, Suwanee, Union, and Washington), voting patterns consistent with fraud were observed. Precincts in some counties had discard rates of over 20% of ballots cast. A simple model suggested that 7,100 ballots may have been destroyed in these 11 counties. Fraud has not yet been excluded in a half-dozen other counties. The evidence to suggest a statewide criminal investigation is compelling.

On Sunday, the NY Times reported that Katherine Harris issued carefully-worded instructions on November 13, 2000 that were deliberately intended to help Republicans. The instructions gave Republican lawyers ammunition to pressure county officials into counting overseas absentee ballots that were illegal because they lacked postmarks. Now Harris has told the Times that she clarified her instructions on November 13. But Harris cannot produce the November 14 document, and her staff refuses to respond to repeated requests. It looks like Harris has been caught lying one more time!

On Monday, Rep. Peter Deutsch (D-FL) filed an ethics complaint against Rep. Steve Buyer (R-IN) for demanding e-mail addresses of active duty sailors for the Republican propaganda campaign to demonize Democrats over military absentee ballots. Now Buyer says he was acting on behalf of Rep. Tillie Fowler (R-FL). But Fowler was working with Rob Carter, the mastermind of the Republican propaganda campaign. We demand an ethics investigation of Fowler as well!

Terry Gross, host of "Fresh Air" on NPR, is one of the best interviewers on the radio. Gross interviewed NY Times reporters David Barstow and Don Van Natta Jr. at length about their recent expose on Bush's overseas military ballot fraud. GOP spinmeisters have insisted the 680 illegal ballots would NOT have affected the outcome of the election. But the reporters make clear that Gore would have won if either: a) all of the overseas ballots were thrown out, following previous court precedents involving tainted absentee ballots, or b) if Katherine Harris had given a similar "benefit of the doubt" to Palm Beach officials, whose 174 additional votes for Gore were rejected because Harris refused to accept them the following morning.

On Sunday, the NY Times exposed a criminal conspiracy to steal the Presidency. But the review by the Washington Post deliberately avoids all mention of criminal activities. E-mail ombudsman@washpost.com and tell them to stop the coverup, and to start seriously investigating the criminal conspiracy in Washington and Florida to steal the Presidency.

In the wake of the NY Times expose, Democrats called for further investigations and possible prosecutions. In Washington, Rep. Peter Deutsch (D-FL) called for an ethics inquiry into Rep. Steve Buyer's (R-IN) politicization of the military. "It's shocking. It's scary. And it's also illegal and a violation of his trust as an elected official. When you think it can't get any more shocking, it gets more shocking." In Florida, Democratic state chair Bob Poe said "We have to look at trying to see if criminal action needs to be taken against Katherine Harris, particularly for the destruction of public records." Hey guys, don't make the mistake of treating the various crimes in isolation. Deal with the whole terrifying fact that there was a CRIMINAL CONSPIRACY TO STEAL THE PRESIDENCY!

On Sunday, NY Times investigative reporters David Barstow and Don Van Natta Jr. exposed a comprehensive Republican plan - run from Katherine Harris' office - to steal the Presidential election by misleading, pressuring, and even intimidating county election officials into counting ILLEGAL Republican absentee ballots. This plan included ILLEGALLY using Congressional offices to ILLEGALLY enlist active duty military personnel into a partisan Republican propaganda campaign. This conspiracy by top officials to use their power to break numerous laws constitutes FRAUD - and represents the most heinous attack on American Democracy since the Watergate break-in. Yet the Times' editorial board reduces this FRAUD to Democrats being "outhustled and outmaneuvered," as though crystal-clear election laws - and laws preventing the politicization of the military - were simply a game. This is an outrage! E-mail letters@nytimes.com and tell them to "Respect their Reporters and Call a Fraud a Fraud!"

As with previous exposes about the Stolen Election, NY Times editors twisted their conclusions to deny the facts uncovered by their own reporters. The Times says it "found no evidence of fraud" - but its reporters found that Republicans "mounted a legal and public relations campaign to persuade canvassing boards in Bush strongholds to waive the state's election laws." This was fraud - a conspiracy to persuade election officials to break the law. The conspiracy included threatening election officials with federal prosecution if they failed to count illegal ballots. And it included illegal contacts with active duty military personnel to politicize the recount and demonize the Democrats. Worst of all, this conspiracy operated out of Katherine Harris' office - the person who was responsible for ENFORCING Florida's election law! E-mail letters@nytimes.com and tell them to publish the truth - that Bush won through FRAUD!

