63% Say GW Bush Worst President Ever

Sandra Day O'Connor has Doubts about the Decision in Bush V. Gore and she is not alone.   George W Bush should never have been given the keys to the White House unless and until a count of all of the votes showed that the voters had elected him.    The little hushed secret is beginning to see the light of day and it is a good thing that truth is finally getting out.   Bush was a terrible president.   In most countries other than here Bush's name would disappear from the history books.

Al Gore Won The Election,  GW Bush Was Awarded the Presidency by the Supreme Court

As more and more time passes it is increasingly clear the Supreme Court overstepped its bounds in awarding the Presidency of the United States to George W Bush.   The courts gift to the republican party may go down in history as the greatest blunder of all time.    It is not that the court was not wrong before, but they had never abused the will of the American people so completely with so little reguard to fairness.   After this gift from the Supreme court Bush,  Cheney went on to nearly destroy the country and completely make fools of even their own partisan supporters.   The United States Government was sold down the river so the Bush High Dollar supporters could profit off the spoils of war.  

Supreme Court Case Study: Bush v. Gore

Perhaps no event better illustrates the power of the United States Supreme Court than the resolution of the 2000 presidential election.   Just when you thought the separation of powers issue had been settled once and for all, the Court stepped in to adjudicate who had won the biggest political contest of all.   Legions of Court watchers, law professors, media commentators, and armchair legal analysts across the country thought the Court's willingness to step into the fray was a major misstep.    Even worse a decision that supported ultra right wing business interest was forced on the voters and the slippage of the country started almost immediately.

Background info

Election night 2000 was a cliffhanger that went on for weeks. Many people went to bed that night thinking that Al Gore had won, only to discover in the morning that George W. Bush had been declared the winner.   In fact, the election was simply too close to call.   Several states were up for grabs, but in the end it came down to one:   Florida, where Bush's younger brother, Jeb, was governor.   Florida electors were unable to commit themselves to either Bush or Gore owing to the closeness of the vote.   Brush fires erupted in several precincts where the candidates' surrogates traded allegations about various improprieties.   Recounts were started, then stopped as Republicans and Democrats wrangled over what standards to apply.  It was more than a little chaotic.

The Court steps in

The Supreme Court actually interposed itself into the election contest three times.   Only the last two are known as Bush v. Gore.  In the first of these cases, Bush v. Palm Beach County Canvassing Board, the Court hoped to end the election crisis by putting a stop to the Florida Supreme Court's decision to extend the time for certifying the vote past the period set by state law.   But by the time the Court began hearing arguments in the appeal on December 1, the certification had already occurred.   The embarrassed justices sent the case back down to the Florida Supreme Court, instructing the lower court to rewrite its opinion so that it would not create a conflict between state and federal law.

A week later, the Florida Supreme Court ordered a statewide recount of ballots.   Unlike its earlier decision, however, this one was not unanimous.   With the Florida justices split 4-3, the U.S. Supreme Court once again exercised its discretionary appellate review jurisdiction and granted certiorari, or review, to Bush v. Gore.   The day after the Florida Supreme Court had ordered a recount, the U.S. Supreme Court granted a temporary stay, or delay, in enforcing the Florida Supreme Court's order.   The U.S. Supreme Court justices, too, were narrowly divided, 5-4.   The five justices voting in favor of the stay were the same five conservatives who had been moving the Rehnquist Court to the right for more than a decade.   The first hearing of Bush v. Gore telegraphed to the nation what would happen if the Court took further action in the case.

The Court's third and final intervention in the 2000 presidential election came just days later.  In its unsigned opinion, the Court explained that it had voted 5-4 to put a stop to the Florida recount.    Allowing the recount to go forward, the Court said, would violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.   The U.S. Supreme Court sent the case back down to the Florida Supreme Court, which had no alternative but to dismiss it.   The presidential election of 2000 had been decided, in essence, by the vote of one Supreme Court justice.    That is how right wing conservatives stole control of the United States Government.    The truth is beginning to seep out and the sooner the whole sorry affair is exposed the better.

