Florida Recount Funded by Enron/Halliburton

[10Bears]

Subject:  Florida Recount Funded by Enron/Halliburton

http://www.thedailyenron.com/documents/20020730085550-
68379.asp

Florida Recount Funded by Enron/Halliburton


JULY 30: If George W. Bush were cast as a TV sitcom
character he would have to be modeled after ad man Darrin of Bewitched or Astronaut Roger of I Dream of Jeannie - a hapless fellow whose success hinges almost entirely on the extraordinary powers of others.

And so it was when the presidency hung by a thread in
Florida during the last election. A contentious recount was underway and the genies that had gotten Bush so far assembled en masse to assure his victory over Al Gore.

Only now are those last-minute efforts fully becoming known. According to papers filed with the IRS on July 15, nearly $14 million magically poured into the Bush/Cheney Florida recount effort - four times the amount raised by the Gore/Lieberman camp.

The money flowed in so fast, and in such enormous chunks, that Bushcampaign officials - unaccustomed to Bush's perennial good fortune - were dumbfounded. "I think we were a little bit stunned by the amount we received," Benjamin Ginsberg, a Bush attorney for the recount, told USA Today.

According to IRS documents, the Bush campaign took in $13.8 million, most in large contributions. Listed among those large contributors were Bush and Cheney's two most reliable genies - Enron and Halliburton.

While the Gore/Lieberman campaign filed its IRS disclosures of theirFlorida recount expenditures months ago, the Bush's recount fund filed the required forms at the very last moment allowed by law. July 15 was the final day of an IRS amnesty program for groups that hadn't already
complied with the law.

"They obviously begrudgingly disclosed, and did it way after the fact," said Larry Noble, executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics. "It's better than nothing, but it would have been better to have disclosed it when the money was coming in."

The filings show that as soon as a recount was announced, Bush forcesmoved quickly. Money was no object. They dispatched over 100 lawyers to Florida and Texas, booking hundreds of plane tickets, rental cars and hotel rooms.

Among the expenditures listed was a payment of $13,000 to Enron Corp. and $2,400 to Halliburton Co. for the use of their corporate jets and other unspecified services.

"Eighteen months after the election, we find that the (Bush)
administration literally flew into office on the Enron corporate jet,"
said Jennifer Palmieri, press secretary for the Democratic National
Committee. "The administration's close ties with unscrupulous corporationslike Enron and Halliburton prevent it from showing real leadership on corporate reform."

Former Enron CEO Kenneth Lay and his wife also donated $5,000 apiece,according to the filings.

Hey ugh.. Republicans... you got a big bellybutton elephant in the living room your kids have put a blond wig on it and painted it's toenails pink.. Could you um.. do something about it? Thank you.

[Dnil]

gee that sure was an unbiased article.....wow newsflash, corporations donate to campaigns......yawn.

[Ripsnort]

(Yawn) Politics as usual...here is an old one from 1999, but Demoncrat. At least Republicans haven't got arrested like this guy did

[Hortlund]

I dont know if its true or not, and frankly I dont care. There never should have been any recount after the first 7 days following the election.

My darling Ann wrote a couple of dazzling columns back then. Allow me to post two of them: (NOW do you understand why I love this girl?)

IF YOU HAVE ANY DOUBT that Al Gore's selfless pleas for "democracy" are part of his scheme to steal the election, consider this: In one of Gore's many pending lawsuits against the Florida election results, he asked the court to declare him the winner on the grounds that there are still thousands of votes to be counted. That's funny. If these ballots haven't been "counted" yet, how does he know he's the winner?

As we know from the chads littering the floors of the "counting" areas, these late-breaking votes are not only being "counted" three weeks after the election, they are also being cast three weeks after the election.

In the category of "Things Only a Democrat Would Say With a Straight Face," a Democrat woman on CNBC explained that some voters meant to vote but didn't actually punch the ballot (undoubtedly for Gore) because -- I quote -- they were "afraid to hurt the machine."

