July 21, 2004 Archives » Soul of the City

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Who's Soaries Now? 

The new meaning of "electioneering"

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Last week, the House of Representatives censured member Rep. Corrine Brown (D-FL) for saying, during a heated debate over a proposal to have the UN monitor the upcoming US elections, "I come from Florida, where you and others participated in what I call the United States coup d'etat. We need to make sure it doesn't happen again. Over and over again after the election, when you stole the election, you came back here and said, "Get over it.' No, we're not going to get over it."

She should've just told them to go fuck themselves; everyone would have felt better. Oh wait, that only applies in the Senate.

Prior to 2000, the idea of US elections being monitored by an outside body would have seemed absurd. So, why suggest it now?

Well, for one, the US Commission on Civil Rights (an independent, bipartisan body appointed by President Bush and Congress) has accused Florida election officials of "extraordinary negligence" in creating a list of 48,000 people to purge from voter rolls.

"They have engaged in negligence at best and something worse at worst," according to Chairperson Mary Frances Berry. Leon County Supervisor of Elections Ion Sancho told the commission that the list was "garbage" and riddled with errors because no one cross-checked current databases. That the list consists mostly of traditionally Democratic voters is entirely coincidental. Of course.

Meanwhile, DeForest Soaries Jr., chairman of the newly formed Election Assistance Commission, wrote to the Homeland Security Dept. concerned that no agency is authorized to cancel or reschedule federal elections in case of terrorist attack. Realize that national elections have never been cancelled in America, even in the midst of the Civil War (1864). The Bush appointee nonetheless patriotically volunteered to take on that duty. The Constitution, incidentally, delegates to Congress the timing of presidential elections; neither Homeland Security nor the EAC have any such jurisdiction. Congress declined Soaries' offer, without dropping an F-bomb.

With Bush declaring Mission Accomplished and Accomplisheder in the War For Peace In Oceania (see 1984 by George Orwell), his administration is apparently ready to divert attention to bringing compassionate democracy home -- sponsored, of course, by the Brave New Campaign to Re-Elect the President (CREEP), 2004.

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