Needless to say, the George W. Bush camp was jubilant.   Al Gore supporters were incensed.   Many people were simply happy to have things settled.   But others worried that the Court had gone too far.  In the past, in landmark cases like Brown v. Board of Education (1954), which put an end to legal segregation, and United States v. Nixon (1974), which led to the first presidential resignation under threat of impeachment, were unanimously decided.   After Bush v. Gore, the concern was that the Court had not only overreached itself but undermined its authority by not speaking with one voice.   That split decision, 5-4, suggested that Bush v. Gore was a political, not a judicial, decision.    The suggestion that it was a political decision was correct and now the question is can all the kings armies and all the kings men put humpty dumpty back together again?    The conservatives on the court live and breathe to make sure it can never be corrected.

Precedents

Bush v. Gore wasn't the Court's first foray into the realm of king making.   The election of 1876 pitted Samuel J. Tilden, the Democratic governor of New York, against Rutherford B. Hayes, the Republican governor of Ohio.   After the votes had been counted, it seemed that Tilden had won the popular vote and had 184 uncontested electoral votes to Hayes's 165.   The magic number was 185 electoral votes.

Twenty votes of the Electoral College were still up for grabs, however — all but one of them in the southern states of Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina.  (The exception was Oregon.   They always have marched to a different drummer.)

The Twelfth Amendment stipulates that in a contested presidential election,  "The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and the House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted."     Because in 1876 Congress was equally divided between Democrats and Republicans, the Republican-controlled Senate and the Democrat-controlled House set up an electoral commission to decide who would become president.   The Senate chose three Republicans and two Democrats to sit on the commission, and the House chose two Democrats and three Republicans.   The remainder of the commission was to consist of five justices of the Supreme Court.   The bill setting up the commission named two Republican justices and two Democratic justices, but let those four select their own nonpartisan tiebreaker.

The only truly neutral member of the Court at the time was David Davis.  But Davis resigned from the Court almost immediately, leaving only Republican justices as alternatives.   Joseph Bradley, seemingly the least partisan of those remaining, was selected as the final member of the commission.   To no one's great surprise, the commission voted along party lines, selecting the Republican Hayes.

Democrats, who were mostly Southerners, cried foul, claiming that Davis, and perhaps Bradley, had been subjected to political blackmail.

When the uproar threatened to derail the orderly transfer of power, a deal was struck.   The Republicans agreed to withdraw the federal troops still occupying the South in the wake of the Civil War, to appropriate funds for Southern improvement, and to appoint at least one Southerner to the cabinet.   In return, the Democrats agreed not to delay Hayes's inauguration.  It was a flat-out political deal, and ever since its implementation, the Court has been criticized for having played a part in what many saw as outright log rolling.

And the winner is . . .

Why, then, did the Supreme Court agree to get back into the fray after the election of 2000?   In a sense, the justices had no choice.    When the contest between George W. Bush and Al Gore proved too close to call,  the contestants resorted to a series of lawsuits in an effort to settle the matter.    These suits proceeded simultaneously in the state court system and in federal court.   The cases largely concerned the matter and manner of vote counting (and recounting) in the pivotal state of Florida. 

There were charges of voter intimidation, ballot rigging — all manner of political shenanigans.   Something had to be done.    The proper something was to have all the ballots counted and let the voters pick the winner but the court stopped the counting of ballots and awarded the job to George W Bush.    Bush took the GOP down and dam near destroyed the country giving all the surpluses
built up by William J Clinton to the wealthy (he called them his base) and leaving the country mired in debt and millions unemployeed.  

Bush did long term damage to the republican party and was a big factor in Barack Obama being elected President.   Until the GOP cleanses itself and once again is led by adults it should wander in the desert devoid of power.   It will take 20 years to fix all the republicans laid waste to.   GW Bush's Presidential Library is now opening, it is a Fantasy Land bigger in dreams than Disney World in Jeb Bush's Florida.

