My grandmother used to have an expression.  I don't know if she made it
up or if she heard a famous TV character say it, but it goes like this:
If two people say you're sick, lie down.

Translation:  If 23,000 Floridians say the ballot was misleading, then the ballot was misleading.
I call your attention to the following passages from the Bill of Rights of the United States Constitution:

Amendment XIV, Section 1.  No State shall make or enforce any law
which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United
States; or shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or
property , without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its
jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

Amendment XV, Section 1.  The right of citizens of the United States to
vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any
State on account of race, color, or previous condition or servitude.

I know what you're thinking.  Lots of fancy-pants language and legal
mumbo jumbo, right?  What does all that mean?  It means that the
Constitution requires that the votes of all Americans be counted.  And that
means that by filing an injunction in Federal court to prevent a hand
count of votes in Palm Beach County, George W. Bush is attempting to
subvert the United States Constitution.

How exactly does the 15th Amendment apply here, you ask?  The white,
conservative southern part of Florida was given a readable, easily
understandable ballot so they were given full opportunity to cast their votes
(which votes, by the way, can reasonably be assumed to be cast
overwhelmingly for George W. Bush).  Palm Beach County residents, on the other
hand, who are primarily Jewish and African-American and who could
reasonably be expected to vote overwhelmingly for Al Gore -- and in fact
indicated in exit polls that they did -- were given a ballot that was
hopelessly confusing and in violation of Florida law, and were therefore
denied equal access to their right to vote.

Got it?

Now, with all that in mind, let's recap what we know so far about this
car wreck of an election in Florida.

We have an illegal butterfly ballot used in Palm Beach County in which
the punch hole for Al Gore did not line up with his name but lined up
instead with Pat Buchanan's name.  This ballot was so confusing -- and
bear in mind that complaints about the ballot and other voting
irregularities began pouring in starting at 7am -- that election supervisor
Theresa LePore sent the following memo to election workers at 4pm, when the
horse had pretty well left the barn:

"Attention all poll workers.  Please remind all voters coming in that
they are to vote only for one (1) presidential candidate and that they
are to punch the hole next to the arrow next to the number next to the
candidate they wish to vote for.  Thank you!"

That clear it up for ya?  I don't know about you, but I'm more
confused after reading that than before.  This must be the same chick who
wrote my VCR operator's manual.

In addition, the instructions on this ballot told people to punch the
hole to the right of the candidate they wished to vote for.  Only
problem is, Pat Buchanan's hole was to the left of his name, but directly to
the right of Al Gore's, so people punched that hole as per the
instructions, resulting in over 3,000 votes in Palm Beach County alone being
counted for Pat Buchanan.  Yeah, like a bunch of old Jewish ladies are
gonna vote for the Nazi sympathizer.

And the violations don't stop there.

We also have ballot boxes turning up in the damndest places:  one in an
election worker's car ("I about had a cotton-pickin' stroke," said
79-year-old poll worker Gene Tracy.  "I hollered for my wife and I said,
'The dadburn ballots are still in the car."), another in a school (that
one is now being held in the evidence room of the Palm Beach County
police station), and on Friday, the Washington Post reported, "county
workers found a ballot bag in their vault without a seal, another with a
broken seal and a third on the shelf with ballots spilling out."  And
today -- Sunday, November 12 -- at about 4:00 pm, another ballot box
mysteriously appeared in a church that had been used as a voting station.
That means that none of these ballots have been counted.  By the way,
the Reverend of that church says that about 1,400 people voted there on
election day, and ALL of them were African American, so it's safe to
assume these would be another 1,400 votes for Al Gore.

We have widespread complaints of multiple violations of Florida
election law and the Voting Rights Act, including African Americans being
turned away from voting stations because election workers claimed their
names were not on the list, even though many of these people saw their
names clearly printed there.

We have reports of a massive police presence detaining African Americans to
prevent them from voting, including one 67-year-old man whose harrassment
by police was witnessed by the producer of the Tom Joyner morning show.

