BBBR Resistance
Fighters
Respond to The
New York Times
"Mr.
Bush's Beginning" April 29 Op-Ed
Activists Express Dissent
May 1, 2001
CONTACT INFO, RESOURCES:
READ THE ACTION
ALERT SAMPLE LETTER
READ THE BARDGAL'S
"AWAKENING"
READ THE COLUMN:
"MR.
BUSH'S BEGINNING"
E-MAIL THE
EDITORS: letters@nytimes.com
CC: THE
MEDIA
SNAIL MAIL THE NY
TIMES:
Letters to the Editor
The New York Times
229 West 43rd Street
New York, NY 10036
FAX THEM: (212) 556-3622
THE E-MAILED ACTION ALERT:
Subj: Are YOU "Over It"? No?
Tell The New York Times
Date: 04/30/2001 10:31:59 AM Pacific Daylight Time
From: thediva@coup2k.com
From Cheryl G.:
ACTION ALERT!
MAKE YOUR VOICE
HEARD
Sunday's New York
Times Editorial says the American people are over the stolen election, let's
tell them we're not! The editorial:
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/29/opinion/29SUN1.html?searchpv=site01
...starts out
well, reminding people that Bush lied about his extreme conservative agenda
that is rolling back all our progressive advances. Then under the subheading "Testing Time" it says:
"Today
the general public appears to have moved past the ballot-counting disputes and
grown comfortable with Mr. Bush's legitimacy as president."
Write to them
at letters@nytimes.com and tell them
you will never "move past" these "ballot-counting
disputes," nor ever feel "comfortable" with Bush's illegitimacy
and his illegitimate agenda. You can
mention that on May 19th the pro-democracy forces led by VoterMarch.org and
VoterWest.org are putting on a bi-coastal Voter Rights March in Washington and San Francisco, to make just these points.
When you write
include:
your full name
full address
daytime phone
evening phone
...at the
bottom of your letter. (These will not
be published.) If you don't include
this information, the letter will not be considered for publication. If they get a ton of these letters they
might start considering the pro-democracy movement and the May 19th
demonstrations worth covering. Maybe
they will even write another editorial about it.
ALSO HOT:
--Louisiana
Senator John Breaux has emerged as key deal maker in the tax cut compromise
between House and Senate being decided now.
Call him NOW at (202) 224-4623 and demand the lowest tax cut possible to
save money for needed programs and avoid deficits. The Senate voted for 1.2
trillion in budget package. You could
say that you support something lower but if that is not possible, certainly not
anything higher than this amount.
Tammy
"The
Diva"
WebMistress of
BBBR
BBBR RESISTANCE FIGHTERS SEND
LETTERS OF PROTEST TO THE NEW YORK TIMES
From: <Beth>
Sent: Monday, April 30, 2001
10:57 AM
Subject: ballot counting
Dear New York Times:
In regards to your Sunday
editorial, I would disagree with the statement that "the general public...
[has] grown comfortable with Mr. Bush's legitimacy as president." I, for one, continue to believe that he has
no legitimacy or mandate, and I will make my feelings known at the May 19th
Voter March in Washington, D.C. See www.votermarch.org and http://www.voterwest.org.
Even if many Americans have
accepted Mr. Bush's purported legitimacy,
this may be because media outlets who have so far reported on the continuing
recounts have used disingenuous methods to shore up that perception; in the
case of the Miami Herald, excluding counties that would have given Gore the
edge from their counts; in the case of USA Today, declaring that Bush won in
their headlines only to acknowledge in the body of the article that this
conclusion could be disputed.
I'd also like to see more
American reporting on the Choice Point removal of voters from the voter rolls,
as well as other polling place
irregularities, that prevented
many registered Floridians from even casting ballots.
All in all, if the public has
accepted that Mr. Bush is legitimate, it is in no small part because the
mainstream media has been complicit in promoting this perception; you can
hardly act as impartial observers of this trend, if it exists, since your
business has taken an active role in producing it.
I look forward to the day when I
can again look to mainstream American media for fairness and balance in their
reporting, as well as
hard-hitting investigative
journalism of matters of national import.
Sincerely,
Elizabeth A.
Ithaca, NY
------------------------------
Subj: Letter to the Editor, New York Times
Date: 05/01/2001 1:16:36 AM Pacific Daylight Time
From: Liam W
To the Editors:
In reference to your whitewash
editorial of Sunday, April 29th in which you so blithely assert that the nation
"appears to have moved past the ballot-counting dispute" and has
"grown comfortable" with Mr. Bush's "legitimacy as
president" let me just say that your are not only wrong in this assertion,
you are doing a grave disservice to the country and your profession with your
editorial.