Unpunched ballots are a gold mine for Democrats. Through pure cheek and brazenness, they can turn uncast votes into votes for Gore. Total subjectivity -- like counting earwax on a punch card ballot -- is a Democrat's friend. We've entered the Alice-in-Wonderland realm of polls and spin and lies. Facts prohibited. This is the liberals' playing field. Truth doesn't matter, honor doesn't matter, fairness doesn't matter, logical consistency doesn't matter. Once Democrats are freed from the tyranny of objectivity, they are liberated to lie and cheat and steal.

They want the census to be determined by "sampling" rather than an "actual enumeration," as the Constitution specifies. They want SAT scores dropped as a criterion for college admissions -- in deference to subjective evaluations. They want criminals punished not merely for the objective act of, say, committing a murder, but also on the basis of a subjective determination of whether the murder was committed out of "hate" (as opposed to, presumably, all those crimes being committed out of love).

They promote the concept of a "living" Constitution unbounded by the objective and determinant words in the document. They prefer spin to hard facts. They want polls to determine constitutional questions like impeachment. In fact, they prefer polls to elections. (Those dazzling Florida exit polls should give you some idea why.)

It was bad enough having to suffer through six months of polls purporting to demonstrate that 20 million voters were swinging back and forth wildly each week from Bush to Gore, back to Bush, and on and on. Finally -- finally! -- we took the only poll that really counts: A focus group of 100 million Americans choosing a president, insulated from Democrat harangues by the privacy of a secret ballot. Gore lost but refused to concede ... and now we're right back to hearing who the polls say should be president.

Gore deployed his lawyer David Boies -- who is fast becoming the William Ginsberg of the election -- to argue that the unambiguous seven-day deadline for election returns imposed by Florida law is optional. Just a suggestion. Nonbinding thoughts tossed out by the legislature.

In short order the media took up the cudgel: Who's to say? There are arguments on both sides. Democrats and Republicans are both just playing politics. The New York Times spoke of the Republicans' "contention" that the seven-day deadline was meant to indicate a seven-day deadline.

Unambiguous statements of the law are now called mere "contentions." And for the final patina of legitimacy for a crackpot argument, the Florida kangaroo court "interpreted" seven days, as written in the law, to mean 19 days.

That really happened.

Indeed, only a Democrat could come up with Gore's brazenly illogical litigation posture. It is utterly incoherent, but coherence is irrelevant. Only spin matters.

Gore and his partisans insist on manual recounts (in only three heavily Democratic counties in a single state -- so that "every vote" will count!) They denounce the "butterfly" ballot as biased and borderline sadistic. They claim Democrat voters were intimidated from approaching the polls. (Evidently, Gore voters could be easily spotted on account of their tendency to follow traffic laws as well as they follow voting rules.)

Are you still with me? OK, how is it that a manual recount will remedy the problem of the "butterfly" ballot? How can it compensate people who claim they voted for the wrong guy by mistake (whoops! slipped!)? How will it rectify alleged voter intimidation? (And if humans are better than machines, what accounts for the runaway popularity of ATMs?)

If the whole point of this little exercise in "democracy" is to impair President Bush's legitimacy, winning will take care of that. Al Gore and his Democrat cult followers understand that, which is why they will say anything, do anything, to win.

IN A FAST-BREAKING STORY like the Democrats' attempt to steal a presidential election, it can be hard to keep up with the barrage of lies. Before today's lies become "old news," I thought it would be useful to begin a running tabulation. (A recount shall be ordered in Democrat counties only.)

Lie No. 1: We don't know who won the election yet.

Yes we do. George W. Bush won, albeit narrowly. Al Gore demanded a recount in one of the states he lost narrowly. After the Gore loser got his recount, it turned out the winner was ... Bush again! (Subject only to a final count of the overseas ballots, which have historically gone Republican in Florida and elsewhere.) Consequently, Gore insisted upon yet a third recount, this time with a highly manipulable and probably unconstitutional hand recount in only Democrat counties. By his fourth try, Gore will be insisting on counting only the votes of Gore campaign staff.

Lie No. 2: Gore has nothing to do with the Florida recount, which is mandated by law.