"When it became clear that the disputed Florida election could deliver the White House to his brother, Gov. Jeb Bush immediately recused himself from any official role in the recount, promising to avoid even the 'slightest appearance of a conflict of interest.' ... Despite that hands-off policy, the Florida governor's office in Tallahassee made 95 telephone calls to the George W. Bush presidential campaign, its advisors, lawyers and staffers during the 36-day recount period, records show... The governor visited the state GOP headquarters in Tallahassee that functioned as the Bush campaign command center for the recount at least once, for example. He also dialed into at least one conference call with campaign operatives, aides said." The bottom line is this: Jeb Bush used his power as Governor to help engineer the stolen election - and continues to lie about his role. We demand an investigation!

Over Thanksgiving, House Republicans led by Steve Buyer (R-IN) - then Chairman of the House Armed Services Military Personnel Subcommittee - manufactured a campaign of lies and slander against Democrats. Their campaign included actions that were clearly and unambiguously illegal. First, "It is a cornerstone of American military tradition that the armed services remain apolitical. Military regulations prohibit service members from participating in political activities." But Buyer enlisted service members in a campaign to attack Democrats. Second, "House ethics rules and federal law forbid Congressional officials to perform political work with government resources or on government time." But Buyer engineered the attack on Democrats from his government office on government time. We demand the prosecution of Steve Buyer and everyone else involved in this despicable campaign!

A 6-month investigation by the NY Times reveals that the Bush campaign and Florida Republicans mounted a massive legal and PR blitz to count ILLEGAL overseas absentee ballots from Republican counties, while disqualifying all questionable ballots in Democratic areas. The effort included illegal enlistment of active military personnel in a PR campaign to demonize Democrats, and the intimidation of election officials into counting illegal votes. This criminal effort was run out of a Tallahassee "war room" in the office of Katherine Harris, which in itself was criminal. Now Harris' computers have been "scrubbed," adding "obstruction of justice" and "coverup" to the list of Republican crimes. The overseas absentee effort added 292 votes to Bush's margin, which were ultimately decisive - without these votes, the Florida Supreme Court would have declared Gore the winner by 138 votes. We demand Bush's resignation!

According to Florida law, the state seal may NOT be used for any partisan political purpose. However, Jeb Bush broke the law to help "fix the race" for his brother by sending out hundreds of thousands of special letters to Republican-registered voters on stationery with the state seal. Furthermore, the letter told voters they could "vote from the comfort of their home," but under Florida law, absentee ballot can be used ONLY if voters are physically unable to get to the polls. As a result, many voters not entitled to absentee ballots cast a Bush vote. Totally absentee votes increased by 50%, and Bush beat Gore by 125,000 among absentees. When activists filed lawsuits protesting this illegal activity, judges dismissed the suits - not because of lack of merit, but because they felt the offense should be prosecuted as a CRIMINAL case, not a civil action. Yet prosecutors have done NOTHING. We demand the prosecution of Jeb Bush!

Steve Cobble, who directs the Campaign for a Progressive Future, takes a good hard look at the real numbers shown by the polls. You wouldn't know it by watching the evening news, but a very healthy slice of the American electorate has not forgiven the Republicans for their theft of the presidency. Bush is still not regarded as a legitimate president by the American public. The truth wants to be told.

The New York Times abandoned all pretense of objectivity and launched an outright attack on the US Civil Rights Commission for daring to expose Florida's disenfranchisement of black voters. The news section of the Times adamantly refuses to report on any of the HUNDREDS of grassroots protests against the thieves who stole the Presidency - George W Bush, Dick Cheney, Jeb Bush, and the Supreme Court. But the Times can't ignore the report of an official government body - the US Civil Rights Commission. So instead they are engaging in a direct partisan effort to discredit the report. Once again, the Times news pages are showing their complete and total enslavement to Karl Rove and the Republicans. This comes as no surprise to anyone who actually visits the Times - right inside the front door is a wall with a massive photo of Bush taking the oath of office. This sends an unmistakable message from the bosses to the reporters: Bush is OUR president, and we will NOT question his legitimacy.

