December 12 marks the anniversary of the Supreme Court decision that awarded the presidency to the wrong guy.

Bush vs. Gore is the widely regarded by legal experts as the worst decision in the 200 plus years of the Supreme Court.
Not only did more people vote for Gore than Bush in Florida, but it looks like Gore really won Tennessee as well.
Further, all this talk about counting ballots ignores the real scandal from the election:  The massive racism in denying
people of color the right to vote in the first place.  Some right wing apologists are whining, "get over it", but we
shouldn't, and the events of Sept. 11 make it all the more important that we get to the truth.  In our war against
terrorism, our biggest weapon is the spreading of democracy and democratic ideals.  And George W. Bush simply
cannot talk about free elections representing the will of the people.

If we're to fight the forces of religious fanaticism and fascism, we need to show the world that we're better than they are.
Bush is ill-suited to fight this war, a war he left the door open to by his stupidity and partisanship.  Bush made at least two major mistakes:  Ignoring the Hart-Rudman Commission's recommendation on airport security back in January, and
ignoring the warning of the State Department of Sept. 7.  Gore would have made neither of these mistakes.

The Supreme Court's suspiciously partisan decision of Dec. 12, 2000 led to the deaths of thousands of Americans.
And Gore would be doing a much better job than Bush in securing the help of our allies in the fight.  Bush has failed to
build a worldwide coalition to fight terror, with Egypt and Saudi Arabia, to name two, being lukewarm supporters at best.
Egypt is as mad at the terrorists for assassinating Sadat as we are about the World Trade Center.
Why can't Bush Junior build the coalition Bush Senior built in freeing Kuwait?  But that's a different editorial.

Just one more thing, for any conservative still listening to this.  A big issue in the last election was gun control.
The gun advocates claimed that the Second Amendment was sacrosanct, and the Bill of Rights was untouchable.
Now, we have John Ashcroft destroying the Bill of Rights, declaring military tribunals, holding suspects incommunicado
without bail or access to a lawyer, and overhearing the conversations of the lawyer and client in some cases when they
do meet.  But - and this is a big one - Ashcroft has said that he doesn't care if they own guns.
A suspect's right to counsel isn't protected, but their guns are.

Hey, I want to catch the terrorists too, and I'm willing to go a great distance, but enough's enough.  Ashcroft's sole
concern is protecting one half of one Amendment, while he's willing to throw out the rest of the Constitution.  So I
issue this challenge to those who argued for Second Amendment rights:  It's time to put up or shut up.  Are you
holding the Constitution as the absolute document that makes America great, or are you just a bunch of gun nuts
who will say anything to keep your phallic symbols?  The events of Sept. 11 showed that in times of crisis, all
America pulls together.  Now, we need to come together again to counter not merely the threat of terrorism,
but the threat that we will become like the terrorists.  I ask all those who fervently support their right to keep their
gun to write to Ashcroft and Bush and anyone else who will listen that the Constitution and hard won freedoms are
what make us better than the terrorists or religious fanatics like the Taliban, and that means all of it, not just the
Second Amendment.  The ball is in your court.  Are you with us or against us?
 

TTFN,
Dave Romm
Producer, Shockwave
KFAI 90.3FM
listen to it live over the internet www.kfai.org