This is false. Gore is completely responsible for dragging the country through this. The recount is not like some "Star Chamber" unstoppable cataclysm. Gore set it in motion when he retracted his concession to Bush on election night.

The "shall order a recount" language means only that the loser doesn't have to pay for a recount in close elections. This is not an insignificant point: Recounts are extremely expensive. But it does not mean that in a national election to determine the next leader of the free world that the loser is absolutely required to drag the country though 17 recounts and endless litigation before finally conceding.

The Florida recount provision explicitly states: "A recount need not be ordered with respect to the returns for any office, however, if the candidate or candidates defeated or eliminated from contention for such office by one-half of a percent or less of the votes cast for such office request in writing that a recount not be made."

The current crisis is all Gore's fault. He could put an end to this madness any time he wants by conceding like a man. (Bush could not, by the way. He can't stop it because he's not the loser: Gore is.) Lie No. 3: The butterfly ballot is illegal under Florida law.

In the Nov. 10 Washington Post, Philip Heymann, a Harvard Law School professor and former Clinton deputy attorney general, claimed that the now-infamous butterfly ballot was "a plain violation of the law." As Heymann noted, the law requires voters to "vote for a candidate whose name is printed on the ballot place a cross (x) mark in the blank space at the right of the name of the candidate ..."

It ought to have struck a lot of people when reading the quoted language that it speaks of placing a "cross (X) mark," but the butterfly ballot does not permit of any cross marks anyplace! It's all very confusing, and thank heaven we have fancy, high-priced lawyers to explain complicated legal conundrums like this -- until you realize: the "at the right" requirement has nothing to do with butterfly ballots.

That phraseology comes from a section tellingly titled "Voting by paper ballot" -- you know, the kind of ballot on which it is possible to "place a cross (x) mark in the blank space," not to be confused with a butterfly ballot.

If you read down just a little bit, down past the section on "paper ballots," there is a completely different chapter titled "Voting machine ballots" -- such as butterfly ballots. This section quite clearly states that the location of the "push knob, key, lever or other device" must simply "indicate to the elector" which candidate the "push knob, key, lever or other device" refers to. If there were an "at the right" requirement for butterfly ballots, this would have been a good place to mention it.

The requirement that voting machine ballots follow the "order" of paper ballots ("as nearly as practicable") refers only to the order of the candidates and measures being voted upon -- which the "paper ballot" section describes in laborious detail.

Just remember this the next time you hear a Harvard Law professor explaining the law.

Lie No. 4: Pat Buchanan could not possibly have received 3,000-odd votes in Palm Beach County.

Just four years ago, Pat Buchanan received three times that many votes in a primary in Palm Beach. So we know there are at least 9,000 potential Buchanan voters in Palm Beach, and they are the kind of devoted voters who vote in primaries. Moreover, even this year, the Reform Party candidate for the House of Representatives received more than 7,000 votes from Palm Beach.

[easymo]

If it were not for Pres. George Bush Sr.  Nobody would have ever heard of Jr.

If it were not for Sen. Al Gore Sr.  Nobody would have ever heard of Jr.

We have a ruleing class.  Any differences between them, is just nit picking. People get the leaders that they deserve.  DO something about it, next time.

[LePaul]

Wow, the only Clinton lovers I know (in aces high) are 10Bears and 40Dogs.  And we bash him so badly, he gets pissed off and turns off vox, or logs out.

What's it gonna take to do that to 10  

[Elfenwolf]

Originally posted by LePaul
Wow, the only Clinton lovers I know (in aces high) are 10Bears and 40Dogs.  And we bash him so badly, he gets pissed off and turns off vox, or logs out.

What's it gonna take to do that to 10  

LOL Hey, leave 10Bears alone! He's the only guy in the MA who'll even talk to me, a lowly newbie...Man, is it just me or is it a full time job to stay ranked in the top 2500????

[Eagler]

hmm

Republicans get their dough from American corporations while dumacrats gets theirs from communist chinese and drug/gun smugglers .. sounds about right..

[Holden McGroin]

I just want to know...