"Florida's conduct of the 2000 presidential election was marked by 'injustice, ineptitude and inefficiency' that unfairly penalized minority voters, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights has concluded in a report that criticizes top state officials -- particularly Gov. Jeb Bush and Secretary of State Katherine Harris -- for allowing disparate treatment of voters. Unequal access to modern voting equipment and 'overzealous efforts' to purge state voter lists most harshly affected African Americans... Fifty-four percent of votes rejected during the Florida election were cast by black voters... African Americans accounted for 11 percent of voters statewide... African Americans were nearly 10 times as likely as whites to have their ballots rejected. Poor counties populated by minorities were more likely to use voting systems that rejected larger percentages of ballots than more affluent counties." So reports the Washington Post.

Back in March, Nightline blamed Duval County's black voters for their overvotes - without ever reporting how the ballot instructions that said to VOTE EVERY PAGE - while the Presidential candidates were spread over TWO PAGES. Tonight (June 5) they are doing a show on the Civil Rights Commission's stinging report about the "injustice, ineptitude, and inefficiency" of Jeb Bush and Katherine Harris. Of course, Republicans don't want to talk about how Jeb and Katherine STOLE the election. So Karl Rove concocted this bogus story about the Commission's report being leaked - and the massive Republican propaganda machine has made this topic #1 on the talk shows. Once again, Nightline is fronting for Karl Rove, instead of reporting the REAL news - the damning conclusions of the Commission's report. Tell Nightline (niteline@abc.com) to report the news, not the Republican propaganda.

According to the Orlando Sentinel, a critical factor producing overvotes was a ballot design that split the 10 Presidential candidates over 2 columns - called a "wraparound" ballot. This design violated a "cardinal rule" of ballot design - never to split candidates in a single race by column or by page. The "wraparound" ballot was created by Katherine Harris' office, and was adopted by 14 of the 15 optical-scan counties examined by the Sentinel. This design error cost Gore 564 votes - enough to erase his 537-vote defeat.

The Washington Post has made a significant contribution to the unfinished investigation of Florida's stolen election. The Post documents various important instances of official misconduct, including: 1) 18 of 67 counties broke Florida law by never performing the mandatory machine recount; 2) Osceola County broke Federal law by not printing Spanish ballots; 3) Katherine Harris' office designed the confusing "wraparound" ballot; 4) "countless" motor voter registration forms were not processed; 5) Escambia and Manatee counties simply disabled the "instant check" feature on their optical scan equipment, causing huge error rates; 26 counties broke Florida law by not counting overvotes with write-ins; 6) Bush gained at least 176 votes among illegal military absentee ballots without postmarks and other requirements. The Post points the finger at Katherine Harris, who utterly failed to carry out her legal responsibility to "maintain uniformity" in the conduct of elections.

Under contract with Florida election officials, ChoicePoint "produced a list of 42,389 'probable' and 'possible' felons before last year's election. The list identified thousands of legal voters as criminals, forcing them to prove their innocence before they could cast a ballot." 6,500 of these "felons" were not exact matches - due to instructions from state elections lawyer Emmett "Bucky" Mitchell, who belongs in jail. 5,400 appeals were filed, and over 2,500 were upheld. But "at least 108 law-abiding people were purged from the voter rolls as suspected criminals, only to be cleared after the election... Florida officials cut from the rolls 996 people convicted of crimes in other states, though they should have been allowed to vote" - due to instructions from Janet Keels, head of the Office of Executive Clemency, who also belongs in jail. The Post's data is incomplete, so the 1,100 tally is low - and the real total could still be in the "thousands." But even 1,100 votes could have allowed Al Gore to eclipse Bush's 537-vote margin.

During the course of American history, wrongful events have occurred that challenged the very core of who we are as a people; and certain Americans have stood up and spoken out against these wrongs: Tom Paine, Edward R. Murrow, Daniel Ellsberg. Now Vincent Bugliosi takes his place in this special pantheon of patriots with his powerful, brilliant, and courageous expose of a crime committed by the highest court in the land. When an article he wrote on this theft of the presidency appeared in The Nation magazine, it drew the largest outpouring of letters and e-mail in the magazine's 136-year history, tapping a deep reservoir of outrage. The original article has been turned into a book, and backed by amplifications and court document citations: it makes for fascinating, chilling reading. Let's make this #1 on Amazon!