This American is not 'over it'
and will not be 'over it' until this abomination committed against us and our
country is rectified. George W. Bush
has no more a legitimate claim to the office of the presidency as I do to claim
the throne of Norway. He did not win
the 2000 presidential election and only now resides in our house in Washington
by dint of a corrupt majority on the Supreme Court bent on furthering their own
agenda. He was installed by a judicial
coup d'etat and therefore lacks even a smidgen of legitimacy.
No, I am not 'over it' or ready
to 'put this behind us' for the good of the country. For the good of the country, for the honor of the memory of the
sacrifices paid by Americans before me, I will not 'get over it' until that
squatter is removed from our house and we have taken our country back from the
thieves who stole it from us.
In less than three weeks, we
shall be marching and protesting in DC and other cities around the country for
a restoration of our rights as citizens and voters. You could redeem yourselves in my eyes and those of more and more
of my fellow Americans if you were to cover this event with the same degree of
professionalism, dispatch, and grace that your forbearers Murrow, Cronkite, and
Updike would have. However, I am fairly confident that you won't; and that
saddens me more than you will ever know.
Sincerely,
Liam W
Fairbanks, AK
------------------------------
From: "Nancy B."
Sent: Monday, April 30, 2001
4:55 PM
Subject: Mr. Bush's Beginning
Dear New York Times Editorial Staff,
After reading what began as a
decent portrayal of former Gov. Bush's first 100 days in office, I came upon
this:
"Today the general public appears
to have moved past the ballot- counting disputes and grown comfortable with Mr.
Bush's legitimacy as president."
Let me assure you that the
majority of the American public is still, and will remain, outraged by the Nov.
7, 2000 election outcome. Let me also assure you if your paper relies
on small polls on the internet or by phone polls, they are asking the wrong
folks. Let me assure you I am very
uneasy and do not consider Mr. Bush a legitimately elected president.
Not only were voters disenfranchised
by the State of Florida and DB Technologies, Inc. a subsidiary of ChoicePoint
in an suspect if not
downright illegal voter purge
(see U.S. Civil Rights Commission), but also by poll workers asking for one,
two and sometimes three pieces of identification for non-white voters, police
roadblocks, disappearing or suddenly moved precincts (see Florida A & M
students), precincts that do not pass the ADA
and Voting Rights Act of 1965 laws...oh! so now you see that something
went terribly wrong before and on election day 2000. It's called institutional racism.
Then came the protest and
contest phase. Please, tell me who was
the first party to bring a case, a federal case? Gov. Bush, of course.
Vice President Gore fought within the state to have all votes counted.
Meanwhile, former Gov. Bush and Mr. Cheney filed in Federal District Court in
Atlanta. Who is pulling whose leg here?
Then came Bush v Gore. Oh
for the love of God and country, why did the Supreme Court, the arbiters of our
Constitution ever take the case in the first place? Constitutionally, when a dispute in the election of the President
of the United States arises, the Congress shall decide. Just look to the ad run by over 500
attorneys and law professors run in your own paper. What the Supreme Court did was unconstitutional and
unconscionable. Read the dissenting opinions again.
And dear editors, this
disenfranchisement happened in my State of North Carolina. It happened in Georgia, Tennessee, Missouri,
Alabama, Illinois, and the list goes on again.
I am the North Carolina
Organizer for the National Voter March to Restore Democracy in Washington, D.C.
May 19th 2001. Your editorial does not
deter us. It screams at us to be loud,
be proud, to be heard, to be free.
I am deeply saddened that the
New York Times is so very out of touch with this country. Or is this just what you want us to
believe? That we are over it?
Think again. I will never forget that a party and
judicial Coup d'Etat took place in the United States of America before and on
Dec. 12th, 2000.
I work everyday for social
justice and Civil Rights. I will
forever it seems. And must, for to
forget the Pastor in Florida who went to the polls to vote last November 7th only
to be denied his vote and told he was a felon, when in fact, he was not and had
never been arrested would kill the spirit of justice for all. Or the Haitian Americans asked for three
ID's? Or the Florida A & M students that had a "disappeared" precinct? Shall we forget them as if they were one too
many pieces of laundry?
You may think I
"appear" not to exist as I will not "move on." I assure you, I will fight for justice and
the right to vote fairly, easily, and
without harassment or
intimidation until all Americans are re-enfranchised.