The Supreme Court stopped the counting of the votes.   How would a proper and full counting have turned out?    Glad you asked.   What a disaster it was that Bush stole the election.   The consortium (9 major newspapers) did a full recount showing that Gore beat Bush, 50,999,896 (49.38) to 50,456,002 (47.87%).    Even winning the disputed Florida vote.   Now how ironic that Bush is listed as one of the worst Presidents (68% say so) in our history.



Amherst County Virginia Democratic News

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Lynchburg Police say Be On Alert

Armed and Dangerous

Police are looking for a Lynchburg man on charges of attempted murder and other crimes after a shooting early Monday morning.

Hasan Ibn Sami Abdussalaam, 31, faces malicious wounding and three firearms charges in connection with the shooting of Jemell L. Johnson, 32, of Lynchburg, police said.


Lynchburg police have also obtained an attempted murder warrant against Abdussalaam for shooting at another person who was with Johnson but was uninjured.


Police ask anyone who knows Abdussalaam's whereabouts to call  Detective J.T. Loyd  Lynchburg Police Department at  455-6178 or Central Virginia Crime Stoppers at 1-888-798-5900.


The charges arose after police went to the 900 block of Virginia Street, near the street's intersection with Florida Avenue, around 3:09 a.m. Monday, where they found Johnson with a gunshot wound on his leg.


Police said Johnson told them he was confronted by Abdussalaam, who shot him.

Lynchburg, VA News

Barack and Conan Headline Press Dinner

Barack Obama joked that the years were catching up to him and he was not "the strapping young Muslim socialist" he used to be.

The United States president poked fun at himself as well as some of his political adversaries during the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner on Saturday, which was attended by politicians, members of the media and Hollywood celebrities.

Entering to the rap track All I Do Is Win by DJ Khaled, Mr Obama joked about how re-election would allow him to unleash a radical agenda.   But then he showed a picture of himself golfing on a mock magazine cover of Senior Leisure.

"I'm not the strapping young Muslim socialist that I used to be," the president remarked, and then recounted his recent 2-for-22 basketball shooting performance at the White House Easter egg hunt.

But Mr Obama's most dramatic shift for the next four years appeared to be aesthetic.   He presented a montage of shots featuring him with a hairstyle similar to those sometimes sported by his wife.

"So we borrowed one of Michelle's tricks,"  Mr Obama said.   "I thought this looked pretty good, but no bounce."
Mr Obama closed by noting the nation's recent tragedies in Massachusetts and Texas, praising Americans of all stripes, from first responders to journalists, for serving the public good.

Despite coming at a sombre time, nearly two weeks after the deadly Boston Marathon bombing and 10 days after a devastating fertiliser plant explosion in Texas, the president and political allies and rivals alike took the opportunity to enjoy some humour.
 

Conan O'Brien, was the headliner for the event and Conan was terrific.   In a poke at Fox News Conan said  "When the President laughs everybody laughs and when the Fox News table laughs a small girl has fallen off her bicycle"

Sarah Palin who has attended the dinner in the past when she had a tv show or book to promote complained about it this year and called those who went ass clowns.   Sarah always goes the extra mile to prove to one and all that she is a dirtbag bimbo.   Good Lord she could have been vice president of the country.    Really, there is no way John McCain can be proud of that choice.














Amherst County Virginia Democratic News

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April Moore Visits The White House, Sort of

Thoughts from a Climate Jailbird,                   by April Moore

April and Andy

Here in the Amherst County, Lynchburg area we are aware of April Moore and know her as the mate of Congressional Candidate Andy Schmookler.   She is outgoing with a good command of a crowd as she assists Dr. Schmookler with his presentations but now we reveal her secret connection to the White House.   April didn't rob a train like Jessie James but she managed to run afoul of Johnny Law Dog anyway.   ACVDN presents the April Moore slow walking, law breaking, malingering with the intent to gwak and sing, story of April's D.C. visit in its entirety.   April stood up for the planet, if you would like to stand with her her visit   http://fiftyoverfifty.org/join/

Please Help because right now it's the only planet we have.