The Miami Herald completed its count of 111,261 overvotes, and Al Gore gained 682 votes among the 3% (3,146) where the intent of the voter was absolutely clear. "Generally, this occurred when voters chose a candidate and then cast a write-in vote for that same candidate," according to the Herald. Under Florida law, these votes are REQUIRED to be counted on Election Day. If these votes had been counted, Katherine Harris would have had to certify Gore as the winner on November 27 by 145 votes - without examining a single hanging chad in Palm Beach County. In addition, Gore beat Bush by 46,466 among the other 97% of the overvotes. These votes would have been clear votes if all of Florida's counties - not just the wealthiest - had used instant-check technology. We now know the truth: Al Gore won Florida, and Bush is not the legitimate President. Since Bush ran on "restoring honor and integrity to the White House," we are calling upon Bush to do the only honorable thing - RESIGN!

According to the Orlando Sentinel, "One of the best-kept secrets in Florida's disputed 2000 presidential election is that thousands of ballots that ultimately counted were never even filled out by voters. With no outside scrutiny, county officials on Election Day made new copies of at least 10,000 mismarked or torn absentee ballots that the counting machines initially couldn't read." This exposes the Big Lie at the heart of the Bush campaign's legal arguments, which were ultimately embraced by the Republican majority on the US Supreme Court - that ballots should NOT be inspected by humans to determine the intent of the voter. In fact, certain ballots - absentee ballots - were routinely inspected if they were rejected by machines, and carefully duplicated so they could be counted. We're sure the Republican legal team knew about this common practice before they argued their case in court - and if so, their lawyers should be disbarred.

Last week, Florida abolished punch cards and mandated optical-scan (SAT-style) ballots, with tabulators in each precinct to instantly check for errors. According to the Orlando Sentinel, optical-scan systems were manipulated in ways that had a racially discriminatory effect. Escambia County simply disabled the instant-check feature - and in majority-black Precinct 76, which gave Al Gore 93% of its vote, 16% of the ballots were thrown out. In Columbia County's majority-black Precinct 26, 17% of the ballots were rejected - yet election officials insist nothing was done wrong. In Bay Count's majority-Democratic Preinct 23, 15% of ballots were discarded - and election officials don't even care why. Overall, 64 optical-scan precincts with the highest discard rates produced 3,300 lost ballots. These precincts are 50% black and 72% Democratic. By extrapolation, Gore lost 1,452 votes in these precincts. We demand an investigation!

According to Florida law, county officials must count every ballot that cannot be read by a machine. If county officials had followed the law, Gore would have gained 1,323 among the 64,248 undervotes counted by the Miami Herald, not even counting the approximately 120,000 overvotes that will be counted in a few weeks.

After helping Shrub steal the Presidency, the Republican Party of Florida (RPOF) is trying to destroy the evidence of its crime. The RPOF issued the most bizarre recount analysis yet, claiming that Bush has gained 361 votes in post-election manual recounts. They claim their analysis is based on "the official Supreme Court vote standard. The Court called for a clearly punched out chad for punch cards or a clearly filled out oval for Optiscan machines." This is just a Big Lie - the U.S. Supreme Court issued no such ruling. The only legal standard in Florida remains the "intent of the voter." In fact, Katherine Harris accepted and certified the Broward recount which used the "loosest" possible standard of counting dimples.

Just days before the Miami Herald is expected to announce the results of its state-wide recount of ALL undervotes, right wing legal attack group Judicial Watch is trying to sabotage that effort by announcing its own distorted results from a PARTIAL recount. According to Judicial Watch, there are 62,205 undervotes statewide. JW counted 42,724 of them, and concluded that Bush - not Gore - would have gained between 107 and 116 votes, depending on the precise standard used. So far, no problem. But then they make this completely fraudulent claim: "a statewide recount of the Florida undervotes would not have changed the outcome of the presidential election." Democrats.com has kept a running tally of media recounts at gorewonflorida.org since Katherine Harris certified Bush as the winner by only 537 votes. As of March 10, Gore had gained 1,773 votes, giving him a lead of 1,236. Using Judicial Watch's higher number of 116, Gore STILL leads by 1,120 votes. By claiming Bush won, Judicial Watch is committing "recount malpractice." Before we declare this election over, let's wait for the recount of ALL 62,000 undervotes. That's what the Florida Supreme Court ordered in November, and that's what should have decided the winner. Unfortunately for America, a narrow partisan majority of the U.S. Supreme Court conspired with George W. Bush to steal the Presidency - regardless of the will of the voters. If the recounts prove that Gore got more votes, we will work tirelessly to remove George W. Bush, his fellow Republicans, and the Felonious Five from office.