What motivates your editorial
staff to make such a sweeping statement as quoted from the editorial in
question? Has the New York Times sold
out to Corporate America's ideology?
What a shame. Or should I say, sham?
Nancy B.
Pittsboro, NC
------------------------------
From: <Robin C.>
To: BBBR@yahoogroups.com; dem-florida-strategy@egroups.com
Sent: Monday, April 30, 2001
3:51 PM
Subject: [BBBR] Please e-mail to
nytimes to explain why we won't forget the coup
SENDING THIS ON:
To the editor:
I am really disgusted with your
Sunday editorial's assumption that all Americans should "move past"
their concern about GWB's theft of the presidency.
We are not talking about a few
sneaky tricks in a high school sophomore class election here. This country is supposed to be a
democracy. In the hands of a dictator,
the United States, with its untold military might, would be a danger to
democracy and freedom all over the world, as our allies are already
observing.
Those of us who care about
democracy, freedom and fair-play; those of us who care that minorities be
allowed to vote; those of us who respect our elderly and our new immigrants who
are so excited to vote in America; those of us who believe in majority rule and
minority rights; those of us who believe in the rule of law, are astonished
that so few in the media "get it":
When a partisan Supreme Court disregards two hundred years of
constitutional law to install a co-partisan in office against the popular will,
that isn't something a free people "gets over." When a highly partisan, not to mention
uninformed and professionally incompetent, election official chooses to
co-chair a candidate's campaign, that's not something you "move
past." When officials of the
government are organized into hit squads to intimidate local election
officials, that is not a tea party.
These are just a few of the
elements of the United State's only coup d'etat. Whether you at the Times are blind to it or you are benefitted by
it, you are still ultimately going to be judged by history as insensitive to
the needs of democracy. You are
complicit in the destruction of freedom in your own nation, because you told us
to "move past" what may prove to have been the most momentous choice
made by this nation in its history.
That choice is the decision to sit idly by while a movement bent on
destroying freedom and democracy, and raping the treasury, took over without a
shot being fired.
A situation to be envied by
every Third World dictator.
Sincerely,
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
xxxxxxxxxxxx Drive
City,State ZIP
Day phone: XXXXXXXXX
Night phone: XXXXXXXXX
------------------------------
From: "Joe F."
Sent: 04/30/2001 12:52:13 PM
Pacific Daylight Time
Subject: Mr. Bush's Beginning
Dear Editor:
In your April 29 edition an
editorial, "Mr. Bush's Beginnings" stated:
"Today the general public
appears to have moved past the ballot-counting disputes and grown comfortable
with Mr. Bush's legitimacy as president."
In no way have we accepted Mr.
Bush as the legitimate president.
We know that no number of
located stolen votes can change the present situation. Five members of the
Supreme Court appointed Bush as president. No ballot counting nor any protest
could suddenly make Al Gore President of the United States, although we know Al
Gore won both popular and electoral college votes.
That issue is not dead, but it
is not prudent to waste energy, resources and time on a situation that cannot
be changed.
Although we still know that Bush
is not the legal president, we are concentrating on other issues.
We strongly oppose the Bush tax
cut for the rich. With his tax cut and proposed budget, even is the economy
stays strong, does not add up. Mr. Bush may call it "fuzzy math" but
the rest of us know simple arithmetic.
Mr. Bush lied about clean air
and water. He wants us to drink arsenic and his backing out of the Kyoto
agreement shows he has no regard for our atmosphere. Mr. Bush is a proven liar.
He wanted to feed our school children salmonella.
The Bush family and Cheney have
very strong ties and influence with the petroleum industry. Bush and Cheney are
very capable of increasing gasoline prices as propaganda to drill in the Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge.
Bush has irritated almost every
other country, even our allies. We believe Bush will start a war to make his
rich friends richer and in an effort to unite the country with him. In Bush's
war, he won't go. It will be our sons, daughters, husbands, wives and
sweethearts that will be forced to fight Bush's war. Understand, Bush considers
us expendable to reach his goals. Your loved ones coming home in body bags
means nothing to Bush. Bush is only interested in paying back the rich powerful
that invested in him.
The investors in GWB expect a
return for their investment. Not just tax cuts, they expect to be able to dip
into OUR U.S. Treasury, Social Security and Medicare trust funds. Mr. Bush
fully intends to give them the returns they expect.
The fundamentalists worked
tirelessly toward the Bush election. They want a state supported church and
full control of OUR children's education. Mr. Bush is moving in that direction
at full speed. Next will be burning people at the stake.