1. When are demos going to realize that Gore was 0 wins for 10 losses in Florida recounts?

2. Was it Gore / Lieberman or Clinton / Gore who was funded by the Peoples Republic of China?... I forget.

[john9001]

10bears headline is missleading , the florida "recount' was funded by florida taxpayers. what he is refering to were the costs of the legal appeals (by both sides) to the way the votes were counted.

who did you expect to pay for bush's lawyers?  the AFL/CIO...hahaha

[lord dolf vader]

no incredibly corrupt businesses looking for a puppet in office is about what you would expect.

[Shuckins]

During that election some of the more idealistic democrats were shocked at the shameless fund raising methods used by Clinton and Gore.  One of them, on a special broadcast on NBC I believe, referred to one elitest fund raising dinner, complete with corporate biggies, as an orgy.

Reportedly they all smoked cigarettes afterwards!

Regards, Shuckins

[10Bears]

Hey all,

Oh ..howdy Boss... Waaa me?.. I just doing a bit of sporting with the necks.. Say, I thought you were on your way to Texas.. Hope they have a swimming pool.
The Justice Department said Huang was responsible for arranging about $156,000 in illegal campaign contributions from Lippo Group employees to mostly Democratic Party political committees.
The Democratic Party has already returned more than $1 million in donations that Huang funneled to political campaigns from the Asian-American community

$156,000?.. shhhhhoo that’s a lot of zeros, Hmm must be a typo here says they gave back a million bucks to the Asian-American community... Shouldn’t that read the Chinese-Chinese community from China?[/b]

Why good morning Steve Hortland you sleep well?.. well that’s good. Oh your quoting your skinny girlfriend Annie Banannie, Skimming up and down to see if in all fairness she mentions that any close race in Florida between 500 votes State law mandates a state wide Manual recount.. Nope. Oh well. I wonder why she puts democracy in quotes it’s almost as if she has contempt for that word. Like she doesn’t really believe it or something.
Oh while i’ve got you here, I’m doing a research project for something else maybe you can help. Can you tell me what political party Slobo belonged?... that would be great thx.

Howdy Easy
LePaul, Oh.. am I being a little too politically incorrect?.. So sorry I’ll try an drum up some good ole fashioned HATE

Elfenwolf, Hi Elfenwolf fellas his handle in the arena is AirHead give him a holler. He chose the name AirHead cuz that’s what Katie Corlic called the Gipper.

Funny how it went from Mah good friend Kenny Boy to Damn, that Ken is going to get us in trouble with that business out in California to Mr Ley who?

sniffs.. what’s that smell? Ah Geeze fellas your two-ton elephant with blond wig and pink toenails is STILL in the living room only now your kids have broke out the water colors and are painting goofy happy faces on it’s side. I gotta tell ya.. If you don’t get this beast outta the house soon, this thing is gonna take about a 5 pound pooper.

[john9001]

a weak attempt at humor, but facts are facts

florida election law calls for a manditory MACHINE recount in a close election , the HAND recount must be requested by the loser.

fed election law says states shall make the rules for counting votes, and the rules shall be in force 7 days before the election and cannot be changed.

florida election law says all votes shall be turned in to the state no later than 7 days after the election, with 3 exceptions, natural disaster( hurricane, etc) voter fraud , failure of voting equip. none of which the democrats claimed when asking for a extention of the deadline, they asked for a extention because they said they could not hand count all votes in time.

one county got the hand recount done on time and the votes were turned in.

palm beach took thanksgiving off and did not got the hand recount done in time so the machine recount had to be turned in.

dade county found gore losing votes in the county wide recount  so dade said "we don't have time to recount the whole county, so we will just recount SOME precincts (democratic )..thats when the republicans went to court and had the hand recount stopped in dade county.

should i say any thing about the chads found lieing on the floors under the recount tables?

[Eagler]

and lets not forget the medias help in the entire mess, which caused FL to be the last state to determine a winner ...

when the major news channel liberal talking heads declared goron the winner before the polls had even closed.

given the current events since the election, does anyone still wish goron had won? I bet money goron himself is glad he lost.