Shrub is returning to the scene of the crime - Florida. He'll be giving a speech on his "Patients' Bill of Goods" plan to the American College of Cardiology. "I guess he stuck his toe in the water and figured it wasn't so bad," said one Capitol Hill aide about Bush's pusillanimous visit to an Air Force base on the Panhandle last week. He'll need to be real careful with his toes this time, because central Florida is hopping mad over Bush's theft of the Presidency. Join the protest!

Shrub doesn't have the guts to go to California, where anger over his theft of the Presidency is surpassed by anger over support for Enron and other Texas energy price gougers. So Shrub is hiding behind Laura's skirt and sending her first, for a heavily scripted photo op visiting students. Let's show Laura that our kids aren't stupid as Shrub - they know the difference between a winner and a thief.

Bush's campaign-style visit to Florida was a big mistake. It took only a handful of activists and a small TV buy to put Bush on the defensive over his theft of the Presidency. According to the Oral Majority's Bob Kunst, "Panama City was George the Pretender's Waterloo!" Read Jack Nichols' analysis in Gay Today.

Al Gore gained 6,607 votes in Palm Beach County, according to an analysis of 19,125 overvotes by the Palm Beach Post. These votes were blamed on the infamous "butterfly ballot." But the increase in Palm Beach's overvotes from 3,073 in 1996 to 19,235 in 2000 could also be the result of tampering - the "Katherine Harris with Tweezers" theory. The Bush campaign fought lawsuits from voters requesting a revote. These problems would have been prevented if Palm Beach had an instant-check system that allowed voters to correct faulty ballots - a system used in many Republican counties in Florida.

Al Gore gained another 102 votes in Palm Beach County, resulting from a manual recount of 4,637 undervotes by the Palm Beach Post. In addition, the Post found a gain of 111 votes for Gore in St. Lucie, and a gain of 19 for Bush in Martin, based on close examination of absentee ballots. These recounts increase Gore's statewide lead to 1,236.

Al Gore gained another 25 votes in a recount of undervotes in Osceola County by the Orlando Sentinel, increasing his statewide lead to 1,042. In addition, Gore probably would have gained 201 votes from overvotes where voters chose Al Gore and the Libertarian candidate, Harry Browne. The Sentinel has detected a pattern of Gore-Libertarian overvotes in Spanish-speaking communities, and speculates that the voters may have thought they were voting for "Gore-Lieberman." Spanish-language ballots - and an instant-check system - could have prevented such errors.

Bush raised $6 million to fund his post-election theft. He could keep individual contributions limited to $5,000 each, since his "Pioneers" ran such a well-oiled pyramid scheme (See http://www.geocities.com/alanjpakula/bushmoney.html). Unlike Gore, Bush did not disclose his list of expenses, making it hard to identify the key participants in the Theft of the Presidency.

What is Palm Beach - a potted palm?? The Miami Herald and the national media are declaring the Florida recount over following the recount in Miami-Dade, saying Gore's gain of 49 votes there was too small to overcome his 537 vote deficit on 11/27/00. But Gore gained 682 votes in the Palm Beach recount completed on 1/27/01 by the Palm Beach Post - more than enough to win. Amazingly, not a single news organization mentioned this recount. Karl Rove's Big Lie Machine just keeps on lying. To keep up with the truth on the still-incomplete Florida recount, visit gorewonflorida.org.

The manual recount in Miami-Dade added 49 votes to Gore's total and increased his statewide lead over Bush to 1,017. But the news media is spinning the story as proof that Gore LOST Florida. How? First, by ignoring Gore's gain of 682 votes in Palm Beach, which would have compelled Katherine Harris to certify Gore as the winner by 194 votes. Second, by ignoring the Florida Supreme Court's ruling ordering a state-wide recount, which was stopped by an outrageous ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that has been condemned by 673 law professors. Democrats.com is tracking the media recounts at www.gorewonflorida.org while we wait for ALL the votes to be counted. Gore's current lead of 1,017 makes him look like the real winner of the Florida election - and the rightful President of the United States. If so, we will not give up until justice is done and Bush is removed from office. (Send this letter to your local editor, and sign it as a member of Democrats.com. For more details, read "Bush Propaganda Machine" below.)