The most dangerous thing Bush
plans is packing the courts with ultra-conservative judges.
The election is gone, we were
robbed. However, we must put all our efforts in preventing Bush and the
ultra-conservatives from destroying democracy in the United States of America.
Please cover the Voter March in
Washington, DC, on May 19.
Sincerely,
Joe F.
Texarkana,
Texas
------------------------------
BBBR RESISTANCE FIGHTERS
COMMENT ON DIVA LETTER TO
THE NEW YORK TIMES
From: "The Diva of
BBBR" thediva@coup2k.com
Sent: Monday, April 30, 2001
4:00 PM
Subject: [BBBR] Re: Letter to
the Editors of the NY Times, Regarding "Mr. Bush's Beginning"
BETH WROTE:
Tammy --
You nearly made me cry with
this.
I have not forgotten that he was
illegitimate, but as time has gone on and new atrocities pile up, I had
forgotten, a little, the litany of offenses against sense, fairness, and
democracy. Now I recall how it felt to
lose hope when the election was first called; and how, checking cnn.com one
last time before bed at nearly 4am I saw that Gore had retracted his
confession. How I rushed to the tv
room, and met others there; how by 6am there were a half dozen of us, pulling,
*pulling* with our hearts and souls and spirits, for Gore. How I kept pulling. How much of my time and energy and passion
the legal aftermath took, and how I raged at my computer, reading about the
legal non-justifications of the SCOTUS' final decision, about every injustice
in Florida. How the mainstream media didn't care, wouldn't give it credence.
I think, with the threats to
abortion rights and labor and the environment and the separation of church and
state; with the energy crisis manufactured by wholesalers and the budget and
tax cuts out of control and completely wrong; my focus has shifted. As it needs to, in a way, if I am to
possibly have any effect on the future.
But thank you for reminding me
of the emotions of the election. You made it vivid again, and reminded me how
none of the horrors happening now would have happened had not a high crime
taken place.
Dear Beth:
I know many people have
persuasively argued that the coup is a done deal, and that holding onto outrage
over it is counter-productive,
especially now that there are
policy atrocities to attend to.
I feel, for me, that it's
possible to continue to dissent and protest the coup, while focusing on the
activism needs of the present.
I guess, for me, I never
considered Al Gore the main victim of coup2k.
In my heart, I have always taken it personally, and I am, like a crime
victim whose perpetrator is allowed to go free, still furious and unable to
move on.
Something was taken from me,
something I want back. And unless and
until I get it back, I can't forgive, forget, move on, or get over it.
But, like you, my activism focus
has widened, and probably will continue to, as the results of the election
theft pile up and up. It is my sincere
opinion, however, that the madness we are now living with began with the
conspiracy to steal the 2000 Election, and fighting one means fighting the
other.
Tammy
"The Diva"
WebMistress of BBBR
------------------------------
From: "Diana C H.
Sent: Monday, April 30, 2001
5:49 PM
Subject: Re: [BBBR] Re: Letter
to the Editors of the NY Times, Regarding "Mr. Bush's Beginning"
THE DIVA WROTE:
<<In my heart, I have
always taken it personally, and I am, like a crime victim whose perpetrator is
allowed to go free, still furious and unable to move on.
Something was taken from me,
something I want back. And unless and
until I get it back, I can't forgive, forget, move on, or get over it.>>
THANK YOU DIVA! You said exactly what I have been wanting to
say today and just couldn't put into words.
I had gotten into a conversation about the yo quiero el residente
today and I couldn't quite express myself ...thanks for putting these words in.
It is exactly how I feel!
luv
Di
------------------------------
From: "TQ W II"
Sent: Monday, April 30, 2001
5:49 PM
Subject: Re: [BushOccupation]
Letter to the Editors of the NY Times, Regarding "Mr. Bush's
Beginning"
Very nicely written.
Heartwarming in its completeness, and a touching reminder of why I cringe every
time I hear that lowlife open his hideous, smirking yap.
Can you send me a URL so I can
point people to this?
thanks, tqii
------------------------------
Subj: I feel the exact same way
Date: 04/30/2001 9:31:25 PM Pacific Daylight Time
From: Cathy H
To: divatex@aol.com
I feel the -- so same!
You touched on every issue...
It makes me sick to my stomach
when I hear him or see him on tv....
or anyone telling us to move
on.....
and now telling us we have moved
on!