We have voting stations that were closed early on election day in clear violation of election law.

We have people who accidentally punched the wrong hole on their ballot
who immediately realized their mistake and asked for a new ballot but
were denied their request, in spite of the Florida law that says they
are entitled to a second ballot if they make a mistake.

We have complaints of people being told they had only five minutes to
cast their vote or they would be forced to leave the polling station without voting.

Florida law states that a new vote must be ordered if reasonable doubt
exists that the votes of citizens were counted.  Gee, is anybody else
besides me having reasonable doubt?

But beyond the Florida law, there is a much more precious document in danger:
the U.S. Constitution.  You just read the relevant passages, you know what they say.

George W. Bush took an oath as the Governor of Texas to uphold the
Constitution.  But since he clearly has no intention of doing so, and in
fact seems intent on violating that oath, that duty falls to Al Gore.

Al Gore stood up before the eyes of the world and swore an oath as Vice
President to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the
United States.  Well, the Constitution is under blatant and violent assault
by Bush's forces in Florida.  Not only does Al Gore have a right to
pursue a new vote in Florida because of ovewhelming evidence that he would
have easily carried the state if not for Republican shenanigans, he is
bound by his Vice Presidential oath to do so.  He is bound by his duty
to protect the rights of the citizens there whose votes were thrown
away.  He is bound indeed by his duty to all Americans, because this is
not merely a state issue.  The entire election hinges on the outcome of
the vote in Florida.  Ignoring the voting violations there, allowing the
disqualification of 23,000 votes to stand, would nullify the votes of
over 48,000,000 Americans who chose Al Gore as our next President.

And if that's not a good enough argument for you, how about this:
Come on, America, don't you want your freekin' vote to count?

The single most precious right we have as Americans is our right to
vote.  Are we prepared to surrender that right for the sake of a quick
resolution, for the sake of avoiding a little conflict?  Benjamin Franklin
said, "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little
temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."  If weÕre willing to
allow George W. Bush to assume the Presidency based on an illegal vote,
then this is not the America I know.  This is not the America I love.
This is not the America the Founders gave us.

The pundits and the GOP attack dogs are trying to scare us with erroneous claims that
prolonging the recounts in Florida sets us on the brink of a Constitutional crisis.
Don't believe them, folks.  THERE IS NO CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS.

These circumstances are well provided for in the Constitution.
We have a president.  Bill Clinton, remember him?
Big guy, white hair, brought us eight years of peace and prosperity?

President Clinton has everything under control.  Nobody's going to sneak in
and steal the White House silverware.  Nobody's going to steal the
missiles out of their silos.  Nobody's going to TP the Capitol Building.
We have a provision in case the situation is not resolved by Inauguration Day.
(Of course, the Republicans won't like it, because the provision is that the sitting
Vice President assumes the Presidency until a clear winner can be determined,
and lemme see, who's the Veep again?  Oh yeah, Al Gore.)

The point is, we have backup after backup after backup to maintain the
integrity of the Republic until we can resolve this thing.  Relax.  The
Founders were pretty smart dudes.

The only Constitutional crisis -- and this is what you should be
truly terrified of -- is that the Bush boys, or as Maureen Dowd called
them, the Corleones of Texas, are attempting to subvert the Constitution
in an effort to steal a national election.

And we have tons of backups for this, too --- they're called laws.
Al Gore has the law on his side and at his disposal, but he needs one
other very important thing:  us.  He needs the support of the American
people, whose rights he is looking out for.  Without our support, the
Bush monkey business in Florida will go unchallenged.  If we allow this to
happen, if Al Gore is not encouraged to fight these gross voting
violations with every avenue the law provides, we will have a man sitting as
the President of the United States who was not elected by the people,
and the rightful President, Al Gore, will be banished to Tennessee like
the Man in the Iron Mask.