To the U.S. Congress: George W. Bush stole the Presidency of the United States with the help of his brother Jeb Bush, his Florida co-chair Katherine Harris, and five partisan Supreme Court Justices appointed or promoted by Reagan-Bush and Bush-Quayle administrations. Bush thereby assumes the Presidency on the basis of a crime against the American people – and against Democracy itself. We call upon Congress to Impeach President Bush. If they fail, we will elect a new Congress in 2002 that will do so. We will never accept the theft of the Presidency. Sign the Petition!!

Commerce Secretary Don Evans oversaw the "Theft of the Presidency" as the Chairman of the Bush-Cheney campaign. The key to Bush's victory was disenfrachising tens of thousands of minority voters in Florida. Now Evans plans to shaft minorities nationwide for another ten years by preventing census bureau professionals from adjusting the census to reflect undercounted minority voters. This will reduce the allocation of federal funds and legislative districts to minority areas.

Investigative journalist Gregory Palast's report on the Bush/Harris election scam can be downloaded until February 22. The 13 minute film covers Palast's expose of Database Technologies, the firm hired by Katherine Harris and Jeb Bush that purged thousands of Florida voters - mostly African-American - from the voter registry. A highlight is Harris' Director of Elections, Clay Roberts, bolting from the cameras exclaiming, "If y'all want to hang this on me that's fine!" The program announcement promises, "For the first time: 'secret and confidential' details of the agreement between the State and the computer firm ... which show exactly how Al Gore was cheated out of 23,000 votes."

The NY Times ran a front-page story by Richard Berke attacking the Democratic Party as being "distressed, discouraged, and depressed." Richard, read our electrons: We're ANGRY! We're angry that the election was stolen by the Republican Party and the Supreme Court. And we're furious that the corporate media, including the NY Times, was an active participant in stealing the election, and now covering up the theft of the Presidency. And we're going to be even ANGRIER when the media recounts are completed and PROVE that Gore won Florida. Richard, next time you want to know how Democrats feel, come visit Democrats.com!

Al Gore gained 13 more votes today in Seminole County when county officials found 83 clear votes on ballots not counted by the machines. Seminole County uses an optical scan system with instant verification, but some clear ballots were nevertheless rejected for reasons that could not be explained. Independently, the Sentinel has now completed a review in 17 counties with about 10 percent of the 180,000 uncounted ballots statewide. The results in Seminole are consistent with the findings elsewhere -- that hand recounts would have helped Gore even in GOP strongholds Bush won easily. All but two of the 17 counties studied were carried by Bush on Election Day. By our exclusive tally at www.gorewonflorida.org, Gore's Florida lead now stands at 968.

Al Gore gained 203 more votes today in Orange County when the Orlando Sun-Sentinel found 799 clear votes on ballots not counted by the machines, both overvotes and undervotes. Orange County uses an optical scan system with instant verification, but some clear ballots were nevertheless rejected. Election officials spent 3 weeks examining 280,000 ballots to find the 2,300 overvote and undervote ballots. This brought Gore's Florida lead to 955 (see http://gorewonflorida.org). Amazingly, no US news organization has YET reported Gore's Florida lead.

Remember snail-mail? Protest Bush's Theft of the Presidency with every dead-tree letter you send by placing a small sticker on the front of the envelope. Choose from "Not Elected - Appointed" and "Never Again - Fight Voter Fraud - Impeach Bush". Click on the sticker, print a page full, and paste them as needed. Turn the stamp upside-down while you're at it!

The Rent-a-Nazi's celebrated their Theft of the Presidency in Washington during the Inaugural weekend. "An Inaugural Reception Honoring the Men and Women Who Made it Happen," was sponsored by the power law firm of Patton Boggs, home to Bush lawyer Ben Ginsberg and Cokie Roberts' brother Hale Boggs Jr. Ginsberg's co-host was Joe Allbaugh, Bush's campaign manager and nominee for FEMA who is at the center of the Funeralgate scandal, who got "all choked up" when thanking the rioters. Featured guests included Ted and Barbara Olson and - you guessed it - Katherine Harris herself. Veterans of the "19th Floor Riot" - their term, not ours - were given T-shirts and lucite trophies - and top jobs in the Justice Department, no doubt.

The Guardian of London became the first major news organization to publish the conclusion we published on December 19 - that Al Gore won Florida, based on the manual recounts that were illegally blocked by the U.S. Supreme Court. The Guardian reached its conclusion following the detailed analyses of overvotes and undervotes by media organizations published over the weekend. When will U.S. news organizations report this inevitable conclusion - that Bush stole the election by stopping the recount???