 April Moore of FiftyOverFifty.org was one of four members of a group of 15 people arrested at the White House on March 21 in a protest organized by Interfaith Moral Action on Climate.    This is her story.    No names were changed because no one is innocent
and everyone acted for a good cause.

 

The following is from April, her testimony so to speak.

"Yesterday was a big day for me.

Normally a law-abiding citizen, I joined with 14 others in breaking the law and being arrested in front of the White House. The reason for this uncharacteristic behavior was climate change.

For several years now, I have viewed climate change as a global emergency, the greatest problem humanity has ever faced, a situation that requires nothing short of a World War II-level of effort to address.  I have only recently put climate change action at the top of my personal agenda, after spending the last two years focused on helping my husband Andy Schmookler in his run for Congress.    I felt that helping his campaign was the best way available to me to address the problem of climate change.

Since the election, I have been looking for other, more direct ways to address climate change.    I feel fortunate to have found FiftyOverFifty.org, a group of people over age 50 who are eager to engage in nonviolent civil disobedience and willing to risk arrest for the sake of the our planet’s health.   After all, if not we baby boomers, then who?   My age cohort, more than any other, CAN risk arrest.  We boomers are no longer raising children, and many of us no longer work full-time.    Besides, my generation owes it to younger people to act on their behalf.   While it is too late to ensure that our grandchildren will be born into a world as healthy as the one we inherited, it is our duty to do our best to stop as much of the ravaging impact of climate change as we can.

The March 21 event, organized by Interfaith Moral Action on Climate, was a multi-faith outdoor service near the White House. Native American, Jewish, Christian and Muslim leaders called on President Obama to take strong action on climate change.

Following the service, 15 of us separated ourselves from the larger group to line up in front of the White House fence.   I was moved almost to tears by the alignment in that moment of my love for the planet and this public and serious step of inviting arrest."


FiftyOverFifty members joined a protest organized by the Interfaith Moral Action on Climate Change

It is illegal to tarry for long in front of the White House.   But tarry we did, singing.  And we were joined in song from across the street by the 25 or so others from the service who were not risking arrest.  I especially loved singing our version of the old song,  “He’s got the whole world in his hands.”   We sang,   “WE’VE got the whole world in OUR hands,”  spontaneously substituting  “the future generations”  and  “the mountains and the rivers”  for “the whole world.”

And truly, we do have the world in our hands.    Now those hands are plundering the planet.   But it’s also in our hands to quit trashing the earth and to work for a planet that will support the coming generations as it has supported us so abundantly.

As we sang, we received three official warnings from the US Park Police to move on.    When we didn’t, the 15 of us were handcuffed, searched, and escorted, one by one, into waiting police wagons, one for the eight women and one for the seven men.   All went smoothly, and the police treated us with courtesy and respect.  One officer, upon escorting me into the wagon, even apologized for the lack of heat in the vehicle!    You can glimpse me getting handcuffed, then Katherine Layton, then other members of FiftyOverFifty.org  including Karen Menichelli and eventually Lawrence MacDonald.

While the Park Police had been notified in advance that only 10-20 people would be inviting arrest, officers were out in full force.   Four policemen on horseback stood by, along with numerous cops in squad cars and on motorcycles.   Then there were about a score of officers on foot.  I appreciated their help in amplifying the event!

The police van ride, a first for me, was unexpectedly exciting.  The two wagons were preceded by an eight-motorcycle police escort.    Lights flashing, the motorcycles roared ahead of us, sometimes on the wrong side of the road.  The wagons followed close behind, as if we were ambulances en route to the hospital.  Inside the wagon, we ladies were sitting, four on either side of a dividing wall.  Neither group could see the other, but we could hear each other just fine.   In high spirits, we sang and stomped and talked our way to the police station.

After the rush through DC’s streets, it was waiting time at the police station.  We women were led out of the wagon and into a dreary, cement-walled police station basement.  Four women were escorted into each of two holding cells, while the men were held in their wagon.   We continued singing and got better acquainted as we stood around the room’s sole furnishings–a stainless steel toilet and a stainless steel bench.