Some people are suggesting that Al Gore will be perceived as a sore
loser if he contests the election results.  Well, I got news for you:  You
canÕt be a sore loser if you won.  Al Gore won this election.  He knows
it, the American people know it, and what's most important, the Bush
people know it.  And that's why they don't want the hand count to go
forward -- it would confirm that Al Gore won the election, and the Bush
boys don't want to let that happen.  That ain't expediency, folks, and
it sure is hell isn't "for the good of the country," as George W. Bush
would have us believe.  It is treason.

Yeah, I said it.  Treason.

The maneuverings of the Bush camp amount to nothing less than an
attempt to overturn a national election.  And it should be pointed out that
this is the GOP's second coup d'etats attempt in two years.  They tried
to overturn a national election by impeaching President Clinton for
receiving oral sex from a consenting adult.  They had drawn up impeachment
papers long before Monica Lewinsky came on the scene, so to speak.
They set out to oust a sitting president for their own political purposes,
and then manufactured a crime to insert on the dotted line.

And now, since that didn't work, they are attempting to steal an
election from Al Gore.

If the Bush people are so confident that they won, then let the hand
count go forward.  But they can't do that.  You know why?  Yeah, you
know.  No hand count:  President Bush.  Hand count:  President Gore.

The brief the Bush people filed in Federal court seeks an injunction to
stop the hand count on the grounds that a hand count is less reliable
than a machine count.  If this is true, then why did Governor Bush sign
Tex. Elec. Code § 212.005 in 1997, which says, "A manual recount shall
be conducted in preference to an electronic recount."  Hmmm?

And whatever you do, don't let the press tell you how we should handle
this.  The press told you George W. Bush is a compassionate
conservative.  The press told you Al Gore is a liar.  The press told you that Bush
won the debates.  The press spent days of air time scrutinizing the
size of Al Gore's "package."

Look past all the spin coming furiously out of the Bush camp.

Look past the fact that they've been saying since this whole mess began
that they did not want a long, drawn-out legal battle that would be
harmful to the country, and yet themselves filed a request for a Federal
injunction to block the hand count.

The Bush camp is also threatening a recount in Iowa, Wisconsin and
Oregon, which belies their claim that they want an expeditious resolution.
See that for what it is:  blackmail.  They're more than willing to drag
this thing out for weeks, months, or as long as it takes, just so long
as it puts them in the White House.

Forget the argument that a legal battle would damage the country.  We
are a nation of laws.  How in the name of everything holy can following
the laws be damaging to the country?  Where is the GOP's beloved Rule
of Law now that it is a barrier to keep them from the presidency instead
of a weapon to impeach a President for getting a blowjob?

But forget all that.  That's all political maneuvering, media spin, tit for tat.

Look past it all, and consider only what President Lyndon Johnson said
in his address to Congress asking them to enact the Voter Rights Act:
"We cannot, we must not refuse to protect the right of every American
to vote in every election that we may desire to participate in."  He
went on to say, "I recognize that from outside this chamber is the
outraged conscience of a nation, the grave concern of many nations and the
harsh judgment of history on our acts."

Well, how about it, folks?  It's decision time.  This is where
democracy gets tough.  But this is where it really counts.  Will we keep faith
with the promise we made that day, or will we violate it in favor of
the easy way out?  Will we fulfill the pledges the Founding Fathers made
on our behalf, or will we abandon the path when the way turns a little
rocky?  Will we give voice to the outraged conscience of a nation that
birthed Suffrage for Women, an end to slavery and the Civil Rights Act?
And if we remain silent, how will history judge us for our acts?

Will we fight for our rights and demand that all the votes cast for Al
Gore are given to Al Gore, or will we let the Republicans bully us into
letting George W. Bush, a pretender to the throne, ascend to the
Presidency of the United States based on a stolen election?

Consider the question gravely, because if we choose not to fight, then government
of the people, by the people, for the people may truly perish from the earth.