Al Gore gained 196 more votes today when the Orlando Sun-Sentinel examined 15,596 discarded ballots in 15 smaller counties. These counties had optical ballots but no instant-check machines at the polling places, which produced the highest error rate - 5.7% - compared with 3.9% in the punch card counties. They found 1,776 ballots in which the "intent of the voter" was clear, but not counted by election officials - favoring Gore by 1071-705. This brought Gore's Florida lead to 1,263 (see http://gorewonflorida.org).

Al Gore gained 682 votes in Palm Beach County, following a manual recount of 4,513 disputed undervotes by the Palm Beach Post that counted dimpled ballots. This ONE batch would have been enough to overcome the 537 vote lead that was handed to Bush by his state co-chair, Katherine Harris. Combined with other recounts (see GoreWonFlorida.org),this brought Gore's Florida lead to 1,067. The Palm Beach Post is still reviewing another 4,600 undervotes and 19,235 overvotes.

The Washington Post analyzed overvotes - ballots with more than one candidate marked - in 8 of Florida's largest counties, and found a Gore gain of roughly 29,000. There were 46,000 overvotes with a mark for Gore and 17,000 with a mark for Bush, but it's impossible to be 100% certain about the intent of these voters, although these same ballots went 70%-24% for the Democratic Senate candidate. The counties examined were Miami-Dade, Broward (Fort Lauderdale), Palm Beach, Hillsborough (Tampa), Pinellas (St. Petersburg), Marion (Ocala), Highlands and Pasco, which together cast 2.7 million - nearly half - of Florida's 6 million votes. These counties all used punch card ballots, while wealthier counties using optical scan ballots with instant ballot checkers at the polling place had negligible overvotes. Analysts are quick to blame the voters, but the truth is the instant-check technology is crucial - and this should be the basis for an equal protection challenge to the Florida election.

Democrats.com members are protesting the Theft of the Presidency in many creative ways. Feel free to follow these suggestions, or come up with your own ideas and send them to us.

Al Gore gained 307 votes in Miami-Dade county, following a recount of uncounted ballots by the Palm Beach Post. 302 of Gore's gain (1023-721) votes come from ballots that were not properly inserted into the voting machines, but the intent of the voters could still be determined. Gore also gained 11 votes (35-24) from ballots where the chads eventually fell off during repeated handling since the election. Bush gained 6 votes (251-245) on ballots with dimpled or hanging chads.

There were several demonstrations across the nation on January 5, 2001 to try and persuade Senators to challenge Florida's illegally-chosen electors. Locales included New York City (Charles Schumer), San Francisco (Barbara Boxer), Los Angeles (Barbara Boxer), and St. Paul, MN (Paul Wellstone). Democrats were not the only ones targeted as there were demonstrations in Harrisburg, PA to target Rick Santorum and Philadelphia to target Arlen Specter. There was also a demonstration in Des Moines, IA outside Congressman Greg Ganske's office. Here are some of the reports we received.

Al Gore gained 316 more votes in Miami-Dade County, according to Anthony Salvanto, a faculty fellow at the University of California at Irvine. Salvanto discovered that 1,700 votes were invalidated because the punch card ballots were not aligned properly with the ballot books, either because of equipment problems or voter unfamiliarity. Salvanto found 1012 votes intended for Gore and 696 intended for Bush, a net Gore gain of 316.

Al Gore gained 120 MORE votes in the Tampa Tribune's recount of Hillsborough County's 5,533 machine-rejected votes. That brings his lead to 260 - and adds 120 more reasons why Congress should reject Florida's electors on January 6!!

In examining Bush's theft of the presidency, one group of attorneys stands at the nexus between the Bush campaign, the Supreme Court, and the Florida legal maneuverings. They are the Federalist Society. Kenneth Starr is one of their most celebrated notables, but Scalia other Bush Federal bench partisans are members. The Federalists played a key role in the Clinton impeachment efforts, led by Ted Olson, Bush's lead lawyer before the Supreme Court. It's an incestuous and dangerous conspiracy, for sure.

Al Gore's margin of victory in Florida increased to 140.
-154: 12/8/00 Florida Supreme Court ruling
-24: 12/18/00 Lake County manual recount (+130)
+140: 12/19/00 Broward partial manual recount (+164)

Mike Webb hosts a progressive radio call-in show -- and he wants you to call in and express your outrage at the grand theft of the presidency! That's right, a media person that wants to hear from you. And what's more, he has a toll free number, so it's on his nickel.