YUCK.....
thanks for the letter it was
worth reading!
chil
**********************************************
"If this were a
dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier,
just so long as I'm the
dictator."-12/18/00
GWB the Idiot sELECT
TIPPING OF THE GOPer HAND!
chil
------------------------------
From: <Elaine>
Sent: Monday, April 30, 2001
11:32 AM
Subject: Re: [BBBR] Letter to
the Editors of the NY Times, Regarding "Mr. Bush's Begin...
Hi Tammy,
This is one hell of a letter.
You spoke all that is in my heart, mind and soul. Mine will not be as eloquent,
but it is from the heart.
Elaine
------------------------------
Subj: Re: [democratsconnection] Letter to the Editors of the NY Times, Regarding
"M...
Date: 04/30/2001 8:35:52 PM Pacific Daylight Time
From: Ann K.
To: DivaTex@aol.com
In a message dated 4/30/2001
10:51:11 AM Pacific Daylight Time, thediva@coup2k.com
writes:
<< We exist.
We fight on.
And we are disgusted with those
in the media who do not, and never have, acknowledged either our existence, or
our concerns.>>
I write to compliment your
message which will be of help to me in composing my letter to the NY
Times. There are days when I despair,
your message reminds me that there are millions of outraged Americans, which I
had expected to read of the day following the election. Not a word printed or
spoken about the most heinous, unbelievable assault on Democracy in American
history. When the Time magazine representative called about renewing my
subscription and assured me that featuring Bush as "Person of the
Year" was a joke, I assured him
that it was no joke to fifty million, five hundred thousand disenfranchised
Americans and cancelled my subscription. I live in Long Beach and am always
surprised when the Press-Telegram prints my letters to the editor. There must be at least one Democrat on the
staff. The paper, however, has not made one mention of the out and out
treasonous takeover by the Fascists. I will be typing a letter for an elderly
aunt who hopes to live long enough to see the entire cabal placed in tumbrils
and dragged down Pennsylvania Avenue !
PS. While in college I worked as a typist, never wanted to see
another typewriter. I now man the
computer for hours each day peppering the right wingers . Andy Rooney commented
last night about his mail, pro and con, said that the those writing complimentary
letters were better spellers ! The
Republicans who answer me, followers of
Limbaugh, and the hate radio nuts are mean and ignorant. (What a constituency)
Keep up the good work,
Sincerely,
Ann K.
Long Beach, CA
------------------------------
Subj: Thanks!
Date: 04/30/2001 7:47:47 PM Pacific Daylight Time
From: Neil
To: divatex@aol.com
Just a note to say thank you for
all you've done and for continuing the cause.
It's a comfort that when people like
myself feel absolutely powerless and it seems that no one cares about the
overthrow of our democracy anymore, you're still there.
Thank you ... Thank you ... Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!
Neil
------------------------------
Subj: re: your letter to the editor in NY Times "Bush's
Beginnings"
Date: 04/30/2001 6:40:03 PM Pacific Daylight Time
From: glenn m.
To: divatex@aol.com
Go girl ! ! !
I'm in Alaska. Your letter was sent to me by my brother in
OK.
I felt much the same when Bob
Dole used the term: "the loyal opposition". Does he oppose anything
based on party . . .and not merit ?
I have MANY friends here who buy
into the Repub crap. I try to point out to them that they do not have enough
money to be a Repub... but they insist... 'course that is probably based on the
thinking that the Repubs will help Alaska with the oil debate and therefore
their pockets. I'm afraid that at the top of the political food chain (DC)
there is not much difference between Rep or Demo... unfortunately.
I did enjoy your article. Just like the "Supreme" set aside
the voting process - individual judges
set aside the will of 12 on a jury. My
country is NOT the place I was taught it was... but I'm four days older than
dirt.
Glenn M.
Big Lake, Alaska
------------------------------
Subj: Thanks For Your Letter...
Date: 04/30/2001 4:02:18 PM Pacific Daylight Time
From: Ron_C.
To: divatex@aol.com
...to the New
York Times. We're still mad up here in
Alaska, too -- and we're not about to let it drop. Thanks for articulating why.
I'm
sharing your
words with a lot of friends.
Ron C.
------------------------------
From: <Ann>
Sent: Monday, April 30, 2001
11:09 AM
Subject: Re: [Voter] Letter to
the Editors of the NY Times, Regarding "Mr. Bush's Begi...
You left out two points that I
will also never forget.
1. The stuffing of military
votes, especially in Duval County.
2. The FL. Legislators taking a
vote to pick their own electors just in case Gore came out ahead in the
recounts.
Ann
------------------------------