After a half-hour or so, our (disposable) handcuffs were cut off, we were issued written citations, we each paid our $100 fines, and we were released.    Only then were the men taken from their wagon and brought inside for processing.

Once outside,  how cheerful it was to see fellow climate activists waiting for us with food and drink and appreciation.  I found that the others’  support before, during, and after the arrest meant a great deal to me.  Even though I had been told what to expect when arrested, I still felt some fear, and their support comforted me.

So what did we accomplish yesterday?

Dr. Andy and April,  2 excellent people dedicated to making life better for others.

Although we didn’t get attention from major news outlets, several alternative media outlets showed up.  They filmed and interviewed, and the word is out on Facebook and Twitter.  And many passersby saw our signs and heard our call.  Whether President Obama, who was in Israel, will ever know we were there, we’ll probably never know.   Whatever our direct impact, it felt like time and money well-spent.  I remind myself that we are just at the beginning;  as more people come to share our alarm over changing climate, more will join us.  I see it happening.  Besides, those of us who participated yesterday are getting the word out to the people in our lives.  And we are strengthening each other for future actions on behalf of the planet.

Paul Ryan

Paul Ryan Accidentally Reveals Republican Agenda
Republicans out to destroy medical care

Paul Ryan, Mitt Romney's running mate in last year's presidential election and Congressman from Wisconsin, made what many consider a slip of the tongue yesterday, March 13, 2013, but what in fact may not have been a slip of the tongue, when he announced that the Republicans want to destroy health care in the United States.    The exact quote:   "This is something we will not give up on because we are not going to give up on destroying the health care system for the American people."

Ryan is a devoted disciple of Ayn Rand, whose book Atlas Shrugged extols the  "virtue"  of selfishness and greed.    He is a water carrier for those who would, in the words of Grover Norquist, shrink the government  "so its small enough to drown in a bathtub."








Bernie Sanders - a voice crying in the wilderness

Bernie Sanders

The Independent Senator from Vermont, Bernie Sanders, has been warning President Barack Obama that a  "grand bargain"  with the Republicans should really be seen as a  "grand sellout."

Writing in The Hill newspaper, Sanders said:  "At a time when the middle class is disappearing, 46 million Americans are living in poverty and the gap between the very rich and everyone else is growing wider, we need a 'grand bargain' that protects struggling working families, not billionaires.

"...One out of four profitable corporations pays nothing in federal income taxes...we need a grand bargain that ends corporate loopholes and demands that corporate America starts helping us with deficit reduction.   We must not balance the budget on the backs of the elderly, the children, the sick and the poor.   We must not cut Social Security, disabled veterans' benefits, Medicare, Medicaid, education and other programs that provide opportunity and dignity to millions of struggling American families."






The common sense of Robert Reich

Robert Reich

Robert Reich, former Labor Secretary under Bill Clinton, writes "We are the richest nation in the history of the world - richer now than we've ever been. But an increasing share of that wealth is held by a smaller and smaller share of the population, who have, in effect, bribed legislators to reduce their taxes and provide loopholes so they pay even less.

"The budget deficit 'crisis' has been manufactured by them to distract our attention from this overriding fact, and to pit the rest of us against each other for a smaller and smaller share of what remains. Democrats should not conspire.

"Needy children should be getting far more help, better pre-school care, better nutrition.   Seniors need better healthcare coverage and more Social Security.   All Americans need better schools and improved infrastructure.   "The richest nation in the history of the world should be able to respond to the legitimate needs of all of its citizens."

Unfortunately, Barack Obama and the Democrats are not listening to the likes of Bernie Sanders and Robert Reich, preferring instead to play into the hands of the Republicans, so that they become in the end indistinguishable from them. Now the Democrats follow the lead of the Republicans; now they too become locked arm in arm with the forces of selfishness and greed, and God help the United States of America.






Amherst County Virginia Democratic News

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