With each new revelation, the outrage should be growing. We know that Scalia's two sons are benefitting from their law firms working directly on the Bush legal assault on Al Gore's victory at the polls. We know that Clarence Thomas's wife was collecting resumes for the Bush administration. Now, Newsweek confirms that Sandra Day O'Connor shouted "this is terrible" when Florida was called for Gore early on Election Eve. Her husband explained to the surprised party goers that the O'Connors wanted to retire to Arizona, but if Gore won Sandra would stay on four more years just to keep Gore from appointing a "Democrat" jurist. When will Daschle, Gephardt and the rest start fighting for justice? The Supreme Court ruling that stole the presidency for Bush was worse than common burglary. It was a violation of our Constitutional guarantee of "electing" a President. It was, in a word, treason.

George W. Bush got away with the theft of the Presidency today. In his speech to the nation, he made absolutely no mention of the fact that he received fewer votes than his opponent, and that he won only by using his brother's power and the Federal Courts to block a fair and accurate count of the votes. The brainwashing of America to forget the crime - and the rewriting of history to somehow legitimate Bush as President - began immediately.

George W. Bush stole the Presidency of the United States with the help of his brother Jeb Bush, his Florida co-chair Katherine Harris, and five partisan Supreme Court Justices appointed or promoted by Reagan-Bush and Bush-Quayle administrations. Bush thereby assumes the Presidency on the basis of a crime against the American people – and against Democracy itself. We call upon the next Congress to Impeach President Bush. If they fail, we will elect a new Congress in 2002 that will do so. We will never accept the theft of the Presidency.

As Al Gore gained 58 votes in manual recounts throughout Florida, the U.S. Supreme Court created a Constitutional crisis by halting the count of votes in Florida. The ruling was along strict ideological lines, with the 5 most conservative Justices - Rehnquist, Thomas, Scalia, Kennedy, and O'Connor - exercising the greatest judicial activism since Dred Scott. Everyone who can possibly travel to the Supreme Court on Monday at 10am should go and be heard. Otherwise sign our petition or join a local protest.

First, two judges ignored uncontested felonious conduct and allowed 3,000 illegal votes for Bush to be counted. Then the Florida Supreme Court ordered a manual recount of the 40,000 uncounted undervotes, but immediately came under vicious attack from Republicans. Bush consiglieri James Baker announced an immediate appeal to the Supreme Court, and an emergency motion to the 11th Circuit to stop the counting. And the Republican hitman, Tom DeLay, menacingly declared the Florida Supreme Court ruling to be "judicial aggression." The Republican message remains the same: Bush had better be declared the winner, or we will destroy everything that stands in his way.

With each passing day, it becomes ever clearer that the Florida Republicans engineered a multi-pronged effort to steal the election, both before Election Day and afterwards. Today's riveting - and unchallenged! - arguments by Gerald Richman in the Seminole County case revealed how the Seminole board of elections was turned over to the Republican Party to engage in a conspiracy to commit fraud. If Democrats had done this, the nation's airwaves would be pulsating with outrage. When Republicans do it - and get caught - it's just a "hypertechnicality." Folks, this election is being stolen in broad daylight. It's time for our side to get angry - and put the world on notice that we will not take this lying down.

In 1876, Democrat Samuel Tilden won the popular vote by 264,000 votes. But Republican Rutherford B. Hayes cut deals with three southern states where the results were in dispute, including Florida. He promised to remove Federal troops and thereby end Reconstruction in return for the southern Electoral College votes. A Republican-rigged Electoral College commission completed the theft of the Presidency for Hayes, who was subsequently called "Rutherfraud." There are many parallels to the events unfolding before our eyes.

Late Wednesday night, Katherine Harris told the voters of Palm Beach, Broward, Miami - and America – that she alone rules America. She said she would certify Bush the winner on Saturday, the voters be damned. The Gore campaign will challenge Harris in court. But for the citizens of America, the next step is clear: we must do everything in our power to stop the theft of the Presidency. We must call every talk show, write every newspaper, and march in the streets until justice is done. Our slogans: Every vote counts - count every vote! The people decide – not Katherine Harris! No justice - no peace! Start by signing our petition to Stop the Theft of the Presidency by George W. Bush.